Posted on 05/25/2004 9:09:30 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
My humble message to Bishop McManus:
"We in the Church can't have it both ways - preaching against evil, yet not having the courage to stand up to it. Your eminence, you have taken a courageous step that most bishops should have done long ago, to walk away from the precipice, the deep, that is the destruction of humanity and the family as we know it.
Please stay the course! This has to be done now and not left for those who come later."
``That's pretty strong language,'' Rushford said on hearing the paragraph yesterday. ``I just would hope that people from all walks of life and our society would agree that the civil rights of individuals are not debatable.''
What the article apparently does not mention is WHY Bishop McManus wrote the letter. He was responding to a comment that Mr. Rushford made in an article in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. Mr. Rushford made a comment about homosexual marriage being accepted by the Church. This was COMPLETELY false, and the Bishop wrote the letter to dispute it and set the record straight.
I'm glad the Bishop said what he did. The Church teaches that people with homosexual orientations are our 'brothers and sisters in Christ", but when they engage in homosexual ACTIVITY, they are committing sinful acts. By encouraging homosexual marriage, which by extension is encouraging homosexual ACTIVITY, people ARE in cooperation with sinfullness and evil. Active Catholic homosexuals don't like to hear it, but the truth needs to be spoken.
The TOMS (Tired Old Men) are retiring and are being replaced by younger, more generally orthodox men. Take a look as which Bishops have been standing up publicly for Church teachings lately; they're almost all 'new hires'. This is driving the liberals who tend to populate most Chanceries, absolutely NUTS, but that's tough! I'm glad that these new Bishops are not backing down in the face of secular (and liberal Catholic) criticism!
Just emailed him!
But good for the Bishop! Keep up the great work!!
Well, *duh* - civil rights in the secular world and the teachings of the Church based on Scripture from the Bible are separate issues. What a dork - typical of the liberal left to cry "foul" based on lies, twisted facts and innuendo.
IIRC the numbers are about 65 parish closings of 395--meaning that there will be 330 or so left running.
It has something to do with the settlements, but much MORE to do with utilization, as was the case in Milwaukee. It's not really useful to have two parishes running full steam within 10 blocks of each other, when they only use about 1/3 of their capacity on Sundays.
Back in the good old days, the concentration of RC's in given areas was very, very heavy, justifying all those buildings.
With urban sprawl that's no longer the case. In addition, many Catholics are CINOs, showing up occasionally rather than weekly for Masses.
If this freaked 'em out, they really wouldnt like what the Apostle Paul had to say about the matter.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.