TWILIGHT ZONE

***They’re baaack…again (sigh)! One of the most important functions of a bishop is to protect the educational integrity of programs taught in the diocese. That’s why Les Femmes has continuously informed the chancery of the questionable instructors offered by the Continuing Christian Development Institute. CCDI is run by an ex priest, William Tobin, who is well known for dissent. The current four winter offerings include a class by Fr. Gerard Sloyan, the chief architect of the catastrophic “new catechesis” that destroyed the faith of millions of young people over the last few decades. Here’s how a 2001 Catholic World News article described him:
“It may be impossible to name one person as most responsible for the current state of religious instruction in the United States. But no one has a stronger claim than Father Gerard Sloyan who, in 17 years in CUA's Religious Education department--ten as chairman--reorganized the entire curriculum, and thus changed the religious attitudes of a key cohort of religion teachers. It was he who first hired dissenter Charles Curran, in 1964. His 1967 book, Speaking of Catholic Education, by its praise for the Dutch Catechism [which taught error], its clear distaste for the term ‘transubstantiation,’ its displacement of personal sin by a ‘fundamental option’ for or against God, and its call to defer First Confession until after First Communion--proves that the toxic ideas of the revolution were fully formed by the mid-1960s. …
“In 1967, Sloyan left CUA to teach at Temple University, remaining there for 25 years. Later he returned as a ‘distinguished lecturer,’ but the move seems not to have sweetened his temper. ‘Is Agape Any Match for Fear and Loathing in the Religious Psyche?’ Sloyan's contribution to The Echo Within, a 1997 collection of essays published to honor Berard Marthaler on his academic retirement, is a fuming denunciation of orthodox Catholics. Characterizing them as ignorant, rigid, repressed, ideologically infected, infantile, censorious, malicious, and uncharitable, he says he offers these diagnoses, ‘in the friendliest possible spirit.’” [Friendly like a recluse spider!] Sloyan will be teaching at St. Charles Borromeo, no surprise. Birds of a feather flock together and Fr. Creedon is certainly not known for his orthodoxy. The question is, Why does the bishop allow it? And why is CCDI being featured in a page two article in the January 7-13 Arlington Catholic Herald? They should at least have to pay for their ads!

***USCCB: What the Real Acronym Is: It’s becoming ever more clear that the initials USCCB, rather than standing for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, mean “Unlimited Scandals at the Conference of Catholic Bishops.” Recent exposés on the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) show close connections of the group to pro-abortion, pro-homosexual organizations. (See www.reformcchdnow.com.) Many executives at the USCCB are directly involved with them. One of the most egregious revelations showed the head of the justice and peace department that oversees CCHD, John Carr, working, at the same time, with the Center for Community Change, which promotes abortion and same-sex marriage. Interestingly, his USCCB resumé, identical in all other respects to the one posted elsewhere, omits his CCC connection. Bellarmine Veritas Ministries documented that 31 CCC partners have received buckets of money from the bishops! When the data was revealed, both CCC and the USCCB simultaneously scrubbed their websites to cover up the relationship. What could be more damning? Michael Voris of Real Catholic TV called their actions “collusion” and asked who gave the order at the USCCB to alter the site. The poor, says Voris, are being used “to weaken the Church from the inside.” Liberals, he says use “social justice” to advance their own agenda which is “all being orchestrated from the USCCB.” Voris goes on to quote Fulton Sheen who called Judas “the apostle of social justice.” These days the betrayer would probably be assigned by the bishops to oversee the USCCB.

***Companies Mainstreaming Perversion Been to the mall lately? Some stores sell more than merchandise; they sell perversion as a norm. Armani’s Valentine ad campaign featured three couples in sexy poses. Their main webpage showed photos of three couples/lovers. The first panel was two men embracing, the second a man and a woman, and the third two women. All were from the hips up shots and the men wore no apparent clothing. In fact their bodies appeared shiny. The same female model appeared in panel two and three so the spread covered the gamut from homosexual to hetero-sexual to lesbian to bi-sexual in its implications. These photos were being displayed in stores as large posters sending the clear message that anything goes where “love” is concerned.

If enough people refuse to patronize companies that promote immorality, they can’t survive. And say your rosary while you walk the mall for all the people, especially the young, being scandalized by these pornographic images.

***Commit public scandal, expect rebuke! The Washington Post ran an article January 23 on the women’s ordination movement. Typical Post fare, it illustrated the fact that the feminist harpies represent almost nobody. In effect, the Post made a story out of thin air. It would have evaporated except for one significant point: a local organist from St. Leo’s Church in Fairfax publicly endorsed women’s ordination. “Sylvia Mulherin, 69, a former nun married to a former priest, said that Jesus was progressive in his treatment of women but that, over time, men unjustly pushed women out. ‘Maybe the women don't have to come in the back door, but we still have to sit in the pews,’ said Mulherin, who lives in Fairfax County.” [Sylvia, take a course in Church history. What nonsense!] Mulherin’s action was rightly questioned by her pastor, Fr. David Whitestone who called and accepted her resignation when freely offered. The lady disputes Fr. Whitestone’s version and the Post ran a subsequent article on January 28 about the commotion at the parish.

Our question is how did The Post get Mulherin’s view in the first place? The initial article talked about a home “mass” offered by goofy faux nun turned faux priest, Bridget Meehan, who served up wine and flatbread on her coffee table for four ladies as silly as she is. Was Mulherin one of them and did the reporter talk to her there? Or is she just a friend? How exactly did the Post get to her? According to the second Post story, “[Fr.] Whitestone said he did not raise the issue of Mulherin leaving, but [told her] she had violated the diocese's rules for employees by ‘advocating against church teaching.’”

He is absolutely right and it is not a trivial issue. For someone perceived as a church leader to publicly dissent from Church doctrine is a serious scandal that must be addressed. Kudos to Fr. Whitestone for having the courage to deal with it head on. As for Mrs. Mulherin, she can no doubt get a job at an Episcopal church which may be more in line with her theology. Pray for Fr. Whitestone and you might drop him a note at St. Leo’s. (3700 Old Lee Hwy., Fairfax, VA 22030).

***What do you think about locked doors? We aren’t surprised to hear the doors at the chancery are locked and visitors buzzed in and treated with hostility. The bishop imitates the national conference which has operated behind locked doors for years while its various departments enable groups promoting abortion and sodomy. [Visit the Les Femmes blog for documentation of the on-going scandals at the bishops’ conference.] The chancery was open during the tenures of Bishops Welsh and Keating, but in those days the bureaucracy didn’t fill the building. Maybe the bishop is afraid of a terrorist attack from the religion of peace. More likely, as our chancery visitors opined, he worries about “right wing nuts” like us. Les Femmes has been “locked out” of The Catholic Herald ever since Bishop Loverde arrived in the diocese while dissenters like Gerard Sloyan and the CCDI are welcome to brainwash and mislead unsuspecting amd poorly formed Catholics. As for the BLA, manyparishes are struggling to make ends meet (as are families). Charity begins at home. Financially strapped pastors should urge their people to support the parish in lieu of the BLA. The chancery obviously needs a little belt-tightening when two receptionists guard the lobby door. We’d also like to know how much money went into the renovation of the convent for the bishop’s house which has been described as “lavish.”

***Speaking of the BLA & what it funds… We were shocked and disappointed to see the Virginia Catholic Conference (VCC) refuse to support Bob Marshall’s personhood bill, HB 112, defining the preborn baby as a person under the Constitution. Although the head of the conference, Jeff Caruso, testified at the subcommittee hearing on Church teaching, the Conference remained officially “neutral.”

Think about that. On Catholic Advocacy Day, VCC promoted bills on immigration and the death penalty, issues where Catholics can legitimately disagree, but refused to take a position on HB 112. Oh, they supported other pro-life legislations, e.g., banning state funding of abortion and research using aborted babies, but the bill addressing the fundamental issue was essentially deep-sixed by the Catholic Church.

According to our sources at the General Assembly, two members of the subcommittee (Dave Albo and Jerry Kilgore) claimed they were leaning toward the bill but voted against because “the bill was not even supported by the Catholic Church.” The vote was 5-2 against. The two Republicans’ voting for it would have reported the bill out to the full committee. It was a shameful moment for the Virginia bishops that brings to mind another betrayal.

In 2008 Bishop DiLorenzo failed to stop the abortion of a 16-year-old Guatemalan girl who was a ward of the government in the care of Richmond Catholic Charities. Although he knew about the abortion the day before Bishop DiLorenzo simply accepted the claim of his CC director that it couldn’t be stopped, an opinion ridiculous on its face, especially considering a staffer drove the girl to the appointment. It seems pre-born children are less important to the Virginia bishops than murderers and rapists. The bishops were actively involved in stopping two out of three bills that would have expanded the death penalty. But a personhood bill that could be a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade got no support. It’s a scandal!

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