Bishops Who Deserve the Purple Heart

or

Proud To Be a Catholic!

The Purple Heart is a medal awarded to soldiers for being wounded or killed while fighting an enemy of the United States.

I’ve already seen several Catholic Bishops this week, courageous spiritual warriors who have risked all in defending the values encoded in the Constitution of the United States – the defense of life, liberty and property.  The wounds they suffer may not be physical, but courageous Catholic Bishops suffer death threats, and many other forms of abuse.
I am sure there will be more reports of courageous Bishops before November 6th.  Send me reports, and I will add them to this list.

Bishop #1

Bishop Robert C. Morlino of Madison, WI

Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, WI – for a courageous election homily delivered on October 28th, 2012, entitled Lord, I Want to See.
Audio at Madison Cathedral Parish website.

Transcript below at end of this article.

Bishop Morlino spoke about the November 6^th election, on Benghazi, on gay marriage, on cafeteria Catholics, on abortion, on the Wisconsin State Journal, on the media, on a candidate who promotes abortion without restraint and at no cost:

As a result of this election, our country could become more and more inhuman in it’s soul, and the consequences of that, foreseen and unseen, would be catastrophic.”

“This is the most important election in my lifetime, the essence of what it is to be human is what’s at stake.  That’s far more important than the economy.  Because if humanity is under attack, nothing can go right with the economy. 

Bishop #2

Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois:

Your vote will affect the eternal salvation of your own soul. – Breitbart.com

Bishop #3

Bishop Walker Nickless of Sioux City, Iowa– will be publishing the following ad in newspapers all across Iowa (click picture to enlarge):

(thanks to Tom Reitz for this info on facebook)

Bishop #4

Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay, Wisconsin: Voting Democrat Puts Soul in Jeopardy

Bishop #5

Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, Colorado:  Biden Should Not Receive Communion

When I started on this article, I had 3 Catholic Bishops.
Now I have 5.

More and More and More!!! … …

I thought I was finished with this article…  Breitbart.com informs us that many Catholic Bishops are beginning to unite publicly against the Democratic Pary’s championing of abortion.
Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia Pennsylvania  is included, #6

Breitbart writes:

The forces for life are beginning to wake up.

Hey, wait…
Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria, Illinois… # 7

Yippee!

Please note: that this was the MORMON
Tabernacle Choir. 😮

.

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Transcript of Bishop Morlino’s Election Homily on October 28th:

Lord, I want to see. 

Bishop Robert Morlino’s Sunday Homily, October 28, 2012

Based on the Gospel reading, Mark 10:46-52

Bartimaeus was not born blind, like the man in the gospel according to John, whom we always recall one of the later Sundays during Lent.   Bartimaeus was not born blind.  He had his sight for many years, and then lost it.   So he knew what he did not have.  And on top of it, he was reduced to begging by his blindness and disability, so that he was without human dignity.

Bartimaeus is sitting there in his misery, and along comes Jesus.  And Bartimaeus can’t control himself, because all of a sudden, hope invades his misery, and he cries out to Jesus.  Jesus says “Bring him over here.  What do you want from me?”  Bartimaeus is s plainspoken man.  “Lord, I want to see.”  He receives his sight, and what does he do? Go back to his former life? No.  With his new sight, he immediately follows Jesus.   

That’s what our New Evangelization during the Year of Faith is all about.  So many once had their sight, but have become blind.  The problem is, they don’t know enough to say, “I want to see.”  And somehow, we are to be the instruments of the hope of Jesus Christ that moves them to say that.  But we have a major problem in our country and in our society, with people, including many Catholics, who simply do not want to see.

There is an article in the State Journal today, and you can almost conclude from that that it’s unreliable, but it is, by a sociologist, about Vatican II.  And Vatican II brought life to lay people.  Vatican II took lay people seriously.  All of that is right. 

How did Vatican II take lay people seriously?  Vatican II pointed out that lay people don’t simply obey the Church any more.  They’re adult.  They’re too adult for that. So what Vatican II said is the lay people are obligated to find out what the Church teaches, and then make up their own mind about it.  Find out what the Church teaches, and then say yes or no.  In other words, this sociologist, whose observations are included in the State Journal article, believes that what Vatican II did for the Church is make possible “cafeteria Catholicism.”  Vatican II pushed “cafeteria Catholicism.  O, you have to find out what the Church teaches, but then you decide whether you have to follow it or not. 

If one is called to be Catholic, one follows what the Church teaches.  That is the correct understanding of conscience.  And if one really cannot follow what the Church teaches, then one’s conscience requires that one leave the Church.   But one’s conscience does not require that one make up one’s own personal religion from A to Z, finding out the Church’s teaching, and then saying, “Well that’s O.K., that’s O.K., that’s O.K.; over here, I don’t like this, I will cast my line-item veto, on what the Church teaches.

Cafeteria Catholics were not always blind, but now they are, and they don’t want to see.  And the reason they don’t want to see is that there are people around telling them the whole point of Vatican II was to create cafeteria Catholicism.  How could that ever be true? 

There are many Catholics who happen to be Democrats, who don’t want to see.  There are many Catholics who happen to be Republicans, who don’t want to see. 

What is there to see?

A candidate who promotes abortion without restraint and at no cost.
Promotes abortion.   And on top of it, it’s free.
Promotes artificial contraception.   And it’s free.

Sometimes I think to myself, “It would make sense that someone would not worry about the effects of colossal death on future generations if their policy discourages future generations. 
If abortion is promoted, free, if artificial contraception is promoted, free, who are going to people future generations?  The birth rate goes down, down, down, down, down.  And so you worry less about handing on a debt to future generations because there might not be any, if we just abortion and artificial birth control ourselves as a culture and a society into oblivion. 

This is very serious business.  And yet there are many who call themselves Catholics who don’t want to see. 

Written in our very human nature, in the language of our body, by the Creator, is that marriage means one husband, one wife, one lifetime, with openness to children.  Every human being has the right to marry the person he chooses, or she chooses, of the opposite sex.  No one’s right to marry a person of the opposite sex is threatened.  But there is no right to redefine marriage as same-sex marriage. 

To redefine marriage is to attack the essence of being human.  “God made them human, male and female.” And He made them for marriage.  He gave their bodies a nuptial meaning.   That’s who we are as human.  We are male and female.  If that doesn’t matter, then humanity as it was created starts to ebb away.  And now we have people who want to play some kind of  a game that is deadly to humanity, that says, “Well, let the child be born, and after some years, let him or her decide whether he wants to be he or she.” 

Instead of being what God created me to be, I become what I think I am.  God is no longer in charge, what I think is in charge.  I don’t want to see. 

Many Catholics, unfortunately, are caught up in that. 
And if someone does not want to see, there’s no hope for healing.  Because they don’t know that they need to be healed, obviously. 
And look at the press and the television, the mass media. We’re getting an overdose of it every day.  “I don’t want to see what happened in Libya, in Benghazi.  I don’t want to see it—at least until the election is over. Then, maybe. ”

Bartimaeus’ salvation turned out to be in those four words,, “I want to see.”  Our country, and our culture, including many Catholics, proclaim, “I don’t want to see.”  

That’s the challenge of the New Evangelization.  And that’s the challenge that awaits our country that we have to face, ready or not, on November the 6^th, and I’m terribly afraid that we’re not ready to face it.  Because an electorate that doesn’t want to see, including Catholics,  cannot elect wisely. 

You and I have to be instruments of waking people up out of their blindness.  They’re blind, and they think it’s fine.  At least for right now.  That blindness could lead our country more and more in the direction of inhumanity.   As a result of this election, our country could become more and more and more inhuman – in it’s soul – and the consequences of that foreseen and unseen would be catastrophic.  This is the most important election in my lifetime, the essence of what it is to be human is what’s at stake.  That’s far more important than the economy.  Because if humanity is under attack, nothing can go right with the economy.

We have to pray hard, and we have to speak up, in the next nine or ten days, to our friends, our neighbors, our fellow family members who don’t want to see.  If the can discover that in not wanting to see there is no hope, there is no joy, maybe they would repent, by God’s grace.  And so above all, we have to pray for them, pray for our country, pray for those who do not want to see.   That they will decide in the favor of hope, and for the long-term future of our country they will choose life, rather than death, for humanity. 

Praised be Jesus Christ.