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.

The Vortex: Is There a Reason to be Catholic?

Michael Voris must’ve read my post from yesterday! Just kidding…but his Vortex of the same date certainly meshes nicely with the theme I chose to discuss: just how do you convince someone that he should be Catholic?

Good question...

In yesterday’s (September 20) Vortex, Michael Voris points out, quite correctly, that the old “New Evangelization” certainly didn’t accomplish much, or there wouldn’t be a new “New Evangelization” being hyped for the Year of Faith which begins next month.

It seems like every Easter, we see photos of multitudes of new Catholics being received into the Church, and everyone makes happy claims that, see, people still want to be Catholic! The problem is, many of those new converts don’t stick, and everyone knows that. And in the meantime, a whole bunch of “Catholics” are walking out the door never to return. They become part of that ever-growing segment of the population who say, “Well, I was raised Catholic, but…”

And just why should a person be Catholic? There seems to be little understanding of that necessity! We’ve watered everything down so much, and worked so hard to be “tolerant” of every other religion under the sun, that being Catholic is just no big deal. Remember when JFK ran for president? Remember all the problems people saw with a man being president who was loyal to the Pope? What if the Pope told him what to do?!! Oh my! Catholicism was a problem then, because Catholicism was different.

Well, no worries about that anymore! American Catholic Kathlic politicians do what they want, and thumb their noses at the Pope – and the bishops – all the while claiming that their “Catholic faith” informs their politics.

And in fact, for society as a whole – I mean apart from the Obama administration’s attempts to dig the dagger deep into the heart of the Church in an attempt to kill Her for good in this country – it seems like being Catholic is no biggie: it’s just another Christian denomination, right? We all believe in the same God, right?

But being Catholic is supposed to be different – and it is, if you are truly Catholic. As Michael Voris explains in the Vortex below, there are some very concrete requirements for those who want to get to Heaven, and those requirements describe the Catholic Church. They include these:

We must eat His Body and drink His Blood. He says that EXPLICITLY in John’s Gospel, and moreover, he not only commands it, but also says those who do NOT have no life within them.

He warns that familiarity with Him – even much familiarity – is insufficient to enter the Kingdom. He says very plainly that many who associated themselves with Him in this life will be left knocking at the door and refused entrance.

And most of all, He is adamant that He established One Church and One Church alone, and has given to it in the person of Peter – the Pope – the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven with the command to feed the sheep and tend the lambs.

But we don’t want to be too harsh on those Protestant denominations, ya know. They’re gonna be pretty offended if we mention anything even remotely resembling “extra ecclesiam nulla salus” (outside the Church there is no salvation). How exclusive! How intolerant! How mean!

I think Michael Voris point is this Vortex is on the mark: if the “New Evangelization” doesn’t really consider something “new” in evangelizing the world – like making it clear that Catholicism stands alone as the One True Church – then it won’t result in new converts, and it’s unlikely to make many reverts, either.

Here’s the Vortex, with the full script below. For more Vortex posts click on the tab at the top of the page. And go here to become a premium subscriber to ChurchMilitant.TV.

Just a couple of weeks from now the Church’s Year of Faith is set to begin. Our Holy Father called for this to be a year-long effort on the part of Catholic worldwide to concentrate on the theological virtue of Faith and in so doing, deepen our own faith.

Naturally, there is a lot of talk about the New Evangelization circulating around the Year of Faith. There is a giant kick-off conference in Rome with dozens of bishops and cardinals and the like and evangelization efforts will be the central topic.

But…something seems to be a little off base with all this new evangelization, talk it seems. Not that any of it is bad, but in some kind of fuzzy sort of way, it just seems to be more of an administrative program, or reason to establish another office or department, than calling people to convert to the Faith.

And maybe that’s it. Evangelization is all about and solely about making better Catholics out of the already existing ones, but most especially about converting people to the faith…and that’s where it seems all this talk misses the point.

Has anything been prepared that REALLY challenges non-Catholics to convert to the Catholic Faith? Any documents from the bishops’ headquarters? Any editorial in the Vatican newspaper? Any videos from the shrinking pool of celebrity priests? Any direct appeals to a mass audience from Catholic radio people?

Where in the Catholic world is there a serious, day-in day-out proclamation that the Catholic Faith is the One True Faith established by Christ personally, and that all other Christian faiths are man-made knock-offs – however sincere some of their adherents might be?

Where is that?

What is the actual work of evangelizing, if not engaging and persuading and convincing others that they need to convert? That requires a serious belief in the fact that the Catholic Faith is the one which contains the fullness of truth.

If anyone involved in any New Evangelization programs doesn’t seriously believe that – we mean seriously – then they shouldn’t be doing the work. In fact, it needs to be wondered about if they should even be in the Church at all.

When WE talk with Protestants – which is quite frequently – it all comes down to this one question: do I have to be Catholic to go to Heaven?

It’s kind of an odd question when you think about it, but it is a very American question – a bottom-line, just-the-facts-ma’am, practical question. “I need to get to heaven; that’s the objective. Is the way to do it?”

And the answer is – yes. Most definitely. Our Blessed Lord said quite a few things about who would get to Heaven and how to get there.

Faith, of course…but that faith must be tangible and realized in the fabric of life. So…you must be baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. You must act rightly and perform good deeds. These are requirements, and Our Lord is quite clear that we will be judged according to our deeds.

They are not just expressions that spontaneously erupt from our Christian faith, but actual requirements – necessities done out of love for Him.

We must eat His Body and drink His Blood. He says that EXPLICITLY in John’s Gospel, and moreover, he not only commands it, but also says those who do NOT have no life within them.

He warns that familiarity with Him – even much familiarity – is insufficient to enter the Kingdom. He says very plainly that many who associated themselves with Him in this life will be left knocking at the door and refused entrance.

And most of all, He is adamant that He established One Church and One Church alone, and has given to it in the person of Peter – the Pope – the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven with the command to feed the sheep and tend the lambs.

So when a Protestant asks us the question “Do I need to be Catholic to get to Heaven?” our answer is, “Well, knowing everything that Jesus taught…EVERYTHING…not just the parts you like, but EVERYTHING…you do the math.”

With the exception of the roll of saints, no one here on earth to speak of knows who’s saved and who’s not; who has made it to heaven and who is suffering eternal damnation.

But when the Son of God establishes a Church, appoints its leaders, vests it with His own authority to forgive sins and consecrate His Body and Blood, commands adherence to its teachings and says we will be judged accordingly – we can’t speak for others, but as far we’re concerned, that seems pretty darn clear.

This is what was preached and how it was preached from day one when Peter kicked open the door on Pentecost Sunday and told his fellow Jews gathered for the feast to get on board or perish, and this is how it’s been told and preached ever since.

…E-X-C-E-P-T for the last 40 or 50 years. Now we’re so much more concerned with giving offense or hurting people’s feelings or being afraid they’ll be insulted. The last thing we want – more than informing them about the reality of Hell or the Absolute Truth of the Holy Catholic Faith – is to be intolerant.

There are two paths down which this whole New Evangelization effort can proceed: tell it like it is, or sugar coat it – lather it up with political correctness and do such a soft sell Madison Avenue packaging of the Faith that at the end of the day, you might as well have not wasted your time.

It will very curious to see which way this all unfolds. Bottom line: if people aren’t converting and reverting the Faith, then this will prove to be just one more Establishment Church program that everyone can get all excited about and write articles about in parish bulletins that will be thrown away and forgotten before the Sunday sun sets.

Be Catholic, in every sense of the word. It’s what God desires and ultimately why He chose to die on the Cross.

Some Good News About Bishops

There are a few good bishop stories floating around…and I, for one, am happy to hear all the good news I can these days.

First, have you been following the story of Archbishop John Nienstedt’s active support of traditional marriage in Minnesota? Most recently, LifeSiteNews reports that:

Archbishop John Nienstedt of the Diocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis stood on the steps of his State Capitol Tuesday and issued a call to all his fellow Minnesotans – Catholics and non-Catholics alike - to vote in favor of an amendment that would preserve the true definition of marriage.

The article also reminds us that last October, the archbishop

…directed his diocesan priests to not make any public statements of contradiction to the Church’s teaching on the defense of marriage, in particular against the archdiocesan efforts in support of the state constitutional amendment.

Too bad the archbishop can’t give the laity the same marching orders…or atleast, too bad they don’t all listen! The article also notes that

… The main group opposed to the marriage amendment has been at pains to convince believers that supporting gay ‘marriage’ jibes with their faith. Just this week Minnesotans United for All Families launched an ad, part of a multi-million dollar campaign, featuring a Republican Catholic couple, John and Kim Canny, in which the couple asks Minnesotans to vote no on the amendment.

Can you believe it?! (Yeah, I know, we should all be able to believe it, because it happens much too often.) The article accompanying the video ad says:

“The Cannys, informed by their faith and conservative values, represent many Minnesotans who have come to the conclusion they don’t want to limit the freedom to marry for committed same-sex couples,” Richard Carlbom, campaign manager for Minnesotans United for All Families, said in statement. “At the end of the day, they have concluded that there are all kinds of Minnesota families, and no one would want to be told it’s illegal to marry the person you love.”

Ugh. This is just an effort to hijack the Catholic faith. And it shows how far we have fallen and how far we have to go to re-teach adult Catholics what they should already know.

The second good bishop story is really about the removal of a “bad” bishop. This one is from Sandro Magister, with the tag:

In Slovakia, Archbishop Bezák has the support of the media. He is seen as open and modern. But Benedict XVI has removed him [f]or bad management of the assets of the diocese and for infidelity to doctrine and discipline.

Archbishop Bezák had accused his predecessor of financial mismanagement of the archdiocese, and even asked for an apostolic visitation. He got what he asked for, but not the results he wanted.

As for the apostolic visitation, this took place during the latter half of January of 2012. But instead of being against Sokol, it backfired against Bezák himself. For administrative infractions, this time his own, but also doctrinal and disciplinary violations.

…Archbishop Bezak is believed to have entrusted "positions of responsibility to unworthy priests, some of them from other dioceses, in that they are living in situations of open immorality and violation of discipline." Read: homosexuality and concubinage.

Not only that. Bezák is thought to have distinguished himself – still according to the Vatican authorities – "in blatant lack of observance of liturgical norms, in the support given to ideas contrary to Catholic doctrine consistently taught by the sacred magisterium with regard to the indissolubility of marriage, euthanasia, and the sacrament of Holy Orders, showing little respect for the Roman pontiff."

Not to mention his "public mockery of clergy in clerical dress" and "wearing inappropriate secular clothing even on official occasions like visits to parishes to impart the sacrament of Confirmation."

Magister also notes that “Vatican authorities have not made any of this public”, but apparently the information is available. At any rate, I find it a positive piece of news; at least it appears that the Holy Father is slowly but surely cleaning up some areas of the world that have been infected by bad bishop-ing.

Finally, the third good bishop story comes from the state of Washington, where Archbishop J. Peter Sartain continues to work hard for the defeat of a law redefining marriage in that state. LifeSiteNews reports:

Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle has warned, if Washington state’s marriage amendment redefining marriage passes this November, “the very foundational nature of marriage for the good and strength of society would be harmed beyond repair.”

If state voters approve the measure, it would devalue the institution of marriage. “In effect, this new law is saying that the loving, permanent and faithful union of a man and woman in marriage…are only of relative importance rather than being fundamental to the existence and well-being of society as a whole.”

Like Archbishop Nienstedt in Minnesota, Archbishop Sartain emphasizes that

…[T]he Church’s position on Referendum 74 is “not against anything, and especially not against anyone,” but “for the gift of marriage, for God’s plan for human society, for husbands and wives – for children.”

He’s got an uphill battle in the Diocese of Seattle, though; recall the blatantly disobedient clergy that reside there, as I wrote about here.

Here’s Archbishop Sartain’s video:

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Sometimes I’m surprised at what my daughter tells me of her conversations she has had with her boyfriend about our Faith.

She’s not exactly a “baby”, of course; she’s almost 19. Still, although my husband and I have tried hard to both live our faith and teach it to her, it’s not always easy to tell what has “stuck”.

Yesterday, she and I talked a little about the fact that her boyfriend is not Catholic, and what that means for the future of their relationship, which is moving toward marriage. I told her that I pray daily for him to come into the Catholic Church, but I am at a loss as to how that will happen. I related to her a little about the Vortex episode the other day, wherein Michael Voris expressed the frustration many of us feel with the bishops, who:

…will not stridently fight the evil in their midst; they allow enemies of the Faith to prosper and flourish under their watch; and they act as though everything is fine. You cannot preside over a body that comprises with and participates in evil and not expect evil consequences will follow.

Which makes all these highly touted efforts at a New Evangelization so almost laughable. What exactly is the Bishops’ Conference and all their little minions and legions of professional Catholics hoping to draw people to? A church that mouths everything Rome wants to hear, but in practice operates quite differently?

Who wants to join a church like that?

My daughter does not follow all the ins and outs of the things discussed on the Vortex or this blog, but she absorbs some of it here and there, and she is well aware of problems with the liturgy from my ranting and raving. Mostly, though, she identifies two sources of irritation at Mass: the music, and the homilies she is subjected to each Sunday morning.  

And in our discussion yesterday, she said something quite telling about the prospect of bringing her boyfriend to Mass: “I’m just afraid he’ll listen to Father and think what he says is right.”

Now, to be fair, Father does have some essential elements right – he’s solid on the moral evils of abortion and homosexual “marriage”.  But his homilies don’t reflect that, and generally just add some feel-good fluff to the liturgy.

My daughter also told me that her boyfriend often asks her, “How was church?” and all she can find to say is, “It was okay.”

He asked recently if she learned anything; she explained the basic structure of the Mass to him, and noted that usually the priest preaches about the Gospel reading. She told her boyfriend that she had “not learned anything new at Mass in years”. He was surprised and asked why not. She said, “Because the priest doesn’t want to talk about anything meaningful. He just talks about the things that will make people feel good.”

Fr. Feelgood

She told him about the time when the Gospel reading was about feeding the multitude with the loaves and fishes, and Father preached about how this is a lesson to us to recycle! Even her barely Christian, non-Catholic boyfriend raised an eyebrow at that description.

This is not the introduction she wants him to have to our Faith.

I bought Fr. Robert Barron’s DVD set on “Catholicism”, hoping it would be a way to introducing the faith to this young man. Then I watched some of it. What can I say? The photography is beautiful; there are incredible artistic and architectural treasures of the Church shown there…mixed in with liturgical abuses and some questionable theology. When ChurchMilitant.TV is asked about the series, their response includes this comment:

The "Catholicism" series is, without question, a celebration of Catholic art and history and, to a degree, an education in "what Catholics believe and why." Fr. Barron's overall approach, however, seems to lack any sense of urgency about whether one ought to be Catholic at all. In that sense, the series is very "ecumenical" and very unlikely to move anyone who is not already Catholic to consider entering the Catholic Church.

There are, however, many excellent shows on ChurchMilitant.TV.  I’m happy about that prospect.

But isn’t it sad that we can learn much more about our Faith from a lay organization that isn’t even permitted to use the name “Catholic” in its title, than we are from the pulpit, RE classes, or RCIA program of the nearest Catholic church?

"Ode to the Welfare State"

I was out of town today and ran out of time for blogging.

But -- ta da! -- a friend has come to the rescue by sending me this old "newspaper clipping" in an email just now! I'm not really good at political stuff per se...but what the heck! I think I'll just give it to you all for a chuckle. 

To relate it to our Catholic  faith, I'll add that I think there are quite a few way too many "social justice" types amongst our bishops, priests, and laity who could use a wake-up call on this kind of stuff!

Bishops, Where Are You?

Michael Voris hammers away at the bishops…and he’s right. As he points out, even the secular media notices that the bishops offered no correction regarding the “Catholic” speakers at the Democratic Convention. What are they thinking?!

Voris says Obama is capitalizing on the “ignorance and brainwashing of the vast majority of the Catholic laity for the past 40+ years.” Ain’t that the truth!

I had a recent first-hand experience with a friend who told me a while back that she’s a “liberal Catholic”, but loves her faith, etc. Now she says that since the Church calls people she loves “an abomination”, she can’t be a part of that. She doesn’t seem to understand separating the sin from the sinner, nor does she think homosexual behavior is a sin anyway (“and the DSM agrees with me” she said, referring to the “bible” of psychological disorders; psychiatrists and psychologists sold out years ago on the “gay” agenda, removing homosexuality from the list of disorders). On top of that, she claims to be "pro-choice, not pro-abortion", and shows no signs of having read anything recent on why aborting babies conceived in rape makes no sense whatsoever. Etc.

I think many of these false “Catholics” are unreachable by faithful Catholics. They cling to wrong and/or misinterpreted teaching, and they don’t think they need to give their assent to authentic teaching – especially if they don’t agree with it. There’s no absolute truth for them anymore; their consciences are severely injured, though probably not completely dead.

So, even if the bishops started speaking up now, it might not help these lapsed souls. But it might help future generations. Let us pray for all concerned.

Here’s the Vortex from September 17:

Here's the script:

If you are a faithful Catholic, you have got to be going out of your mind as this election unfolds.

A week or so ago, we predicted that Obama would win. That prediction was based on the current trends in the battleground states which is largely based on the direction of Catholic voters in THOSE states.

We don’t want Obama to win. No way. But we need to face the facts. Obama is on a trajectory to victory for two reasons: he has once again managed to capture the Catholic vote – not by as large a margin, it would appear, as in 2008, but as of this moment, still enough.

The second reason is obviously related to the first: that he is capitalizing on the ignorance and brainwashing of the vast majority of the Catholic laity for the past 40+ years. But the underlying cause of that ignorance and ability to be manipulated has been brought about a sorry and pathetic disregard by a large number of bishops to protect the flock.  

Two things need highlighting in this area. First, not one bishop we are aware of uttered one single syllable about the stream of so-called Catholics at the democratic convention claiming to be Catholic as they promoted one intrinsic evil after another. Anyone not completely aligned with and believing in the faith would think that it’s OK to be Catholic and support abortion and all the rest.

Even Bill O’Reilly from Fox News picked up on this when he said on his program:

“After Caroline Kennedy's speech, not one American Catholic leader publicly criticized her. There was complete silence from the Archbishops. Given a huge opportunity to explain why all life should be considered sacred, and why Ms. Kennedy is misguided – to say the least – the clerics passed. Call it the silence of the lambs.”

You know something’s wrong when secular media guys are noticing the silence from the bishops.

Just as important, though, as the bishops allowing that mockery of the faith in one moment of time, is their continued allowance of so-called Catholic political groups who are working hard for Obama and the evil Democratic Party platform. These groups insert the name Catholic in their organization’s title and then appear in the media and at conferences and on college campuses looking very much like simply another Catholic point of view that is acceptable.

We have a little experience here with having the word Catholic in your organization’s name. And we find it curious indeed that, even when the jurisdiction did not apply to us – and Church leaders in Detroit and other places knew that to be the case – they still pretended to the masses that their jurisdiction did extend to us and led people to believe it did, and kept insisting that we drop the name “Catholic” from the former website.

We did change it, but not for those reasons. But the larger point is this: they didn’t want us using the name. But we never said anything against the faith, and in fact, did and still do spend ourselves to promote the truthfulness and majesty of the one true faith. For this we were harassed and had a flurry of press releases issued against us and a whisper campaign to forbid us from speaking on Church property practically anywhere in the country.

Yet, these other groups that use the name Catholic – prominently,  proudly, without even a blush – and promote abortion, contraception, sterilization, same-sex marriage, Planned Parenthood…nothing, not a word, not a peep about THEM using the word Catholic in their groups’ titles.

And they have a whole heckuva lot more exposure than we will ever have. They regularly appear on cable news outlets, and are interviewed for major papers; they’re sought after for their opinions, on college campuses for speaking engagements and political discussion panels. All this coverage allows their sick and twisted opinions to reach millions.

And they slyly undermine the Church and her teachings by saying abortion is not the only issue…or we need to understand the whole picture… or garbage like, “in a pluralistic society we have to accept all forms of marriage”.

So it becomes a deep, deep curiosity why faithful Catholics are harassed and lied about and smeared under the falsehood of not being able to use the name Catholic…but these phony Catholics get to trot all around the country – even appearing on Catholic college campuses – call their group Catholic, and get the red carpet rolled out for THEM.

And what’s even more disturbing is the social forces and agents of change that they are carrying the water for: the likes of George Soros. And the bishops know that. Everyone knows that.

About a year ago, we did hundreds of hours of research into this question and produced one of our CIA episodes entitled “Obama’s Counterfeit Catholics”.

We originally released it outside of the election cycle, but we have decided to re-release it to draw people’s attention to what exactly is going, and to highlight even more so the great moral failing of the nation’s bishop conference.

Obama won’t win this election because he is the big hope and change guy, and is able to cast a spell over the electorate like last time. No, he’ll win this time because the dirty grunt work of subverting the truth is being allowed to happen with the critical and decisive ignorant Catholic voter – and the bishops sit back and do nothing to prevent it.

[Here’s the link] to the CIA episode. Please share it with as many people as you possibly can and perhaps it just might make a difference in some key battleground states.

If the bishops won’t say it, then we have to: no Catholic can vote for this man and remain a faithful Catholic.

Why Go to Mass?

The following is from an excellent homily by an FSSP priest, which you may listen to here. This is not an exact transcript – I’ve used many of the priest’s own words, but have done a lot of paraphrasing as well – and it may be a little rough…sorry! But I think the point still comes across, and I encourage you to listen to the recording, more than once, even.

Apart from obeying a precept of the Church, what is the purpose for attending Holy Mass?

Christ lives in Heaven interceding for us principally by His sacrifice on Calvary. Holy Mass is the projection of this continual sacrifice. It is where we are united to Christ, where we receive Heavenly Food that gives life to the soul. The points being made in this homily are these: For Mass and Holy Communion we must fix our intentions at the offertory; we must make our Communion for a specific purpose; and we must make a good and long thanksgiving.

First: the Offertory, which starts right after Creed. Here is where you must fix your intentions. The people offer Chirst’s sacrifice through the priest, so the intention is what you want to offer up your Mass for. You could offer it for a dying family member, or maybe you are struggling to overcome a particular vice by growing in virtue. Whatever your intention is, you should mentally place your intention on the host. When do you do this? The priest removes chalice veil, set chalice aside, and picks up paten with the host on it. That’s when you fix your intention. Then priest offers up the host, saying in part, “Receive O Holy Father, this spotless host, for all here present.” The priest is offering up the host for you.

If you don’t have an intention, come up with one right then! If you haven’t thought of one ahead of time, and can’t think of one at the time, offer it up for a holy death. The most important thing any of us will ever do is die! A holy death should be the “default setting” for your intention.

After the priest puts wine in chalice, he blesses the water, and adds a drop of water in chalice. That drop of water stands for your intentions; he places your intention in the chalice, and then he offers up the chalice.

Now the priest has offered the host and offered chalice. Then, the priest bends over the altar, hands together, symbolically  groveling before the Father;  he has his hands together like a slave at the threshold of the heaven. He’s interceding for everyone. He says, “In a spirit of humility and with a contrite heart, receive us O Lord and grant that the sacrifice we offer this day in thy sight, may be pleasing unto thee O Lord.”

That’s not the imperial “we” – he’s praying for everyone.

We’ve united ourselves to the sacrifice by fixing our intentions at the offertory. We should make a particular point, then, of uniting ourselves with the priest who is asking God on our behalf for a truly humble spirit and a contrite heart.

God has bound Himself to listen to the prayers of his priest. Since the priest has been consecrated precisely to offer this sacrifice, and since he has that role, as long as he’s doing everything right and not getting creative up there, God, the creator of heaven and earth, has bound himself to listen to his prayers. It’s really amazing when you really think about it.

There’s even sort of a last call if you’ve been distracted or daydreaming. The priest iss eht altar turns to the people and says “orate fratres” and he puts his hands together and turns in a circle; he’s mystically gathering intentions as he says “pray brethren that my sacrivice and YOURS may be acceptable..”

God the father looks down and accepts that host and wine, the offering the priest has made, but all he sees is a little piece of bread and a little bit of wine. But God the Father also sees all the intentions attached to them as long as we’ve made them!

Then it all comes together at the consecration. The priest consecrates the host and chalice and holds them up on behalf of everyone to God the Father. Now stop and think of what that means. Suddenly, by this marvel of transubstantiation, the bread and wine are completely gone (only appearances remains). By the power of the priesthood, Jesus Christ is now really present, body, blood, soul, and divinity. And now God the Father is looking down, and what does He see? He sees His Beloved Son, holding up those intentions we’ve fixed at the offertory.

Everyone needs to fix his intentions at the offertory. We have many things we need to pray for; let’s not neglect this.

Second: Holy Communion. Communion is God’s supreme gift to us upon earth.

The Catechism of the Council of Trent tells us: “Our Lord wished that the Most Blessed Sacrament should be received as the spiritual food of souls as an antidote whereby we may be freed from daily faults and preserved from mortal sin.”

It’s a solemn teaching of the church that communion is an antidote for sin.

You may say, “Father, I’ve been receiving Holy Communion for years, and I haven’t made much progress!” But remember: one Communion is sufficient in itself to make us a saint; there’s nothing lacking in Christ. If we’re not saints after our first communion it’s because of our disposition.

We need to make our communions for a specific purpose; for example, it could be for conquering our faults. Suppose you suffer from the temptation of anger against your neighbor – maybe the guy drives you nuts, and you even at times think you’d like to go over there and thrash him! Well, then you have a specific purpose to think about when you go to communion; you want to control our anger (or whatever your purpose might be). 

And we need to talk to God about it. If we’re going to ask our boss for raise, we would spend some time thinking about what we would say. Well, this is God we’re going to be visiting with! So if we’re so careless about his visit that we haven’t been planning exactly what we want to ask for, and how we’re going to say it  - and worse yet, if we don’t talk to him about it at all after we’ve received him – then small wonder if we’ve made little progress over the years! We shouldn’t just shuffle up to communion and shuffle back. That’s not going to help.

St. Teresa of Avila said that after communion, “Jesus remains in the soul as on a throne of grace, and asks ‘What do you want me to do for you?’”

It’s extraordinary! He doesn’t need anything; but we need him, and that’s why he’s coming to us in Holy Communion – to give us what we need. When he asks what we want him to do for us, we want to have a good answer. We want to plan out exactly what we’re going to ask him to do before we go to Communion. (Of course, we must have fasted beforehand, and we have to be in state of grace, etc.)

If, for example, you struggle with anger, then plan out how you want to talk to God about it.  

Then go to Communion.  And afterwards say: “Lord, thank you for coming to me in Holy Communion. I have a problem with anger; sometimes I have bad thoughts, even wanting to thrash my neighbor. I’m trying to remain meek and calm, but I’m doing a terrible job. I’m having a hard time doing it, but I know you can do it. I’m turning it over to you. I’m inviting you into that part of my life. You take charge of that part of my life, and rearrange my interior life in a way that’s pleasing to you. You help me keep a handle on my anger, because obviously I’m not pleasing you. Have mercy on me…”And so on; you get the idea.

We’re sinners; he came to save us. He wants us to be saints, but we have to do our part, so we have to ask.

St. Teresa of Avila said:

After Communion, let us be careful not to lose so good an opportunity of negotiating with God. His Divine Majesty is not accustomed to pay badly for his lodgings if he meets with a good reception.

We’ve got to pray and prepare ourselves for Holy Communion. And then we need to have a good reception and visit with Him.

Put yourself in this imaginary situation: Someone invites you over to visit. You go, and they greet you; but then they ask you to wait in a little broom closet, and they lock you in there while they go around visiting with other people – you can hear them visiting, having coffee, etc. How welcome would you feel? You’d be thinking, “Why did you invite me over? Let me outa here!”

How often do people receive Communion like that? It’s the Lord of Lords and King of Kings; he comes into their heart and they don’t have a thing to say to him. They can’t wait to get out the door, as if there’s a fire in the church. We have to prepare for Communion, prepare for a good reception, and then we have to spend time with Him asking Him to crush our sinful inclinations, and whatever else we need. The saints are unanimous on this.

St. Peter Julian Eymard said:

The most solemn moments of your life are those you spend in thanksgiving. When the king of heaven and earth, your savior and judge, is yours, fully inclined to grant all that you ask of him. Devote a half an hour if possible to this thanksgiving or at the very least 15 minutes. There is no more holy, no more salutary moment for you than when you possess Jesus in your body and in your soul.

The temptation often comes to shorten our thanksgiving. The devil knows its value; and our nature, our self-love, shrinks from its effects. Determine therefore, what the duration of your thanksgiving is to be, and never subtract a moment therefrom without a pressing reason.

 Thanksgiving is absolutely essential if the act of communion, so holy, is not to degenerate into a mere pious habit.”

St. Alphonsus said: “What treasures of grace to they lose who pray but a short time to God after Holy Communion.”

The basic idea is easy to understand: we have all kinds of problems we need to take to the  Divine Physician, who came to make all things new. The basic technique is also easy to understand: We plan out exactly what we’re going to ask Our Lord to do before we go to Communion. Then we spend 15-30 minutes after communion talking to him about our problems and begging him for mercy.

We started by asking, “Why go to Mass? What is the point? What are we to be doing?” There are things that we need from God, that we can only get from Him, and this is precisely set up by God Himself that we might receive them.

Let’s get serious, today, and at every Mass.

Fix your intentions at the offertory; make your communion for a specific purpose; make a good and long thanksgiving. Then you’re really on the path to holiness.