Posted on 03/23/2002 5:34:00 AM PST by father_elijah
SHALL WE GATHER AT THE RIVER?
We Catholic Americans are at a crossroads. Our Lord Jesus Christ who is the Light of the World is exposing all those who wound his sacred Body by abusing children and youth. Our Lord is also exposing rot and disease within the structures and leadership of the Church from within provinces of religious orders, Catholic universities, and diocesan chanceries.
It is time to clean house. Not only do the pederasts, sex abusers, and homosexuals need to be removed from leadership and the ranks of the ordained, but also the Church needs to excommunicate all Catholic politicians in the United States of America whose votes continue the holocaust of abortion.
PREPARATION
In order to serve Christ and his poor Church in this time of crisis, each of us are called to avail ourselves of the sacraments that we may trample the devil under our feet. Let each of us 1) make a good confession; 2) receive the Eucharist on the Feast of Divine Mercy and receive Christ’s promises to St. Faustina of mercy and pardon; 3) engage in works of mercy; and, 4) encourage others to do the same.
We lead by prayer, and we are made strong by Christ’s self-offering of his Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We have a great weapon for fighting evil in the rosary. We do not turn to prayer as a last resort, but we turn to prayer as the beginning, center, and end of all that we strive to do for Our Lord Jesus Christ. We engage in prayer for the Church knowing that when we pray we are not alone in prayer or in action. Our Lord, Our Lady, St. Joseph, and the whole communion of saints join with us in interceding for the Church.
We who long for the cleansing of the Church from these grave evils have the means of prayer through which we can grow in holiness even as we pray for the Church to be cleansed of evil and made holy as Christ is holy. Let us avail ourseves of these gifts of prayer:
The Daily Mass or a daily Act of Spiritual Communion
Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration
Benediction and Adoration
The Holy Rosary
The Chaplet of Divine Mercy
The Litanies
The Liturgy of the Hours
Other Chaplets and Devotions
Let every action we undertake be covered in prayer and overshadowed by the Holy Spirit so that only God’s will is desired and achieved through our efforts.
ACTION
For love of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are called to action against evil. Let each faithful Catholic offer themselves at Mass or at home to be the beginning point of the Church’s cleansing and renewal. Ask the Lord’s blessing that we may each speak the truth in love and walk in the Holy Spirit.
There are a variety of actions that one can undertake to be part of the solution. The following are suggestions that have been made on various internet discussion lists.
*Show up at your parish and pray at 3pm every day
*Show up at your diocesan Chancery and pray
*Show up at the nearest Chancery on the Monday after Easter
at 12 noon and pray the Rosary for the Cleansing of the Priesthood
*Write, telephone, and e-mail your bishops and priests and express your horror over the sexual scandals and tell them you expect full disclosure and immediate action.
*Write to the Holy Father -- write in Polish if you can -- and beg him to intervene and clean up the Church in the United States. Be sure to copy your bishop and pastor.
The following are some actions you may consider asking of the Holy Father(and recommending to your bishop):
1. Ask the Holy Father to lead the Church in a worldwide Day of Penance for the sexual sins of the Church’s leadership;
2. Ask the Holy Father to declare that homosexuals may not receive Holy Orders;
3. Ask the Holy Father to remove Cardinals, bishops, priests, and deacons who have covered up cases of sexual abuse.
4. Ask the Holy Father to give the Church in the USA new Cardinals especially elevating Archbishop Chaput of Denver
5. Ask the Holy Father to shut down religious orders or provinces of religious orders (like the California province of the Society of Jesus) that are a scandal in themselves.
6. Ask the Holy Father to give Cardinal Law, Cardinal Egan, and Cardinal Mahony new jobs at the Vatican.
7. Ask the Holy Father to suspend the US National Conference of Catholic Bishops and to appoint either a triumvirate to clean house or an Inquisitor General to root out evil and liberate the Church in the USA from error and crime.
8. Ask the Holy Father to restore the prayer “St. Michael the Archangel” to the close of every Mass.
9. Ask the Holy Father to extend the faculty to every priest in the Church to celebrate Mass according to the 1962 Missal.
10. Ask the Holy Father to excommunicate Catholic politicians who support the holocaust of abortion.
11. Ask the Holy Father to give the Cardinal’s red hat to Archbishop Chaput, Bishop Bruskewitz, Fr. Benedict Groeschel, Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J.
12. Ask the Holy Father to disassociate the Church from those once Catholic universitiies and colleges that no longer affirm the magisterium of the Church or loyalty to the Pope.
13. Ask the Holy Father to make Fr. Benedict Groeschel the next Archbishop of New York.
Some will find these ideas too presumptuous, but it is clear that the Holy Father and the leadership of the Church in the USA need to hear from the rank and file faithful.
Finally, be sure to pray for the Pope, and write to the Holy Father a letter of encouragement. Assure him of your prayers for his intentions and for him personally. Also, write letters of encouragement to any deacon, priest, or bishop whom you know to be defenders of the faith and devoted to Our Lord Jesus Christ. Our good and faithful priests need to know that they are loved and cherished.
Jesus, King of the nations, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.
Good Saint Joseph, pray for us.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, pray for us.
However I respect your search for truth. Since you must have read my post as you responded to it can you answer my request for scriptural support for your position about celibacy?
I also know you are smart enough to know that you don't bring a load of furniture into a house you're trying to clean unless you don't really want it clean. I hope you don't have another agenda than just loving Jesus Christ.
sw
"I never mentioned anybodies name or religion. Your just spittin out venom and not even thinking !" post 117
Gee, you SURE had me fooled!
Please stop this. Your display of ignorance borders on the embarrassing.
Your generalization regarding Catholics is a lie. That tells me more about you than I ever cared to know.
Just joined up to make one post, did you? You're free to be a sniper, but don't expect honorable people to respect you or take you seriously.
There are warnings from the Good Book that warn the community of the believers on "strange interpretations" of passages, instead of reading the passage in the context of the WHOLE of Scripture's teachings.
"The apostle Peter was very concerned about this problem, and addressed it in his letters. In 2 Peter 1:20-21, he gave his first rule of Bible interpretation: 'First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the HoIy Spirit spoke from God.' By prophecy, he simply means anything that Scripture teaches (prophecy does not always mean predicting the future). For this reason, we must avoid the temptation to evaluate passages by simply asking, 'What do I think this verse means?' Christ gave the Church teachers, and he did so for a very specific reason: to assist people in how to understand Scripture and its teachings. Therefore, rather than simply looking to private interpretations, we must look to the public interpretation of Scripture, which is what the Church has. We must read Scripture in the context of what the Church has historically understood it to mean, for it was the Church that Christ established as 'the pillar and foundation of the truth' (1 Tim. 3:15)." (Taken from Starting Out as an Apologist from the Catholic Answers website.)
Was the Bible intended to be sole rule of faith? Is it the only source of Truth? NO! The ultimate source of Truth itself is God, and the Bible made NO such claim that it is the sole rule of faith (check out 1 Cor. 11:2, 2 Thess. 2:15, 2 Tim. 2:2, 2 Peter 1:20-21, 3:15-16). As I have said to others, the Word of God (the Bible) is the BEGINNING of wisdom ( and the search for Truth), not the end.
Taken as a whole, the things you've posted point to a fatal lack of research of your own. Why not look for the truth about just the remarks you made following the above statement -- and then try again.
Another suggestion I will incorporate in my letter is that the priest turn around.Looking at him is painful because I cannot but wonder if he is truly offering up our prayers to the Father or is instead blocking the organic flow of God's people to Him.This is distracting.
With respect to the priestt,it must be disconcerting to focus on the big H,Him with all those eyes focusing on the little h,him. So,as far as I'm conscerned this is a win-win situation.
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