Posted on 04/17/2002 2:17:23 PM PDT by Brian Kopp DPM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 1 PM EDT, April 17, 2002
CATHOLIC WATCHDOG GROUP CALLS ON U.S. CARDINALS TO AFFIRM CHURCH TEACHING WHILE IN ROME
An international group of faithful Roman Catholics has contacted Vatican prelates and all active U.S. cardinals and asked them to publicly affirm the Church's 1961 pronouncement against admitting homosexuals or pedophiles to the priesthood.
Stephen G. Brady, the president of Roman Catholic Faithful, Inc. (RCF) issued a statement on Wednesday that was directed to 8 active U.S. cardinals as well as a number of additional American and Vatican prelates. The American cardinals include Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, Francis George of Chicago, Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., William Keeler of Baltimore, Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia, Edward Egan of New York City, Adam Maida of Detroit, and the currently embattled Bernard Law of Boston. They will be traveling to Rome next week with National Conference of Catholic Bishops president Bishop Wilton Gregory and others at the summons of the Holy Father. They will be participating in closed-door meetings with Vatican representatives to address the scandal and damage the Church in America is undergoing due to an increasing number of sexual abuse cases coming to light. A number of prelates have been accused of protecting abusive priests and moving them to other areas, where they have repeated their predatory acts with new victims. An overwhelming number of offenses have involved homosexual acts.
"As a measure of their sincerity in addressing this horrible crisis inflicting so much damage on the souls of the innocent," Brady charged, "we challenge each and every one of these princes of the Church to sign a statement agreeing they will follow the direction of a letter issued by the Sacred Congregation for Religious in Rome." Brady is asking each prelate to affirm the following declaration: "I, ________ Cardinal ________, hereby agree to follow the direction of the letter issued by the Sacred Congregation for Religious in Rome in 1961, which states: 'Those affected by the perverse inclination to homosexuality or pederasty should be excluded from religious vows and ordination'". The Church directive has never been rescinded and is still officially in force.
"If a cardinal is not willing to sign this document," Brady stated, "then there is no point in his traveling to Rome. Moreover, if he travels to Rome and doesn't sign it, I wish he'd do us a favor and just stay there."
Roman Catholic Faithful, Inc. (RCF) is a not-for-profit lay organization, with many religious members, dedicated to promoting orthodox Catholic teaching and fighting heterodoxy and corruption within the Catholic hierarchy.
ROMAN CATHOLIC FAITHFUL, INC.
P.O. Box 109
Petersburg, IL 62675
Phone 217-632-5920
Fax 217-632-7054
Web www.rcf.org
Press Release
Contact: Stephen G. Brady
Phone: (217) 632-5920
BEST NEWS I'VE HEARD ALL DAY: [Rod Dreher] Michael Rose, author of Goodbye, Good Men, the blockbuster expose of homosexuality and heresy in American seminaries, e-mails to say he just filled an order from a Polish monsignor in the Vatican, who ordered four copies and promised to do his best to get a copy into the Holy Father's hands before the pontiff meets next week with the American cardinals. You go, Monsignor! If John Paul reads only chapter four, "The Gay Subculture," he will meet the cardinals with fire blazing in his eyes. In other good news, Regnery Publishing has bought rights to Goodbye, Good Men, which is now out only in paperback, and will be rushing a hardcover edition into stores next month. Regnery's involvement means this extremely important book will get huge distribution and exposure. Posted 1:50 PM | [Link]
Truly pathetic that the laity must be the ones calling on the Cardinals to be Catholic in more than name only. If they will not affirm this, and the Vatican will not enforce this, we might as well pull up the tent stakes and go home and wait for the Trumpets to sound.
A sign of the times, Brian. The laity, in case the heirarchy haven't been looking lately (and they haven't), are virtually the only ones holding to the Magisterium these days. But the fact that the bishops and cardinals are dissembling, backpedaling, speechifying, LYING THROUGH THEIR TEETH, and generally trying to get us all not to notice the man behind the curtain tells me one thing: They have been covered up FOR at some time in the past. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to discover that more than half of these enabling bishops and cardinals were just as swishy as the "priests" they protect. I never dreamed that I would EVER have so little respect for the bishops of this country, but I know this: I would dearly love to stare one of these lying sacks of sh*t right in the eyes and see what he did about it. (The general guilty reaaction is fury!)
Amazing how FR lately has become so like the mainstream media, censoring anything that would reveal the Truth about this crisis by banishing it to the Religion Forum ghetto. I stand by my previous posts on this issue.
Be clever. Wait until the next "news" story about the scandal isposted and then post this piece "en toto" as a comment right away. That way you accomplish your goal: making sure FReepers get ALL the info - not just what big media want them to get. Keep using that tactic. It works.
No need to pull up tent stakes and wait for the trumpets. Continue to pray. Receive the sacraments God has given to us from the priests we have (good and bad). Then just go about doing good. Don't worry if things don't go your way all the time. Just remember that the Holy Spirit is with us day and night until the end of time. It's grace. Everything is grace.
Better than reaffirmation is enforcement. Can I get an Amen? (Protestant lingo)
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