Cardinal Mahony Bearing Witness

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.   He let the predators have continued access to their prey - innocent children - as long as it did not cost the archdiocese any money or him personally any embarrassment.  His reputation and the almighty dollar counted for more than the safety of children, for the effective treatment of priests, or for the service of justice.

Church documents recently released show that Mahony and his assistant, Fr. Curry

were aware children had been raped and otherwise assaulted and were attempting to keep authorities in the dark. They discussed giving the abusive priests out-of-state assignments and keeping them from seeing therapists who might have alerted law enforcement.

Some prince.

Frank Weathers quotes Archbishop Gomez's whole statement here.   Also, for a glimpse into the mobster mentality of Cardinal Mahony, one of the worst bishops in the history of the world (for this and other reasons), see this piece here.

As I wrote to some friends on Facebook ...

Abp. Gomez is doing the right thing - but it's nothing more than any good secular non-Christian man should do. There's nothing heroic about this virtue that Gomez is displaying; it's just doing what's right.  Why creeps like Mahony could not even live up to basic decency by worldly standards much less the standards of Christ and His saints is beyond me.

The power of witness is very strong - when we witness for Christ or when we witness for our own selfish, cowardly and despicable selves.

Sin Your Way to Salvation!

Two very odd and rather funny things about this Matt McGuiness debate.

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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!"

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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 sodomized.  And what has the reaction been?  Criticism of Dawn Eden!  How dare she judge Matt McGuiness.

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

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.  Who the heck do I think I am anyway?

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I am very glad this article was written, for they're coming out of the woodwork.  Christopher West's writings have smelled funny for a long time, but he's clever enough to spray some perfume to cover up the odd odor. But Matt McGuiness and his supporters are less skilled, less coy, less able to couch their true intent in fancy words that sound theological.  Maybe they don't own the right kind of perfume.

For the point they're all really making is this - GIVE YOURSELF OVER TO SINS OF THE FLESH; IF YOU DON'T YOU'RE A PRUDE AND JESUS HIMSELF SAYS SO.

Yep, you can't make this stuff up.

And that's the state of the Church among "conservative Catholics" these days.

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ADDENDUM - You know, I've been thinking.  This heretical interpretation of the Parable of the Prodigal Son cannot be something Ms. Anonymous came up with on her own.  It's apparently being preached or taught.  It's probably a meme of sorts.  It's most likely a part of the secret knowledge of the initiated, of the insiders who are getting the real-deal from Christopher West and his ilk.  Well, I don't know the origin of it, but I can't believe it's with her.

Pornography - Gateway to Communion and Liberation

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 Christ's mouth - go all the way, bro!  See how far your lust will take you.  To do otherwise is puritanical.  To seek the virtuous path of turning away from porn is naive.

No, the solution is not to be found in mortification or penance alone, but in beginning to take our own humanity seriously; seriously enough to go to the depths of the inner meaning of our Baptism, which incorporated us into the Body of Christ, in the flesh.

McGuinness writes.

He continues

If you are already an amateur pornographer, why not consider taking it up “professionally” as it were and see how that makes you happy (or fails to)?

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I say it again.  This is where the Christopher West nonsense leads.

West merely says that a man can put himself in sinful situations if he has "mature purity", and any who balk at this are judgmental puritans who are not maturely pure.  McGuinness says a man should simply sin just to see how unsatisfying sin is - and to do otherwise is to fail "to go to the depths of the inner meaning of our Baptism."  To sin, and to sin seriously, is, for McGuinness plunging the depths of our incorporation into "the Body of Christ, in the flesh".  To sin is to be a brave Christian!

For West, seeking out temptation = mature purity.

For McGuiness a sin of the flesh = the flesh of the Body of Christ.

This is despicable.

Critics of West have seen this coming and we have been sounding the alarm.  But we will continue to be pilloried as half-hearted old fashioned Christians who just ain't bold enough to plumb the depths of desire by equating sins of the flesh with the flesh of the Eucharist.

And McGuinness quotes Scripture to make this appalling argument.  CNA should be mortified that they published this.  C & L should be ashamed and embarrassed that this man is affiliated with them.  Christopher West should be scared that we are finally seeing the fruits of the poison he has been spreading.

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ADDENDUM

McGuinness is actually saying that a sin of the flesh is a deep expression of our incorporation into the Body of Christ.  He is actually saying that we must come through sin to get to the other side.  This is gnostic nonsense; worse than that it is sick and smells of sulphur.

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ADDENDUM 2

McGuinness also proudly points to a scene in Fight Club - Fight Club of all movies! - as a model for whatever rationalization for lust he's trying to sell us.  The scene he calls "marvelous" is the most sexually graphic and vile scene in a tremendously vile movie, and that's saying a lot.  And this is his best example for why "following our lust" like "following our bliss" will get us to heaven.

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ADDENDUM 3

McGuinness also wrongly attributes to G. K. Chesterton the quote, "A man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God."

Even if that statement were true, the obvious reply would be, "Such a man is looking for God in all the wrong places."

And that is exactly what we mean by sin.