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‘Weak God’ Clergy
I am an agnostic. As the Bible says God “works in mysterious ways.” For me, that mystery is such that I do not so much doubt God’s existence as I cannot comprehend God’s plan.
But there is a group of men and women for whom this ought not be said: the clergy. And yet far too many are not acting with certainty and conviction. Instapundit has pointed to a piece by Michael Walsh — Clergy Who Bowed to COVID Fears Need to Face a Reckoning — that highlights the fecklessness of clergy in the face of authority.
Like the doctors and nurses who suddenly discovered and complained that their work was dangerous—as if medicine were to be practiced simply as “wellness” and not when the Grim Reaper comes calling on the fields of battle or in the charnel houses of an epidemic—the clergy has all but admitted that what they do, or what they pretended to do, was a frivolity only to be practiced at the sufferance of the local commissars.
In 1844, when anti-Catholic nativists threatened to burn down Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, Bishop John J. Hughes gathered his parishioners, some of them armed, and promised the Protestant mob that any assault on the church would be met with deadly force. If a single Catholic church was burned, “Dagger John” announced to the city, the despised immigrant Irish would burn New York to the ground. Not a church was touched.
As Glenn Reynolds said in conjunction with his link to the Walsh article: “Yeah, well, that kind of muscular Christianity has gone out of style.”
And that isn’t the only muscle that has gone flaccid. If you truly believe that God is in charge, you do not accede to government intrusions on religious practice. Faith persists even in the Age of Science, so why have so many clergy acceded to policies disrupting religious practice “in the name of science?” It can only be their own or their parishioner’s fear. If your religion cannot deal with that fear, then it is no religion at all. Your God is weak, and stupid, and uncaring, and useless. My suspicion is that God is none of these, but you are.
Published in General
Prohibiting people to make choices is not leadership, laudatory, judicious, or gracious. Especially in America, and especially when prohibitions interfere with the free exercise of worship.
What an inheritance of faith has been wasted and lost in this nation.
Alas, there is nothing new under the sun. Not one thing.
Oh CarolJoy, that is just humanity, with sin and weakness on one side of the coin. The Church, any Church, is made of flawed people.
Our error is to believe that our leaders are exempt from foibles and sin. So to, worse, when leaders believe they are exempt.
Northam is a mere minion, practically a choir boy, compared to the Antichrist.
We’ve seen nothing yet, but a mere shadow. LORD have mercy.
Mordechai refused to bow to the King. Escaped the gallows with G-d’s intervention.
Daniel also, then sent to the lion’s den.
Shadraak, Meshaak, Abednego, thrown to the fiery furnace.
The line for absolute obedience requires discernment. And personal accountability, of course.
Would that we all had the wisdom and savvy of Queen Esther.
Or Solomon. 😉
Or G-d. 🙏
The real presence is my denomination’s doctrine as well, and we have not allowed the lockdown to suspend communion for more than a few weeks. And we celebrate communion with both sacraments, the body and the blood, as is the common tradition. The local Catholic parishes are also holding mass with communion here, though they only offer the body, not the blood. That was the practice here long before Covid, though. Amusingly, the Novus Ordo parish is urging distribution in the hand for health reasons while the Latin Rite parish is providing distribution on the tongue for health reasons (avoiding possible contamination from the receiver’s hand).
We are not seeing the situation Paddy’s Ireland and some of the states are where the virus has been seized as an excuse to shut down services entirely while liquor stores and the like operate with few restrictions.
I also know by word of mouth that some priests and pastors are holding mass and communion in covert settings to frustrate the restrictions where they are plainly unjust. Back to the catacombs, if the situation calls for it.
The restriction that most enrages me is when priests, or family too, for that matter, are not allowed access to the dying. As if PPE did not exist for them. With the PPE shortage resolved, this is simply evil.
I was speaking narrowly with regard to his positions on Covid. His worshipful adherence to the rites of infanticide are plainly antichrist in nature.
The referred incident was in Spring of 2020. I was not there so I don’t know if they submitted to distancing. Open churches in Virginia, to my experience at least, observe the distancing between members of different households, require hand sanitization, and so on.
Personally, I am continuously annoyed about the way the original team, (when they weren’t betraying him to his enemies), just ran away from the Second Person of the Trinity on Good Friday.
That’s Bishops for you.
It was providential for them that the Second Person of the Trinity overlooked that misjudgment and lack of courage on the following Sunday.
In these wicked days, Catholics should prepare for their own souls for martyrdom rather than worry about the failing of the other guy because no one gets the beatific vision based on the failings or success of others, especially clergy.
“It must be observed, however, that if the faith were endangered, a subject ought to rebuke his prelate even publicly.”
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II, II, q. 33, a. 45
The problem isn’t that Pope Francis has an opinion on issues but that he too frequently wrong in his opinions.
The perennial teaching of the Church is the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ whether you experience a “deep spiritual feeling” or not and the Minister (Priest) in stark contrast is irrelevant.
Please be assured of my prayer for you.
In 1981, Ronald Reagan reached out to pro-life movement leaders to say he was ready to endorse the effort to repeal Roe with a constitutional amendment (BTW Joe Biden had already signed the pledge to support that). Ted Kennedy’s staff told bureaucrats in the Catholic Church (many of whose income depended on administering federal contracts to provide social services) that they would move to cut the Church off from all such funds. Whether it was the money threat or not, Catholic bishops were making noises like “too soon” or “would it look like interference in secular matters” and were anything but supportive. Among them were the even more gutless bureaucrats who thought that burying reports of clerical sexual child abuse and effectively covering for predators was the right move.
I am usually pleasantly surprised when clerics take tough, principled stands. I have come not to expect it. Cooperation with fascists makes others more compliant. Compelling the police to arrest pastors but not operators of politically favored enterprises tends to clarify what the bad guys would rather keep muddied.
Yes, I know. This is why I find it to be a difficult issue.
I think that an even better example is from Acts 4, when Peter and John defied the command of the Jewish ruling counsel to cease preaching in the name of Jesus.
Let me expand a bit here. Would it seem wise or foolish to hold services at a church in the predicted path of a hurricane or the danger zone of a wildfire? I think the tests for such a stand are: Is this something of permanent or near-permanent change? Is this a general problem, or does this target our faith / all faiths specifically? Is the danger being exaggerated by political leaders?
What this crisis has exposed is just how relentlessly secular our political class is. They don’t so much as hate religion as see it as useless, some minor amusement and community activity for those God people. It’s like a sci-fi convention (JesusCon?) – something very important to the fandom, but not really valuable to society.
I agree to a point. But if someone or something interferes with their plans, annoyance can transform into anger and hatred. I’m not certain that isn’t going to happen.
Everything within the State, nothing without the State. They want you to know your religious practice is at their sufferance.