Boy Scouts misrepresent Catholic position viz a viz gay scouts? February 19, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in Dallas Diocese, disaster, episcopate, error, family, foolishness, General Catholic, North Deanery, scandals, sexual depravity.comments closed
The potential massive cave-in by the Boy Scouts USA regarding admission of homosexual scouts and scoutmasters, in contrast to decades of determined resistance against the culture of sexual immorality, was scandalous to many, many Boy Scout supporters. Now, heightening the potential for scandal, is a report that the Boy Scouts may have misrepresented the Catholic position on the issue to other religious groups. I will say this is not a confirmed report, and I would be a bit surprised if the USCCB took a strong stand against such admission, given how they have dealt with such kid gloves with the Girl Scouts, at present a far more problematic organization.
Boy Scout leaders reportedly told both Latter-day Saint and Southern Baptist leaders that it had the support of the Catholic Church regarding its proposed policy change on gay members and leaders despite the fact that Catholic officials were still discussing the issue at the time, sources familiar with the conversations informed The Christian Post. However, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops took that a step farther and told CP that it has offered no such support. [Hmmm…….publicly, the USCCB has been noncommittal]
Before the BSA announced publicly on Jan. 28 that it was considering changing its policy on gays, BSA leaders spoke with leaders of the Catholic, LDS and Southern Baptist churches. According to a spokesperson for the USCCB, Bishop Robert Guglielmone of Charleston, the bishop liaison to the National Catholic Committee on Scouting, called Cardinal Timothy Dolan after BSA leaders spoke to him. Dolan did not express support for the change in that conversation, the source said. The USCCB had previously declined to comment about the situation.
Sources say both the Baptists and the Mormons are in contact with the Catholic church on the issue, but details on the discussions are confidential. The Mormon church has said publicly that it will not take a position until the BSA makes a final decision, but the Southern Baptists have been vocal in their opposition to the plan.
It’s possible the Boy Scouts misrepresented the USCCB’s position, but I’m a tad skeptical. Knowing what I do of the USCCB and virtually every present Church bureaucracy, it all depends on who you talk to. I entirely believe there would be high-ranking bureaucrats at the USCCB – not to mention more than a few bishops – who would endorse allowing gays in the Scouts. Maybe the Scouts talked with one of them. But, hopefully, sanity and morality will prevail and the USCCB, possibly Cardinal Dolan himself, will take a strong stand, and the USCCB and dioceses will communicate to the Scouts that they would have a very big problem were this policy regarding homosexuals to change.
I pray that happens. For if it does, it will not only, I pray, help keep the Scouts from going down the road to immorality and irrelevance, but it will also set a very convenient precedent regarding the Girl Scouts. Which organization being present in so many parishes, including in this Diocese of Dallas, is such a large source of scandal to so many faithful Catholics. Every year, some money from the cute little girls selling cookies goes up to the radical feminist ogres at the national and international Girl Scouts, where they spend a good chunk of that on activities and organizations antithetical to the Faith. Sometimes it doesn’t even have to go that far – numerous Girl Scout regional councils, like Central Texas, fund Planned Barrenhood, and almost all Girl Scout groups use immoral material to indoctrinate adolescent girls into the promiscuous lifestyle. I pray the Boy Scouts don’t follow that sad trajectory.
I know, I’m the eternal optimist.
Admin post February 19, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in Admin.comments closed
Hopefully this will fix the format problems.
Kapla! Worked! Joan Carroll Oates put a hex on this blog! A pox on her!
Reminder: Ember Days start tomorrow February 19, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, General Catholic, Holy suffering, Interior Life, Lent, Liturgy, sanctity, Tradition, Virtue.comments closed
The Lenten Ember Days start tomorrow. Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of this week are days of fasting (having one full meal and a snack. Older sources say the snack should be less than 8oz of solid food) and abstinence or partial abstinence (I guess you can have 1 meal with meat, depends on who you ask).
This is a penitential season! Penitence means sacrifice! Get your fish on! Or lentils! Lentils are good! I like beans shaped like little kidneys! No, I don’t, I hate them! Whatever! Offer it up!
Italian Cardinal tells Mahony to stay home February 19, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in asshatery, awesomeness, Basics, episcopate, error, foolishness, General Catholic, sadness, scandals, sickness, Society.comments closed
Will we see a near-suicidal blog post from Mahony in the near future? The horror!
A prominent Italian cardinal has suggested that Cardinal Roger Mahony, the retired Archbishop of Los Angeles, should voluntarily relinquish his right to participate in the election of the next Pope.
Although he has been barred from representing the Los Angeles archdiocese in public affairs because of his involvement in the sex-abuse scandal, Cardinal Mahony remains an eligible cardinal-elector. “This is a troubling situation,” Cardinal Velasio De Paolis told the Italian daily La Repubblica.
Cardinal De Paolis said that Cardinal Mahony might be “advised not to take part,” but has the right to do so. He suggested friendly persuasion, but concluded that “it will be up to his conscience to decide.” [My, my, have the impenetrable walls of collegiality been breached?]
The problem with Mahony, is that he steadfastly refuses to acknowledge he did anything wrong, or anything but the most innocent of mistakes.
But this man created a scandal of gi-normous proportions. There is simply no way he can be viewed the same as he was before all this latest broke – and he wasn’t seen very positively before that. Actions have consequences. That is liberal anti-shibolleth #2. after “Thou Shalt Never Have to Feel Bad.” They hate that. Good intentions should be enough to get one off scot-free. Within the Church, having good intentions can serve as a mitigating factor in culpability for sin, but when the sins are so very many and so very dark and destructive……
I do hope he stays home. Is it OK to pray that?
Revealing statements from Pope Paul VI on the TLM February 19, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, Dallas Diocese, episcopate, error, General Catholic, Holy suffering, Latin Mass, Liturgy, Papa, persecution, sadness, scandals, self-serving, Society.comments closed
I’ll have to admit, I was pretty stunned when I read this quote below, extracted from Michael Davies Pope Paul’s New Mass. What is quoted below is from a General Audience Pope Paul VI gave on March 17, 1965 – before the fourth and final session of Vatican II, but after the approval of Sacrosanctum Concilium, the document that authorized the “reform” of of the Liturgy. At the beginning of the audience, Pope Paul VI relates two general reactions to the changes already occurring to the Mass. His comments are first directed towards those who reacted to the changes with some trepidation or concern. I’ll pick up there, just after he’s described those concerns in general terms. He then switches track to his analysis of those holding concerns, and what I think are some pretty amazing statements from a Pope – any Pope – regarding the concerns of the faithful and the still extant form of the Mass (my comments and emphasis):
We won’t offer a criticism of these observations [the concerns raised by people with regard to the changes already occurring to the Mass of the 1962 Missal, years before the Novus Ordo], because We would have to point [after saying he won’t offer a criticism, Pope Paul VI then turns around and does just that. And boy howdy does he] out how they reveal very little penetration into the meaning of the religious rites and give evidence not of true devotion and a true sense of the meaning and value of Holy Mass, but rather a certain spiritual laziness that isn’t personal effort on understanding and participating in order to better comprehend and carry out the most sacred of religious acts, in which we are invited, and indeed obliged, to join. [Wow. The antipathy Paul VI had for the Mass as it then existed is palpable, no?]
We will just repeat what is being said over and over again these days by all priests who are pastors of souls and by all the good teachers of religion [are the bad teachers the ones who might have concerns over the changes?]. First, it is inevitable that there be a certain amount of confusion and annoyance in the beginning. It is in the very nature of a reform of age-old religious customs that have been piously observed, a reform that is practical -not to mention spiritual – that it should produce a little agitation that will not always be pleasant. But, secondly, a little bit of explanation, a little bit of preparation, a little bit of careful help, will quickly remove the uncertainties and soon produce a feeling and a taste for the new order. For, thirdly, you mustn’t believe that after a while people are going to go back to being quiet and devout, or lazy, as they were before.
No, the new order will have ot be something different; and it will have to rpevent and strike at the passivity of the faithful present at Holy Mass. Before, it was enough to attend; now, it is necessary to participate. Before, presence was enough; now, attention and action are demanded. BEfore, a person could doze and perhaps even chat, but no longer; now, he has to listen and pray. [I find this last sentence to be totally opposite the reality of my experience, and since experience is everything, that should be a trump card, right?]
…..The assembly is becoming alive and active. Being present means allowing the soul to enter into activity in the form of attention, response, singing, action……..[That has played out in all manner of abuses as the laity play at being priest, and the bored, rote responses of those participating.]
—————————-End Quote——————————-
I could go on. But as the audience continued, and were joined by many other such pronouncements by Pope Paul VI, it is clear that the more radical ideas for re-shaping the Mass – and intentionally denigrating the previous 1962 Missal Mass in order to “sell” the reform – came from the very highest levels of the Church. There was a conscious, deliberate, determined effort to convince the faithful that what had been before was not only deficient, but even damnable, and that it must be replaced at virtually any cost. Later in the audience, Paul VI espouses the idea of Mass facing the people, even though that “reform” was nowhere to be found in the Council. There were many others, as well, that he advocated, that were nowhere to be found in the Council. It is rather depressing to read Paul VI’s hopes for his new Mass, when compared with the reality which has come to be. He saw the Mass as the engine of his
“new springtime.” It’s been a long, cold, dead spring.
One final note. When he was still serving as Vatican Secretary of State under Pope Pius XII, then Cardinal Archbishop Montini described the Mass – the then current Latin Mass – as moribund, and the Church as asleep, or possibly even dead. That is from Vatican Council II: A History Never Written by Roberto de Mattei p. 20.
I found Pope Paul’s rather callous dismissal of the concerns raised about the ongoing changes to the Mass by very faithful, serious people, to be most amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever read such dismissive statements from a modern Pope.
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