We Have no King but Caesar

2012 has dawned, and "Real Catholic TV" is still calling itself "Real Catholic TV", despite their bishop admonishing them not to.

So let me get this straight.

"Real Catholics" disobey and mock their ordinaries when it suits them - a la Fr. Pavone and "freefrpavone.com" - or simply ignore them - a la Michael Voris.

By the same token, "Real Catholics" defend their bishops from just criticism and from calls to follow more closely the teachings of Christ - a la Bishop Finn.

Point out that Bishop Finn, successor to the apostles, should follow the Christian truth that he preaches, defending the most innocent and helpless among us, and "Real Catholics" will threaten to beat you up. Point out that if bishops should follow canon law and deny communion to unrepentant pro-abortion politicians (which they should), then lay leaders of apostolates should follow canon law and not call something Catholic that is not Catholic (Voris' rants are sometimes quite far from Catholic, "real" or "surreal") - point this out, and you'll be lynched.

So how do we know what to do?

Should we defend our bishops or disobey them?

Should we follow canon law or flout it?

The answer: politics trumps religion.

We have no king but Caesar.

Comments

The Full Story on Bishop Finn

" Let's step outside and settle this thing like men ," she said, and she was a lady. " You're spewing anti-Catholic rhetoric !" he insisted. "How can you criticize a bishop when you're an actor and everyone knows actors are perverts and nitwits ," she screamed. (That last gal had a point). These are all reactions to my post last week about Rod Dreher's article on Bishop Finn's Indictment. And above all, people are charging me with believing the biased media coverage of the scandal. This, at least, is not true. In fact, everything I say in this post will be taken not from a media account of the scandal , but from the independent report on it as commissioned by the diocese , the Graves Report, which you can read on your own here . So let's shove the media aside and see for ourselves what's contained in this internal diocesan report conducted by an independent firm. *** Fr. Shawn Ratigan was a priest of the diocese of Kansas Cit...

What Follows ...

At one point I took all of these posts down, because I felt I had been far too willingly brainwashed into a religious system that was doing more harm than good. But, lately, I decided to republish some of the more interesting posts. What follows is about ten percent of what I posted from 2007 to 2021. They are in an odd chronological order, becuase Blogger is a clunky. Meanwhile, you can find my more sane (and more recent) musings here - https://theateroftheword.substack.com .

Alarms and Violent Decisions

On Monday I returned from nearly two weeks on the road, our Great North Tour, in which we gave 15 performances of 7 scripts in 13 days in 6 states – from Grand Forks, North Dakota, to Holt’s Summit, Missouri. In all of that wonderful chaos God gave me the great blessing of being away from the internet . And two weeks away from the Lying for Jesus issue was very therapeutic. But as therapy ends and Lent begins, I’d like to conclude my thoughts on the firestorm that swept us all up into the single most divisive issue I have encountered in ten years as a Catholic. My Role in This Back in August, James O’Keefe was invited to give what amounted to the keynote address at the American Chesterton Society Conference in Emmitsburg, Maryland. O’Keefe electrified the crowd by telling us that he was inspired by G. K. Chesterton (he did not mention his other role model, quasi-Satanist Saul Alinsky) and that he, James O’Keefe, was willing to live a monk –like existence harassed by leftists and...

Waiting for Godot to Leave

Search This Blog