Posted on 03/08/2004 7:55:16 PM PST by StAthanasiustheGreat
I just got back from a Fireside Chat at my University Catholic Center somewhere in the archdiocese of Chicago. I thought I would share with any interested Freepers (Catholic Caucus especially), what his grace had to say and what the overall tone was.
It started out innocently enough with the Cardinal debunking the DaVinci Code and putting it in its proper perspective as a work of fiction. He seemed surprised that it has created so much furor, afterall, it is a work of fiction, though certainly he aknowledges, the enemies of the Church and Christianity at large have attached themselves to it for obvious reasons.
He touched on the Sex Abuse Scandal, diplomatically aknowledging some of the clean-up actions of the late Cardinal Bernadin. He then discussed how difficult an issue it is for him, cause it consumes 30-35% of his time, but more so, the extreme emotional difficulty that comes with hearing from the victims and dealing with the issues. He also explained how he has come to fully support Zero Tolerance, rather than therapy and possibly reministry for accussed priests, due to the recitivism rate among pedophiles. There of course, is a larger issue, that some on this forum have indentified, but he choose to avoid.
He spend the vast majority of time dealing with the aftermath of Roe v. Wade and the Gay Marriage situation. First he asked us a question, where we saw this country in 20-25 years, the general consensus was worse off in terms of traditional values. He agreed, and said it has to do with Roe v. Wade. He said prior to Roe v. Wade the American Legal system was the last great equalizer, before it even the voiceless had a voice. No longer, rather now it is used to enshrine rights, and as such, all legal discourse must use the language of rights (Right to Life) rather than the greater societal, institutional, community language prior to it. He said Gay Marriage is much the same way. Except here we have the making of a Totalitarian State. The State is now defining an institution which prior it had no business defining. Which is precisely what Totalitarian States are all about. Thus as Catholics we cannot withdraw and say, well it is there choice. Rather we must fight, and we must say, that Natural Law dictates as well as Tradition.
His most sobering comment concerned the status of the Church in twenty years. His foresees the Catholic Church being forced underground as in China (with less physical persecution). He argued that for example, a woman sues the Church to be a priest saying it is her right. She gets five justices to agree that it is a right. The Church cannot argue legally from a sacramental standpoint, because Roe v. Wade changed the argument from institutional and community to individual rights, as such the Church must argue on the basis of rights, and here has no argument. The Five justices decree women's ordination, the result is two churches. One a state sponsored Catholic Church and the other an underground Catholic Church. His actual timeframe was ten years.
He finally closed with the need for a New Evangelization to reach out to the post-Christian World, Europe and America and bring them back. To do so, one must use both Faith (Bible and Tradition) and Reason. Again arguing that it is vitally important to the Faith.
This is a brief summary as best as I can remember, it was a powerful talk, he talked for 2.5 hours.
God Bless
I wave my shamrock and declare this a MUST READ.
This is a bit hysterical. I'm sure George is hacked over the California decision, where Catholic Charities must offer insurance for contraception.
If the Church continues to crawl into bed with the federal government (read: vouchers, Faith-based initiatives), and takes government money then it will have to do what the government tells it to do.
There'll be riots in the streets. I can't believe it'll ever happen.
You have a point... but... there is this thought, "government money" is the taxpayer's money, including the Catholic taxpayer. The services provided by Catholic Charities are not limited to Catholic recepients; in fact the religious affiliation of the recipient is irrelevant. Evangelization of the recipients is branded "proselytizing" and it is a big PC "no-no."
The court has no right to impose immorality on a Catholic institution and the local Bishop should scream "FIRE!" right away. If the Bishops begin to pact tenderly with the devil they will lose big time and the whole US Church will lose big time.
The strings attached to the Catholic Charities subsidies should never compromise the faith. "You cannot serve both God and money."
"It can't happen here."
I do think that's too short a timeframe. Then again, His Eminence has more connections than I do.
Bumpus ad summum
It will start with them yanking our tax exempt status.
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