Sunday Meditation: Reflecting on the Good Shepherd

"I know my sheep and they know me." John 10:14 

Does your diocese have a good shepherd? Does your parish? How can you tell? Scripture says, "By their fruits you shall know them." The measure of a good shepherd is how zealously he defends the faith and protects his flock from scandal. If you are fortunate enough to have a good shepherd, be sure to express your gratitude.

And now I have a story to tell from my own two dioceses, Richmond and Arlington. Arlington is blessed to have many faithful priests. How grateful I am for them because they have kept Arlington from going the way of so many places that have essentially lost the faith altogether. Fr. John Hardon, S.J. warned about the crisis of faith for years and predicted that entire dioceses would lose the faith. Has that happened in your diocese? He described the crisis in a 1997 article that outlined what has become ever more obvious. Who can deny it today?

"The Shepherds Govern the Flock."... Or Do They?

Logo of the 2024 Lutheran Assembly. The synodal way is making us Protestants.

The never-ending synodal process has become a serious trial to those who love the Church. One wonders why the bishops have continued to participate and even wax enthusiastic while these events fulfill the rallying cry of Francis to "make a mess." In view of the confusion and, even questionable doctrinal novelties accompanying the process, one would expect a little hesitancy and even push back from the bishops. But there's been precious little of that from the majority who undermine their own authority as they carry out the Vatican demands to "listen" to the vox populi, especially those who want to turn the Church into another Protestant sect. 

The Blessed Mother was no "ordinary girl!"

Sad to say, there are many people who have no idea about Who the Blessed Mother was during her life on earth and is now in heaven. Not only is she often disrespected and even blasphemed by non Catholics, but by Catholic laity and clergy as well. After Vatican II, despite the council honoring Mary, many tried to knock her off her pedestal and grind her rosary and other Marian devotions into the mud. It was nothing new. Mary has been the target of Protestants and others for centuries. The disrespect was so great, that the Lord led the Church, through the witness of Lucia of Fatima, to promote the First Saturdays devotion in reparation for the outrages against Our Lady.

Catholics! Can We Please Dispense with the Circular Firing Squads?

Who are you aiming your slings and arrows at? 

It seems today that Catholics spend more time fighting with each other than fighting our common enemy, the devil. Novus Ordo true believers shoot arrows at the wicked "rad trads." The sedevantists (who have grown since Benedict died to include all the "Benedict is my pope" people) tell the rest of us there's no pope and it's obvious so why can't we see it? And then there are the multiple attacks on those "SSPX schismatics" who cause so much division. "Go away, we don't need you here!"

As Today's Gospel Says, Actions Speak Louder than Words!

"Observe all things whatsoever they tell
 you, but do not follow their example.
For they preach but do not practice."
Matt 23

Jesus advises his listeners in today's gospel to obey what the Pharisees say, but not to imitate their actions.
That's a good lesson for us as we face the crisis in the Church. Let's look at some recent actions of members of the hierarchy (and the pope) and reflect on the consequences of those actions for the faith of the little ones in the pew.

Jesus was always concerned about simple believers and the responsibility of the teachers not to scandalize them. Today we are exposed to scandal on a daily basis from within the Church herself by false shepherds. And it is a serious threat to the faith.

• Amoris Laetitia: It goes without saying at this point that the actions arising out of the document Amoris Laetitia undermine the indissolubility of marriage.

Topsy and Tuptim Study Chapter Three and Ask Questions

Chapter Three Paragraphs 57 - 88

For all those couples out there, this is for you....
"Love is a many-splendored thing."

Tuptim and Topsy realize that their schedules don't allow time after class for a visit to the coffee shop or library to go over Chapter Three. Instead they decide to study the chapter intensively beforehand thinking of questions for Fr. Jimmy and Sr. Joanie within the small sharing groups.

They walk into the church basement, take seats in their group circles and get out their notebooks. They're a bit late, though, and Fr. Jimmy and Sr. Joanie are just finishing their long opening prayer invoking the Spirit to come upon them as leaders to enlighten their students, guiding them to the fruits of Amoris Laetitia.

Tuptim, looking over at Topsy mouths..."Here we go!" Topsy gives a slight nod, and rolls her eyes in anticipation of not being able to do so in a few minutes when everyone is looking.

One More Reason to be Concerned about Bishop Cupich -- CTA loves him!

Call to Action is thrilled with Bishop Cupich's appointment to Chicago where their national office is based!

Now if you don't know about the dissidents at Call to Action, you have been deprived of many head-shaking experiences: the puppet Masses (See ridiculous video below.), the endorsement of abortion, contraception, sodomy, etc., the frequent rabid dissent at their conferences where nuns beat the drums (literally). Yes, a Call to Action's endorsement definitely makes a person suspect. Now, I wonder what Bishop Cupich thinks of the Chicago-based group. Someone should ask him. Catholic Citizens of Illinois, a faithful group of Catholics, has the press release on their website.

Press Release: A Humbler, More Pastoral Church

Now a little history....

Modernism Leads to Madness!

Mahony's Dissent Fest Over for another Year

Every year Cardinal Roger Mahony of L.A. puts on a so-called Religious Education Conference that features a gaggle of heretics well-known for undermining the faith. The event is always a throwback to the 60s with numerous liturgical abuses, dancing girls, and silliness we hoped was over decades ago. But with the FBI looking into his coverup of the sex-abuse crisis and the millions paid out in settlements, Mahony apparently needs a little distraction and perhaps this suffices.

Witnesses from Concerned Roman Catholics of America were both outside and inside the convention. Those outside reported harrassment by security personnel who threatened arrest but later backed down when the police upheld their legal right to be there. An inside witness reported on the closing Mass and several workshops she attended.

"I was at The Three Days of Darkness Congress this weekend and I have video footage of it. The closing mass was.. well... I have no kind words to describe it. The liturgical abuses were at an all time high with lay liturgical dancers incensing the altar and people walking up stairs with glass goblets filled with the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ. [Editor's note: The Body and Blood of Christ are required to be held in sacred vessels made of worthy and enduring material. Anything breakable is excluded as are baskets which can be seen in this photo of the Consecration.]

"When one sister actually spilled on the stairs the Precious Species, she tried wiping up the Precious Blood but got flustered and kept moving. Yes, I witnessed this on video and will be sending Cardinal Mahony the video.... Cardinal Mahony's homily was all about himself being driven out into the desert because of the Federal Grand Jury after him because of sex abuse scandals in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

"I [attended a workshop given by] Dr. Greer Gordon who happily invited an investigation [into] documents in the Vatican Library archives...[claiming] that The Church blessed same sex unions. She was promoting monagamous same sex unions!

"Another speaker, Sr. Barbra Fiand, [Ed's note: She is a well known dissenter who regularly speaks at Call to Action conferences.] promoted shamanism and says we all are stardust same as animmals and plants and she poo pooed Indulgences. All of this was recorded. After what I endured at this Congress I don't think Cardinal Mahony is going to have a change of heart towards the Tridentine Mass any time soon, because he can't even do the ordinary form of The Mass right!

"Yes the archdiocese does VIRTUS program. One of the talks I attended was presented by Dr.Tom Beaudoin [Ed: another dissenter]. This talk was a panel discussion [by] an open homosexual man and woman [and] two parents of homosexual children. The mother on the panel who leads a group of parents of homosexuals at her parish in southern California said she teaches the Virtus program at her parish. She was very proud of this program....The panel promoted same sex unions and ridiculed Church teachings. The father on the panel ridiculed Bishop Soto's speech given at The Queen Mary conference on homosexuals. This father said that The bishop was just reading a Vatican document and that he should have been supporting the homosexual movement. The female open homosexual on the panel said that she and her partner were godparents for her niece's baptism. [Ed's note: This violates the requirement for godparents. Those living in public scandal are ineligible.] This same woman got mad at an attendee of this talk because she wanted this person and everyone to vocally support same sex unions. The male open homosexual young man said [Sr.Edith Pendergrast encouraged him] to give his story.... [He] also ridiculed The Church's teachings on [homosexuality]. Sr. Edith Pendergrast is the main person [organizing] the Cngress every year. This panel discussion was not recorded but they said they wanted it recorded so they can reach people in their parishes to support the homosexual movement. They all claimed it is a civil rights movement!"

We offer this last photo with a suggestion that Cardinal Mahony make the theme song for the conference, Come to the Cabaret. There were altar babes everywhere and the music, band, lighting, and ambience offered all the reverence of a night club. Good job, Your Eminence! One note of hope -- Cardinal Mahony was born in 1936 so the end is in sight. If Rome won't discipline him at least we have hopes that his resignation will be accepted by return email when he tenders it in two years.

Protest this terrible Conference by writing to:

Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski
Prefect, Congregation for Education
Palazzo della Congregazioni,
Piazza Pio XII, 3 00121
Vatincan City State, Europe

Picking the pockets of pew-sitters - Saul Alinsky and the Campaign for Human Development

Saul Alinsky was smart enough to know that money equals power and the Catholic Church has access to huge amounts every Sunday. He wanted to get some of the action for his Industrial Areas Foundation. With the help of Jack Egan, a Chicago priest and protege, the beginnings of a Catholic charity to support the poor was born: The Campaign for Human Development (later The Catholic Campaign for Human Development, CCHD).

The bishops' website describes the organization: "Founded in 1969, CCHD's pastoral strategy is empowerment of the poor through a methodology of participation and education for justice, leading toward solidarity between poor and non-poor as impelled by the Church's biblical tradition, modern Catholic social teaching, and the pervasive presence of poverty in the United States. This ministry for justice is rooted in our baptism and faith commitment." Note the language which is typical of liberation theology movements. CCHD has a history of funding exactly that type of "charity."

How could the Church possibly be involved in a movement founded by a Jewish agnostic known as Machiavelli in a suit? One whose ethics diametrically oppose Catholic principles? To a large degree it was because of his connections to modern-minded clerics who were ready to see big changes in the Church after Vatican II and apparently had few moral compunctions. Fr. Jack Egan, later a monsignor, was a protege of Alinsky's and a founder of the campaign. He also was a facilitator of the original Call to Action conference in Detroit in 1976 organized by the bishops to listen to the concerns of the people. The conference was taken over by change agents in the church, horrifying some of the naive bishops but leaving liberal Catholics chortling and optimistic that doctrinal change was coming on a wide range of issues. There was nothing accidental about all this. It was the culmination of strategies right out of the Alinsky handbook.

Read the Wanderer Forum report A Commentary on Catholic Campaign for Human Development Funding of the Industrial Areas Foundation

What the H*** is a Community Organizer?

We've all been hearing more about community organizing than we really want to know, but it's a subject Catholics need to learn about. Community organizers have been infiltrating the Church for decades undermining her teachings and funneling Catholic money into very un-Catholic causes like abortion. Community organizers with money from the Catholic Church defeated pro-life congressman Bob Dornan and replaced him with pro-abortion Loretta Sanchez. Community organizing tactics have been used to wreckovate churches and manipulate parishioners into accepting safe touch programs and sex ed. They've been used to elect pro-abortion and pro-homosexual candidates. Does money you drop in the collection basket go to advance social evils you abhor? Very likely.

Over the next few days, I'll be giving some background on the influence of Saul Alinsky, the Chicago atheist who, with the help of Chicago priest Msgr. Jack Egan, figured out how to co-opt the collection plate to advance liberalism. Msgr. Egan is described as the "godfather of Call to Action," a liberal dissent group that has done so much damage to the Catholic faith by endorsing sexual immorality, sodomy, divorce and remarriage, ordination of women, etc. These two men, Alinsky and Egan, the atheist and the heretical priest, formed a termites' nest that continues to eat away at the foundations of the Church.

In fact, orthodox Catholics can thank Alinsky and Egan for Barrack Obama's candidacy. Catholic money helped launch Obama's career. Thanks, Father, for giving us the most pro-abortion, infanticide-supporting, candidate in history. (Please pray for Msgr. Egan who died in 2001.)

Stephanie Block of Albuquerque, NM has done a great service by connecting the dots that show groups all over the country working to organize and network to advance socialism and liberalism through community organizing. The organizers want your money. Who collects it for them? the government through taxation and the church by passing the basket. They filter the money into their leftist programs using manipulation and dishonest tactics to advance abortion, homosexuality, and socialism. You need to know who these groups are and the methods they use. Knowledge is power. Next: Saul Alinsky and his Rules for Radicals.