Syte Reitz

The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world…….

Browsing Posts tagged Bishop Morlino

Rosary for the Bishop Wishes Bishop Hying a very Blessed and Merry Christmas!

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15 Christmases!

Rosary for the Bishop was started 15 years ago as a Christmas gift for Bishop Morlino.
During the last 15 years, the prayer effort was expanded to cover almost 500 Bishops from all over the world.
 
This Christmas, as Rosary for the Bishop celebrates 15 years, it now becomes a Christmas gift to Bishop Hying of Madison.

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Madison’s Cathedral Parish has now adopted Rosary for the Bishop.
With this adoption, the site is being updated and a new campaign to promote the site and its mission is being launched to coincide with the 15th anniversary.

Please Check Us Out & Join!

We hope that everyone visits the site, pledges to pray one rosary per month for Bishop Hying, and registers to pray for other Bishops as well. 

Add YOUR Bishop

If your Bishop is not already among the almost 500 Bishops included on the Rosary for the Bishop website, just email Rosary for the Bishop with your request using the contact form, and your Bishop will be added to the program. 

Check It Out!

There is no cost involved in joining this army of prayer, and email reminders are available.  

Mobile-friendly pamphlet explaining how to pray the Rosary

See also:

Madison Catholic Herald article about Rosary for the Bishop
OSV News Article
The Catholic Sprit
The Dialog

Astonishingly Perceptive Wisconsin State Journal Article Portrays Bishop Morlino in 2004

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Treasures in My Basement
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Not being much of a newspaper clipper, nor information hoarder, I was surprised to unearth several treasures in my basement, including notes I took at a Future Society meeting addressed by Bishop Morlino and a Wisconsin State Journal article which introduced Bishop Morlino to Madison almost exactly fifteen years ago, on February 15th, 2004, about six months after his arrival in Madison.

The front page Sunday article was remarkably positive, surprisingly perceptive, and provides one very elegant bookend to Bishop Morlino’s life here with us in Madison for the past 15 years, so I had to share.

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The Wisconsin State Journal article began with several striking headlines:

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MORLINO: CONFRONTING SECULARISM IN MADISON

DIOCESE HAS NEVER HAD A BISHOP LIKE MORLINO

HE WADES INTO CONTROVERSY, BUT HE IS TOLERANT OF THOSE WHO DISAGREE WITH HIM.

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Bishop Morlino’s address to the World Future Society was one of his early encounters with secular Madison and was entitled “The Future of Religion.” It was presented at Fluno Hall on the University of Wisconsin Madison campus.  Bishop Morlino pointed out during that address that Democracy maximizes individual freedom and minimizes restraint by the government.  Thus it requires free self-restraint, which makes sense only in a religious framework.  Government ought to favor authentic religion– when self-restraint under God is promoted, the government has less restraining to do.  Religion, therefore, must have a future if democracy is to have a future.
In hindsight now in 2019 with Antifa type disorder rampant, this prediction by Bishop Morlino made 15 years ago (in 2003) comes across particularly inspired.

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Hoping to share the nostalgic Wisconsin State Journal article with fellow Catholics who are mourning our loss of Bishop Morlino on November 24, 2018, I rushed to Wisconsin State Journal archives to find the link to this old article  — only to find that in order to see anything more detailed than the fuzzy 2×2 inch image of the whole front page, readers had to subscribe to the Wisconsin State Journal($19.99/month).

This inspired me to photograph, transcribe, and share excerpts of my newspaper clipping with my family and friends here below, with some occasional commentary.

The Wisconsin State Journal front page Sunday article from February 15, 2004:

MORLINO: CONFRONTING SECULARISM IN MADISON

DIOCESE HAS NEVER HAD A BISHOP LIKE MORLINO

HE WADES INTO CONTROVERSY, BUT HE IS TOLERANT OF THOSE WHO DISAGREE WITH HIM.

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By William R. Wineke
Wisconsin State Journal

Six months after becoming spiritual leader of 265,000 Roman Catholics in southern Wisconsin, Robert Morlino is proving to be a bishop far different from any the Madison Catholic Diocese has seen before.

He is at once more self-assured and, paradoxically, more humble than any of his predecessors, more willing to engage in public controversy on behalf of his church and more tolerant of those who disagree, a man who seems at ease with himself, his values and his abilities.

He also begins his leadership of the diocese at a time when trends in the church that have been occurring for years are reaching crisis proportions. His priests are getting older and there are a few replacements in the pipeline. The result is that each pastor serves an increasing number of parishioners each year, parishes are being merged and ongoing scandals in the church at large are testing the faith of Catholics locally.

Perhaps his biggest challenge, however, is confronting what Morlino sees as a pervasive secularism in Madison.

Morlino said his first six months here have convinced him of the necessity for dialogue with the outside culture.

“Madison has to face all the challenges of secularism,“ he said. “I think the challenge in Madison is to enter into dialogue with the culture that is secular. To strengthen people’s faith requires some flexibility and versatility.“

He says he is somewhat surprised by the extent of the secular culture here and by what he perceives as a split between the culture of Madison and of the rest of the 11-county diocese.

“I knew it theoretically before I came here, but I didn’t realize how strong that culture is,” he said.

He does much of his teaching through his column in the diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Herald.

In a recent column dealing with the referendum on expanding gambling at Madison’s DeJope  bingo hall, Morlino put the whole issue into the reference of the cities alleged secularism. He said it is hard to argue against gambling in the city that welcomes abortion and the production of anti-Catholic plays, such as “Corpus Christi,“ a play that portrays Jesus and his disciples as gay. A national organization, America needs Fatima, has organized a protest against its performance, which is scheduled for March 5-27 at the Bartell  Theater.

“The kind of community we are seems to indicate a high comfort level with virtually no public morality,“ he said.

But, he asked, “is that really the kind of community we want to be in the Diocese of Madison and in the state of Wisconsin looking into the future?“

His column reported in the front page story in the Wisconsin State Journal, elicited responses of both support and outrage.

Both the State Journal’s and the Capital Times’ editorial pages criticized Morlino‘s position, and Capital Times columnist (Aside from Syte: calumnist?😂) Doug Moe wrote a piece on the newspaper’s front page taking the Bishop to task. The common thread in the editorial response was that Morlino hasn’t lived here long enough to pass judgment.

Those who argue with him tend to do so from the perspective that in a pluralistic society, secular values of open-mindedness should prevail.

The State Journal’s editorial page, for example, has been barraged with letters supporting and opposing Morlino. Philip Keillor, a Madison activist with a history of working with the poor, noted the city’s hard work in providing shelter for the homeless and suggested “moral minimums in our community seem to be developed on issues when there is enough agreement to ‘make it happen’ and those who remain uninvolved either accept or don’t strongly oppose controversial activities.

And the Rev. E. Ellwood Carey, retired pastor of Parkside Presbyterian Church, suggested there is “nothing in Christian scriptures that reveals Jesus’ sexuality, so a word of caution regarding assumptions is appropriate.“

Many Catholic readers, on the other hand, argue that a Bishop’s letter to the people of his diocese should not be read as an allegation of immorality on the part of non-believers.

Mary Weisensel, Sun Prairie, a Catholic laywoman  long active in church causes, noted that “a closer examination of the bishops column in our diocesan newspaper reveals that he cast no stones, he only sought to help us think through a moral issue. That’s what bishops are supposed to do…”

What the flap demonstrates more than anything is that Morlino does not duck controversy. His recurring theme is that there is an “objective public morality, a moral truth.“

In Thursday’s column, for example, he said “our freedom is accountable to the moral truth and, as I have written so many times, the fact that something is done freely does not make it morally right, that should be obvious.“

He use the column to criticize the Super Bowl performance, in which the singer Janet Jackson’s bodice was ripped off to reveal one of her breasts during the nation’s most watched television event. He also commented on reducing love to its “sensual dimensions,“ adding that the “ongoing effort to assert into the civic life of our country and our culture the right to redefine marriage“ is “certainly not among the inalienable rights conferred upon each human person according to the mind of our nation’s architects from the beginning.“

Morlino, 57, who succeeded Bishop William Bullock last August, is the fourth Bishop to serve the 11-county Madison Catholic Diocese.

He is a native of Pennsylvania, the only child of a Scranton couple. His mother died when he was a teenager.

Morlino was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1974. He holds a bachelors degree in philosophy from Fordham University, a masters degree in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame and a doctorate in moral theology from the Gregorian University in Rome.

He is a large enthusiastic man who appears to enjoy company, love sports and doesn’t like being bound by rigid schedules. He doesn’t talk “down“ to people – which means, also, that he expects people to be able to hold their own when they speak with him.

He had a diocese that was formed in 1946 and was led, successively, by bishops William O’Connor, who served from 1946 to 1967, Cletus O’Donnell, who served from 1967 to 1992 and Bullock, who served until 2003.

If their tenures could be described by a single word – none would wish to be so described — O’Connor was a builder; O’Donnell was a national leader, Bullock was an administrator and Morlino is a teacher.

Audio for many of Bishop Morlino’s homilies is available at the Cathedral Parish Media Archive – click above text for link and search “Morlino.”

He seems perfectly willing to challenge a society he thinks is too secular and seems to have no questions about his ability to do so. However Morlino also insists on respect for those who disagree. He says that, in dialogue with the secular world, he is convinced that “the truth wins out by its own gentle power.“

Morlino writes long pastoral letters each Thursday in the Catholic Herald, on subjects ranging from support for the controversial orders of LaCrosse Bishop Raymond Burke (now Archbishop of St. Louis) on giving Communion to legislators who support abortion, to analysis of the best-selling novel “The DaVinci Code,“ to Marian devotions.

Lorraine Endres of Waunakee, a Catholic laywoman who says she hopes to be considered a good Catholic but who is not known as an activist, says most of what she knows about her new Bishop comes from his pastoral letters.

“I haven’t met him personally, but I think he’s going to be good for the diocese,“ she said. “He’s pro-life and he lets people know it. I read his column in the Herald every week and it’s easy to understand where he’s coming from. He’s down to earth and he lets people know what he thinks.“

Morlino confronted his Priests with a tightly reasoned multi-page letter on changes in Catholic worship having to do with confession and First Communion and, when asked by some priests for a simpler version they could share with their parishioners, he replied that cutting it down to five pages was as far as he could justifiably go.

If Morlino expects his priests to bone up on their theology, however, he has also scored points with those same priests by announcing he won’t even read unsigned letters complaining about them.

“I think he brings a great deal of renewed optimism to the diocese,“ said the Rev. Felix Oehrlein, pastor of Saint Cecilia Catholic Church in Wisconsin Dells. “He’s been very affirming. At our recent gathering of priests, he had a town-hall meeting, sat down with us for a couple of hours and just anyone who had something to say to stand up and say it. He wasn’t defensive about anything.”

At the same time, Morlino has spent comparatively little time on administering the diocese, something Bullock prided himself as doing.

During his first six months as Madison‘s bishop, he travel to other states for days and weeks at a time, sometimes to for fill commitments he made before arriving here, sometimes to take a few days off.

In an interview with the state journal, Morlino said it’s all a matter of emphasizing a bishop’s talents.

“There are bishops who hover with their investment officers and develop financial strategies,“ he said. “No one would be more useless at that than me. There are lay people with far more financial skills than I have and I think we ought to let them use those skills for the good of the church.“

Much of the work of actually administering the diocese has fallen to his vicar general, or second in command, Monsignor Paul Swain (Aside from Syte: now Bishop of  Sioux Falls) who, nevertheless, says Morlino has brought a sense of zest to the office.

Morlino may have best explained his concepts of personal strengths in a talk to diocesan young people recently in Wisconsin Dells.

Comparing life to jigsaw puzzle, Morlino said, “I can’t go anywhere I want. Every piece is fitted to occupy a certain spot. I know I have strengths and weaknesses and if I don’t like my strengths and weaknesses, if I don’t accept them, there is no joy.”

Morlino stunned his staff at the Bishop O’Connor Pastoral Center by giving each person two weeks off over the Christmas season. Those who had to work to keep the facility running were told to take extra vacation time later in the year.

Telling his staff to take more time off also has its pastoral side, Morlino suggested.

“Our culture really does need to slow down,“ he said. “What drives it is the materialism of our age. If you’re never satisfied with what you have, there’s only one way to get more and that is to work longer hours and that has its effect on all sorts of other values.“

As for himself, Morlino confessed, “I know I don’t make my best decisions when I’m overtired.“

Morlino raised some eyebrows locally when, shortly after being installed as Bishop, he joined a group of abortion opponents in a march to an abortion clinic, where he recited the rosary.

People weren’t surprised that he opposes abortion – all Catholic bishops do – but his predecessors hadn’t been involved in public marches.

Perhaps more telling than Morlino‘s participation, however, was his admonition to his fellow marchers to love their opponents.

“When someone is promoting error, that error has to be corrected, of course,“ Morlino said then. “But the person promoting the error never loses that dignity and sacredness of the human person.“

Morlino said that’s just basic Catholic teaching.

He applied the same judgment to politicians who may not conform to church teachings.

“I can’t judge the heart of an individual, but, objectively, those who hold public office and are in public positions have to be challenged, not only for the good of their souls and the state of their own faith,“ he said, adding that if politicians “publicly promote things we can’t abide by, that becomes sinful for them and scandalous for the Catholic community.“

The issue, Morlino continued, isn’t that politicians must take orders from the church, but they must live up to their own vocations.

Morlino’s strong stance on social and moral issues seems to be popular with his fellow Catholics, many of whom are writing to the newspapers in support of him.
Within his church, Morlino has been most controversial in Baraboo, where the pastor of Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church, the Reverend Gerald Vosen, was accused of sexual improprieties and was removed from office last September.

The man Vosen is accused of abusing denies the allegations (they were made by the man’s sister), but Morlino and the diocesan body charged with investigating sexual abuse charges have neither confirmed the charges nor returned Vosen to his pulpit. Morlino suggested, obliquely, that other allegations may have been made.

At any rate, Saint Joseph parishioners– and even pastors of Protestant congregations in Baraboo – have protested and marched against what they perceive to be Morlino’s inaction.

Morlino scoffs at the one-word descriptions of Bishop’s records cited above.

“I don’t think of myself as coming to leave a mark,“ he said. “I think the bishop should do what the church wants him to do and that is to try to create an environment in which every person, every day, is invited to meet Christ, risen from the dead, in a gentle and kind the way.“ He added: “I am not the Messiah and things may go awry. But, the gifts I have, I will use. If it turns out later that I have left a mark so be it.“

“I am not the Messiah and things may go awry. But, the gifts I have, I will use. If it turns out later that I have left a mark so be it.“ – Bishop Morlino

Bishop Morlino has certainly made a very positive and very remarkable mark in Madison, and his mark includes:

40 new priests
30 seminarians
Perpetual Adoration Chapel in Madison (well know by Faithful Catholics to generate priestly vocations)
New St. Paul’s Campus Catholic Center at UW Madison (preserving the faith of our youth and generating numerous vocations)
Opening discussion of relativism and the importance of moral truth
Courageous defense of life and marriage
Opposition to embryonic stem cell research
Clarification of Church teaching on controversial issues like immigration
Willingness to take strong stands on protecting victims of clerical sexual abuse, both in his own Diocese, and all the way up to supporting Archbishop Vigano’s calls for Papal transparency.

For more of Bishop Morlino’s accomplishments, see Bishop Morlino was Truly a Churchman of His Time 

See also:

Madison Catholic Herald on Bishop Morlino

Madison’s Bishop Celebrates 15 Years!

Rest in Peace, Bishop Morlino

Madison’s Brilliant Bishop

What on Earth is Going on with the Catholic Church? or The Flip Side of Mercy

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday!

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A Very Different Christmas

Christmas will be very different this year in Madison, with the loss of our very beloved Bishop Morlino on November 24, 2018 , and the emptiness left in our hearts by the departure of our courageous Shepherd and Father.

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Bishop is Enjoying Christmas!

But we rise above the sorrow and the sense of loss with the knowledge that our beloved Bishop, where he now is, is enjoying the love and beauty he taught us about, and is actually in a position to help us all more, both collectively as a Diocese, and individually as members of his flock.

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“Apostle of Purgatory”

And yes,  Bishop Morlino, who has been called by some the “Apostle of Purgatory,” might be the first to correct me and to check his “canonization” on which I have just embarked.  But please allow this member of the Bishop’s  flock to point out that he is sure to be treated with the same love, gentleness and mercy by God that he exhibited himself to all of us while he was here.
Just in case, to cover our bases, we will keep our beloved Bishop in our prayers, but I, for one, believe that our very good and courageous Bishop is already in a very good position to watch over us and intercede for us, close to Christ and His Blessed Mother, whom our Bishop so loved.
May Bishop Morlino be enjoying right now that vision that does not disappoint.

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“Ave Maria” in Honor of Bishop Morlino

In honor of Bishop Morlino, because we miss him this Christmas, and in honor of the Bishop’s birthday (December 31st) on the eve of the feast of Mary, Mother of God, here is a free gift for all to download — Ave Maria played on the guitar by my husband Rolf:

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AVE MARIA mp3,  played by Rolf Reitz:

(right click to “save as”)

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We love you, Bishop, Morlino!

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Rolf, Syte, Tracey and Tom Reitz with Bishop Morlino

Happy Birthday, Bishop Morlino!

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Remembering  Bishop Morlino:

Bishop Morlino Was Truly a Churchman of His Time 

Madison Catholic Herald on Bishop Morlino

Madison’s Bishop Celebrates 15 Years!

Rest in Peace, Bishop Morlino

Madison’s Brilliant Bishop

What on Earth is Going on with the Catholic Church? or The Flip Side of Mercy

 What on Earth is Going on with the Catholic Church?

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The Flip Side of Mercy

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Scandals and Sinners are Not New

Scandals and sinners in the Catholic Church are not new.
Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Jesus Christ was a pretty big deal, and he was chosen personally by Jesus Christ to be among the first 12 Bishops of His Church.
So it is not surprising that members of the Church hierarchy can commit sins.
Nobody denies that.
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The Current Pedophilia and Coverup Scandals

Recent news headlines in 2018 show that there continue to be horrific evil sins and crimes being committed by some clergy in the Catholic Church.
Enemies of the Catholic Church, who resent the Church’s moral authority, who do not want to follow Judeo-Christian commandments, and who have been attacking the Church for 2000 years, are very quick to point out sins committed by members of the Church.
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And the mud really sticks.
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The National Review correctly points out that such depraved sacrilegious acts by even ONE priest damage the moral authority and credibility of the Catholic Church:

“This is why, when sex scandals within the Church come to light, observations that the “vast majority” of clergy did nothing wrong strike many as unmoving. If, as Catholics maintain, the Church’s hierarchy derives its legitimacy from a transmission of spiritual authority passed down from the Apostles, then even isolated instances of malfeasance within that hierarchy can shake people’s faith in this claim.”

This is also why so many good Catholic Clergy, including Archbishop Vigano and Madison’s Bishop Morlino,  are calling for complete transparency and accountability throughout the Church, all the way up to our Pope.

Being Balanced and Fair to the Catholic Clergy

Those of us Catholics who love our Church do not enjoy watching the vast innocent remainder of our beloved  holy priests demonized and attacked publicly by hate-filled progressive media.  The media misrepresent our Catholic clergy in most unfair terms.

We realize that saying “but your Honor, the other guy over there committed many more crimes than I did” is never a good defense.

But we also realize that truth is valuable, honor must be defended, and institutions and principles stand, even when some officials betray them.
The Presidency of the the United States was not abandoned when one man got caught desecrating the Oval Office with his sexual sins and depravity.
And all the members of one race are not condemned when one member of that race commits a crime.
Bigotry and prejudice are bigotry and prejudice, even when they are directed at the Catholic clergy, as opposed to a (temporarily) more politically popular group.

In that spirit, we digress to put the magnitude of the problem into perspective, before we continue to discuss the latest Catholic Church sex abuse problem, it’s shocking implications, and possible solutions.

Magnitude of the Catholic Church Problem

Regarding the current pedophilia accusations, because of the progressive media’s dislike for the conservative Catholic Church, few people find out that Catholic priests are actually the least probable to abuse children, less probable to abuse than any other group of people in the world.   Celibacy has also been shown to be irrelevant — pedophilia occurs most commonly among married men who are not in the clergy.   Sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests is less probable than by other men, 100 times less probable than teachers at school, and at least twenty times less probable than the child’s own parents.

RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), our nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, reports that of the annual 63,000 sexual abuse cases substantiated by Child Protective Services, the perpetrator was most often the parent (80%).  Other relatives were responsible for 6%, 4% were unmarried partners of a parent, and 5% were “other,” (from siblings to strangers, and this category would include all clergy religious of all denominations).

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Since the first major reports starting in 1985, the church has actually studied, analyzed, worked on, and dramatically reduced the incidence of these problems (see John Jay Report Figure 1.1).  The John Jay Report is well worth reading for anybody who is interested in the scandals.
The findings of the John Jay report are Facts are backed up by independent sources like Psychology Today, Newsweek, National Review and insurance companies who calculate risk (and charge litigation insurance premiums accordingly) for religious and other institutions.  Catholic institutions are not charged any larger insurance premiums than any other group.
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Despite the dramatic reduction in Church scandals shown in the above graph, and despite the fact that the above graph represents only a very small fraction of the total sexual abuse of children in the United States, those in the media who resent the traditional Judeo-Christian teachings which the Catholic Church has maintained for 2000 years, continue to dredge up and attack the church for crimes and sins which occurred between 1950 and 2000.

Magnitude of Our Whole Society’s Problem

The message we should take from the above statistics is not that abuse in the Catholic Church is not too bad, but that there is a SHOCKING level of sexual abuse of children throughout all of our society, including abuse by teachers, and ABUSE BY PARENTS, that has been off the radar all this time.  Most of us don’t know about it, and the media has not told us. The numbers are sometimes sketchy and can vary from study to study, but the general picture that emerges is very worrisome and shocking.  The National Center for Victims of Crime tells us that 28% of US kids are sexually victimized during their formative years.

Yes, 28% of US kids are sexually victimized during their formative years.

Back to the Catholic Church

Despite the fact that the Catholic clergy actually have the lowest frequency of child abuse of any group on earth, despite the fact that Catholic Church abuse has now been dramatically reduced, and despite the fact that the Catholic Church has formulated model abuse prevention programs whose implementation should be considered by all other institutions in our society,  the Catholic Church is still making headlines recently regarding sex abuse scandals.

And this time, we cannot just blame the media, which likes to pick on the Catholic Church.
Most recently, some new facts have emerged which challenge even the most faithful members of the Catholic Church.

The Unexpected and Shocking Developments

The new facts to surface regarding the old Catholic Church scandals do not involve frequency of incidence, which seems to have been dramatically reduced, but they involve two aspects of the old coverups which cannot be ignored:

  • The Church is now being accused of coverup, as high up as Pope Francis.

  • The detailed nature of the sexual abuse has been identified — and it is almost exclusively homosexual.

The picture now emerging is one not of pedophilia, but of homosexual abuse of older male children and seminarians by homosexual priests.
These developments create a clash of values in our modern culture that will have no easy resolution.

Clash of Values
First, the Events of Summer 2018

Pope Francis greets Archbishop McCarrick

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Three major new events have brought us to this point of scandal in the Catholic Church this summer.

  • Cardinal McCarrick, one of Pope Francis’ closest advisors, resigned from the College of Cardinals following allegations of sexual abuse of a teenage boy 40 years ago in New York City, as well as sexual misconduct with seminarians over an extended more recent period of time.
  • Separately, a Pennsylvania Grand Jury issued a report summarizing that from 1950 to 2000, 300 priests in Pennsylvania sexually abused over 1,000 children. 90% of the abuse reported by the Pennsylvania Grand Jury was of older male children by homosexual priests.
  • Then, Archbishop Vigano, former apostolic nuncio to the United States, issued an 11 page letter implicating Pope Francis and several senior prelates in covering up Archbishop Theodore McCarrick’s alleged sexual abuse of a youth and of seminarians. He claimed that Pope Francis knew about strict canonical sanctions imposed on McCarrick by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 but chose to repeal them. He accused Pope Francis of not only ignoring Pope Benedict’s sanctions, but also of promoting Cardinal McCarrick to be the Pope’s trusted counselor.  Archbishop Vigano claimed that he personally spoke with Pope Francis about the gravity of McCarrick’s abuses soon after the Pope’s election in 2013.  These allegations have not yet been verified.

Pope Francis, caught by Archbishop Vigano’s accusations during his trip to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families, told media that he is “not going to say a word” about the McCarrick coverup accusations from Archbishop Vigano.

Two weeks later, the Pope’s advisors have stated that the Holy See is preparing an answer to the current debates, presumably referring to Archbishop Vigano’s accusations.
On September 11, the Council of Cardinals expressed full solidarity with the Pope’s handling of the abuse crisis.  No timeline yet on the promised clarification.
On September 12, Pope Francis called the world’s Bishops to a meeting on sexual abuse of children to occur in February 2019.
On September 13, some US Bishop leaders are meeting with Pope Francis to discuss the McCarrick abuses. Pope Francis is receiving Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. conference of Bishops, along with Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, the Vice President; Monsignor Brian Bransfield, the conference’s secretary; and Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

Is the Catholic Church Abuse Homosexual in Nature?

There is now much debate on whether the abuse occurring in the Catholic Church is homosexual in nature.
And there are many claims on both sides.
This blogger believes that the statistics speak for themselves, but below is some of the evidence pro and con.

The vast majority of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, 80% of past abuse in the Catholic Church and 90% of the abuse reported by the Pennsylvania Grand Jury, has been of older male children by homosexual priests.

Although the majority of abuses involve older youth, our society is more shocked by cases involving young children.   This issue is complicated by the fact that in the past the term “pedophilia” was used broadly and included activity with teenagers.
For example, sexual activity with 16 year old children is not actually categorized as pedophilia, but as ephebophilia — which is not categorized as a mental disorder, nor is it illegal in many places such as Washington D.C., where the age of consent for sexual activity is 16.  

 

This information, the fact that the bulk of what has been called child sex abuse in the Church turns out to be homosexual ephebophilia, has implications both on possible solutions to the Church’s “pedophilia” problems, and on the clear fact that there are, albeit against Church regulations, homosexual priests in the Catholic Church.
Not only are there homosexual priests, a fact which was not unknown, but those homosexual priests seem to have an elevated tendency to engage in sexual activity, and to engage in sexual activity with youth.

An NIH (National Institutes of Health) NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) PubMed.gov Resources J. Sex Marital Therapy article finds that the “proportion of true pedophiles among persons with a homosexual erotic development is greater than that in persons who develop heterosexually.”

Santa Cruz University psychologist Dr. Thomas Plante’s argues that homosexuality is NOT associated with pedophilia.  Dr. Plante says that clerical offenders tend to be “generalists” who do not necessarily prefer boys, but who turn to boys because they have trust with and access to boys, which they do not have with girls.  Arguments such as this one are not intuitive to most of us, particularly given the statistics and the observations made by people who live in proximity to the gay culture, like the author of Madison’s Capital Times guest column, Can Madison tolerate Catholics?   Dr.Plante does acknowledge that most abusive priests are not pedophiles, since pedophiles are attracted to young, prepubescent children, generally under the age of 11. He does not discuss specifically whether homosexuals could be inclined toward ephebophilia.

Catholic Bishops, who have been studying and trying to solve the problem since 1985, also know something about this issue. Numerous Bishops have labeled this a homosexual problem in the priesthood, including Pope Benedict’s number two man Cardinal BertoneCardinal Burke, Swiss Bishop Eleganti, and Bishop Morlino of Madison, among others.  It has always been Catholic Church policy not to ordain men with deep seated homosexual tendencies.  

Explosive Implications

This association between homosexuality in the priesthood and forbidden sexual activity with teenagers (previously labeled pedophilia, but more correctly called ephebophilia) is the explosive information the Church has been faced with since the publication of the John Jay report around 2010.  This is information that, in the present global gay rights and gay marriage atmosphere, is not something anybody knows how to present to the world.   The political incorrectness of this information, and the potential for backlash following its acknowledgment, does not need much elaboration.

If these two issues are actually linked, that is, if homosexual priests are more inclined towards pedophilia (or, more accurately, ephobophilia, attraction to post-pubescent young men) than are heterosexual priests, then the solution to the pedophilia problem would have to involve a renewed effort to exclude homosexuals from the priesthood, and involve better enforcement of Church policy not to ordain homosexual men.

Nobody needs this blogger to tell them how politically unpopular trying to eliminate any homosexual sub-culture from the Church would be today in 2018.  Since that action is needed to eliminate the 80-90% of  sexual activity which is frequently called “pedophilia,” but which is actually ephebophilia, we need clergy of great courage to speak the truth and to name the problem.

Our Bishop Does Not Disappoint

True to his previous courageous leadership of the Diocese of Madison, our Bishop of Madison, Wisconsin, Robert C. Morlino, was among the first to name this problem and to call for it’s investigation after ex-Nuncio Vigaro sacrificially laid his head on the block and started the process of forced accountability all the way up to our Pope.

Bishop Morlino’s efforts to protect children and seminarians made the national news, and elicited a number of not surprising, naive and misinformed accusations from  liberal Madison’s press, including denial of the facts from Madison’s ex-Mayor- turned-journalist at progressive rag Isthmus Dave Cieslewicz, and a call for apology to the LGBTQ community published in Madison’s Capital Times.

Surprisingly, there was also a thought-provoking and supportive guest column entitiled Can Madison tolerate Catholics? in the Capital Times by non-Christian, non-Catholic Arabist-Islamologist scholar Kevin Barrett, which pointed out his first hand experience observing the association of homosexuality and ephebophilia in California.

Our Bishop Morlino, who has suffered enough at the hands of Madison’s LGBT activists, has yet again very courageously stepped up to defend Truth and to show us the way.

What’s a Liberal to Do?

Liberal Catholics, and our liberal Pope, who are inclined to relax Catholic rules on divorce and remarriage, are faced with a serious inconsistency.

If indeed, homosexuality is linked with ephebophilia, as all the Catholic abuse statistics indicate (science is real) then supporting homosexuals in the priesthood becomes incompatible with elimination of 80-90% of the sexual activity which has been called “pedophilia” in the Church today.

If the Pope was trying to show tolerance, mercy and compassion to the “Lavender Mafia” (gay priests who defy Church teaching on homosexual activity), that has now become unintentionally synonymous with coverup of the old child abuse scandals.

Now liberals in the Church who want to “modernize” the Church have come up against a wall — do you support the homosexual agenda with mercy and compassion, or do you side compassionately with justice for the victims of sexual abuse.

The Flip Side of Mercy

And so we now face the fact that there is a balance between mercy and justice, between compassion for the sinner and compassion for the victim, and there are times when we cannot be on both sides of the fence.

Despite our poor human lack of understanding of why justice must be enforced and sins must be atoned for, that balance does exist, and is as sure as the laws of physics and gravity.

As Catholics, both Catholics in the pews and clergy, many of us have trapped ourselves unwittingly, as we tried so hard to accommodate the cultural values around us, and to understand and excuse the behavior the sexual revolution of the 1960’s has spawned. We have tried to normalize, accept, and sometimes even welcome the homosexual culture into the Catholic Church.  This has been a source of much conflict within the Catholic Church.

Now it turns out that welcoming and tolerating homosexuality, particularly into the priesthhod, brings with it some painful baggage that none of us ever expected– heart-rending injury to our youth.

We cannot rage for justice from our leadership, condemning them for coverups, while we are also the ones who raged for normalization of homosexuality.  Liberal Catholics are now caught between a rock and a hard place.  They cannot be on both sides of the fence.  There is often an unrealized cost to mercy, a cost that nobody knew would have to be paid.

Mercy only allows us to offer ourselves as compensation for wrongs which have been done.  We cannot submit other people to suffering, especially children, in the name of mercy. 

In the most recent scandal, Pope Francis is trapped between his open and welcoming attitude towards gay priests like McCarrick, and the shocking realization that these homosexual priests, often referred to as the “lavender mafia”, live a culture often associated with promiscuity, ephebophilia, and cover up.

The pope and the Church are damned by our society if they don’t welcome and condone homosexual behavior, and they are damned in more ways than one if they do.
m

Where Do We Go From Here?

Now that this link between homosexual priests and promiscuous homosexual activity has been established (science is real!), everyone in the church, from each one of us, to our clergy, to our bishops, all the way to the pope, is being forced to choose between the victim and the perpetrator, between justice and mercy, between abused teenage boys and homosexual priests.

So, we better stop pointing fingers, blaming and demanding, and we better remind ourselves that our clergy is 16 times less likely to abuse children than all of the rest of us.  We better start putting our heads together to search for what will likely be uncomfortable and painful solutions. These solutions that will probably involve going back to the age-old church policy, which excludes homosexuals from ordination to the priesthood. Much as we recognize the value of all human beings, we must also recognize that not all of us are suited for every occupation on earth.

American progressives, who include some American Catholics, have pressured the Church to remove any stigma from homosexuality, and even to approve gay marriage.  But when homosexuality becomes associated with sexual abuse of teenagers, or with an increased predilection towards pedophilia, how can we simultaneously pressure the Church to welcome homosexuals, yet eliminate ephebophilia at the same time?

Most people are afraid of even voicing these questions, lest their local ANTIFA throws bricks through their living room windows.
And our Pope, who seems to want to be a nice guy to everyone, is trapped by this dilemma, too.
It takes tremendous courage to step into the middle of this controversy, to take sides with abused children rather than with the hurt feelings of homosexuals, to seek investigation and documentation of the truth, regardless of what unpopular results we might face.

The Most Difficult Question

The last logical, yet very difficult and politically incorrect question to be asked will be the following– if indeed it is demonstrated that the homosexual subculture in the Church is associated with sexual abuse of teenagers, how does this apply to every other institution in our society where adults are in authority over teenagers — the schools, the scouts, sports coaches, and adoption institutions?

The Bigger Picture

One thing so often forgotten in all of these discussions is the bigger picture of sexual sin.
It is always easier to point fingers at another group than to acknowledge our own group’s sins.

Our society demands a certain degree of self restraint in a number of areas.  These include eating, studying, working, refraining from stealing, refraining from “hate speech,” and many more.
Yet our modern society has pretty much abandoned the notion of sexual self restraint.

We are quite capable of such restraint.   In fact, it would really improve our lives and would eliminate much misery, from the pain of divorce, to broken hearts, to STDs, to the culture of abortion, which kills about 1 million children every year in the United States. It would also reduce the shocking 28% of youth being sexually abused today.

When we as a society accept the degree of promiscuity that we now tolerate, how can we blame homosexuals for their lack of self-restraint?
If we followed (Judeo-Christian) Catholic teaching on the responsible use of our sexuality, and we educated and modeled modesty and sexual self control to our youth instead of using Planned Parenthood pamphlets to teach middle schoolers to be “Happy, Healthy and Hot,” the general atmosphere of civilized sexual behavior would reduce all scandals, which surfaced following the 1960’s “sexual revolution.”

Pope Paul VI predicted the misery the sexual revolution would lead to in his 1968 encyclical Humane Vitae (On Human Life).  It’s only 15 pages long.  Read it.

No Witch Hunt, Please!

Homosexuals are not the only ones who need to exercise some self-restraint.
We all do.
We need to remove the log from our own eyes before we criticize the splinter in theirs.

We cannot go after homosexuals in a witch hunt, nor after Catholic priests in a witch hunt.

We should develop a bit more respect for the Catholic Church and her moral teachings, and return to Judeo-Christian values instead.

Next Time You See a Catholic Priest

Next time you see a Catholic priest, say to yourself-
“My children are over 20 times safer with him than they are with me and my spouse.  Maybe I should be grateful to him for devoting his life to preserving the Wisdom passed down to us from Jesus Christ through the Catholic Church.”

Instead of bigoted attacks on the least offenders, remind yourself that anywhere you leave your child– school, daycare, sports, scouts, Olympics — there is always potential for sexual abuse.  MORE potential than in the Catholic Church.

 

The Numbers- Abusers on the Loose

Instead of worrying about the 300 priests in the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report (half of whom are dead), worry about the 21,219 registered sex offenders running around free in Pennsylvania today.

There are 747,408 registered sex offenders in the US today, and 747 registered sex offenders in my town of Madison, Wisconsin .

We cannot evaporate these people, we cannot keep them in jail for life, we cannot transport them to a fictional location like on Star Trek, and we have to deal with the existence of these people among us.

The Catholic Church is no different than the City of Madison, the State of Pennsylvania, or the United States.
Moreover, the Catholic Church does not operate any prisons, has no police force, Department of Justice, FBI, army, or any other mechanism to deal with offending priests other than reprimanding them or demoting them.

If we don’t attack the Mayor of Madison, the Governor of Pennsylvania, or the President of the United States for the 28% of our youth who are sexually abused, why is everyone so obsessed with going after the Catholic leadership?
The Church MUST be open and transparent, must prevent future abuse.
But the rest of society has to do the same, because this is a problem that requires action.

 

Most Important of All

Whatever you do, PRAY, and do NOT teach  your child to be “Happy, Healthy and Hot”nor allow the schools to do it.

In the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin, join us in fasting and prayer called for by Bishop Morlino:

Masses of reparation are being held throughout the Diocese on September 14, the Feast of the Holy Cross. Bishop Morlino has also invited people to observe the Autumn Ember Days (September 19, 21, 22) “as days of fasting and abstinence in reparation for the sins and outrages committed by members of the clergy and episcopacy.

CLICK HERE for Madison’s Catholic Herald Report on the Mass of Reparation for Sexual Sins

 

 

 

 

Madison’s Bishop Morlino Celebrates 15 Years!

Congratulations, Love and Thank You, Thank You, Thank You! to Bishop Morlino–

–who was installed as Bishop of Madison 15 years ago today, on August 1, 2003.

Madison Catholics are overwhelmed with the blessings this Bishop has brought to our Diocese, and we return with gratitude the love this Bishop so obviously has shown for all of us.

The Madison Catholic Herald has done a wonderful job of summarizing Bishop Morlino’s contributions to our Diocese at:

Bishop Morlino has continued to                                     “badger them lovingly with the truth.”

Bishop Morlino has loved us, taught us, and led us now for 15 years.
He probably has no idea how much he has done for all of us, both as a Diocese, and as individual Catholics, parents, and children!
He has the perfect touch, balancing truth with love while he teaches and shepherds.

May God bless Bishop Morlino very richly both now and forever!
Pray for Bishop daily, as he continues shepherding our Diocese – Rosary for the Bishop.org

 

Some articles this blogger has written in gratitude and support of Bishop Morlino over the years:

Liberal Madison has gone WAY too far…….. – August 1, 2010

Freeedom From Religion… – January 12, 2011

Madison’s Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally – March 23, 2011

Holy Wisdom Monastery – February 28, 2012

“President” Cyrus; No Leader In the World is Powerful Enough to Thwart God’s Purposes or Bishop Morlino: Difficult Week? Rejoice! – March 19, 2012

Bishop Morlino’s Homily- Laetare Sunday 2012 – March 19, 2012

Madison’s Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally – March 24, 2012

Wisconsin State Journal Inflames Parish Conflict with Imbalanced Reporting – April 30, 2012

Gay Marriage and Homosexuality – May 11, 2012

What Happens When You Take Character Out of Politics or The National Disease or Understanding the Role of Religion in Government – June 19, 2012

Americans Pray for Freedom Across the Nation or Fortnight For Freedom or Come and Join Us! – June 20, 2012

Madison, Wisconsin’s Fortnight for Freedom Begins – June 22, 2012

What’s in a Mandate? – June 23, 2012

Auspicious! Awesome. Amazing. ObamaCare Has Been Approved By the Supreme Court. or What, Are You Crazy, Syte? – June 28, 2012

What Do a Madison LGBT Leader and a Madison Cathlolic Blogger Have in Common? or My Conversatiion With the Blue Bird – July 1, 2012

Music and the Mass or Good to Be Back from Vacation! – August 2, 2012

Heckling the Rosary or Renaming the Wisconsin State Journal – September 20, 2012

Catholic Belief Now Defined by Media and Sociologists? – October 28, 2012

Bishops Who Deserve the Purple Heart – November 2, 2012

Madison’s Citizen Dave: Failed Mayor, Now Fails Catholicism – December 13, 2012

Madison’s Media Continues to Diss the Catholic Church- Just in Time for Christmas – December 15, 2012

Instilling Virtue in Future World Leaders… – March 16, 2013

Today’s Catholic Nuns: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly – March 27, 3013

Global Adoration- Say What? – June 7, 2013

Enjoying the Progress? Join the Prayer – June 18, 2013

Wisconsin State Journal Reports on Bishop Morlino’s Ten Year Anniversary in Madison – July 25, 2013

Grading Wisconsin State Journal Report on Bishop Morlino’s 10 Year Anniversary in Madison – July 30, 2013

Wisconsin State Journal Flunks Journalism Again! or What’s Wrong With Gay Marriage? – August 8, 2013

Pope Francis Takes On Obama – September 6, 2013

Diocese of Madison Prohibits Field Trips to Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery – or – Progressive Guide to Attacking Catholics – September 7, 2013

Abortion and Homosexuality- So What Did the Pope Actually Say? or When Two Jesuits Talk – October 4, 2013

Doug Erickson and the Wisconsin State Journal Are Up to Their Old Tricks or Catholic Bashing in Wisconsin – February 6, 2014

The Holy Season of Lent: Time for Bashing Catholics in Madison, Wisconsin or The Wisconsin State Journal Defiles Itself Again – March 22, 2014

Should a Young Man Go for the Priesthood? – April 11, 2014

Praying the Rosary- As Pertinent Today As Ever – May 13, 2014

Gay Marriage: Activist Judge Logic Versus Monsignor Logic – July 17, 2014

Setting The Record Straight – August 27, 2014

rogresive Media Pontificates on Right to Free Speech While Trampling It – November 26, 2014

Platteville Journal Editor Dismayed at Being Lumped with Liberal Media – December 2, 2014

Madison’s Brilliant Bishop – June 6, 2018

 

Gay Marriage:

Activist Judge Logic Versus Monsignor Logic

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Gay Marriage in the United States

Slide2

GOVERNMENT BY … THE PEOPLE?… BY EXECUTIVE ORDER?… BY PROGRESSIVE PROCLAMATION?

The Obama administration has been promoting the gay agenda for some time now, including the 2011 White House announcement of it’s intention not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).  DOMA is a federal law that allows states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages granted under laws of other states.

By refusing to defend DOMA, the White House fails to defend and enforce the law of the United States, taking upon itself the authority to override laws which have been passed by Congress, to override laws which represent the people of the United States.

In fact, lawsuits are in progress against President Obama over his abuse of executive authority, particularly abuse of executive orders.

Gay Marriage in Wisconsin

Similar things are happening in Wisconsin.

In November of 2006, 59% of the voters in Wisconsin approved an amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution that would ban same-sex marriage or any substantially similar legal status.  The people of Wisconsin had spoken, and gay marriage was banned in Wisconsin.

On June 6, 2014,  Federal Judge Barbara Crabb single-handedly annulled the will of the people.  She ruled  that Wisconsin’s  ban on same-sex marriages was unconstitutional.

Aside: To complicate things, her ruling did not remove the ban; it simply declared the ban unconstitutional.  When hopeful county clerks in Madison began issuing marriage licenses to hopeful same-sex couples, Judge Crabb had to restate the fact that  she had not issued an injunction allowing marriage licenses to be issued. Gay marriage was still “on hold” in Wisconsin.

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Background on this Judge

Judge Crabb was appointed by Democrat President Jimmy Carter in 1979, and “unexpectedly” took on Senior Status  in 2009 with President Obama’s approval.  Her stated intent for switching to Senior Status was to continue her work for the court while opening up a position for another federal judge.Slide1
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Information sources Judgepedia and Wikipedia reveal that the  transition was a surprising one:
…………………….
BEFORE the switch: Judge Crabb made no noteworthy judicial rulings during her 30 year tenure as Federal Judge from 1979 to 2009.  Not one ruling was important enough to be noted by Judgepedia or Wikipedia.
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AFTER the switch: She has made four extremely controversial, progressive, headline-making rulings in four years:

Judge’s Unexpected Maneuver

Judge Crabb’s surprising transition to controversial and obviously “progressive” rulings invites speculation.

Do Judge Crabb’s recent progressive rulings reflect an impartial legal judgement?
Her rulings seem to reflect instead a prejudice that has little to do with logic or the law.
Is Judge Crabb’s prejudice philosophical? Religious? Personal?

Slide2

Tipping the Scales

Could the Judge have been conscripted by a progressive organization such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation, in whose favor she has ruled more than once, and which represents only 1 per thousand atheists and one per 30,000 Americans?

oooo
Could it be that the Obama Administration recruited her to help with its progressive agenda, including President Obama’s efforts to promote the gay agenda?

ooo
What’s in it for Judge Crabb?
Why would a Judge suddenly make time for progressive controversial rulings?
Is anybody paying her, or rewarding her by some alternate means?

Regardless of her motivation, Judge Crabb started her progressive campaign with the most controversial ruling– eliminating for the first time the requirement that Judges behave impartially.
This set the stage for the chaotic rulings that followed.

What Is A Judge If Not Impartial?

A judge is a person who has the power to make decisions on cases brought before a court of law.
It is assumed that a judge rules fairly, impartially, and consistently with the rule of law.
The Wisconsin Judicial Commission’s code of judicial conduct spelled that out.
But Judge Crabb took it upon herself to reverse this requirement of a judge to be impartial.

Queen of Hearts

THE QUEEN OF HEARTS
from Alice in Wonderland

Such a decree, eliminating the requirement of impartiality for Judges, invalidates the purpose of the entire court system, and plunges society into a free-for-all-power-grab in which anyone who can bribe one judge wins.

The idea that one Judge could single-handedly make such a fundamental change in the functioning of American government is most disturbing.

The suggestion that a Judge who supports Planned Parenthood and Pro-Abortion political candidates publicly and financially could make impartial decisions on abortion as Judge is naive and unprofessional.

People who cannot limit their personal political activity in deference to the position of public trust that they hold as Judges are, by definition, not sufficiently impartial to hold the position of a Judge.

More Prejudiced Judgements (Progressive Proclamations)

Having set the stage with her first decision, having declared her right to rule without impartiality by Progressive Proclamation, Judge Crabb then went to town with subsequent prejudiced progressive proclamations, culminating now with her attempt to reverse Wisconsin’s same sex marriage ban.

Judge Crabb’s behavior since 2009 is reminiscent of the Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland), the ultimate parody of impulsive and irresponsible authority.

article-2084800-0F678EA500000578-382_634x519

Obama’s 2009 Alice in Wonderland Party

Ironically, President Obama held a lavish Alice in Wonderland-themed Halloween Party at the White House in 2009, in the midst of a national recession, a party he kept secret for over two years, knowing that it would be bad PR.

Little did the nation know that the upside-down world of Alice in Wonderland, in which logic and even the laws of gravity are often reversed, would soon be the norm coming out of the White House and it’s progressive appointees.  (See also Embarrassing Women.)

The Judge’s Logic

Judge Crabb outlined the logic behind her reversal of the gay marriage ban:

  • The Judge first emphasized that the right of homosexuals to enter into a marriage contract is not related to religious teaching, to the morality of such unions, or to the ability of gay partners to maintain a marriage relationship or to raise children.
  • Then the Judge stated that the right of homosexuals to marry is related to liberty and equality, two cornerstones of the rights protected by the United States Constitution.

The precise text of Judge Crabb’s justification:

This case is not about whether marriages between same-sex couples are consistent or inconsistent with the teachings of a particular religion, whether such marriages are moral or immoral or whether they are something that should be encouraged or discouraged.  It is not even about whether the plaintiffs in this case are as capable as opposite-sex couples of maintaining a committed and loving relationship or raising a family together.  Quite simply, this case is about liberty and equality the two cornerstones of the rights protected by the United States Constitution.

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The Fault in the Judge’s Logic

Slide1Judge Crabb’s logic is faulty.
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Her first point above argues that the right of homosexuals to enter a marriage contract is not related to their ability to fulfill that contract.
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Yet ALL legal contracts are not only related to the person’s ability to fulfill the contract, but are dependent upon the person’s ability to fulfill the contract:

  • Underage people cannot drive.
  • People with poor eyesight cannot be airplane pilots.
  • People without necessary qualifications cannot teach, cannot design bridges, practice at hospitals, or become police officers.

The Judge’s second point, that the right to marry is related to liberty and equality also fails the logic test.

ALL citizens in the United States are allowed to marry, to marry a person of the opposite sex, in the manner that marriage has been defined by, globally by all cultures for millennia.

The question here is whether a court has the right to redefine marriage, and what the legal consequences of such a redefinition could be.
Judge Crabb seems to have missed this fact, as she does not discuss the right of the court to redefine marriage, nor the legal implications of such a redefinition in her ruling.

Aside: the legal ramifications of the redefinition of marriage would, in fact,  redefine our entire society- see Bishop Morlino in Redefining Marriage Has Domino Effect on Family , Matt Barber in  Marriage Equality = Marriage Extinction, and What’s Wrong With Gay Marriage (my previous blog post).

Monsignor LogicmsgrHolmes photo

It did not surprise me when I found a much better, more logical analysis of the legality of gay marriage in my Catholic Parish’s Sunday bulletin.  The article was not written by a lawyer, nor by a judge, but by a Catholic priest, a Monsignor.

The answer came from my favorite Monsignor, the Pastor and Rector of  my parish, Madison’s Cathedral Parish- Monsignor Kevin Holmes.
Monsignor Holmes was born in Janesville, WI,  holds graduate degrees in Philosophy from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and studied for the priesthood a the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.

Monsignor Holmes addressed the two most pertinent questions:

  • Why Does the State Involve Itself with Regulating Marriage
    and
  • Why Don’t Gays Have the Necessary Qualifications for Marriage?

Here is Monsignor Holmes’ very logical analysis of  why there are legitimate reasons to restrict marriage to persons of opposite sex:
(from the Cathedral Parish Sunday bulletin, June 15, 2014)

 

From The Monsignor:

Slide1Dear Friends in Christ:
I feel compelled today to return to the topic of marriage, and the recent decision of Judge Crabb that Wisconsin lacks a “legitimate reason” to restrict marriage to persons of opposite sex.
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I could say much about that in theological terms, citing the plan of the Creator. Those are important points to make, but here I want to restrict my argument to one based on reason – the kind of argument that a civil court can and ought to recognize.
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What “legitimate reason” could the State have for defining marriage as a heterosexual relationship? There is an important prior question: Why does the State take an interest in marriage at all? Marriage confers recognition and certain benefits on adult persons who choose to enter a permanent and exclusive intimate relationship with each other. Why should the State take an interest in that?
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On what basis should the State of Wisconsin prefer stable, long-term sexual relationships over multiple episodic sexual encounters? Why should the State “legislate morality” in this way? Doesn’t the State recognition of marriage deny “equal protection” (as to taxation, for example) to the sexually promiscuous? In the contemporary climate, it could plausibly be argued that all laws about marriage are unconstitutional for discriminating against those who are averse to commitment . . . unless the State has a “legitimate interest” in preferring stable sexual relationships.
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Does the State have any rational basis for that preference? Sure it does: the fact that the sexual relationship between a man and woman can produce children. The State has an objective, non-sectarian interest in promoting a new generation of healthy and virtuous citizens, as well as an interest in having children supported as to their basic needs (food, shelter) by those who are rightly responsible for them. For this reason, the State has a legitimate reason for encouraging heterosexual couples to remain in a permanent union, and it rightly recognizes and privileges marriage, which is that relationship.
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For the same reason, the State formerly had laws to protect the stability of marriage. There were laws against adultery. And in a case of marital infidelity, only the innocent party could obtain a divorce. A couple of generations ago, our demand for sexual license led the State to abdicate any responsibility to protect the stability of marriage, and now we have “no-fault divorce,” unfailingly granted at the request of either party with no justification required. I think a very good case can be made that the State’s refusal to protect the stability of marriage has been very detrimental to the culture. And if the State forgets even what marriage is, it will be far worse.
Msgr. Kevin D. Holmes

So There We Have It-
Monsignor Logic Versus Activist Judge Logic.

Sorry, Judge Crabb- Monsignor Wins!

 

Should a Young Man Go for the Priesthood?

Wisconsin State Journal Article

Become a Priest?So- the Wisconsin State Journal interviewed a young man, Jose Flores, who is considering the priesthood as his vocation instead of pediatrics.

The article by Doug Erickson was remarkably well done, was respectful and professional.  Time will tell whether the Wisconsin State Journal has switched to fair reporting on Catholicism, or whether this is another set-up similar to last month’s, and the ball will shortly be spiked, just in time for Easter.

‘Good and Godless’ Chimes In

Melodramatic

“Good and Godless” being melodramatic

Nevertheless, an anonymous reader with the screen name “Good and Godless” had to chime in, in the comment section, on a negative note, bemoaning the resulting loss of a pediatrician who can help humanity “in a tangible and effective way,”  and lamenting “the corrupting influences of religion.”

How melodramatic!

And illogical.
For one thing, what is the likelihood of a pediatrician from Madison spending their life in a place where babies die for lack of doctors?

Which Need Is Greater?

And here’s the most important rational question: In the U.S. today, what is the greater need- more doctors, or more godliness?

Close to half our population can’t even figure out that killing a baby before birth is not morally different from killing a baby after birth.  Nor can they figure out the practical negative impact of abortion on a society and on an economy.  Nor can they figure out how much human misery is generated by divorce, and the importance of repairing struggling marriages.Slide1

What if this fine young man becomes a priest, works with youth, prevents countless young people from engaging in promiscuity, prevents countless babies from being killed by abortion, and saves countless marriages?
What if he teaches countless children the morality and the voluntary self-restraint that is an essential part of Catholicism?
In that case, his value would be far greater as a priest than as a pediatrician. Not only medically in the saving of lives, but also spiritually and psychologically in the saving of the the souls and sanity of the parents.

The Value of a Priest and the Power of Religion

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Priests, by providing people with Sacraments and with moral teaching, prevent countless human tragedies, something that no KGB, NSA, police force, or even (unconstitutional, despotic) presidential executive order can prevent.

A moral population exercising voluntary self-restraint has been the foundation of success in this country.
In God we trust, and on Him we rely.
The formula has worked for over two centuries in the U.S.

Madison Seminarians

Madison seminarians with Bishop Morlino

Go for it, Jose!  Every young man should ask himself where God is calling him to service.
A priest impacts society WAY more than does a pediatrician.
So go to seminary, ask God whether He is calling you to the priesthood, and listen for His answer.

Explosion of Young Men Going into the Priesthood

The Diocese of Madison has had an explosion of fine young men interested in the priesthood as their calling.
Maybe the generation that has been hurt most by the progressive agenda of promiscuity, abortion and divorce, errors which are promoted and defended by people similar to “Good and Godless,” has now grown up, identified the solution, God, and wants to spread the Good News.

Want to know what they are thinking?
Here’s a You Tube of one who tells you:

 

 

 

 

The Holy Season of Lent: Time for Bashing Catholics in Madison Wisconsin

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The Wisconsin State Journal Defiles Itself Again

Common Knowledge

rapunzel-warriors-attack-cartoon-miscellanea-686632-1024x640It is common knowledge among people of faith that “enlightened” irreligious progressives who do not engage in customary Lenten spiritual sacrifice/self-improvement, frequently spend Lent attacking Christians and attacking the Catholic Church in the media and elsewhere.

Why? Anybody’s guess.  Too much free time?  Subconscious guilt?  Satan preying on undisciplined minds and spirits?  Conscious exercise of Alinsky Tactics by progressives who want to damage the reputation of the Church?|

After all, the Catholic Church is the largest, most organized and most effective opponent of the radical agenda in the world today, and Madison, home of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and the place where embryonic stem cell research was developed and patented, is not a welcoming place for Catholics or for their philosophy.

Predictable Lenten Attacks

So, in predictable fashion, Lenten attacks against Catholics have been escalating in progressive Progressive tactics

Madison in recent weeks, led by the Wisconsin State Journal (WiSJ), which seems bent on self-destruction, like it’s partner publication the Cap Times, which is no longer available in print.

The Wisconsin State Journal just published an interview with Madison’s Bishop Morlino about Pope Francis’ teachings.  Although not biased in itself, the interview spawned vicious online discussion attacks on the Bishop, with “enlightened,” highly educated and “tolerant” Madisonians dredging up old false myths and accusations against the Catholic Church, denigrating Madison’s Bishop, and even ridiculing Catholic liturgical vestments.

Unbiased, or Set Up to Spike?

This Wisconsin State Journal’s “unbiased” interview actually only looked unbiased to those uninitiated to Madison and it’s WiSJ. The interview article was actually a set up, like a volleyball play set up by one player for another to spike the ball.  Once the interview was placed by 0420-1007-3011-4011_man_spiking_a_volleyball_over_the_net_oreporter A (Doug Erickson, who incidentally tried just last month to associate the Bishop of Madison falsely with child abuse allegations elsewhere in the US), attackers followed.  The attackers included a second WiSJ reporter B (Chris Rickert), who ridiculed the Bishop’s interview and questioned his motivations in a second article, in which Rickert presumed to know the mind of God.  The Editor John Smalley participated by publishing three letters from angry readers ( 1,  2,  3 ) who attacked the Bishop and the Diocese.  And finally, attackers included the “regulars;” anonymous Madisonians who attack the Catholic Church, the Diocese, and the Bishop routinely in the discussion forums after each WiSJ article published about Catholics.  These “regulars” include Madison’s biggest bullies hiding their true identities behind screen names, lacking the courage to spread their hateful slander undisguised.

Obama Sets Up and Spikes

This set-up-and-spike tactic is not uncommon among progressives; it was the very tactic used by President Obama to attack the Catholic Church in the early planning stages of ObamaCare.  President Obama invited Cardinal Dolan, President of the United States Conference of Catholic dolan-obamaBishops to the White House, assured him that ObamaCare will respect the religious rights of Catholic institutions, invited Cardinal Dolan to relay the message to the other bishops to put the Catholic Church at ease, unprepared for what was coming next.  The axe fell a few months later, when President Obama issued the Contraception Mandate, to which many other groups were exempt, but to which the Catholic Church received no exemption, thus requiring Catholic institutions to violate their religious beliefs or be punished financially and cripplingly by law.

At present, President Obama is fighting 91 Religious Liberty lawsuits, and the Vatican’s Chief Justice, Cardinal Burke, has declared that Obama’s policies are “Progressively More Hostile Toward Christian Civilization.”

Slide1Intolerant Progressive Dogmatist Attacks

So these set-up-and-spike tactics are not new to progressive politics.  Not too surprising, for a group that advocates free birth control and promiscuity, followed by abortion which perpetrates eugenics, lack of fiscal accountability either in government or in citizenry, and numerous other unethical policies which violate the Ten Commandments and the Constitution of the United States.   The WiSJ simply appeared to be mimicking President Obama in it’s use of tactics against the Catholic Church.

Second Round of Attack – Who Ridicules Victims of Arson?
Stations of the Cross?

The above series of attacks stemming from the interview with Bishop Morlino about the Pope was then followed by reporter B’s (Chris Rickert’s) publishing a very disrespectful piece about the Diocese of Madison’s burnt down Cathedral site in Madison, which now houses a temporary outdoor Stations of the Cross until the economy permits the rebuilding of a Cathedral

Chris Rickert

Who ridicules? Chris Rickert does

downtown.   In this second round of attacks, Rickert failed to even mention that the plot of land had housed a Cathedral burned down by arson, he showed no sympathy for his fellow Christians (he actually claimed to be a Christian in the piece!) for the tragic loss of their Cathedral, and made wise-cracks about the tax-ability of the land, suggested its use for public bathrooms, lamented that the land was not used for soup kitchens, Girl Scout and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and suggested it would be more useful for tossing a football or for “smooching under the stars.”

If Rickert is truly a Christian, he could look into some Lenten spiritual self-improvement rather than ridiculing the Stations of the Cross during Lent.

Professional Journalism, or Professional Suicide?

a9780a28cc69ed355daac0804dc7b679ab81beac_fullThe level of misinformation and disrespect delivered by Rickert’s piece was pretty remarkable for someone who claims to be a journalist and claims to have a “laser-like perspective.”  More remarkable is the fact that his editor, John Smalley, allowed it to be published. Finally, most remarkable of all, is the fact that the second largest newspaper in Wisconsin publishes such literary offal.  Offal which insults the 25% Catholic population of Madison, of Wisconsin and of the United States.  All the while claiming to be a mecca of tolerance, intellectualism and enlightenment.

The Wisconsin State Journal is likely to go the way of other progressive organizations that have imploded from their own boomeranging tactics.  That would include the Capital Times of Madison which abandoned print editions in 2008, and the plunging ratings of MSNBC, CNN, and even of President Obama himself, whose lies and misrepresentations are coming home to roost, both at home and abroad.

More Disgruntled Progressives During Lent

Wisconsin State Journal is not alone in their nefarious activities this Lent.  Apparently, the Freedom From Religion Foundation of Madison also got a bee in it’s bonnet over religion recently.  They were incensed to hear that (Christian) Governer Scott Walker tweeted a scripture reference recently  (Philipians 4:13), and demanded removal of the tweet.  The scripture verse reads “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”Slide1

Why would the Freedom From Religion Foundation be in such a quandary over the tweeting of a scripture reference?  Because the scripture reference summarizes the Power of Religion and alerts people to the fundamental reason why Freedom From Religion wants eradication of religion from public life—the fact religion advocates an inviolable moral code, which places limits on the actions in which all, including the powerful, can engage. The Freedom of Religion Foundation is terrified of nice men who are powerful; for politicians, these men are dangerous.  Such men include Pope Francis and Scott Walker.  In actual fact, the Freedom From Religion Foundation represents only 1 out of thousand atheists, and only one out of 10,000 Americans, so they do not represent a serious threat to the rest of 80% Christian America, unless we allow ourselves to be bullied into submission by a pathetic and angry minority.  Most atheists (999 out of 1,000) are quite happy to coexist with Christians without demanding to control their tweets.

Have a Good Productive Lent, Everyone

holy-redeemer-churchSo, as the disgruntled media and progressives continue their customary attacks on Christians in Madison this Lent, let’s remember that Religion is Power, and including God in the plan helps us to win the war.  Our opponents can attack and sputter as much as they want during Lent, but as Governor Walker reminds us, in Christ, we can do all things.  Lent is our training camp, the Way of the Cross is our salvation, and the Resurrection and Easter are not just symbolic; they are very, very real.Slide18-e1376614703643-300x190

No wonder the Enemy is sputtering at the approach of Lent and Easter each year!

Have a good and spiritually productive Lent, everyone!

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Praise be to God!

 

 

Want to Complain?

COMPLAIN TO:

Want to Pray for Our Bishops?Slide1

Check out the cool global map  at Rosary for the Bishop, a website organized in 2005 to help support Bishop Morlino against the attacks he was suffering in Madison, and which now coordinates 1580 members from 258 dioceses and from 996 parishes, who have prayed 278,300 rosaries for 456 bishops globally since then.

Join the effort by signing up to pray as little as one rosary per month for the bishop of your choice. Note: Pope Francis is also a bishop, and you can sign up to pray for him.

Against odds like this, Chris Rickert, Doug Erickson and the Wisconsin State Journal have little chance.

Slide2

See what happened the last time we took to global prayer: Making Sense of Syria.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abortion and Homosexuality –So What Did the Pope Actually Say?

or

When Two Jesuits Talk

 

assissi Today, October 4th, the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of St. Francis of Assissi. Our Pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a Jesuit, made a bold gesture of love in adopting the name of St. Francis, patron of the Franciscans. St. Francis is commonly pictured with animals.  He was renowned for his love, not only of animals, but more importantly, of all human beings.  St. Francis lived his love to the extreme of adopting poverty himself.  This discussion of Pope Francis’ controversial America Magazine interview is dedicated to this unbelievable Pope on his feast day.
St Francis of Assisi (1181 – 1226)
(from Universalis)
Francis was the son of a prosperous cloth merchant in Assisi. When his father objected to having his goods sold without his
consent to pay for the restoration of a church, the bishop commanded Francis to repay the money. He did. He also renounced his father and gave back everything he had ever been given, even his garments.
He began a life of perfect evangelical poverty, living by begging and even then only accepting the worst food that people had to give. He preached to all the love of God and the love of the created world; because, having renounced everything, he celebrated everything he received, or saw, or heard, as a gift.
A rich man sold everything and joined him in living next to a leper colony; a canon from a neighbouring church gave up his position and joined them also. They looked into the Gospel and saw the story of the rich young man whom Jesus told to sell everything; they saw Jesus telling his disciples to take nothing with them on their journey; they saw Jesus saying that his followers must also carry his cross.
And on that basis they founded an order. Francis went to Rome himself and persuaded the Pope to sanction it, though it must have seemed at once impractical and subversive, to set
papa-francescothousands of holy men wandering penniless round the towns and villages of Europe.
Because Francis was wearing an old brown garment
begged from a peasant, tied round the middle with string, that became the Franciscan habit. Ten years later 5,000 men were wearing it; a hundred years later Dante was buried in it because it was more glorious than cloth of gold.
There is too much to say about Francis to fit here. He tried to convert the Muslims, or at least to attain martyrdom in doing so. He started the practice of setting up a crib in church to celebrate the Nativity.
Francis died in 1226, having started a revolution. The Franciscans endure to this day.

 

Is the Pope Reversing the Catholic Church’s Ban on Abortion and Homosexual Marriage?

e2c2477d41Recently there has been a media stir reflecting some confusion on Pope Francis’ position on abortion and on homosexuality, based on an interview he recently gave to America magazine.

Some in the media implied that the Pope is directing the Church not  to concern herself with the issues of abortion and homosexuality.
ABC went so far as to say that Pope Francis wants the Church to shake off “small-minded” rules on abortion and homosexuality.
Bloomberg claimed “Pope Says Church Should Stop Obsessing Over Gays, Abortion.”
Reuters reported somewhat more correctly that the Pope is asking for a change in tone.

Apparent Contradictions

And yet, the same Pope Francis, in the same America magazine interview in question, in the same paragraph, two sentences later, stated “The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church,” thus confirming his loyalty to Catholic Church teaching.Slide1

Also, the same Pope Francis just excommunicated a dissident priest in Australia the same month, who advocated gay marriage and female priests.

A Pope who just excommunicated someone for their stance on gay marriage is not likely to announce any changes in Church teaching on gay marriage, as liberal media seems to hope. Excommunication by the Vatican is very rare; there have only been 5 since the year 2000, and this is the first one under Pope Francis.

So, What’s the Story?

So is the Pope for abortion and gay marriage, or against?
Is the Church changing age-old teachings, is the Pope a radical progressive, or is the media botching their reporting?
Short answer: the media is botching  their reporting.
Longer answer? Keep reading.

Ignorance, Wishful Thinking or Deceitful Intent?

times square billboards1So the media is botching their reporting, yet again.
Out-of-context quotes from Pope Francis have gone viral a number of times already this year, and it’s hard to guess what the media is thinking by reporting so sloppily.

It’s difficult to determine whether the liberal media’s unprofessional reporting is due to ignorance of religion, to wishful progressive thinking, or to a deceitful intent to recruit more Catholics into the progressive political agenda, by leading them to think that the Pope approves progressive thought.

But far more interesting than speculating on media motivation is to ask what did the Pope actually say, and what is he trying to tell Catholics and the world?

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What did the Pope actually say?
or
When Two Jesuits Talk

The Pope is a Jesuit, America is a Jesuit magazine, and the interviewer, Antonio Spadaro, is a Jesuit with an impressive Jesuit resume.Pope-with-Fr.-Spodara

Jesuits are not feebleminded.  In fact, Jesuits are renowned for their scholarly talent.
When two Jesuits talk, not everybody can follow.

When two Jesuits talk, the discussion is rarely short.
The conversation in question here, the interview between these two Jesuits  was 12,000 words long.
If we typed that up as a college paper, it would be 50 pages long.

In the age of tweets and texting, that’s TMI (too much information) for most people.
We need an interpreter, and the one-liner produced by the mainstream media might not be very representative of what the Pope was really trying to say.

When two Jesuits talk, the discussion is always quite intellectual.  In addition to using theological references, biblical references, Latin phrases and Italian phrases, Jesuits also use references to the classics, to music, to literature, to history, and to numerous other things that leave most of us in the dust.

about-beethoven

Beethoven

Pope Francis’ 50-page interview included references to Puccini, Alessandro Manzoni, Caravaggio, Chagall, Mozart, Beethoven, Prometheus, Bach, Wagner, La Scala, Knappertsbusch, Fellini, Anna Mabnani, Aldo Fabrizi, Cervantes, and El Cid, in addition to his theological and biblical references, and references to saints.

I’ll be up front and admit that I had to do some googling on more than a couple of those!

Bottom Line, When Two Jesuits Talk

When two Jesuits talk,

i.e. when Antonio Spadaro (Editor of the influential Jesuit journal Civiltà Cattolica)  interviews Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis),Slide1

we are not on the View with Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, and Barbara Walters. Whoopi might give a brilliant performance in  Sister Act, but in real life, she’s no Jesuit.

When two Jesuits talk, the conversation will be deep, it will be significant, it might take the rest of us some ploughing to get through it, but what we unearth will be worth the effort.

Recommendation

So my recommendation would be to read Pope Francis’ interview in it’s entirety.  Pope Francis is inspired, and he’s delightful.  I enjoyed the experience.  The interview can be found at America Magazine.

ppmorlino

Bishop Robert C. Morlino of Madison

Failing that, if you’re looking for some Cliff notes and an interpreter, where better to get that than from Jesuit #3, Madison’s Bishop Robert Morlino?

Bishop Morlino’s synopsis and observations on the Pope’s interview can be found at the Catholic Herald’s Bishop’s Column, September 26th, 2013.  Bishop Morlino’s got it down to under 2,000 words, or about a 7 page term paper.  Bishop Morlino is always a good read. And he’s very good at bringing it to our level.

Finally, if you want the perspective of one in-the-pew-Catholic like me, read on at your own (spiritual) peril.  It will probably be way longer than Bishop Morlino’s version, and way less accurate.  But here we go… thoughts from the pew…

The Controversial Paragraph

The media had to dig through half of Pope Francis’ 12,000 word interview, or through about 25 pages, before they could find one sentence that could be morphed by media into being “controversial,” albeit out of context. Here is the relevant paragraph (highlighting mine):

We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.

Slide1

Note that the first highlighted item is the primary one reported by the media, while the second one, asserting that Church teaching has not changed and that Pope Francis is faithful to that unchanged teaching, was ignored by the media.

Rather then focusing on this out-of-context media implication that Pope Francis may be open to changing fundamental Catholic Church teaching, which is clearly disproved by the second highlighted sentence and by the recent excommunication, I’d like to focus instead on the title of the Pope’s interview, and on three points that leaped out at me when I read the interview document.  These items illustrate very clearly and succinctly the message the Pope was trying to send us.

The Title

heartThe title of the Interview, approved by Pope Francis, was A Big Heart Open to God.

O.K., the Pope is saying we must have a big heart.  A big heart means love, self-explanatory.  No small hearts in the Church, please. We do everything with love.

The Pope is also saying that we must be Open to God.  What does that mean, to be open to God?  Well, we should be listening and seeking what God wants of us, as opposed to demanding what we want from God.  We should not ordering God, not ranting against God. Open to God means obedience to Christ’s teachings, obedience to the Church.  Our hearts should be open, waiting to be filled.

A Big Heart Open To God.
In six words, the Pope has managed to teach lovingly to both extremes in his unruly Church.  Disciplinarian dogmatists are reminded to have a big heart.  No Pharisees, please.  And liberal progressives are reminded to listen to God, to obey God.  No rebellion against Christ’s Church.

Pope Francis, the good parent, has spoken kindly and gently to his unruly bickering children, calling for unity, and reminding us in six words what we have to do.

 

 The First Question

The first question asked of the Pope was “Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?”

Of all possible answers, Pope Francis chose “I am a sinner.”

Not “I am the grand high exalted holy ruler of 1 billion people.”
Not “I am a holy man.”
Not “I am a priest.”
Not “I am a Jesuit.”
Not “I am an Argentinian.” or “I am an Argentinian-Italian.”
Not “I am the son of Mario and Regina Bergoglio.”

No, instead the Pope said “I am a sinner.”Slide1

This Jesuit was not faking humility.  His words were carefully chosen, not to be about him, but to teach us.
The good gentle shepherd is reminding us “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7)    By calling himself a sinner, he is reminding us not to throw stones at each other.

Pope Francis is telling us to treat sinners with mercy, because we are all sinners.
He is teaching gently by example, by announcing that he too is a sinner.
We must all remember that we are sinners, if we want to attract anyone to the Truth.
There is no room in the Catholic Church for holier-than-thou condemnation.
We must start with compassion, and not with condemnation.

In the interview, Pope Francis identifies his own calling with the calling of St. Matthew, the tax collector.  Our Pope says “ I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon.”  Pope Francis wants to reach out lovingly to other sinners, and he wants us to do the same.

What Does It Mean for a Jesuit to be Bishop of Rome?

Early in the interview, Pope Francis was also asked “What does it mean for a Jesuit to be Bishop of Rome?”

Blessed John XXIII

Blessed Pope John XXIII

The Pope’s answer, quoting Pope John XXIII’s philosophy and motto, jumped out at me as illustrating his loving and nurturing approach to exercising authority, and as illustrating what he is asking of us:

The Pope said See everything; turn a blind eye to much; correct a little.

Again, our Pope, like a good shepherd, guides gently and slowly, rather than overwhelming us with condemnation and criticism.  He asks us to extend the same courtesy to each other.

The Pope also emphasized the importance of prioritizing discernment (discernment always done in the presence of the Lord).  This means that time and prayer are the most appropriate means for approaching problems, and we must be wary of impulses and hasty decisions.

This is how Pope Francis sees the role of a Jesuit in the Chair of Peter.

The Church as  a Field Hospital

The Pope gives us a third window into his philosophy in this interview, in his comparison of the Church with a field hospital:21nnkfm

I see clearly, that the thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds…. And you have to start from the ground up.

It’s pretty clear that the Pope is not advocating or approving high cholesterol, but he recognizes that wounds have to be prioritized over cholesterol concerns.  He’s telling us to examine what we prioritize when we look at each other.  Do we turn a blind eye to much, identify the biggest wounds, and tend to those, before launching into overwhelming criticism?

We are not likely to get our culture on board with giving up abortion and homosexual marriage by condemning them.  It is by offering the love and peace of Christ that we will attract them, and the rest will follow in due course.

Respect for others does dictate kindness and a gentle approach.  Which one of us would like to be approached first with recriminations about our sins?  Who are we to decide that the degree of evil in the sins of others (gay lifestyle, abortion) is greater than the degree of evil in our own sins (pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth?).

Take Home Message

We could go on, quoting from and discussing the Pope’s interview.  But then this article would become longer than the Pope’s interview, and you are much better served reading Pope Francis’ actual interview yourself.

Pope reaches outThe biggest take home message this Catholic found in reading the Pope’s interview was that when evangelizing, our Church needs to proceed with love, humility, and gentleness, and we need to prioritize humanity’s biggest wounds. We also need to work on obedience and on unity.

And what are humanity’s biggest wounds?
Our Pope, discerning carefully in the presence of the Lord, will help us to identify those.
He’s been remarkable so far, flooding the world with his love, and including all of humanity in his flock.
His outreach to atheists is symbolic of his profound love for all of humanity.

A Club of 1 Billion

The Catholic Church is a global club of of 1 billion people.

Like any other large group, including large nations, we have our  conservatives and we have our liberals.  Some liberals and conservatives make good points.  Others take a good thing too far.Shepherd

The person in charge of 1 billion people, in this case the Pope, should be a unifier, an educator and a leader, not a divider.  He should not start with criticism, blame and attack.  A good leader observes, waits, and corrects a little at a time; he breaks up job assignments into small manageable parcels.
This is what Pope Francis is doing, and his approach should not be taken to mean that he approves sin or that he has changed Catholic Church teaching.

The Pope has given us our marching orders in the gentlest manner: time for authoritarians to tone it down and to lead with love, and time for rebels to prioritize the will of God over their own will.

What Jesuits Do

What do Jesuits Do?

Jesuit PopeJesuits were founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola, and are noted for their educational, missionary, and charitable works.

Then we should not be surprised when Pope Francis, a Jesuit, wants to teach, to teach the faith, and to teach the faith with love.

Pope Francis’s interview illustrates that he is a deep thinker, a compassionate shepherd, and a well-educated intellectual.
He’s made a great start in less than one year, with discernment, with humility, and with love.

The Best is Yet to Come

Few of us are qualified to judge a Pope.
Those of us who think we are probably have an issue with pride.
So when the Pope says something that surprises us, we need to examine what he said with an open heart, and have the humility to admit that his correction may be deserved.

In my judgement, this Pope is remarkable.  As were the previous ones in my lifetime.

Pope Francis’ Global Adoration effort and his day of prayer and fasting for Syria are among his first official actions.
With these actions, the Pope illustrated to us the importance of bringing faith into life, and into public life.
Pope Francis demonstrated the urgency of interconnection between Church and State.  Interconnection not from the top down, but from the bottom up.  The State does not dictate the faith of the citizens, but the citizens must use their faith and their God-given conscience and must stand up for what is right.

The results global prayer and fasting combined with interconnection between Church and State are just beginning to roll in.  The best is yet to come.

Not Just for Catholics

This is not just for Catholics.  Everyone should get on board.
This Pope is reaching out to all of humanity, including atheists.
He seems to be getting a very positive response to his call.

Summing Up

Pope Francis’ interview can be summed up pretty simply-

  • Drop the finger-wagging, get out the smiles, treat people with respect, pray hard, pray globally, and correct just a little at a time.
  • Remember, respect includes not calling people out publicly for their sins, at least not as the first resort.
  • We attract more bees with honey than with vinegar.
  • Sin is still sin, what’s wrong is still wrong, but let’s not forget the beam in our own eye when pointing out the splinter in someone else’s eye.

Does that mean that we give up the struggle to eliminate abortion or to preserve marriage?
No.
But those are not our opening efforts, before we break out mercy and love.
We don’t lead with those items while evangelizing.

 

Appendix:  More VIRAL QUOTES from Pope Francis:

From the Washington Post: Pope Francis’ Viral Quotes on Wealth, Abortion, Atheists, War and Gay Catholics. 

We can never serve God and money at the same time. It is not possible: either one or the other. This is not Communism. It is the true Gospel!
Pope Francis poses for a photo after meeting with young people in downtown Cagliari, Italy, on Sept. 22, 2013. He spoke of the ‘idol’ of money during a trip to the region, one of the poorest areas in Italy.
Pope with Italian Youth2
Every unborn child, though unjustly condemned to be aborted, has the face of the Lord, who even before his birth, and then as soon as he was born, experienced the rejection of the world. . . . They must not be thrown away!
Francis spoke about abortion on Sept. 20, the day after the publication of an interview in which he said that abortion, gay marriage and contraception should not become “obsessions” for faithful Catholics.
 Kisses baby
We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible, Pope Francis said in an interview that appeared in Jesuit publications around the world on Sept. 19, 2013. “I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear, and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time. Speaking
If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge? Francis remarked to reporters aboard the papal flight on its way back from Brazil on July 29, 2013.
Pope Francis reached out to gays during the news conference on the plane, saying he wouldn’t judge priests for their sexual orientation in a remarkably open and wide-ranging conversation as he returned from his first foreign trip.
Slide1
War is madness. It is the suicide of humanity. It is an act of faith in money, which for the powerful of the Earth is more important than the human being.
Pope Francis celebrates a worldwide Eucharistic adoration ceremony after his comments on war at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on June 2, 2013.
Global Adoration
Eternity “will not be boring,” Francis declared May 31, 2013. Later that day, nuns held up candles during a ceremony led by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square.  Slide1
The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone. ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone! Pope Francis said during Mass on May 22, 2013.
In the photo, Pope Francis delivers a speech during a meeting with young people in September 2013 in Cagliari, Italy.
Speech in Italy
If the investments in the banks fall slightly . . . [it is] a tragedy . . . what can be done? But if people die of hunger, if they have nothing to eat, if they have poor health, it does not matter! This is our crisis today!
Pope Francis speaks after meeting with the faithful of ecclesial movements on the occasion of a Pentecost vigil in St. Peter’s Square on May 18, 2013.
Pope Francis reaches for babies

 

 

 

Impeachment Back in the News

Impeachment is back in the news.
To impeach, or not to impeach?
Articles of impeachment against President Barack Obama were filed just a few weeks ago by a group of black American citizens, the National Black Republican Association (NBRA).
Throughout August, conservative constituents at towns halls have also been pressuring members of Congress to impeach the President.

  • What has Barack Obama done to deserve this public outcry?
  • What did other recent impeachment candidates do to deserve impeachment?
  • How do Barack Obama’s offenses compare with the offenses of the last two Presidents to be impeached?
  • Could impeachment of President Obama succeed, and what would it accomplish?

Blatant Lies and Lost Credibility

At the very least, whether successful or not, impeachment attempts expose the blatant lies and reflect the loss of credibility of a President.

 Obama Impeachment

Blatant lies told by Presidents undermine not only their own authority, but also the Office of President of the United States.
Presidential lies undermine the credibility and moral integrity of our entire nation.

Comparing Articles of Impeachment

The articles of impeachment summarize accusations  made during an impeachment:

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richard-nixon-pointing

Richard M. Nixon
Articles of Impeachment:

  • Obstruction of Justice
  • Abuse of Power
  • Contempt of Congress

 “He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, endeavored to ... cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.

-Articles of Impeachment against Richard M. Nixon, adopted by the House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974. Article II, Section 1

Results: Richard Nixon’s impeachment did not go to the House or Senate for trial, because Nixon first resigned in disgrace.

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index

 

William J. “Bill” Clinton
Articles of Impeachment:

  • Perjury
  • Obstruction of Justice

The judge wrote:
“Simply put, the president’s deposition testimony regarding whether he had ever been alone with Ms. (Monica) Lewinsky was intentionally false, and his statements regarding whether he had ever engaged in sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky likewise were intentionally false….”

Results: Bill Clinton was Impeached by the House of Representatives, and acquitted by the U.S. Senate.  He received a contempt of court citation, and a suspension of his Arkansas law license, as well as a suspension from the U.S. Supreme Court bar.
Bill Clinton did not resign, and today seems unashamed of his misdeeds.
Incredibly, half of America seems to have little problem with Clinton’s moral and legal transgressions, as he continues to play a prominent role in the Democrat Party today in 2013, despite the public demolition of his integrity.
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obama_cropped_blog_main_horizontal

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Barack H. Obama
Articles of Impeachment filed by a “black American citizens”:

  • Obstruction of Benghazi investigation
  • Disclosure of grand jury material
  • Authorization of DOJ to conduct Fast and Furious
  • Authorization of IRS to release confidential information ot unauthorized individuals and organization
  • Initiation of  discriminatory IRS audits
  • Permission of unjustified NSA surveillance of 300 million average Americans
  • Permission of DOJ to spy on over one hundred Associated Press Journalists and on Fox News Reporter James Rosen
  • Thwarting Congress by failing to enforce laws including the Defense of Marriage Act, No Child Left Behind Act, and Affordable Care Act, and by directing immigrations officers to stop enforcing immigration law when Congress refused to pass his Dream Act.
  • Violations of the Constitution, bypassing the US Senate to appoint 3 members of the National Labor Relations board and to appoint Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection bureau.
  • Intimidation of whistle blowers and bringing twice as many prosecutions against whistle blowers as all prior presidents combined.

WOW

Ten Articles of Impeachment.
That’s a first.
Black Americans accusing the first black President of tyranny and of despotism.
That’s even more of a first.

This nation has been very proud of theObama serious historically significant 2008 Presidential election, in which our first black President was elected.  America prides itself on freedom, on fairness, and on opportunity.  I am the child of poor Lithuanian immigrants, and love America deeply for it’s just (Judeo-Christian) system of government and law, and the resulting opportunities it offers to those who work hard and follow the rules.  My entire family has risen from poor immigrants to successful and prosperous Americans in less than one generation, thanks to the opportunities offered by this country.  Despite my conservative political beliefs, even I was impressed with this aspect of the 2008 Presidential election outcome-a tribute to what children of all backgrounds can achieve in the United States – because we have a fair and just country.

Reasons Not to Impeach

What a tragedy and heartache it would be if the first black President abused the office so badly that he had to be impeached.  This is the sentiment that probably prevents most of us from discussing the impeachment of Barack Obama.  Some Obama supporters state candidly that they refrain from opposing the President because he is black.  When black Americans start proposing impeachment, we know this man has really abused the authority granted to him as President. And when liberal black leaders start proposing impeachment, this man has really crossed the line.

If a Lithuanian were ever elected President, I (as a Lithuanian) would be pretty reluctant, pretty ashamed, and pretty hard-pressed to demand his impeachment.

Reasons to Impeach

Slide1Yes, I would be reluctant to impeach a Lithuanian.

But I would demand the impeachment nevertheless, because I know that true equality includes accountability and includes keeping ALL leaders subject to the law, not just some.

Lithuanians, or blacks, or any other group of human beings, are not well served by condoning the misdeeds of one of their members.  Protection of offenders carries the unspoken implication that the entire group is complicit.  Protection sends the message that the entire group is not capable of responsible and accountable behavior. Excusing unacceptable behavior can even carry the bigoted implication that better cannot be expected from this minority person.
Wise minorities, whether Lithuanian or black, would demand accountability from their President, in order to demonstrate that the malefactor is the exception, not the rule, in their group.

And So, Black Americans Accuse President Obama of a Long Train of Abuses and Usurpations

National Black Republican Association:
Slide1

We, black American citizens, in order to free ourselves and our fellow citizens from governmental tyranny, do herewith submit these Articles of Impeachment to Congress for the removal of President Barack H. Obama, aka, Barry Soetoro, from office for his attack on liberty and commission of egregious acts of despotism that constitute high crimes and misdemeanors.

On July 4, 1776, the founders of our nation declared their independence from governmental tyranny and reaffirmed their faith in independence with the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791.  Asserting their right to break free from the tyranny of a nation that denied them the civil liberties that are our birthright, the founders declared:

“When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”  –  Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.

Comparison of Charges

All three recent impeachment candidates, Nixon, Clinton and Obama, were clearly guilty of lies, and of mis-using the power of the Office of President.
Details of the accusations vary, and some overlap.

All three broke the law.
All three lied.

Slide1

The articles of impeachment above show many MORE accusations against President Barack Obama than against Nixon and Clinton.

They include IRS discrimination, NSA spying, prosecution of whistleblowers, wiretapping of journalists, the torture program and the Benghazi cover-up. Obama’s troubles do not seem to stem from one error as in the case of Nixon or Clinton, but from numerous errors and numerous cover-ups.  The list of articles of impeachment reflect a pervasive and systematically unscrupulous administration.  Phrases like Chicago tactics, Imperial Presidency, and Gangster Government surface in the news.

Bellver Lucifer

Lucifer – Ricardo Bellver, Madrid, 1877

Perhaps this is not so surprising after all, in reference to the man, Obama, who used to teach  Alinksy Tactics (aka Satan’s handbook, or the antithesis of the Ten Commandments) in Chicago.

It is interesting to note that accusations against Nixon did include “income tax investigations to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner,” an accusation very similar to the IRS discrimination recently tolerated and probably initiated by the Obama administration.

There has been much discussion of President Obama’s misdeeds and misrepresentations.  One discussion compares President Obama with President Nixon extensively, in an article entitled Obama’s Watergates, in which numerous parallels are drawn between Nixon and Obama.   The author, Victor Davis Hanson,  a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, calls the Obama administration’s methods and aims “Nixonian to the core.”

Hanson predicts that the scandals, beginning with Benghazi, and continuing with the IRS, the Associated Press and James Rosen, as well as with Edward Snowden and the NSA, will not end until “the truth sets us all free.”  He predicts a long-drawn-out and sordid saga.

So Could An Impeachment Succeed?

Theoretically, an impeachment could succeed; this President has left such a “long train of abuses and usurpations” that he has been accused of an Imperial Presidency (characterized by greater power than the Constitution allows).
Obama is even despised by Vladimir Putin; Putin’s is not a respectful dislike, as might be expected toward a competitor, but actually a scorn and contempt towards Obama as a “weak ruler of Sodom & Gomorrah.”  There’s another first – Putin moralizing at the United States!

photo_1378286057088-1-HD

Obama’s extensive collection of offenses, and of domestic and global enemies, certainly makes impeachment seem possible, and even desirable.
Obama’s bad boy résumé is much longer than Clinton’s or Nixon’s, and he seems to be less well liked than Clinton was.  Obama’s popularity has been slipping rapidly this summer, and has particularly suffered during the present Syria crisis.

Yet, impeachment is not likely to go forward.
In addition to our collective and bipartisan reluctance to impeach the first black President, an impeachment is also likely to fail for the same reasons that Clinton’s impeachment failed in the Senate.

Not because Clinton or Obama are innocent of charges made against them, but because the Democrat party seems to have redefined moral standards in recent decades, and now the Democrat-dominated Senate is not likely convict a member of their own party, no matter how heinous his offense.

Democrats have forgotten the principle that all authority must be held accountable to the law.
Democrats  have substituted in it’s place the principle “the ends justify the means.”

Morality Redefined

The Democrat Party, previously commended for some virtuous policies including concern for the poor, and previously not in favor of abortion, seems to have abandoned numerous traditional Judeo-Christian ethics in recent years:

6a011570579907970b017742bf5159970d-800wi

  • The word GOD was almost struck from the Democrat party platform in 2012.
  • Abortion, the killing of pre-born citizens, is now prioritized and actively promoted by the Democrat party.
  • Redefinition of marriage is now favored by Democrats.
  • Our nation’s work ethic has now been damaged by excessive Democrat handouts, which surpass relief of poverty and resemble more the purchasing of votes.
  • Taxation and governmental control of all aspects of society have been taken to new heights, which border on totalitarianism, and violate the principle of subsidiarity, a founding principle of the United States and today a founding principle of the European Union.
  • Under Democrats we have recently suffered attacks on religious liberties of Americans, which border on Communism and which violate the moral principle of tolerance.
  • Totalitarianism and religious persecution in the name of government are incompatible with the definition of democracy.
  • Gangster methodology seems to be in routine use now by the Obama Administration, a methodology in direct conflict with the Constitution, with the laws of the United States, and with Ten Commandments.

This redefined morality is outlined in Saul Alinsky’s  book  Rules for Radicals.  Alinsky’s book was dedicated, in fact, to Lucifer, a alternate name for Satan. Incidentally, Barack Obama taught Alinsky tactics in Chicago.

Alinsky dedication
The Alinsky method welcomes dishonest tactics, unlawful behavior, perjury and obstruction of justice in the service of furthering one’s political goals.

Yes, morality HAS been redefined.

Morality Inversion

We now have a  Morality Inversion, the substitution of Democrat/Alinsky morality for traditional Judeo-Christian Morality.Slide1
Under morality inversion, something is wrong only if you think that it is wrong, and you are allowed to prioritize your own agenda above the law.
Under a morality where unlawfulness is allowed, the only order is the order chosen and imposed by those in power. i.e. totalitarianism.
Half of America seems to be on board with this.
They don’t seem to realize that granting dictatorial powers to a President you like today will also extend dictatorial powers to the President you DON’T like tomorrow.

With Morality Inversion, Impeachment Becomes an Oxymoron

Morality Inversion says that it’s O.K. to break laws when it feels right.
Impeachment says the opposite, that you remove officials for breaking laws.
So which is it to be?
You cannot have both.
You cannot impeach a President for lying and breaking laws if it’s O.K. to lie and break laws.
That’s why the Senate, dominated by Democrats (who have actually become radical Progressives in recent years), failed to convict Clinton during Clinton’s impeachment, and are almost certain to acquit Obama if impeachment were attempted.  The House, dominated by Conservatives, did impeach Clinton for his offenses.

santa_claus_patriarchal_morality_630495If Judeo-Christian morality is already on it’s way out, and the Senate refuses to impeach a President who has broken laws and who has not upheld the Constitution, then impeachment becomes an oxymoron and a contradiction.
So impeachment is not particularly useful at this moment in history; restoration of morality is needed first.
And that’s what our Pope is working on.

Bottom Line

The bottom line is that half our nation now tolerates and votes for people who lie and who break laws.
Whether it’s intentional or not, that half of our nation is tolerating anarchy (lawlessness).
They like what President Obama is decreeing now: handouts and lollipops for everybody, just vote for me!
For now, those receiving handouts will not tolerate impeachment, and impeachment is not likely to succeed.

Slide1

Aside: Even if impeachment were to succeed, the successors to the impeached President in this moral climate are just more of the same: The Bidens, Pelosis, Reids, Kerrys, Sebeliuses…

The question becomes which way will the morality inversion shift?
Which side of the morality balance will win?
Progressives or Judeo-Christians?

Future Directions

Chariot race in the Circus Maximus, ancient RomeSome conservatives believe that the same form of progressive policy now being exercised by the Obama administration was responsible for the collapse of ancient Rome.  They include some pretty smart people, like Steve Forbes.  Astute parallels between the Roman empire and the United States are pointed out in Are We Rome?

Circus Madison Goes On, a blog post here, made similar analogies between progressive Madison, WI, and Rome’s ancient Circus Maximus, an ancient site famous for chariot races, gladiator fights, Christian slaughter and games, as well as a local marketplace. Very much like Madison, where Capitol Square hosts bicycle and track races, farmer’s markets, and even quite a few “lynchings” of those who are conservative or religious.  This has included the harassment of Bishop Morlino by gay demonstrators, the Madison Teacher protests during which conservative senators were chased by crowds around the Capitol building, and the hanging of a baloon effigy of Justice Prosser. 

Mercifully, many conservatives, including myself and Steve Forbes, are optimistic about the fact that Americans are now more aware and more involved, and we believe that the degeneration of American values can still be turned around.  Steve Forbes claims that awareness and involvement, and movements like the tea party may prevent us from collapsing like Rome. I am Slide18-e1376614703643convinced that the morality inversion can be reversed and a return to Godliness can prevent us from collapsing as Rome did.

Whether we succeed in correcting previous errors and thus recover from a temporary derailment, or whether the civilization built in the United States collapses like that of Rome, is in our hands and in the hands of God.
Let’s not forget our most powerful ally. Religion is power.

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