Former Archbishop of Canterbury Angry with Lack of Forewarning

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, finds the current proposal from Rome "inexcusable" in that more warning wasn't given, but still welcomes the proposal. He insists that he isn't usurping the Archbishop William's role.

Here


According to BBC about 600 Priests are planning to meet to discuss whether they should become part of the Catholic Church owing to Benedict's much requested lifeline in the wake of the Anglican Communion's decision to ordain women and active homosexuals. Some of the priests have already planned to become Catholic regardless.

Here

In this article, Peter Stafford, curiously and erroneously suggests that the current move will appeal to those Anglicans who do not regard women as equals.

Here

In an effort rally the troops in defense of dying protestantism, Bishop Harvey of Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC), insists on his protestant interpretation of the word Catholic, citing various problems he forsees in the proposed union.

Here

Some word on the Anglican Church of North America which has grown by nearly 40 Congregations recently.

Here

Also threatening to leave the sinking ship of liberal Anglicanism, SC Episcopalians have announced just 4 days following Benedict's announcement that they are distancing themselves away from the Anglican Communion while insisting that they do not want complete seperation. It is unclear at this time whether they will regard the Vatican proposal favorably.

Here

A Fourth Iranian Monarchist Militant Sentenced to Death

Davood Fardbacheh Mir-Ardabili, born in 1973, is charged with being a member of the Iran Monarchy Association. He was arrested on May 4th that is to say before the demonstrations following the elections in June, which didn’t prevent a judgment by the Revolutionary Court of Tehran in charge of the repression of the events.

Davood Fardbachech Mir-Ardabil has not been allowed to be defended by a lawyer nor insure his defense by himself.

The International Monarchist Conference (IMC) is protesting once more against these arbitrary lawsuits. The Iranian Regime has just marked a new stage in abject behavior. It is no longer only a matter of iniquitous cases but actual judiciary assassination.

The name of Davood Fardbacheh Mir-Ardabili has just been added to the name of three other monarchist activists sentenced to death by hanging, journalist Mohammad-Reza Ali-Zamani (37 years old), Hamed Rouhinejad (24 years old) and the young Arash Rahmanpour (only 20 years old).

Together, let’s demand the release of Iranian political prisoners!

Sign the petition : http://www.freezamani.org

Join the demonstration of November 3d 2009 at 07.00 pm, place d’Iéna in Paris, near the Iranian Embassy (Metro Iéna).

Sylvain ROUSSILLON
General Secretary of the International Monarchist Conference
Spokesperson of the Free Zamani Action Group
http://internationale.monarchiste.com

Mosaic at the Convent of St. John, Earliest Monastery in Syria

The Syriac Church of al-Nabghi Landmark. This Syriac piece is what remains of a mosaic of beautiful grounds with trees from the early fifth century. The earliest date ever recorded of a Syriac Christian monument was unearthed in February 2007 in the village of al-Nabghi near Aleppo in northern Syria. The inscription commemorates the creation of a mosaic floor laid in the chapel of the martyrs of a convent dedicated to St. John (probably the Baptist). The text began with the date, unfortunately damaged, but it is possible, according to Francoise Briquel Chantonnet and Alain Desmreumaux (CNRS), reading 718, in use at the time of the Seleucid era, ie., around 406-407 AD. It was then the oldest archaeological evidence of the existence of a monastery in northern Syria. It is also and example of archaic Syriac, the Aramaic of the Edessa region (south of present-day Turkey), which was and is still today the liturgical language of Syriac, still living in the Middle East.

Link here

Opus Dei Member and Ex-FBI Director Louis Freeh Italian Citizen

From the Drudge Report:

Clinton appointed former FBI director, Louis Freeh has just received Italian Citizenship thanks to his efforts in fighting organized crime in Italy. Both he and the infamous Robert Hanssen were members of Opus Dei and working for the FBI. Freeh described the Hanssen breech as disastrous, while he himself worked closely with Russian Police against organized crime in Russia according to Accuracy in Media.

Just before 9-11, Freeh left his job as Director of the CIA. He went to work defending a Saudi Prince Bandar, embroiled in a corruption case. He was also working with Fanny Mae according to Politics Daily.

There does seem to be a bit of a question about Louis Freeh's membership in Opus and the evidence is available in this article at Harvard Crimson which fairly discloses his close association with that organization.

The Theological Dunkirk of the CoE

According to Howlingly Absurd at Angelqueen, "this is the Anglican Communion's Theological Dunkirk as they await the Liturgical Overlord and the Moral D-Day Invasion."

Phil Lawler has another perspective altogether and perhaps a more sobering and realistic one as he takes into account that many Anglicans will be concerned about leaving their lifelong and inter-generational parsonages, their subsequent financial support as there will be no severance packages for them, and the precariousness of entering an ecclesial reality apparently as precarious as the one they left in the first place.



Realistic expectations about Anglicans
By Phil Lawler | October 21, 2009 3:24 PM

From catholicculture.org

There's a natural, healthy excitement in Church this week, caused by the Pope's bold move to welcome Anglicans into the Catholic fold. But after that first flush of excitement, let's step back just a bit and assess the likely outcome.

Will there be millions of Anglicans battering down the doors of Catholic churches next week? Not likely. Hundreds of thousands, then? Probably not.

The Anglican Church is sinking, and the Pope has thrown a lifeline. But there are several reasons why Anglicans-- even tradition-minded Anglicans-- might not grasp it.

First there are practical matters. Anglican clergymen have salaries and pension funds, and in many cases they have families to feed. There will be financial questions to settle, as well as legal questions about the ownership of parish properties and the administration of church programs.

Second there are the purely human considerations. Many Anglicans will find it difficult to walk away from the parish with which their families have been involved for generations, where their parents and grandparents were baptized and married, where their ancestors helped to build the church and now lie in the parish graveyard. Leaving the Anglican communion, for them, might mean leaving behind some bitterly disappointed relatives and friends, as well as some cherished memories. It will be wrenching; it might not happen right away.

Next there are the suspicions and fears that will doubtless remain, even after the Pope issues his apostolic constitution. Conservative Anglicans might glance nervously at the Catholic parishes in their neighborhood, notice the theological novelties and the liturgical abuses, and wonder whether they might be leaving one untenable situation only to enter into another. Working from the opposite direction, liberal Catholics-- including some in the hierarchy-- might discourage Anglicans from entering the Church, recognizing that an influx of conservative believers could tilt the entire Church toward a more traditional outlook.

For some conservative Anglicans-- notably in Africa-- there is no special incentive to enter the Catholic Church, because the Anglican communities in their regions remain firmly in the hands of their fellow conservatives. The worldwide Anglican communion may be falling apart, but in Africa the faith is buoyant, and the faithful are far less likely to see any need for dramatic changes.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there are many conservative Anglicans who have no desire to enter the Catholic Church under any circumstances.

The Anglican communion, one must remember, is divided in two different ways. There is a clear liberal/conservative split, which is evident in the highly publicized battles over issues such as homosexuality and the ordination of women. Catholics readily recognize that division; we have the same problem in our Church. But in the Anglican communion there is another division, between the "high church" and "low church" traditions. Those two ways of classifying the Anglican faithful produce very different divisions. Within the Roman Catholic Church, "liberals" tend to disagree with "conservatives" consistently, across a whole range of issues: doctrinal, moral, and liturgical. Not so in the Anglican communion, where one can find high-church liberals and low-church conservatives.

The distinction between the "high" and "low" Anglican traditions can be traced back to the 17th century, when some parishes within the Church of England clung to the sacramental rituals they had preserved from their days as Catholic communities, while others-- more heavily influenced by the Reformation-- jettisoned those ceremonies to adopt a self-consciously simpler style of worship. The battle between "high" and "low" approaches has continued on different fronts over the centuries. At the risk of oversimplification, one might say that today the heirs of the "high church" tradition in the Anglican communion emphasize the patrimony they have received from the universal (Catholic) Church, while those of the "low church" tradition think of themselves as children of the Reformation.

In the 19th century, the Oxford Movement spoke explicitly of the "Anglo-Catholic" tradition, and today the heirs of the Oxford Movement-- including the members of the Traditional Anglican Communion-- still think of themselves as Anglo-Catholics. For them, the Pope's invitation may prove irresistible.

But Anglicans from the other, "low-church" tradition, who think of themselves as Protestants, will not succumb so quickly to the magnetic attraction of Rome. Many of them may be conservative, in the same way that Evangelical Christians are conservative, on questions of theological doctrine and moral principle. They may be estranged from their more liberal co-religionists. But they do not see the Catholic Church as a potential refuge. Thus Bishop Martyn Minns, a leader of the Anglican Church in North America-- a group formed to counteract liberalism in the Episcopal Church-- told the New York Times: "I don't want to be a Roman Catholic." He explained simply: "There was a Reformation, you remember."

Still, there is much speculation about the numbers. This article Lawler posts is almost as grim, expecting not more than 1,000 priests and identifying some of the pitfalls, like expected defections later on. It has additional links to other sources and articles dealing with women's ordination and Forward in Faith (FiFo) who specualate that at least a dozzen Bishops will convert.

Here.

Bulgarian Patriarch Eager For Union With Rome.

VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org) Bulgarian Orthodox prelate told Benedict XVI of his desire for unity, and his commitment to accelerate communion with the Catholic Church.

At the end of Wednesday's general audience, Bishop Tichon, head of the diocese for Central and Western Europe of the Patriarchate of Bulgaria, stated to the Pope, "We must find unity as soon as possible and finally celebrate together," L'Osservatore Romano reported.

Archbishop Fellay Says SSPX Could Become A Personal Prelature

The talks between the Vatican and the Society of Saint Pius X perhaps anticipated to go better than expected, although this structural suggestion is only part of the agenda of the upcoming talks this October. An optomistic prognosis is being given by Bishop Fellay. So we may be witnessing yet another triumph from the Holy Father as he moves powerfully to enact dramatic changes in key positions and restore unity and order to the Church.

Santiago, Chile, Oct 22, 2009 / 01:03 pm (CNA).- In an interview with the Chilean daily, “El Mercurio,” the Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X, Bernard Fellay, acknowledged that the Vatican is considering the possibility of converting the Lefebvrist group into a personal prelature as part of the discussions aimed at bringing about reconciliation. Fellay, who visited members of the SSPX movement in Chile, is one of four bishops whose excommunication was lifted by Pope Benedict XVI last January. Asked about the speculation that the Society of Pius X could be made into a personal prelature similar to Opus Dei, Fellay responded, “There is a lot of truth to that. I think the Vatican is moving towards that kind of canonical solution.”

He also noted that the controversy unleashed by Bishop Richard Williamson’s statements on the Nazi holocaust “was a well-planned attack, not against the Society, but directly against the person of Pope Benedict XVI, in order to tarnish his gesture.”

Postive Conservative Commentary on Anglican-Catholic Reunion

The Tablet

Will Rowan Williams be the next high profile Anglican to come to Rome?

Here.


National Times: Australia

Here.

Prime Minister Rudd of Australia considers becoming a Catholic-Anglican.

Saint Benedict Center:

"Don't call them Anglicans, call them Catholics".

Here.

Holy Smoke!

We get confirmation that the Magic Circle is indeed not pleased by this sudden influx of unwanted spiritual immigrants.

Here.

Cardinal Kasper is Set to Retire: Possible Successor, Bishop Gerhard Ludwig

The controversial Cardinal Kasper is 76 years old and is ready for retirement.

Kath.net reports a rumour broadcast by Bavarian Radio Broadcast 1 about the appointment on "well informed Church circles". They've reported Thursday that Regensburg Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller should, supposedly,succeed Curial Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The report should be made public around the end of November. Clmens Neck, Communications Director for the Diocese, denies the rumours, and has received no information on it. His own words were, "according to our own information, this is only a rumour". Neither do any of kath.net's own well-informed Church circles know anything about this appointment. What is clear is that Cardinal Kasper is already 76 and therefore is expected in the forseeable future to step down.

You might recall Biship Gerhard Ludwig's earlier condemnation of the SSPX Bishops in February earlier this year on Christopher Gillibrand's Catholic Church Conservation.

More Liberals Attempting to Downplay Anglican-Catholic Union and Salvage Their Failing Auto-destructive Policies.

Liberals in the world press, or perhaps, the liberal world press is attempting to downplay the significance of the reunion between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. They rightly fear that their policies, diminishing numbers and progressive views are becoming irrelevant in the face of successful ecumenical efforts on the part of a reformer Pope.

Jesuit priest and former editor of the controversial America Magazine, Father Reese SJ, makes some curious remarks in the wake at The Washington Post, wanting to downplay, in agreement with many parts of the secular press today, the momentous reunion of conservative Anglicans and Episcopalians with the Catholic Church. While he does talk about the reasons these conservatives are coming to the Catholic Church, he downplays these motivations and focuses on the desire of dissidents to see married clergy. Really, what he and many liberals fear is a further dilution of their diminishing numbers and impetus to change the Church's teaching through democratic reform.

Catholic liberals, especially Catholic feminists, fear that an influx of conservative Anglicans will further discourage reform in the Catholic Church. In any case, someone should warn these Anglicans that two out of three U.S. Catholics support the ordination of women. They will not find in Catholicism a controversy-free zone.

He proceeds then, to indicate that Traditional Anglicans will find some of the same problems they left behind. Unfortunately for him, it remains to be seen whether 2/3rds of the Catholic laity anywhere favor women's ordination. Where he gets those numbers from is anyone's guess, but we suspect it is merely wishful thinking.

More importantly, could married Roman Catholic men from the traditional dioceses join the Anglican ordinariate and become seminarians and priests? If so, we have just solved the priest shortage problem and within a generation there will be more priests in the Anglican ordinariates than in the traditional dioceses. The rest of the people will soon follow and the Anglican ordinariate will hold a majority of Roman Catholics.

In contrast to this unscientific citation, another poll brought to our attention by Father Z at his blog leads to Cincinnati Women's, and indicates overwhelming opposition to women's ordination.

National Public Radio has a long history of hostillity to the Catholic Church in its editorial policies which might have been dictated by the Devil himself.

This New Republic writer is glibly critical about the entire thing and finds a contradiction between allowing married Anglican priests and the current discipline existing for RC clergy in the Latin Rite. She doesn't seem to understand, or ignores, the fact that there already are married priests who are of the Anglican Tradition within the Catholic Church just as there are married priests in the Eastern Rites of the Church and have been since the Church was founded at the Pentecost in 33 A.D..

Baltimore Sun wants to keep the focus on the fact that there are many defections both ways and that there was, after all, one Church founded by Christ not to be confused with Anglican, Catholic or Protestant. Unfortunately, he's incorrect since the only one of those churches founded by Christ was the Catholic.

More from the Tablet. "Converts may choke on the raw meat of Catholicism"

These Liberals need to be informed of a fact so succinctly summed up by Diogenes at From the Mail that:

As your Uncle Di has pointed out before: the dissatisfied Anglican leaves because his Church ain't what she used to be. The dissatisfied Catholic leaves his Church because she is.

The Pope's Current Move will Harm Dialogue. Well, good!

There are already complaints and concerns being aired on the Pope's new move, not least of which is being voiced by the faint hearted Timothy Bradshaw at The Times.

He identifies the docuement, "Gift of Authority" which urged the Anglican Community to accept the Primacy of the Papacy. It's a surprising document and many Anglicans are now making good on it, so, could it be that Archbishop Rowan is merely overseeing the disintigration of the Church of England? Queen Elizabeth has already voiced her displeasure for the 80 Million large Church of which she is the head, and many Anglicans are quite rightly disgusted with the handful of liberals hijacking of their Church over matters of homosexuality and women's ordination. It's time to take a stand.

John Allen at National Catholic Reporter, simply reported the facts and identified the potential damage some were concerned about. He gave what is probably a more accurate portrayal of Cardinal Casper's characterization of the event as not "poaching" but a respect for one's personal conscience. He rightly says, "if someone is knocking on the Church's door, we have every responsibillity to let them in." For once, we find ourselves agreeing with the good Cardinal in that sense. It's difficult to get out of a vicious habit of predicting liberalism and bad faith in someone we've come to distrust.

Father Richard McBrien, the enfant terrible of Notre Dame, on the other hand, has a more nuanced view, while describing Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Catnerbury's own opposition to same-sex unions, he goes on to describe William's attempt to create a two-tiered system to accomodate, unsatisfactorily as far as the TAC is concerned, both sides of the issue.

Rather than focusing on the source of the tension in the first place, McBrien insists on pointing out the difficulties of authority that are a problem for both churches, suggesting subtly, that there is a similiar, perhaps much larger divide within the Catholic Church on these issues concerning central authority and who defines correct practice and doctrine.

Could Cardinal Kasper be The Enemy?

A famous general of the War of Northern Aggression was Burnside. You couldn't really tell whose side he was really on as Lincoln remarked, “Only Burnside could manage such a coup to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory”.

The Catholic Church seems to have leader of similar, although far more malevolent if more slightly less comical, character. Cardinal Kasper is trying to upstage the jubilant arrival of the prodigal with insidious messages encouraging dissent. Cardinal Kasper is eager to redirect suggestions that this is after all, a victory for conservative forces, dragging out the overtried phraseology of false ecumenism, he said, “But if there are people who obeying their consciences want to become Catholic, we cannot shut the door” [But we really tried to shut the door, believe me].

In order to reassure the Archbishop of Canterbury, CNS reports, as if it might be a possibility that Dominican Inquisitors are ready to deploy to newly catholicized Anglican parsonages, he solemnly intoned another familiar cliche, “I think there is an agreement between us and the (Anglican) Archbishop of Canterbury that we have to respect their freedom of conscience and freedom of religion.”

Already, the ecumenicist of engagement arrives in England to help fight a rearguard action for the Magic Circle English Bishops who can only look on at something they attempted to prevent and frustrate all along.

Canon Law dealing with Homosexuality

Unfortunately, a lot of people think that their personal tastes and desires have supreme legistlative power, and in so much as they are ruled by their emotions, they confer this false and naive charity upon others whose crimes they benevolently wish excuse.

Despite the canonical fact that homosexuals are excluded from priestly formation and religious life, even in the New Canon Code of 1983, but also according to a 2005 clarification with the long title, Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders., homosexuls are still admitted to the religious life against the lessons of history and the Canon Law itself.

The document contains the following passage:

In the light of such teaching, this Dicastery, in accord with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, believes it necessary to state clearly that the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question[9], cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practise homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called "gay culture"[10].

It's not our intention to usurp the office of canon lawyers or bishops, but when this document was released in 2005, there was quite a bit of encouragement and hope that orthodoxy would be the rule of the day and that bishops would restrict the entrance into the seminary, those who lack the affective maturity to relate to men and women in the life of the Church.

Obviously, these rules haven't been implemented with the same force throughout the Church. Some superiors and bishops no doubt exhibit a great deal of clemency in this regard, but there has to be a point at which credulity is stretched beyond its breaking point.

And So It Begins

Ruth Gledhill in the Times is reporting on the bankruptcy proceedings of the Delaware Diocese. What we see at work here is the familiar pattern of the confiscation of Church property, selling off cemetery plots with the bones of departed priests and bishops, to meet the terms.

Of course, interwoven in this tragedy are the lives of victims who come with legitimate complaints against churchmen, who've failed in their office, promoting strange liturgical practices and demeaning the traditional moral teachings of the Church, may be lost in the reorganization shuffle. Is it any surprise then that the Church's enemies have been assisted by the episcopal Judases who've orchestrated this travesty?

No doubt this will leave behind an increasingly hobbled Church and speed the defections from Her ranks, multiplying the indifferentism which infects the land like a terrible cancer.

Despite this, the Catholic Church is still at work in the world. Good can come out of evil, but there are also victories as in the case of the Anglican Communion in England which has joined the Catholic Church today. It might be ironic to some, but they are fleeing the same liberalism and moral turpitude that many of us are trying to escape in the Catholic Church with regard to our own bishops and religious orders.

Rethink Redux: Cormac Brissett

After much consideration, hand wringing, self-doubt and pious meditation, we've decided to consider the condition of our soul, upon taking in the many concerns that have been iterated here and elsewhere that what we're doing here isn't righteous but amounts to calumny and detraction.

Upon reflection, we've had to consider the times in history when the Church's societies have come under attack from outside forces, forces within the Church and even within their own societies; unjust attacks, as was the case with the suppression of the Knights Templar which resulted in the forced confessions of many brother Knights all based on the suggestion that the Knights were involved in worshippng the devil and comitting unnatural acts with one another. Of course, when one looks between the lines, all it amounted to was a desire by Phillip IV to focus his power and have access to the fabulous wealth of the Templars.

Ironically, the date of our blog post is October 14th, the day after the Templar Grand Master, Jaques de Molay, along with some of his brothers, were arrested and accused of Satanism and homosexuality. French troops had already threatened Rome in 1303 when they arrived at Agnani to arrest Boniface VIII and accuse him of heresy, and French troops again threatened his successor, the French Pope Clement, if demands for a speedy condemnation were not met. Reluctantly and perhaps tragically he aquiesced. It seems that Phillip was not content with bringing the Pope to heel, but some of the Pope's guardians as well.

We've also taken into account Henry VIII's own unjust confiscation of Church lands with the usual condemnations directed at the Church then too, and the unfortunate suppression of the Jesuits in 1773 which conincided, incidentally, with the mass infiltration of Masonic societies throughout Europe by Adam Weisshaupt's illluminist conspirators.

It's a terrible story of betrayal and injustice and it is a historical lesson which should give anyone pause when he considers the Holy Societies and Religious Orders of the Church.

Unlike Henry VIII or Phillip IV, we're not looking to consolidate our power, although there are undoubtedly those who do today; therefore, it's important that we are mindful that an attack on the American Church might amount to a benefit for the Church's enemies.

Unfortunately, the Church's enemies have successfully infiltrated the Church. Unlike some of the aforementioned historical lessons, including the Soviet Union's own use of similiar tactics to attack Catholic and Orthdox churchmen, these are valid claims. Undoubtedly, however, and to our shame, there was some truth to the claims levelled against the Church and Her Religious Orders: but what of the motivation?

What we've experienced in the past forty years and more has been a wholesale defection of many of the Church's societies to the point where they are almost unrecognizeable from pre-conciliar times. The infiltration of the Church by men with Revolutionary agendas is well documented, and this is in no wise to be exaggerated in the case of the Society of Jesus. Moreover, there are a considerable number of homosexuals in their ranks, some of whom engage in pederasty. It is the motivation of the airing of this news to give some consolation to past victims, possible redress to present victims and to prevent any future crimes of this nature occuring with the frequency they have in the past occured, with benign neglect on the part of many parts of all too often fallible churchmen.

So, after much consideration of the Church's history in this regard and the threats without and the threats within, we must regretfully maintain our initial posture of revealing this information to the public in hopes that it will serve to reform the parts of the Church we cherish and encourage those who are guilty of not being who they claim to exit their offices. We'd hope, moreover, that those responsible for protecting men like the aforementioned Cormac, would be removed.

One wonders at the fervor of the defenders of these vices. Would they be as fervant in the defense of a man who was loyal to the orthodox Patrimony of the Catholic Faith? They would not.

New Ways to Break with the Past

Not content with traditional models of sexual behavior, Fr. William Skudlarek is able to trivialize them by redefining ordinary celibacy as "myth" and exploring Eastern venues to experiment with new forms of sexual expression by redefining sexuality altogether.

From the Review
"Skudlarek proposes a demythologized view of celibacy, presenting it as an alternate and equally valid spiritual practice for those who choose not to accept the demands of a committed sexual relationship. "

Marie Antoinette, the most beautiful flower of the Hapsburg family was cruelly abused by her Republican jailers before she surmounted the platform to the jeering of a multitude with wavering steps, slightly trembling, as Hillaire Belloc describes her for posterity. Her once beautiful auburn hair disheveled and matted, yet she walked with the pitable dignity of a woman who'd been cruelly beaten but was not defeated. The Republican organs of propaganda had whipped the crowd into a frenzy of hate for this woman and she was condemned to die without proof, stripped of her children who'd later be murdered and preceeded in death by her beloved husband, the King.

The youthful courage of this gentle and sweet woman will be remembered in eternity and her noble death will be remembered long after the lies told about her have receeded like a bad dream.

Losing's a Habit and the Jesuits are Losing

The financially and spiritually troubled Oregon Catholic Province of the Society of Jesus is continuing the irresponsible pattern it has historically maintained in recent decades with regard to the men it chooses to fill its ranks. Despite institutional countermeasures to address the problem, the Jesuit Province still still finds novices who exhibit strong indications that they will be prolems in the future. This Jesuit province in the already troubled Catholic Northwest has settled 25 Million Dollars in claims since 2001 and the morally struggling order is now filing Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, according to Catholic News Service.

Meet Cormac Brissett who's a novice in that province.

He signed a protest in defense of public lewdness in a circular letter posted on-line by an apologist for pederasty, William A. Percy, in No to Sexophobia (May 3, 1995) with one of the founding members of NAMBLA.

It's hard to believe that Mr. Brissett's opinions are a passing fancy, he's penned articles for Lavender Magazine, and intereviewed another pederastic intellectual,Edmund White, without the slightest criticism.

It would be more surprising that Mr. Brissett would give up his unnatural tastes and intellectual defense of them than that the Jesuit order will perform due dilligence on its candidates for priesthood.

Sympathy for the Devil

Arturo Vazquez eloquently discusses the treatment of Bishop Weakland by the local traditionalists for Inside Catholic. He has also written an after-article, wherein he accuses the traditionalistas of casting stones and residing in glass houses, citing some abuses by a few clerics of traditional or conservative bent.

Despite making some awfully good points, he denies the significance of the salient issue of the relationship between homosexuality and the liberal agenda which Bishops like Weakland propose by undertones and overtones so obvious and monstrous, it's difficult to do them justice to a clerical set and laity so morally anesthetized and stunned, they don't know if what they see is real - don't believe it can be true.

Considering the work of Randy Engel's Rite of Sodomy, Michael Rose's, Good-bye, Good men, Father Cozzens' Freeing Celibacy and the last forty or so years of periodicals like The Wanderer, not to mention some of our own personal experiences of clerical failure in this line, it's hard to believe that there isn't a dreadful correlation between the sin of Sodom and that all-too-familiar self-indulgent behavior from the clerical homosexual with regard to notoriously bad taste in everything from liturgy to music and theology. From my perspective it's hard not to be sympathetic to the traditionalistas crying for some retribution, and it's still harder to bypass the tribulations of those people who've left the Church for this reason. Frankly, it's an injustice that this man still walks the street and has any freedom at all to attempt to justify himself, as guilty and close-minded as even he makes himself to be, in the national spotlight. No doubt, he's still got supporters, viscious men in soft garments, no doubt, and a small hoard of loyal pew warmers who still can't believe the truth.

I wrote on Arturo's blog a brief rejoinder: you do highlight his impoverished, malfeasant and highly bureaucratized life, but remain critical of him none the less, while asking those of us, and I am one, who are critical enough of him to want him punished by the civil arm and not at liberty, if we don't live in glass houses.

We're not Bishops, actually, we've just been sold a bill of goods and bear the responsibillity of what our ancestors handed down to us when they taught us to say our prayers, and asked us if we knew our Catechism.

The only thing I wanted on my First Communion, aside from the vague sense that I was communicating with Jesus who loves me, having memorized the Apostle's Creed which I remember to this day, not to be too impious, was the cake and presents I was going to get when I'd made my first communion. I was filled with this idea of my importance and that I had just come upon a milestone in my life. I was given something of inestimable importance, yet I very dimly understood it, and I bear the burden of that moment, my self-importance, vanity and fascination with that tasty, frosted cake.

But I'm not a Bishop, nor am I a priest, nor am I [Fr] Timothy Svea. It's not fair to compare them, for their burdens are unequal to the ones that we bear. Those of us who are laymen, married or not.

Perhaps you rightly point out that we put our foot in mouth, for we all sin, but most of us aren't Bishops entrusted with the souls of a large North American Diocese, and I'd also like to point out that the unpunished pathological histrionicism of this Bishop, [Fr.] Timothy Svea or Fr. Vander Putten (if what you say is true) is not a burden that most traditionalists share, however self-important, overreaching and vain we are.

Finnland's Bishop speaks against Homosexuality

Father Tim Finnigan reports the courageous Finnish Bishop at The Heremeutic of Continuity He is speaking out against the unfortunate Swedish Lutheran proposal to recognize same-sex unions in Sweden.

It reminds me of another famous Bishop of the North. When a Bishop is consecrated, he is given a Mitre so that he might be fearsome to the Church's enemies.

The full story is here.