Thoughts on "Priesthood In Crisis"

Having seen references to Fr. Matthew Despard in the news recently, I was prompted to read his controversial book, Priesthood in Crisis. Fr. Despard writes of his own personal experience and knowledge of the gay subculture within the Church in Scotland, and he is not afraid to name names, dates, places, and events. He notes in the preface that

Fr. Matthew Despard

This is a book that I do not want to write…I write it “more in sorrow than in anger”. I write it, to a degree, out of the pain of my own victim hood. But more than anything, I write it because it must be written.

Good-by, Good Men (by Michael S. Rose) documented and discussed the homosexual crisis in seminaries in the United States; Fr. Despard does the same regarding not only the seminaries in Scotland, but the Church hierarchy as well. Fr. Despard speaks almost exclusively from his own experience, citing instance after instance where he was pressured by homosexual priests to engage in inappropriate behavior, and was ostracized when he refused to comply.  Worse than “ostracized”, he was persecuted.

And his troubles aren’t going to cease with the recent attention given his book. It was published in 2010, but recently became available on Kindle (see this story for some background on the Scottish Church’s troubles, and some quotes from the book). Another  story states that friends of Fr. Despard say he “fears he could be stripped of his priesthood”. The story notes that diocesan officials deny that this is even being considered.

Near the end of the book, Fr. Despard makes some good general points about the loss of faith in both the laity and the clergy. He starts with the question, “Why are Catholics turning their backs on traditional doctrine and morality?” Indeed! And we can include Catholics at all levels of the hierarchy in that question! Fr. Despard examines the question further (all emphases mine):

 [W]hy do some Catholics reject the Church’s teachings? What has influenced their choice? Was it the media? Was it the pagan liberalism that is sweeping through the western world? Was it simple selfishness and self-involvement? Whatever the reason, it stems from a weakness of faith, a lack of understanding of the obligations of the faith, and a general loss of any sense of the faith.

And my honest belief as to why this is so is because many priests have lost a sense of their vocation, have lost that burning desire to follow the instructions from Jesus to heal the sick, to cast out demons and to preach the Word.

From my perspective, this is the crux of the situation: many priests have lost a sense of their vocation. I saw this first when I began to experience the extraordinary form of the Mass. In my view, the EF Mass lets the priest be a priest. Turning him to face the people is the first step in taking away the sense of his sacred duty and privilege before God in the Mass, I think. And it’s all downhill from there. Abuses of the Novus Ordo Mass resulted in the liturgy being damaged, and that damaged the priesthood.

Fr. Despard continues:

…It is easy, too, to assume that we [priests] are following our vocations honestly and fully but how determinedly do we catechize our people? How often, and with what deliberate purpose, do we ask them what it means to be Catholic?

….Sadly, when spirituality begins to wane, cynicism begins to prosper. And if they lack spirituality, priests cannot deliver the gospel to their flocks. In their lack of spirituality, they fall victim to their base desires and to the siren call of the world.

Fr. Despard believes “there is currently a major apostasy rife in the Church, an apostasy that conceals itself under the various guises of tolerance, pro-choice, equality and other forms of social and political correctness”. He comments further:

How terrible it is for the priests of our Church to stand by and permit the uninhibited growth of those twin modern perversions – liberalism and relativism – to flourish unchecked. How ignorant of our Christian faith and its tenets are our flocks allowed to become?

And then he asks this very pertinent question:

So why cannot our Church leaders see this? Why are they not mobilizing a Church fight-back, a re-education of its members, a challenge to the increasingly atheistic agenda that permeates our lives…?

I know there are some good priests and good bishops courageously teaching the Truth, but sometimes it seems that they constitute a very small minority. Countering our good shepherds, there are Church leaders who seem to not see the problem because they are part of it. When those Church leaders are in a position to choose which young men to admit to seminary, and which seminarians to ordain to the priesthood, and which priests to make bishops…well, there’s a problem – at least for us humans.

But with God, of course, all things are possible.

Pray. Fast. 

See also: Update on Fr. Matthew Despard and Scotland's Gay Mafia

Fr. Andersen Homily: Divine Mercy

A homily by Fr. Eric M. Andersen,  Sacred Heart-St. Louis in Gervais, OR

April 7th, 2013

 

Divine Mercy Sunday

In the nineteen-twenties, a young religious sister in Poland began receiving visions of our Lord who spoke to her heart about His divine mercy. This young sister, St. Faustina Kowalska, was commanded by her superiors to write a diary about these locutions. Jesus commanded her to tell the world that the second Sunday of Easter – which is today – be celebrated as a feast to the Divine Mercy. He told her: “In the Old Covenant I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart. I use punishment when they themselves force me to do so; My hand is reluctant to take hold of the sword of justice. Before the Day of Justice I am sending the Day of Mercy” (Diary 1588).

He showed her an image of Himself in which rays poured forth from His heart, a red ray for His precious blood, and a white ray for the cleansing waters of Baptism. He taught her this prayer based upon the image: “O Blood and water, which gushed forth from the heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in Thee” (187). He instructed her that when anyone said this prayer “with a contrite heart and with faith on behalf of some sinner, (He would give that sinner) the grace of conversion” (cf. 186). This is the way that each of the faithful exercises his duty of the common priesthood. Each of the baptized is called upon to intercede for others, to do penance for the sake of the world, in reparation for sins and for the conversion of sinners. This is one aspect of divine Mercy. Jesus said to St. Faustina: “When a soul approaches Me with trust, I fill it with such an abundance of graces that it cannot contain them within itself, but radiates them to other souls” (cf. Diary. 1074-76).

In the Gospel, Jesus breathes on His chosen apostles and gives them the power to forgive sins - or to withhold forgiveness for the sake of a soul’s conversion. These chosen men are to mediate His mercy and justice. This is another aspect of the Divine Mercy. Jesus said: “Tell my priests that hardened sinners will repent on hearing my words when they speak about My unfathomable mercy, about the compassion I have for them in My Heart. To priests who proclaim and extol my mercy, I will give wondrous power; I will anoint their words and touch the hearts of those to whom they will speak.” I trust, as a priest, that when I speak these words from the Diary of St. Faustina, that these words are truly anointed. I trust that because these words are truly anointed, that hardened souls will be converted, even if these hardened souls are not actually here physically among us. I trust that you the faithful, who hear these anointed words, will take heed and pray the Divine Mercy for the conversion of those whose hearts are hardened and whose souls are in danger of being eternally lost. Each of you can make a difference by your prayers.

To the faithful who avail themselves of this message, Jesus said: “When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I Myself act in your soul. Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy. The torrents of grace inundate humble souls. The proud remain always in poverty and misery, because My grace turns away from them to humble souls. . . . If their trust is great, there is no limit to My generosity” (1602). “Let the weak, sinful soul have no fear to approach Me, for even if it had more sins than there are grains of sand in the world, all would be drowned in the unmeasurable depths of My mercy” (1059). “I will grant a complete pardon to the souls that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion on the Feast of My mercy” (1109).

Most beautifully of all, Jesus confirms that the person of the priest is only a screen. He tells us: “Never analyze what sort of a priest it is that I am making use of; open your soul in confession as you would to Me, and I will fill it with My light” (1725).

Today is a feast to proclaim that mercy, that forgiveness of sins for all sinners. Jesus said, “I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the Fount of My Mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity. . . . Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the Fount of My Mercy” (Diary 699).

Jesus warned St. Faustina to write this: “Souls perish in spite of My bitter Passion. I am giving them the last hope of salvation; that is, the Feast of My Mercy. If they will not adore My Mercy, they will perish for all eternity” (965). …“before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the door of My mercy. He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice…” (1146)… tell souls about this great mercy of Mine, because the awful day, the day of My justice, is near” (965).

Let us remember that God’s justice is tempered by His mercy. God wishes to pour out His abundant mercy upon us. But we have to desire that mercy. We must ask God from the depths of our hearts to pour out His mercy on us. We have to acknowledge that we are in need of His mercy. We have to acknowledge that we are all sinners in His sight. Then, He will pour out His abundant ocean of mercy upon us. Jesus tells us to go to sacramental Confession to receive this ocean of grace and mercy. And He asks us to pray the Divine Mercy chaplet in order to obtain mercy for others. He asks us to pray for poor sinners so that their hearts might be converted and that they might repent and come back to God and to the Church; so that they would be set free from slavery to sin and the darkness and misery that accompany it.

3 pm is the hour of mercy. It is the hour that Jesus died on the Cross out of love for us. Today and every day at 3 pm, we are invited to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Catholic Radio KBVM 88.3 FM broadcasts the Divine Mercy every day at 3. Please listen and pray along.

Here at Sacred Heart in Gervais, we will pray the Divine Mercy at 3 pm during our monthly parish Holy Hour. I will also be hearing Confessions from 1:45 until 2:45. I ask that if you go regularly to the Sacrament of Confession, please leave this time open so that those who have been away from the sacrament for a time can avail themselves of the ocean of mercy poured out on this special feast day. 

Good News

It is really not easy to find truly good Catholic news in the world today. Still, there are little glimmers of hope here and there.

First:

I watched the “livestream” of the installation Mass of Archbishop Alexander Sample. This was of particular interest to me, because I see Archbishop Sample as a shining star amidst a bunch of wimpy US bishops who has already set a good example for his brother bishops in several ways, but especially with regard to liturgical music. 

The installation Mass was better than some I’ve seen, despite some details that were neglected (for example, WHY can’t there be a real antependium on these altars, even when they are probably just tables set up in a big auditorium?! I mean, seriously, the white table cloth thing has to go. It’s not that hard to make a decent antependium.) There were no Native Americans (or other ethnic groups) dancing with bowls of incense, and Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers carried the Book of the Gospels with appropriate reverence. Whew! But isn’t it sad that the good news is the absence of bad news? Oh well!

At any rate, Archbishop Sample can do great things for the Archdiocese of Portland, and I think he will give it his best shot. My prayers are with him on a daily basis.

Second:

A bishop has made a strong statement against the “V-Monologues” play that continues to plague Catholic university campuses. Bishop Earl Boyea of the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan, wrote this on his Face Book page:

I recently had occasion to read the script of The Vagina Monologues . Oh my. This production is a train wreck on multiple levels. Most fundamentally, it is anti-woman, reducing her God-given genius and dignity to a bizarre emphasis on one physical aspect of her person.

It struck me that the operative word in the title doesn’t start with “v” – the operative word is “monologue.” The script is a series of narcissistic speeches about the physical appearance of female sexual organs, masturbation, lesbian coupling, and other topics that are equally dismissive of the true worth of a woman. As one might sadly expect, there is no suggestion anywhere that a woman might find happiness in a loving marriage.

We live in a world that too often treats women like disposable creatures who exist for sex and little else. While purporting to be part of an effort to oppose violence to women, this theatrical event actually embraces the dismissive outlook on women that leads to violence and exploitation of our sisters in Christ. There is nothing redeeming in this “play” and certainly it contains multiple teachings which are completely contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church as well as violations of human dignity.

Good for you, Your Excellency, for speaking up and pointing out the immorality of this play! Now if we can only get Catholic campuses to stop permitting the play to be performed there! When will bishops re-assert control over the Catholic colleges and universities in their dioceses?

Third:

LifeSiteNews.com reports that

A Catholic church on Long Island has removed a 47 year-old Long Island man from his role as the parish's confirmation teacher, lector, and altar server after learning he was “married” to another man.

[The man, Nicholas Coppola] claims that he had been an open homosexual in his parish for years. Even his pastor, he alleges, knew of his engagement in the homosexual lifestyle but permitted Coppola to serve in leadership positions, including as an altar server, religious education teacher for children preparing for confirmation, and lector.

Well, in that case, probably some action should have been taken sooner. However, it appears that once the bishop learned about it, something was done.

Bishop William Murphy of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, received a written complaint about Coppola. A diocesan official passed it on to Coppola’s pastor saying, “While not on a witch hunt, I know it would be of concern to you if a catechist were, in fact, ‘married’ as described.”

It’s a positive sign, I think, to see that the man was removed from ministry in the Church. Allowing a person living an openly homosexual lifestyle to teach in a Church setting certainly sends the wrong message. But then, we all knew that. It’s just nice to see our leaders take an active role in reversing the damage. Now, I would presume, Nicholas Coppola also has a better understanding of Church teaching on this issue, and the importance of that teaching – not only for the other parishioners, but for his own soul.

So there you have it: good news. Enjoy it while it lasts! ;-)

Archbishop Sample's Installation Homily

INSTALLATION HOMILY

Reverend Alexander K. Sample

Archbishop of Portland in Oregon

April 2, 2013

Photo taken by Marc Salvatore; it also appears on Archbishop Sample's Face Book page.

Praised be Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, who lives and reigns forever. Amen!

It is in the true spirit of Easter joy that I greet all of you here as the newly installed shepherd of God’s flock in western Oregon.

I wish to express my gratitude to His Eminence, Cardinal Levada, a former Archbishop of Portland and Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for gracing us with his presence today.

I am most appreciative for the presence of His Excellency, Archbishop Viganò, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, who has presented the papal bull appointing me Archbishop of this local Church and who has formally installed me as its chief shepherd. Your Excellency, your presence with us today brings a special closeness of our Holy Father, Pope Francis, and reminds us all that we are part of the universal Church of Jesus Christ.

I want to thank and acknowledge a very special person to all of us, Archbishop Vlazny. I want to thank you, Your Excellency, for the very kind and gracious welcome you extended to me to this Archdiocese from the moment of our first telephone conversation after my appointment here. But most of all, on behalf of the entire Church of the Archdiocese, I want to thank you for your faithful and beautiful ministry as its shepherd for all of these past 15 years.

My brother bishops, priests and deacons, dear consecrated religious, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and all people of good will, to you I repeat the words of the psalm: “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!”

I say this not because of the installation of a new Archbishop, but because Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. He is alive, he loves us, he calls us to faithful discipleship, and he asks us to be witnesses of his resurrection before the world.

You see, there is the danger on such an occasion to think that this is somehow all about your new Archbishop or this local Church. We must always keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. It is not about me. It is always about him, and we must never lose sight of that.

In these readings from the Acts of the Apostles which the Church gives us during these first days of the Easter octave we have St. Peter, in the power of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, standing before the people and proclaiming Jesus Christ, as risen from the dead.

His is truly a bold and fearless proclamation of the Good News meant for all those whom God calls. He is fulfilling the mission that Jesus Christ entrusted to him and the other Apostles.

This is what is needed in the Church today. We need a new Pentecost, a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit to set our hearts on fire for proclaiming Jesus Christ. With hearts filled with joy, love and mercy, we must proclaim the Good News.

I come to you as your new Archbishop to announce afresh to you, the disciples of Jesus Christ, that he is alive! This is good news, not just for the disciples of 2000 years ago, but for us today. It is good news for all people. Jesus is alive and has become for us the source of eternal life. By his death he has destroyed death, freed us from the corruption of sin and opened up for us the way to the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the basic message of salvation and we must never cease to believe it and proclaim it.

I would like to draw your attention to my episcopal motto: Vultum Christi contemplari, “to contemplate the face of Christ.” You must know that, for me, this is more than just a nice phrase. It speaks clearly and directly of my vision for our work together here in western Oregon.

The inspiration for this motto is taken from the writings of Blessed John Paul II, specifically from his apostolic letter at the beginning of the new millennium, Novo Millennio Ineunte and his last encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia.

In Novo Millennio Ineunte, he writes: "’We wish to see Jesus’" (quoting the Gospel of St. John). This request, addressed to the Apostle Philip by some Greeks who had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover, echoes spiritually in our ears too during this Jubilee Year. Like those pilgrims of two thousand years ago, the men and women of our own day — often perhaps unconsciously — ask believers not only to ‘speak’ of Christ, but in a certain sense to ‘show’ him to them. And is it not the Church's task to reflect the light of Christ in every historical period, to make his face shine also before the generations of the new millennium? Our witness, however, would be hopelessly inadequate if we ourselves had not first contemplated his face.”

Nemo dat quod non habet! No one can give what one does not have! We cannot give Jesus Christ to others until we have first come to know him intimately and profoundly.

In the Gospel today we see Mary Magdalene as the first one to announce the risen Lord. Jesus tells her to go and tell the other disciples this good news, that he is alive. And so she does.

But notice that she did not recognize him at first, and that it is only after she has gazed at him, recognized him, that she is able to proclaim him to the others as risen from the dead. He called her name and she responded.

But why did she not recognize him at first. This is a question long pondered by scripture scholars and those who have reflected on the Gospel. Perhaps she was distracted by her own grief and worry. Maybe she was anxious and pre-occupied.

In any case she failed to gaze at him, to really look at him. Is this the case for us today? Are we so distracted, anxious, fearful and pre-occupied with the business of daily living that we too have failed to look intently at Jesus, to recognize him, to contemplate his face?

Before we can proclaim him to others, we too must first recognize him. We must really see him. We must contemplate his risen face before we can announce him to others.

We must hear the Lord Jesus call our name, as he called Mary, and as she recognized him, so must we. But then we must proclaim him!

This Year of Faith, in which this installation of your new Archbishop takes place, is meant to help us do just that. This year is meant to strengthen our faith by contemplating Christ’s face and the mystery of our faith in order to prepare us for the supremely important work of the New Evangelization, the great mission that is before us. To really set about the work of the New Evangelization in earnest, however, our faith must first be strengthened.

In his letter to the Church proclaiming this Year of Faith, Pope Benedict XVI quoted some powerful words of the great St. Augustine: “Believers strengthen themselves by believing.” This is a time for strengthening our own faith, so that we can better witness to the love, the mercy and the truth found in the Lord Jesus Christ. But we strengthen that faith by believing more firmly and devoutly that which has been revealed to us by Almighty God in the Sacred Scriptures and in the living Tradition of the Church.

This will require holiness. We need saints for our own day to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and a leaven in society. We are above all called to holiness, and our times demand that we answer that call with renewed zeal and vigor.

There are many challenges facing us in these times. We are witnessing an almost unprecedented and increasing radical secularism that seeks to push God out of the picture, and not just to the margins of society, but even right off the page of human experience in society today.  

We are also facing what Pope Benedict XVI, and now Pope Francis, have called a dictatorship or tyranny of relativism. There is no longer in our society a recognition that there are some eternal and unchangeable truths, especially about the very nature and dignity of the human person. This is a serious challenge when we can no longer dialogue with our contemporaries from a common understanding of the innate and essential nature of the human person.

And then there are the challenges of our own making. We cannot hide from the fact that the scandals that have plagued the Church in recent years have seriously damaged our standing and credibility in the wider society in which we seek to proclaim the Gospel of Life. This great Archdiocese has certainly not been spared this tragedy.

When I refer to these "challenges of our own making," I mean that some of your leaders, your pastors, your shepherds have seriously let you down and done grave harm to individuals. We can never express too much sorrow and regret for the harm that has been done and we must never relax our efforts and our pledge to help heal victim survivors of sexual abuse and to protect children and young people.

So it is with humility but with a firm purpose that we go about our renewed efforts to proclaim the Good News. But we must be strong in our own faith, convinced of the light and truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As those called to be witnesses to Jesus Christ in the world, we must move beyond the days of doubting and questioning our Catholic Faith, wringing our hands in the face of so many difficulties and challenges. In the face of so many challenges today, how will we ever convince the world of Jesus Christ if we ourselves are not convinced?

We must witness and speak of our faith before others with confidence and clarity and with the greatest charity. But speak of Jesus Christ and our faith, we must. And we must not forget that which will our greatest witness to Jesus Christ, and that is the love, the mercy and the compassion that we show toward those who suffer; the poor, the marginalized, the abandoned, the lonely and forgotten. The modern day “widows and orphans” that Sacred Scripture admonishes us to care for. How beautifully our new Holy Father, Pope Francis, is showing us the way by example.

In the midst of our challenges we must continue to bear witness to the dignity of human life and every human person from the womb until natural death, the dignity of marriage and the good of children, a special love for the poor and marginalized, and religious liberty.

I am so very happy that so many of our ecumenical and interreligious brothers and sisters have joined us today in this celebration. I will truly value and respect our friendships and relationships and will work hand in hand with our brothers and sisters in promoting the true common good and the dignity of every human person.

And so, my dear brothers and sisters, it is time, in the words of Blessed John Paul II to “duc in altum” – to put out into the deep sea of history and to let down the nets for a catch, leading others to the love of God in Jesus Christ.

“Duc in altum! (Put out into the deep!) These words ring out for us today, and they invite us to remember the past with gratitude, to live the present with enthusiasm and to look forward to the future with confidence: ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever’”.

Duc in altum! – no matter how difficult or even hopeless the challenges may seem, Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. He is alive and is with us and will make it happen. What he needs is our faith and trust. We repeat the words that Jesus taught to St. Faustina: Jesus, I trust in you!

Now we turn towards the Holy Eucharist, the source and summit of the Christian life. We must not merely celebrate so wonderful a mystery. We must be transformed by and imitate the mystery we celebrate. We must lay down our lives for God and in service to others, in imitation of Jesus who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for the many.

This is my Body, which is given up for you. This is my Blood which is poured out for you. As he has done for us, so we must do for one another. Such a heroic virtue and self-giving is what is needed in our times.

I have been deeply inspired by the holiness, the zeal and missionary fervor of the first bishop of my former diocese, Venerable Frederic Baraga, whose own heroic virtue has been recognized for the whole universal Church by Pope Benedict XVI. He came to the upper Great Lakes region as a missionary and a stranger from another land. I feel a strong bond with him as I come to you also as a stranger from another place. I ask his prayers for me as I take up my new pastoral responsibility among you. They say, “Home is where the heart is.” I know my home will be here, because you will have my heart.

Blessed John Paul wrote in Ecclesia de Eucharistia: “To contemplate the face of Christ, and to contemplate it with Mary, is the ‘programme’ which I have set before the Church at the dawn of the third millennium, summoning her to put out into the deep on the sea of history with the enthusiasm of the new evangelization.”

It is to my Mother and your Mother, Mary Immaculate, the patroness of this great Archdiocese that I entrust my ministry as your shepherd. May she form in me the likeness of her Son, Jesus, who is the Good Shepherd.

God bless you, and please pray for me! 

Say It Like You Mean It: Vortex

In yesterday’s Vortex (4/2/13), Michael Voris made a very good point: why do Catholics tend to so timidly proclaim the truth of our faith? We seem to try to reduce the impact of our statements of truth by preceding those statements with the words, “We Catholics believe…” I admit to having been guilty of this myself!

As Voris notes, the Truths of the faith are either true or they’re not. If they are only true for Catholics, we have a problem! He says:

These are facts! They aren’t propositions to the world for people to decide for themselves whether they are right or not or worthy of consideration or not. These are not believable because Catholics BELIEVE them, but because they are true

And he rightly points out that Muslims don’t say “we believe” when expressing the tenets of their faith – nor do Buddhists, Hindus, atheists, secularists, militant homosexualists, pro-abortion politicians, nor anyone else who has an agenda to promote!

Here’s the script:

Can it not be said with all seriousness today that there is an attempt inside the Church, intended or not, to downplay the Resurrection?

What IS the resurrection if not the LIVING proof that Jesus Christ is the Son of God – GOD!? How many other world religion leaders or founders do you know who have walked out of their graves?

So the resurrection establishes the superiority – not just equality with – over other world religions. And among Christians, Catholicism has the unique claim to be the sole Church founded by this resurrected God.

So a very legitimate question arises with regard to the resurrection and the Catholic Church: why do so many leaders in the Church today continually couch the truth of the faith – the Church – FACTS in language like, “Jesus has risen from the dead…WE CATHOLICS BELIEVE.”

When speaking of the teachings of GOD Almighty as professed and declared by the Catholic Church, there is this weak-kneed almost spineless approach to say it like it is. Did Jesus Christ walk out of that tomb or did He not? If he did THEN SAY IT CLEARLY and ALL THAT FLOWS FROM IT – which is HE IS GOD. HIS RELIGION is the only legitimate religion rooted in truth.

These are facts! They aren’t propositions to the world for people to decide for themselves whether they are right or not or worthy of consideration or not. These are not believable because Catholics BELIEVE them, but because they are true…PERIOD! And so is all that flows from them. The Catholic Church, and not any other, was founded by the GOD who rose from the dead. Therefore, whatever that Church declares as a matter of unerring doctrine to be true, IS TRUE – not because of you or me or the Pope – but because of the GOD who established the Church.

GOD has revealed the teachings; the Church just repeats them…announces them. And yet we find such timidity these days – a constant wavering in presentation to just SAY IT LIKE IT IS.

Jesus Christ did walk out of the tomb; whether that offends Muslims or Buddhists or secularists or atheists doesn’t matter. You never hear them saying something like we BELIEVE Jesus did not resurrect from the dead. They just flat out deny it. You never hear atheists holding forth with expressions like, “I BELIEVE there is no God”. They just flat out say, “There is no God.”

Muslims not only deny that Jesus is God, they relegate him to the level of a prophet – and elevate their own leader as someone superior…and they don’t say “we BELIEVE this”. They just state it as a matter of fact.

So when Catholic clerics go on the mass media airwaves and talk all nicey-nice and sweet and feminine and non-offensive, and say things like “we Catholics believe” this or that, what on God’s green earth is a non-Catholic supposed to gather from that? Exactly what they DO gather, which is, “Well, here’s ONE set of beliefs among many.”

Catholicism is NOT one belief among many. It is the ONE and only legitimate belief a person can hold. Every other belief falls somewhere along the spectrum of wrong. Are those harsh sounding words? Is that too judgmental for the ears of modern or contemporary man who has been turned into an intellectual marshmallow?

The forces for evil change in the world don’t view their beliefs as just one system among many, all of which are legitimate.

Do you think militant homosexuals constantly agitating for same-sex marriage and a lowering of the age of consent REALLY think of themselves as just one of many legitimate views with regard to homosexuality?

Do you think that the pro-contraception and pro-abortion forces think that both theirs and the Catholic view are equally worthy of consideration? Not a chance in Hades.

These forces despise the faith. They are mistakenly convinced of the rightness of their cause, and they trample the Church underfoot every chance they get. Why then is there this lack of militancy from so many quarters of the Church Militant with regard to what we KNOW to be true?

It’s owing to either one of two things: either a lack of confidence in the rightness and truth of what the Church teaches, or a soft-minded feminized weakness that is more concerned with the appearance of hurting feelings than with the truth. Both approaches point souls to Hell.

Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He is GOD. He established a Church as His own. That Church and the faith She preaches is the only legitimate faith on the earth. GOD has so ordered things in this manner for our salvation.

It’s time the Church and Her leaders started saying things the way they are and stop hesitating and couching the truth in weak feminized double speak because they either don’t believe enough or have a mistaken vision of Jesus Christ.

Photos: Springtime in Eastern Oregon

I snapped a few photos on the way home from my Easter pilgrimage over the rainbow. Spring is definitely on the way now!

I am a master of the "through the window while driving" shot.

Quick Update On Foot-Washing

My previous post on the "Foot-Washing Fiasco" of Holy Thursday has been updated to include the entire article.

Since our new Holy Father washed the feet of two women, the issue took on a whole new look after I wrote that post (which was merely a re-write of my previous year's post on the same topic). The fact that the media picked up on the significance of the Holy Father's controversial act makes it quite evident that just about everyone knows that the washing of women's feet is not permitted - otherwise Pope Francis would not have made such a news splash!

If you haven't seen them, here are links to some excellent analysis by Dr. Ed Peters:

http://canonlawblog.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/popes-like-dads-dont-have-a-choice-in-the-matter/ 

http://canonlawblog.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/retrospectives-on-the-mandatum-rite-controversies/

http://canonlawblog.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/some-thoughts-on-the-vpo-statement-regarding-the-mandadtum-rite-controversy/