Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Contrasts

American Catholic bishops are pledging to "pull out all the stops" in support of Obama's "immigration reform", i.e. amnesty, open borders and the end of the United States as we know it. How odd it is to see these constitutionally weak, timid and lazy men suddenly turn into lions when it comes to pushing amnesty. It's amazing how the approval of the liberal media acts like a magic potion upon our bishops, infusing them with the courage and energy they lack when it comes to defending the Faith, evangelizing, standing up for marriage, or disciplining heretical priests and apostate politicians. Contrast this with how they responded to gay marriage. I didn't hear anything from the pulpit about that issue or hear anything about a nationwide push to fight for marriage in the legislatures. Recall how Cardinal Dolan, the leader of our local and national Church, limited his activism on the gay marriage issue to writing a blog post and phoning in to an Albany radio show when it was already too late. Contrasts, contrasts.


Monday, September 2, 2013

Desecration of the Pulpit

As we noted in our previous post, the bishops are so passionate about giving away our country to the Third World that they are ordering priests in two dozen specially targeted dioceses to preach support for Obama's immigration reform (amnesty and open borders) on September 8th. At least one Staten Island church started the ball rolling early. On August 25th, the lily-White South Shore parish I sometimes attend witnessed a sneak preview of the bishops' upcoming nationwide indoctrination day.

On this day, the American deacon gave the homily, instead of the foreign pastor with the indecipherable accent; apparently, this message was so important that the powers-that-be really wanted to make sure we understood it (as opposed to the run-of-the-mill God stuff, which is dealt with perfunctorily in a dialect we can't comprehend). He explained that we as Catholics must support the euphemistically named "immigration reform" because 1. Pope John Paul II's Catechism declares that we must be nice to immigrants, even to "undocumented" migrants, which is what he calls illegal aliens; 2. About 50% of immigrants are Catholics; and 3. Immigrants are just great folks, who start businesses and are all-around fine people.


No one said anything. No one reacted. I imagine that the deacon could have preached the virtues of Satanism and no one in this congregation of supine, slack-jawed and practically comatose Catholics would have stirred an inch. I can't imagine that they really believed in what he said, that is, if they were forced to take a stand on it. After all, a good 90% of these people had probably fled Brooklyn and the North Shore with their tails between their legs specifically to avoid living among dark-skinned newcomers. However, it's equally as true that they'd never admit it, which is why they'd probably voice support for "immigration reform" and then flee to New Jersey or upstate NY the moment the first wave of amnestied Mexicans start moving into Tottenville.

However, one angry man did say something to the deacon afterwards. All I heard was "Preach the Gospel, not the Democratic Party platform." Took the words right out of my mouth. This issue has nothing to do with Catholicism. The Bible tells us not to mistreat the sojourner, which by no stretch of the imagination could be interpreted to mean we are obligated to legalize 20 million illegal invaders and throw open the borders for their extended families. The new Catechism enjoins "the more prosperous nations" to welcome the foreigner "to the extent they are able". To that I would say:

1. with our economy the way it is, and with the social disruption attendant with mass Third World immigration, we are not able to accommodate any more people. Sorry- the country's full and we have millions of our own unemployed and underemployed to worry about.

2. I seriously doubt that previous generations of Catholics regarded this as a moral issue. Was this mentioned in the Baltimore Catechism? The Roman Catechism of the Council of Trent? Is "maintaining borders" mentioned as a sin in any Confessor's Manual that we know of?  Remember, the ancient test of doctrine was whether it was believed always, everywhere and by everyone. Did the Catholic Church, before 1985 or so, believe that the "prosperous nations" have a duty to give citizenship to whoever hopped a fence or stayed illegally?  I think not. This is a newly invented moral crusade by leftist-influenced clerics and can be dismissed as politically motivated nonsense.