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“Where Are The Catholics?”
Catholic World Report ^ | November 27, 2012 | James V. Schall, S.J.

Posted on 11/27/2012 3:44:22 PM PST by NYer

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1 posted on 11/27/2012 3:44:25 PM PST by NYer
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To: netmilsmom; thefrankbaum; Tax-chick; GregB; saradippity; Berlin_Freeper; Litany; SumProVita; ...

Ping!


2 posted on 11/27/2012 3:45:59 PM PST by NYer ("Before I formed you in the womb I knew you." --Jeremiah 1:5)
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To: NYer

The conclusion hit the nail right on the head.


3 posted on 11/27/2012 3:51:02 PM PST by johnd201 (johnd201)
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To: NYer

Because the stats are based on self-identification and half of those self-identifying as Catholics also think that one can be Catholic without being Catholic.

The 50% who did not vote for Zero are Catholic. The others are bundles of contradiction who will scatter like sheep when the wolf gets close.


4 posted on 11/27/2012 3:51:44 PM PST by Houghton M.
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To: NYer

My family left Germany prior to WWII. Those Jews that remained were increasingly anxious, but as our wealthy relations who hosted my aunt and uncle in the late 30’s thought, it would go just so far and no farther.

Catholics need to be aware that it can, indeed, go much farther than anyone thinks.

It just takes the need for a scapegoat to unite people and the right person to be their messiah.

I think they just elected the messiah.


5 posted on 11/27/2012 3:55:54 PM PST by OpusatFR
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To: OpusatFR

 

First They Came for the Jews

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

~Pastor Martin Niemöller

Community and individuality are not opposites. People cannot survive on their own. When the odds are stacked against you, you must rally with the oppressed and hated.

When a growing oppressive regime is taking hold, you must act, otherwise you will soon face your enemy alone and hopeless.

Strength of community is a strength as much as individualism, as long you are willing to face weaknesses in your own community. Ignoring slacking values will mean that you will be rallied against by those you oppress.

Niemöller affirms we must rally against unhealthy organized regimes. We must also stay vigilant with those that appear to be good natured, as all organisation attracts corruption. Niemöller also warns us that if it is you who are corrupt, then you will face a stronger combined force of foe!

~Vexen Crabtree


6 posted on 11/27/2012 4:03:19 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: NYer

The overwhelming majority (if not all) of them, are of the world. They have never been born-again! And sadly, much of the protestant ranks are in the same condition.


7 posted on 11/27/2012 4:05:40 PM PST by evangmlw
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To: Houghton M.

Reminds me of Pelosi, who is 100% for killing the unborn, while claiming to be a Catholic.


8 posted on 11/27/2012 4:05:43 PM PST by wastedyears (I don't want to live on this planet anymore.)
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To: NYer
"The larger matter, if it is larger, is the central government has succeeded in positioning itself as the chief dispenser, not only of jobs, health, and well-being, but also of what is moral and right. Government has established a claim and an agenda that would make all real moral, economic, and political understanding and activity dependent on itself. The country has radically changed its soul from one that insisted the main actors are individuals and their voluntary organizations to one that holds the ungrounded government responsible for all the major (and minor) issues. In this new capacity the government conceives itself as being subject to nothing—not to the Constitution, amendments, reason, or natural law. It will not be put quite this way, but that is the effect. This is what we elected. The Jewish talk-show host was correct. Catholics are the target, the locus of what the government sees as the cause of its own problems. This government will brook no opposition to its plans. Catholics, insofar as they are Catholics, will be more and more singled out as the causes of the failures of public policies. If we are surprised at this turn of events, it can only be because we did not really understand what was at stake in the recent election."

What a far cry from what America's Founders viewed as the role of government versus that of the "Supreme Judge of the world," or, "Divine Providence."

In the words of George Mason:

"The laws of nature are the laws of God, whose authority can be superseded by no power on earth. A legislature must not obstruct our obedience to Him, from whose punishment they cannot protect us. All human laws which contradict His laws we are in conscience bound to disobey."

9 posted on 11/27/2012 4:06:28 PM PST by loveliberty2
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To: OpusatFR

Yes, and the first steps against Jews in Germany was to deny them the right to own and operate businesses. That is the effect of the HHS “contraception” mandate (contraception includes all pre-implantation procedures, therefore it’s an abortion mandate).

Any genuine Catholic who owns a business that employs more than 50 has been told, in effect, you may not operate a business on your terms, only on ours. He has a choice between his faith and his business.

If they can do it to owners of businesses larger than 50 employees, they can do it to anyone.

Yes, perhaps SCOTUS will overturn it. But that will only be a temporary setback.

The Nazis did not start with concentration camps. They started by outlawing Jewish businesses.

All those Prots and Libertarians who say, what’s the fuss, it’s only about contraception, everyone except those stupid Catholics have long accepted the morality of contraception, need to listen up. You are next and it won’t be about “contraception.” It’ll be about you and YOUR beliefs, not about those crazy stupid Catholics and their beliefs.

But nobody listened in Germany until it was too late. Nobody will listen here until it’s too late. The concentration camps were indeed largely hidden from the people. I have read my uncle’s brother-in-law’s memoirs. He was 19 years old when the war ended, enthsusiastically a memmber of the Waffen SS, from a down-at-the-heels typical German bourgeois family. He truly thought Hitler was a decent guy who only had Germany’s best interests at heart. He truly believed the scapegoat the Jews myths.

Already in November 1942 reports of the Final Solution were in the NYTimes. I just read them in the war report postings here on FR the day before yesterday, I think.

But in Germany, that stuff was either not heard at all or was dismissed as enemy disinformation.

That’s the way it will be here. The opponents of the Regime will be scapegoated and even people in the “middle” will hear reports of penalties and think, yeah, but it’s just those stupid Catholics who are such extremists when it comes to sex stuff.

It’s pretty darn close to being too late now.


10 posted on 11/27/2012 4:18:14 PM PST by Houghton M.
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To: wastedyears

She always seems so boastful about her catholicism and proud of the correctness of her understanding and her actions as a catholic leader. Confusing. Rank has its privileges, I guess.


11 posted on 11/27/2012 4:18:54 PM PST by GBA (Here in the Matrix, life is but a dream.)
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To: NYer

My mother voted for Obama. A cradle Catholic, she learned in the sixties, that old white male bishops had no authority over matters sexual, despite their claims. She learned this from Cardinals like Bernadin and his claim of church hypocrisy and rebellious theologian priests.. She became a cafeteria Catholic and now when called to order by the bishops she does not heed the call. Once disobedient, it becomes the norm. Thus Catholics become the culture.


12 posted on 11/27/2012 4:22:17 PM PST by WriteOn (Truth)
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To: wastedyears
I think my priest is a nice compassionate man. When Referendum 74 (gay marriage) came up here in WA state, he initially had asked the parish to sign the petition, keeping in tune with Catholic doctrine.

The very next week he said he had changed his mind, and would NOT be allowing people to sign petitions at the church.

My guess is he chickened out, or was called by some liberal "Catholics" who didn't "like" the church's position.

Regardless, I think that if the Catholic church becomes toothless, and stands for absolutely nothing, then why am I wasting my sunday mornings there?

I go for spiritual guidance, and enlightenment. Not appeals for money, and politically correct garbage.

13 posted on 11/27/2012 4:22:22 PM PST by boop ("I need another Cutty Sark"-LBJ)
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To: evangmlw
While a CINO laity is certainly a problem, the main problem has always been and continues to be the American episcopate who refuse to "clean house" and downsize the church by expelling its apostate clergy and laity, especially those laity in public policy positions.

Actions always speak louder than words. Obama called the bishops' bluff this cycle and we'll now have to see what consequences ensue.

14 posted on 11/27/2012 4:22:45 PM PST by AustinBill (consequence is what makes our choices real)
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To: NYer

Because the Church today has about 50% that do not genuinely subscribe to even basic, core Church teachings (whether you source them Biblically or in “natural law”)...
The Jews have an even higher internal failure rate, but in both Peoples of God, and in Christian society generally, there are still many good people who understand — and who support — and who try to live in accordance with — these core teachings.

There is a great effort by the Holy Father (Pope) and most of the Bishops to achieve “internal evangelization” — to make genuine Christians out of the 50% who self-identify with, but do not live in accordance with, God/Bible/Church.

There is obviously a very great distance to go yet, before success can be claimed for this effort. Meanwhile, let us pray we, as a society, are granted another 4 years to repair all that’s being rent asunder.

ps: I’ve yet to find a core Biblical or Church value that is not based on Jewish teachings. That a Jew recognizes the assault on the Church — and speaks up for the Church — should come as no surprise, and many other Jewish rabbis or speakers do the same for the Church, regularly. We can all differ on specific theological doctrines, but the two Biblical Peoples of God share a common core value system, a common morality if you will. And any thinking Jew can certainly see the dangers of today’s government trying to dictate its own moral values (or amoral values) by force of law. Heck, anyone with the intelligence of a turnip can see the risk to us all in this.

Keep the faith,
fhc


15 posted on 11/27/2012 4:35:59 PM PST by faithhopecharity (--)
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To: NYer

16 posted on 11/27/2012 4:44:21 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: AustinBill

Cleaning house does no good. It all boils down to lack of respect for authority and rules. Every one does what is right in their own eyes now.Nothing can be defined as wrong except for racism, sexism, homophopia and aquiring wealth. These are the only mortal sins now.

Dissenters don’t leave the Church. They remain in order to change and redefine the Church.


17 posted on 11/27/2012 4:47:29 PM PST by Hound of the Baskervilles ("Nonsense in the intellect draws evil after it." C.S. Lewiscrate)
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To: Houghton M.

I totally agree with you! My step-father and his family were on the last boat to leave Germany prior to WWII. Evenutally, he met and married my mother, then adopted me. He agreed to my being raised a catholic. His family were non-practicing Lutherans; he was never baptized. Growing up, he often attended mass with me and my mom but made no commitment to the Catholic faith. At one point in time, he acknowledged an admiration for a coworker who was also a Baptist minister. Again, no commitment was made. Despite 40+ years of exposure to the Catholic Church, he is a professed agnostic. He is also anti-Semitic. Moreover, he and my mother voted for Obama ... because they view him as the modern day FDR who built up this country after the Depression. They have both turned anti-capitalist and agree with Warren Buffet that the government should increase taxes on the wealthy. Holiday get togethers restrict any discussion of religion or politics. I pray nightly for both of them.


18 posted on 11/27/2012 4:49:19 PM PST by NYer ("Before I formed you in the womb I knew you." --Jeremiah 1:5)
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To: NYer

Hard hitting and accurate.


19 posted on 11/27/2012 4:49:37 PM PST by onyx (FREE REPUBLIC IS HERE TO STAY! DONATE MONTHLY! IF YOU WANT ON SARAH PALIN''S PING LIST, LET ME KNOW)
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To: faithhopecharity

“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
John Adams (The Works of John Adams, ed. C. F. Adams, Boston: Little, Brown Co., 1851, 4:31)


20 posted on 11/27/2012 4:56:59 PM PST by faithhopecharity (--)
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