I was going to write a post about Development and Peace, abortion and bishops but then I found the following article. I think it will resonate with you as it did with me. I will write something tomorrow (too tired tonight!)
In my last column, I addressed the war of words between LifeSite News, Father Rosica and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops over the handling of pro-life issues. Soon after my last piece, I learned that the bishops would be studying the phenomenon of Catholic blogging and websites at their next plenary meeting from October 19th to the 23rd in Montreal. At that time they will formally establish a new standing committee on social communications. Apparently, there is a concern that Magisterial Catholics succeed in getting their message out.
And the bishops don’t.
Among the people drafted to help with this committee is Barry McLoughlin, a communication expert who praised Ted Kennedy on his blog with nary a word on the Senator’s pro-abortion record; and Niquette Delage, a former head of the Montreal chapter of the feminist pro-abortion YWCA.
The selection of the personnel gives me the impression that the Canadian Bishops just don’t understand the crux of the problem.
The bland, unchallenging, barely supernatural, easy-listening Catholicism that the church elites have been peddling does not convert souls, does not inspire faith, does not bring salvation and in fact in not requiring anything of anyone and leaves people adrift, to come and go in the church, without ever having to make a personal commitment to God or the Church; commitments to adhere to Catholic doctrine; to practice chastity; to raise children in the faith; to come to communion in a state of grace and to go to confession if they’re not.
Developing a public relations strategy is the equivalent of re-shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Serious Catholics have come to trust blogs and websites – and not the church elite – because they deliver the real goods: the spiritual heritage of the Church, a heritage that most priests won’t touch: The encyclicals, the Fathers, the Doctors, the Councils, and the razor-sharp insights of St. Thomas Aquinas, whose philosophy is essential in properly understanding Church teaching. When Magisterial Catholics are challenged on what they say, they prove with authority. What they say does not rest on their opinion, but on the doctrine of the universal Church.
To many Church elites, this so-called “fundamentalism” is a flaw. After all, human beings are prone to error. For them, recognizing this and giving in to that error is a form of “mercy.”
Magisterial Catholics trust in the Holy Spirit to overcome human subjectivity and provide a substantially correct interpretation of Divine Revelation through the Magisterium of the Church.
The words of the Holy Spirit must be obeyed, not just acknowledged and debated.
Church elites act like that’s a problem. There are difficulties, they protest. We must be sensitive. We do not want to turn people away.
When you consider that the Church will excommunicate women who attempt to be ordained, but won’t deny communion to politicians who vote for abortion, the protests ring a little hollow. It appears that they are ready to tolerate anyone so long as their authority is not challenged. After that, anything goes. Even an openly dissident priest like Father Raymond Gravel.
But, laying down the law seems to work. After the Vatican put pressure on his bishop to make Fr. Gravel choose between politics and his priesthood, he obeyed and returned to his ministry – to his credit. Now why can’t his bishop lay down the law when it comes to his dissident opinions? Isn’t it Fr. Gravel’s job to promote Truth and dissipate error? Don’t erroneous opinions lead one further from God and alienate the soul from its true source of happiness?
Shouldn’t the Church take action against such public figures who undermine the Faith?
The glaring discrepancies between what the Church teaches and what the church elites say and do will continue to fuel the Catholic counterculture. No amount of spin will change that.
The Church’s efforts to convert souls and to ultimately establish the culture of life will always be undermined by the culture of dissent that is permitted to flourish in the chantries, in the seminaries, in the offices of pastoral animators and in official church publications. As the Bible says, the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. When the elites contradict divine precepts, they’re not being righteous. Their prayer for a growing church and the right to life will be hampered by their own spiritual alienation. If the Church wants to grow, it must stop treating the Word of God as if it’s tentatively true. It must embrace it, and then live by it, and act like the salvation of souls is at stake. So long as it does not take its primary job seriously – that of Guardian of Truth – it will never be able to come out of its spiritual crisis. And Catholics who want the meat of true faith will continue to ignore them as credible sources of Catholic doctrine.
Suzanne is an organizer with the Family Coalition Party of Ontario and blogs at
Big Blue Wave.
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