Waiting for Godot to Leave

My friends, do you wonder why people abandon the Church?  Do you wonder why atheism is all the rage among the pierced and tattooed teens and college kids who work at Subway?  Do you wonder why nobody takes the whole God thing too seriously any more? Well, there are many reasons. But one reason is this.  It's because so few bishops do what Los Angeles Archbishop Gomez just did. Reading these files, reflecting on the wounds that were caused, has been the saddest experience I’ve had since becoming your Archbishop in 2011. ...  Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties. Thus writes Archbishop Gomez, banning Cardinal Mahony, a "prince of the Church", from any public or administrative duties.  Why?  Because Mahony deliberately and with care and precision shielded child abusing priests from the law, shuffling them from parish to parish, and pawning them off on other dioceses. ...

Two very odd and rather funny things about this Matt McGuiness debate. *** 1. McGuiness' defenders in the comboxes here keep telling me over and over that I'm misreading him.  And then they proceed to paraphrase what he's saying so that I can understand it, and they proceed to say exactly what I'm claiming McGuiness is saying.  It goes something like this ... "You've misread him totally!  He's not saying you can sin your way to salvation!  He's saying that if you're sinning a little bit, you should sin a whole lot more so you'll be miserable and repent and find salvation!" *** 2. It is impossible to criticize the content of anyone's argument without being accused of being judgmental and committing a mortal sin, such as calumny or detraction. This is not so funny, actually. For example, Dawn Eden, who was a victim of childhood sexual abuse, complains that McGuiness opens his article by making light of a teenage girl being ...

Well, my post Pornography - Gateway to Communion and Liberation , about the really bad CNA article on porn, is "trending" as they say. And one of the commenters there has just said that McGuiness is right, we should indulge our desire for porn SO THAT we may feel remorse about how empty that desire actually is.  Indeed, she argues, the whole point of the Parable of the Prodigal Son - a Parable Jesus Himself told us! - is that we OUGHT TO SIN so that we may feel remorse.  And not only did I misunderstand this parable, but so (apparently) did St. Paul when he told the Romans that we are not to sin so that good may come. But more than that, I am the Jealous Older Brother in the parable.  I'm the one who "refuses to join the party" - meaning, in this case, I'm wrong and puritanical to get angry that other guys are masturbating to online porn while I do my best not to.  Instead, I should "join the party".  I should get off my high horse and sin.  ...

OK, here's where the Christopher West thing is heading. A purely despicable article in CNA by Communion and Liberation member Matt McGuinness shows you what you need to know .  McGuinness uses West's tactics, but takes them just a wee bit further. Rightly, McGuinness points out that our deepest desires are for more than what lust can provide, and that seeking to use porn to fulfill these desires is bound for frustration. But, incredibly - and it astonishes me as I write this - McGuiness, a member of a devout Catholic organization writing for a Catholic publication, encourages men to go all out for porn .  You want it?  Go for it!  You'll see it doesn't help. In other words, sin and sin boldly. To do otherwise is to be LESS THAN HOLY, or so McGuinness implies.  Do you desire to bring yourself to climax before lewd pictures on the internet but feel reluctant to do so?  Heck, you're a piker!  Don't be lukewarm or you'll be vomited out of Chris...