With the latest news of the scandal of CRS, the US Catholic Conference of Bishops, and CARE, I have been asked to support "this" and reprint "that" on my blog.
None of it will help. I raised my voice against defects in the development and implementation of the Ordinariates arising from Anglicanorum coetibus because my conscience demanded it and I was certain of the Holy Ghost's leading after serious consultation with my spiritual director. Yes, I believe I had to say something because one must shout out loud when the emperor's new clothes turn out to be neither new nor clothes.
Some of you have things you need to say, ideas you need to propose, and you must follow as the Holy Ghost calls on your conscience to act or to behave. I have no such leading now and I will refrain from endorsing or appearing to endorse particular ideas relating to reform or restructuring. It would be naïve to believe that the U.S. bishops would repent of anything or acknowledge any impropriety save in very nuanced ways.
Many other scandals will be revealed in the days and years to come that will further jeopardise the American Church's ability to bear witness to the truth of the Gospel. And the Lord will allow each and everyone to come to light. But we are not without hope. Matters can be ameliorated if not changed, but it will take courage and extreme humility.
"What can alter this trajectory to doom?" someone wrote me not long ago. The Lord and Our Lady have shown me some simple things that are easy for saints, more difficult for the ordinary faithful, and almost impossible for the prideful to do. About these I have spoken, and I continue to feel they are what I must say at times like this with the revelation of another scandal.
The bishops placing the statue of Our Lady of America in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. and solemnly enthroning her there is one such concrete thing they can do. I know this does not compute with the modern American mind, but this of course only reveals how much one's mind needs to undergo conversion to the way God sees and does things. You see, Our Lady will flood the USA with the graces and blessings placed into her hands by her Son if the bishops will do this one small thing that thus far they have refused to do.
Another very important action for the bishops to take is the reinstating of Our Lady's Lent the two weeks before the Solemnity of the Assumption. This would be a serious 'game changer', so to speak, if the U.S. bishops were to make use of Our Lady's Lent as a time for their public repentance and corporate penance for the failures of the U.S. American bishops... including their failure to protect innocent children and youth from sexual predators among the clergy and religious ... and repentance for the failures of the American bishops to support Pope Paul VI and Humane vitae together with their failure to forcefully teach the content of Humanae vitae and their failure to demand absolute assent to it by every bishop, priest, deacon, religious, and lay person in the USA. These things are all connected at both mystical and practical levels.
During Our Lady's Lent, Christ's lay faithful must solemnly engage to repent for their sexual sins and their complicity with the culture of death. Almost impossible for the proud man to do, but what graces for the soul who can humble himself before the Living God!
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| Our Lady of America, pray to the Lord for us. |
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