Washington D.C., Jun 17, 2021 / 16:59 pm (CNA).
U.S. bishops held extensive debate on Thursday before voting on whether to draft a teaching document on the Eucharist, at their annual spring meeting held virtually this week.
Although the text of a proposed Eucharistic document has not yet been drafted, a proposed outline was provided by the bishops’ doctrine committee in advance of the U.S. bishops’ meeting this week. The document, if approved, would explain the Church’s Eucharistic teaching on a number of points, including the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, the importance of Sunday as a holy day, and the need for Catholics to live out the Church’s teaching in their lives after receiving Communion.
A parliamentary move to lift time limits on the bishops’ debate failed on Wednesday; that proposal would have granted speaking time to any bishop who wished. Nevertheless, conference president Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles on Thursday allowed for bishops to speak in the normal five-minute time slots long after their meeting was scheduled to wrap up.
Bishops supporting the vote to draft a document on the Eucharist cited the need for providing clarity and catechesis on the matter, citing polls showing a lack of belief in the Real Presence among Catholics. They argued that all Catholics – including Catholic politicians – must be aware of the Church’s teaching on worthiness to receive Communion.
Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, chair of the doctrine committee which proposed drafting the document, explained the committee’s reasoning behind the proposal June 17.
Saying the document was the “subject of misunderstanding and even mischaracterization,” he said that bishops had been concerned about a “downward trend” in Mass attendance and a decline in faith among Catholics, coupled with a widespread move to “spiritual communion” and virtual Masses during the recent pandemic.
“We are all concerned about the faithful’s absence from parish life,” he said, warning that many Catholics might not return to Mass in the coming months. Rhoades cited surveys to make his point. According to a 2019 report by the Pew Research Center, only 31% of Catholics surveyed said they believed in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
While the document does address worthiness to receive Communion, he said, it is not meant to be about one individual or one particularly bad action, but rather a “heightened” awareness of the need for Catholics to be conformed to the Eucharist.
Other bishops opposed the move to draft such a document. Some argued that in addressing worthiness to receive Communion – especially among pro-abortion Catholic politicians – the bishops would be seen as partisan actors.
Citing the current “political rancor,” Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento argued against drafting a document including a section on worthiness to receive Communion.
Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle expressed concern that the Eucharist, the “source of our life and charity and unity is now enmeshed in a conversation about politics, and that’s a very difficult place for us to be.”
Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington – Biden’s ordinary in the nation’s capital – expressed the need for unity and in-person dialogue.
“The choice before us at this moment, is either we pursue a path of strengthening unity among ourselves, or settle for creating a document that may not bring unity, but may well further damage it,” he said.
Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago argued that it would be obvious the document would be referring to particular Catholic politicians and their worthiness to receive Communion.
“I don’t know how we get around that, if we pass on this document,” he said.
Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego said that such a document would be divisive because it would be seen as political in stating the Church’s teaching on worthiness to receive Communion, especially among Catholics in public life.
“We will invite all of the political animosities that so tragically divide our nation” into the Mass, he said, which would then become a “sign of division.”
Yet some bishops disputed that a document outlining Church teaching would bring about disunity.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas said he was “somewhat amused” by those bishops who warned the conference was “rushing” into such a debate.
Worthiness to receive Communion is not just about abortion, he said, as politicians supporting other grave evils such as human trafficking or racism could also be unworthy to receive.
“It’s really some of our public officials” who prompted the debate about Communion by approaching the altar rail while supporting policies contrary to Church teaching, he said, not the bishops themselves.
“Those who advocate for abortion no longer talk in the language of choice. They talk about it as a right,” he said, noting Biden’s support for taxpayer-funded abortion.
“We’re calling everybody to integrity, including those in public life,” he said.
Bishop Thomas Daly of Spokane said that “we can’t have unity if we’re not rooted in truth.”
He responded to bishops’ calls to wait on considering the document until they can dialogue with each other and with politicians.
“This call for dialogue: sometimes I wonder if the dialogue is meant not truly to listen, but to delay,” he said.
“All of us want what’s best for the people we serve,” he said, pointing to the “salvation of the souls.”
Bishop James Wall of Gallup stressed the need for clarity from the bishops on the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist.
“I just make a plea on behalf of a poorer diocese,” he said.
“We rely upon the work of the conference,” he said, noting that a teaching document would be “very helpful to me, to my priests, to religious, to the lay faithful.”
“If the world really understood” the Real Presence, he said, bishops could double all Masses at parishes and still not have enough room for attendees.
Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler stressed the need for a connection between confession and Communion.
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A bishop who is pro-choice, wittingly or unwittingly, silent or vocal, by commission or omission is the divisive element in all of this. Let’s stop making this about the Eucharist. It’s about the bishops. It’s about church leaders who put partisan politics above church teaching. That’s where the divisiveness is. And that’s where the corrective action needs to happen.
Excellent point, John.
You’re absolutely right.
You are correct and those bishops who support abortion, as you said, “wittingly or unwittingly, silent or vocal, by commission or omission” think they are fooling us.
Absolutely right. The only thing our bishops care about is satisfying their greed and lust for power.
I would also seriously question their fidelity to Church Teaching if I didn’t already have the answer.
Amen!
I agree. But the bishops you refer to are not pro-choice, they are pro-abortion.
“Some argued that in addressing worthiness to receive Communion – especially among pro-abortion Catholic politicians – the bishops would be seen as partisan actors.”
This is such a straw man. The question on the table isn’t political, it’s doctrinal. What is the Eucharist, and should apostates be partaking of it? — that’s the question. I don’t see those issues in the platforms of either political party.
Any Catholic bishop mouthing such an obvious talking point ought to be defrocked. It’s not just wrong, it’s insultingly stupid.
* * *
“Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington – Biden’s ordinary in the nation’s capital – expressed the need for unity and in-person dialogue.”
Unity? Really? Unity around what principle or practice, Cardinal Gregory? The killing of some sixty or seventy million innocent children over the past half century?
Unity is just a weasel word you use to gull us into complacency while our Blessed Lord is defiled, dishonored and desecrated by people intent on receiving the Blessed Sacrament while simultaneously undermining His Church and her teachings.
* * *
“Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago argued that it would be obvious the document would be referring to particular Catholic politicians and their worthiness to receive Communion.”
No, it wouldn’t, Cardinal Cupich. Each politician decides for himself whether to act in a way that ensures the document refers to him.
He or she is always free to — indeed, urged to — repent.
* * *
These arguments are insultingly bad. How stupid do these bishops think we are?
They are arguing for more waffling and obfuscating because they’re worried about the politicians who publicly lobby for the killing of children by the millions.
But I don’t see them worrying about their flocks, or the confusion, discouragement and faithlessness that is rife within them because of the spiritual dissonance that occurs when we see anti-Catholic, pro-death politicos partaking of the Blessed Sacrament. With impunity.
Many of our own bishops would have us act as if the most extreme apostasy were just business as usual.
Do *they* believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament? I’d really like to know.
And could Jesus have been referring to them when He said, “…after I have gone, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock”?
It was encouraging to see Brineyman and others willing to “tell it as it is”. It really is so simple, “if one believes what the Church has taught since apostolic times, remain a practicing Catholic — laity or clergy, if not, remove yourselves from the Church and find a denomination that agrees with your dissident beliefs. If the Bishops (and priests) had been teaching the Faith as defined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church there would not be 70% of Catholics, Biden, Pelosi and others not believing in the Real Presence or killing disguised as Pro-Choice. Fallen away Catholics would return in droves if the Faith is taught as defined. It appears politics, money and comfort have devoured TRUTH. Ask each Bishop as was posited, “Do they believe”? Do they not fear the Scriptural references to God’s justice and wrath as well as mercy?
There is no such thing as a ‘pro-choice’ Catholic… It is anathema to Church teachings. The message needs to be aimed at ALL pro-abortion politicians ‘claiming’ to be Catholic: Becerra, Pelosi, AoC, Kerry, and in particular Biden. The Bishops would excommunicate anyone advocating an openly gay lifestyles or murder in the congregation…. abortion is an ever greater transgression, as your dealing with the most helpless, the unborn, not adults who can defend themselves.
Absolutely right. I don’t know what the problem is. The only problem is political correctness. a Dogma which exists since 2000 years cannot and should not be divisive. It has to be told over and over again: You take it or you leave it. you take the Eucharist under the wrong circumstances for instance you are pro-abortion , then you will be denied the Eucharist.
You are a famous person and you don’t want to be denied in front of everybody, then you do not go to the altar and stay seated.
The problem is the bishops are afraid of losing their tax-exempt status if they start refusing Communion to politicians like Biden. They also get millions if not billions of money from the government to operate social services. This whole circus of a conference is scandalous. They’ve been “dialoguing” over many things since Vatican 2 upheaval. Nothing has changed. And in my lifetime, I don’t think anything will.
BINGO!!
Archbishop Etienne makes a good point, that the Eucharist, the “source of our life and charity and unity is now enmeshed in a conversation about politics, and that’s a very difficult place for us to be.”
Yes, and isn’t this precisely why Cardinal Ladaria, in his advice, was clear that the bishops must FIRST preserve a “serene” unity regarding the Church and the Eucharist, and only THEN dialogue further toward an approach to the “enmeshed” present moment?
While it might not be directly applicable to our present moment, Pope Benedict XVI did have something insightful to say about “dialogue” and disunity, when dealing with the world of Islam:
“I am urging people to realize that a war has indeed been declared on [in?] the West. I am not pushing for a rejection of dialogue, which we need more than ever with those Islamic countries that wish to live in peaceful coexistence with the West, to our mutual benefit. I am asking for something more fundamental: I am asking for people to realize that dialogue will be a waste of time if one of the two partners to the dialogue states beforehand that one idea is as good as the other [that Eucharistic IN-coherence can be silently accommodated, forever, as a friendly elephant (and donkey) in the living room]” (Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam, 2006, brackets added).
What’s best for the people you serve is clarity for all. The public (political) people who insist that they are “devout,” and still promote immoral issues, create scandal for the people in the pews. Those people may think that if Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and other Catholics support abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, gender fluidity and all the other issues that reject Catholic Church teaching, then it’s okay for them to do the same. The document almost has to at least allude to public figures to make the point, but it can easily state that it applies to all Catholics. I’ve been asking all my Catholic friends whether they were taught in preparation for the Sacrament of receiving Holy Communion that receiving with an unconfessed mortal sin was sinful. Without exception, they responded affirmatively. Little children know, and so do Biden, Pelosi and all who would claim “devout,” while supporting immorality in the public square. They KNOW it’s WRONG. The bishops MUST say so for the benefit of all Catholics.
There are some excellent points raised in comments, so no need to reiterate some. However, bluntly stated, there are too many Bishops and Cardinal who are the real calculating “politicians,” gingerly tiptoeing around the “donkey in the room” poop. There is no question of betrayal in the Democrat Party agenda that is infused with the spirit of the antiChrist–contrary to 2,000 years of Church teaching. Pope Benedict’s 2007 “Sacramentum Caritas”–well before the false posturing of “weaponizing the Eucharist”-asserted -that certain values–not just abortion–are not negotiable and that Catholic politicians and legislators “must feel particularly bound, on the basis of a properly formed conscience, to introduce and support laws inspired by values founded in human nature.”
Astonishingly and unchallenged, they are actually doing the opposite and placing themselves above Divine Authority and Will without a coherent rebuke from the Catholic Church. This boggles reason. They are now more emboldened on furthering the Culture of Death agenda than ever previously. Note evidence of this uptick in rebellious spirit, as demonstrated in Nancy Pelosi’s recent disdain for the manner of her own motherhood, a blessing turned into a curse for tens of millions of babies in the womb.
Bluntly, there is no debate here, and the courageous clergy must stand up for Truth now or be ever further marginalized, as the flock is corralled under atheistic totalitarianism.
Patricia Hershwitzky, I pray God it be so!
“…there is no debate here, and the courageous clergy must stand up for Truth now…”
With every passing day, we Catholics are getting a clearer idea which bishops are faithful followers of Christ and which ones are not. A note to all our bishops: The people are not as stupid as you think they are. In case you haven’t noticed, Catholics are leaving the Church in droves and your lack of moral courage stands uppermost among the reasons why they are doing so.
I can understand why John P used the phrase “church leaders” to refer to the bishops, but, they are not leaders. This document they produce will be of no use. I suspect it will be general statement along the lines of, “We should all do good and avoid evil.” Who could argue with that?
Such talk about a Document on the Most Blessed Sacrament causing disunity is stupidity at its worst. Since the Second Vatican Council Catholics have lost belief in the Blessed Sacrament. People are not going to confession and still receiving who they do not know who it is they are receiving. Leave the politics out of this. This Document must be on Our Lord in His Real Presence for all Americans. The Angel of Fatima called on us to pray in reparation for the sins committed against Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Eucharist. How many souls are now in hell caused by the direct results of Vatican ll??
It is not clear why the American Bishops are divided on an issue which has already been clarified by the Church.
The Eucharist is the Body and Flesh of Jesus Christ and all baptised persons who are in grace – that is without mortal sins by repentance and confession- – are worthy to receive the Communion.
These days there are many Bidens who oppose some of the Church teachings in public, assuming themselves as the authority to decide the rightness of some teachings, but approach the table of the Lord. Though denial is prescribed in Canon Law, it is better to continue to educate such Catholics. It should be announced before Mass that those who accepts all teachings of the Church and those who are in grace – that is after Repentance and confession – only – are worthy to receive the Holy Communion. This announcement is a kind of teaching too.
For the life of me, cannot understand how any bishop, priest or real Catholic could reduce being against killing babies as a mere politican statement. Coming to the belief that the slow destruction of the US and similar decline of the Catholic Church is due Gods total disgust with who we are as a people. We deserve all the penance God is sending our way.
Are the bishops aware of the function that the Judas goat serves in leading the sheep to slaughter?
How infantile can these men be to take refuge in their cowardice by invoking silly words like unity and dialogue? The abortion holocaust is more than half a century old and they have presided over it by essentially ignoring it for half a century. What exactly is unity? That everyone shares the exact same soul? Or the exact same mind before anything is done about anything? When did Jesus preach any such silliness? Not any fantasy Jesus for children, the Jesus who said a man’s enemies will be members of his own family. Can there be at least one non-cowardly bishop who can say that invoking this word “unity” is infantile in itself?
Can there be one non-cowardly bishop who can say that invoking a word like dialogue with politicians, that accomplishes nothing, that never has accomplished anything, that never will accomplish anything is just a sophist technique, proven over half a century, for doing nothing?
Can there be one non-cowardly bishop who can stand up and say it does not matter how we’re “perceived,” we have to do the right thing?
“Can there be one non-cowardly Bishop?”
Yes – Cordileone of San Francisco. And I’m sure there are many others, and I’m sure that the pro-choice segment is running out of wiggle room and they know it and I’m sure that sooner or later the excrement is going to hit the air circulator – and methinks its SOONER.
Recommended reading – ‘Confronting the Language Empowering the Culture of Death – Studies in the Thought of John Paul II’, by William Brennan, Sapientia Press 2008.
BINGO!
Bishops, unlike most laity, certainly have theological education and consequently knowledge of the real presence, as well as doctrine on worthiness. The conundrum is that bishops who agree with McElroy’s position including Cupich et al perceive in agreement with McElroy a valid distinction between practice of the faith and civil expediency in a pluralistic culture. “The choice before us is unity or creating a document that may not bring unity, but may well further damage it” (Cardinal Wilton Gregory). McElroy will uphold doctrine on the Eucharist [likely as well as those who support his views], but perceive civil duty in politics is to uphold the law, rulings in favor of abortion rights, and the majority of the population who favor those rights including many Catholics. However, what Bishop McElroy doesn’t distinguish is the difference between a Catholic Democrat who is opposed to abortion who would uphold the law, who does not proactively oppose it and someone like Dick Durbin, Nancy Pelosi who ‘proactive’ seeking to advance abortion. Senator Bob Casey, example of the former believes Roe should be overturned, and says he had voted anti-abortion on 13 of the 15 abortion related measures. Most bishops who support Pres Biden’s access to the Eucharist are also putatively against abortion but mistakenly hold he should have access. Their error, perhaps a grievous error, is that they are obviously aware of the proactivity of Biden, Pelosi, Durbin. Proactive support of abortion is more egregious than complicity. It means agreement. That awareness lends to the judgment that their [the bishops as well as proactive politicians] opposition to abortion is nominal.
To oversimplify it to a rather (admittedly) absurd extent – you’re with us or you’re against us.
Sleepwalkers, problem solvers, functionaries….When Hannah Arendt interviewed Adolf Eichmann, the captured overseer of Hitler’s “final solution” to the Jews, she found him to be rather middle-of-the-road: “quite ordinary, commonplace, and something neither demonic nor monstrous” (“Eichman in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil,” 1964).
Why do Catholics keep looking for a political solution for the abortion issue? Our political solution for murder is ineffective. We need a religious solution for the abortion issue—-which would be getting everyone in the USA to attend church on Sunday and listening to the word of God. Politicians do not make the decision for a woman to have an abortion—-the pregnant woman makes that decision. Christ created a church on earth to teach the people.
We should do both.
You’re right, insofar as murders, including abortions, will continue no matter how seriously they are policed or how rigorously they are punished, but at least by making something illegal (and taking that seriously), we AS A PEOPLE would not be condoning and cooperating with the crime.
It is not the theologians or bishope who politicize the Eucharist; it is the politicians who in the face of blunt, public opposition to Catholic teaching present themselves for reception of Communion.
I question the need for a teaching document. As a 70 year old Catholic I can say I was taught as a child the points of the Eucharist. 1, it becomes the body and blood of Christ you accept that as part of out faith. There’s an argument that has raged for centuries. 2. You don’t seek out communion if you’re in a state of sin. Which leads me to think that the purpose of the proposed document isn’t to teach the Eucharist, but to define my second point. Or should I say, obscure my second point. Acting on Gay desires or accepting abortion is a sin. It has nothing to do with the Eucharist except to place it off limits to the sinner, regardless of how someone like Rep Peloski feels about her ability to judge her state of sin.
Because 2/3 of those who self identify as Catholics either do not believe what the Church teaches regarding the Eucharist or do not know what the Church teaches regarding the Eucharist. And, I know from personal experience, many of those who don’t believe are deacons, priests, bishops, and religious.
That is sadly true. It remains a question, though, whether anything written by the USCCB will do anything to change that.
I admit that I have the same problem with writing to my senators about, say, research on human embryos or the “equality act”. A senator presumably knows as well as I do what is in the legislation, and any person with a functioning conscience knows the difference between right and wrong when it is that blatant. I cannot inform them; they already have the information. I cannot “bribe” or “threaten” them, either; that requires someone with wealth or political influence. My senators will do what is right (for maybe the wrong reason) or what is wrong, and nothing I say will change that. Like the unjust judge, they may neither fear God nor regard man, but unlike that judge, they have staff to make sure they are not pestered by persistent widows.
To oversimplify it to a rather (admittedly) absurd extent – you’re with us or you’re against us.
Righty, Bishop Thomas Daly of Spokane said that “we can’t have unity if we’re not rooted in truth.”
Here we see some of the bishops have ALLOWED themselves to be duped into the kind of bait that children some might use on parents when they say, “But all my friends are doing it!” They have given themselves over to be, as Archbishop Paul Etienne stated, “enmeshed” in political opinions and political pressure.
Now these men, or should I say mice, do not take on the courage that is inherent in their posts as bishops, rather they succumb to fear of being criticized for standing up for what the Catholic Church lays down in the Deposit of the Faith. And—- Cardinal Blase Cupich and Bishop Robert McElroy are the REAL DANDYS of the lot.
—Bishop Jaime Soto— “political rancor,”
—“Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle expressed concern … unity is now
enmeshed in a conversation about politics…”
—“Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago argued that it would be obvious the document
would be referring to particular Catholic politicians…”
—“Bishop Robert McElroy a document would be divisive because it would be seen
as political … political animosities “sign of division.”…invite all of
the political animosities”
— Cardinal Wilton Gregory, who has had plenty time to personally dialogue with
Biden is worried about “damaging unity”, whereas Etienne has pointed out
that:
The Eucharist is the “source of our life and charity and unity”.
To the rescue now, Archbishop Joseph Naumann:
“This call for dialogue: sometimes I wonder if the dialogue is meant not truly to listen, but to delay,” he said. Archbishop Joseph Naumann
Dear St. Thomas the Apostle, pray for us. My Lord and my God!
Why am I not shocked that those whining about the need for slow consideration of these issues ( maybe 300 years from now) and the need for “unity”, are the same ones who also don’t want to “politicize” the Eucharist?? The way the politicians ALREADY have politicized it, you mean? Bishops from the leftist enclaves of California and Chicago!! Well, color me SHOCKED at their position!!! NOT!!! I attended daily Mass in California recently while on a trip there. Not a word, prayer or poster about the Year of St. Joseph. Nor do they kneel after the “Lamb of God” is said or prior to receiving communion. They stand there like cows. . It would appear that they pick and choose what they will observe as Catholic belief, which in my mind makes them not very Catholic at all. My grandmother used to say a fish stinks from the head, down. These local curates are taking their cues in lack of respect across the board from the Bishops they report to. If the Bishops cannot force themselves to support established Catholic doctrine on ANY subject, they should resign or join the protestants.
This is an excellent article that many many Catholics are following. The American Bishops meeting, long in coming has truly exposed the Gorilla in the room. We should not be surprised though. Our skepticism of the liberal, political leaning left clergy has been known for years. And it is now exposed more than ever in their stated position on the worthiness issue.
We as faithful should not turn away. Stay connected to the issue and keep pushing our local clergy to speak up and defend life.
Draw far enough away from this imbroglio of bishops at odds with bishops until it fades into a haze, and the heart of the matter over Eucharistic cohesion starts to appear with increasing clarity. And, ironically, when today the media identifies it, that is, raises the issue of papal duty to resolve the matter we can surmise we’re duped, sadly witnessing a futile ruse, dogs chasing their tails. Of course Pope Francis is the answer, the very reason he was invested with the office of Peter. He cannot sit by issuing unrelated assurances, spiritual niceties while the Church is tearing itself within, Catholics opposed to Catholics in politics and without, in the ranks of the clergy. At least not in good faith.
I hope and pray the bishops really become “coherent and consistent” also in the application of their teaching on “eucharistic coherence” if ever they carry it out. By coherent I mean that the “public sins” of openly going against the teaching of the Church covered in this call to deny communion to politicians be broadened to include not just approval of abortion, of same-sex marriage, but of also approval of the death penalty, for not doing to help the poor and immigrant, for white nationalist racism, for denying about climate change (against Laudato Si), for denying about the Jan 6 “insurrection” and for promoting and parroting Trump’s Big Lie of the 2020 stolen election (both against the 8th commandment).
First point: They are essentially debating whether they should act like bishops or not.
Second point: I predict sometime in the future some bishop somewhere will deny communion to a politician who refuses to support abortion rights before it ever comes to pass that politicians are denied communion for refusing to oppose abortion.
PS
I’m a practicing Catholic who is sitting here reading the results of the bishops conference of June 2021 I am in a disdained state of mind. I am in my 80s and have been a faithful Catholic most of my life. I’m watching what’s going on and our churches seems to be going down the tank. Abortion is a profound issue, and there should be no procrastination or rationalization by our bishops, cardinals, the Pope or priests regarding the direction they should take. We are talking about saving the lives of living babies in the womb that are being cut up into little pieces. This is the greatest Holocaust in the history of mankind. It is mind boggling to me how anyone can be so nonchalant on this issue, especially those in the clergy. I believe the church is on its final mission. I have been a Catholic for over 80 years and I lived through the great years of the 50s and 60s when Catholic participation in the faith was at 76%. Then came the Second Vatican Council which started the church on its downward trend. Practicing Catholics are now believed to be at the 26% level .It was very prophetic of Pope Paul VI who stated during that time that Satan had infiltrated the church. This is certainly true if you watched it as closely as I have. I once said to a priest in confession that I was disturbed because the church throughout my early life was always the refuge from the madness of the world, but now it’s become a major part of this madness. I also asked him where do the faithful go now to find the truth and obtain salvation.
Unfortunately, the issues of abortion and the sexual abuse of young children by priests has put the church on a no return spiral. I’m in a quandary because I’m here at the end of my life and I’m trying to reconcile myself to God. There is no place to turn so I pray every day and I have established a special relationship with God.
On a positive note, the church has many good priests and Cardinals and bishops as indicated in the vote on the Eucharist last week. 136 approved sanctions of some sort with 50 bishops objecting.50 is no small number and is very disturbing. These bishops are supposed to be men of God, and they are charged to offer assistance to us in our quest to obtaining salvation for the next life. They fell into the lies of the progressive movement who proclaim that the the Bishop’s Eucharistic mandate last week was a political statement (which in itself is a political statement). How silly, the resolution applies to everyone who is a Catholic and supports abortion, democrat Catholics, republican Catholics(of which there are many), independent Catholics, and Catholics of all political persuasions. Catholics are either agents of good in the world or agents of satan. It has nothing to do with American politics.It is about the satan that Pope Paul VI spoke about who penetrated the church in the 1960s. I can’t see any other reason why any Bishop would procrastinate and rationalize on the issue of eliminating abortion. Furthermore, prohibiting Catholics from receiving communion who support abortion is a powerful statement. Dissenting bishops and Cardinals have to remember the martyrs and apostles and the Catholics in the time of Jesus who suffered for Christ sake and were tortured and killed for telling the truth.
The clerics of today are temporal clerics and they are more interested in local politics then they are about saving the souls of their faithful (including the little children who dying in the womb each day). This pronouncement last week by the majority of the bishops and Cardinals regarding Communion must be reinforced with action an actual prohibition of communion to Catholics who support abortion in any way no matter who they are, including the bishops priests, Cardinals and the Pope. Then and only then will the Catholic church survive, and the faithful will come back to the church. Our babies will live and ultimately become practicing Catholics and the world will have a force for good again. A church that will be be a refuge from the evil of the world and a place where we can find our salvation.
The USCCB should be disbanded. It does not represent the Catholic Church and its teachings. It is a political configuration. It represents the opiniona of a lefty bureaucracy which creates the documents that no one pays attention to.
I am wondering if we are going back to the 60’s when Bishop’s told women they could not use birth control medication. Women just started shopping around for those priests who did not agree with the stance and started using it in spite of the teachings of the church at that time.