Our Bishops: "Paid Servants"?

Ugh. This makes me sick to my stomach: LifeSiteNews ran an article yesterday entitled “Church Authorities Silent in the Face of Catholic Melinda Gates’ Global Contraceptive Campaign”. Be sure to read the whole thing at the link.

Melinda Gates: "practicing Catholic"?
Yeah...right...

The gist of it is that, as you probably know, Melinda Gates is throwing billions of dollars behind a scheme to provide contraceptives all over the world. Of course, the use of artificial contraception is immoral. Gates is a “self-professed ‘practicing Catholic’”, and she should know the wrongness of her belief and actions. But she turns a blind eye and a deaf ear to the Church, while even the “major media outlets have noted her open defiance of Catholic teaching on sexual morality”, according to the LSN article.

So she causes scandal, clearly. She misleads the faithful and the not-so-faithful and the unfaithful. She makes it look like it’s all fine and dandy to disagree with the Church on important and immutable teaching.

And she is aided and abetted in this by the USCCB and by individual bishops who have not uttered one single word in opposition to the Gates plan. The LSN articles says:

… despite Gates’ very public and aggressive international effort to distribute unhealthy drugs that violate Catholic sexual morality and even kill the unborn, Catholic Church officials have been virtually silent on the matter with not a public word coming from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) or even Gates’ own bishop.

LSN adds American Life League President Judie Brown says that she has contacted Archbishop J. Peter Sartain concerning this problem, as he heads the Archdiocese of Seattle where Gates apparently resides. Judie Brown says she hasn’t heard a peep in response – not even an acknowledgement of her correspondence. Neither has CNN been able to garner a comment from the USCCB.

LSN further notes that:

The only official statement to come out on the matter thus far has had to come from the Vatican. The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano criticized Gates as having an “unfounded and second-rate understanding” of Catholic teaching on contraception. Moreover, Gates was accused of “disinformation, presenting things in a false manner” to the detriment of the poor in the developing world.

Even the Vatican response however, was not issued by a Bishop, nor did it mention the moral implications of contraception, or suggest a sanction of Gates’ privileges as a Catholic.

Why this silence on such an important issue? LSN speculates:

Yes, Bishops, it is. And it's come
to bite you in the behind.

Although the USCCB has shown great signs of improvement of late on matters related to human life and family, it may have reasons for staying silent about Melinda Gates’ contraceptive campaign.

The USCCB’s international aid agency, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), receives tens of millions of dollars from the Gates Foundation itself, and repeats the organization’s claim that it is “guided by the belief that every life has equal value,” adding that “the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives.”

CRS’ relationship with the Gates Foundation creates an obvious conflict of interest. Moreover, as LifeSiteNews.com has reported recently, CRS itself has been involved in the promotion of birth control, and has donated millions of dollars to a contraceptive-distributing organization known as CARE.

These unsavory relationships would likely be embarrassing to the bishops if they were to speak forcefully and clearly against Gates’ horrendous campaign.

There ya go: thirty pieces of silver, anyone?

It’s a critical issue, I think.  Seems to me that Humanae Vitae’s clear statement of the immorality of artificial contraception was met with equally clear dissension and rebellion in the Church. We haven’t recovered from that. Since bishops wouldn’t take a firm stand (many of them being dissident themselves), dissent in the Church became acceptable, and now we have “liberal” and “progressive” Kathalicks who are pro-choice, pro-homosexual “marriage”; they’re all for “justice and peace” at the expense of Truth.

The bishops can wage the war on grounds of “religious freedom” if they want, but in the end the war is within the Church. Until the obvious division in the Church in the US is confronted – it’s a veritable elephant in the living room these days! – then nothing will change. The Obama administration is quite happy to utilize the services of its many CINO “Catholics” who continue to undermine the teaching authority of the Church.

The LSN article concludes with this thought:

The responsibility for this sad situation, however, lies not only with the bishops, but also with the laity, who often fail to encourage the hierarchy to remain firm under pressure. The Code of Canon Law of the Catholic Church, however, establishes the right and even the duty of laymen to make their minds known to their prelates. Perhaps the bishops are only in need of some support from the faithful.

I beg to differ, at least slightly. Yes, the laity must speak up. But the fact is, they do. And the corresponding fact is that many bishops simply ignore the voices that are supporting Church teaching that just happens to be politically incorrect.

Bishops need to stop politicking and start shepherding. And yes, I DO pray for our bishops...the bishop of the my own diocese in particular.

St. Boniface says this to the bishops every year in the June 4 lesson from the Office of Readings of the Liturgy of the Hours:

See the wolf. See the bishop. See the bishop run.
Run, bishop, run. NOT.
Image from this site.

Let us be neither dogs that do not bark nor silent onlookers nor paid servants who run away before the wolf. Instead let us be careful shepherds watching over Christ’s flock. Let us preach the whole of God’s plan to the powerful and to the humble, to rich and to poor, to men of every rank and age, as far as God gives us the strength, in season and out of season…

And here's a good prayer:

Prayer for All Degrees of Men in the Church

Almighty and everlasting God, by Whose Sprit the whole body of the Church is sanctified and governed; mercifully hear our humble supplications for all degrees and orders therein; that, by the gift of Thy grace, all in their several stations may faithfully serve Thee. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.