Posted on 04/23/2002 1:36:56 AM PDT by kattracks
Edited on 05/26/2004 5:05:54 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Assuming that AmChurch is, etc., at the tender age of 76, Monsignor Clark is trying to do something about it. I am a Roman Catholic and by the historical accident of being born in the United States and living here, I find myself part of a small and well-protected group of Traditional Roman Catholics existing within AmChurch. I am not a knee-jerk protector of many of the American bishops and cardinals.
The fact is that our country has degenerated at a rapid pace over the past several decades. Ask anyone with conscious and discerning recollection of the 1950s or, even more so, the 1940s. Whatever changes may have occurred in AmChurch liturgy or in public style or whatever, the Roman Catholic Church, no less today than in the 1950s aggressively agitates against abortion and homosexuality. Its voice has weakened because of spineless clerics on pre-marital and extramarital sex of the heterosexual variety, on divorce, not approving these things but lacking the guts to scream its doctrines from the rooftops. Bad enough.
In the 1950s, the USA did not tolerate abortion anywhere. Since the late 1960s and particularly since Roe vs. Wade in 1973, we have slaughtered by surgical abortion 40+ million innocents and counting or about 15% of the number of our current population. We have probably killed another 400 million by use of the IUD and the abortifacient "birth control" pill. We don't even have to talk lavenders to reach Monsignor Clark's conclusions. What are the stats on the Latin American countries you mention? Do we care? Do we have the luxury of scholarly research during this crisis?
The question before the house is: Are we going to just sit around yakking or are we going to do something about it? I take second place to no one in resisting the idea of mindless and ill-formed activism, but when your house is burning down around your ears, you put out the fire rather than having a scholarly debate about how fire codes might be improved.
Do not, however, make the false claim that the Church does not condemn this behavior in no uncertain terms.
In 1900, the Catholic Church was opposed to divorce, homosexuality, birth control and abortion, like each and every other Christian church. In 2000, the Roman Catholic Church maintains exactly the same morality on these issues. How many other significant denominations can say the same? One bright spot has been that there are many Evangelical and Pentecostal independent churches which are asserting orthodoxy on these questions again today.
Now, would you like to take a stab at an articulate defense of your silly views or will we be left with that "Duh" to remember you by?
Tell it to the Monsignor. It appears to be his house on fire, or should I say His? And he appears to be blaming the rest of us. Are gay priests who diddle boys the result of women using pills which inhibit the production of vaginal mucous? Or does it have nothing to do with the Monsignor's more local problem?
I understand your point, but the fact is that Fr. Clark has no authority to "clean out his own house." The house belongs to his bishop, and it is the bishop's job to clean it out. It's the bishop's job to KEEP it clean, not stand by and let it be defiled. Fr. Clark is doing all he can by making his opinions known in a homily before a LARGE congregation.
It is incontrovertible that the vast majority of illegal sexual contact by Catholic priests is not with six year olds, but rather has been with males over the age of 13 and under the age of consent. The priests who have engaged in this conduct are homosexual men who take the opportunity presented by their role in the community to act out a common gay male fantasy.
You do not seriously dispute this, do you?
Sounds like a description of the Klintoon Administration!
Did the Church discipline the thieving priests, or transfer them around?
As usual in such cases, the coverup reflects a greater institutional problem than the original misdeeds.
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