A remarkable post by William Oddie at the Catholic Herald reviews a post by Fr. Blake (a well-know blogging priest). The main thrust of the argument is that the bishops' conferences are - nearly en masse - entities that have and are continuing to fail the Church in Her hour of need. Though the article specifies particularly the American and the English/Welsh bishops' conferences, we can take "heart" too, that - sadly, alas - the Canadian bishops have been bitter failures as well.
We are all - or should be - aware of the disaster of the Winnipeg Statement. But even in our own time we have the problem of Bill C-13 (the so-called anti-bullying legislation that is incompatible with Christianity). Though Cardinal Collins is my bishop, and I pray for him, and our blog honours him as our bishop; the fact is, he is now silent on the issue of further de-Christianization of our schools. It may be tough - but say something, do something... He rightly spoke out (and I blogged on the gentile confrontation with the hard-left, radical dissident teachers union, OECTA) but since then, he has gone silent when we need strong leadership to ensure that the State will not be encroaching on the rights of the Church. Since May of 2012, we have not had any leadership from our bishops even though, OECTA (in truth the noisy, strident leadership of the union) is proceeding aggressively with an agenda that is in contradiction with Catholic moral teaching. Perhaps the Cardinal is listening to the wrong people...
I also just watched A Man for All Seasons - quite a beautiful film. The confrontation between More and Wolsey was so contemporary... the scene of the cowardly bishops (only St. John Fisher stood alone and he had his heads chopped off) surrendering to the demands of the State chilling.
We are teaching our children to be office workers, bureaucrats good little minions of all kinds. We value getting along, fitting in and social conformity. We value niceness above all else and are lukewarm in all things. Yet somehow we expect some great leader to come along and lift us out of this mediocrity and obscurity? Perhaps if there were a people to lead?
ReplyDeleteIs a way we are betting the bishops we deserve.
ReplyDeleteI owe loyalty to my pastor, my bishop and the Pope. The former to, to the degree they are loyal to the latter.
Not being a Gallican, I owe nothing to, nor recognize any moral, spiritual or other authority coming from the Ontario Bishops Association or the CCCB.