[SuziQ]

For all the temporal and social outreach, the Church in America has failed in the spiritual. That is the real scandal. It is NOT those of us pointing it out.

BIG TIME Orthodox RC BUMP!! We have prepared our kids for the Sacraments ourselves rather than have them be at the mercy of the feminist nun CCD Director! And we'll do the same with them for Confirmation. For the first year, our Assoc. Pastor teaches the teens and he is WONDERFUL, so Spirit filled, so the kids will do that year. But the second year is taught by the NEW feminist nun CCD Director, so we'll do that year ourselves. Then we'll take them down to their uncle's Parish in MS to be confirmed! He has a new Bishop who by all accounts is great!

[dadwags]

There is Some hope . In Nebraska, there is Bishop Bruscovitch and in Atlanta, things were bad until we got out new Bishop .
As far as Religious orders go, there is Mother Angelica and her team . Also, I regularly receive fund raisers from the Legionaires of Christ , complaining about their "Vocations Crisis" (They don't have physical facilities to handle all their applicants) , so, although things are really bad, there are some bright spots, athanks be to God .

[redhead]

"Meanwhile, orders like the Jesuits have found themselves home to significant numbers of homosexual priests, many of whom have died in recent years from the ravages of AIDS."

makes me wonder how many of the boys who were abused/raped might have been infected as a result of the assaults...so sad...

[Brian Kopp DPM]

Part of the answer? Catholic homeschooling! Take back our children's minds for Christ and His Church!

[redhead]

"But in his new book, "Crisis of Authority," Msgr. Kelly states that the big problem actually is "the refusal of most bishops to be bishops, i.e., to guard the faith, rebuke those in error, to teach with the authority of Christ and, if necessary, to cut off heretics and schismatics from the body of the Church. The real problem is not theologians or errant priests but how the American Catholic Church is being governed."

This has been my point of view all along. Lazy, compromised bishops who are more concerned with their golf swing than they are with their prayer life or what's going on in their dioceses.

"There are too many cardinals and bishops acting like warlords and not like soldiers in the Roman Catholic Church, in which they took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Those vows, I'm beginning to think, must have meant nothing to these enabling "network" bishops. I wish there was something in canon law regarding deliberate fraud in the taking of vows. I would dearly love to see these luxury-loving, debauched, crooked, amoral, criminal "bishops" out on the street with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

"The priests and bishops are scared to death that they might be considered "out of step" or too judgmental if they ended this crap. Even though Vatican II was not supposed to include this baloney, no one has the guts to stop it."

BRAVO!!!

There is SO MUCH good stuff to discuss in this article, it's hard to know where to begin. I think I'll just let it go at this for now and see what comes up later.

[stylin19a]

Vatican-II confused me. I've been confused ever since.

[Fred Mertz]

I'll have to try to absorb this one tomorrow. Looks interesting.

[Romulus]

Mozart, Cole Porter, Aaron Copeland, and Rodgers and Hammerstein

On balance this is a sympathetic article, but why the author chooses these names as representative of the lost, lamented voices of Christian culture is a mystery to me.

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Simply CINful (sorry, couldn't resist).

[Orual]

Although I have some disagreements with Alden's strange rationalizations - "I would add, I would rather have a priest who was a chaste homosexual than a heterosexual priest who was screwing around." - this is a good article.

[grumpster-dumpster]

Very good article. I have a serious question for all Catholics...actually All Christians:
Does anyone else feel (the same way as I do) that churches have been placing too much emphasis on "Youth Ministries" over the last dozen (maybe longer) years; at the expense of "adult" ministries?

As a qualifier, let me say; It just seems that the emphasis on youth has led to churches shaping their operations and teachings away from responsibility, strength in faith, and parental accountability in favor of "celebrations" and a view of God through rose-colored-glasses (read that as: joyfulness for the sake of joyfulness and not joyfulness through the teachings of Christ).

I'm using the story of Sr. Ann as a jumping off point for this question (trying to stay on subject...LOL!):
"Sister Ann was also upset when the "gals" protested that the Knights of Columbus erected a small monument in memory of the children destroyed through abortion. The "gals" are the true believers in the "church of what's happening now."

It's to the "church of what's happening now" that my question refers.

[saradippity]

This is the type of article that I am printing and copying several hundred times. Then I will mail one to each bishop prior to their next USCCB Conference in June. I will put my own comments on a cover letter to bishops and cardinals that I know are either,not in union with and under the Holy Father and the Magisterium, or conversely,if I know they are,to those I will add a big thanks. On most I will just say if the shoe fits wear it.

I imagine this will cost about $500.00 but it will come out of the monies I have budgeted for my parish collections and/or diocesan causes.It is truly sinful that we are forced to spend hard earned money to buy a dish in order to watch Mother Angelica and subscribe to conservative and orthodox magazines to keep apprised of what the Catholic Church teaches and to know what is happening in the Amchurch.

Father Elijah also had a good action plan.Can someone connect with it for newcomers to the discussion. I think Antonius also had a draft of a letter that was very helpful on the same thread.

On another thread I suggested copying good articles and letters and sticking them in the song books we find in the racks in back of each pew and in that manner get the word out to many Catholics who really don't have a clue to what is going on.I wish someone would start a thread on how to get the message out to those persons neither in the choir(thats us) nor those in the enemy camp.

[american colleen]

Bump for more in depth later reading.

Thanks so much for posting this article and thanks to the many articulate FR's contributing to it.