Catholic Bishops Stumble on the Banana Peel of DACA Policy

Patrick O’Hannigan, THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR: February 16, 2018

Should they really be encouraging the faithful to email their congressmen?

The website for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) devotes an “Advocacy Center” page to political issues, and the cause du jour on that page is “support for our brothers and sisters who are migrants and refugees.” In bishop-speak, that’s a tip of the zucchetto to a campaign called “Share the Journey.” It’s also an endorsement of Barack Obama’s DACA program, and a plea for continuing DACA on moral grounds.

It makes sense for Catholic bishops to offer a moral argument for DACA rather than a legal or Constitutional one. They know which side of the street offers them firmer footing. Nevertheless, the bishops have let the rest of us down, whether we’re part of their flock or simply know someone who is. The boilerplate text that American Catholic faithful are encouraged to email to their legislators under the subject line “Please Support Dreamers” stinks of poor logic and prejudice-inducing rhetorical flourishes.

The most aggravating part of what the bishops want the Catholic faithful to say to their representatives sits up top, in the first three sentences of the letter that they’re soliciting signatures for:

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800 Martyrs of Otranto Beheaded By The Ottomans In 1480

Picture this: a very large Muslim army lands at the city gates bent on conquest. Only 400 guards man the walls, most of whom slip away and flee in terror leaving the city’s inhabitants to defend themselves which they did quite spiritedly. After a long siege, the Muslims successfully breech the walls and slaughter most of the people left inside. The surviving males above the age of 15 are given the choice of converting — tempted to do so by an apostate Catholic priest who abandoned the faith to save his skin — or death. 800 souls chose the latter and were martyred. Their sacrifice gave the bickering and divided Italians the time to regroup and save their own lands, arguably all of Christian Europe as well, from being conquered. A fascinating and inspiring story and while some folks might find the comparison to be extreme, [Alfredo] Mantovano compellingly exhorts the West to draw a lesson from this massacre:

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AND THEN, A MIRACLE:

Ahmed condemned all the eight hundred prisoners to death. The following morning, they were led with ropes tied around their necks and their hands bound behind their backs to the Hill of Minerva, a few hundred meters outside of the city. De Marco writes:

“All of them repeated their profession of the faith and the generous response they had given at first, so the tyrant commanded that the decapitation should proceed, and, before the others, the head of the elderly Primaldo should be cut off. Primaldo was hateful to him, because he never stopped acting as an apostle toward his fellows. And before placing his head upon the stone, he told his companions that he saw heaven opened and the comforting angels; that they should be strong in the faith and look to heaven, already open to receive them. He bowed his head and it was cut off, but his corpse stood back up on its feet, and despite the efforts of the butchers, it remained erect and unmoving, until all were decapitated. The marvelous and astonishing event would have been a lesson of salvation for those infidels, if they had not been rebels against the light that enlightens every man who lives in the world. Only one of the butchers, named Berlabei, believed courageously in the miracle and, declaring himself a Christian in a loud voice, was condemned to be impaled.”

During the beatification process for the eight hundred, in 1539, four eyewitnesses spoke of the prodigy of Antonio Primaldo, who remained standing after being decapitated, and of the conversion and martyrdom of the executioner. This is the account of one of the four, Francesco Cerra, who in 1539 was 72 years old:

“Antonio Primaldo was the first to be slaughtered, and without his head he remained upright on his feet, nor could any of the efforts of the enemy knock him down, until all were killed. The butcher, stunned by the miracle, confessed that the Catholic faith was the true one, and insisted on becoming a Christian, and for this the pasha condemned him to death by impaling.”

GOOD POPE, BAD POPE

On Francis

Posted by Ann Barnhardt - March 14, AD 2013 10:34 AM MST

Let me start with a positive comment. Remember, this is the best I could come up with:

If we had gotten the pope we DESERVE, we would now have Pope Snoop Dogg.

And thus ends the positivity.

Francis, like his homeland of Argentina, is a total disaster. He has overseen the near-total destruction of the Church in Argentina. He hates and despises the Tridentine Mass, which is to say that he hates the Mass - let's not mince words, and is a rabid persecutor of anyone in Argentina who shows ANY signs of tradition. A priest in Argentina literally risks the end of his career if he wears a cassock in public. He has forbidden the Tridentine Mass in Argentina, which is an act of direct disobedience, specifically against the papal decree Summorum Pontificum, but embraces horrific "charismatic" and "Superfun Rockband"-type liturgical sacrilege.

Which brings us to his regard for the papacy, and the Church itself. He said yesterday in his bizarre little speech, again and again, that he was the Bishop of Rome, which is true, but in being the Bishop of Rome the pope is the head of the Universal Church, not just the city of Rome. Francis does not believe this, and even made a reference to the idea that the pope is "first among equals". This means that he regards the Church as a mere loose confederacy, and also that he thinks the Church is, or should be, a democracy. The proof of this is, again, his blatant disobedience to Summorum Pontificum. He will never do anything to clean up the sodomite infiltrators in the Church outside of Rome because he doesn't feel that the pope has any authority outside of Rome. Bottom line here: many bishops and archbishops have been kept in line over the past eight years because Benedict was relatively aggressive in booting out extremely bad bishops. Benedict was feared in a healthy way. This guy is basically the big green light to every Marxist-homosexualist to just go ahead and do whatever, because they know Francis will never remove them or even chastise them, because Francis doesn't believe that the pope has any universal authority and is merely the bishop of the city of Rome proper - at least that is the excuse that will be given when nothing is done about abuses and heresies **that Francis is sympathetic towards.**

BUT, like all insecure leaders who say that they reject authority and obedience, reports from Buenos Aires are that he is an iron-fisted totalitarian against traditionalists, precisely because he has no confidence in or respect for his own authority, and thus assumes that no one else does either, and thus wields power against his perceived enemies only from brute force. Again, this is TEXTBOOK 20th century Marxist worldview and psychology. It is also the diametrical opposite of the virtue of MEEKNESS, which is power under control.

Next, he is an "ecu-maniac", which is to say that he is in the "all religions are equal and can't we all just get along" camp. In Buenos Aires he knelt before and received the "blessing" of a Superfun Rockband Church "pastor", and even received "communion" from a Protestant. There are pictures floating around of that episode. This is terrifying. He clearly does not have a strong belief in or understanding of Our Lord, His Church, the Mass or the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist. But, as I have stated repeatedly, almost none of the men ordained in the 1960s, 70s or 80s do.

Next, he's a Jesuit. Now, I must disclose that I have a deep personal, seething, visceral hatred of Jesuits, but my hatred of them is a corollary to the fact that they long ago descended into truly evil heresies and apostasy. Jesuits, in addition to being a cult of sodomites who hate God, are also … wait for it … Marxists. Now Francis has in the past put up some token resistance to so-called "Liberation theology", which is just Communist Totalitarianism in religious drag, but he is huge, huge, huge on "social justice", which is merely code for Marxism. This guy's worldview revolves around giving people free stuff because it's nice, which as we have discussed is contrary to logic and reason, specifically in the subset of mathematics, and thus is contrary to Our Lord who is FIRST the Logos, with the Divine Caritas (charity) proceeding out of the Logos. Bottom line, there will be zero positive assistance to the world from Francis with regards to the inevitable economic collapse. Not only will there be nothing helpful coming from him, he will almost certainly come out in favor of more debt, more "free stuff", and more rhetoric about how people are "entitled" to physical and service commodities (which are someone else's man-hours, remember) as "rights".

But Ann! He has gone on record against homosexual "marriage" and abortion!

Wow. Is this really how far we have sunk? The Roman pontiff is on record as being against sodomy and killing babies and we cite this as proof of ORTHODOXY? Really? I wonder if he also believes in gravity. Does belief in gravity constitute a conservative worldview now?

Benedict thought that between the "Natural Solution" (the passage of time yielding the death or retirement of the bad guys) and the appointments he was able to make over the last eight years that he had set up the College of Cardinals to elect a successor that was very much in the Ratzingerian camp. Benedict was wrong. Not only did they not elect a Ratzingerian, they elected the anti-Ratzinger. In the 2005 conclave Francis came in second to Ratzinger, which is to say that Francis was the "opposition". In what must have Benedict's mind reeling today, after eight years of purging and priming the College of Cardinals, the very men Ratzinger placed turned around and elected the anti-Ratzinger. This proves, as I have said all along, that playing prevent defense, namely the "natural solution" of waiting for the bad guys to die is UNSOUND. In war, you fix your bayonets, say your prayers, and you charge.

Tridentine Mass-goers and clergy, this guy will be on the warpath against us at some point. Prepare. Brace. He may attempt to undo Summorum Pontificum either directly or through intense passive aggression. Any hopes of reconciling the good guys in the SSPX is now totally over. Beyond that, the splinter factions will now claim that "they were right", and sadly even more schism will result, and more people will remain outside the Church. So sad.

We got what we deserved, and probably better than we deserve. God's chastisement of His people is sending them bad priests, bishops, and now, in all likelihood, a bad pope. What do you expect? Look around. The world is awash in staggering sin and blasphemy and no one will lift a finger to do anything about it. And, as my last essay on penance proved via my email box, no one is sorry or has any desire to make reparation to Our Lord for any of it. No one has the slightest comprehension of the notion of taking on the burden of guilt for sins that they didn't directly commit, which blows my mind because that is LITERALLY the ENTIRE POINT of the Incarnation. The mind reels at the collective obtuseness needed to miss that glaring point.

No one has the slightest comprehension of the idea of seeing Our Lord in agony and simply stepping over to Him and asking, "What can I do to help You? What can I do to make You feel better? Let me take some of Your burden. Let me go with You."

Nope. So long as we all leave Him alone in His Passion, He will leave us to our self-absorption and indifference.

Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison.

Viva il Papa.

9 things you should know about Pope Francis

I think #9 will surprise you!

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First Black Pope? Sign of End Times? - UPDATE

I'm not sure these "reformed Christians" are right on spot, but this commentary does explain the current thrill going through the Catholic and Evangelical churches!

My husband says I was 'prescient' for posting this last April 15th!

UPDATE: Re: The first black Pope -- from The D.C. Clothesline: I’m Not Catholic, Why Should I Care Who The Next Pope Is? Because George Soros Does.

Are you caught in the Facebook Trap?

Catholic writer Elizabeth Scalie nails it in this piece: Idols Come in Many Forms; Facebook Feeds Them

...the insidious trap I discuss in my First Things piece — the trap so many of us at one time or another find ourselves struggling to get out of, where we are caught up in the whirlwind of politics (so much of which is illusory) and into thinking that we must, we must, we must, keep breathlessly posting on Facebook; that the nation’s fate depends upon us not stopping to consider (or to pray, or to even think) but simply remaining in the spin of the storm, until we lose sight of everything, including the humanity of others, or the damage we may be causing that was never our willful intent.

This is scary because I've felt it...I've seen it...and her advice is critical for our bodily health and our souls (comes just in time for a lot of us):

...some of us are simply nourishing our ideologies—holding them close to the heart and feeding them on our stores of distrust and bitterness—and allowing them to steal all of our instincts to charity, to squeeze out mercy. You can see it on social media, most especially on Facebook where respectable, even admirable, people are beginning to lose perspective and attack each other over news stories, and sometimes over simple questions, reasonably asked. Where angry banning won’t do, full-scale attacks are launched in the form of threads full of red-meat, wherein “friends” are invited to feed, so the hatred may grow.

And it is all done in service to a sad illusion that somehow, if we do not post every story that makes us angry or proves our point, if we do not constantly attempt to fix the erroneous thinking of others, this election will fall out of our control. [Emphasis mine.] We must be aggressive unto hysteria in our righteousness, or the other side will win.

Catholics Called to Witness: AMAZING VIDEO

I't's short. Turn up your volume:

VIDEO

Big news you probably won't hear

The Anchoress: BIG NEWS: CHA tells HHS “NG on Accommo” UPDATED Elizabeth Scalia surmises: "Who knows, perhaps that’s why Obama made his announcement today..."

Subsidiarity: where Catholics, Conservatives, and Libertarians agree

Ryan said that the principle of subsidiarity — a notion, rooted in Catholic social teaching, that decisions are best made at most local level available — guided his thinking on budget planning.

“To me, the principle of subsidiarity, which is really federalism, meaning government closest to the people governs best, having a civil society … where we, through our civic organizations, through our churches, through our charities, through all of our different groups where we interact with people as a community, that’s how we advance the common good,” Ryan said.

The Wisconsin Republican said that he also drew on Catholic teachings regarding concern for the poor, and his interpretation of how that translated into government policy.

“[T]he preferential option for the poor, which is one of the primary tenants of Catholic social teaching, means don’t keep people poor, don’t make people dependent on government so that they stay stuck at their station in life, help people get out of poverty out onto life of independence,” said Ryan.

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Catholic leader vows to fight Obama in the streets if necessary

"This is going to be fought out with lawsuits, with court decisions, and, dare I say it, maybe even in the streets."

--Catholic League head Bill Donohue."

Donohue Says 70 Million Of His Voters Ready To Alter Presidential Election

Catholic League Poised To Go To War With Obama Over Mandatory Birth Control Payments

Can a nun be a whore?

The story of the President's nun and charges of possible intimidation of a hospital executive over ObamaCare will ensure the Scranton hospital sale isn't going away anytime soon...

"We lit the candles to pray for America"

Today, the lot of us did something we haven’t done in a very long while.

We went into a little Catholic church here in Boystown, and we lit every candle in the place, dropping a good $50 in the donation tin for all that fire and wax...

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Jimmy Carter: Abuse of Women Including Genital Mutilation is the Fault of Catholics & Southern Baptists

America’s worst president attacked Catholics and Southern Baptists for the abuse of women in a speech he gave in Australia. He even blamed these traditional religious groups for female genital mutilation.