Friday, November 11, 2011

Dan Avila Update and an SOS to the Vatican

As everyone following the story knows by now, Dan Avila 'resigned' over his column in the Pilot. After his resignation, I held off a bit because I wanted to know whether the 'resignation' was a polite way to cover up his termination or whether he truly resigned of his own free will. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that whether he was driven out or he fled, Cardinal O'Malley has created a hostile work environment for the advancement of Church teaching and the dynamic of this hostile influence reaches to the USCCB.

Dan's commentary lacked some clarity and syntax on original sin and temptation, but theologically, it was sound. Sexual temptation is the devil's most effective tool. We are not engaged in a war of words. Our goal, above all else, is to deliver from temptation. To lead to the sanctifying grace that produces virtue and chastity.

The reality of the situation is, the media is inciting malice and hostility towards Christendom. Given this, how we craft our message that the Catholic Church is the custodian of the temporal and spiritual tools that lead us to chastity when confronted with temptation, has to be worded carefully.

Perhaps a clarification should have been issued. Dan Avila has been faithfully serving Christ's Church for over 30 years. The fact the Cardinal elected to pursue firing the man or made the environment so toxic he had to flee, while keeping prelates on the payroll with a history of shacking up with their lovers, is actionable. We must take action. It is our baptismal duty to take action.

I was speaking with a colleague the other day and mentioned that Cardinal O'Malley is, sadly, too weak to manage the presbyteral mafia. His reply was: "I don't know that he's weak. He is the one that put them all in there".

We do not know the reasons but the evidence is crystal clear: Cardinal O'Malley is the arbiter of silencing Catholic teaching and is leading souls into temptation. He is the architect of the plan. He has hired the workers and he is executing that plan. It's a tough pill to swallow for all of us.

Our colleagues at Boston Catholic Insider have taken the time to put together another communication campaign to the Vatican.

It is simple and takes a few moments of your time.

Please take those moments now and send off the faxes.

2 comments:

Maria said...

I guess homosexual orientation is the work, not of Satan, as Avila rightly suggeted, but our Lord, huh?

TTC said...

Maria,

I wish I knew what Donilon is trying to imply. He wouldn't know Catholic teaching if the Catechism was under his nose. God does not create adulterers, prostitutes, masturbators - etc. Whatever sins we are attracted to, the process involves the tempter.