Is Anybody There?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says Yahweh Sabaoth" Zach 4:6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dio di Signore, nella Sua volontà è nostra pace!" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Ben Franklin 1759

Monday, August 06, 2012

Showdown at the Vatican Corral

Today's The Detroit News had an article about the Leadership Council of Women Religious' ongoing rebellion againt the Vatican as well as their vows entitled  Mich. nuns ready for showdown with the Vatican. Naturally, the 1st thing I thought when I saw the title was, this would make a great clasical Western since the good guy always wore the white hat. In this case however, since the good guy is Papa Benedetto, instead of a white cowboy hat, it would have to be a white zuchetto.
The entire article was clearly slanted in favor of the LCWR rebellion by how it presented the issues, making the nuns sound like the victims instead of the villians that they are. Again, haven't we seen that cliche in Westerns where the person who appears to be good is actually the villian?
The only bright spot in the article was the quote from Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron* taken from the Archdiocese of Detroit's website saying that he "encourages the faithful to learn the facts" and refers to a commentary from Bishop Blair who conducted the doctrinal assessment. It takes a couple of quotes from the commentary, but the whole presentation of the Vatican side takes up only 3 paragraphs (You can read the whole commentary here.)
Where do I start with what is wrong with the article?
The article starts out by caaling the Vatican actions a "crackdown" saying that it "criticized their loyalty and accused them of 'radical feminism.'" It goes on to say that the Vatican claims that "the sisters had gone rogue, focusing on social justice issues and neglecting church teachings on subjects including contraception, abortion and homosexuality." I wouldn't use the word claims, I would say that the Vatican has presented solid evidence showing that they LCWR gang are disloyal, support radical feminism & have definitely gone rogue, not only neglecting, but working to undermine authentic magesterial teachings of the Catholic Church on those subjects.
After laying their slanted groundwork, they begin presenting the LCWR gang as victims. The 1st one they mention is Sister Nancy Sylvester, former president of the Leadership Conference and former executive director of NETWORK. They report that she  "said nuns didn't invite the showdown." Come on now, do you think I am that naive?  Well apparently they are hoping the average reader is. & given the way the media has covered this, they probably are.
Sr. Nancy knows full well that they did invite the showdown by intentionally challenging Catholic Church doctrine. Did they think that the Vatican would let their challenge go on indefinitely? That this time would be different from the past challenges by the Arians, Pelagians etc? That the Vatican would role over this time & surrender? Well, maybe that is what they were hoping & deluded themselves into thinking, but the history of the Catholic Church shows things differently. The Vatican is simply doing what it always has done, defending the faith from attacks, whether from without or within.
Then there is this quote from Sr Nancy about the assessment "We don't teach theology. This was a political assessment, not a faith assessment." What a boldfaced lie that is. While she is refering to the LCWR as a whole, let's just take a look at NETWORK, a group that gets huge support from LCWR. They are teaching theology, a theology that attacks Catholic teaching. NETWORK describes one of its roles as education. Isn't that teaching? &  since they also present themselves as Catholic, aren't they claiming that what they are teaching is authenticly Catholic? Thus they ARE teaching theology. & not just NETWORK, but the whole LCWR.
As for the politcal, Sr. Nancy tries & paints this as the Bishops getting revenge because NETWORK supported President Barack Obama's health care plan. She calls the Bishops sore losers. & is implyiong that in part this is payback. But by her very statement in support of ObamaCare & that  it mandates that all employers' health care plans, including religious groups', has to cover contraception shows that the LCWR gang has gone rogue.
Another dissident group the article brings in is Call to Action. They quote Jim FitzGerald, the executive director for the national office. They report that he said the scrutiny of American nuns is "just another attack on women in the church." & that he went on to add "The Vatican's crackdown … is not just about nuns, it's a crackdown on women's full equality and dignity in the U.S. Conference of Bishops."  The problem is, FitzGerald equates equality with identical. Men & women are equal, but that doesn't mean identical. From the beginning God created men & women to be different. The prime example is in childbearing. Each role is equally importantant, but not identical. He knows full well that the Catholic Church treats women with the full God-given dignity they have. But their idea of how women should be treated is to tell God he was wrong when he reserved the priesthood & especially the Papacy, for males or when He said that abortion was wrong for women since it took away their control of their own bodies. Isn't that where the problems came in in the 1st place, when man said he knew better than God how ro do things?
Then the article tries to equate the nuns mission to serve the poor with social justice, rather than their role in evangeilization by doing so. How the religious exemplified by the LCWR serve the poor stands in sharp contrast to how religious like the Missionaries of Charity (MC) serve the poor. The LCWR gang simple see this as making their life on earth better & want to forget about their eternal souls.
While there is so much more I could say about what is wrong with this article, I want to conclude with how they are painting the LCWR as having the wholehearted support of average Catholics. & to do so, they go to Thomas Kyle, a member of another dissident group, Elephants in the Living Room. He said "When you mess with the nuns, people get upset. There is a lot of angst in the pews about what they perceive is happening to the nuns." While ther may be some angst by those who support the dissent, the average Catholic isn't all that concerned. Actually, I would say that more Catholics have real angst caused by the dissent of the LCWR to Catholic teaching & the God given teaching authority of the magesterium.
Naturally, the Main Stream Media is going to support the LCWR because they are on the same side as the LCWR when it comes to abortion, gay marriage etc. So, it will continue to put out horribly slanted articles like this one attacking the Catholic Church to try & undermine it & its stand for the truth. But as I said, history shows that, even when a majority of Catholics buy into a heresy, like the height of Arianism, in the end the truth will win, not the heresy. & this time will turn out no differently.
_____________
* The article also says that Archbishop Vigneron was not comenting on the issue beyond that statement. While this is not the place to go into detail on it, this is sure different from how the Archdioces has treated what used to be known as RealCatholic TV. Here we have a group upholding authentic Catholic teaching. They issue a bunch of statements & force them to change their name to ChurchMillitant.tv. Yet we have a huge group of dissidents & they only make 1 comment?

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2 Comments:

  • At 6/8/12 3:50 PM , Blogger Larry Denninger said...

    Good piece, Al. Now the nuns are going to get mad at you. Be careful!

     
  • At 7/8/12 2:19 PM , Blogger Al said...

    Too late, I have been persona non gratia for years at the Domincan mother house at Sinsinawa after exposing Sr. Donna's work at a Chicago area abortion clinic. They didn't like that I got the story out here in DBQ forcing the paper to cover it.
    1 of them called me & spent an hour trying to justify her actions by all the other good things they did. I didn't buy it of course.
    & don't forget, I have posted about Sr. Pat Farrel OSF from the DBQ Frannies about her part in leading the LCWR rebellion.
    Besides, if they do me in, then I'll be a nartyr for the faith.

     

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