We strongly uphold the Catholic Church’s clear teaching that we always treat our homosexual brothers and sisters with respect, dignity and love. But we just as strongly affirm that marriage is the joining of one man and one woman in a lifelong, loving union that is open to children, ordered for the good of those children and the spouses themselves. This definition cannot change, though we realize that our beliefs about the nature of marriage will continue to be ridiculed, and that some will even now attempt to enact government sanctions against churches and religious organizations that preach these timeless truths.

We worry that both marriage and the family will be undermined by this tragic presumption of government in passing this legislation that attempts to redefine these cornerstones of civilization.

Our society must regain what it appears to have lost – a true understanding of the meaning and the place of marriage, as revealed by God, grounded in nature, and respected by America’s foundational principles. (Joint Statement by New York Bishops)

I can think of many to blame for this tragic decision by the state of New York, but sadly the very bishops who wrote and signed the above statement on “timeless truths” are not from a blameless institute. The USCCB was not asleep at the wheel, but very conscious drivers of the bus that ferried Alinsky organizers (like PICO, IAF, DART, etc.) and political machines (like Soros’ Center for Community Change) to the land of Truthless Times. Along the way the bishops filled the tanks of the progressive bus with their own pit stop—the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). This Catholic Hippie Bus is responsible for fundamentally changing the social landscape of our country.

Alinsky community organizing was ridiculed by Palin and Guiliani at the 2008 RNC because Obama was a participant in the Alinsky training and organizing. Instead of laughing about it, the Republicans should have exposed the progressive community organizers within the Christian churches, which very successfully elected Obama. ACORN was not the only organizer who participated. Many other progressive organizers continue to support him, and he continues to support them in their progressive causes, all funded by our Church through the bishop’s annual collection.

After many years of warnings, and after nearly $8 million, the Catholic Church finally stopped funding ACORN—but redistributed that grant money to the rest of the organizers. Members of the Catholic Media Coalition (this author is a member) and other watchdog organizations research and write about it daily, trying to get the pastors and bishops to open their eyes to the damage community organizers cause the whole world. They either close their ears to our concerns, or proclaim they have no power, then once the damage is done—i.e. same sex marriage—they issue a pretty statement of disapproval.

As long as the Catholic voting block continues to elect the most pro-abortion president in America’s history, there is something very wrong in our Church. The shepherds are to blame for not making it perfectly clear what a pro-abortion president means for the Catholic Church. It doesn’t just mean more abortions, which is abhorrent enough, but it means the steep downhill slide of all other social mores, as we have witnessed in the last few years.

Many priests do not want to be drawn into the fray of ugly politics, but yet are complicit if they allow the progressive groups to work within the Church. Community organizing is only the tip of the iceberg that is sinking our moral ship. Social justice groups like JustFaith, dissenters like Network, and generally poor catechesis, all contribute to the crisis of our Faith. Our youth are being indoctrinated with anti-Catholic propaganda at universities such as Notre Dame and Georgetown, who offer political platforms and awards for those who support policies and legislation that we must fight against. Many other “Catholic” universities and professors promote dissent of all kinds, including on-campus advertising of internships to Planned Parenthood. How can our Church, once so highly respected and powerful continue to exist when it is imploding from within from lack of leadership and adherence to its own tenets? Is this the progressives’ ultimate goal? It is working.

Politics is ugly and getting uglier, but the bystanders will be swept along into the gutter as the tidal wave of progressivism crashes by. If we do not all—Catholics, Evangelicals, Fundamentalists, Orthodox, Muslims and anyone else who oppose progressive social issues being shoved down our throats, do not come together and fight this, we will one day be fighting in secular courts to defend a Truth that no longer is “legal,” but the truth that liberal judges and the ACLU can force upon us while the bystanders and naysayers issue their statements of regret.

Someday soon the priests and religious will not have the right to say what they believe without risking arrest and fines. The representatives from the USCCB have been nothing but token advisers who have been ignored and scorned because they are so wishy-washy on most issues. They make bold statements then ignore those who publicly break the once strongly upheld tenets of the Church—now only mere suggestions with no substance to back it up. The frustrated church militant is at the point of “why bother” supporting a Truth that the shepherds don’t fight for with anything but pretty words?

Why bother, indeed? When the American Catholic Church (a dissenting group of former Catholics) scandalously participates in women’s ordinations and supports active homosexuality in a Detroit conference and they receive a warning letter with the effect of a fly on a watermelon—distasteful, but not really harmful—why should the rest of us bother? The truth is what you want it to be. Flies don’t spread germs and watermelons cause diabetes.

When Cardinal Ratzinger (despised by the dissenters as God’s Rottweiler) became Pope Benedict we all had great hopes. He needs to start tearing into the dissenters now if we are to be saved at all. To Bishop Hubbard, is this fulfilling the vision? Here in America we need a new Athanasius. Which brave bishop will step forward?

Jo A. Joyce
Fidelity ‘til Parousia
www.johntwo24-25.net

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