Is the Church Militant Back?

Townhall.com ^ | November 27, 2009 | Pat Buchanan

[DuncanWaring]

Ping.

[steve8714]

Perhaps these bishops are real men like priests used to be rather than Bernardin wannabes. I’m sure Cdl. Rigali will counsel moderation.

[stevem]

Tobin's public chastisement of a Catholic who carries the most famous name in U.S. and Catholic politics is made more significant because it seems to reflect a new militancy in the hierarchy that has been absent for decades

The Bishops should now apologize to the faithful for spending those decades as enablers for moral relativists everywhere. When the final health care bill finally emerges with taxpayer funded abortions and death panels these same bishops should apologize to the faithful because, to a man, they are boundlessly stupid to think they could lobby for this unconstitutional nightmare with abortion as an outsider looking in.

[don-o]

ping

[Running On Empty]

I think I’m correct in saying that Cardinal Rigali signed the Manhattan Declaration.

Whatever your comment about him means, (I’m not sure), I am glad that the Cardinal signed the Declaration-—and grateful to all the outstanding Catholic people, well-known or not, who also signed it.

The future belongs to those who never give up and recognize any and all signs of hope.

[Yorlik803]

As long as the Bishops back socializd health care, they are not good Catholics. They fail to realize what harm a government with full and complete access to a persons health records can do.
They also fail to realize that taking from one group to give to another, by force, is against Gods will.
And they are fools to trust a liberal that they will keep thier word.The left are like Muslims in that it is Ok for them to lie to unbeievers to get what they want.

[NHResident]

As a Catholic in New England, I would like nothing better than to believe that the Catholic clergy has actually become more ‘militant’. Unfortunately, except for a few notable (and noted) exceptions, the vast majority of Catholic clerics remain firmly in support of a strongly socialist, leftist and government run country. They continue to honor and support ‘Catholic’ politicians like Shaheen in NH, Pelosi, Cuomo, etc. They blindly accept the ‘word’ of proven liars about the Stupak amendment providing their endorsement and support to bad, unconstitutional legislation, then asked surprised when the amendment is pulled. Sorry, I think Pat is WAY too optimistic and complimentary to our clergy.

[Melian]

I hope so! The nasty infiltrators are being swept away, retiring, or dying off and the young men studying to be priests now seem to be true warriors for Christ. There’s no glory in being a priest now for the young generation; but there is a great deal of personal satisfaction in serving Christ. This is as it should be.

The cleansing of the Church continues. I am very happy about it. The pendulum is swinging back toward traditional orthodoxy. I think the infusion of traditional Anglicans can only help us.

Lord, may your words be in our thoughts, on our lips, and in our hearts.

[freeangel]

Too little too late. Like the slow loss of conservative values in this country, Catholic officials have “lost” many members of the church due to pc crap and calling themselves Catholics(CINOS) —rather like RINOS.

[tbw2]

The Catholic church stands for life. The Obamacare socialized medicine violates this on multiple points:

1. The right of the government to deny life saving care, even if they have it, due to rationing. Doesn't matter if the doctor can do it and you can pay for it - skip the heart surgery, government wants him to do a sex change surgery instead.

2. Death is cheaper than hospice. As the cancer patient in Oregon found out, they will counsel euthanasia instead of providing aggressive care to save lives. It's cheaper, so they choose death over actual medical care.

3. Abortion is cheaper than a delivery of a baby. So opt for the former on financial grounds alone. They already prefer to import obedient tax payers anyway.

4. While Democrats won't outright execute murderers, all of those liberals who say conservatives shouldn't be allowed to speak or raise children could easily find themselves black listed from medical care. This has already happened to abortion opponents in England. They won't execute a mass murderer, but oppose the official line, and you don't get that knee replacement you've waited for. This is a violation of conscience Catholics have sought to protect AND puts Catholics at direct risk of being denied life saving care given their pro-life stance.

[khnyny]

I recently heard a talk from a representative (lawyer) of the USCCB and it became apparent to me that it is a socialist leaning organization. Questions were not directly answered and terms like “fairness” and “social justice” (among other terminology) were used as hot button emotional phrases to manipulate the audience. Health care was posed as “a right” along with a host of other things. The USCCB stances are strangely similar to Cass Sunstein’s positions in that Roosevelt's “new deal” did not go go far enough.

The USCCB claims that health and welfare of Americans is their priority, but does not even have one economist on its staff to advise them on legislative matters. The health care bill will not only not lower costs, but will degrade the quality of care and is not something that the US economy can even begin to afford. It is the start to the slippery slope of government run healthcare with NO PRIVATE OPTIONS and will jeopardize the entire US economy - all in the name of “social justice”.

[steve8714]

When he was here in STL, he never missed a photo op with Gephardt, et al; yes he signed. There’s signin’ and then there’s fightin’.
What people like about Tobin and some of these others is they seem to have the stomach for the fight, whatever it needs.

[lt.america]

Amen. If the Bishops could not see a classic political bait and switch, they most certainly are blind. Secondly, if the dems come knocking at your door for an endorsement, you better get ready to get dirty, and the Bishops are plenty dirty in this whole mess.

[wardaddy]

realistic lament...unfortunately

[GonzoII]

"The Bishops should now apologize to the faithful for spending those decades as enablers for moral relativists everywhere."

Actually the current crop of Bishops haven't been around for decades. I hope these actions are a sign of things to come from these "youngsters".

[GonzoII]

Ping.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Please check out, from Terry Mattingly's GetReligion blog, More Quote Malpractice.

A group calling itself "Catholics United," organized by Obama activist Chris Korzen, apparently launched the meme that the Catholic bishops have given their "stamp of approval" to HR 3962 (the Health Care Reform Bill) as being "unambiguously pro-life." Within 36 hours of the "Catholics United" statement, news sources inaccurately attributed approval of HR 3962 to "Catholic Bishops" or "the USCCB".

Here's the Google:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft%3Aen-us%3AIE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7SUNA_en&q=catholic++%22full-throated%22++bill&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

18,000 results (0.16 seconds)

I, myself, was the one who used the statistically improbable phrase "full-throated" to trace out how that the phrase originated with Chris Korzen and was rapidly picked up by over 10,000 news media and blog sites.

In fact, the USCCB has refrained from endorsing HR 3962.

http://www.usccb.org/healthcare/

NO Catholic Bishop has endorsed HR 3962.

And EWTN's Raymond Arroyo has stated that almost 50 bishops have raised objections to the Health Reform Bill on the grounds of subsidiarity (Catholic-speak for "Why So Socialist?"), from which we can reasonably infer that their objection remains, notwithstanding the passage of the Stupak Amendment and the ban on abortion funding.

http://www.ewtn.com/news/blog.asp?blog_ID=2

The battle is raging within the USCCB as we speak. But so far, the good guys (you could call them the "Catholic faction") of the USCCB is holding the line. I know (painfully) (so painfully!)that their staffers have blurred the line for years, but the bishops are not endorsing, and have not endorsed any iteration of "Health" "Care" "Reform" legislation.

Much as the socialist staffrs would like you to think they have.

It's a battle for the control of the USCCB and the soul of the Church in America.

[NYer]

Is the Church militant back? There is strength in numbers. The clarion call has gone out and the first wave of bishops have responded. Let's pray the others will find their voices.

Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[icwhatudo]

Here in Baltimore they are finally clearing out a rats-nest of liberalism. Many liberal priests are “retiring” or go away on long retreats with a new attitude when they return. They are inspecting all schools for Catholic identity and ousted the school chief Valenti! (Of course it was reported that he simply “retired”-LOL)