-
"...in modern times American Catholicism has experienced two major crises: the post-Conciliar crisis right after Vatican Council II and the post-post-Conciliar crisis now underway with no end in sight....
"Start with the post-Conciliar crisis. It began in the mid-1960s and continued into the late 1970s or early 1980s. Its most visible hallmarks were dissent and defections.
"While the groundwork had been laid earlier, dissent didn’t reach crisis proportions until 1968 and the assault on Pope Paul VI’s birth-control encyclical. Humanae Vitae. Note, by the way, that the bishops did their bit by including, in a collective pastoral letter affirming support for the encyclical, directions for responsible dissent – rather as if someone were to tell a thief, 'I’d rather you not steal the diamonds, but if you feel you really must, here’s the combination to the safe.'
"Dissent quickly became institutionalized....the body of doctrines being denied expanded to include much else besides contraception.
"The defections of that era also started before Humanae Vitae and ultimately involved thousands of priests (including a couple of bishops), religious brothers, and religious sisters....
"The hallmarks of the present crisis are contraction and closing down....
"And in places like Germany and Switzerland, early experiments in synodality have produced results suggestive of further decay. But perhaps the decay needs to hit bottom first....
"much of the burden of sustaining American Catholicism in the years ahead will inevitably rest on lay shoulders. Here I merely note a few of the elements of the response that events will soon call on Catholic lay people to make: - We must accept the challenge implicit in Vatican II’s universal call to holiness....
- We will have to rid ourselves of our lingering clericalism....
- We must take the initiative in organizing small groups of like-minded Catholics....
- And we must engage in serious, continuing self-education in the faith....
-
"Up to now, bishops have responded to this crisis largely by managing parish closings and consolidations.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has said nothing. If anything serious is being done to prepare the mass of American Catholics for the even harder times that lie ahead, I haven’t heard about it. And the crisis is upon us" (Russell Shaw, 10/2/22).
- Synod Organizers Are Making Their Crisis of Credibility Worse (National Catholic Register, 9/30/22)
- The Spurious Effort to Make Pope Pius XII a Villain (Public Discourse, 10/2/22)
- Pope Francis Appeals to Putin for an Immediate Ceasefire in Ukraine (National Catholic Register, 10/2/22)
- Putin Charges West with “Satanism”, Offers Cease-Fire in Ukraine – Zelensky Refuses, Vows to Keep Fighting (GatewayPundit, 10/1/22)
-
"....the Anglo-Saxons believe sanctions are no longer enough and now they have turned to subversion. It seems incredible but it is a fact – by causing explosions on Nord Stream’s international gas pipelines passing along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, they have actually embarked on the destruction of Europe’s entire energy infrastructure....
"They have already moved on to the radical denial of moral, religious, and family values....
"do we want to have here, in our country, in Russia, 'parent number one, parent number two and parent number three' (they have completely lost it!) instead of mother and father? Do we want our schools to impose on our children, from their earliest days in school, perversions that lead to degradation and extinction? Do we want to drum into their heads the ideas that certain other genders exist along with women and men and to offer them gender reassignment surgery? Is that what we want for our country and our children? This is all unacceptable to us...
"the dictatorship of the Western elites targets all societies, including the citizens of Western countries themselves....This complete renunciation of what it means to be human, the overthrow of faith and traditional values, and the suppression of freedom are coming to resemble a 'religion in reverse' – pure Satanism. Exposing false messiahs, Jesus Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount: 'By their fruits ye shall know them.' These poisonous fruits are already obvious to people, and not only in our country but also in all countries, including many people in the West itself....
"for future generations, our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We must protect them against enslavement and monstrous experiments that are designed to cripple their minds and souls...." (Vladimir Putin, 9/30/22)
- "After a hearing on Wednesday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is recommending the State Department designate Nigeria a 'country of particular concern' and that a special envoy be appointed to Africa's most populous nation.... As of August, 22 Catholic priests have been kidnapped so far this year. Catholics and other Christians are most at risk in the north, where Islam is dominant.... Nigerian analysts also warned of increased religious violence in the months prior to the February 2023 elections" (Kristine Christlieb, 9/30/22).
- FBI charges pro-life priest with violating abortion access law one week after Mark Houck raid (LifeSite, 9/30/22)
- "Urge HHS to Do No Harm to Life and Liberty" (9/22/22)
- The Issues at Play in the First Post-Roe Midterm Elections (National Catholic Register, 9/6/22)
Lying & Other Dishonesty: a Handy Guide
Letters to Pharmaceutical Companies
["to protest the use of abortion-derived cell lines and advocate for the development of vaccines with no connection to abortion."] (USCCB)
Scientific documentation abortion [including so called "contraceptives" that are abortifacient] kills living human beings/persons (Diane Irving, PhD, 6/26/22)
(Click here for bishop contact info)
(If you have difficulties opening "Ephphata", be sure you are opening the "web version.")
No comments:
Post a Comment