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?

Good for Austin Ruse: He Pegs the "Pansified" Behavior of Fr. James Martin, S.J.

For Fr. James Martin:
Stay calm and hug your teddy bear.

The Perfidious Fr. James Martin, S.J. 

I've had my own back and forth with Fr. Martin. Check it out here and note his several comments. But be sure you have a crying towel handy. Omigosh, he is just so appalled that anyone could question his decisions and be so uncharitable. Let's all send him teddy bears he can hug in his safe space. Fr. Martin is remarkably thin-skinned for a man so quick to judge others.

Like the men in Roman collars who transferred their loyalty from Christ and His Church to the English monarchs in the 16th and 17th centuries, Fr. Martin has sold out the faith for the adulation of the popular and politically correct. Perhaps he is himself a homosexual; for sure he is a homosexualist (one who promotes normalization of homosexuality) advancing ideas about sexuality that are in total opposition to Catholic truth.

Well this is disturbing!

Pope Francis approved family synod’s controversial mid-term report before publication: synod chief

Can a doctrine develop in a way that turns it on its head? Those kinds of discussions put me in mind of the insane proposition that by mutilating her body a woman can "become" a man. No-no-no! It just can't happen. But those in authority can put a spin on something so that it doesn't matter what the doctrine is because the people in the pew go with the perception that the doctrine can change (or that it is simply irrelevant). 

Ah...we have been here before with contraception. Must we go there again? Must marriage be further attacked by promoting homosexuality and sacrilegious Communions? 

Let's all commit to praying every day for the Ordinary Synod next fall. It has the potential to open the floodgates to further waves of dissent to unchangeable doctrines. Many clergy and laity don't really care whether the doctrine changes or not. They are perfectly happy to have people dissent from the doctrine and then they talk about the sensus fidelium (the sense of the faithful) whose massive dissent proves the Church should listen and change her teachings. Sorry, dissenters, it ain't gonna happen. Doctrine can no more develop from truth into error than a woman's body can "develop" (or be mutilated) from female into male. 

Live in the real world. Love the truth who is Jesus Himself. Then share the truth in charity. People who love people don't let them blissfully drive off the cliff into the never-ending fire of hell. 

Cardinal Kasper's Disingenuous Theology of Discontinuity and Distortion

Cardinal Kasper: "Thou Dost Protest Too Much."

Reading this article brought to mind the quote from Hamlet, "that one may smile and smile and be a villain." Kasper, like Claudius, is a poisoner -- poisoning Christ's teaching and attempting to seduce his bride, the Church. That, of course, is impossible, but he can certainly poison the faithful with his false and evil "hermeneutic of discontinuity."

Here's a bit from the article. I've highlighted some particularly cogent parts in red. My comments are in blue:

The false arguments presented to defend this doctrinal change [to allow those in invalid marriages who remarry after divorce without annulment] are camouflaged with the usual tactic of speculating about the ramifications of the practice of the ancient Church (the Jesuits’ Karl Rahner was an expert at this strategy). These modern theologians love to speculate. But despite their insatiable taste for speculation, most of Catholic theology is not speculative. The realm of genuine speculative theology is very small and limited.

Rebellion in the Church: The Assault from Within!

In one of the most poignant moments in the Gospel Jesus asks, "When the Son of Man returns, will he find any faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8) Many times since the Resurrection, we hear that question echoed in the events of history: the Arian heresy of the 4th century that denied the divinity of Chist, the Albigensian heresy of the 12th century that postulated two equal forces, one for good - the other for evil, battling for supremacy, the Protestant Revolution of the 16th century disputing papal authority and rejecting most of the sacraments. The difference from today is that, in all those earlier cases the heretics left the fold to found their own sects. But today, the heretics stay in the Church and have no intention of leaving, set instead, on reforming Christ's bride in their own human image.

The most recent chapter in the rebellion is the dissident nuns' response to the Vatican crackdown of the LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious), an action that is long overdo. I'm not going to rehash here what I've already written. You can see past blog posts about the radical nuns here. The fact is, however, that these fundamentally protestant rebels are entrenching and lining up their allies.

Bishop Matthew Clark Still Promoting Homosexual Priests

You would think the homosexual abuse scandal in the Church never happened to listen to Bishop Matthew Clark of Rochester. He's trying to claim that the Vatican's 2005 statement didn't really mean homosexuals shouldn't enter the seminary. Read more here about Bishop Clark and pray that the Vatican accepts his resignation the minute he turns the mandatory retirement age of 75 in July 2012. If he leaves early, all the better!

LifeSiteNews Under Attack -- Is Fr. Gravel Channelling Fr. Drinan?

One of the sources I frequently turn to is LifeSiteNews (LSN). So I was distressed to see they are being sued for $500,000 by a Canadian priest. Let me describe him in a sentence by saying he's Canada's Fr. Robert Drinan who died in 2007 after years of undermining Catholic doctrine and scandalizing millions. Like our own disgraceful Fr. Judas, Fr. Raymond Gravel is "pro-choice" and spent some time in politics before being forced to step down by the Vatican. (Hmm...is this man channelling Fr. Drinan?) He has publicly criticized Church teachings on abortion, contraception, homosexuality, married priests, etc. (Heretics are so predictable!) Here's what was written about Fr. Gravel in 2006 by Luc Gagnon, president of Campagne-Québec Vie and editor of the journal Égards:

Father Gravel gave a long interview last summer to the 'gay' magazine Fugues (June 2, 2005), published in Montreal. It was a true confession of a disturbed priest, which he would never have made in a Catholic publication.. He was born in 1952 in the small village of Saint-Damien-de-Brandon. From ages 16 to 24, he was a 'gay' prostitute in Montreal and took drugs. After a terrible sexual relation with a client that led him to the hospital, he became a bartender at 'gay' establishments. At 32, he entered the seminary in a dramatic change to fulfill a childhood dream, but with no real spiritual conversion....

Father Gravel is not a fan of the new Pope, Benedict XVI. "I was disappointed when I learnt that the new Pope was the German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger," he said. His bishop, Gilles Lussier from Joliette, was warned by the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith about his rebel priest. "My public positions on abortion and gay 'marriage' were not well received by Rome. My bishop even received a letter from the Holy See saying that if I continue in my opposition to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, I would have to face the consequences." The author of that letter was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. "Fortunately, I have the support of my bishop, but the day he leaves his position, I might have some trouble." (See more...)

Just another example of a flaming gay allowed to enter the priesthood whose dissent, according to his own words, is enabled by an unfaithful (to the Church) bishop. One can only imagine the extent of the damage he and his bishop have done to the flock. (It is personally painful to me to see a heretic like this coddled by his bishop, while a faithful priest like Fr. James Haley who blew the whistle on porn and embezzlement in the rectory is out in the cold.)


So...this pro-abortion priest is suing LifeSiteNews for defamation. Why? Because they said....(drum roll)...he's pro-abortion! Please stop laughing! Canada is so loony the courts may take this madman seriously and for LifeSiteNews $500,000 is a year's operating expenses. If you can help defend against this lawsuit visit LSN. The Thomas More Society is assisting them, but they have no Canadian office so defending against the lawsuit is likely to be expensive. 


Pray for Fr. Gravel and pray for our poor Church. With shepherds like him and his bishop, we need prayer (and exorcism) more than ever!