Lewis says the FBI is working in conjunction with the Moore Police Department, especially when it comes to the religious aspect of the case.
Stay close to Our Lady at the foot of the Cross! September 30, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, catachesis, General Catholic, Glory, Grace, Holy suffering, Interior Life, Latin Mass, Our Lady, Tradition, true leadership, Virtue.comments closed
In these times of trial, as the priest says below, deeper and deeper into the passion of the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church, we must stay close to Our Lady. Only those who stay close to Our Lady will be saved. In these times of so much suffering and confusion, where else will Our Lady be found but at the foot of the Cross? Wherever She may be, cling to Our Lady, as Saint Alphonsus, Saint Thomas Aquinas, and Saint Francis de Sales and many others have said, strong devotion to Our Lady is an moral necessity for salvation. And if that be true, how can many outside literal, visible communion with the Church be saved?
Our Blessed Lady, Saint Alphonsus, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Francis de Sales, have mercy on us. Pray for us and for our Holy Mother the Church.
Pope Leo speaks to the Extraordinary Synod on Marriage and the Family, Mark II September 30, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in abdication of duty, Basics, disaster, error, foolishness, General Catholic, manhood, Papa, scandals, secularism, self-serving, sexual depravity, Society.comments closed
Great minds think alike? I just posted a little excerpt from Pope Leo XIII, whose comments are as relevant to the upcoming Synod as any I’ve seen from any prelate in the Church in the past 2 years. Lo and behold, I stroll over to FideCogitActio, and I find he’s also posted from a different encyclical by Pope Leo material which is also highly relevant to doctrinal issues being forced in the Church today. It does not redound to my charity, but I cannot help thinking that this sudden “crisis” regarding adultery, re-marriage, divorce, non-annulment, and all the rest, matters which have been addressed repeatedly in the past 50 years at the highest level, and which are the result of failures to proclaim many truths believed by the Church, is simply the work of a narrow and self-interested cabal – just as it was in Pope Leo’s day. As Ecclesiasticus says, there is nothing new under the sun (emphasis in original, I and comments):
“The Church … has done nothing with greater zeal and endeavour than she has displayed in guarding the integrity of the faith. Hence she regarded as rebels and expelled from the ranks of her children all who held beliefs on any point of doctrine different from her own. … ‘There can be nothing more dangerous than those heretics who admit nearly the whole cycle of doctrine, and yet by one word, as with a drop of poison, infect the real and simple faith taught by our Lord and handed down by Apostolic tradition’ (Auctor Tract. de Fide Orthodoxa contra Arianos). [Exactly. And the Church has suffered horrible wounds, historically, for that defense of Doctrine, because it was the defense of Divine Truth. But today, it seems fewer and fewer are concerned about things like divinely revealed Truth, and only care about getting along, palling around, cocktail soirees at 5-star resorts, endless ecumenical confabs, and all the other attractions the world holds out for those who will only turn their backs on Jesus Christ.]
“The practice of the Church has always been the same, as is shown by the unanimous teaching of the Fathers, who were wont to hold as outside Catholic communion, and alien to the Church, whoever would recede in the least degree from any point of doctrine proposed by her authoritative Magisterium. … [As I said in the previous post, this is not complex stuff. It is only (OK, primarily) since the ill-wind of aggiornamento started blowing that doctrine suddenly became so convoluted, nuanced, and difficult to comprehend. Luther, Arius, and other arch-heretics also loved nuance and shades of grey.]
“Wherefore, from the very earliest times the fathers and doctors of the Church have been accustomed to follow and, with one accord to defend this rule. Origen writes: ‘As often as the heretics allege the possession of the canonical scriptures, to which all Christians give unanimous assent, they seem to say: “Behold the word of truth is in the houses.” But we should believe them not and abandon not the primary and ecclesiastical tradition. We should believe not otherwise than has been handed down by the tradition of the Church of God’ (Vetus Interpretatio Commentariorum in Matt. n. 46).”
I could not agree more. I post this as yet another reminder that timeless truths are being called into question, or swept under the rug in the name of “pastoral” sensitivity – but is it sensitive to admit individuals in a manifest state of public mortal sin to receive the Blessed Sacrament? This question can only be answered two ways, and it all comes down to the same narrow, exclusive claims the Church has always made, because it is the Truth: that Jesus Christ is God Incarnate, that He revealed how we are to live, that we will be judged according to our lives, and that we will face an eternity of either Heaven or hell. I simply cannot comprehend how anyone can doubt, call into question, or seek to evade any of the Truths always held by the Church unless they reject one of those four core truths listed above. And I think anyone who is a thinking, praying Catholic knows that the excuses peddled for shucking Doctrine for the sake of pastoral expediency are just that, excuses, and they will not result in any great flood of souls into the Church, but will only result in more falling away, less respect for the Church and Her beliefs, less of that cherished “relevancy,” and more and more ruin.
Maybe this is getting tiresome. I don’t say the above just to complain, but in the fervent hope that someone, somewhere is listening. I know my many good readers listen, but, we laity don’t have a great deal of say. And I feel it necessary to counter all the error emanating from some very high places. I have heard it said, that it takes 15 words to utter some heresy, and 15,000 words to refute it. Well, there you go.
The core point is, there is a religion being pushed that is not that which was held by great popes like Leo XIII, and Blessed Pius IX, and Saint Pius X, and Gregory XVI, and so many others. I will not shut my big trap or pounding fingers until that false, erroneous religion is defeated.
Pope Leo XIII speaks to the Synod…… September 30, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in abdication of duty, awesomeness, Basics, episcopate, error, foolishness, General Catholic, Papa, scandals, secularism, self-serving, sexual depravity, Society, the return.comments closed
……and, quite possibly, the current Bishop of Rome. Pope Leo XIII wrote in his 1899 encyclical to the American episcopate, Testem Benevolentiae, denouncing the heresy of Americanism, the following bit below. Reading it again last night, I was struck by how much the “new problems” afflicting the Church, of huge swaths of the world being lost in sin and demands to contradict Doctrine in practice if not directly in order to somehow “excuse” the inexcusable, are not new at all. They are in fact the same old temptations the Church has always faced to please men and not God. Pope Leo was countering a grave problem he saw in the late 19th century US episcopate, that of indifference and a tendency to reduce the Church to an inoffensive worldly do-good society. Unfortunately, Pope Leo’s denunciation of widespread problems in the US hierarchy were ignored then and more or less openly repudiated later on, so that by the mid-20th century many bishops in the US were proclaiming their indifferentist beliefs and tacit rejection of rather large swaths of Doctrine.
Fast forward 115 years from when it was written, I think we can plainly see that the warnings were not heeded, the errors not addressed, and now the errors, even the openly promoted heresy, has spread like a cancer to include vast swaths of timeless, constant Church belief, up to an including solemnly defined Dogmas. But I am poor and ineloquent, it is far better to let Pope Leo speak for himself (I add emphasis and comments):
…..For they [the Americanists, still very much with us today] contend that it is opportune, in order to work in a more attractive way upon the wills of those who are not in accord with us, to pass over certain heads of doctrines, as if of lesser moment, or to so soften them that they may not have the same meaning which the Church has invariably held. Now, Beloved Son, [This encyclical was addressed quite specifically, and pointedly, at Cardinal Gibbons, who, whatever his merits, had pushed the idea of national conferences and episcopal agitation for social concerns] few words are needed to show how reprehensible is the plan that is thus conceived, if we but consider the character and origin of the Doctrine which the Church hands down. On that point the Vatican Council says: “The doctrine of faith which God has revealed is not proposed like a theory of philosophy which is to be elaborated by the human understanding, but as a divine deposit delivered to the Spouse of Christ to be faithfully guarded and infallibly declared [It is precisely this sense that is apparently very nearly extinct in the entire, worldwide episcopate today]………That sense of the sacred dogmas is to be faithfully kept which Holy Mother Church has once declared, and is not to be departed from under the specious pretext of a more profound understanding” (Constitution of Catholic Faith, C. IV). [That is, later “understandings” of dogmas cannot be contradicted by later “explanations” or even ‘pastoral applications.” REALLY, THIS STUFF IS NOT VERY HARD!]
……Far be it, then, for any one to diminish or for any reason whatever to pass over anything of this divinely delivered doctrine; whosoever would do so, would rather wish to alienate Catholics from the Church than to bring over to the Church those who dissent from it. [And is this not precisely what has happened in the past 50 years, as millions of spiritually starved Catholics have fallen away, exhausted from a diet of progressive pablum?] Let them return; indeed, nothing is nearer to Our heart; let all those who are wandering far from the sheepfold of Christ return; but let it not be BY any road other than that which Christ has pointed out.
———–End Quote———–
We have sadly had a chance to see, lo these past several decades, just how that kind of softer, “more attractive” presentation of “difficult” Doctrine works out. Most of the time, it is simply dealt with as mokusatsu, killed with silence, if not relativized into meaningless, innocuous nothingness. That’s been the case with contraception and fornication, and looks to be spreading to include fake marriage, divorce, blasphemy of the Blessed Sacrament, etc., etc. “Oh, it’s too hard to talk about X” our bishops living in multi-million dollar mansions say. “Oh, we will turn people away from the Church,” say the men who have overseen the greatest collapse in Church attendance, vocation rates, donations, you name it in recorded history. What an utter collapse in authority.
It would be unbelievable if we were not living through it. Catholic bishops being the prime agents of the destruction of Dogma. For the vast majority of the history of the Church, such would have been unthinkable, a few very notable exceptions aside.
On a lighthearted side note, I cannot tell how great is the temptation I feel to write “Pope Saint Leo XIII.” I know he hasn’t even a cause, but I have long felt this great pontiff has been ignored and overlooked to our collective shame. I do very much love and admire this pontiff. I am really enjoying his biography.
More horrendous heresy from disgraced bishop Conry September 30, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in abdication of duty, asshatery, Basics, disaster, episcopate, error, foolishness, General Catholic, paganism, scandals, secularism, self-serving, sickness, the return.comments closed
Via commenter Richard M (thanks), Joseph Shaw, Chairman of the Latin Mass Society has some highly toxic comments from the now disgraced and resigned Bishop Conry of Arundel and Brighton in England. A couple of things: when one embraces one heresy, many others usually follow. The Faith is an intricate web, with Dogmas feeding into each other and propagating out into numerous directions, if you will. So a denial of one “small” Dogma will inexorably lead to the denial of others. Secondly, I will reiterate the statements I’ve read from Aquinas, Liguori, and other great Doctors: private sin always drives public heresy. It was true with Luther, with Henry VIII, with Pelagius, and it’s true with the shameful former bishop Conry. These comments were given in an interview with the conservativish Catholic Herald in 2008. You can see how the personal sins were already leading Conry to embrace all manner of highly destructive errors, especially those regarding the 6th and 9th Commandments:
On Contraception
But is the teaching itself wrong? “It could be. It’s not an infallible teaching. Clearly the basic Creed formula, what the Church teaches about the sacraments is infallible but there’s only been one strictly infallible statement.” [What? “There’s only been one strictly infallible statement?” Ever? Or with regard to contraception? Isn’t one enough?!? And I would say the vast majority of orthodox theologians would posit that the Church’s constant belief and teaching on contraception as always and everywhere intrinsically sinful has risen to the level of an infallible Dogma. Witness the incredibly reductive definition of “infallibility,” one put forth by the highly dangerous, destructive, and erroneous Dr. Rick Gaillardetz, which says anything not proclaimed ex-cathedra is not infallible. Sure makes it convenient to radically redefine the Faith according to one’s preferred sins, doesn’t it?!?]So in a sense it’s a matter of opinion? “Well, it’s… It is.” [Said the fornicating bishop]On talking to young people
“You can’t talk to young people about salvation. What’s salvation? What does salvation mean? My eternal soul? You can only talk to young people in young people’s language, really. And if you’re going to talk to them about salvation, the first thing they will understand is saving the planet.” [Another conceit of the leftist illiberal cabal dominating the episcopate: people are stupid compared to them (especially anyone who disagrees with them). Thus, who can understand concepts taught from the inception of the Church, concepts which literally sold the Faith to billions, converted a huge Empire, and built Western Civilization? Far from a simple Faith that can be understood by all, this is a faith that requires PhD’s in theology from elite leftist schools and exists in such subtle shades of nuance “little people” can’t possibly understand! Well, “bishop,” my 7 year old daughter understands two things: people are small and weak, and not nearly so powerful and world-destroying as leftists like to pretend, and she will be judged when she dies, to enter either Heaven or hell for all eternity. In fact, “young people,” whatever that means, often have a purer faith, and a more clear-cut understanding of things like salvation, than adults with our pretensions of knowledge and baggage cars full of sin. We like to twist things to our advantage, don’t we, Conry? But children most often do not.]
And the saddest thing of all, on confession
Is it a good idea to go to Confession regularly? “No, because my own experience when we had Confession every day at St Chad’s Cathedral in Birmingham was that regular penitents came back with exactly the same words week after week. So there you would say, actually, there is no conversion taking place.” [This man is not of the Catholic Faith. His entire sensibility is alien and even hostile. It is a great blessing, in reality, he was caught out for the impostor he has always been. How many others like him?]
You should really go read the entire post by Shaw, if you already haven’t. He explores how bishops leading sinful lives can be manipulated, or manipulate themselves, into embrace of heresy. Blackmail, self-justification, guilt……this is the witches brew which has helped produce the great sexular pagan heresy in the Church, as so many ostensible leaders have fallen into lives of sin and then tried to justify that sin by foisting heresy on the Church. I do not think we can underestimate just how widespread this phenomenon has been and continues to be.
Lord, have mercy on Your Church. Please send us the leaders we need, and not those we so deserve.
Jihad comes to Oklahoma September 29, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in Christendom, disaster, Ecumenism, error, foolishness, General Catholic, horror, martyrdom, paganism, persecution, rank stupidity, sadness, scandals, secularism, self-serving, sickness, Society, Spiritual Warfare, unadulterated evil.comments closed
Is there any coincidence, that mere days after a satanic black mass was held in Oklahoma City, a woman – a complete stranger – was beheaded in yet another case of “sudden jihad syndrome” in nearby Moore? I think we would be wise not to discount the possible connection:
Police are charging a man accused of beheading a woman at Vaughan Foods in Moore, Okla.
The Moore Police Department says charges filed against Alton Alexander Nolen will include first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon.
Law enforcement will officially file the paperwork in the District Attorney’s office Monday.
Alton Nolen is also accused of stabbing another woman before being shot himself by an Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office reserve deputy, Mark Vaughan, who is also the company CEO.
Nolen, a recent convert to Islam, allegedly attacked a woman Thursday at a Vaughan Foods processing plant, soon after he learned he’d lost his job there.
Police said he walked into the front office and attacked one of the first people he encountered, Colleen Hufford, 54.
He severed her head with a knife and then attacked 43-year-old Traci Johnson.
Johnson has been released from the hospital after being treated for numerous wounds.
Nolen, 30, was interviewed by investigators on Friday. Police have not revealed what he said.
The FBI said there are no indications linking Thursday’s attack to terrorism……… [Of course not! Beheading random people is just your normal, everyday murder! There isn’t a prominent muslim group in the world trying to terrorize a vast region into submission using beheadings and similar terror tactics, including against children!]
……..The FBI is now looking into Nolen’s background after his former co-workers said he tried to convert them to Islam after converting to the religion himself.
No, it’s not. The FBI is involved to try to hush-up and intimidate all involved to drop any notion that this man’s religious belief had anything to do with the crime. Even though his Facebook was pasted with tributes to jihadis, he had very vocally converted to islam in prison, and he had been proselytizing his co-workers for some time, and to such a degree that he had to be fired. But nothing to see here, move along!
I tell you, our government has rapidly devolved into a situation where coverups and constant lies are the standard operating procedure, all at the service of the agenda of the entrenched elites. By that, I do not just mean the present administration, but most of the bureaucracy from the local to the federal level, which seems to have gone whole hog over the past 10-15 years into being little more than taxpayer-funded agents of leftism.
This is a joke.
Regarding the mosque where Nolen was apparently radicalized, or further radicalized, no, nothing to see here:, yet again
went to the same mosque the Oklahoma Muslim who beheaded his co-worker today. I live ten minutes away!
The Imam was Imad Enchassi the last I heard. He was a friend of mine. He is a Lebanese-born Sunni who hates Israel. He once gave a sermon that the Israelis were trying to collapse al-Aqsa mosque by digging tunnels underneath it. They have no issue with Palestinian suicide bombings because, as it was explained to me, that is the only weapon the Palestinians have.
They sold Milestones in the book shop while I was there, which as you know calls for replacing all non-Islamic governments with Islamic ones. I remember listening to a tape a friend of mine, Yahya Graff, another white convert to Islam, had that prayed for the destruction of Israel and America.
The imam when I first converted, Suhaib Webb, is hailed as a moderate by liberals in the United States but he was the one that explicitly told me that according to Islam, three choices are to be given to non-Muslims: convert, pay the jizyah tax and live under Islamic rule, or jihad.
I’m sure that’s just your average run of the mill radicalism for Saudi- and Emirate-funded mosques. So how common is this?
In a bizarre coincidence, a fired Oklahoma City nursing home employee was arrested Friday after a co-worker reported he threatened to cut her head off.
Jacob Mugambi Muriithi, 30, is being held in the Oklahoma County jail on a terrorism complaint. His bail is set at $1 million…….
……..Muriithi was identified as a native of Kenya who is living in Oklahoma City. He worked at Bellevue Nursing Home in northwest Oklahoma City, police reported………
……She said Muriithi identified himself as a Muslim and said he “represented ISIS and that ISIS kills Christians,” the detective told a judge in the affidavit. The two had not worked together before…….
…….The FBI said Friday about the tragedy in Moore that there is no current indication of any additional threat to residents of Oklahoma related to that incident. [Well, that statement could be true, if you steadfastly refuse to recognize reality. Once again, it’s all about perception and perceived threats to the leftist agenda, so nothing to see here. The more these events are so obviously related to the false religion of islam, the more the relation has to be denied.]
Our government has become an utter joke. There are banana republics looking down on us now. I guess this is what comes from having a muslim president.
Everything is upside down. Having babies is bad (global warming), but sodomy good. Humility means ostentatious displays of false simplicity. Marriage is for sodomites, while heterosexuals don’t even bother anymore. Thus, the world, absent the saving balm of Jesus Christ and His Church. It is Kafka-esque madness.
On the upside, martyrdom atones enormously for sin, so we’ve got that going for us.
Over half of Canadian religious over 80! September 29, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, disaster, Ecumenism, episcopate, error, foolishness, General Catholic, horror, religious, sadness, scandals, secularism, self-serving.comments closed
Reader GM sent me this link, a general waste-of-time product of a bishop’s conference, in this case, Canadian, but with one not so golden nugget:
In the afternoon, the Most Reverend John Corriveau, O.F.M. Cap., Bishop of Nelson, B.C., led a panel discussion on the challenges facing consecrated life today. Father George Smith, C.S.B., General Superior of the Basilian Fathers and Vice President of the Canadian Religious Conference (CRC), was invited to present an overview of the current situation of religious life in Canada. In 2013, there were over 17,000 religious men and women in Canada. Fifty percent were over 80 years old and only one percent under 40.
I guess there are not so many young and faithful religious orders in Canada as in the US? Then again, the Conference of Canadia has always been several steps ahead of even the USCCB in dogmatic, lockstep leftism. So, it is little surprise they have tolerated few relatively orthodox religious orders.
In a mostly unrelated note, I was at a conference taught by a local traditional priest wherein he remarked that Seder meals, Jewish meals that precede Passover, have been co-opted by a good number of Novus Ordo Catholics. The priest stressed his opinion that this aping of Jewish practice is due both to the starvation so many Catholics feel for things liturgical and significant, being accustomed to a thin diet of watered down post-conciliar gruel, and to a tendency to return to the old temptation of Judaizing.
The Judaizers were those early Catholics, all converts from Judaism, who thought the New Covenant demanded all the old sacrifices of the Old Covenant, especially male circumcision. Also demanded were Jewish dietary restrictions and some other things of various levels of import. Since most converts at this time were adults, circumcision was both very painful and very dangerous. The dietary restrictions were annoying to some, difficult to others. The Judaizers fomented the first crisis in the Church, necessitating the First Ecumenical Council at Jerusalem, probably around AD 65 or so. This is the famous encounter when Saint Paul, not the Pope and not even a bishop, challenged and corrected the first Pope, Saint Peter, to his face, over Peter’s duplicity in sometimes supporting the Judaizers, and sometimes not (yes, I know the specific issue was about eating with them, but there were much larger implications). It was also against the Judaizers that Saint Paul wrote the Letter to the Galatians, warning them to reject “the Law,” meaning the Old Mosaic Law, and to expect salvation only through Grace (and, by necessity, works done in cooperation with Grace). This statement has of course been twisted by protestants to their own destruction, to mean not what Saint Paul said (don’t listen to the Judaizers dragging you back to the Old Covenant), but some made-up notion that works (of the law!) mean nothing, and only Grace avails. That one bit of Scripture, taken radically out of context and standing in total isolation, as usual, forms the essential basis of almost all of evangelical protestantism in the US and now, around the world. And it could not be more wrong. But I digress……..
Is it not interesting how the errors come around, though? Saint Paul writes a letter against one heresy, which is then taken up, nearly 2000 years later, by others, to justify their new heresy! Too bad Saint Paul could not live to be 3000 years old, but that would not be fair to him, and there would still be some heretic in the year 3001 who would take his words and twist them to his own destruction.
That is why we need our glorious mother, the Church, to provide understanding on the meaning of many difficult passages of Sacred Scripture. But always remember, contra protestants, our Church is older than Scripture, and holds the divine means to decipher, and proclaim, the Truth Christ has revealed.
If only our leaders would do so in good conscience. But I am a sinner, and not fit to judge.
Meh, sometimes I just can’t help myself.
Our Brave New World…… September 29, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, disaster, error, foolishness, General Catholic, history, horror, paganism, reading, secularism, sickness, Society.comments closed
…….predicted nearly 100 years ago:
I have noted with increasing discomfort for a few years now, the growing similarities between our present culture and that prognosticated by Huxley back in the 1920s. Huxley believed that the ultimate in totalitarianism would not come with an iron boot, but a velvet glove. Through an intentional godlessness, elevation of the material over all else, and people’s constant hunger for pleasure, pleasure, pleasure. While there was some subtle and even overt totalitarianism in Huxley’s Brave New World, it was nothing like Orwell’s “boot, smashing a human face, forever.” Most of all, it was a perfect prediction of how perverse and evil society can and by necessity will become, absent Faith in God. Which is odd, because Huxley was a secular atheist. I guess that just goes to show that even those who see the perfect evil of their own ideology, cannot overcome their attachment to it. Grace alone suffiices, I guess.
If you’ve never read Brave New World, now might not be a bad time. I warn you, though, parts of the book – never fully shown in any of the lousy movies made – are very difficult to stand.
Thanks to reader D for the timely reminder.
Bishops who promote error, cave to culture just covering their own sins? September 29, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in abdication of duty, asshatery, disaster, episcopate, error, foolishness, General Catholic, horror, persecution, scandals, secularism, self-serving, sickness, Society, the return.comments closed
That is the message conveyed by two very important, if incredibly disquieting, recent posts on Rorate. The posts consider the forced resignation of British bishop Kieran Conry for having carried on, it is reported, multiple affairs with women, some of them married, over the past several years. While he says such incidents “only” started six years ago, I judge that highly unlikely – he has probably never taken his vow of celibacy seriously in the slightest. And what is worse, as a lawsuit being filed in England seeks to prove, the hierarchy in England and probably all the way to Rome well knew this man was not only conducting multiple affairs, but often with women already married! How many marriages has he helped destroy? How many children’s lives have been irrevocably ruined by his out of control libido and those of the slatterns he’s dallied with? And this is a supposed successor to the Apostles? How many like him are there?
As Rorate notes below, when bishops refuse to teach the Truth, or, even more disturbingly, suddenly turn tail in the face of the culture and become a public opponent of Church Doctrine, as we have seen some very highly placed bishops do, of late, it almost certainly means something very, very bad:
This collapse of Bishops’ moral position, their personal moral position, is a tumor destroying the credibility of the Church from the inside and from all sides. When a bishop (or priest) who certainly knows better says something bizarre and completely outside Catholic Tradition, or begins to waver when faced with secularism, Catholic faithful should increasingly ask themselves the questions:
Is the bishop speaking for himself, or is he speaking on behalf of those blackmailing him? Is there truly such thing as a “moderate” bishop, or is he being “moderated” by the enemies of the Church out of fear that his duplicitous behavior will be revealed?
Rorate notes the following comments by this disgraced former bishop:
‘It has been difficult keeping the secret,’ he told the Mail. ‘In some respects I feel very calm. It is liberating. It is a relief. I have been very careful not to make sexual morality a priority [in his sermons]. I don’t think it got in the way of my job, I don’t think people would say I have been a bad bishop. But I can’t defend myself. I did wrong. Full stop.’
Rorate has commentary here, but I’ll interject my own. What self-serving tripe. What unmitigated gall. He has been caught performing acts of wanton immorality, of conducting himself in a completely shameful manner (even if most people, in these shameful days, do the same), and his only concern is his own relief? And then he trumpets the fact that he has helped undermine Catholic Doctrine precisely because of his utter unfaithfulness and seeming happiness to continue in sin? Has he sworn off any of these “relationships” (I doubt they rise even to that level)? Has he evidenced true remorse for the scandal he has caused not just the faithful of Arundel and Brighton, but the entire Church? Not to my knowledge. This man evidences absolute no sorrow over the scandal he has caused and the sins he has committed, he is sorry because he has been caught. And, sir, by definition, you are not just a bad bishop, you are a demoniacal one.
Picking up with Rorate again:
When, regarding any point of doctrine, but in particular sexual morality and marriage, you see a bishop who is speaking less about it, or less often, or is distorting it, or hiding or criticizing those points he dislikes, or calling it old-fashioned, or dismissing its relevance, or who suddenly turns away from his formerly courageous modus operandi when feeling the pressure of secular activists, watch out. [As in the case of Cardinal Dolan, perhaps? Or Bishop Tobin? Or Bishop Armand Ochoa? Or Bishop Robert Lynch? I could go on for quite some time]This means a lot.A lot.IT MEANS A LOT.
……..This sad episode is relevant in itself, but also as a powerful symbol of a global problem — a grave warning to all the Catholic faithful, a fundamental breach of trust in the very core of the transmission of the Truth that is the very reason for the Apostolic Succession, a wound that can hardly be repaired afterwards. How many souls are thus lost?
Well, if you are one of many priests and bishops who believe steadfastly, contrary to all evidence from Scripture and Tradition, that All Dogs Go To Heaven, then you probably don’t much believe in Dogmas like the reality that many souls are damned to hell for all eternity. It certainly makes being both an apostate and a manifest grave sinner much more convenient. And note the tight relationship between the two: as Saint Thomas Aquinas and several other great Saints have said, heresy is almost always rooted in grave personal sin. The heresy comes about to cover up for the soul’s inability to eschew grave sin, especially sins against the 6th and 9th Commandments.
But I fear Rorate is right – when bishops (or priests) suddenly start acting screwy, if they suddenly equivocate where they didn’t before, or are one of the many who simply refuse to proclaim the full Truth, especially regarding those sins which have come to be commonplace among the great majority of the faithful, WATCH OUT! There might be some hideous scandal coming down the road, sooner rather than later. And I have the understanding that there might be many more revelations of such scandals in the next few months or years.
This matter brings to mind a questions regarding that most toilsome of terms: “full communion.” As in, are the individuals in the hierarchy who have been aware of his numerous infidelities for years in “full communion?” What about all those bishops who preach error, ore refuse to teach difficult truths? Is “full communion” so reductive as to mean nothing more than not doing something the Pope tells you to not to do, or vice versa? Everything else is up for discussion? This is not to argue the point of view of the SSPX, this is a question of vital relevance for every Catholic striving to be faithful.
A final thought: Yes, former Bishop Conry is very deserving of prayers. As are those women who knowingly (or, doubtfully, unknowingly) aided in the corruption of a priest/bishop. And we must always bear in mind our own sins, which, for some of us, might even exceed those of Bishop Conry. But at the same time, we are discussing Doctrine, duty, and the manifest failure of the vast majority of bishops in these key elements of their apostolates. This is a matter that goes beyond mere personal failings or judging individual sin* and extends to the core reasons for the crisis in the Church. I shan’t apologize for taking a hard line on that.
Speaking of, another hint from “Boney” (what’s his name?!? Help me out!), who lives in this afflicted Diocese (we, in Dallas, know how you feel), that there have been indicators for some time that things were far from right with former bishop Conry:
Whenever I met him he was kind, warm, interested in us and courteous, though I was a bit taken aback when he asked if we “really believed all that stuff” about Marian apparitions and sites of Marian pilgrimage. I got the impression he did not understand people’s devotion to Our Lady and the Saints, nor those who genuflected towards the Tabernacle and knelt for Holy Communion.
My emphasis. The great Moral Doctor Saint Alphonsus tells us that the lack of a strong devotion to the Blessed Mother is a moral, if not absolute, sign of pending damnation. Or, more accurately, he says that a great devotion to the Blessed Mother is morally, if not absolutely, necessary for salvation. And he quotes other great Saints and theologians in his defense.
So perhaps there is no great mystery in former Bishop Conry’s fall, and the whole scandal. It all has to do with the widespread lack of respect and devotion given to Our Lady, Mother of God and Mother of the Church.
Our Lady, pray for Bishop Conry, the women, all those who knew and said nothing, and for all of us poor, weak, sinful souls. Beg Your Son to have mercy on us!
* – Having said that, perhaps more judgmentalism, and more repercussions for such scandalous acts, might result in fewer people committing them? Is that not how shunning in polite society used to work, before Western Civilization morally collapsed?
Below, “Lady Conry,” chosen over another Lady (via Daily Smail):
Please pray for reader John September 26, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in Admin.comments closed
Reader John C left a comment stating that he has lost, or is going to lose, his job. This is surely a difficult time, and I can especially relate to his particular difficulties due to my own sordid history of sins against temperance. Would you, in your charity, please pray for his needs at this time? God bless you.
Those who purport to love God must not fear men September 26, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, catachesis, error, foolishness, General Catholic, Holy suffering, Interior Life, martyrdom, persecution, priests, sanctity, secularism, Society, Virtue.comments closed
Some excellent commentary from Fr. Carota. He outlines the beliefs Catholics must hold which will get us chastised – and possibly severely – by the dominant, fallen culture (emphasis in original):
Jesus warns us very clearly what will happen when we follow Him. “Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’ s sake. Be glad in that day and rejoice; for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For according to these things did their fathers to the prophets.” Luke VI: 22-23
Everyone who truly loves and fears God will be persecuted. This especially takes place when:
1) Out of love for God’s Catholic Church you criticize or point out what has happened in the Church since Vatican II. [Emperors hate being told of their nakedness]
2) When you bring up your love for the Latin Mass because of its sacredness and rubrics that protect Jesus’ Body and Blood that have been removed from the New Mass. [Don’t tell Fr. Tedeger that!]
3) When you attempt to stop women from offending God by dressing immodestly at Church and on the streets. Our Lady at Fatima said it very clearly: “Certain fashions will be introduced which will offend My Son very much.” These people will happily offend God to not offend people. [I actually took part in a discussion on this last night. The dominant view at our local Latin Mass parish is that such corrections should be left to a priest. Fr. Carota is certainly a priest, but also seems to take a more activist stand on this kind of correction. It is very hard to do. And any such correction must be done with great tenderness and charity. But is Fr. Carota’s more activist view worth consideration?]
4) Stand up for the indissolubility of the sacrament of marriage between a man and a woman.
5) Condemn homosexuality. [To my mind, the vehicle by which persecution may (will?) come.]
6) Correct those living together before sacramental marriage.
7) Speak up against the murder of pre born babies and pray at abortion mills.
8) Remind Catholics that they are forbidden to use any birth control, have an IUD inserted or have any operation that sterilizes, like a vasectomy or tubal ligation. [People surely do not like to be told of their sins against the 6th and 9th Commandments]
I have brought these subjects up many times. But I am doing it again precisely to remind us that we are in this very short life, we make sure that everything we do, say or write is only done to please God and not offend Him.
People come and go, are born and die. One day they are your best friend, and the next day they are your worst enemy. You may be very popular today and tomorrow the laugh of the town. Again Jesus says it very strongly: “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets.” Luke 6: 26.
All the prophets and saints were despised in this world by the worldly.
————-End Quote————-
I am just about out of time, but there is also a corollary to what Father points out above: if we fail in many of our duties to proclaim the Faith, we may receive many rewards, or at least lead a much more comfortable life. Has that not been the “trade,” or even the surrender, the Church has made, in order to gain cultural acceptance? Was that not the driving force behind much of the desire for “aggiornamento” and all that followed?
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