An American Catholic, Part II: Catholics in Name Only

NewsMax ^ | 4/03/2002 | Diane Alden

[SuziQ]

For all the temporal and social outreach, the Church in America has failed in the spiritual. That is the real scandal. It is NOT those of us pointing it out.

BIG TIME Orthodox RC BUMP!! We have prepared our kids for the Sacraments ourselves rather than have them be at the mercy of the feminist nun CCD Director! And we'll do the same with them for Confirmation. For the first year, our Assoc. Pastor teaches the teens and he is WONDERFUL, so Spirit filled, so the kids will do that year. But the second year is taught by the NEW feminist nun CCD Director, so we'll do that year ourselves. Then we'll take them down to their uncle's Parish in MS to be confirmed! He has a new Bishop who by all accounts is great!

[dadwags]

There is Some hope . In Nebraska, there is Bishop Bruscovitch and in Atlanta, things were bad until we got out new Bishop .
As far as Religious orders go, there is Mother Angelica and her team . Also, I regularly receive fund raisers from the Legionaires of Christ , complaining about their "Vocations Crisis" (They don't have physical facilities to handle all their applicants) , so, although things are really bad, there are some bright spots, athanks be to God .

[redhead]

"Meanwhile, orders like the Jesuits have found themselves home to significant numbers of homosexual priests, many of whom have died in recent years from the ravages of AIDS."

makes me wonder how many of the boys who were abused/raped might have been infected as a result of the assaults...so sad...

[Brian Kopp DPM]

Part of the answer? Catholic homeschooling! Take back our children's minds for Christ and His Church!

[redhead]

"But in his new book, "Crisis of Authority," Msgr. Kelly states that the big problem actually is "the refusal of most bishops to be bishops, i.e., to guard the faith, rebuke those in error, to teach with the authority of Christ and, if necessary, to cut off heretics and schismatics from the body of the Church. The real problem is not theologians or errant priests but how the American Catholic Church is being governed."

This has been my point of view all along. Lazy, compromised bishops who are more concerned with their golf swing than they are with their prayer life or what's going on in their dioceses.

"There are too many cardinals and bishops acting like warlords and not like soldiers in the Roman Catholic Church, in which they took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Those vows, I'm beginning to think, must have meant nothing to these enabling "network" bishops. I wish there was something in canon law regarding deliberate fraud in the taking of vows. I would dearly love to see these luxury-loving, debauched, crooked, amoral, criminal "bishops" out on the street with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

"The priests and bishops are scared to death that they might be considered "out of step" or too judgmental if they ended this crap. Even though Vatican II was not supposed to include this baloney, no one has the guts to stop it."

BRAVO!!!

There is SO MUCH good stuff to discuss in this article, it's hard to know where to begin. I think I'll just let it go at this for now and see what comes up later.

[choirboy]

"But in his new book, "Crisis of Authority," Msgr. Kelly states that the big problem actually is "the refusal of most bishops to be bishops, i.e., to guard the faith, rebuke those in error, to teach with the authority of Christ and, if necessary, to cut off heretics and schismatics from the body of the Church.

There's another twist to this -- the refusal of priests to become bishops.

Around 1993, I had the opportunity to have a frank one-on-one discussion with a very well connected priest. At one point in the discussion I asked him why John Paul didn't appoint better bishops.

He replied that the Pope had a very difficult time of getting priests to take on the burden of being a bishop. Over 2/3 of the the priests offered the position refused the Pope's offer according to this priest.

I have no reason to doubt this good priest.

[LarryLied]

bump for later reading (there is a lot here).

[stylin19a]

Vatican-II confused me. I've been confused ever since.

[Fred Mertz]

I'll have to try to absorb this one tomorrow. Looks interesting.

[NYer]

Good point!

[Romulus]

Mozart, Cole Porter, Aaron Copeland, and Rodgers and Hammerstein

On balance this is a sympathetic article, but why the author chooses these names as representative of the lost, lamented voices of Christian culture is a mystery to me.

[maryz]

He replied that the Pope had a very difficult time of getting priests to take on the burden of being a bishop. Over 2/3 of the the priests offered the position refused the Pope's offer according to this priest.

This rattled something in my memory (though not completely enough). Wasn't there a phrase "Nolo episcopare (sp?)," meaning "I do not want to be a bishop" that was used in the early church maybe? I don't recall the details or where I heard it, but the point was that those who want power should be disqualified from handling it. Power should be granted only to those who don't want it.

Maybe someone remembers more about this.

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Simply CINful (sorry, couldn't resist).

[Orual]

Although I have some disagreements with Alden's strange rationalizations - "I would add, I would rather have a priest who was a chaste homosexual than a heterosexual priest who was screwing around." - this is a good article.

[redhead]

"There's another twist to this -- the refusal of priests to become bishops."

Perhaps GOOD priests don't want to be sucked into the good ol' boy network they see the bishops circulating in. We have a saying around here: If you see a priest wearing French cuffs, he's bucking for a promotion. Good priests know that if they become bishops, they lose touch with their people. It really is a hard decision to make.

[grumpster-dumpster]

Very good article. I have a serious question for all Catholics...actually All Christians:
Does anyone else feel (the same way as I do) that churches have been placing too much emphasis on "Youth Ministries" over the last dozen (maybe longer) years; at the expense of "adult" ministries?

As a qualifier, let me say; It just seems that the emphasis on youth has led to churches shaping their operations and teachings away from responsibility, strength in faith, and parental accountability in favor of "celebrations" and a view of God through rose-colored-glasses (read that as: joyfulness for the sake of joyfulness and not joyfulness through the teachings of Christ).

I'm using the story of Sr. Ann as a jumping off point for this question (trying to stay on subject...LOL!):
"Sister Ann was also upset when the "gals" protested that the Knights of Columbus erected a small monument in memory of the children destroyed through abortion. The "gals" are the true believers in the "church of what's happening now."

It's to the "church of what's happening now" that my question refers.

[ELS]

Thanks for the flag, Fred. Another good commentary by Ms. Alden. Here is her previous essay:

An American Catholic at Easter – Part I

[grumpster-dumpster]

I actually went to "sspx.org" and took a look around before this reply. I won't see my way clear to follow that unauthoried branch. I think Vatican II made some great changes... But I see no difference between Catholic Bishops who choose to ignore the Vatican teachings, and those in rebellion against those teachings.