REFLECTIONS ON 2009

George Offerman

This past year has been very interesting and challenging personally as well as nationally. Where we are heading will be determined by what we are currently doing (or not doing). So, I will look at some of the news making events, and take a gander into seeing what may lie ahead for us in the next year.

We had the most pro death president in the history of our country take office in January, with a great deal of optimism and fanfare by the majority. Obama has turned out to be extremely two faced and is quite the opposite of what he promised (except for child killing). This surprised the majority, who continued on in their deluded state believing ‘everything will be alright’.

Obama then is invited to Notre Dame to receive an honorary law degree and give the commencement speech to the graduates. This event is largely ignored by both the church, and mainstream pro life groups, and then when challenged by Randall Terry, then others, both the church and mainstream pro life groups ignored/criticized/condemned this effort. Obama successfully took on the “biggest kid on the block” and in essence divided and conquered the Catholic Church splitting in nearly down the middle (similar to the vote tally 54% voting for Obama).

Then the Kennedy funeral in which 2 prelates decided to preside at, and allow pro aborts to receive communion in direct violation of Cannon 915. Retired Cardinal McCarrick then presided at the gravesite ceremony, and at no time, was Kennedy’s voting record, or his strong anti Catholic stances questioned or challenged by these leaders.

Sotomayor, a woman of very questionable abilities and qualifications, is nominated, and then elevated to the Supreme Court, with very little resistance from the mainstream pro life groups, and nary a word from the Catholic Church, due mainly to her heritage, and not wanting to come across as ‘bigoted’, thus selling out faith for convenience.

Finally, healthcare emerged as a charged issue, and this had been in the making for sometime, but not dealt with by the reactionary Christian Churches and the mainstream pro life groups. The same people who stayed quiet throughout the Obama candidacy and subsequent election to president, now decided to act, and utilized feeble and half hearted measures to make it look like they wanted it stopped. These same groups then demonized Senator Nelson, and want to make it ‘his fault’ that this measure passed the Senate. Neither of these two groups has done much soul searching amongst themselves to see that standing up for the faith in its truest form and uncompromising, would have killed all of the above right in its tracks.

For legalized child killing to REALLY END, there has to be genuine fear by the elected officials of a strong, informed and accountable driven electorate. The electorate needs to have good formation and representation by lay leaders in developing a strong grassroots organization, and the lay leaders in these organizations need to be inspired by none other than saints and leaders and pastors from the Christian Churches, who put leather into their faith walk, and not just talk a good game. Without these in the proper order, our efforts will fail.

2009 has proven how far away we are in this fight, and 2010 needs to be the year we begin to turn this around. It has to start with the churches, and it ultimately may mean leaving them, defunding them, protesting them, or just a good old fashioned revival excluding them. Either way, there is a God in Heaven, who is watching, who is actively involved, who does keep perfect scores, who does not tolerate injustices, and will break into history when his representatives on earth (His Church) fails to act, or is in outright rebellion to His will.

If the Church is ambivalent about its own teachings and missions, then those that come from it (those that make up most of the pro life groups) will reflect the same ambivalence and same ‘moderation’ and mish mash teachings, which then make its way to the electorate, and eventually to the elected officials, who believe ‘we can do what we want, without repercussions”. The church of the lukewarm is the mainstream church, and it trickles down to all areas of our society. This condition will not last forever, and we are running out of time.

2010 has to be the year that we do house cleaning in the legislature, but more importantly, we need to clean our own houses. It is a painful process, but the consequences will be way more painful if not done. The storm clouds are nearing, the wind is blowing, the lightening can be seen, and there is thunder in the distance. Do we want to continue pretending all is right, do little to nothing, and believe things will straighten out on their own? Or do we want to become the saints that our Living God calls us to be?