Punditry

THE Catholic Bishop of Toowoomba, William Morris, has been effectively sacked by Pope Benedict XVI over doctrinal disobedience for his support for ordaining women priests and other liberal reform.

In a highly unusual move, Bishop Morris complained in a letter to his followers that he was leaving unwillingly and claimed he had been denied natural justice.

The developments have led to an incipient revolt among at least some sections of the church.

In the letter read out to all congregations in the diocese at weekend masses, pre-empting a Vatican announcement tonight, Bishop Morris, 67, said he had taken early retirement because “it has been determined by Pope Benedict that the diocese would be better served by the leadership of a new bishop”.

It is understood that one of Brisbane’s auxiliary bishops will step into the diocese temporarily as administrator until a new bishop is appointed. Bishops normally do not retire until at least 75.

The usual suspects including those in the diocese are shocked at this action, though they didn’t seem that way over the bishops previous letter.

The bishop’s letter shows things had reached a stalemate after he had been talking to the Vatican for five years.”

In his letter, Bishop Morris said the Vatican’s decision was sparked by complaints to Rome about an Advent letter he wrote in 2006. In that letter, he argued that with an ageing clergy the church should be open to all eventualities, including ordaining women, ordaining married men, welcoming back former priests and recognising the validity of Anglican, Lutheran and Uniting Church orders.

Yes another bishop with a vocation to the papacy.

In contrast to some other provincial dioceses, the priest shortage has been exacerbated by Toowoomba’s appalling record over recent years in attracting virtually no new vocations.

The dearth of vocations in a diocese is almost an infallible indicator of a bishop’s orthodoxy. In fact you could almost measure a bishops heterodoxy using a ratio of priests and pastoral associates. It did not take me long to verify that this was a diocese big on pastoral associates and an extreme lack of priests. Of course there are many factors for the priest shortage but it does seem that in heterodox diocese such as Bishop Morris and Bishop Clarke of Rochester that they seem to create a priest shortage to push reasons to use other than celibate men as priests.

[Article][Via Father Z]

Ironically a lay group might have been partly responsible concerning this forced retirement.

This is the third bishop that we know of who was dismissed this year by the Pope. This is a serious action that no doubt was made as a last straw because removing a bishop from a diocese is about as serious as you get. It’s not like replacing a CEO, it’s more like removing a father from a home. Unfortunately that indeed is required at times.

When I get a unrelated comment on post I am rather suspicious.

What do you think of http://www.sealofconfession.com ? Looks legit…

Especially when the site in question says:

Traditionally, you would need to go to Church, and wait in line at the confessional to speak to a priest about your sins. We have a network of priests who receive your e-mail, pray for you, and reconcile your sins with God.

Before going to confession, a Catholic might “examine her conscience” by reviewing past actions, thoughts, and patterns of behavior. Some Catholics evaluate their behavior in light of the Ten Commandments. Confession of ALL mortal sins is required, but confession of venial sins is optional. However, for every venial sin confessed, God gives grace to help one overcome it. You should be as descriptive as possible. Most Catholics confess DAILY.

Most of the text for this appears to taken from Yahoo! Answers. The site is an obvious scam and was created a couple of days ago. I guess some people might be deceived by such a thing, though a site telling you to write down your mortal sins daily and being loaded with Google Ads is a pretty obvious con. To add to the phoniness they have a testimonial from Rev. Chuck Slawsky, OR. Of course there is no Fr. Slawsky in Oregon or elsewhere.

Update: I see that Fr. Cory already outed this site and found additional information of it’s new age association.

At one time in human history it is believed that almost all causes were direct acts of god and so as to appease the apparent acts of nature that god had to be mollified usually by some form of sacrifice. All of the more destructive parts of nature were often seen in this way. Man’s reason would lead him to the existence of god or gods, but it was an error to see all of the destructive acts of nature as part of direct acts of his active will. God had not yet revealed himself to us and so distinctions such as his active will and his permissive will.

Of course these errors are still made today when some religious figure will say that some destructive act of nature was a purposeful act of God as punishment for sinful behavior.

In modern times though an opposite error has arisen. Believers in anthropomorphic climate-change (or whatever they are calling it at this moment) ascribe all destructive acts of nature to humanity. There seems to be more discernment between what changes in climate are part of a normal cycle that have repeated itself throughout history and to what extent human industrialization has played a part. Almost all the arguments are related in terms of any change without taking into account any natural cycles.

Now I am generally a skeptic of “global climate change” in part because I was not a skeptic of all the coming catastrophes I was taught growing up in sixties and seventies. In the Book of Revelation there is an Armageddon that ends with hope, in the books describing the modern Armageddon of environmental catastrophe there is no hope – but there was also no prophecy since the year 2000 came and went without the destruction those books predicted. It is also a subject I am not dogmatic about since it is a subject involving science and usually at some point false theories are discredited and valid hypothesis are proven. Though this is not a post about the validity of global climate change, but of the attitudes concerning it.

The latest evidence of what I am talking about here is the number of people including John Kerry who are saying the recent destructive tornadoes in the South were the result of global climate change. One person even talked about the correlation between politicians in this area who voted against giving the EPA power to control CO2. The fact that NOAA statistics show that the last 60 years have seen a dramatic increase in the reporting of weak tornadoes, but no change in the number of severe to violent ones is of no relevance to them. It was the same with hurricanes a couple of years back where the same claims were made even though the 1930 say more CAT 5 hurricanes and the last couple of years has been relatively mild despite projections. Living in Florida I certainly don’t take hurricanes lightly. But even if there was a direct causation between warming patterns and these storms, how much of the effect is man-made and how much would have occurred naturally? These are of course questions for science and probably questions that will have to be answered in the further since current climate novels are not predictive in the short to medium range.

For the modern believe of global climate change there are not distinction just as in regards to early humanity. One blames the gods and the other humanity. Global climate changists also believe in sacrifice. Though often it is vicarious sacrifice. That is they believe you should give up all the modern luxuries and live like the Amish while they fly in jets burning up fuel to warn us of the catastrophe and make no sacrifice themselves. Carbon offsets is another kind of sacrifice offered to appease humanity from their environmental destructive ways. I wrote a comparison between Corbon and Carbon Offsets some years back.

And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, `Honor your father and your mother’; and, `He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die’; but you say, `If a man tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is Corban’ (that is, given to God) –then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you hand on. And many such things you do.” Mark 7:10-13

Now I don’t quite understand why Jesus was so upset about this, after all it was the first use of a Corban offset. The Pharisees were just working on their Corban footprint. The logic of the Corban offset is quite understandable in modern times. You can neglect taking care of your parents just as long as you say you have given your assets to God while at the same time still making full use of them and their benefits. You can neglect something and not change your own consumption just as long as you say your neglect is being offset by something supposedly good. Extra points if you can find a way to do a Corban offset by buying them from your own company.

Blaming god for everything and blaming humanity for everything are two sides of the same error. God is the author of nature and it is given to us in stewardship. We praise and worship God by thanking him for his gifts and using them appropriately. Actual environmental damage is a rejection of this stewardship. It takes prudence and discernment to make sure we are using what God has given us appropriately and as G.K. Chesterton wrote the Earth is not our mother, but our sister.

Leading up to the beatification of Pope John Paul II on May 1st there has been a certain amount of grumbling about him being fast-tracked. Most of these grumbling set around the late popes administration regarding the abuse scandal and his association with Fr. Marcel. These criticisms range from Catholics to secular critics. Even Maureen Dowd has weighed in on this and you can guess her opinion. She plays devil’s advocate and as her columns show it is easy to be a devil’s advocate when you share his point of view.

A lot of these criticisms remind me of the misinformed Protestant understanding of papal infallibility which they confuse with impeccability. In Pope John Paul II case they seem to think that heroic sanctity means that you’re a perfect or near-perfect administrator and can read the souls of people you know. Personal holiness is to be thrown out if whatever you have a bone-to-pick with wasn’t picked in the manner and timeliness you wanted. People can certainly critique Pope John Paul II’s papacy as they can critique how any pope administers. There are certainly things I would critique during his time as pope, though I do not doubt his personal sanctity one bit and am filled with joy at his being beatified. Pope Celestine V is both a saint and in life he was also a horrible administrator. He knew this of himself which is why he resigned after 5 months of being the pope. He was picked for his holiness, but personal sanctity does not mean you have the full skill set to be an able administrator. Pope John Paul II was a true leader and an able administrator – just not a perfect one.

The other argument used is that the normal time requirement was waived int this case by Pope Benedict XVI as was also done for Blessed Mother Teresa. While certainly a five year cooling off period before any cause is started is a prudent choice in most cases it was not like Pope John Paul II’s life lacked investigation up to that point. Regardless though an in-depth investigation was still made as to whether he displayed heroic sanctity. In addition to the investigation there was of course also the cure of French nun Sister Marie Simon-Pierre due to the late pope’s intercession. The Church is very prudent in these cases that even when they conduct an investigation and find the proper result she still waits for God to weigh in on this. Is anybody arguing that God was pressured vi fast-tracking into performing a miracle via Pope John Paul II’s intercession?

Besides God seems to have set a precedence or two considering fast-tracking saints. Think about the case of St. Dismas the thief on the cross next to Jesus who repented. Jesus had just met the guy who was indeed a thief and yet he promised him that he would be in paradise with him “this day.” Talk about fast-tracking.

Earlier  this month on the Tavis Smiley show, Fr. Pfleger said:

“I want to try to stay in the Catholic Church,” Pfleger said. “If they say ‘You either take this principalship of [Leo High School] or pastorship there or leave,’ then I’ll have to look outside the church. I believe my calling is to be a pastor. I believe my calling is to be a voice for justice. I believe my calling is to preach the Gospel. In or out of the church, I’m going to continue to do that.”

At the time I had hoped that Cardinal George would respond to this. He has and in a letter written to F.r Phleger wrote:

That process has now been short-circuited by your remarks on national radio and in local newspapers that you will leave the Catholic Church if you are told to accept an assignment other than as pastor of Saint Sabina Parish. If that is truly your attitude, you have already left the Catholic Church and are therefore not able to pastor a Catholic parish. A Catholic priest’s inner life is governed by his promises, motivated by faith and love, to live chastely as a celibate man and to obey his bishop. Breaking either promise destroys his vocation and wounds the Church. Bishops are held responsible for their priests on the assumption that priests obey them. I have consistently supported your work for social justice and admired your passion for ministry. Many love and admire you because of your dedication to your people. Now, however, I am asking you to take a few weeks to pray over your priestly commitments in order to come to mutual agreement on how you understand personally the obligations that make you a member of the Chicago presbyterate and of the Catholic Church.

That statement is exactly right and truly it has been right about Fr. Pfleger for a long time. Cardinal George gave him a lifetime achievement award last year and he defended this saying in part.

Fr. Plfeger has spoken in anger, sometimes unjustly or uncharitably; and anger is easier to capture on the camera than is love.

Funny that a TV appearance has been his downfall. Though previously when F. Pfleger previously supported women’s ordination it was not spoken in anger and was on video on the parish’s site.

Father Pfleger, I deeply regret that your public remarks have brought you to a moment of crisis that I pray will quickly pass. This conflict is not between you and me; it’s between you and the Church that ordained you a priest, between you and the faith that introduced you to Christ and gives you the right to preach and pastor in his name. If you now formally leave the Catholic Church and her priesthood, it’s your choice and no one else’s. You are not a victim of anyone or anything other than your own statements. To avoid misrepresentation and manipulation on anyone’s part, this letter will be released to the parish, which is to publish it in its entirety, and to the media after it has been delivered to you.

You remain in my prayers, and I hope I remain in yours.

Please remember to pray for Fr. Pfleger and that he does repent of his attitude. Like Father Bourgeois he will more than likely take the way of ego and Pfleger ego is one of those things you can see from space. But of course nothing is impossible with God.

In the meantime 100 of his previous parishioners demonstrated outside to Cardinal George’s residence protesting Fr. Pfleger’s suspension. To be expected when you turn the pastorate into a cult-of-personality. It is his very relationship with his parish that I think has caused Cardinal George let him be a public embarrassment over and over again to avoid a schism in St. Sabina like in the case Father George Augustus Stallings Jr. St. Sabina deserves better even if they don’t know it.

After the protest, Glover said he would likely remain in the parish even if Pfleger leaves, as long as Pfleger is treated with respect and Magwaza is allowed to take over, but he said he would probably leave the parish and perhaps the church if Pfleger left and Magwaza was not allowed to become pastor.

How prevalent this attitude is I certainly don’t know, but I suspect many of the Pfleger trained parishioners have been virtually in schism putting a pastor over the local bishop.

Vince A. Clark, an assistant to Pfleger, said the cardinal’s decision to suspend the priest has left his parishioners “shocked, devastated, hurt (and) angry.”

“We were totally blindsided by that,” Clark said, standing in front of the cardinal’s home on the Near North Side. “We did not see that decision coming.”

Too bad he wasn’t shocked by the appearance on the Tavis Smiley show by Fr. Pfleger. A pastor saying he will “look outside of the church” if he doesn’t get his way should have left him “shocked, devastated, hurt (and) angry.”

Considering some of Fr. Pfleger’s activism maybe the Cardinal could appoint him to the local chapter of the St. Gabriel Possenti Society.

A polar bear breaks a decorated Easter eggs with food inside at the zoo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 21, 2011. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Because for the AP and apparently the Buenos Aires zoo nothing screams Easter like a polar bear eating an Easter Egg decorated with the iconic album cover picturing Jim Morrison.  If there were “riders on the storm”, Jesus would calm the story.  He did not have to break on through to the other side, but came from the other side to save us.  There is no limit to Jesus’ love for use and does not limit it to “love me two times.”  You can visit Jim Morrison grave at the Parisian cemetery Pere-Lachaise, Jesus’ tomb remains empty so that we might not be empty but filled with love.

Well maybe the reason they picked this egg for the polar bear is that Jesus and Jim Morrison were polar opposites.

Hat tip: Right Wing News

Pope Benedict appointed Texas priest Jose Auturo Cepeda as an auxiliary bishop of Detroit. At the age of 41, he will become the youngest bishop in the U.S.

Bishop-elect Cepeda currently serves as the rector of Assumption Seminary in San Antonio and is the third in a recent round of newly appointed auxiliary bishops for the Archdiocese of Detroit.

Upon news of his appointment on April 18, the bishop-elect – who has never visited the city outside of its airport – expressed excitement over his upcoming move.

“I will learn much from the Church of Detroit,” he said on Monday. “God is the One who does all the work and gives us all the grace we need. All we need to do is say ‘yes,’ just like Mary. That’s my attitude.”

Bishop-elect Cepeda will join Bishop-elects Monsignor Donald Hanchon and Michael Byrnes in being ordained bishops on May 5 at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron welcomed the appointment and said that the new bishop-elect “comes to us with an apostolic mission to use all of his many gifts and talents for the service of the whole People of God in Southeast Michigan – with particular attention to that portion of our family which is Hispanic.”

“He is a true son of Our Lady of Guadalupe,” Archbishop Vigneron added. “I know she will help him to share his gifts with us, so that all of us – from so many diverse cultures – will share our gifts of grace with one another.”

Archbishop Jose Gomez, the former head of the San Antonio archdiocese who is now leading the Church in Los Angeles, told CNA, “The appointment of Fr. Cepeda gives me great joy.” [Source]

I am not automatically filled with confidence when I see “youngest bishop” assigned. Detroit previously had a “youngest bishop” assigned – his name was Bishop Thomas Gumbleton. Gumbleton because of his heterodoxy never became more than an auxiliary bishop luckily. Then there were some other great young bishops like Cardinal Mahony and Bishop Clark of Rochester whose age allowed them to damage a diocese for multiple decades. Though in this case there is a great difference. That era was stamped by the late Papal Nuncio Jean Jardot who put his mark on the selection of bishops in the United States. No doubt Fr. Jose Auturo Cepeda will add to the list of excellent Benedict Bishops.

A sophomore at a local private high school thinks an effort to make Easter politically correct is ridiculous.
Jessica, 16, told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show that a week before spring break, the students commit to a week-long community service project. She decided to volunteer in a third grade class at a public school, which she would like to remain nameless.

“At the end of the week I had an idea to fill little plastic eggs with treats and jelly beans and other candy, but I was kind of unsure how the teacher would feel about that,” Jessica said.

She was concerned how the teacher might react to the eggs after of a meeting earlier in the week where she learned about “their abstract behavior rules.”

“I went to the teacher to get her approval and she wanted to ask the administration to see if it was okay,” Jessica explained. “She said that I could do it as long as I called this treat ‘spring spheres.’ I couldn’t call them Easter eggs.”

Rather than question the decision, Jessica opted to “roll with it.” But the third graders had other ideas.

“When I took them out of the bag, the teacher said, ‘Oh look, spring spheres’ and all the kids were like ‘Wow, Easter eggs.’ So they knew,” Jessica said.

The Seattle elementary school isn’t the only government organization using spring over Easter. The city’s parks department has removed Easter from all of its advertised egg hunts. [Source]

I’m shocked, shocked I tell you. How dare they attack geometry by referring to an egg as a sphere when it is in fact a prolate ellipsoid. A sphere is a perfectly round geometrical object. I am quite upset and will be sending an email to the Geometry League immediately. I suspect this is part of the Multi-geometry movement.

An electrician faces the sack for displaying a small palm cross on the dashboard of his company van.

Former soldier Colin Atkinson has been summoned to a disciplinary hearing by the giant housing association where he has been employed for 15 years because he refuses to remove the symbol.

Mr Atkinson, a regular worshipper at church, said: ‘The treatment of Christians in this country is becoming diabolical…but I will stand up for my faith.’

Throughout his time at work, he has had an 8in-long cross made from woven palm leaves attached to the dashboard shelf below his windscreen without receiving a single complaint.

But his bosses at publicly funded Wakefield and District Housing (WDH) in West Yorkshire – the fifth-biggest housing organisation in England – have demanded he remove the cross on the grounds it may offend people or suggest the organisation is Christian. Mr Atkinson’s union representative said he faces a full disciplinary hearing next month for gross misconduct, which could result in dismissal.

The association strongly promotes ‘inclusive’ policies and allows employees to wear religious symbols at work.

It has provided stalls at gay pride events, held ‘diversity days’ for travellers, and hosted a gender reassignment event entitled A World That Includes Transpeople. [Source]

Well at least this story doesn’t include geometric relativism.

Once again Animal Farm provides the key. With multiculturalism some cultures are more equal than others.

The embattled pastor of St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church told radio show hosts Tavis Smiley and Cornel West this weekend that he would look outside the Catholic Church if offered no other choice but to work at a Catholic high school.

The Rev. Michael Pfleger also said on the “Smiley & West” public radio program that he had been banned from speaking at events in the archdiocese and blamed pressure from conservative Catholics and the National Rifle Association for his most recent clash with Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George.

“I want to try to stay in the Catholic Church,” Pfleger said. “If they say ‘You either take this principalship of [Leo High School] or pastorship there or leave,’ then I’ll have to look outside the church. I believe my calling is to be a pastor. I believe my calling is to be a voice for justice. I believe my calling is to preach the Gospel. In or out of the church, I’m going to continue to do that.”

In an interview with the Tribune, Pfleger clarified that he feels called to preach and push for social justice in a Catholic context. He said he loves the Catholic Church and prefers to stay there. But going to Leo full-time would not happen, Pfleger said.

“I’ve always said I could not do something that I don’t feel called or equipped to do,” he told the Tribune. “A full-time position at Leo is not something I’m equipped to do. I think Leo has made it clear they don’t see any need for me to come there. For both sides this would be a lose-lose. [source]

Well I would agree with half of that lose-lose.

I seem to be under some misunderstanding. I thought bishops directed where their priest went. Diocesan priests don’t make vows, they make promises to their bishop and one of those promises is obedience. Obedient priests don’t go on television questioning where there bishop is going to send them and they especially don’t talk about going outside the Church if they don’t get their way. Fr. Pfleger had developed a cult of personality over at St Sabina and his past antics have not served that congregation well.

In diocese with a bishop of a more liberal-bent they have no problem with priests faithful to the magisterium. They can ship them off to small country parishes knowing they will not complain in the least and I can think of circumstances where this has happened. Priests like Fr. Pfleger though seem to think it is all about them and there abilities and obedience only comes into play if they agree with what the bishop wants.

Earlier when I had read of Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George considering a new job assignment for Fr. Pfleger I thought this rather odd. Sending up seeming trial-ballons is out-of-place. The Cardinal should simply have made the assignment and while I can understand his pastoral approach with Fr. Pfleger considering his record, he must also consider the damage this priest does.

(CNSNews.com) – A Catholic priest who works with a group that advocates “full equality” of homosexuals would not say whether he agrees with the Catholic Church’s teaching on homosexuality.

Equally Blessed, which describes itself as “a coalition of faithful Catholics who support full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people both in the church and in civil society,” held a Mar. 30 briefing on Capitol Hill.

An oxymoronic description in the way they mean it. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people already have full equality in the Church and are called to holiness and chastity just as every single other person in the Church. What this group wants is not equality, but Animal Farm equality where some are more equal in that the sin of homosexual acts is to be accepted while everybody else’s sins are to be repented of.

…CNSNews.com asked Rev. Massingale, “Section 2357 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church says that ‘homosexual acts are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.’ That’s a quote. So, from your presence here today, is it safe to say that both of you disagree with this portion of Catholic law?”

Rev. Massingale said, “First, we have to become clear about, that it’s not Catholic law, it’s a Catholic teaching. It’s a distinction and a difference there. So let’s phrase your question more precisely –” at which point CNSNews.com asked, “Do you disagree with Catholic teaching on that?”

A distinction and a a difference and total nonsense.

Ah yes as an associate professor of moral theology at Marquette University getting that exactly backwards is to be expected there. A law is an ordinance and while Catholic teaching has various levels of assent it is always more than just a law. Canon law for examples follows Catholic teachings and corresponds with it. A dogma is not a law but a formally revealed truth concerning doctrine.

He then follows this with a bunch of mumbo jumbo that he would call nuance. I have more respect for dissidents who say they support homosexual acts than those who crouch their dissent in the language of equality. Exactly why on they campaigning on Capitol Hill? Exactly what law condones unjust discrimination on those with same-sex attraction? Exactly what rights are they being denied? This of course is all about same-sex marriage and not the phony pretenses that Rev. Massingale, STD dances around.

Oh and what “faithful” groups started “Equally Blessed”?

Well Call To Action, DignityUSA, Fortunate Families, and New Ways Ministry combined to create this advocacy group.

[Source]