For 2,000 years the enemies of Christ have certainly tried their best. But think about it. The Church survived and even flourished during centuries of terrible persecution, during the days of the Roman Empire.Note that the sermon is directed to men.
The Church survived barbarian invasions. The Church survived wave after wave of Jihads. The Church survived the age of revolution. The Church survived Nazism and Communism. And in the power of the resurrection, the Church will survive the hatred of Hollywood, the malice of the media, and the mendacious wickedness of the abortion industry.
The Church will survive the entrenched corruption and sheer incompetence of our Illinois state government, and even the calculated disdain of the President of the United States, his appointed bureaucrats in HHS, and of the current majority of the federal Senate.
May God have mercy especially on the souls of those politicians who pretend to be Catholic in church, but in their public lives, rather like Judas Iscariot, betray Jesus Christ by how they vote and how they willingly cooperate with intrinsic evil.
As Christians we must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, but as Christians we must also stand up for what we believe and be ready to fight to defend our faith. The days in which we live now require heroic Catholicism, not casual Catholicism. We can no longer be Catholics by accident, but instead be Catholics by conviction.
In our own families, in our parishes, where we live and where we work – like that very first apostolic generation – we must be bold witnesses to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We must be a fearless army of Catholic men, ready to give everything we have for the Lord, who gave everything for our salvation.
Remember that in past history other governments have tried to force Christians to huddle and hide only within the confines of their churches like those first disciples before the Resurrection locked together in the Upper Room.
In the late 19th century, Bismark waged his “Kulturkamf,” a culture war against the Roman Catholic Church, closing down every Catholic school and hospital, convent and monastery in Imperial Germany. Clemenceau, nicknamed “the priest eater,” tried the same thing in France in the first decade of the 20th Century.
Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services, and health care.
In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, President Obama – with his radical, pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.
Now things have come to such a pass in our beloved country that this is a battle that we could lose, but before the awesome judgement seat of Almighty God this is not a war where any believing Catholic may remain neutral.
Note the battlefield rhetoric: fight to defend our faith, a fearless army of Catholic men, this is a battle that we could lose, this is not a war where any believing Catholic may remain neutral.
Note the analogies to Hitler and Stalin.
Is this how Bishop Jenky loves his enemies?
The Catholic Post says that the men demonstrated their fearlessness by standing in the rain for a 30 minute program. Clearly these men are ready for battle.
Thanks to Ann V for the link.
Hmmm. He doesn't seem to get that the role of "our beloved country" DOES remain neutral (we hope). I wonder if he is confusing "our country" with his ignorant, confused, self-serving, bigoted papal state. Covering up the smell the mendacity with too much incense?
ReplyDeleteClearly the RC bishops are armed for battle, too. Their over-the-topness in crying persecution is hard to believe. I really don't want to continue to write about the bishops, but they continue to make fools of themselves and worse. They are campaigning to defeat Obama in the next election, and they should lose their tax-exempt status. I hope the great majority of the Roman Catholic voters ignore them.
ReplyDeleteWow. Just wow.
ReplyDeleteUnspeakable. Can these people hear themselves?
ReplyDeleteI'm really afraid these bozos are going to crash either Gay Pride, or the upcoming marches against the War on Women, looking for trouble. They may well find it. Good Guys&Grrls, STAY NONVIOLENT!
ReplyDeleteI shake my head. How far will they go?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm not a good judge, but the bishop doesn't have the look of the persecuted about him.
ReplyDeleteSounds like something I remember from Catholic Grammar School:
ReplyDeleteAn army of youth
Flying the standards of truth,
We're fighting for Christ, the Lord.
Heads lifted high,
Catholic Action our cry,
And the Cross our only sword.
On earth's battlefield
Never a vantage we'll yield.
As dauntlessly on we swing
Comrades true, dare and do
'Neath the Queen's white and blue,
For our flag, for our faith,
For Christ the King.
BarbieAnn, I remember the song from elementary school, too. The song was sung to the tune of 'Give Me Some Men Who Are Stouthearted Men'. I'm getting flashbacks to another song from the time for our own particular monsignor, who was celebrating an anniversary of some sort.
DeleteMonsignor! Monsignor!
How we love Monsignor.
We'll work for our dear pastor
Always!
Happy! Happy!
Why are we so happy?
Because our pastor's with us.
Monsignor, Rah-rah-rah!
How could Monsignor keep a straight face? Of course, since there is no name, the little ditty is generic and could be used for any monsignor.
A secularist, anti-religious agenda under a Supreme Court ruled by doctrinaire, right-wing, RC justices? Total bull-crap (and he knows it) - Give me a break! Window-dressing for a hierarchy that in this year's presidential election will act, as it acted rather more cautiously as it felt its way four years ago (remember the "denial of communion" business?) as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republican Party. As to the holocaust of the innocent - it continues, naturally, to exclude the sexually abused ("Show a little charity - Which of us has not sinned in his heart?", the bishops say of their colleagues, their fellow priests and seminarians and themselves)
ReplyDeleteThe RCC's pro-life stance includes, we should recall, opposition equally to abortion and to the death penalty. Don't hear too much of the latter from the bishops, do we? And I don't recall that they opposed the candidacy of George W. 12 years ago on account of his hand being on the stop/go lever of Texas's conveyor-belt execution shed.
Incidentally, man-ministries seem popular with RC rightists and with conservative and charismatic evangelicals. Either way, they leave me cold and uncomfortable. More man-bonding in the Roman Church!
"Bold witnesses to the Lordship of Jesus"? Charismatic Cult language for sure! Beware!
Deletenij
Lapin, I don't recall any RC bishop calling for priests to withhold communion from those who favor the death penalty or those who vote for legislators who send us into unjust wars. The pro-life stance in the Roman church is very much pick-and-choose.
DeleteNij, I thought the same of the remarks on the Lordship of Jesus.
"Will It Play in Peoria" is a good headline, but I think you could've recycled the headline from the following post because it's just as appropriate.
ReplyDeleteRuss, at least 500 men who participated in the march lapped up his words, and there are more out there, men and women, I'm sad to say.
ReplyDeleteI had 3 babies in 4 years, with postpartum depression after the third. The illness was not even known or talked about 41 years ago. That was enough for me. If I'd had another baby, I'd have ended up in a mental institution, and who would have taken care of my babies? Not the priest; not the bishop.
Bex, I couldn't resist the Peoria bit. Do you mean 'Stepped In It' as the other headline? That would apply.
ReplyDeleteThe president of the NCCB, Timothy Dolan, got the war going and set the generals loose to call the troops to arms for the fight.
Yep. Stepped In It.
ReplyDeleteHollywood, the MSM, and Obama are in the same category as Hitler, Stalin and Attila the Hun? Somehow that does not compute.
ReplyDeleteMind you, I'm not terribly impressed with Hollywood, the MSM, and Obama*, but I know the difference between totalitarianism and Democratic politicians.
And I also know when someone is simply recycling rhetoric from Republican supporters. Bishop, can't you at least come up with your own version of "Obama is Antichrist"?
*I don't like Obama, but he doesn't scare me. It's the GOP who scares me.
I think the Vatican and the RC bishops in the US have lost their collective minds. The Vatican is now going after the nuns in the US.
ReplyDeleteWell now you've brought up a kind of pain that I, for obvious reasons, can't truly imagine but I'm sure it was a terrible thing. Which makes me wonder about those women in my ancestral line I found, doing my genealogy, who had a dozen or more babies and then died. Did their bodies wear out first, I wonder, or their souls?
ReplyDeleteBTW, it was instructive to note in more than one such case, the old boy they were married to - some gt-gt-gt-gt grandfather of mine - promptly married a new, younger wife, and started in on the second dozen kids. Oh my.
Who says women are the weaker sex? No man would have stood for all that, if he had to carry the babies, I can tell you that right now.
Russ, many of the women in your ancestry probably died from sepsis due to puerperal fever, which was mostly spread by doctors and midwives because they did not do the simple act of handwashing between helping to deliver babies. Other women were simply worn out from childbearing. It was not uncommon for men to have two families, because the first wife died in her 30s from childbearing.
ReplyDeleteYou'd think that folks who're led by a former Hitler Youth member might be a bit more cautious of flinging that particular slur around.
ReplyDeleteLapin, you'd think. I didn't say the words, but I've thought them a good many times since I listened to Jensky's sermon. I'm surprised we don't hear more from the extreme right about the US bishops taking orders from a foreign head of state.
ReplyDeleteHad it been the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, we might have heard about it.
DeleteNo doubt, Lapin, no doubt.
DeleteWell, after leaving the sisters to shift for themselves after VatII changes created an exodus and financial problems for the sisters, the sisters got their credentials and degrees going and now have money and property. While some of the guys indulged in naughty behavior which had to be paid for and now, you can bet your last dime, those Reverend Gents want in on the property and control of the women's order's lucre (and minds)
ReplyDeleteThere must be something in the air, women everywhere are being put down. By the GOP, the Vatican,the Taliban,American politicians and the usual run of the mill jocks. Is it possible that a constant diet of news from Pakistan and Afganistan about the way women are treated there is setting an example for men in the west? What is going on?
nij
afganistan
Nij, I believe it's fear of women and the threat of loss of power and control over them that motivates the men. What's worse are the self-hating women who support these types. As you say, the nuns of today are mostly well-educated, smart, and articulate women who tend to think for themselves, which is seen as threatening to the Vatican and a good many bishops.
ReplyDelete