CRS Scandal: "Remove and Scrap"

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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!

Our Lady of America, pray to the Lord for us.

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Fortnights & Our Lady

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I do wonder who got paid for the 'clever, clever' title for the current campaign in the U.S. Catholic Church: 'The Fortnight for Freedom'


The vast majority of U.S. Americans never use the word 'fortnight' and do not know what it means.  Seriously.


I was asked by a Catholic priest if there was some historical Catholic reason for choosing such an obscure, British title...   *crickets*   


I can safely observe that U.S. American Catholics &  U.S. Americans would have responded more strongly and emphatically to a title that at least sounded like it belonged in the U.S.A. in our times i.e.,

FOURTEEN DAYS FOR FREEDOM!

It already sounds like the sort of title employed by FoxNews and CNN when covering something momentous.


Ah well, one wonders if the laity in Christ were consulted for a response to the title. 


How would one consult the Laity without a budget to hire Rasmussen or Gallup.  It is so easy your teenage nephew could get it done in one day.   


Use a cell phone with a CallAnywhere sort of plan.  Call a random number in each U.S. telephone area code, and ask some simple questions.  (1) When you hear "Fortnight for Freedom", does it mean (a) four nights for freedom (b) a nightime freedom celebration at Fort Sumter  (c) two weeks for freedom  (d)  Fourth of July celebrations at U.S. forts.      *ahem*


Well, I suspect it was meant to evoke the Founding Fathers of the USA who were still able to speak English.  (I do like "Una Quincena por la Libertad" but I do not know how well 'quincena' is known among Spanish-speaking U.S. citizens.  I have heard it in Spain and in Mexico City, but never in northern Mexico or Texas.)


I will say that the USCCB struck the right "rally round the flag" note in its logo appearing on one of its resources for the Fortnight.  Perhaps the choice was driven by the 'catchiness' of the logo.  It even works in the number 4 in red from the website address with its obvious relationship to the culminating day on the 4th of July.


But would it have been wrong to intersperse between those secular stars a Cross, then a Star of David, then a Daoist emblem, then a ...  Isn't that the point? ... Freedom of Religion in the USA being transformed into Soviet-style freedom of worship ...


It was indeed clever to think up such a thing starting with feast days for St. Thomas Moore and St. John Fisher going forward through St. John the Baptist, SS Peter & Paul onward to the Fourth of July.  But it is after all just something 'made  up' by the bishops to rally the faithful around a cause that takes our thoughts away from the sex abuse criminals and crisis.


If the bishops really want to lead American Catholics in something important that will gain us help from heaven, they would reinstate a most important fortnight in the Church long since abandoned:

Our Lady's Lent


— the fourteen days before the Solemnity of the Assumption.

Should they reinstate the Lent of Our Lady and should the bishops corporately publicly repent for their corporate failure and sin in not protecting the Laity from priest-predators, and should they "invite" (but not insist) that the Laity join them in an act of corporate repentance and reparation for the sins of the people of the USA  ... AND should they entreat Our Lady of America, the Immaculate Conception for her maternal forgiveness and install the statue of Our Lady of America in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. ... ah, well then, sports fans, we would see Heaven move the earth in the righting of wrongs, and we would see such an outpouring of grace that an unheard of spiritual renewal in the nation would be born and blossom as the rose.

+Lord, in thy mercy, hear our prayer.

Home Consecration to Our Lady

To be undertaken at any time but especially on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Based on the renewal of consecration to the Immaculate Conception by the Catholic bishops in the USA and the Our Lady of Walsingham parish consecration to the Immaculata, with special thanks to Raven Wenner, and in honor of the legacy of Sr. Mary Ephrem:

Most Holy Trinity: Our Father in heaven, who chose Mary as the fairest of Your daughters; Holy Spirit, who chose Mary as Your spouse; God the Son, who chose Mary as Your Mother; in union with Mary, we adore Your Majesty and acknowledge Your supreme, eternal dominion and authority.

Most Holy Trinity, we also place our home into the hands of Mary Immaculate in order that she may present our home to you.

Through her we wish to thank You for our family and for the gifts You have given us in order to do Your will. Grant us holiness in doing Your will.

Through the intercession of Mary, Our Lady of America, have mercy on the Catholic Church in the United States. Have mercy and inspire with prudence and justice the civic leaders of our city, state and country. Give us grace to pray and courage to work for justice and charity.

Have mercy on our neighbors and guide them to salvation. Give us grace to bear witness to them of Jesus Christ who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Strengthen, protect, and save every marriage and our own family life. Guard and help us foster the precious gift of many religious vocations from our own family and parish.

Through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary our Mother, pour Your Divine Mercy on the sick, the poor, the tempted, on sinners and upon all who are in need.

Through the Immaculate Heart of Our Lady of Sorrows, consecrate our home and our country as well as Russia and the whole world by the Most Holy Cross of Christ and through the power of Your Name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Mary, Immaculate Virgin, Our Mother, Patroness of our land, we praise you, honor you, and give our country, our parish, our home, and ourselves to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. Pierced by the sword of sorrow prophesied by Simeon, O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, save us from degeneration, disaster and war. Protect us from all harm. O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, you who bore the sufferings of your Son in the depths of your heart, be our Advocate. Pray for us, that acting always according to your will which is united perfectly with the Will of your Divine Son, we may live and die pleasing to God. Amen.