Some millenial frustration with America's New Evangelization

Michael W. Hannon writes:

I have an awkward confession to make. When I hear American Catholics cheerlead the New Evangelization, I’m sorry to say, I become very skeptical very quickly. As they unpack their bold vision for evangelical reform, I start feeling a lot like Mugatu, who, in an exasperated breakdown at the end of the 2001 film Zoolander, famously exclaimed, “I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!” Read more >>

The reader who sent the above linked article to me observed:

Comical, considering it is such a carefully phrased and politely deferential posing of the question so many have got to be thinking:

"The 'New' Evangelization? Are you kidding me? Haven't we been hearing about this for 20 years now?"

Reminds me of mis-spending my money on Weigel's Evangelical Catholicism, where he takes pages and pages to present what could honestly be better communicated in a pamphlet, and repeats the awkward title phrase over and over again, so many times I had to stop reading from syllabic exasperation.

If bishops are meant to "always to be in close contact with their priests," as Pope Francis has urged, and if priests are to be in close contact with their parishioners, then it might be well to ask why skepticism of this sort keeps percolating up to the surface in recent years.

It's one thing to have seminary degrees, diocesan initiatives, and parish programs with the expression "New Evangelization" attached to them. It's another thing altogether, like St. Francis Xavier, St. Dominic, St. Francis, Archbishop Fulton Sheen, or, for that matter, Father John McCloskey or Michael Voris, to go out and evangelize, which is something anybody can do if he wants to. Without any seminary course, diocesan initiative, or parish program. All you have to do is share your faith -- or, better, share The Faith.

Officially opposed BUT ...

The underground correspondent we keep on retainer in an Atlantic seaboard city that knows how to keep its secretes, Guy Noir - Private Eye, wired me with a message that arrived by courier a few days ago with a reference to the following linked article and the following words:

This is what happens when you have "religion" versus "conversion," and try to play church for unconverted people and timid leaders. Our "longings" versus our "realities" ...

I would say "Guffaw," but this is the new official thinking in layman's terms. Our old ideas are simply that, and don't work anymore. Being nice is the Way of Jesus, apparently. I see the African-American church already taking this way. It is a joke. Culture becomes the far more powerful player across the Board.

Makes my head spin, from the author of the CCC...

Codgitator, "Orders are, we don’t need to take this seriously" (FideCogitActio, February 9, 2014):

... since it was published by the National Catholic Reporter.

Call me old-fashioned, but I’m no fan of the genetic fallacy. [Note: all following in-bracket comments and emphases in the original post by Codgitator]

Christa Pongratz-Lippitt, "Cardinal Schönborn: Pope Francis has already changed church" (National Catholic Fishwrap, February 7, 2014):

... Francis spoke of his experiences in Latin America, where the situation of marriage and the family was, to a certain extent, “far more dramatic” than in Europe, Schönborn said. It is important to realize that today many couples live together without getting married and have children, then later marry in a registry office, with some opting for a church marriage, the pope explained. The church must take this way of life seriously and accompany the couples on their way, Francis underlined. His basic message was “Don’t judge, but look closely and listen very carefully,” Schönborn said.

In several interviews shortly before leaving Vienna, Schönborn advocated a more rational, down-to-earth approach toward family relationships. “For the most part, the church approaches the [family] issue unhistorically,” he said. “People have always lived together in various ways. And today, we in the church tacitly live with the fact that the majority of our young people, including those with close ties to the Catholic church, quite naturally live together. The simple fact is that the environment has changed.“

Schönborn “in no way” wanted to advocate changing canon law ["Far be it from meeee!"] but merely to show how difficult it was to bring the ideal family model into line with reality. “The decisive point is not to condemn the way most people actually live together, but to ask, ‘How do we cope with failure?’” he said.

While most people’s “wishes, hopes and longings often largely correspond to what the Bible and the church say about marriage and the family” and they longed for a successful relationship and a successful family life, real life told a different story, the cardinal said. “The great challenge is to span a bridge between what we long for and what we succeed in achieving.” It was a case of bringing truth and mercy together, he said.

Schönborn said he regretted that the Austrian bishops haven’t dared to speak out openly on necessary church reforms in the past. They haven’t had the courage [nor humility, nor ambition, might I add!] to address the need for greater decentralization and to strengthen local churches’ responsibilities, he said. “We were far too hesitant. I beat my own breast here. We certainly lacked the courage to speak out openly.”

The Austrian bishops also discussed with the pope the Austrian Priests’ Initiative, which has called for the ordination of married men and women, and their “Call to Disobedience,” Schönborn said. The pope advised them that the most important thing for bishops is always to be in close contact with their priests, the cardinal said.

Schönborn said he was convinced that far-reaching church reform was on the way, “but it will not be achieved through big words and programs but through people like Pope Francis.” One could already see that the pope has become a role model, Schönborn said. “The atmosphere is changing and his behavior is making itself felt,” he said.

And why has it never worked to mute Church teachings to make people feel welcome? Here is an answer from observations of what's happening in the Church of England. And, nonetheless, we will have this same experiment conducted again and again in the Catholic Church itself. Is anyone holding his breath? I'm not.

[Hat tip to JM]

"The Reactionary Generation": traditional Catholic values sweep French politics

As observed by New Catholic, traditional Catholic values are unaccountably sweeping French politics (Rorate Caeli, February 12, 2014):

"The Reactionary Generation" (Génération Réac): this is what the new issue of ultra-liberal French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur mockingly calls what is certainly the most astounding and unexpected arrival in European politics in the 21st century. As a liberal publication, it obviously tries to place in the same corner very different movements, including many radical and distasteful ones dating from the 20th century, when what is really new in the conservative wave sweeping the nation that gave the world the 1789 Revolution and the anti-Catholic Terror is how multitudes of people of all generations -- mostly young men and women -- are fighting for traditional values on the streets.

This conservative wave is led and guided by Catholics, conservative and traditional-minded alike, and their main concern is not on policy issues regarding which Catholics may prudentially disagree, but the specific defense of those issues Benedict XVI called "non-negotiable". They are not divided by party, they reject being represented by any single party, and they do not let themselves split apart in the usual "right" or "left" camps, but all are accepted - including many non-Christians and Jewish and Muslim leaders - in a fraternity of interests. They could not care less if their adversaries characterize them as reactionary, as long as their unbending defense of the traditional family is made clear.

Read more >>

The End of the “Reform of the Reform”: Father Kocik’s "Tract 90"

Father Richard G. Cipolla, in a deft allusion to the last "Tract" of the "Tractarian" or "Oxford Movement" of which John Henry (later Cardinal) Newman was a leading figure before his Catholic conversion, posted an article entitled "The End of the 'Reform of the Reform': Father Kocik’s 'Tract 90'" (Rorate Caeli, February 12, 2014), which concludes as follows:

Just this past Sunday, February 9, Fr. Thomas Kocik published the equivalent of Tract 90 on the New Liturgical Movement website. Fr. Kocik has been one of the leading lights in the Reform of the Reform movement. Those who know Fr. Kocik know him to be above all a parish priest whose love for the Liturgy is at the center of his priesthood. He is a scholar and a man of the Church. His book, The Reform of the Reform? A Liturgical Debate (Ignatius Press, 2003), is a cogent and spirited defense of the Reform of the Reform movement. This book was certainly one of the important “Tracts” in the evolving understanding of the post-Conciliar Liturgy. The “Dean” of the Reform of the Reform movement writes as follows in his article of only a few days ago, Reforming the Irreformable?:

There are significant ruptures in content and form that cannot be remedied simply by restoring Gregorian chant to primacy of place as the music of the Roman rite, expanding the use of Latin and improving vernacular translations of the Latin liturgical texts, using the Roman Canon more frequently (if not exclusively), reorienting the altar, and rescinding certain permissions. As important as it is to celebrate the reformed rites correctly, reverently, and in ways that make the continuity with tradition more obvious, such measures leave untouched the essential content of the rites. Any future attempt at liturgical reconciliation, or renewal in continuity with tradition, would have to take into account the complete overhaul of the propers of the Mass; the replacement of the Offertory prayers with modern compositions; the abandonment of the very ancient annual Roman cycle of Sunday Epistles and Gospels; the radical recasting of the calendar of saints; the abolition of the ancient Octave of Pentecost, the pre-Lenten season of Septuagesima and the Sundays after Epiphany and Pentecost; the dissolution of the centuries-old structure of the Hours; and so much more. To draw the older and newer forms of the liturgy closer to each other would require much more movement on the part of the latter form, so much so that it seems more honest to speak of a gradual reversal of the reform (to the point where it once again connects with the liturgical tradition received by the Council) rather than a reform of it...

In the meantime, improvements can be made here and there in the ars celebrandi of the Ordinary Form. But the road to achieving a sustainable future for the traditional Roman rite—and to achieving the liturgical vision of Vatican II, which ordered the moderate adaptation of that rite, not its destruction—is the beautiful and proper celebration, in an increasing number of locations, of the Extraordinary Form, with every effort to promote the core principle (properly understood) of “full, conscious and active participation” of the faithful (SC 14).

This is indeed “Tract 90” for the "reform of the reform" and sounds the death knell of any serious attempt to hold onto the fiction of continuity between the 1970 Missal and the Traditional Roman rite. Just as Tract 90 marked the end of Newman’s attempt to find a Catholic continuity and a Via Media in Anglicanism, so does Fr. Kocik’s public articulation of the abandonment of his attempt to find a liturgical and theological continuity between the Novus Ordo and the Traditional Roman rite mark the end of the Reform of the Reform movement. What must be done now—and this will require much laborandum et orandum—is to make the Extraordinary-----ordinary.

The entire article, recasting the trajectory of the post-Conciliar "reform of the reform" against the backdrop of the history of the Tractarian Movement in a fascinating comparison, is well worth reading. Read more >>

Integralism vs Liberty ("the god that failed")

John Zmirak recently posted an article entitled "Illiberal Catholicism" (Aleteia, December 31, 2013), in which he worried that Catholics who "used to be open to the lessons of freedom from the American experience" might be "forgetting those lessons," going so far as to declare: "Catholicism minus the Enlightenment equals the Inquisition." It was a piece that would have made Fr. John Courtney Murray and his stepchildren, Fr. Robert Sirico, George Weigel, Thomas Woods, and Joseph Bottom happy.

Our friend, Paul Borealis, has just called to our attention a thoroughgoing and brilliant response to Zmirak entitled "Integralism" (Sancrucensis, January 16, 2014), which refers to Zimrak's piece as a "particularly outrageous example of disordered love of liberty," and ends with ends with the following summary of "The Integralist Thesis":

John Zmirak (remember him?) writes:

[The] Church inherited from pagan thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle a top-down philosophy of government, which centered on the “rights” of lawgivers and rulers to enforce their vision of the Good in citizens’ lives instead of the rights of citizens against the powers of the State.”

This shows just how trapped in the modern discourse of rights Zmirak is. The philosophies of Plato and Aristotle do not “center” on rights at all; they center on the good. The fact that “liberal” philosophy does not center on the good shows how deeply illiberal “liberalism” really is–closed off to the truth that liberates.

The dignity of the common good of political life is only intelligible through its place in the order of final causes, as soon as it is removed from this order it becomes a monstrosity. To see this is to become an integralist. Charles De Koninck expresses this in a wonderful passage which has long been my favorite statement of the integralist thesis:

When those in whose charge the common good lies do not order it explicitly to God, is society not corrupted at its very root? [...] Political prudence rules the common good insofar as the latter is Divine. For that reason Cajetan and John of St. Thomas held that the legal justice of the prince is more perfect than the virtue of religion. [...] The ordering to the common good is so natural that a pure intellect cannot deviate from it in the pure state of nature. In fact the fallen angels, elevated to the supernatural order, did turn aside from the common good but from that common good which is the most Divine, namely supernatural beatitude, and it is only by way of consequence that they lost their natural common good. The fallen angels ignored by a practical ignorance (ignorantia electionis) the common good of grace; we, on the other hand, have come to the point of being ignorant of every common good even speculatively. The common good, and not the person and liberty, being the very principle of all law, of all rights, of all justice and of all liberty, a speculative error concerning it leads fatally to the most execrable practical consequences.

Lamont on Nicea, "second marriages," and Communion

John Lamont, "No the Council of Nicea did not admit 'remarried' to Communion: 'Second Marriages', Distorted Historical and Theological Evidence, and a Very Grave Mistake" (RC, February 11, 2014).

Prayer request (via St. Joseph)

No, the prayer request wasn't transmitted to us from St. Joseph. We solicit your prayers for a special personal intention through the intercession of St. Joseph. Thank you kindly, -- PP

Keeping loyal Anglicans safe from superstition

Courtesy of Fr. David Bechill, we have received this hilarious but telling piece on "Wearing Cassocks" (The Low churchman's Guide to the Solemn High Mass, August 13, 2013):

During the reign of Elizabeth I, the surplice was established as the standard garment of the Anglican clergy, and for the sake of decency a black cassock was traditionally worn beneath the surplice. Although many churchmen believed the retention of these garments to be an unacceptable concession to corrupt Romish custom, the intervention of the Queen put an end to all questioning and the cassock and surplice were worn throughout the English church. Among loyal churchmen there is some dispute as to whether these garments should still be retained; some believe that their use remains obligatory, while others argue that, a decent interval since Her Majesty’s death now having passed, it is permissible to officiate at divine service in a smart tweed jacket and matching trousers. All are agreed, however, that the church should not tolerate the use of any unapproved vestments or “accessories,” including but not limited to: copes, the so-called “Eucharistic vestments” (chasubles, albs and the like), any headgear, organ shoes, jewelry, artificial limbs, papal slippers, brightly-coloured stockings, coloured contact lenses, and cigarette holders.

The late Queen’s instructions should be perfectly clear: a minister of the church is to don the cassock and surplice before service and remove them afterwards. But observe the daily routine of a Ritualist priest: he walks to his parish in the morning: he arrives at his church, unlocks the doors, puts on a cassock and surplice to say Morning Prayer and then - in a sinister twist - removes his surplice but not the cassock. The dedicated ritualist will continue to wear his cassock while meeting with parishioners, writing his Sunday sermon, changing light bulbs. washing dishes, cleaning the furnace, or planting tree saplings. For the loyal churchman, this is deeply alarming: it gives the impression (doubtless intentional) that some sort of Ritualistic service might begin at any moment.

For research purposes, one of our agents attempted to complete his daily tasks while wearing a cassock. The experiment nearly ended in disaster, since the cassock is an exceptionally dangerous garment; its folds can easily be caught underfoot or tangled in one’s clothing, so that one is in constant danger of tripping on the sidewalk or being knocked down by a passing tram. That ritualists seem to negotiate their cassocks without serious incident is further proof, if proof were needed, that their activities are aided by demonic agencies.

Extraordinary Community News

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News (February 9, 2014):

Academy of the Sacred Heart Chapel To Host New Weekly Sunday Morning Tridentine Mass

Many of our readers have expressed interest in the ongoing search for a new Extraordinary Form Mass site in Oakland County. After many years of organizing efforts, a one-time Mass was held on All Souls Day at the beautiful St. Hugo Stone Chapel in Bloomfield Hills. The church was filled to capacity, not surprisingly as our research has shown that there is substantial demand for a Mass in the northern suburbs of Detroit. While the Stone Chapel is an ideal location for the Traditional Liturgy, the parish is unable to accommodate a regular Mass at this point in time.


We are pleased to report that this week, preliminary approval was granted for a weekly Sunday morning Mass to commence at the nearby Chapel of the Academy of the Sacred Heart. The Academy is a private Catholic school located on an expansive campus on Kensington Road, south of Long Lake Road, one half mile east of Woodward Avenue in Bloomfield Hills. The chapel was built in the 1950s and has all of the essential architectural features for the Tridentine Mass: a High Altar, a Communion Rail, and a choir loft with pipe organ. It seats approximately 300 people. Adjacent to the chapel is a lovely Victorian living room and dining room, complete with kitchen, ideal for post-Mass receptions.

Logistics are currently being worked out. We hope to be able to announce the schedule for Masses there soon. In the meantime, we ask your prayers for Academy of the Sacred Heart Head of School Sr. Bridget Bearss, who has graciously welcomed us to use her facility, and for Msgr. Ronald Browne, the Chaplain of the Oakland County Latin Mass Association, who will be the principal celebrant of this forthcoming Mass.

Video Series on Catholic Church Architecture

The Liturgical Institute of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Mundelein Seminary has posted a brief ten-part video series on YouTube entitled Catholic Church Architecture: Architectural Theology. The presenter is Professor Denis McNamara, widely known as the author of the visually stunning coffee-table picture book, Heavenly City: The Architectural Tradition of Catholic Chicago, and a well-known speaker on church architecture.

It is worth noting that McNamara is not a traditionalist. He articulates a defense of classic architectural style purely on the basis of its suitability to communicate our Holy Faith. He repeatedly opposes any expression of architectural preference based on subjective feelings of “I like it” or “I don’t like it”. McNamara’s rather detached, academic technique makes it hard for those of any persuasion to oppose arguments based on logic rather than liturgical predilections.

Each segment is short, 5-10 minutes in length, so the entire series may be viewed in a short amount of time.

Saints with Multiple Days in the Calendar

Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed that it is possible for a saint to be assigned more than one Feast Day in the Extraordinary Form calendar. Let’s consider a recent example, the most prominent one in the calendar:

St. Agnes’ primary Feast Day is January 21, the day of her death. Exactly one week later, on January 28, she is the second, commemorated saint on the Feast of St. Peter Nolasco. January 28 is St. Agnes’ birthday. It is also the day that St. Agnes appeared to her parents, eight days after her death, surrounded by other crowned virgins, to assure them that she was happy in heaven.

Other feasts may occur on different days according to national calendars or the tradition of certain religious orders. For example, Our Lady of Consolation is observed on January 31 in Rome, but on the Saturday after the Feast of St. Augustine elsewhere.

St. Albertus Masses

A quick reminder that St. Albertus Church is hosting eleven Sunday Tridentine Masses in 2014, all at 12:00 Noon. The next Mass will be next Sunday, February 16. Schedule permitting, the celebrant for most of the Masses at St. Albertus will be Fr. Mark Borkowski, and Wassim Sarweh will direct the music.

Special thanks to Vladimir Vaculik for swiftly performing some needed repairs on the St. Albertus pipe organ. Readers may recall that Vladimir restored the organ a few years ago after it had been non-functional for almost 20 years.

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Mon. 02/10 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Joseph (St. Scholastica, Virgin)
• Tue. 02/11 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Benedict/Assumption-Windsor (Our Lady of Lourdes)
• Sat. 02/15 8:00 AM: Low Mass at Our Lady of the Scapular (Ss. Faustina & Jovita, Martyrs)
• Sun. 02/16 12:00 Noon: High Mass at St. Albertus (Septuagésima Sunday)

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@detroitlatinmass.org. Previous columns are available at http://www.detroitlatinmass.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Albertus (Detroit) and Assumption (Windsor) bulletin inserts for February 9, 2014. Hat tip to A.B., author of the column.]

Metro-Detroit area Tridentine Masses coming this week

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Sun. 02/09 9:30 AM: High Mass at St. Joseph, Detroit (Fifth Sunday After Epiphany)
• Sun. 02/09 9:30 AM: High Mass at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Fifth Sunday After Epiphany)
• Sun. 02/09 2:00 PM: High Mass at St. Benedict/Assumption-Windsor, Canada (Fifth Sunday After Epiphany)
• Mon. 02/010 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (St. Scholastica, Virgin)
• Mon. 02/10 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Joseph, Detroit (St. Scholastica, Virgin)
• Mon. 02/10 7:00 PM: Low Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (St. Scholastica, Virgin)
• Tue. 02/11 7:30 AM High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Our Lady of Lourdes)
• Tue. 02/11 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Benedict/Assumption-Windsor, Canada (Our Lady of Lourdes)
• Tue. 02/11 7:00 PM: Low Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Our Lady of Lourdes)
• Wed. 02/12 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (The Seven Founders of the Servite Order)
• Wed. 02/12 7:00 PM: Low Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (The Seven Founders of the Servite Order)
• Thu. 02/13 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Feria)
• Thu. 02/13 7:00 PM: Low Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Feria)
• Fri. 02/14 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Commemoration of St. Valentine)
• Fri. 02/14 7:00 PM: Low Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Commemoration of St. Valentine)
• Fri. 02/14 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Joseph, Detroit (Commemoration of St. Valentine)
• Sat. 02/15 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Ss. Faustina & Jovita, Martyrs)
• Sat. 02/15 8:00 AM: Low Mass at Our Lady of the Scapular, Wyandotte (Ss. Faustina & Jovita, Martyrs)
• Sun. 02/16 12:00 Noon: High Mass at St. Albertus, Detroit (Septuagésima Sunday)

Okay, touché ...

Robert Royal introduces this longer-than-usual provocative piece to deal adequately with the subject:

John Zmirak, "The Shame of the Catholic Subculture" (The Catholic Thing, February 1, 2014):

Come on. You have noticed it too. The Catholic Church, which once evoked the phrase “Here comes everybody” (James Joyce) now brings to mind a narrow, fairly homogenous fragment of a slice of a piece of mankind. Sure, if you’re using the phrase sociologically, or even to include all the people who go to Mass more than twice a year, you can still pretend that the Church contains a wide swath of humanity ...

But let’s use language a good deal more precisely, in a doctrinally rigorous sense. How many people in America actually believe all the central truths of the Catholic Catechism? ...

Practice is not a perfect mirror of what we believe, but surely it tells us something that the rates of divorce, premarital sex, and cohabitation are not a whit lower (and in some cases higher) among Roman Catholics than among most churchgoing Protestants. The explosive growth of annulments is partly an outright abuse on the part of bishops, and partly a recognition that many Catholics enter the sacrament with “defective intent.” Remember that if either party going into a marriage considers divorce and remarriage a possible option it invalidates the marriage. So most of the annulments given out nowadays are quite likely valid – unlike too many Catholic weddings.

There are simple, radical, unpopular steps our bishops could take to stem the collapse of Catholic marriage, but we can see from the case of the German bishops the course they are far more likely to take: to throw out the principle of indissoluble marriage altogether, and shrug off the jurisdiction over marriage that the Church took on at the Council of Trent, leaving it to individual consciences to discern whether one’s first Catholic marriage was invalid, and his second civil marriage in fact sacramental.

The elephant in the bedroom, of course, is contraception. The highest, the very highest, number I have ever seen cited for Catholics who accept and obey the Church’s ban on artificial contraception is 5 percent.... Read more >>

[Hat tip to JM]

Search engine's logo presented in the colours of the rainbow flag to coincide with the opening of the Winter Olympics in Sochi

And Guy Noir comments: "I guess Gov. Cuomo has the right idea after all. Certain views are illegitimate and wrong. The State and the Culture will legislate morality. Their morality. Does absolutely anybody think that without a robust counter witness our children stand a chance of adhering to what we believe to be the Truth? Maybe it is because I teach and frequent the web, but to me this seems demoralizing on several levels."

The full extent of Google's self-righteous moralizing can be viewed in its bloated amplitude at "Rainbow Google doodle links to Olympic charter as Sochi kicks off" (The Guardian, February 7, 2014).

"Bless me father, for he has sinned"

"Joe Biden Points Out A Sinner, Says 'Bless Me Father For He Has Sinned'" (Creative Minority Report, February 6, 2014):

Remember when Joe Biden said, "The next Republican that tells me I'm not religious I'm going to shove my rosary beads down their throat." Well, it turns out that he feels pretty darn ok with questioning other people's faiths.

Buzzfeed reports:

Vice President Biden went out of his way at a speech to the United Auto Workers union Wednesday to take on one of Pope Francis’ strongest critics.

“A couple weeks ago Ken Langone, who I don’t know, a billionaire founder of Home Depot, predicted that the pope — Pope Francis’ critique of income inequity will be, quote, ‘a ‘hurdle’ for very wealthy Catholic donors, who seem to think hurt feelings trump the teachings of the Bible,” Biden said, referring to a December interview with the Home Depot founder.

Langone claimed to CNBC that one potential major donor to a cathedral restoration project was concerned about Pope Francis’ economic rhetoric about capitalist economies.

“I’ve told the cardinal, ‘Your Eminence, this is one more hurdle I hope we don’t have to deal with. You want to be careful about generalities. Rich people in one country don’t act the same as rich people in another country,’ ” Langone said he told Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the donor.

Biden appeared amazed by the comments as a Democrat pushing the Obama administration’s income equality message. As the most prominent Catholic on the president’s team, Biden seemed to be personally offended by the comments.

“As practicing Catholic, bless me, Father, for he has sinned,” Biden said. He paused. “I mean, come on. Come on! What are we talking about today?”

So if you question a comment from the pope about capitalism, you're a sinner. But if you dance in joy at the legalizing of abortion, you're a devout Catholic...like Joe.

[Hat tip to JM]

"Mr. President? Really?"

Fr. Z, "Mr. President? Really?" (WDTPRS, February 6, 2014):

This morning The First Gay President addressed the National Prayer Breakfast. [UPDATE: Text HERE.]

Two take away lines:

“[T]he killing of innocents is never fulfilling God’s will.”

“[F]reedom of religion matters to our national security.”

Really?

To paraphrase Mary McCarthy, but only slightly:

Every word he says is a lie, including “and” and “the”.

Et tu, Joseph?

Too often have I head of Catholic priests who have advised prospective converts that they could do more good by remaining in their own churches than by converting to the Catholic Church. Too often, I say! Scott Hahn had a priest tell him this in Milwaukee before his conversion, as I recall. I have heard it said in other contexts. And now we hear from a Vatican Radio article in German that Sigrid Spath was told the same thing by then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. I can't believe it! Here's the quotation in translation from New Catholic, "She wanted to convert. She listened to Cardinal Ratzinger and died a Lutheran" (RC, February 3, 2014):

It was also Cardinal Ratzinger who, according to her own testimony, advised Sigrid Spath to remain a Protestant, and not to convert to the Catholic Church, as she had considered in a moment of crisis. She could do more for both churches if she remained a Protestant, said the Cardinal. (emphasis added)

Oy, vey!