Posted on 08/17/2015 7:34:29 AM PDT by Academiadotorg
FRONT ROYAL, VA — Millions of Americans, including many Catholics, were stunned when Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Catholic Archbishop of New York, attacked opponents of illegal immigration as “nativists” in a recent and widely-circulated column in a liberal New York tabloid.
Unfortunately, Cardinal Dolan’s outburst represents a long line of liberalism on the part of America’s bishops — a position based not only on their “Social Justice” leftism, but because the welfare state which they celebrate doles out over a billion dollars a year to their Non-Government Organizations (Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Migration and Refugee Services, and so on).
And Cardinal Dolan is not alone. In fact, he is merely echoing his colleague in Los Angeles, Archbishop José Gomez. Gomez routinely attacks opponents of amnesty for illegal immigrants, accusing them with a string of strong epithets. In turn, he is merely echoing his fellow bishops in his native Mexico, who frequently rise to condemn “the arrogant, xenophobic, and racist attitude of the United States” (to which Abp. Gomez adds “bigotry”).
Cardinal Dolan’s predecessor prelates resonated this calumny in their 1979 Pastoral Letter on Racism, Brothers and Sisters to Us. There they proclaim that only Caucasians can be guilty of the “subtle” sin of “racism that permeates our society’s structures and resides in the hearts of many among the majority” [emphasis added].
This sin is so subtle, in fact, that it is “anonymous” – “each of us” is guilty, but most of us don’t even know that we’re sinning!
Of course, this contrived notion defies the Church’s teaching, clearly explained in the Catholic Catechism, that a mortal sin must be “committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent” (CCC No. 1857).
Nonetheless, the notion that all Caucasian Americans are guilty until proven innocent goes far to explain Cardinal Dolan’s unctuous condescension as he recalls his days as a teacher.
Any college student, he implies, knows that to oppose amnesty for illegal aliens (a term he refuses to acknowledge, by the way), or to demand that they follow the law (including the Ten Commandments) is nativist, backward – and anti-Catholic.
This unwarranted assertion cannot go unchallenged, since it is both unjust and counter-factual. Counter-factual because many Catholics are among the millions of Americans who oppose Obama’s program to import as many Third-World immigrants, legal and illegal, into the United States as possible.
Moreover, many of those same immigrants are not Catholic.
It is unjust because the Cardinal implies that anyone who disagrees with him is nativist — as though support of amnesty for illegal aliens were a requirement of Catholic Faith and Morals. This grievously overstates the matter.
What is required by Catholic Faith and Morals goes unmentioned: the doctrine on contraception and other sexual sins contained in Humanae Vitae.
Yet, in 2013 Cardinal Dolan bragged on national television that he has “only rarely, in my 37 years as a priest” taught the truths of that genuinely Magisterial document.
What is it that induces our bishops to ignore the Church’s timeless teachings, and instead browbeat us with their political preferences disguised as moral imperatives?
Well, as my father used to tell his Notre Dame Law students for thirty years, “if you take the first bribe, you may as well take the rest.”
So permit me ask a parallel classroom question to those that Professor Dolan shared with his college students years ago.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB for short) and its subsidiaries, as well as individual Catholic dioceses, receive over a billion dollars a year from the U.S. taxpayer.
Now, consider: Cardinal Dolan has exuberantly announced, on national television, that America’s bishops want to be Obama’s “cheerleaders.”
Can it be that our beloved bishops have – unconsciously, of course, just like the Cardinal’s target audience of “nativist” lay Catholics — could it be that our bishops have been bribed into silence by that billion dollars a year?
And could it be that our beloved bishops — who have watched more than thirty million of the faithful become “former Catholics” — could these prelates actually support amnesty because they want to keep the pews filled while they please their government paymasters?
These are merely questions, of course, not unjust accusations. In coming weeks we’ll take a closer look.
In the meantime, we should all pray for our bishops. To paraphrase LBJ, they’re the only ones we’ve got.
As a Catholic myself I will say it:
The Church is very Left-wing. Very Marxist in orientation.
Every time I hear the words “social justice” I know these are code words for Marxism and Socialism.
Our current Pope Che, like the Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, is openly socialistic and shows nothing but hatred and contempt for free market capitalism.
This is our Church unfortunately. We need to face facts. It is far from perfect and certainly not infallible. It has made huge mistakes and the current Pope is one of its biggest mistakes IMHO.
God help us.
Sorry, church hierarchy. Letting masses of people in will make us all poor. Better to keep them out and tell them to work hard, set up a constitutional system of government, work hard and stop looking for a handout.
Dolan is nothing but a communist anyway. The Catholic church lost its way a long time ago.
I haven’t hear too many homilies on the sin of homosexual marriage as I recall. In fact silence at the church I go to.
But they sure are on a roll on acceptance of Illegal Alien immigration.
It will be interesting that if a certain Mr. Donald Trump goes all the way to get the GOP nomination what the Catholic Bishops in the USA reaction going to be.
My Church has taken a very disturbing and visible left turn in just the past couple of years.
At first I was very disturbed when they did not openly and vigorously oppose Obama’s re-election after he had basically declared war on us with the birth control mandate in Obamacare.
Then we elected a Pope who is clearly an Argentine Peronist Marxist and environmental extremist, who is willing to shovel out his own personal political views as Biblically-authenticated Church doctrine.
And now they are barely whispering their opposition to the gay marriage ruling and continued funding of Planned Parenthood.
Attendance and enthusiasm are palpably declining as a result. I suspect they want Hispanics legalized in order to replace the rest of us in the pews. And in the collection baskets.
Satan laughing spreads his wings...
it is always to remember that Cardinal Dolan is first and foremost a representative of the Vatican before he is an American
The Vatican line is conquer America and that is what he intends to do
These Catholic “leaders” are the ones who are sinning!
Violating the law and causing loss of jobs and misery to “native” Americans.
Not only that, these same Catholic “leaders” are being lead by the most corrupt pope in centuries. He is a liar, because he tells people that the Global Warming Scam is real so that his Socialist/Communist agenda will play out.
I would not expect the Church to take an active role in a presidential (or any other type of partisan election) election, as it could cost them their tax exempt status.
I would be happy if the Church stayed out of politics (and economics and science altogether) period. If I want to hear lectures on public policy or ideology, I go to a political meeting.
I would be happy if the Church just focused on what churches should be doing and stay completely out of politics altogether.
Nailed it Buckeye McFrog!
That is the move behind Everything!
The Democrats, The GOP, all of them.
The old Maxim of "But they can't do that! It will upset the voters" Doesn't work anymore because they plan on Replacing those voters with Millions of Illegals they know will vote the way they want.
HOWEVER, the voters they don't want anymore are the ones pulling the cart, what happens when the load becomes too much?
That is why I am what is known as a lapsed Catholic.
I really wonder sometimes, if the Church would rather have us as we were in the Dark Ages: ignorant, sickly and destitute...dependent upon kings for our measly sustinence, and dependent upon popes for our spritual enlightenment.
Think about it--the Church has lost the power it used to have, and now is just seen as the organization around a political voting bloc.
Dear Trapped - Like the Pope Che moniker. I totally agree. It is face-palm time for us Catholics. Missing Pope Benedict XVI so very much right now. At a marriage retreat recently, one of our good Carmelite priests said, “When the 60s generation of priests retires, THEN the church will right itself once again.” Too True.
Barely 100 people showed up at Mass yesterday.
Attendance was more than double that just five years ago.
Our Diocese has circulated a chart showing that to be the case throughout. For the first time they are citing outflow to nondenominational Evangelical churches as a factor.
Whenever I attend an event at one of those I keep meeting people who tell me “I used to be Catholic”.
I agree with everything you said. I especially miss Pope Benedict.
Hopefully you’re right. But I’m not that optimistic.
I was watching Irvin Baxter of End Time Ministies on Daystar a few a weeks ago.
He clearly documented how just about every pope from Pius XII to the current pope has advocated for world government.
I was naturally appalled by this. Even popes who I assumed were conservatives seem to be on board with this. The Church seems to be institutionally supportive of global government, disarmament, globull warming, social justice, redistribution of wealth, illegal immigration and a host of other policies which puts in it on the very far Left of the ideological spectrum.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.