Posted on 04/28/2006 6:24:48 AM PDT by petkus
t was one of those providential moments.
On Wednesday, April 19, I was in Los Angeles researching a book I am writing on the state of California. With an hour to kill between appointments, I decided to check out the city's controversial new $200 million cathedral, a clunky modernist structure with all the spiritual allure of a grain elevator. Given the $3 per 20-minute charge to park, I intended to make the visit quick.
I emerged from the parking garage, however, right in front of a press table. "Are you here for the press conference?" asked the woman attending it. "Yes," I answered. Dressed as I was in a sport jacket, and looking semi-respectable, I aroused no suspicion as I wrote "WorldNetDaily" on the press sheet and got my press pass. I still had no idea what the press conference was about.
I walked up another flight of stairs to a courtyard and saw about a dozen TV cameras arrayed in a semi-circle around a podium. "What's going on?" I asked one of the cameramen, a generally more trustworthy media breed than the producers and reporters.
"Cardinal Mahoney is going to speak on illegal immigration," he said. "When?" I asked. "In about 10 minutes." OK, I thought. I can hang around.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
It is immoral for Catholics to bait people on the other side of the border (with promises of food and health care) to come across it and break the law because the U.S. Immigration laws are not unjust.
"Left lures L.A. Catholics on illegals issue" or "Left lures Left" on illegals issue" Where's the story???
This is a breach of the church and state relationship, and clearly so. Of course the usual suspects will say nothing of this intrusion into the realm of politics by a church.
I wish more Catholics would get up in arms and take to the streets to protest the "unjust" Vicente Fox who is a major cause of this crisis.
Bishop Gambino Zavala, the bishop in this article has participated in some interesting activities.
The following is one example:
IN THE WAKE OF THE VATICAN'S CRACKDOWN on the homosexual outreach of Father Robert Nugent and Sister Jeannine Gramick, Los Angeles auxiliary bishop Gambino Zavala has resigned from the board of the Oakland based National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries. In addition to Zavala's departure from the organization, Father Peter Liuzzi, also resigned from the group. Liuzzi, head of the Los Angeles Archdiocese's Gay and Lesbian Outreach was a founding member of the group.
In a August 31 Los Angeles Times story, Bishop Zavala said that "he resigned ... because of the press of other obligations, including his chairmanship of Encuentro 2000." Bishop Zavala vaguely alluded to knowing about the controversial group's dissent on Church teaching on homosexuality, adding that he had only attended "one meeting."
Similarly, Father Liuzzi said that he had decided to resign because of the controversy surrounding the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries. Liuzzi admitted that the Vatican's disciplinary action against Father Nugent and Sister Gramick played a role in his decision. In an August 30 statement, Father Liuzzi said that the association's inability to define and maintain a "centrist" position made it "vulnerable to the far right [and] angering the left," Critics say that the fact that the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries now includes gay rights activities shows how far from the "center" the group is.
Source:
http://www.losangelesmission.com/ed/news/1099news.htm
The bishop looked at me aghast. Owning the microphone, he had the better hand, but he misplayed it. "What are you talking about?" he sneered.
As respectful as I try to be to my Catholic clergy, I did not appreciate the sneer. "Let me tell you what I mean," I answered and elaborated in more detail what I had already said.
"This isn't about left or right," he answered. "This is about justice."
"Bishop," I smiled, "International Worker's Day?"
I had expected the other reporters to hiss, but they did not. My question seemed to remind them of the role that reporters are supposed to play.
"Bishop," said the next fellow. "You keep saying that the Church is supporting immigration. Isn't this really about illegal immigration?
I did not have time to listen to the answer. I had a 12 o'clock at Mountain Washington, and I had already spent $9 on parking. I only wonder how the Catholic clergy will respond to the Mothers On The March rally being held at noon today, April 28, at L.A.'s Crenshaw High. These mothers are marching "to protest the loss of jobs in the black community to illegal aliens."
Unlike abortion, "peace and justice" can be a sticky wicket.
Very nice. Hold their feet to the fire. The truth of the matter is that the L.A. bishops are playing politics and attempting to pretend ignorance about the true nature of the motives of the organizers of the protests.
Can we end -- once and for all -- this nonsense about church and state as it pertains to non-state entities. The church and state "ban" is a one way street...the state has no business getting involved in a church, but a church as a private entity has every right to voice its opinion on any matter.
I say this as a Los Angeles based Catholic who's disgusted by Mahoney's stance on immigration. He doesn't speak for most Catholics I know in my parish, and my parish is a melting pot with no racial majority.
You mean like the black Baptist churches that every politician needs to go to to make political speeches before every election?
What I have read and understood from the Bible is that God and Jesus wants us to help each other by using our own time, treasure and talent and to give from our hearts ("Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." - 2 Corinthians 9:7). Nowhere have I found anything along the lines of "Go out and institute huge bureaucracies that will take money from some people at the point of a sword and give that money to other people as a politician sees fit."
Our Founding Fathers were Christian and very pious men. They founded this country under strong Judeo-Christian tenets and reflected on their religious beliefs on all their decisions. They wrote nothing into the Constitution of any type of government "aid" to help the poor, children or anyone else on purpose. They wanted a very limited government for good reason. Limited government is the best way to ensure that freedom will be preserved.
Please explain how this is clearly so.
And for the record - I do not endorse Cardinal Mahoney's stance on illegal immigration.
When they do crap like this it's about time they lose their tax exempt status. It wouldn't take them 5 minutes to do it about a conservative entity.
Feel free to persuade your legislature this is how things should be.
Two bishops in L.A. do not equal "the Catholic Church". All the bishops in the USA do not equal "the Catholic Church". These are political opinions of individual persons. The bishops' opinions carry no more weight than the average person's sitting in the pews. And they have very little in the way of rational argument to persuade anyone, especially the members of their own diocese, that their opinions are correct. You can see that from the bishop's evasion of the reporter's question.
The Catholic church is attempting to sway public policy from the pulpit. The church exists to nurture the spiritual realm, not involve itself deeply into the political.
I agree The L.A. Bishop and other leftists in the Church, not the whole Catholic Church.
Anyway, you still have not shown how this is against some "Separation of Church and State" clause.
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