Oh no! Not again? (the USCCB lays another egg, and this time it's scrambled).

The Priestly Pugilist ^ | 1/13/2009 | Priestly Pugilist

[Balt]

Please don't tell me we have to do this again???

Back in September of 2007, I ran a broken series of posts regarding the appointment of Kathy Saile as Director of Domestic Policy for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. My problem with the Saile appointment -- and your PP was not the only blogger out there with this same "problem" -- was Ms. Saile's implicit devotion to a feminist agenda, evidenced by her involvment with "WIN", an organization which promotes itself as "Washington’s premier professional, political, and social network dedicated to empowering young, Democratic, pro-choice women." The back and forth on this issue generated an angry response from Msgr. David Malloy, USCCB General Secretary, who, in the end, could only dismiss our concerns by stating, in a Sept. 23 press release, that "These charges apparently originated in blogs. . . ;" as if to say, Everyone knows you can ignore blogs.

Well, your PP and his friendly allies, many of whom are regular readers from Free Republic, generated a flood of mail to the USCCB; and if there's anything that tickles a gaggle of bishops the wrong way it's bad public relations (just scroll down a couple of posts). After all, when a national episcopal conference has to respond to a blog because it publicized a peace of cryptic but public information that they either missed or were hoping no one would notice . . . well, let's just say there's something wrong with this picture.

Well, it just may be time for your PP to lock horns with the Successors of the Apostles again, to wit, the latest new appointment, as reported by CatholicCulture.org, dated yesterday:

Cardinal Francis George, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has appointed Diane Knight, retired executive director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, as the new chair of the National Review Board. Knight has been a member of the National Review Board since 2007.

Knight holds a master’s degree in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. A former member of the Code of Ethics Task Force of Catholic Charities USA, Knight serves on the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s Community Advisory Board, which advises the archbishop and the archdiocesan victim assistance coordinator.

As Catholic World News reported in 2007, Knight donated $200 to the Democratic National Committee in 2005. According to the Huffington Post’s FundRace 2008, Knight donated $284 to President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign during the third quarter of 2008.

Did Pope Benedict say something about openly and publically supporting candidates who promote the murder of unborn children, or was that my imagination?

But what's particularly onorous about this appointment is not simply the fact that's it's being made by Catholic bishops to a group sponsored by them (as was the case with Ms. Saile); this appointment is to a committee that determines whether bishops are doing their part to keep our children safe, and who, as your PP understands the process, have the authority to determine whether a bishop has effectively dealt with a priest who has been accused of an immoral act. In other words, the bishops of this country have appointed a pro-abortion advocate to chair the very group that will be determining whether priests get to keep being priests.

Now, your PP could rehash all the questions we wanted Msgr. Malloy to answer two years ago but never did, and add to them the slew of questions that this particular appointment easily generates; but there would be little point. As someone who understands the clerical culture like every square inch of his glorious naked body, your PP knows instinctively that the USCCB will do nothing less than circle the wagons on this one, like they always have. Oh, sure . . . in public they'll trumpet a committment to "Vatican II principles," which, one presumes, includes that part about the laity's role in the social and political order and the clergy's in the spiritual and moral; but when one side blunders onto the territory of the other in an inept and damaging way, and the other pushes back reminding them to mind their own house, the one gets defensive and testy and talks down to the other like they were children.

It was Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, lone resister to the Review Board's intrusion into the lives of priests, who had the courage to point out that a lay board with even implied authority over bishops was inconsistant with the very constitutive nature of the Church as established by Christ. Now, that very lay board will be chaired by someone who believes that killing children in their mothers' wombs is a right. Looks like those thirty pieces of silver we spoke of two posts down is collecting interest.

Well, the economy is bad, after all. Besides, the faithful can be so unreasonable when we sell their churches to pay our legal bills.

[Balt]

My prediction: She will respond that she was doing what the bishops recommended, which was to weigh abortion along with all the other "proportionate issues." Don't worry. I've got a response already penned and waiting.

[redhead]

Thanks for posting this, Father. Thanks for all your hard work.

[gman992]

Thank God, I’m Jesuit, and we actually follow what the Pope says and not a bunch of bishops!!!

[Northern Yankee]

I may have heard this woman on American Catholic Radio as I made my way to Mass Sunday morning. If it was her she sure was not following the doctrine of the church.

She stated that many devout Catholics voted for Obama, and that Obama actually was more articulate than John McCain about reducing the number of abortions. (I damn near ran off the road on that remark.)

She also stated that we have not won the war in Iraq.

If it wasn't her it was someone else who should not even be articulating such nonsense. It creates confusion among the Catholic community.

[vox_freedom]

Bump.

[dangus]

Is that sarcasm?

[veritas2002]

It’s time to get rid of the USCCB. The ONLY way to do this is for every Catholic to get in touch with his or her bishop and let them know they will not contribute one dime at their local parish until the USCCB is disbanded. I will GUARANTEE you that if this were to happen the USCCB would be gone within two years.