Denver, Colo., Apr 9, 2017 / 04:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In 1970, there was one priest for every 800 Catholics in the United States.
Today, that number has more than doubled, with one priest for every 1,800 Catholics.
Globally, the situation is worse. The number of Catholics per priest increased from 1,895 in 1980 to 3,126 in 2012, according to a report from CARA at Georgetown University. The Catholic Church in many parts of the world is experiencing what is being called a “priest shortage” or a “priest crisis.”
Last month, Pope Francis answered a question about the priest shortage in a March 8 interview published in the German weekly Die Zeit. The part that made headlines, of course, was that about married priests.
“Pope Francis open to allowing married priests in Catholic Church” read a USA Today headline. “Pope signals he’s open to married Catholic men becoming priests” said CNN.
But things are not as they might seem. Read a little deeper, and Pope Francis did not say that Fr. John Smith at the parish down the street can now ditch celibacy and go looking for a wife.
What the Holy Father did say is that he is open to exploring the possibility of proven men (‘viri probati,’ in Latin) who are married being ordained to the priesthood. Currently, such men, who are typically over the age of 35, are eligible for ordination to the permanent diaconate, but not the priesthood.
However, marriage was not the first solution to the priest shortage Pope Francis proposed. In fact, it was the last.
Initially, he didn’t even mention marriage.
Pressed specifically about the married priesthood, the Pope said: “optional celibacy is discussed, above all where priests are needed. But optional celibacy is not the solution.”
While Pope Francis perhaps signals an iota more of openness to the possibility of married priests in particular situations, his hesitance to open wide the doors to a widespread married priesthood is in line with his recent predecessors, St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, as well as the longstanding tradition of the Roman Catholic Church.
So why is the Church in the West, even when facing a significant priest shortage, so reticent to get rid of a tradition of celibacy, if it is potentially keeping away additional candidates to the priesthood?
Why is celibacy the norm in the Western Church?
Fr. Gary Selin is a Roman Catholic priest and professor at St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver. His work Priestly Celibacy: Theological Foundations was published last year by CUA press.
While the debate about celibacy is often reduced to pragmatics – the difficulty of paying married priests more, the question of their full availability – this ignores the rich theological foundations of the celibate tradition, Fr. Selin told CNA.
One of the main reasons for this 2,000 year tradition is Christological, because it is based on the first celibate priest – Jesus.
“Jesus Christ himself never married, and there’s something about imitating the life our Lord in full that is very attractive,” Fr. Selin said.
“Interestingly, Jesus is never mentioned as a reason for celibacy. The next time you read about celibacy, try to see if they mention our Lord; oftentimes he is left out of the picture.”
Christ’s life of celibacy, while compatible with his mission of evangelization, would not have been compatible with marriage, because “he left his home and family in Nazareth in order to live as an itinerant preacher, consciously renouncing a permanent dwelling: ‘The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head,’” Fr. Selin said, refering Matthew 8:20.
Several times throughout the New Testament, Christ praises the celibate state. In Matthew 19:11-12, he answers a question from his disciples about marriage, saying that those who are able by grace to renounce marriage and sexual relations for the kingdom of heaven ought to do so.
“Of the three manners in which one is incapable of sexual activity, the third alone is voluntary: ‘eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs [emphasis added].’ These people do so ‘for the sake of the kingdom of heaven,’ that is, for the kingdom that Jesus was proclaiming and initiating,” Fr. Selin explained.
Nevertheless, it took a while for the “culture of celibacy” to catch on in the early Church, Fr. Selin said.
Christ came to earth amid a Jewish people and culture who were instructed since their first parents of Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28, 9:7) and were promised that their descendants would be “as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore” (Gen. 22:17). Being unmarried or barren was to be avoided for both practical and religious reasons, and was seen as a curse, or at least a lack of favor from God.
The apostles, too, were Jewish men who would have been a part of this culture. It is known that among them, at least St. Peter had been married at some time, because Scripture mentions his mother-in-law (Mt. 8:14-15).
St. John the Evangelist is thought by the Church fathers to be one of the only of the 12 apostles who was celibate, which is why Christ had a particular love for him, Fr. Selin said. Some of the other apostles likely were married, in keeping with Jewish customs, but it is thought that they practiced perpetual continence (chosen abstinence from sexual relations) once they became apostles for the rest of their lives. St. Paul the Apostle extols the celibate state, which he also kept, in 1 Corinthians 7:7-8.
Because marriage was such an integral part of Jewish culture, even for the apostles, early Church clergy were often, but not always, married. However, evidence suggests that these priests were asked to practice perfect continence once they had been ordained. Priests whose wives became pregnant after ordination could even be punished by suspension, Fr. Selin explained.
Early on in the Church, bishops were selected from the celibate priests, a tradition that stood before the mandatory celibate priesthood. Even today, Eastern Rite Catholic Churches, most of which allow for married priests, select their bishops from among celibate priests.
As the “culture of celibacy” became more established, it increasingly became the norm in the Church, until married men who applied for ordinations had to appeal to the Pope for special permission.
In the 11th century, St. Gregory VII issued a decree requiring all priests to be celibate and asked his bishops to enforce it. Celibacy has been the norm ever since in the Latin Rite, with special exceptions made for some Anglican and other Protestant pastors who convert to Catholicism.
A sign of the kingdom
Another reason the celibate priesthood is valued in the Church is because it bears witness to something greater than this world, Fr. Selin explained.
Benedict XVI once told priests that celibacy agitates the world so much because it is a sign of the kingdom to come.
“It is true that for the agnostic world, the world in which God does not enter, celibacy is a great scandal, because it shows exactly that God is considered and experienced as reality. With the eschatological dimension of celibacy, the future world of God enters into the reality of our time. And should this disappear?” Benedict XVI said in 2010.
Christ himself said that no one would be married or given in marriage in heaven, and therefore celibacy is a sign of the beatific vision (cf. Mt 22:30-32).
“Married life will pass away when we behold God face to face and all of us become part of the bridal Church,” Fr. Selin said. “The celibate is more of a direct symbol of that.”
Another value of celibacy is that it allows priests a greater intimacy with Christ in more fully imitating him, Fr. Selin noted.
“The priest is ordained to be Jesus for others, so he’s able to dedicate his whole body and soul first of all to God himself, and from that unity with Jesus he is able to serve the church,” he said.
“We can’t get that backwards,” he emphasized. Often, celibacy is presented for practical reasons of money and time, which aren’t sufficient reasons to maintain the tradition.
“That’s not sufficient and that doesn’t fill the heart of a celibate, because he first wants intimacy with God. Celibacy first is a great, profound intimacy with Christ.”
A married priest’s perspective: Don’t change celibate priesthood
Father Douglas Grandon is one of those rare exceptions – a married Roman Catholic priest.
He was a married Episcopalian priest when he and his family decided to enter the Catholic Church 14 years ago, and received permission from Benedict XVI to become a Catholic priest.
Even though Fr. Grandon recognizes the priest shortage, he said opening the doors to the married priesthood would not solve the root issue of that shortage.
“In my opinion, the key to solving the priest shortage is more commitment to what George Weigel calls evangelical Catholicism,” Fr. Grandon told CNA.
“Whether you’re Protestant or Catholic, vocations come from a very strong commitment to the basic commands of Jesus to preach the Gospel and make disciples. Wherever there’s this strong evangelical commitment, wherever priests are committed to deepening people’s faith and making them serious disciples, you have vocations. That is really the key.”
He also said that while he’s “ever so grateful” that St. John Paul II allowed for exceptions to the celibate priesthood in 1980 – allowing Protestant pastor converts like himself to become priests – he also sees the value of the celibate priesthood and does not advocate getting rid of it.
“…we really do believe the celibate vocation is a wonderful thing to be treasured, and we don’t want anything to undermine that special place of celibate priesthood,” he said.
“Jesus was celibate, Paul was celibate, some of the 12 were celibate, so that’s a special gift that God has given to the Catholic Church.”
Fr. Joshua J. Whitfield is another married priest, who resides in Dallas and is a columnist for The Dallas Morning News. He recently wrote about his experience as a married priest, but also said that he would not want the Church to change its celibacy norm.
“What we need is another Pentecost. That’s how the first ‘shortage’ was handled. The Twelve waited for the Holy Spirit, and he delivered,” Fr. Whitfield told CNA in e-mail comments.
“Seeing this crisis spiritually is what is practical. And it’s the only way we’re going to properly solve it…. I’m simply not convinced that the economics of (married priesthood) would result in either the growth of clergy or the Church.”
A glance at what the priest shortage looks like in the United States
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is the largest diocese in the United States, clocking in at a Catholic population of 4,029,336, according to the P.J. Kenedy and Sons Official Catholic Directory.
With 1,051 diocesan and religious priests combined, the archdiocese has one priest for every 3,833 Catholics – more than double the national rate.
Despite the large Catholic population, which presents both “a great blessing and a great challenge”, Fr. Samuel Ward, the archdiocese’s associate sirector of vocations, told CNA he doesn’t hope for or anticipate any major changes to the practice of priestly celibacy.
“I believe in the great value of the celibate Roman Catholic priesthood,” he said.
He also sees great reason for hope. Recent upticks in the number of seminarians and young men considering the priesthood seems to be building positive momentum for vocations in future generations.
The trend is a national one as well – CARA reports that about 100 more men were ordained to the priesthood in 2016 than in 2010. Between 2005 and 2010, there was a difference of only 4.
In the Archdiocese of New York, the second largest diocese in the United States, there is a Catholic population of 2,642,740 and 1,198 diocesan and religious priests, meaning there is one priest for every 2,205 Catholics.
“I think we’re probably like most every other diocese in the country, in that over the past 40-50 years, the number of ordinations have not in any way kept pace with the number of priests who are retiring or dying,” said Joseph Zwilling, director of communications for the archdiocese.
It’s part of the reason why they recently underwent an extensive reorganization process, which included the closing and re-consolidation of numerous parishes, many of which had found themselves without a pastor in recent years.
“Rather than wait for it to hit crisis mode we wanted to be prudent and plan for what the future would look like here in the Archdiocese of New York,” Zwilling said.
Monsignor Peter Finn has been a priest in New York for 52 years, and as rector of St. Joseph’s Seminary for six years in the early 2000s, he has had several years’ experience forming priests. While he admits there is a shortage, he’s not convinced that doing away with celibacy would solve anything.
“After 52 years of priesthood I’m not really sure it would make any big difference,” he told CNA.
That’s because the crisis is not unique to the vocation of the priesthood, he said. The broader issue is a lack of commitment – not just to the priesthood, but to marriage and other vocations of consecrated life.
Fr. Selin echoed those sentiments.
“It goes deeper, it goes to a deep crisis of faith, a rampant materialism, and also at times a difficulty with making choices,” he said.
So if marriage won’t solve the problem, what will?
Schools, seminaries, and a culture of vocations
The Archdiocese of St. Louis, on the other hand, has not experienced such a drastic shortage. When compared with other larger dioceses in the country (those with 300,000 or more Catholics), the St. Louis Archdiocese has the most priests per capita: only 959 Catholics per priests, in 2014.
John Schwob, director of pastoral planning for the archdiocese, said this could be attributed to a number of things – large and active Catholic schools, a local diocesan seminary, and archbishops who have made vocations a pastoral priority.
“…going back to the beginning of our diocese in 1826, the early bishops made repeated trips to Europe to bring back religious and secular priests and religious men and women who built up strong Catholic parishes and schools,” he told CNA. “That has created momentum that has continued for nearly 200 years.”
These three things also ring true for the Diocese of Lincoln, which has a smaller population and a high priest-to-Catholic ratio: one priest for every 577 Catholics, which is less than one third of the national ratio.
As in St. Louis, Lincoln’s vocations director Fr. Robert Matya credits many of the diocese’s vocations to Catholic schools with priests and religious sisters.
“The vast majority of our vocations come from the kids in our Catholic school system,” Fr. Matya said.
“The unique thing about Lincoln is that the religion classes in all of our Catholic high schools are taught by priests or sisters, and that is not usually the case … the students just have greater exposure to priests and sisters than a kid who goes to high school somewhere else who doesn’t have a priest teach them or doesn’t have that interaction with a priest or a religious sister.”
The diocese also has two orders of women religious – the Holy Spirit Adoration sisters (or the Pink Sisters) and discalced, cloistered Carmelites – who pray particularly for priests and vocations.
Msgr. Timothy Thorburn, vicar general of the Lincoln diocese, said that when the Carmelite sisters moved to the diocese in the late ’90s, two local seminaries sprang up “almost overnight” – a diocesan minor seminary and a seminary for the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter.
“Wherever priests are being formed the devil is going to be at work, and cloistered religious are what we would consider the marines in the fight with the powers of darkness, they’re the ones on the frontlines,” Msgr. Thorburn told CNA.
“So right in the midst of the establishment of these two seminaries, the Carmelite sisters… asked if they could look at building a monastery in our diocese.”
A commitment to authentic and orthodox Catholic teaching is also important for vocations, Msgr. Thorburn noted.
“I grew up in the ’60s and ’70s and ’80s, and many in the Church thought if we just became more hip, young people would be attracted to the priesthood and religious life … and the opposite occurred. Young people were repelled by that,” he said.
“They wanted to make a commitment, they wanted authentic Catholic teaching, the authentic Catholic faith, they didn’t want some half-baked, watered down version of the faith; that wasn’t attractive to them at all. And I’d say the same is true now. The priesthood will not become more attractive if somehow the Church says married men can be ordained.”
Pope Francis’ solutions: Prayer, fostering vocations, and the birth rate
Pope Francis, too, does not believe that the married priesthood is the solution to the priest shortage. Before he even mentioned the married priesthood to Die Zeit, the Pope talked about prayer.
“The first [response] – because I speak as a believer – the Lord told us to pray. Prayer, prayer is missing,” he told the paper.
Rose Sullivan, director of the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors, and the mother of a seminarian who is about to be ordained, agrees with the Pope.
“We would not refer to it as a ‘priest shortage’ or a ‘vocation crisis.’ We would refer to it as a prayer crisis. God has not stopped calling people to their vocation, we’ve stopped listening; the noise of culture has gotten in the way,” she said.
“Scripture says: ‘Speak Lord for your servant is listening.’ So the question would be, are we listening? And I would say we could do a much better job at listening.”
Another solution proposed by Pope Francis: increasing the birth rate, which has plummeted in many parts of the Church, particularly in the west.
In some European countries, once the most Catholic region of the world, the birth rate has dipped so low that governments are coming up with unique ways to incentivize child-bearing.
“If there are no young men there can be no priests,” the Pope said.
The vocations of marriage and priesthood are therefore inter-related, said Fr. Ward.
“They compliment each other, and are dependent upon one another. If we don’t have families, we don’t have anything to do as priests, and families need priests for preaching and the sacraments.”
The third solution proposed by Pope Francis was working with young people and talking to them directly about vocations.
Many priests are able to trace their vocation back to a personal invitation, often made by one priest, as well as the witness of good and holy priests that were a significant part of their lives.
“A former vocation director took an informal poll, and he asked men, ‘What really got you thinking about the priesthood?’ And almost all of them said ‘because my pastor approached me’,” Fr. Selin related.
“It was the same thing with me. When a priest lives his priesthood with great joy and fidelity, he’s the most effective promoter of vocations, because a young man can see himself in him.”
Msgr. Thorburn added: “There is no shortage of vocations.”
“God is calling a sufficient number of men in the Western Church, who by our tradition he gives the gift of celibacy with the vocation. We just have to make a place for those seeds to fall on fertile ground.”
[…]
I find it somehow encouraging that the hate-spewing, diabolical left is terrified of the Rosary.
Thanks for pointing that out – somehow it seems to escape our notice – they are TERRIFIED of the Rosary.
With good reason.
“There is one entity that REALLY REALLY has a problem with the rosary.
And trust me, you don’t want to be on his team.”
I thought that was brilliant.
Well said.
Amen Brineyman. Amen.
FYI – I wear a Rosary around my neck made of paracord and have for a few years. Prior to that I wore a replica of the Rosary issued to troops in WW1 – Google ‘Rugged Rosaries’.
Just when I dare to hope that people CAN’T get ANY dumber, someone like this comes along and – effortlessly – proves me wrong.
Again
Sigh
Addendum – To my c.v. I can now add the title “extremist” to stand proudly next to the original title of “deplorable”.
The honors just keep adding up, and originally I thought that “old coot” was as high as I could go.
Life is good
Let’s face it, Christ was an extremist. The truth is that if you’re a traditional, orthodox Catholic, you’re extremist. Attending Mass, praying the rosary, going to Eucharistic adoration, serving the poor and the homeless and preaching Christ crucified for our sins are all the actions of extremists.
By the way, I’m not going to play your game, Satan.
Attendees at TRADITIONAL CATHOLIC LATIN MASS on the feast day of the Assumption heard the first reading from the 1962 Roman Missal the “Lesson” of Judith, 13:22-25; 15:10. The OT Judith mystically prefigures the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Mary most assuredly strikes and will continue to strike at satan’s head while all he can do is aim at the heel of her seed. Praying the Rosary is like putting holy water on a fire, and satan’s friends in the liberal unGodly secular world despise it because it hurts them while it helps Mary and her friends.
No matter how worrisome, frightening, or desperate worldly events appear to the unaided human eye (without fullness of faith or grace or trust in Him and Mary), those who trust in Him and in her Immaculate Heart will see the glory of God and its reflection in her. Without fear, worry or desperation and no matter the apparent chaos.
The ‘left’ is spoiling for a fight. My weapon is the Rosary; I’m ready for them.
Bring it on!
Jesus I Trust In You
Well said! Our Blessed Mother’s Rosary has won many battles launched against her Son throughout history.It is our decisive answer to the “War of Wokeness” now being waged against her Son today.
Of course Catholic beliefs are seen as extreme by the immoral wing of our society. Imagine believing that a child is a human being at conception? Imagine believing that treating other humans as less is acceptable? Imagine believing that the individual can determine his/her own sex/gender? Imagine being proud of taking God’s place (PRIDE)? The list is endless in our culture. But, wait, Joe Biden touts his “devout Catholicism” by bringing the rosary out of his pocket when the situation warrants, especially when defending the murder of babies in the womb. Imagine being a hypocrite . . .
That should read: “Imagine believing that treating other humans as less is unacceptable?”
Nothing could be a better putdown of The Atlantic piece than Fr. Aquinas’s photo quip warning viewers about images of rosaries. If the rosary is being abused, aggressive marketing for profit by sellers would be the prime cause.
Perhaps The Atlantic should follow this piece up with an expose on how bad it is for anyone to walk the now popular El Camino de Santiago de Compestela pilgrimage route in Spain because in medieval times St. James was turned into the patron saint of bloodthirsty warriors against the infidel Moors. Even as late as the 1700s,the standard battle cry for Spanish soldiers and mercenaries was simply called “the Santigo.”
Atlantic Mag represents, ideologically, the direction of the Church, apparent in Vat policy of secularization. Any identification with Apostolic tradition and the permanence of moral precepts, traditional forms of devotion fall under radical right wing Catholicism resistant to change.
This is exactly parallel to the present political Administration and its policy of identifying any criticism of its policies, election results as radical and dangerous threat to democracy deserving of investigation and prosecution by the Justice Dept.
That the Vatican seems content with the current Administration and its leadership, particularly approval of faux Catholicism practiced by Catholic politicians spells, persecution of faithful Catholics. With persecution our sincere faith will be strengthened, our witness rewarded by Christ at judgment. Keep praying those rosaries and stand fast in witness to the Christ of Apostolic tradition.
The Atlantic article is paranoid and crosses the border into delusional at times. It helps me to understand, however, how nearly a third of the Russian people reportedly believe “the New Chronology”:
https://www.crisismagazine.com/2022/the-bizarre-conspiracy-theory-that-might-be-driving-russia
This article (The Atlantic’s article) strikes me as very strange. The rosary is in the headline but it takes a back seat to plain right wing bashing. It’s basically a long string of assertions with no links to actual examples, only links to other spurious news articles. And who is this author?? He has no credentials whatsoever. This was either a ploy to boost The Atlantic’s media presence, or it’s a trash piece from some nobody with a grudge against the Church.
“This was either a ploy to boost The Atlantic’s media presence, or it’s a trash piece from some nobody with a grudge against the Church.”
Yes. My reading is that it is both. The Atlantic, not many years ago, was a decent and often good source of news and commentary. Not so much anymore.
Publications like The Atlantic are trying to attract attention & remain relevant in an increasingly online world. So, they feature this sort of drive by article. It’s a shame.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-debate-over-the-catholicism-trend/ar-AA10IjuI?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=bda60d7dfab043349016c5771643007e
More of the same idea. Julia Yost of FT apparently wrote letter or op-ed and NYT published it. Interesting.
When we think that the radical left wing press, it continually strains to plumb the depths. The Atlantic collapses (a shameless sheet) as a servant to cultural Marxism and the politically correct.
Prayer never is amiss.
Just when you think the left cannot spew any worse unhinged hatred based on NOTHING, you get something like this. The pure lies and fantasy presented as fact is so typical of Marxist group-think. Very sad to find it growing in acceptance in the US. This is in fact why they want to control and expunge REAL American history, control the schools,and detach parent’s legal rights over their kids.( FBI investigating those “threatening” parents, anyone??) That they were able, with the help of hapless higher clergy, to shutter our churches for months due to covid, must have whet their appetite to do this more frequently, or even permanently. What better way to suppress moral teaching? Whether the accusation is based on spread of disease, “Racism ” or “sexism”,or the supposed suppression of womens’ “reproductive care”, they are working like busy vermin to find a way to devalue the church and make it look subversive and violent. . Articles like this one in the Atlantic helps to normalize the bogus accusations of potential church violence among the ill-educated left (of which we have too many) until it reaches general societal acceptance as a “fact”. You know, the “big lie”. Just keep repeating the same garbage over and over until people accept it as fact. Disgusting.
I’m with Brineyman above.
Why react violently to the article in The Atlantic as if it referred to all Catholics? It’s clear when get to read the article itself that it simply referred to a tiny minority of Catholics who are whites, Christian nationalists, gun-loving, war freaks, and Rosary (as charm) carrying, and who believe in the fear, hate, and grievances fed to them by Trump. If you belong to this demographic group understandably you react as being offended in being handed a mirror for you to look on and be told the truth about who you are. If you are not in this demographic, then you should be grateful in being informed about how some fringe Catholics have become violently inclined extremists and sacrilegiously use the Rosary like an amulet. Pray for their conversion. You could even be like them in another sense when you dangle a rosary in your car’s center rear view mirror!
One problem (among many) with the piece is that uses an age-old tactic: it takes a small subset of folks and then, through repetition and insinuation, casts shade on any and all Catholics who take the Rosary, our Lady, and many other beliefs (especially morals) seriously. The author’s disdain for Catholicism is fairly obvious to me, but (again) he pretends to be doing readers a service by highlighting a vocal and hyperbolic fringe. It’s a typical form of pseudo-sophisticated elitism that clutches its precious secular pearls while the dominant secular culture is burning down and collapsing in so many obvious ways. Finally, there is this: “The theologian and historian Massimo Faggioli has described …” Anyone familiar at all with Faggioli knows that he is hyper-partisan, sloppy, and incredibly clueless about Catholicism in the U.S. The author could have found countless better commentators on this topic, who would have presented actual context and perspective.
The Rosary is the one piece of Catholicism that the Freemasonic Infiltrates didn’t get to corrupt. Bugnini had plans, of course, because the 1958 coupe d’état was spiritually and not merely politically motivated. Readers need directing to Fr Charles Theodore Murr’s wonderful book on the Gagnon Report years: Murder in the 33rd Degree.
Why be offended by the article? For the same reason I am offended by this comment, though it also doesn’t apply to me. It’s a fever dream straw man, made up for people to hate.
If as your signature implies, you are a priest, you are in the wrong profession, given the heated and unfounded accusations in your post. “Whites, Christian nationalists, gun-loving, war freaks…” etc.REALLY?? Not very Christian in sentiment, and totally untrue. I am not familiar with any “violently inclined extremists” attending daily Mass with me.Quite the contrary. I am however, very familiar with the fact that numerous churches are burned and otherwise vandalized and attacked each year, to the general shrug of the secular authorities. I am not concerned about “fringe” Catholics. I am concerned about the folks holding power on the left who appear to think its ok to rob people of their civil rights and then pretend they are not.As one conservative famously said, ” Dont pee on my shoe and tell me it’s raining.” Trump never fed his followers hate and fear and grievances. His enemies, including the media, did so constantly. If anything, he is a man who loved his country as many of us do, and made no bones about it.I have zero respect for those who riot, topple statues of our historical figures, erase our national history or distort the truth. That, of course, is a specialty of the Left. Trump supporters do not qualify. Finally Father, it was not Trump who closed our churches at EASTER and months thereafter, in a spasm of cowardly and unfounded fear. It was the left, most egregiously in blue states, who gleefully and dishonestly separated the people from their ability to worship. Exactly WHO is the bearer of hate here?? May be time for an honest examination of conscience.
The author of the screed condemns Catholic men for being prepared to “violently” defend their families from attackers. Let that sink in for a minute. Resistance is not just futile, but also damnable.
Amidst all of the (justifiable) rage at such a piece, methinks that one rather obvious truth must be stated – this dude is a SERIOUS MORON. He sets new standards for the word, one which I hope will never be exceeded, but, unfortunately, I’m probably wrong – somewhere out there I fear there lurks one who has in hsnd a freshly written degree in ‘What’s Happenin’ Studies from ‘Everything Is Groovy” University who aspires to the title ‘Moron +’ and he/she/it will stop at nothing to reach that plateau.
A casual Internet search of the young man’s background reveals that he is described as a Canadian Toronto-based writer, a public historian, a museum worker and an online hate researcher. He is on the staff of the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre. The Atlantic’s editor in chief is Jeffrey Goldberg.
Oh dear. Comment sections never fail to disappoint.
🙁
It’s not just disappointing to read this but it casts CWR readers in a poor light. We can do better than this.
To be sure it is all quite disappointing, but is anything in my post untrue? I only reported what I turned up with an Internet search engine. But, of course, they’re hate facts, so self-appointed gatekeepers must take it upon themselves to squelch all discussion about them. Next time I go to confession, I’ll repent for the sin of noticing things. To round out the story on the Atlantic article since I gave the background of the author and named the editor, I’ll mention that the webzine is now owned by the very deep-pocketed widow of Steve Jobs, Laurene Powell Jobs. It is helpful to know who your enemies are, even if you would rather not.
Imagine if a Christian editor of a respectable political journal commissioned a Christian writer to pen a similarly outrageous essay concerning Jews or Judaism. The former’s head would be on the chopping block immediately and the latter’s career as a writer, or even an online hate researcher, would be over just as fast. There is a double standard that everyone prefers to ignore but that eventually must be faced head-on while we still have any freedom left in the West.
Since the day I was invested with the habit, I, like most religious who still wear the habit, have worn a rosary hanging from the cincture on the left side. Why the left side? Because that’s where knights and warriors wear their sword. The Rosary is the most powerful weapon. Only a fool isn’t in awe of its power. The enemies of Christ are right to fear it. And anyone who disparages the Rosary is an enemy of Christ.
Growing up, my best friend was Jewish. I saw the horrible tattoo on her aunt and when I found out about the Holocaust I asked my dad (a Marine Colonel) to teach me to shoot. I took to heart, “NEVER AGAIN.” As an adult I converted to Catholicism and now I have my shooting skills and MORE POWERFULLY, MY ROSARY!! Yes, I AM an extremist and proud to be one. I am. SOLDIER of God.
Thirty years ago, a dear friend of ours was assaulted & strangled just outside her parish church. She was a small lady with no way to defend herself. Like you, I took that to heart & vowed I’d not become a victim. I carry a firearm for self-defense. Along with my rosary.
I’m much more of a pacifist than anything else but self-defense & the defense of our families is an important right under the 2nd Amendment.
GUNS & ROSARIES
We have weapons from which we can choose
To defend rights that you want to abuse:
Perforate you with holes?
Intercede for your souls?
Which one would you rather we choose?
Thank you Mr. Duplantier. The criminal who took our friend’s life I suppose deserved both of those weapons but they never caught him.
Knowing there are people like that wandering around at large makes me more determined to protect myself and my family.
“But I say to you: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who persecute and slander you.” Matthew 5:44