A Deluded History Lesson

A recent email from a distantly-related gentleman arrived this week, gushing over a “non-political” homily presented by a midwestern priest.  This priest plays a game of verbal tag with the Gospel reading for the 28^th Sunday, (the wealthy young man who wants to enter the Kingdom) and then concentrates his attack on all people that question or oppose the Church’s position on abortion, same-sex unions, stem cell research and the “non-negotiable” issues at hand.

This priest makes the stunning leap of logic that links Obama, Democrats and any pro-choice Republicans and Libertarians with Nazi genocide.  The “flaw” of being pro-choice disqualifies a person as being unfit to hold public office, just as the “flaw” of anti-Semitism should have disqualified Hitler from receiving the vote of any right-thinking German.

This delusional history lesson fails to mention that Hitler received the votes of millions of German Catholics who had no real problem with his anti-Semitism; the number of Catholic pastors who preached sermons in support of Hitler vastly outnumbered those clergy opposed to the Nazi Party.  Prior to his election to the Papacy, Pius XII signed a concordat with Hitler, firmly establishing the privileged position of the Catholic Church in Nazi Germany.  This agreement was signed shortly after Jews were legally excluded from teaching and operating schools in Germany.  And who received their property?  You guessed it, the Catholic Church.

The more the Church embroils itself in factional strife, the further it departs from serving the people of God.  

                                                                                                           29 October 2012

Left Questions Right

LEFT  QUESTIONS  RIGHT

(In which the author poses questions and observations, and gratefully accepts the same from the readers of this post.)

Little Tent, Big Tent?

Why the disparity from Rome, where we actively pursue disgruntled Anglicans and Tridentine Catholics, while shedding millions of Vatican II era Catholics as so much dandruff?

The Politics of the Eucharist, 2012

In a highly polarized election year, will the American hierarchy once again use the Eucharist as a weapon to draw party lines?

Fortnight of Hypocrisy

Bishops cry out to protect religious liberty from government intrusions, yet many of the basic rights insured by the Constitution are denied to Church workers, particularly women.

The Latin American Church Recreated in El Norte?

How is the Church in the United States responding to the vast movement of peoples from Latin America?  Apparently by aligning the hierarchy with the conservative establishment.

Theology of the Pelvis

It seems that the Gospels fail to be sufficiently judgmental about sex and gender.  So it has been up to the Church to twist, spindle, squelch and rend human sexuality into a bizarre anti-human form.  Few pornographers concentrate as minutely on other people’s sexual activities.

Bishops in the Bedroom

Why do Catholics, unmarried and married, so overwhelmingly ignore the Church’s teachings on sexuality, specifically birth control?

Boundary and Connection in the Body of Christ

Religious liberty in America has often meant walking away in disagreement.  Where are the boundaries of sect, and how to maintain connection with all of Christ’s Body?

A Church in Relapse

Have you considered that the hopeful openings breeched by Vatican II were a spell of remission for a gravely diseased Church?  Are we now in a relapse? What can we learn from those women and men who deal with their cancers as part of their lives?

Remnant vs. Leftover

A favored self-description for religious minorities, since biblical times, has been “the faithful remnant.”  Strangely, it is frequently used self-righteously to establish a group’s moral superiority.  Can we distinguish between a faithful remnant and an anachronistic leftover?

                                                                       

                                                                                

                                                                19 September 2012