A reader sent me a link to this good roundup at Vivificat concerning Call to Action and their response to the Vatican confirmation of their excommunication by Fabian Bruskewitz in the Diocese of Lincoln.
Since the post first came out one of CTA’s "deaconess" Ashley Reynolds
left a comment at Vivificat.
"I, Ashley, believe in our One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I believe in Apostolic succession, the primacy of Peter, the Blessed Virgin, and the Creeds. I, Ashley, believe that women can image Christ, that homosexual love is good and holy, that Jesus lived nonviolence, and that Jesus did not cast out disciples and apostles who had doubts."
Jesus did not cast out those who doubted, though he did call them forward from their doubt. When Jesus and the Apostles were at sea in the storm and Jesus calmed the storm he did not praise them for having doubted. John Henry Cardinal Newman said "Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt." There is also a great difference between a doubt and rejection of parts of the faith. Jesus not exactly have kind words for those who rejected his teachings. The Pharisees, Sadducees, and others were not exactly praised for doubting Jesus was the Messiah. When Jesus preached on the permanence of marriage, the Apostles did not reject his teaching – they wondered how it was possible since they did not yet have a full understanding of the graces in a sacramental marriage. CTA though does not doubt Jesus teaching on marriage – they outright reject it.
They also do not doubt Jesus’ teaching on marriage being between a man and a women, once again they outright reject it and call homosexual acts good and holy. It only makes sense that since they have no problems with homosexual acts that they also have no problem with contraception and also of course abortion. Yes social Justice means being able to kill the purely innocent in the womb. The slaughter of the innocents continue long past King Herod’s death.
In the most recent development:
Nicole Sotelo, codirector of national Call to Action, said her organization intends to mount a letter-writing campaign to Lincoln, Neb., Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, with copies to Bishop William Skylstad, bishop of Spokane, Wash., and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The letters will protest Bruskewitz’s refusal to comply with the bishops’ conference policies on child abuse by clergy, she said. Asked about the timing of the campaign, just after an announcement that the Vatican has upheld the excommunication of the Lincoln chapter of Call to Action, she said it would counter Bruskewitz’s "attempts to silence" the organization. "Justice cannot be silenced," she said [Via Diogenes ]
When Bishop Bruskewitz first excommunicated the various groups he received national coverage and thousands of letter. He said at the time very few were negative and were overwhelmingly supportive of his action.
Dad29 replies to this action by saying:
OK. After CTA’s actual membership (all 78 of them, nationwide) writes their letters, then what?
Does anybody remember CTA’s 1996-1997 petition drive for the "We Are Church: A Catholic Referendum" petition. They strived for over a million signatures by placing their petitions throughout parishes nationwide and it included the typical progressive laundry list of how the Church must change to fit their agenda. It was also a total flop receiving what I remember to be around 80 thousand signatures. The only thing this letter writing campaign will be sure to produce is a hearty laugh by Bishop Bruskewitz and also not a few prayers for the members of CTA.
One of the megatrends that John Allen Jr. should be following in his new book is the continuing dying out of progressive orders and organizations. CTA, FutureChurch, and others will be holding their meetings in retirement homes in years to come. Progressive religious orders will continue to shrink while vibrant orders who faithfully embrace the teachings of the Church will continue to grow.
Case in point is Sister Joan Chittister, OSB who in her latest column actually compares the Church’s treatment of women to Sharia law – though they never explain the Church’s veneration of the Blessed Mother and all of the women saints. She also says such stupid things as:
After all, women are the majority race. If God doesn’t like girls, S/he certainly made a lot of them. And they’re beginning to figure it out.
Women are a separate race? As dumb as I am I though they were part of the human race. Or maybe she thinks women are actually from Venus. This type of stupidity leads her to use the term s/he in referring to God which I consider down right impolite. The Holy Spirit went to a lot of trouble inspiring the writers of the Old and the New Testament and how we are to address the most Holy Trinity, the relation among the three divine persons, and our relation to them; and to have it ditched in favor of some PC term is just plain dumb. If you ask someone to call you by your first name and they then call you by some other name instead would you thing this is right – yet this is exactly what they do.