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.
I concluded that either they don't know any more or they turn a blind eye to much of it because it is lively, enthusiastic and keeps the people in the catholic church.
The church better start looking at heresies as well as pederasty or whatever you choose to label it.
Take a look at my profile page again, for a look at the "big picture." I reposted my profile page HTML for you.
The biggest reason I returned to Catholicism is the apostacy of "bible-only" Christianity on the life issues, especially contraception and abortion. If you look at my profile page you will see the history of the teaching of Christianity on contraception, and the link between contraception and abortion.
Protestant Christianity accepted contraception in 1930 (before that they were still orthodox on contraception) due to the apostacy of protestantism, including born-again bible only protestantism, on moral theology issues.
Contraception leads to abortion. This change in teaching on contraception is the very root cause of the eventual legalization of abortion.
Abortion follows the acceptance of contraceptive mentality as night follows day. In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the US Supreme Court decision that confirmed Roe v. Wade [U.S. decision to permit abortions] stated "in some critical respects, abortion is of the same character as the decision to use contraception... for two decades of economic and social developments, people have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail." As Professor Janet Smith points out, "The Supreme Court decision has made completely unnecessary, any efforts to "expose" what is really behind the attachment of the modern age to abortion. As the Supreme Court candidly states, we need abortion so that we can continue our contraceptive lifestyles."
Furthermore, because mainstream protestantism and "Bible Christianity" in general condones non-procreative contraceptive sex, they have no moral authority upon which to preach against non-procreative homosexual sex, as homosexual "Christian" theologians are pointing out even today. They're both simply non-procreative sex. Condoning when condones the other.
Thus the homosexual agenda juggernaut is also directly a result of the failure of "Bible Christianity" on the birth control issue, as well as the reluctance of the Catholic hierarchy and priesthood to promote Humanae Vitae and the Church's true teachings on sexuality in general. And if you can kill the innocent baby in the womb, why not granny in the nursing home? Euthanasia too is becoming widespread, as a result of the acceptance of abortion, which came from this change in moral teachings regarding, and acceptance of, the contraceptive mentality among Christian churches.
The widespread acceptance in American culture of the culture of death --abortion, contraception, homosexuality, euthanasia-- lies squarely on the backs of those who caved in on these life issues several decades ago.
Until Christianity turns back from this apostacy, respect for human life from conception til natural death, the hallmark of any true political conservatism, will continue to erode.
Yes, we have some sinful homosexual priests, and there shall be a large price, spiritually and financially, that the hierarchy will pay for their allowing homosexuals in the priesthood. This move followed the sexual revolution.
But the sexual revolution and legalization of abortion lies squarely on the back of bible-only Christianity apostacizing on contraception only 70 years ago.
We have our problems and our bitter legacy.
But the legacy of bible-only-personal-interpretation-of-scripture-reformation-theology is wholescale apostacy on moral theology.
Catholicism, for all the sins of its adherents, has never fallen into apostacy on moral theology issues.
All of your bible-only Christianity has fallen into apostacy on contraception, and the vast majority of protestantism has fallen into apostacy on other issues.
I'm not impressed by bible only Christianity any more, though I was temporaily deceived by it at one time.
Clearly. Neither did those os Jesus' time, even though the clear plain sense of scripture here could be neither clearer or plainer. If you were a bible Christian, you would take Jesus' Word in the way He clearly meant it:
John 6: [52] The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" [53] So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; [54] he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. [55] For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. [56] He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. [57] As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. [58] This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever." [59] This he said in the synagogue, as he taught at Caper'na-um. [60] Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" [61] But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at it, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? [62] Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending where he was before? [63] It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. [64] But there are some of you that do not believe." For Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe, and who it was that would betray him. [65] And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." [66] After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him.
The Earliest Christians understood this in the plain clear sense.
Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, a disciple of John, a Christian writing around 110 ad, less than 80 years after the death of Christ, was very clear:
CHAPTER VII.--LET US STAND ALOOF FROM SUCH HERETICS.
They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, incur death in the midst of their disputes. But it were better for them to treat it with respect, that they also might rise again. It is fitting, therefore, that ye should keep aloof from such persons, and not to speak of them either in private or in public, but to give heed to the prophets, and above all, to the Gospel, in which the passion[of Christ] has been revealed to us, and the resurrection has been fully proved. But avoid all divisions, as the beginning of evils.
CHAPTER VIII.--LET NOTHING BE DONE WITHOUT THE BISHOP.
See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery [priests] as ye would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is[administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude[of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. It is not lawful without the bishop either to baptize or to celebrate a love-feast; but whatsoever he shall approve of, that is also pleasing to God, so that everything that is done may be secure and valid.
CHAPTER IX.--HONOUR THE BISHOP.
Moreover, it is in accordance with reason that we should return to soberness[of conduct], and, while yet we have opportunity, exercise repentance towards God. It is well to reverence both God and the bishop. He who honours the bishop has been honoured by God; he who does anything without the knowledge of the bishop, does[in reality] serve the devil. Let all things, then, abound to you through grace, for ye are worthy. Ye have refreshed me in all things, and Jesus Christ[shall refresh] you. Ye have loved me when absent as well as when present. May God recompense you, for whose sake, while ye endure all things, ye shall attain unto Him.
This PROVES the early Church, even during the life of the personal disciples of the apostles, was
1)Sacramental (The Holy Eucharist IS the Body of Christ) 2)Hierarchical 3)given authority by Christ Jesus 4)CATHOLIC
Dittos. One of the clearest examples of the line that Catholicism has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried. Christianity is simple, but not simplistic. "Repent and believe the Good News. Go and Sin no more."
Simplistic gospels are false gospels. Gospels without crosses are false gospels. And...faith without works is dead. Churches where half or more of their congregation are former Catholics are churches of simplistic or false gospels, where the pastors remarry divorces people, where contraception is accepted despite the continuous teachings of Christianity, and where Luther's slogans, in one perverse form or another, is always between the lines, i.e., sin earnestly yet believe even more earnestly...the bible alone, personal interpretation of scripture...in bold defiance of the real scriptures.
The cross is simple but it is not easy.
I agree about the pro-life bit, by the way. Thanks for bringing it up. A moral vision is required of all Christians.
Good can arise from evil if we let it. Everyone should support the Catholic Church in its hour of need.
Please accept my sincere thanks for your support and encouragement. I wish we could get the light of inquiry to shine on those cases of abuse in government schools which you have catalogued so well on your homepage. God bless. And again, thank you.
Our church leader is Christ and he isn't buried. Looks like you got us on your point.
We have a long road ahead of us, but Jesus Christ will prevail and the gates of hell will not.
On a personal note I ask all of you to please pray for the Church in the Sudan and all of the Christian Sudanese scattered in northern Africa. May the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on them and on the whole world.
I am a Unitarian. The average Protestant who disagrees with the Catholic church has nothing on my faith. We've been doing it since Arius in the 3rd century AD. If I can say conservatives should set aside differences right now and lend what support we can to the Catholic Church, anybody can...
Prayer of St. Michael the Archangel
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in the day of Battle;
Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke Him, we humbly pray, and do Thou,
O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into Hell, Satan and all the other evil spirits,
who prowl through the world, seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.
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