Posted on 06/07/2010 1:34:03 PM PDT by NYer
Some will say it's already here, and I wouldn't argue with them. The first gusts of the anti-Catholic storm have already been resisted, thanks to the courageous vigilance of Bill Donohue at the Catholic League. Now we have The New York Times' relentless barrage of reporting and opinion designed to force the type of "reform" in the Church urged by dissenting groups like Voice of the Faithful and Call to Action.
Those vestiges of the old Catholic Left barely exist anymore -- but why should they, when their cause has been taken up by the mainstream media? The continuing drama of the sex-abuse scandal in Europe -- six years after the U.S. bishops faced the problem squarely -- has provided Catholic bashers another opportunity to denigrate the Church on the grounds of its "patriarchal" condemnation of abortion and same-sex marriage.
In the United Kingdom, what should have been regarded as a crank call for the arrest of Pope Benedict XVI during his visit there later this year has mushroomed into speculation as to whether the trip should be cancelled altogether. That the legal system of the International Criminal Court could be used to threaten a world leader for being ideologically out of step is precisely why it was opposed by the previous administration.
The use of courts and commissions to harass and threaten Catholics and other Christians has already been auditioned in Canada. And the expansion of hate-speech laws signed by President Barack Obama last October sets the stage for similar tussles here when a minister, priest, or voluble layperson too heatedly denounces homosexual sex.
The Catholic Church is not the only institution to insist upon objective and universal moral standards, but it's certainly the largest. As such, the Church stands in the way of postmodern ideologies achieving complete dominance in the West. Naturally, those who believe that all truth is defined by power (as postmoderns do) don't hesitate to use the power of the media, government, and the courts to attack any institution thwarting their influence.
Muslims outnumber Catholics by a growing margin, but almost no one among the anti-Catholic elites in the media or the academy speaks an ill word about Islamic beliefs or customs, either out of PC deference or fear of a fatwah. The ongoing cleansing of Iraqi Christians by Muslim terrorists -- only the most egregious instance of such hate -- receives occasional mention in the same newspaper whose reporters dig through Vatican documents hoping to link the present pope with some instance of priestly sex abuse.
Meanwhile, on the political front, donors with no love for the Church (such as George Soros) combine resources with labor unions -- whose relation to the Church was once vital -- to create and support faux Catholic groups that provide cover for Catholic politicians who don't vote Catholic. Those same groups -- clearly allied with the Democratic Party -- beat their chests about the supposed partisanship of Catholics who support candidates that oppose abortion and same sex marriage. But whose fault is it that 90 percent of these candidates are Republican?
The betrayal of Sr. Carol Keehan and the religious orders aligned with NETWORK in supporting Obamacare only emboldened the media critics of the Church who extolled them as heralds of the Church to come. Thus, when the Archdiocese of Phoenix announced the excommunication of Sr. Margaret McBride, a Catholic hospital administrator who had given counsel in the procuring of an abortion, the media howled as if the Church had suddenly reversed the course set by Sister Keehan and NETWORK.
(No one need worry about Sister Keehan. There are enough Jesuit schools, like Gonzaga, to keep her busy accepting honorary degrees and making speeches declaring her "agreement" with the bishops.)
The coming anti-Catholic storm will be linked, sadly, to the reelection campaign of President Barack Obama. He may be out of favor with the far Left at the moment, but they, along with the Catholic Left, will quickly recover their lost enthusiasm in the face of a GOP opponent (no matter who he or she is). There will be a furious and well-funded effort by Catholic Obama supporters to keep Obama in office. By 2010, the storm will be felt throughout the Church, and those who blithely claim that the Church and politics are not connected will be as helpless as a fallen leaf caught in a tornado.
It's easy to show courage when you get paid an annual salary of a third of a million dollars for doing so. Bill Donohue is the Jesse Jackson of Catholicism.
Would you say that the anti-Catholic storm has already hit FR?
In many ways that is true.
The fact the Leftwingtards have been able to build a movement inside both Protestant and Catholic church operations certainly proves that the power to excommunicate isn't all it's held out to be.
If you want "different" try the snake handlers. Although their theology is pretty tame ~ don't want to get them snakes excited eh ~ their church services are "electric", or ought to be. I wouldn't go in there unless they had the floor wired to keep the snakes out of the pews! Still, those folks are probably not posting on FR.
Now, one rather noisy group is the residual "World Wide Church of God" apostasy. They are heavy into the End Times stuff ~ several of our regular posters here obviously have that part down pat.
Catholics are well-advised to IGNORE THEM. That's what I do, even though I know what they are talking about. Not worth getting upset.
The hell with the storm, make those illegals legal. Sac Off
Oh Boo hoo. Cry me a river, Hudson, you’re all wet!
He sounds like a lawyer saying his client can’t get a fair trial with so much evidence against him.
You wrote:
“You’re some kind of Eastern Orthodox Church member, right?”
Nope.
“Criticisms among/between Western Church people don’t hold a candle to the East/West differences.”
I don’t think so.
“It’s a regular old RC/Protestant lovefest for the most part ~ well, except for the Holy Rollers ~ they do get beaten up don’t they.”
I don’t know about that.
“The SECULARISTS and COMMNISTS are the enemy. Best keep your eyes on them ~ not your fellow Christians.”
I know who the Enemy is. I also know he doesn’t just use secularists and communists.
Ah! The Catholic Left!
My daughter taught math at a Catholic K-8 school in 2008/2009. Every teacher and the principal voted for Obama and they took every opportunity to show the students how **thrilled** the were that Obama was president.
And...Please remember that Obama voted multiple times supporting the withholding of medical treatment to infants born alive after an abortion. He is a man who would torture and infant by leaving it gasping for breath and naked on a cold stainless steel slab. So? What's next? Doing this to our elderly?
Obama also supports scrambling the brains ( with scissors) of infants who are seconds from their first breath and sucking the gelatinous mess into surgical suction jars. Gee! I wonder if the Catholic teachers at my daughter's school served cookies and milk with that?
By the way...My daughter ( who is not Catholic) quit.
Oh how I wish that our nation were filled to the brim with real Catholics who actually believed and practiced what their Popes have taught them! Imagine how much better off we would all be as Americans.
Fun stuff! We have Holy Water in the cabinet, but no blessed candles except the children's baptism candles. I suppose I should get out the Leaflet Missal catalog ...
Did your daughter say anything to them?
Because I turn around a whole lot of liberal Catholics with a copy of the Born Alive Act.
**45% McCain, 54% Obama - Catholics1,4,6,8,9,10,11,12
45% McCain, 54% Obama - Catholic14**
Erroneous numbers. In the final count the Catholic vote — still too much — was only 48 percent for Obama.
Actually NO Catholics voted for Obama — only CINOs did.
*8My daughter taught math at a Catholic K-8 school in 2008/2009. Every teacher and the principal voted for Obama and they took every opportunity to show the students how **thrilled** the were that Obama was president.**
I wonder how they feel now.
Just take your Bible. My Bible has the ABC readings listed in the back.
Nice! I don’t have that in the Ignatius RSV. We get the daily lectionary from “The Word Among Us.”
Anyway, we’re all set for the Storm. When the excrement hits the rotating blades, I will stop being Nice and let it all hang out! (Like Bill Donohue, bless his heart!)
There’s nothing new about the New York Times casting calumnies at the Roman Catholic Church, particularly during Lent and Holy Week.
The Times needn’t take the trouble to remind us during such times that its product’s most reliable use is wrapping fish.
He may be out of favor with the far Left at the moment, but they, along with the Catholic Left, will quickly recover their lost enthusiasm in the face of a GOP opponent (no matter who he or she is). There will be a furious and well-funded effort by Catholic Obama supporters to keep Obama in office.
Essentially, one of the attacks comes from dissenting, "progressive", left-wing catholics like Sr. Keehan.
What an unfortunate name... in THIS misbegotten age.
No, you have to watch the so-called christians too because the devil LOVES to hide in the middle of the flock. There his perfidy remains hidden for long and when discovered discredits the Church.
Then you have the leftist communist progressive “emerging” church.
Never occurred to me. I grew up without filth or filthy people.
What!!! No rosaries? "Don't leave home without them!", Fr. John Corapi.
Sigh. DP moved the rosaries to make room for the pool admission tags. ...
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