By now the entire country has seen a video of a supposedly racist confrontation, in front of the Lincoln Memorial, between a grinning young high school student and a Native American elder, chanting and beating a drum. The immediate and ferocious judgment of the internet community was that the boy was effectively taunting and belittling the elder, but subsequent videos from wider angles as well as the young man’s own testimony have cast considerable doubt on this original assessment. My purpose in this article is not to adjudicate the situation, which remains, at best, ambiguous, even in regard to the basic facts. It is to comment, rather, on the morally outrageous and deeply troubling nature of the response to this occurrence, one that I would characterize as, quite literally, Satanic.
When the video in question first came to my attention, it already had millions of views on Facebook and had been commented upon over 50,000 times. Eager to find out what this was all about, I began to scroll through the comments. They were practically one hundred percent against the young man, and they were marked, as is customary on social media, by stinging cruelty. As I continued to survey the reactions, I began to come across dozens urging retribution against the boy, and then dozens more that provided the addresses and email contacts of his parents, his school, and his diocese. I remember thinking, “Oh my goodness, do they realize what they’re doing? They’re effectively destroying, even threatening, this kid’s life.”
At this point, my mind turned, as it often does today, to René Girard. The great Franco-American philosopher and social commentator is best known for his speculations on what he called the scapegoating mechanism. Sadly, Girard maintained, most human communities, from the coffee klatch to the nation state, are predicated upon this dysfunctional and deeply destructive instinct. Roughly speaking, it unfolds as follows. When tensions arise in a group (as they inevitably do), people commence to cast about for a scapegoat, for someone or some group to blame. Deeply attractive, even addictive, the scapegoating move rapidly attracts a crowd, which in short order becomes a mob. In their common hatred of the victim, the blamers feel an ersatz sense of togetherness. Filled with the excitement born of self-righteousness, the mob then endeavors to isolate and finally eliminate the scapegoat, convinced that this will restore order to their roiled society. At the risk of succumbing to the reductio ad Hitlerum fallacy, nowhere is the Girardian more evident than in the Germany of the 1930s. Hitler ingeniously exploited the scapegoating mechanism to bring his country together—obviously in a profoundly wicked way.
Girard’s theory was grounded in his studies of Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, and other literary figures, but his profoundest influence was the Bible, which not only identified the problem, but showed the way forward. Take a good, long look at the story of the Woman Caught in Adultery in the eighth chapter of John’s Gospel to see what Girard saw regarding both the sin and the solution. It is surely telling that one of the principal names for the devil in the New Testament is ho Satanas, which carries the sense of the accuser. And how significant, thought Girard, that it is precisely ho Satanas who offers all of the kingdoms of the world to Jesus, implying that all forms of human community are tainted, at least to a large degree, by the characteristically Satanic game of accusation, blaming, scapegoating.
All of which brings me back to the incident in Washington and the nasty reaction to it on the internet. I have used the internet to great positive effect in my evangelical work for many years; so I certainly don’t agree with those who denounce it in an unnuanced way. However, there is something about social media comboxes that make them a particularly pernicious breeding-ground for Girardian victimizing. Perhaps it’s the anonymity, or the ease with which comments can be made and published, or the prospect of finding a large audience with little effort—but these forums are, increasingly, fever swamps in which hatred and accusation breed. When looking for evidence of the Satanic in our culture, don’t waste your time on special effects made popular by all of the exorcism movies. Look no further than your computer and the twisted “communities” that it makes possible and the victims that it regularly casts out.
A few weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal published a piece on me and my work. The author referred to me as “the Bishop of the Internet,” a title which I find more than a little strange. But for the moment, I’m going to claim it, only so I can make a pastoral pronouncement to all those who use social media. When you’re about to make a comment, ask yourself a very simple question: “Am I doing this out of love, out of a sincere wish for the good of the person or persons I’m addressing?” If not, shut up. If it becomes clear that your comment is simply spleen-venting, scapegoating, or virtue-signalling, shut up. The internet can be a marvelous tool, and it can be a weapon used for Satanic purposes. Applying the test of love can very effectively undermine the scapegoating mechanism and drive the devil out.
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It appears to me that in the above, Bishop Barron is trying to ‘leverage’ the radical left media set-up of teenage Catholic boys at the March for Life, and use it to insist that Catholic adults stop candid criticism of the Catholic Bishops for their silence and condoning of moral and financial decadence.
As an example of decadence: the annual “youth conference in the LA Archdiocese.”
Seriously? Chris, I admire your willingness to provide commentary. I highly encourage everyone who is willing, to have an open-minded and civilized discussion about ANY topic around the Catholic faith in a respectful manner. As for Bishop Barron using this article to “insist that Catholic adults stop candid criticism of the Catholic Bishops for their silence and condoning of moral and financial decadence,” I see no such commentary; not a single mention of anything related to those crises. What’s more, Bishop Barron has been outspoken about the situation. I encourage you to read https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/article/qa-about-the-sexual-abuse-crisis/5890/.
As for the Youth Conference… a huge number of Diocese’s have such conferences, as well as fantastic organizations such as Life Teen and the Franciscan University of Stuebenville. Having attended some of these as a lay-leader with my own teenager and for others in my parish, I can tell you that they are incredibly spiritual, emotionally moving, and only extravagant in Grace. If anything – we need more of these conferences, as these young adults are the future which makes our Catholic faith even stronger!
Scott –
Yes, I am criticizing the AD of Los Angeles. Correct me if I am mistaken, but it is the case, is it not, Rev. James Martin, SJ, among other gender ideology proponents, is a featured influencer at the LA youth conference.
That is correct – is it not Scott?
I am all for youth conferences that teach our children to follow Jesus…but it appears that we cannot claim that for the LA Conference.
If I am mistaken about that, then I am ready to apologize and retract my statement.
I must admit that I am putting two of Bishop Barron’s pieces together in my comment about his essay here. In a very recent essay he expressed strong concern about “scapegoating” clerics who he identified as homosexual, and blaming them for the sex abuse crisis.
His use of that word in this cas really JUMPED off the page, since it is a big stretch to get to “scapegoating” out of the Covington setup story.
And I know all about these March for Life confrontations, because my kids have been living them for years every January.
Scott –
I also do admire Bishop Barron.
But I am concerned that he may be appealing for a kind of accommodation involving the new episcopal sex abuse coverup crisis.
For instance – he insists that the US Bishops “get it” that sex abuse is a big deal.
I am sorry to have to say that I actually do not think even Bishop Barron “gets” the real bedrock issue. On the other hand…maybe he is just afraid to be what a shepherd must sometimes be.
Yes, He is hard to criticize since he’s done so much to present the good side of the Church to the world. But it is because of that he is missing the opportunity to be a powerful corrective voice towards prelates who are way out in left field. In fact, they show they are as far removed from being correctable as any typical religion hating secular/atheist. But homosexualist, de facto pro-abortion, sex revolution, moral relativistic bishops and cardinals, and even a pope, if he acts that way, have to be called out. They can be as Satanic in their damage as armies of the secular uneducated.
Scott –
I watched again the video you posted. I watched it when it first came out.
It is a thoroughly excellent statement by Bishop Barron, and it is a tribute to his fatherly concern.
With that tribute to him in mind, it is possible I may have over-reached in connecting his “scapegoating” theme here in this essay with his previously stated concerns about avoiding “scapegoating” (or witch-hunting) against priests he calls homosexuals. It is also possible that he was making that thread.
In the matter of my post, if it seemed to you like an unfair attack against Bishop Barron, I am sorry that my words communicated that, and I apologize to you for it. I do not want to be unfair, especially to Bishop Barron. He is a very good man, a fine Catholic priest, and an uncorrupted Bushop. I hope he in time becomes a great Bishop, like Bishop Morlino was.
In truth – he is a good Bishop stuck inside one of the most corrupt diocese in the US Church. To live as a good Bishop in the AD of LA is to be surrounded by enemies of Christ inside the Church itself.
As to the AD of LA Conference (the conference I singled out) there isn’t a shadow of a doubt that it is continuing in unfaithfulness in the decades long tradition orchestrated by the post-Christian fraud Cardinal Roger Mahony, the man who Gov. Frank Keating (affirmed by Leon Panetta) of the US National Review Board in 2002-03 called the Head Mafiosi of the army of corrupt US Bishops covering up sex abuse. Indeed the LA Conference this year has not only Rev. Martin teaching his anti-Christ gender ideology, but the utterly evil Cardinal Mahony himself will address those gathered.
Chris – Thank you for clarifying. I appreciate your comments – and am ALWAYS a fan of open dialogue.
I am not sure what LA Conference you are referring to – but my guess is the Religious Education Congress (RE Congress). I thought it might have been the teen focused City of Saints Conference (https://cityofsaints.org/ https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/la-archdiocese-hosts-youth-conference-to-inspire-sanctity-96090). But I cannot find any evidence of Fr. Martin attending. However – I do see that he is scheduled to attend the Adult portion of the REC. (http://www.recongress.org/) See the Workshops… Session 6.
Note that he is NOT scheduled to address the YOUTH… only the adults. (http://www.recongress.org/2019/YDschedule.htm#SCHEDULE)
As for Fr. Martin’s views…
I agree with YOU that I radically disagree with his view in regards to the LGBTA agenda. I am sure St. Thomas Aquinas is screaming from the heavenly pulpit on the Natural Law and many other comments…as there is NOTHING in the Natural Law that supports the LGBT commentary. But I also believe that we as Catholic Christians need to ALWAYS embrace the dialogue. We cannot conduct apologetics and evangelization from anything other than a position of love and openness to understand the other person’s views. We don’t have to agree with it – and neither of us does. But I will not condemn the LA Archdiocese for allowing for the discussion. Evil is present in our world – and continues to use the Internet and Hate as tools of propagation… Let’s respond with LOVE: patient, kind not rude, not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeping no record of wrongs, and ALWAYS rejoicing with truth. Let us state the TRUTH in a patient and loving manner…even to the Reverend James Martin SJ. Who… while I disagree with his LGBTA views…has written some very nice material such as “Jesus, a Pilgrimage.”
God Bless you – and may the grace of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit continue to bless His Church.
Where in the world did you find that? If you followed Bishop Barron, you would realize how wrong you are. That would be contrary to all of his previously stated views about the pedophilia crisis and cover-up.
Mary –
There is no pedophilia crisis in the Catholic Church. It was literally McCarrick himself, a sociopathic homosexual predator of teenage boys and seminarians, who confected the propaganda that the problem is pedophilia.
There is a crisis of systematic coverup of homosexual abuse by Bishops worldwide.
And I read and often admire Bishop Barron. I love his Word on Fire idea and website. I particularly appreciate his condemnation of the mediocrity of teaching the Catholic faith in Catholic schools and colleges, which he voiced at the Magnificat Conference several years ago.
But unlike the late Bishop Morlino and Bishop Strickland and Archbishop Chaput a few other brave Bishops, Bishop Barron is not giving strong teaching or witness in the ongoing and far-reaching moral decadence and decay of the Church. Bishop Barron has instead voiced his concern not to “scapegoat” priests who he has called homosexuals.
While I watched his recent video where he speaks for his fellow Bishops and says “we get it,” he overestimates himself and most of his fellow Bishops. Bishops like Bishop Robert Morlino and a few others “get it.” Unfortunately, in this case, Bishop Barron is not doing his job, but admittedly, acting like a real Catholic Bishop in the diocese of LA would lead to a very uncomfortable existence.
Mary –
Would you please see my post this morning in response to Scott above, and in the same spirit, I apologize if I seemed to “shoot one of the good guys” among the Bishops.
Your friend in Christ…
Chris in Maryland, it is commenters like you that Bishop Barron is describing. You are so off-the-track!
Jess –
may I suggest you read everything I wrote today.
Bishop Barron is, as I have stated, a fine catholic priest snd a good Bishop. And as my replies earlier this morning to Scott and Mary indicate, I may have been mistaken in connecting his essay here with his earlier (pre-Viganò) post, where he expressed concern about the possible injustice of a scapegoating or witch-hunt of priest’s who he called “homosexual.”
To sum it up:
– Bishop Barron is a fine priest and Bishop.
– his post-Viganò interview on W-on-F is a tribute to him.
– I sense that the video Scott posted indeed fully shows where he stands, and I hope he stands strong on that angle, because it is excellent.
– on what is really now a secondary item, I do not agree with him, and join other commenters in so disagreeing, when he characterizes the Covington case as ambiguous.
– I do think he was stretching a lot with the scapegoating theme…which was a theme he invoked earlier last year in connection with the episcopal sex abuse coverup crisis.
Bottom Line: Bishop Barron is one of the good guys, and I should be careful in not “shooting at the good guys.”
And my apologies to you for that, in conjunction with those I gave to Scott and Mary. While there is no doubting of the corruption of the LA Archdiocese REC (its youth Conference), I should not tar a good Bishop like Barron with the same brush as the corrupt Cardinal Mahony et al of LA.
Your friend in Christ
Satan’s game was in full play at the November USCCB conference, with the exception of those 80-some Bishops who voted to do something about Bishops’ decadence and betrayal of the Lord Jesus.
Amen. I love God. I love the Catholic Church. My heart hurts over all the adversity associated with it. I’m just an old woman who was lost in fear for all souls until my prayer time this morning. I think the Holy Spirit pointed out to me that Our Lord Jesus, when He chose the 12 disciples, chose Judas Iscariot with the rest. He loves Judas knowing he would betray him and thieve money from them while they walked the earth. From the beginning there always has been Satan. From the beginning. And Jesus showed us what we ought do in the face of the world’s adversary. Love God and each other. Hard? For me it is. I persevere because no other way makes any sense to me and having no God gives me no peace. We all will get through this even if we personally don’t live to see the complete resolution of all these subjects discussed by the clergy. I mean, He carried His cross for me and you. I will carry mine. God Bless.
“My purpose in this article is not to adjudicate the situation, which remains, at best, ambiguous, even in regard to the basic facts.”
With the 2 hr video of what was going on there, before and after the incident, the facts are mostly clear and they support the story of the high school students. Too bad the bishops of Louisville and Covington didn’t wait until all of the facts were in before making public statements, and this is true of supposedly conservative, even Catholic, intellectuals, who were too already to denounce high school students for the sake of appearing woke to the leftists.
Are the fallen angels at work? Sure. But so is identity politics and liberalism’s self-destruction, and Catholic leaders should have known better than to join in the criticism.
We still wait for apologies from the leadership of Covington High School and the bishops of Covington and Louisville.
“Mostly ambiguous.” That doesn’t describe the facts, or the video, of the incident in which Catholic boys were terrorized for two hours.
“Mostly ambiguous.” That describes Bishop Barron whenever he is called on to elucidate Catholic teaching by a homosexual, a Jew, an atheist, or a liberal.
“My purpose in this article is not to adjudicate the situation, which remains, at best, ambiguous, even in regard to the basic facts.” No, Bishop Barren, the basic facts are not ambiguous but certain: the trouble was caused by the four Black Hebrews and the Indian. Why should I pay attention to what you write when you can’t tell the truth?
Perhaps Bishop Barron has not seen the video or the myriad online commentary referring to the video.
But then maybe this piece should have waited until he had see all of the available evidence.
So do I know about the verbal attacks on children in the March for Life by bystanders. My children were attacked too. They are adults now but it did set their sails. They are not surprised by the Covington attack by the black Israelites or the native Americans who still haven’t gotten over Columbus and blame the CC. But the anti Catholic assaults can be laid at the feet of the 91% of the abuse that was homosexual in the church. The attacks on Catholics are justified in the minds of the assaulters because of sex abuse in our Church. It is also justified because of our pro life position. They are emboldened. It justifies their assaults.
Diocesean and school leadership instincts on this couldn’t be more disturbing. What further evidence is required before leaders realize that all pro-life Catholics are potential targets in a take-no-prisoners war—of which this is but one skirmish—on social media and everywhere else in the culture and politics? Preemptive surrender to the leftist mob was both futile and an abdication of a moral responsibility to avoid damaging these students’ good names without certain cause. Too late now to get circumspect after having cast the feathers to the wind.
With all due respect I prefer Fr. Stravinskas’ take on what happened on Friday at the Lincoln Memorial to this article by Bishop Barron. Does Bishop Barron have a problem with the fact that the young people in question were wearing MAGA hats? He thinks the situation was “ambiguous”. President Trump has done more for the Pro Life cause than any of our previous presidents. I am glad the students were showing their support for President Trump. It’s still a free country but becoming less so. Let’s pray for all concerned.
Well said.
Bigotry, MAGA Hats, and Satanic Purposes
Bigotry
Abortion used to be against the law. Why? Well, is murder wrong? Yes. Is deliberately taking the life of an innocent human being murder? Yes. Is the life in the human womb an innocent human being? Yes. (What else could it be? Everybody knows that, which is why pregnant women used to be referred to as being “with child.”)
So what happened? Why is murdering the child in the womb now legal? It isn’t. Mere mortals can only pretend to have the authority to “legalize” murder. “Legal” abortion was treated as a crime against humanity by prosecutors at the Nuremberg Trials. There were defendants at the Nuremberg Trials who demonstrated that they had done nothing illegal according to Nazi law − who were hanged anyway. Why? Murder is intrinsically illegal. That is obvious for those who take seriously God’s command “Thou shalt do no murder.” It should also be obvious to any civilized human being. A basic concept of civilization that raises it above savagery is that the powerful can’t kill the less powerful simply because doing so serves their purposes at the moment. One doesn’t need to be a Christian to understand the following:
• Humanity precedes the state and brings it into existence.
• Therefore the state exists for humanity, not humanity for the state.
• Therefore it is humanity that bestows and withdraws the state’s right to exist, not the state that bestows and withdraws humanity’s right to exist.
• Therefore the state (if it is to avoid returning to savagery, albeit while carefully maintaining a facade of legitimacy) simply has no authority whatsoever to “legalize” the murder of innocent humanity.
The Nazi experiment in “legal” murder became an unmitigated disaster. It sprang from the German intelligentsia’s advocacy of “legal” abortion and euthanasia that had begun a decade before the Nazis rose to power. That combined with the unrestrained-by-morality legal positivism of Austrian jurist Hans Kelsen set the Nazis on their path to diabolical savagery. Roe vs. Wade, with its abrupt withdrawal of the protection of law from a vast segment of humanity, set us on the same civilization-destroying path. So how did we get from the revelations of atrocities at the Nuremberg Trials to resuming them?
Bigotry – MSM-manufactured bigotry the purpose of which was and is to dehumanize the child in the womb in the public mind. That such propaganda is very powerful is testified to by the fact that even Catholic pundits and Catholic bishops still don’t exhort the flock to respond to the murder of babies by the millions like they would, say, the murder of two-year-olds by the millions. In their minds, somehow the child in the womb just doesn’t really count, like enslaved Blacks just didn’t count in the minds of many in pre-Civil War America. And like Jews and the institutionalized just didn’t really count in Nazi Germany. Such is the power of contemporary bigotry-inducing propaganda, the vicious evil of which the world hasn’t seen since Joseph Goebbels was the Nazi Minister of Propaganda. And if you doubt that Nazi-like atrocities have resumed, Google up
aborted babies trash
and then click Images.
MAGA Hats and the March for Life
The March for Life is a great and good thing, but it is not the only thing required for Christians to respond appropriately and realistically to the greatest holocaust of innocent humanity in the history of the world. Those who have the light of Christ shouldn’t be blinded by diabolical propaganda. Catholic pundits and bishops should boldly proclaim that the state simply has no authority whatsoever to “legalize” murder and should exhort the flock to take whatever nonviolent means are necessary to end “legal” murder. Lech Walesa’s Solidarity union comes to mind. It brought down a murderous, militantly atheistic, leftist regime very similar to the one we now contend with, which is, of course, our own militantly atheistic, murderous, leftist establishment.
We shouldn’t be surprised that it is murderous. After all, militantly atheistic, leftist regimes have murdered well over 100-million innocent unarmed people in the last century (Lenin’s Bolsheviks seized control of Russia in 1917) – and that isn’t counting children in the womb. The murderous, militant atheism of the left didn’t die with the demise of the old Soviet Union; it continues in China and has set up shop in America.
As for the MAGA hats worn by Catholic kids at the March for Life: Trump has been the most aggressively Pro-Life president in American history. And I’m talking about Pro-Life as in ending the “legal” murder of innocent humanity by the millions, not “seamless garment” Pro-Life where raising the minimum wage by a quarter has the same priority as ending the greatest holocaust of innocent human beings in the history of the world.
It was entirely appropriate for the kids to wear MAGA hats at the March for Life. If we are going to make America great again, we need to understand just when America had been great before. And why:
America recognized that the Civil War had been God’s chastisement for its toleration of slavery, which had been in direct violation of the noble principles espoused in its Declaration of Independence. (If one doubts that America saw the Civil War as God’s chastisement for slavery, see Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address.) America got the message: Every child of God counted. That is why in the next couple of decades after the Civil War every state in the Union outlawed taking the life of the child in the womb. Even if ending “legal” slavery and “legal” baby-killing didn’t completely end racism or abortion (that would have required raising human nature from its fallen state), American law was finally reconciled with the principles that make a nation great: those proclaimed in its DOI. That is when America was great.
Because America got the message – repented – God then blessed it and made it the most free, prosperous and powerful nation on the planet. Its contemporary demise began with Roe vs. Wade. America has been undergoing polarization and disintegration ever since. MAGA indeed, or suffer God’s chastisement once again.
Satanic Purposes
Satan hates God. And he hates the image of God in humnity. The devil, the “father of lies,” is always the author of bigotry that dehumanizes some segment of the human family. He doesn’t want us to see the image of God in each and every human being; he instead wants us to kill each other; he was a “murderer from the beginning.” The “prince of this world” wants us to render unto worldly rulers authority over innocent human life that belongs to God alone. He has never done that more successfully than in our times. Our doing so is idolatrous. Idolatry kills Christianity, which is Satan’s ultimate goal. To the extent that our complacency signals our approval of the “legal” murder of innocent humanity, we are engaging in Christianity-destroying idolatry. The last thing Satan wants is for the Church to begin to respond to the murder of innocent humanity by the billions in a matter commensurate with its urgency. That is why we must do so.
Away from the Internet snowed in at a rectory thoughts pulsated around this very issue. Bishop Barron once said My mission is seek the salvation of every person near me. “Filled with the excitement born of self-righteousness, the mob then endeavors to isolate and finally eliminate the scapegoat, convinced that this will restore order to their roiled society”. This premise is spiritually dramatic. Not drama but reality. Ruminating it appeared there is indeed a Satanic inspired inspiration to Scapegoat Hierarchy for our own failures. The failure is essentially this. Identifying the enemy becomes an obsession when we relinquish Christ’s call to lay down our lives for our brother. That thankless painful task is not as exhilarating as firing salvos. Nonetheless it is the Way of the Cross and the only way for the salvation of souls. And for our own.
“My purpose in this article is not to adjudicate the situation, which remains, at best, ambiguous, even in regard to the basic facts.”
Unfortunately, Bishop Barron turns what could have been a fine and thoughtful article into something of an act of cowardice. The situation is not “at best” ambiguous. It is only “possibly ambiguous” (but not very probably). The full video of the incident; the absolutely scathing, epithet-filled and slur-ridden vulgar language hurled at the boys by the black racist group captured on said video; the fact that this Indigenous American attempted later to disrupt Mass at the National Shrine so obnoxiously that the security had to lock the doors to keep him from barging in; and so on all add up to a fairly clear picture of what happened.
True, I was not there and there *could* have been some hostile acts on the boys part not captured on video. But there is absolutely *no evidence* of that and plenty of evidence that they were provoked.
It is exactly this kind of cowardly, weasel-word language that is what makes so many Catholics frustrated about the way their bishops communicate the truth (or more often fail to do so) simply because they are unwilling to call a spade a spade and live in dread of negative publicity. Yes, we are called to be charitable. But Our Lord also tells us “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” (Mt. 5:37)
Very well article, Bishop Barron. Sometimes I worry that some of what I have posted might lead to something not so wonderful.
That last comment should read, “Very well written article”.
The comments to this article are more Satanic than anything that happened in Washington D.C. What happened in Washington was completely Satanic and Demonic. Any Catholic wearing MAGA hats are either a sacrifice for God or a sin against God. MAGA stands for racism and nazism. How is that Catholic? Christ said “Remember Me”. How is this remembering him? How does any of this fit into our doctrine of faith? It doesn’t! We are one community in Christ all over the world. We are not individuals but one. Even God calls himself One God in Three Persons. Are the members of the one body, the Church, to strike at one another? No, we are to work together to help each other as the arms and legs of Christ in the world. When you see the Satanic and Demonic in people are we to think this person is a sinner, or, are we to think Satan is sifting this person like wheat! You should have faith and know that the Priests accused of these heinous crimes are not, in fact, ministers of the faith, but in truth are Satanic and Demonic deceptions working around you, sifting you like wheat! I see much Satanic and Demonic in the comments of this article but I also see some Graces and Blessings. May we all know truth and speak out against evil in truth and not perpetuate the lies Satan is deceiving you with. Pray, pray and cease not to pray, Brothers and Sisters for Satan has you by the throat if you believe anything against the Catholic faith. Peace be with you all, God’s peace.
Thank you Bishop Barron for doing the right thing and explaining a few points we should all try to do. Especially the one of whatever comments you leave from your mouth or from writing should be so the other person will receive Gods mercy and love so as to turn their lives over to God, repent of their sins and amend their life until they leave this earth. Please keep up the good Evangelization for the Holy Trinity.