Posted on 01/29/2003 2:25:28 PM PST by victim soul
Last week, Bishop William K. Weigand of Sacramento stood up and acted in the manner Christ expected from those who would follow in the footsteps of his 12 Apostles as shepherds of His flock.
As has been widely reported, Bishop Weigand laid down the gauntlet before California Gov. Gray Davis, a nominal Catholic, and told him that as long as he continued his fervent support of the crime of legal abortion he could not receive communion - therefore all but pronouncing excommunication on Davis.
Echoing the recent Vatican instruction about supporting so-called Catholic politicians or others who support abortion, the bishop told Davis: "As your bishop, I have to say clearly that anyone, politician or otherwise, who thinks it is acceptable for a Catholic to be pro-abortion is in very great error, puts his or her soul at risk, and is not in good standing with the church," Weigand announced during a cathedral Mass mourning the 30th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.
"Such a person should have the integrity to acknowledge this and choose of his own volition to abstain from receiving Holy Communion until he has a change of heart."
The bishop also praised the gutsy Msgr. Edward Kavanagh who last month bluntly told the governor to stay away from St. Patrick's Orphanage unless he renounced his pro-abortion stance.
It's about time. The question now is just when his fellow bishops in America will start acting like shepherds guarding their flock instead of running away whenever the wolves show up.
Faced with Bishop Weigand's demand, a Davis flunky, in an exhibition of egregious ignorance, lashed out, attacking His excellency for daring to tell "the faithful how to practice their faith."
Note to Davis and his obviously untutored aide: The job of bishops as shepherds of their flock is to lead their flocks - and that means to tell them how to practice - or not practice - their faith.
Some time ago - don't make me go look up the exact date - I wrote a column - "Ad Episcopus Nos" (To Our Bishops), in which I tried to remind them of the duties that appear to have slipped their minds.
Permit me to repeat large portions of that column, because nothing seems to have been done since I wrote it, and time's a-wasting.
After noting the sex abuse scandal plaguing the Church, I wrote that I wanted "to discuss the real problems afflicting the Body of Christ ..." the fact that that the bishops themselves "are the problem from which all the others arise."
"Many of you have failed to perform your principal function - that of being the good shepherds for the flock over which you are obliged to watch. Out of either fear of giving offense to those most worthy of being offended, [like Gov. Davis] or just plain laziness, you have neglected to lead your flocks into the green pastures of God's grace, and have instead, allowed them to wander into the muck and mire of the modernist swamp that is today's secular society.
"You have forgotten that we are meant to be 'a royal priesthood, a people set apart,' living in the world but not of it. When all around us our brothers and sisters wander lost and without guidance in a corrupt and atheistic society, you have stood aside and failed to provide the leadership and example your episcopal vows demand of you.
"You have allowed the doctrines of the faith to be questioned or flouted by theologians and others in Holy Orders. You have permitted the pastors and priests under your jurisdiction to experiment with the rituals of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in some cases so altering it that it has become unrecognizable as a sacred liturgical rite during which bread and wine are transformed into the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
"The time has now arrived for the massive abuses that have so distorted the image of Holy Mother Church to come to a sudden stop. And it is your duty to make that happen. We, the laity can't - this is a hierarchic church that has only survived for 2000 years because under Divine guidance it is hierarchical. But we can demand that you do your job.
"At the root of the scandal you are meeting to discuss is the matter of homosexuality in the priesthood. The great majority of the scandals involving priests have involved young men and homosexual priests. Surely you were aware that a number of seminaries under your direct control had become hotbeds of homosexuality. You have ordained active homosexuals and put them in a position to practice their perversions, often among some of the most vulnerable of your flock - young, impressionable boys and men.
"In a larger context, you have stood idly by and watched as organized homosexuals have launched campaigns to legitimize their perversions and gain the right to propagandize children in our public schools in an ill-disguised attempt to proselytize the young and enlist them into their perverted lifestyle.
"It is time for you to speak out. In every diocese it should be made plain that homosexuality is a sin, an serious offense against God. It is an addiction, like alcoholism. Not a civil right. You don't see Drunk Pride weeks, or Drunk Pride parades or Drunk Pride days at Disneyworld. You don't see organized drunkards demanding that drunk driving laws be abolished because they violate their civil rights, or drunkards seeking to go into the public schools to preach about the joys of alcohol to youngsters.
"Alcoholics don't insist they were born that way. They do, or course, organize. They join AA in an effort to rid themselves of their addiction.
"It is your responsibility to take the leadership in thwarting organized homosexual groups from gaining a legitimacy for their addiction in such cases as so-called ' hate crime' laws or the legitimizing of same-sex marriage. If you fail to act, and act decisively, you will be guilty of aiding and abetting perversion of more and more impressionable children now targets of organized homosexual groups.
"When the Papal encyclical, Humanae Vitae was issued in the 60s, many American bishops simply ignored it. Thanks to their inaction, and in some cases outright hostility, huge numbers of married Catholics today practice artificial birth control. Yet we hear not a single word of condemnation of the practice from the pulpit. Out of fear of offending their parishioners, pastors and priests remain silent, allowing their congregation to persist in this forbidden practice without a word of censure or an attempt to explain why artificial birth control is destructive of spiritual growth. A case can be easily made for Humanae Vitae and what it teaches, but that case is never made from the pulpit. Mustn't offend the parishioners, you see."
"Come to think of it, nowadays mentioning any kind of sin is verboten. Mustn't offend sinners because, since we're all sinners, that would mean offending everybody.
"Your excellencies have all but abandoned your authority over the so-called Catholic colleges and universities in your dioceses. You have been ordered by the Holy Father to reassert your episcopal authority over these institutions and see to it that they proclaim the faith. Sure, you've paid lip service to the mandatum but you have not taken the decisive action called for.
"Last Ash Wednesday, for example, the president of Holy Cross College, like a number of his peers in other allegedly Catholic institutions, permitted the pornographic 'Vagina Monologues' to be performed under the college's auspices, despite massive protests. On Ash Wednesday! That president should have been instantly removed from office by the Ordinary of the Diocese and the Roman collar ripped from his neck. He's still there.
"Many of you have given scandal by refusing to call to account those Roman Catholic public officials who openly support the murder of the unborn. Any politician who professes to be a Catholic while still supporting abortion should be publicly condemned and promptly excommunicated.
"The spectacle of the likes of Sen. Edward Kennedy, for example, receiving communion is scandalous, and makes a mockery of the Church's condemnation of this unspeakable practice. It gives the impression that such people by virtue of their positions, are immune from Divine law.
"If the polls are right, large numbers of our fellow Catholics come to communion not believing that they are receiving the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Yet how many priests say a word about this tragic unbelief in the most important of all doctrines, the root of our faith. Damned few, from what I've been able to observe.
"Then there's the matter of the liturgy which since Vatican II has been modified and changed and distorted until it is possible to go to a number of churches and participate in rituals which bear little if any resemblance to each other. Every one of you should instruct the priests in your dioceses to conform to the authorized ritual without any alterations whatsoever.
"There's a lot more, but this will do for now. [It's time for you to] start acting like bishops instead of trying to be all things to all people. It is not your function to go along to get along. It is your sacred obligation to proclaim the truth to a society immersed in the lie, regardless of the consequences.
"A beloved, and now dead priest used to refer to the Episcopal Church as "the little Church that can't say no." Under your direction the Catholic Church in America has striven mightily to become the big church that won't say no.
"It's past the time you started to say no. Loudly. Thunderously. And with absolute conviction."
What are you waiting for, shepherds? Get off the dime and start leading your flocks while you still have any left to lead.
Phil Brennan is a veteran journalist who writes for NewsMax.com. He is editor and publisher of Wednesday on the Web (http://www.pvbr.com) and was Washington columnist for National Review magazine in the 1960s. He served as a staff aide for the House Republican Policy Committee and helped handle the Washington public relations operation for the Alaska Statehood Committee, which won statehood for Alaska. He is also a trustee of the Lincoln Heritage Institute.
He can be reached at phil@newsmax.com.
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