TWILIGHT
ZONE
Will Rome bar ordination to men with disordered attractions? Catholics anxiously await the upcoming document on the suitability of men with same-sex attraction for ordination. While past Vatican documents unequivocally banned homosexuals, early reports from the Italian daily, Il Giornale indicate that only active homosexuals and those with “deeply rooted” tendencies will be permanently barred. Those with “transitory” tendencies who remain chaste for three years will be eligible. Catholic World News says, “The document reportedly says that a candidate for the priesthood must show ‘affective maturity’ and a capacity for ‘spiritual paternity.’ Homoexual tendencies… constitute a major obstacle to the development of these traits.” The document, signed November 4, is scheduled for release in the November 29 issue of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper. Are these early reports accurate? As we go to press we wish we could tell you.
*** It’s Déjà vu all over again! Are you old enough to remember Humanae Vitae’s July 1968 release? And the immediate howling? Dissent maestro, Charlie Curran, on the theology faculty at Catholic University (CUA), orchestrated the loud rejection in the Washington Post by modernist priests and their allies. The previous year CUA fired Charlie for his heretical teachings (some would say fixations) on sex. But after a mass protest that closed the university, the administration caved and reinstated him. He continued to scandalize another generation of students until he was finally dismissed in 1988, his right to teach as a Catholic theologian revoked. [Charlie still prowls the dissent circuit. In early November Call to Action, lovers of all things wicked and perverse, feted him at their 2005 convention.] The document on homosexuality is provoking similar hysteria. Rev. Gerald Chojnacki, head of the New York Province of the Society of Jesus [Does anything good come out of the Jesuits these days?] said in a letter to his priests that he would fight "for the opportunity of a gay person to say yes to God's call in celibate service of priesthood and chaste religious life." Chojnacki says he’s known (and buried) a number of homosexual priests and it’s insulting “even hinting that they were unfit for priesthood because of their sexual orientation." [Tell that to the parents of all the molested children.] Rev. Timothy Radcliffe, former Master General of the Order of Friars Preachers (Dominicans), wrote in a letter to the London Times that homosexuality shouldn’t bar a man from priesthood, homophobia should. [Uh… right! Let’s see… Exactly how many “homophobes” made the John Jay Report for diddling little boys? Zero. How many homosexuals? Eighty-one percent of the total. Fr. Radcliffe needs to live in the real world.]
***Since when does ten equal eleven? Since St. Anthony’s in Falls Church dedicated its peace garden featuring ten peace poles made by local churches and an “eleventh” which is actually an empty space. The day Les Femmes visited we looked everywhere for the eleventh pole and finally found a chrysanthemum bush next to an in-ground light like those illuminating the poles. [Was the 11th pole out to lunch, on strike, on a peace pilgrimage, visiting another pole?] The mystery was solved when we read the Arlington Herald and learned the 11th “pole” is us. [Les Femmes demurs. Some of us are French, Irish, Hispanic, German, Philippino, etc. Quel dommage! None of us is a Pole.]
A central feature of the garden is a circular fountain with a glass top. The word peace is etched into it in 87 languages. Water washes over the glass down the rocky sides and into an indentation filled with crystal-like stones. Surrounding the fountain is a circular brick walk that resembles a labyrinth. The poles are a hodge-podge. One “Catholic” pole features among its paintings a monstrance and above it a Harry Potter-ism “Peace is magical.” The ecumenical prayer service dedicating the poles included Fr. Tuck Grinnell of St. Anthony’s, Rev. Dr. C. Jackson of St. Paul Episcopal, Rev. Kathleen Chesson, senior minister of First Christian, and Imam Jahari Abdul-Malik of Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center. According to the Herald each “gave a blessing in the method of their (sic) faith.” The benches in the garden bear a plaque: “Open Spaces – Sacred Places.”
***Of
Peace Poles and Sacred Spaces:
Hundreds of thousands of peace poles have been erected worldwide. The
organization primarily responsible is the World Peace Prayer Society (WPPS),
a United Nations NGO (non-government organization) whose goal is a pole
in every city in the world. WPPS founder, Masahisa Goi, was a Hindu ascendic
master. He believed bad karma covers the earth like soot, but our prayers
can overcome it and save us from damage. The WPPS Declaration for All
Life on Earth is a mishmash of new-age pantheism that describes the
earth as an “evolving living entity” with all life on earth
“part of this living entity.” The world’s problems aren’t
sin and rebellion, but the “unharmonious mind of each individual.”
WPPS proudly emphasizes its connections to the U.N. They are part of a
“Values Caucus” which includes WPPS, Pax Christi, The Aquarian
Age community, The United Religions Initiative, etc. One World Religion,
One World Government, and ushering in the Age of Aquarius are the goals
of many of these groups. [Les Femmes is all for one world government
under Christ the King but we don’t think that’s the plan.]
WPPS presented its first World Peace Award in 2000 to Dr. James Lovelock, developer of the “Gaia Hypothesis” (GH). In New Age spirituality Gaia is the goddess of Mother Earth. GH proposes that the earth is a living organism with her own rights. Lovelock says that, “If Gaia exists, the relationship between her and man, a dominant animal species in the complex living system, and the possibly shifting balance of power between them, are questions of obvious importance.” If this sounds like the earth is a person with rights equal (or more equal) than man, you get the picture. Population control, Pete Singer’s goofy ethics where fetal pigs are superior to babies, etc. fit nicely into this worldview.
One of the scariest things is they are after the children. The Global Link, the WPPS newsletter is filled with programs aimed at kids. The 2005 theme for the “Peace Pals Art Competition” was “Thank you, Nature.” [Huh… Who deserves the thanks?]
***Aren’t you overreacting to a few poles? Absolutely not! The First Commandment forbids idol worship and religious indifferentism. Pantheism and earth worship are false religions in competition with God. Movements that focus on connecting with your “inner wisdom,” or replace God with the individual’s “unlimited potential” present the same temptations that Adam and Eve experienced when Satan told them they could be like gods. Portraying the earth as “sacred,” a living being to be revered and honored, subverts God’s command to man to “fill the earth and subdue it.” We are stewards of the earth. Worship is reserved to God alone. In the Old Testament the Canaanites erected poles on the high places for their pagan rituals. They also worshiped in the “sacred groves” often dancing around the poles, a symbol of male fertility. Today, foolish Catholics erect poles and “sacred spaces” in our parishes, adulterating the faith with paganism. It’s a poisonous draft! We already have a “sacred space” – in the church in front of the tabernacle. It’s not out in the “peace garden” dedicated in a prayer service falsely implying equality of all religions. [By the way, the “community” garden, open to all, is adjacent to the area where the school kids play. Will visitors be required to fingerprint? If not, how will the diocese guarantee a “safe environment” for our children?]
***Common sense from some wise ones: C.S. Lewis once addressed a group of Anglican priests and youth leaders saying, “I think it is your duty to fix the lines clearly in your own minds: and if you wish to go beyond them you must change your profession. This is your duty not specifically as Christians or as priest but as honest men…. Men who have passed beyond these boundary lines in either direction are apt to protest that they have come by their unorthodox opinions honestly. In defense of those opinions they are prepared to suffer obloquy and to forfeit professional advancement. Thus they come to feel like martyrs. But this simply misses the point which so gravely scandalizes the layman. We never doubted that the unorthodox opinions were honestly held: what we complain of is your continuing your ministry after you have come to hold them. We always knew that a man who makes his living as a paid agent of the Conservative Party may honestly change his views and honestly become a Communist. What we deny is that he can honestly continue to be a Conservative agent and to receive money from one party while he supports the policy of another.” (From God in the Dock)
Pope Pius X called the Modernists’ bluff in his document Pascendi Gregis. “Modernists express astonishment when they are reprimanded or punished. What is imputed to them as a fault they regard as a sacred duty…. Let authority rebuke them as much as it pleases – they have their own consciences on their side and an intimate experience which tells them with certainty that what they deserve is not blame but praise. They go their way, reprimands and condemnations notwithstanding, masking an incredible audacity under a mock semblance of humility. While they make a show of bowing their heads, their hands and minds are more boldly intent than ever on carrying out their purposes. And this policy they follow willingly and wittingly…because it is necessary for them to remain within the ranks of the Church in order that they may gradually transform the collective conscience.”
Which leads to this question: Do “peace poles” and “sacred spaces” enhance Catholic doctrine and belief or do they “gradually transform” the attitudes and conscience of the faithful to believe that all religions are the same? [We await your reply, Fr. Tuck.]
***What Constitutes an Investigation? After the flyer on page 5 & 6 was sent out by e-mail, a number of people wrote to Bishop Loverde. Fr. Robert Avella, the Bishop’s Delegate for Clergy replied with a form letter saying Fr. Clark “participated directly in that canonical investigation.” It may be technically true, like a police officer saying you “participated” in an iInvestigation because you accepted the ticket. But Les Femmes knows personally about Fr. Avella’s idea of “investigation.” In 1998 during the persecution of orthodox Catholics who knelt for Communion, he said Les Femmes was sending children around to parishes to kneel to see if the priests would refuse them. It was a ridiculous accusation and completely untrue and we told him so. Father never contacted Les Femmes before slandering us. Instead, in a third-party e-mail exchange (after we corrected his false statements), he implied we were lying. In view of our personal experience, we are not impressed with Fr. Avella’s “investigation,” which is protected by a veil of secrecy. By the way, we have all the letters and e-mails on file from 1998. [Ah…the paper trail…keeps people relatively honest. Too bad the 7th Commandment isn’t enough.]