George Offerman
The above title is taken from Arlington Bishop Loverde’s piece that appeared last week in the Arlington Catholic Herald and it addresses the latest scandal perpetrated against Catholics by the rogue Obamination administration and enforced by Secretary of Health and Human Services and discalced Catholic Kathleen Sebelius. The HHS is requiring all employers to offer contraceptive and abortofacient coverage for employees of organizations, and the Catholic Church has until January 20, 2013 to comply or face ‘penalties’. Bishop Loverde, as like many members of the Catholic Hierarchy, has come out with strong statements against this horrific policy in the past week or so and it is reflecting the leading role the Catholic Hierarchy should be taking to begin with.
I was also heartened by the fact that our Parochial Vicar gave a strongly worded and politically laced homily last Sunday and was equally convicted of the vileness of this policy. Similar to the tone taken by Bishop Loverde, this homily focused on the need to act and if need be, to follow one’s conscience in the matter (civil disobedience without using the phrase). It is one of the first times I have heard in quite a while a more unified stance on any Church teaching and I hope this portends to greater action by the Church body as a whole.
That being said, my dominant reaction to both is: WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN ALL THESE YEARS? The Church has remained, with a few exceptions deafening quiet for the past 40 years or so concerning laws enacted in this country that are contrary to Church teachings. What is so difficult to fathom about this ‘new’ stand is the outright war on our Church has been going on for way more than a generation. Why this is now considered crossing a line seems to only indicate how far behind the Church is concerning these matters, and how much more the fight will require of all of us now that we need to retake ground that should have never been lost in the first place.
The Supreme Court threw out public prayer in the mid 60’s, and the Church remained silent. The Roe V. Wade decision occurred in 1973, ‘legalizing’ the slaughter of the most innocent among us and the Church remained silent. There was the homosexual scandals in both the Church and Seminaries in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s and the Church hid and denied the truth, and in effect remained silent. Various elected and /or appointed ‘Catholic’ officials elevated into places of power since the late 90’s to present have consistently violated clear Catholic teachings and tenets of the faith, and nary a peep from the Church.
The Church has consistently taken a passive “let’s love them, and change their hearts” approach instead of standing up as a John the Baptist or an apostle of Jesus as called by the Gospels, and we are now reaping the very deserving harvest of religious repression and persecution. It seems incredible, or nearly inconceivable that the Church will now take a hardened position on the matter of contraceptives and mandates to ‘pay’ for these items, when we as a nation have been funding legalized child killing through taxes for years. What has changed in the Catholic attitude that would lead one to believe things will be any different this time?
This is a Church that just a few short years ago put out a scandalous brochure “Faithful Citizenship” that equated the perceived ‘racism’ and legalized child killing as moral equivalents. This brochure did nothing but cause confusion among the laity, and equivocated on real Church teachings. As has been well documented, 54% of CATHOLICS voted for the most pro death president in the history of this country. Candidate Obama was CRYSTAL CLEAR on his intention of upholding the ‘rule of law’ protecting legalized child killing on demand, and intended to overhaul heath care as his number one mandate, which included REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS. So there can be NO CREDIBLE CLAIM BY THE CHURCH that they did not see this coming, and in fact, they were active in having several people arrested for handing out guides that accurately reflected true Church teachings, and yours truly was one of those arrested for doing such activities.
The truth of the matter is, that we have no excuse and have no one else to blame except ourselves for this predicament. Obama is doing exactly as he promised, and is being true to his agenda, which was laid out before us at the onset of his campaign. How the vast majority of Clergy and laity did not (and some still do not) see this is beyond mystifying. However, they (the Church) had been warned by those who could see where this was going, and it landed on deaf ears. Now, it appears the bill is due, and the deadline is set for January 20, 2013 (Ironically, nearly 40 years to the day from Roe).
This is a spiritual battle, and spiritual techniques must be employed. The Bishops especially those close to the seat of power, Bishop Loverde of Arlington, Cardinal Wuerl of Washington, D.C. and Archbishop O’brien of Baltimore must lead the charge and take matters into their own hands, as if they were John the Baptist, Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Peter and Paul all rolled into one. It needs to start by EXCOMMUNICATING EVERY ONE OF THESE CHARLATANS CLAIMING TO BE CATHOLIC, WITH NO APOLOGIES. Demand they publicly denounce their Anti Catholic positions before readmitting them to the sacraments. This message must be preached on every Sunday and the laity must be given clear and concise marching orders to effect change. These charlatan ‘Catholics’ must be told without any hesitation that their eternal souls are in jeopardy, and that their faith must guide their political decisions in that order. And there needs to be clear and concise consequences if these charlatans want to walk this fine line and be both 'self serving' politicians and ‘Catholics in good standing”. Take no prisoners, and make no apologies.
If the Bishops stand up and follow cannon law, especially Cannon 915, this matter will be cleared up within 12 months. Once again, the hierarchy would carry the moral grounds this Church once had some time ago, and these wayward and lying politicians would be fearful of violating God’s laws and would tremble at the thought of ‘legislating evil’. There wouldn’t even need to be a ‘debate’ about homosexual marriage, birth control and abortofacients, or legalized child killing because even the most daft among us would understand it would be legislating evil. Yes, the line has been crossed, but Bishop Loverde and the rest of the Bishops; it was crossed decades ago. Where have you been?
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