The Best Bishop We Have Is Retired

 

A retired archbishop has said that President-elect Joe Biden should not receive Holy Communion because of his stance on abortion -- an issue that has divided Catholic leadership in the U.S.

The head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said Biden’s support for abortion rights presents the church with a “difficult and complex situation,” but Charles J. Chaput, a retired archbishop, has made his stance clear: Biden has demonstrated that “he is not in full Communion with the Catholic Church.”

                                                               Archbishop Chaput
 

“The implications for the present moment are clear,” Chaput wrote in the magazine First Things. “Public figures who identify as 'Catholic' give scandal to the faithful when receiving Communion by creating the impression that the moral laws of the Church are optional.”

 “When bishops publicly announce their willingness to give Communion to Mr. Biden, without clearly teaching the gravity of his facilitating the evil of abortion (and his approval of same-sex relationships), they do a serious disservice to their brother bishops and their people.”

 Catholics have been sharply divided over the issue of denying Holt Communion to public figures who take controversial stances on issues near and dear to the church, with bishops sharply divided over Biden in particular.

The USCCP president, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez, ahead of Thanksgiving announced a working group of bishops who would assess the dilemma. Gomez rankled conservative bishops when he congratulated Biden on his victory and praised many of the president-elect's stances, including on immigration and racial justice.

 Washington archbishop Cardinal Wilton Gregory already declared that he would not deny Biden any Communion. Cardinal Gregory would Biden’s local bishop, and he called the issue of denial a “confusion” over Church teaching. 

 

                                                                     Cardinal Gregory

Bishop Chaput on the Youth Synod

From an interview with Bishop Chaput (PBUH):

What would you like the synod of bishops final document to say about sexual abuse in the Church?

 The continuing sex abuse crisis is extremely serious. Fortunately, both Pope Francis and the synod fathers understand this, and the final document will likely reflect their concerns. I’m less sure that the roots of the problem will be addressed.  Clericalism is clearly a factor in the sexual abuse of minors by clergy, but not the dominant one, and very few of the laypeople I know are satisfied with that explanation, especially parents.  In the mind of the lay faithful, homosexuality and its role in the crisis need to be dealt with, but it’s unclear whether the synod will be willing to include it in the final text.

Or as Father Longenecker writes:

 The fact is, from the very beginning all have been welcome. The only people who can’t be Catholic are the ones who don’t want to be Catholic.
I’m reminded of a gay activist who was interviewed about the church. He was yelling that he wanted the church to be more inclusive, then the interviewer said, “So if you felt the church was more inclusive which church would you attend every Sunday?”
The guy looked at the interviewer like he was a martian, “Not me. I’m not really a churchgoer.”
Correct. It seems the liberals who are unlocking the doors to empty churches are the ones crying out, “All are welcome!” but the churches aren’t empty because people are unwelcome, but because they don’t want to go to that kind of church.
The churches that are full, on the other hand, are the ones that actually preach the Christian gospel.
 

Funny...I Don't Remember Voting for Our Bishop

The Catholic bishops met in Fort Lauderdale a few days ago. The dominating topic of discussion was politics, specifically, their official guide to Catholic voters, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship. 

Bishop Cupich and the Pope

The Pope Francis faction, led by Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago, called for a complete rewriting of the document since it no longer represented "the new body of teaching" as taught by the present pontiff, specifically mentioning climate change, poverty, and immigration.
Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego went a step further saying the present document doesn’t represent "Catholic teaching as it is now."
These two are not the only ones who believe that in the space of five years, since Bergoglio’s 2013 election, the moral and social teaching of the Church has been so fundamentally altered Faithful Citizenship no longer speaks with the true voice of the Church. So much for an institution considered slow to change.
Other leading bishops, however, including Archbishop Gomez of Los Angeles, opposed writing a new document, arguing what was needed was a more straightforward, significantly redacted version of Faithful Citizenship along with an accompanying video for YouTube, etc.

During this discussion there was no mention of Trump being the most pro-life president in our nation’s history. It should not surprise us at that omission since the intent behind the beefing up of Faithful Citizenship is to deny Trump a second term in office.
The bishop’s present silence about the president's achievement is only another iteration of their attempt during the campaign itself to camouflage Hillary Clinton’s pro-abortion stance by arranging with moral indictments Trump about "The Wall."
The strategy didn't work. Faithful Catholics would not be bullied into seeing moral equivalence between killing the unborn and insisting on secure national borders.

 

Everything Old Is New Again

Philadelphia, Pa., Apr 12, 2018 / 12:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A new quasi-parish for Catholics interested in the Traditional Latin Mass will open in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia at a church that had been part of a 2014 parish merger.
“In response to a growing interest, it has become timely to provide additional pastoral care for those wishing to participate in Divine Worship in the Extraordinary Form,” Archbishop Charles J. Chaput’s March 14 decree said.

A quasi-parish is the equivalent of a parish under canon law, with some exceptions. It can later become a parish at the discretion of the local bishop. The new quasi-parish will be located at the site of the former Saint Mary Parish in Conshohocken, a suburban Philadelphia borough in Montgomery County. About 8,000 people live in the borough, which is about one square mile in area.
The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter will provide the clergy for the new quasi-parish. 

“While it remains to be seen if this community will flourish so as to become a parish, the establishment of a quasi-parish to provide this spiritual care appears to be most fitting at this time,” Archbishop Chaput’s decree continued.
The archbishop made his decision after consulting with local pastors, local priests who celebrate the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, and the archdiocese’s Council of Priests. The Philadelphia archdiocese announced the planned creation of the quasi-parish on April 8.
The decree becomes effective Aug. 1. A pastor will be appointed before that date.
The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter exclusively celebrates the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, sometimes known as the traditional or Tridentine Latin Mass. It was founded in 1988 as a clerical society of apostolic life, then formally erected as an institute of pontifical right by the Holy See.
In contrast to some other priestly groups celebrating the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter was established with support from the Vatican, and is in full and ordinary communion with the Pope.

They have a gofundme page.


St. Mary’s Catholic Church served as a landmark for the Conshohocken community for more than 100 years, as the first Polish parish in Montgomery County. It was lovingly built and nurtured by Polish immigrants and their descendants for generations, serving the spiritual and cultural needs of parishioners and visitors alike. The architectural beauty of St. Mary’s Church building represents the tremendous love for and devotion to the Catholic faith of the Polish people.