"We Must Put the Laity Back in Their Place..."

Such is the attitude of the US Catholic bishops now that they have approved the pope's policy and declared themselves "victorious" over sexual abuse in the Roman Church. They can throw off the phony mantle of humility they've been wearing, and re-assert their position as masters over the Catholic laity as they are accustomed to.

We see one way in which the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is addressing this "problem" in an editorial titled, "Good Guys vs. The Bad Guys," in the November 22 issue of the 'Pittsburgh Catholic.'

Fearing the rise this year of independent Catholic lay groups (Roman priests hate it when people actually think for themselves), the editorial warns that dividing the laity and clergy has always been the tactic of "fundamentalists" and "pro-abortion forces." The editorial says, "In recent months we have seen this phenomenon in reporting (by the media) on the bishops' response to the clergy sexual abuse scandal."

The Pittsburgh diocese makes several points in this editorial:

1. It continues to attack the media for even reporting this story.

2. Makes Catholics feel guilty for not recognizing, "This thinly veiled anti-Catholic propaganda...as any old timer would know." Once again, Rome wants people to get their eyes off the real issue, lustful priests. In Catholic thinking, protecting your children is "anti-Catholic."

3. Lumps any Catholic who would protect his children from the sexual desires of priestly, Roman predators in the same boat with "fundamentalists" and "pro-abortion forces."

4. Demonizes any Catholic lay association interested in protecting children from priests as "anti-Catholic."

Catholic parents have a choice - to place their children under the protection of Roman priests, or the under the protection of Jesus Christ ALONE.

Catholic Housecleaning

Renewed Catholic bone-worship is taking place this month in Dayton, Ohio, as the 'Sisters of the Precious Blood' have been cleaning and repairing more than 200 reliquaries at the Shrine of the Holy Relics. This was reported in the November 8 issue of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati newspaper, 'The Catholic Telegraph,' in an article titled, "More Than 200 Relics Re-Sealed at Shrine."

A "Reliquary" is a special box that contains the bones of saints. A reliquary can be small enough to contain the bone of a little finger, or big enough to house the entire body of a dead person.

This shrine has the second largest collection of "relics" in the USA, and the 'Sisters' wanted to clean up this collection of bones "to make the relics more available" for Catholics who wish to engage in this idolatry. I can see why the 'Sisters' would want to do this - worshipping bones that sit in old, dusty, and worn-out boxes could put a damper on anyone's idolatry!

But the 'Sisters' had a problem before they could start: Any authentic church relic in a reliquary has a wax seal on it that cannot be broken. (God forbid!) The 'Sisters' had to apply in writing to Rome for permission to break the existing seals in order to get into the boxes and tidy things up! They had to go through the ridiculous motion of writing to the "Vatican Sacred Congregation for the Cause of the Saints," and get permission from the prefect, Jose Cardinal Saraiva Martins, to break the seals and allow the local archbishop permission to re-seal the reliquaries when the maintenance is done!

After all the cleaning and re-sealing is completed, this Roman bureaucratic madness will still have one more step - "A final report of the proceedings will be filed with the Sisters, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati chancery, and the Vatican Congregation."

No wonder the perverts are running rampant in the Roman priesthood! Rome is more concerned about preparing reports in triplicate regarding the cleaning of bone boxes!

I pray many Catholics see the nonsense of Romanism. May they repent of the sin of Catholicism and receive Christ by faith ALONE.

If Only the American Laity Were Better Catholics

One result of the widespread exposure this year of the criminal acts of sexual abuse in the Roman priesthood has been the rise of new "lay" movements within the Catholic Church. However, the Roman clergy will NOT tolerate the "laity" telling them what to do!!

In Rome on November 4, Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon gave a speech chock full of ideas for priests to employ against the laity in order to distract them from doing things like protecting their children, or holding their priests accountable. This was reported in the November 4 issue of the Catholic 'Zenit News Agency,' in an article titled, "Mary Ann Glendon on the Reform of Lay Catholics: Where They Took a Wrong Turn - and Where There's Hope."

A few of Mrs. Glendon's suggestions priests could use against the American laity were:

1. They are not reading enough Church documents!! She laments that more Catholics have not read the pope's 1999 letter 'Ecclesia in America.' (By the way, this letter was given by the pope in Mexico City. If the pope was honest he would have called it 'Ecclesia in Mexico.')

2. They are not working hard enough to change the culture!! Like any good Catholic, Mrs. Glendon does not blame her priests for their despicable acts, but American "culture." She said, "If the Church is to evangelize the culture, the laity are the ones who are going to have to take the lead." This is the best of both worlds for the priests - they can sit snug and secure in their rectories and run the Church, while the laity are the ones who have to go out into the world and "evangelize." AND - the priests can always blame the laity for not changing the "culture." I would call this a "win-win" for the priests, and a "lose-lose" for Catholic children.

3. Why can't they be more like the Catholics in Latin America?? She said, "Another potential source of renewal for the Catholic Church in the United States is represented by the influx of Catholics from Central and South America and the Caribbean." She says that while American Catholics were forming new lay organizations, "Boston's Latino Catholics were holding prayer vigils." It's easy to see who Mrs. Glendon and her Church think the GOOD Catholics are.

May God protect Catholic children from their wicked priesthood, and may He protect the United States of America from the Roman Catholic Church.