USCCB Document on the Eucharist Part III: When Will the Bishops Act Like St. Ambrose?

Today is the feast of St. Ambrose, whose election to the see of Milan was by acclimation of the people while he was still a catechumen. Think about that! He was baptized, ordained, and made a bishop within a week of becoming a Catholic. God raised him up as one of the greatest bishops of His Church, a saint-maker instrumental in the conversion of St. Augustine who inspired the repentance of an emperor. I invoke his intercession for this post!

St. Ambrose, refusing Emperor Theodosius entrance to the cathedral of Milan for his massacre in Thessalonica in retaliation for the murder of a state official. Theodosius' crimes pale in comparison to those of our modern pro-abortion Catholic politicians.

We're approaching the finish line as we look at the last nine paragraphs of the bishops' document, The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church (#50-59).

Archbishop Cordileone Is Greeted Like a Rock Star

While his enemies, like the Queen of Hearts, call "off with his head," Archbishop Cordileone's supporters gathered at a family picnic recently to celebrate his strong leadership and courage.

Hundreds Attend Picnic

Despite the overcast day, hundreds came out to greet the archbishop, receive his blessing, ask for his autograph, and have him bless their rosaries. San Francisco Catholics organized the event that drew people not only from the archdiocese but as far away as southern California.

Pray for Archbishop Cordileone who is among the few and the brave in the hierarchy. If there were a Church special battalion, he would be its commandant.

Thank you, Archbishop Cordileone, for your faithful leadership and thank you, San Francisco Catholics, for organizing the support event. Where the shepherd is, the sheep will gather.

Hunker Down and Keep the Faith

The dear priest who witnessed our marriage was a benedictine monk who suffered greatly for his orthodoxy. As a matter of fact, the monks were happy to have him teach chemistry at the University of Maryland so they didn't have to deal with his faith. He told us once when we were lamenting the state of the Church that the laity always bring her back. I thought of Father when I listened to Michael Voris' message today. Keep the faith and pass it on to your children and grandchildren.

Happy Monday, Liberal Catholics are in an Uproar over "Taliban Catholicism"

I got my laugh for the day (maybe the week) when I opened up my email this morning and found a link to an Associated Press article titled Catholic bloggers aim to purge dissenters. The author, Rachel Zoll, describes orthodox Catholic bloggers saying, "Enraged by dissent that they believe has gone unchecked for decades, and unafraid to say so in the starkest language, these activists are naming names and unsettling the church."

That is good news, indeed! The liberal bishops in the United States who cozy up to pro-abortion politicians, finance groups that support abortion and contraception, let homosexual activists hold pride events in their parishes, and on and on -- I'd say they need a little "unsettling."

Zoll quotes two sides of the spectrum. Michael Voris, commentator of The Vortex on Real Catholic TV and head of St. Michael's Media, a bastion of orthodoxy, says, "We're no more engaged in a witch hunt than a doctor excising a cancer is engaged in a witch hunt. We're just shining a spotlight on people who are Catholics who do not live the faith." And he does it with panache and power!

Then there's John Allen, Rome correspondent for the dissent rag, the National Catholic Reporter. He's the one coining the term "taliban Catholicism," although he says it can also refer to liberals who are enraged by any exercise of Church authority. But on the Internet, Zoll says, "conservatives are having the bigger impact."

When liberals whine about the orthodox, you know you're having an impact. They label every disagreement "vitriol" or "violence" or both. I know; I've been accused of it often enough for disagreeing with a liberal's position. I hope I can consider myself among the Catholic bloggers criticized in this article who are reviled for speaking the truth:

"Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of slander against you because of me. Be glad and rejoice, for tyour reward is great in heaven; they persecuted the prophets before you in the very same way."

 Certainly, what we do must be done in charity, but tough love means calling a spade a spade and a heretic a heretic. (By the way, the definition of heresy is the denial of a doctrine that must be believed. Those pro-abortion Catholic politicians who say they can "personally oppose" abortion while publicly supporting it are heretics!)

If you want to see one of those "taliban Catholics" in action visit Real Catholic TV and watch The Vortex. Above all, read the article. It will make your day! But skip the comments -- they're an anti-Catholic diatribe. No surprise. The article is posted on MSNBC after all.

As for what one exemplary prelate thinks of that "taliban Catholic," Mike Voris:






This program is from RealCatholicTV.com

Glinda's Question Rephrased: Are you a good nun or a bad nun?

When Dorothy's house landed on the Wicked Witch of the East and killed her, the residents of Munchkinland had a question and asked Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, to pose it. "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?" she asked Dorothy.  A variation of that same question came to mind as I read the opinions of American nuns on the health care bill. "Are you a good nun or a bad nun?"

The answer isn't hard to find. If a group of nuns supports a bill that includes murdering unborn babies, you can be sure they are not only bad nuns, but bad Catholics as well. The murder of the innocent is a crime that cries to heaven for vengeance. And the bill funds abortion so supporting it clearly is bad. Now let's compare the nuns of NETWORK, who support the health care bill, and another group of nuns who oppose it.

The sisters of NETWORK, a liberal lobby group, favor the Senate bill despite the fact that it provides funding for abortion and provides no conscience protection for health care workers. Claiming to represent 59,000 nuns in the U.S., only a few dozen actually signed the statement, including the notorious Sr. Joan Chittister, who is herself pro-abortion. One nun signed twice claiming to represent two different groups. But do the nuns actually speak for all those other sisters?

Sr. Mary Ann Walsh who heads the Media Relations Office of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which has roundly condemned the legislation, said NETWORK "grossly overstated whom they represent." She described the way religious orders work saying, "Many of the endorsers signed on as individual teams - that's nunspeak for saying they represent only themselves, not their membership....It's a way of keeping all heck from breaking out in the convent where opposition to abortion is stronger than what NETWORK says (or doesn't say, since it won't take a position and avoids the issue)."

So the NETWORK letter deliberately lies to imply more support than it actually has. How many really stand with the bad nuns? You would have to poll them to get a decent estimate. But in view of the dearth of vocations in dissenting religious orders, the aging population, and presumably a number who have been silenced by their shrewish sisters (I know some of these), can it be that many?

On the other hand, the head of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR) who represent orthodox orders that support the teachings of the Church has taken issue with the legislation calling for an "ethically sound" bill which the current one is not.

Which group of nuns supports the teachings of the Church? CMSWR. Which group opposes Church teaching? NETWORK. Which group is pro-life? CMSWR. Which claims to take no position on abortion, but works on every liberal social justice issue including far out environmentalism? NETWORK.

So how can NETWORK, which which claims it doesn't take a position on a central issue of the Catholic faith, presusme represent all the nuns in the orders listed on their letter when they favor a bill that allows federal funding of abortion? They can't. They would have to poll every nun in the orders they claim to represent because they are defying Church teaching. Do most nuns agree with their support of this pro-abortion bill? Probably not.

On the other hand, CMSWR represents 10,000 nuns in orthodox religious orders that support the pope and magisterium. The sisters in those orders are faithful to the teachings of the Church. In fact, most of the orders they represent have an average age of about 26 and the young women entering specifically express their support for orthodoxy. It is more plausible that CMSWR speaks for their sisters on this issue (consistent with Church teaching) than to believe a group of dissident nuns can speak for anyone except themselves.

So the munchkins will have no trouble figuring out which nuns are good and which are bad. They may not even need Glinda's assistance. NETWORK, like the Wicked Witch of the East is clearly bad. They had best keep their eyes on the sky to see if a house is about to fall on them and end their wicked career.

Read more here and here.