A Fireside Chat with Cardinal George

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.

"This is a bit hysterical. I'm sure George is hacked over the California decision, where Catholic Charities must offer insurance for contraception."

What an outrage that decision was!

"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."

Malarkey. The Catholic Church only has to do that if liberal activist Judges mis-interpret the law and force secular values on groups that should be free to choose. Government does what Governmental officers tell it too. WE THE PEOPLE need to wake up and smell the coffee, and fix it so Government stops abusing the relationship. Give the charities more freedom. The private institutions dont have to accept anything from the Government, and STILL the secularists will drive them to redefine themselves and obey rules that they disagree with. If you doubt it, go look at how insidious the Federal Government Title IX and other rules are applied to *private* Colleges. It's draconian - it's wrong!

That California decision was a travesty, and you should pin the blame on the liberal activist judges where it belongs, not on the fine charitable organizations that do what they can to stretch their money to do good.

BTW, it is totally ABSURD to talk about religious health care organizations withdrawing from Governmental 'support' when the majority of healthcare dollars are spent via our semi-socialized health care system. Dont doubt for a minute that if charitable catholic organizations withdrew, the problem would get worse and 'more Govt spending' would be demanded by the socialists.

Both vouchers and faith-based initiatives are GOOD THINGS. They deflate the LIE that we have to descriminate against social service organizations that happen to have a religious basis. We dont. We shouldnt. A religious school serves a public JUST AS WELL IF NOT BETTER than a secular school. So it has every right to be funded for the public purpose. In fact, no religion should be harrassed into doing something against its moral viewpoint just because they are providing socially useful services. The PROBLEM is the excessive regulation (and the secularist moral agenda trying to undermine religious groups), not the participation by the religious organizations.

This hits home because in our city the city council pro-aborts are trying to make the Catholic hospital do abortions in exchange for 'getting' the city contract to manage the city hospital.
But wait, the Catholic hospital saved the city from disaster by taking over this city hospital that was grossly mismanaged and had lost tens of millions! the city went to them! The city knew the rules and what the Catholic hospital just will not do, and after the fact tries to twist arms and change it. They are immoral thugs if you ask me. The Catholic hospital is sticking to its consistent and moral position.

If you think the answer is for Christian groups to run away or hide under the covers, you really dont have a clue.
To buy into your argument is to *invite* the kind of harrassment that secularists unfairly use to drive a wedge to banish religious views from the public square
and to undermine morality. I am sure the secularists just love to have you on the 'other side' playing right into their hands on the issues!

...the result is two churches. One a state sponsored Catholic Church and the other an underground Catholic Church.
I have been predicting this for years. But I never thought of the government initiating it. I always figured the Amchurch modernist freaks would just get more outlandish with their gay masses and clown masses and abortions and divorces and cohabitating and contracepting and everything else they do at the same rate as the pagans around them, until we get a Pope who wants to be a shepherd and try to reign them in and make them come to resemble Catholics in some small way.

Those folks lost years ago. They will thrash about in their death throws for decades to come (everything moves slowly in the Church) but they’ve lost and know it. Absent getting a Cardinal Mahoney elected Pope, they are done.

patent +AMDG

Cardinal George is not being hysterical; if you understand the fervour and zeal of convinced secular transnational progressivists, you will understand that theirs is a crusade aimed at stamping out all opposition, if not to a one-world government, then governments worldwide under the secular progressivist principle.

The Catholic Church is the only body which can claim the same sort of worldwide reach and loyalty as the secular. For that reason, they will spare no effort to destroy it.

And if they think splitting the Catholic Church into state-run churches will do the job, they will.

They'll appeal to the patriotism of conservatives such as yourself to lure people into an American Patriotic Catholic Church, even as they appeal to the liberals with promises of easy morality and government money.

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