I apologize for the infrequency of posts. My plate is a bit full right now. It takes me several days to put thoughts together and publish. By the time it's ready, it seems the controversy is not newsworthy!
In between happenings here at Camp McKinley, I have been reading a bit and thinking about the hoopla around the Al Smith Dinner.
I've read the Cardinal's response to criticism and the responses of the usual suspects who rush to sweep corruption and cowardice of our esteemed episcopal leaders under the carpets.
The message seems to be we are just not as holy and humble as Cardinal Dolan, Mark Shea, Bill Donohue (I'll get to him in a minute), etc. Their manifestos on charity in response to the objections of Catholics, explain, in one way or another, how they are all the imitation of the Christ.
That Cardinal Dolan would lead a crusade of our fellow Catholics to construe our objections as some kind of contest over piety came as a surprise to me. To use Bill Donohue's caricature of the fruit of his conversation with Cardinal Dolan, we see ourselves as 'the piety police'.
I want to state, right here and now, and for the record: I do not contest that I, Carol Mary McKinley, would come in last place in a contest for holiness. Furthermore I zealously concur that Cardinal Dolan, Mark Shea, Bill Donohue are much holier and pious than this miserable sinner. I have little doubt that others objecting to the Cardinal's invitation of Obama to the Al Smith dinner feel precisely the same way.
Holy, holy, holy is Cardinal Dolan, Mark Shea, Bill Donohue, et. al.
Nolo contendere.
Now that I've got that squared away I wish to re-affirm the factual information relative to the Cardinal's assertion that his invitation to dine Obama is the execution of Christ's maxim to dine with sinners vs. Christ's actual ministry as it appears in Scripture.
When Christ drank water from the well of an adulteress to converse with her,we see an interaction between a Jew and a Samaritan woman. The content of the interaction involved prophecy, enumerating the number of "husbands", disclosing His Knowledge that she was not married to the man she was shacking up with, affirmation of the Source of Divinity and living water, which He invited her to drink for the sake of her own salvation. He turned the lights on. Made crystal clear to her what the Source of salvation was, and that her own immoral practices placed her in peril.
By the end of his interactions with the sinner and other Samaritans in the village over the following few days, here is the fruit of the knowledge Christ imparted:
Those who heard the content of Christ's interactions said the following: “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world."
Alternately, the purpose of the Cardinal Dolan's dinner is to raise money for his Archdiocese of New York. Obama is booked as an entertainer. The content of the conversations will be telling jokes, political allies mocking each other over good food, good quality bourbon and cigars.
We do the same thing here in Boston on St. Paddy's day. To the best of my knowledge, not a single politician in the history of the event, taking a taxi home from the event three sheets to the wind, has ever subsequently showed up at RCIA.
If I'm mistaken, please correct me.
See the difference?
The content of the interactions between the Samaritan and Christ were interactions between the Divine Physician and the soul in need of healing and conversion. After the woman, the sinner, arose from sharing water with Christ, she walked away healed.
Year after year at the St. Paddy's Day roasts, the politicians walk away retaining their ignorance and continue passing legislation that murders and kills. Year after year, decade after decade.
Any reasonably prudent person can therefore conclude, Christ's ministry was not about sharing food and drink, telling jokes and laughing it up.
To be clear, Cardinal Dolan is not dining with the sinner for the purpose of converting him or anyone else in the room. He is not assembling for the purposes of salvation and conversion. Obama is his court jester to raise money for the Archdiocese.
It is absurd - and I can't even bring myself to believe it is in good faith - for the Cardinal or anyone else to pretend this gathering is about Cardinal Dolan's imitation of Christ's ministry 'eating with sinners'.
The Cardinal's actions three weeks before an election has the potential and no doubt will be used by Obama's political team to give the appearance the Cardinal honored Obama and they can therefore cast their ballots for Obama. When the Cardinal weighed the consequences to our country, to the children slaughtered under this regime, the sick and imperfect who are heading to the death camps to be euthanized in the next four years, he made a 'pastoral' decision to use Obama as his cash cow.
There isn't a single person in the room of the Al Smith dinner who walk away from the interactions imparted with the knowledge necessary to know Who is the Christ, the Divine Source of Knowledge and Salvation.
It will do just the opposite as the interaction will be used to lend credibility to Obama as the savoir of the world.
The Cardinal's objectives are about the sound of "ca-ching". Consequently, the Al Smith dinner does not qualify for theological clearances of the salvific actions of Christ.
This plebe is here to remind you that the Cardinal's event is about food, booze, cigars and money.
If the Cardinal and his flash mob of the authentic holy Catholic elite want to continue on their path of mocking 2000 years of theology, perhaps they should open up the Al Smith dinner to other notorious sinners so they can be really, really holy?
President Obama's political allies have rekindled the ancient practice of
crucifixions.
If Cardinal Dolan was really, really nice, the Muslim brotherhood would be invited to the Al Smith dinner. "When I was hungry you gave me food." WWJD?
this fella? WWJD?
How about hitting the jackpot and inviting these sinners from Taliban? WWJD?
How about the Kurds? I'll bet they are hungry. WWJD?
These groups rising in the ranks of our country, born of the race and economic hatred being fed to our fellow countrymen by the Obama administration? WWJD?
If you haven't seen the fruit of Cardinal Dolan making phone calls to Catholics turning them into ferocious attack dogs against righteous Catholics, check out Bill Donohue on Lou Dobbs:
See how a Cardinal can turn the money and power behind his crozier into a lightening rod?
Kempis eat your heart out.
As a friend recently said about the Catholic League, which just about sums up the response from the 'piety police':
"Thanks Bill. Perhaps another controversy about lights on a building will come along and you can mobilize your grassroots members around the crusade".
Nero fiddles while Rome burns.
Is this the unification of a shepherd of Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church?
Making phone calls to turn Catholics against one another because his widdle feelings are wounded? He can't look himself in the mirror and say - Gee, I may have made an error in judgment (and theology)here"?
If Catholics like Bill Donohue are going to turn chicken sh*t when they get a phone call from F Troop at the Chancery, rather than showing up on Lou Dobbs to do the Cardinal's bidding, might they simply consider tiptoeing away to hide under their rocks? Leave righteous people to do the work they don't have the spine to do themselves?
Go on...take the money and run.
23 comments:
"I zealously concur that Cardinal Dolan, Mark Shea, Bill Donohue are much holier and pious than this miserable sinner."
You were being sarcastic, right?
I have come to recognize that there are people in this world that wrap themselves in a "holier and smarter than thou" cloak, when they are, in fact, the enemy.
Lisa Grass is another one. She has started a holy was against Paul Ryan and considers him a bad Catholic. She would prefer that the government continue to be in charge of all the charity.
I don't harbor any delusions about anyone watching me walk by, or reading my blog and saying to themselves, "Now there is a holy woman!"
No. I am dead serious.
If they are going to take the time to publish missives about how they are the holy ones of God,I think it's half-past time we give them their golden crowns.
Once we establish they are indeed imitators of Christ in the flesh, perhaps they will stop the incessant crusades to console their wounded egos and they will lower themselves to discuss their theological blunders, misuse of power and money and cowardice with the likes of peasants like us.
The stuff Lisa Grass is putting out on Paul Ryan is despicable. I actually de-friended on facebook because it made me sick to see a practicing, faithful Catholic being slandered and maligned.
They really don't get Catholic theology on It's directives to take care of the poor.
They actually sit behind their computers bashing people who are quietly living out Christ's maxim to do without and give to the poor, to take what is yours and give to the poor.
Taking pot shots at faithful Catholics who quietly actually follow Christ's directives - they think they're all that. They are a regular St. Vincent dePaul!
Please.
The irony of this is, they actually think that giving 800 dollars a month to a poor woman and letting her try to clothe, house and feed her family with it - is some kind living out of Christ's instructions to 'feed the poor'.
Christ did not say 'let Ceasar feed the poor'. He said "YOU" feed the poor. "YOU" house the homeless. "YOU" sell what you have if you must.
Her bashing of Ryan is retribution for the defeat of Rick Santorum. I was really astounded by Rick's personal outreach to Lisa, his kindness. Amazed to see what a genuinely good and humble person he actually is. That is where the rubber hits the road in my book.
Sometimes God outsmarts us. Ok - most times He outsmarts us. We can either roll with the punches or stand our ground and fight to the finish. When we choose that route we are our own worst enemy.
I couldn't watch her political revenge on another decent, faithful Catholic. So many times I watched her deconstruct and then look at the damage and explain has some kind of personality disorder whereby she can't control what she says/does. She shuts everything down. Five minutes later, she is hanging a shingle somewhere else, doing the same thing. Over and over again.
That shtick is worrisome at a time when we need to pull everyone together to get Obama out of the White House.
We're really in need of prayer!
Bravissima, signorina!
once again you've hit it outta the park McKinley!
Deo Gratis!
WWJD? Kick butt like you did!
Lisa Grass does have a genuine mental illness. I have friends and relatives who suffer from them, so I can recognize her problem. However, it's obvious her illness is not under complete control. Because it isn't, IMHO she should not be blogging until she's stabilized. And to think that the American Catholic has her as a posterr! Talk about bad judgement!
Thanks Steve! Fr. Rutler has a great piece I'm planning on linking to either tonight or tomorrow. There is nothing passive-aggressive about this gifted shepherd. I can't wait to hear TTC reader thoughts.
Re: Lisa, the kind of debilitating emotional and mental illness she has is a heavy cross. (Again, I was blown away by Rick's personal outreach to her, kindnesses.)
But she is not ignorant of her own disability. In fact, she knows enough about her own illness to have a warning posted that conveys to the reader that she is aware that on occassion what she writes, says and does is harmful. The warning says please take what she says with a grain of salt (she bolds the word salt).
It's a bit a wifebeater posting a warning on his bedroom door that says 'I realize I am violent but please take my punches and beatings with a grain of SALT.
That would be in lieu of holding yourself accountable, finding the right apostolate for the kind of disability (or personal limitations) one has?
The last place we'd put a wifebeater would be on the "bus with nuns".
Would Carol travel to Ron Coyne's parish and hang a sign around her neck apologizing for an outburst in the middle of a crackpot homily?
Of course not! She knows enough to stay away from crackpots and those who mishandle/abuse the Divinity of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
We don't keep doing what we know provokes symptoms and compensate for the damage one knows one will do by posting a warning.
If you have to post that kind of a message on your blog and all the people around you are waving flags and pointing out erratic and damaging behavior, you have to have enough wits about you to take accountability for your actions. Stop hurting people and the mission you claim to be passionate about.
In this latest round, she strains the knat to accuse Paul Ryan, a man who is devoted to his faith, assents to it's precepts and lives his life accordingly, has a beautiful family -- of being the antithesis of family values. When McClarey tells her she is unhinged and bars her from posting, she duly notes on her own blog that everyone tells her that she is unhinged but that is because she has a mental illness - and then goes on straightaway to repeat her ridiculous assertions about Ryan. The GOP could not have displeaseth her more with the nominees. Harrumph.
No doubt this has sent the GOP scrambling.
I was behind Rick. Sorry to see he didn't get the traction he deserved, but Paul Ryan is a devoted family man, a devoted Catholic, a devoted patriot with gifts, that are patently obvious to anyone in the truth,we need at this critical crossroads.
Her mischaracterizations that the Ryans do not hold family values and are faithful to our principles? To penalize the GOP for displeasing her?
The warnings on her site have lost their patina.
God bless her. Prayers her way.
I am really out of the loop. Who is Lisa Grass?
Please, please be kind to Lisa. She is seriously unwell. Just ignore her. There have been times when I've wanted to write comments on her blog but I don't want her reaction to be on my concience. She dishes it out but really can't take it.
Thanks for the heads up on that Dymphna.
I sorta sensed that and never would say anything to her directly. I definitely do not write comments. Nor do I feel like I could say anything to her privately. Beyond the scope of my input, except for prayer. It probably rises to the level of priest and/or social worker issue if anyone were to approach?
To some degree, we do have to suck it up. Forgive my limitations..I spent so many years enabling I think I let a situation get to the absurd and then I must check out. I can't keep going with playing nice in the sandbox. I do admire people who can - and thank you for taking on that role for the many of us who cannot, for a plethora of reasons.
Carol, Lisa inability to fully understand her behavior and the consequences of it may be the result of anosognosia. It is an unawareness of the extent or existence of a disability. People with bi-polar are very prone to this disorder. I've seen this factor at work in lives of loved ones, and it can be frustrating having to deal with it. It can be comical (a woman insisting she's been pregnant for 18 years) or horrific (refusing lifesaving medical treatment because they insist they're not sick). So' I'm afraid it will be touch and go with Lisa in dealing with any issues.
Thanks Steve. That makes sense. I actually dealt with a person that had some kind of personality disorder and he definitely would not acknowledge, even those his entire life was littered with damage. Thank you for explaining. The poor woman.
It seems her priest has stepped in for the moment and told her not to blog about politics. Let's hope this time she takes the advice.
God bless her - and all those who are dealing with emotional/mental health issues.
Wait...pregnant for 18 years?
That must have been something for family members to deal with!
"pregnant for 18 yrs?" Hard to deal with? Try scheduling a baby shower1 LOL!
Baby Shower??!!! LOL!
She sure was born into the right family.
Her delusion would never have made it past the first trimester with my relatives.
:)
Actually, the baby showers never happened. The remark was meant to be a punch line to the frustation of dealing with a mentally ill loved one.
I know. But to even go along with it for that long..wow.
Many moons ago, we had a cousin whose engagement was broken off and she subsequently had a breakdown and along with other unbalanced behaviors, came to believe she was pregnant. It's a long story, but once it was clear she wasn't, the family did an intervention. A come to Jesus meeting with the doctor, other family members. She ended up in a facility to be evaluated and treated.
Who really knows - maybe she continued to think it herself... but she never mentioned it again and the maternity clothes got thrown away. It could very well be the woman knew enough that if she said that, she would be whisked away to a facility she didn't much care to be admitted/reside.
My family, most of them deceased now, you learned very quickly that they had a zero tolerance policy.
Nobody could ever opine that this is right, or wrong because nobody walks in the shoes of a family member's mental health issues but the close relatives of the loved one who is suffering. Each family has to do what they thing the right thing to do is given the circumstances.
I'm only pointing out how one surviveths in the tribe I run with, and am bemused at the differences.
God Bless us all.
But, who IS Lisa Grass, lol? Somebody, please?
I'm sorry Maria!
Good question. I don't know her history. She's a blogger but I'm not sure if she's done anything beyond that...
Now Catholic relief services employees are now running down pro-lifers with their cars?...CRS btw is poluted with liberals..
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/woman-who-rammed-pro-lifers-with-car-was-employee-of-catholic-relief-servic
I watched Voris' telecast. I can't believe how angry Donahue was! If this is how he generally behaves, then he's doing the Church (let alone Christ Himself) no favors.
Voris is absolutely right about the Catholic Establishment. The problem is that he thinks it can be corrected. Sadly, it can't. The arrogance he describes has been part and parcel of the hierarchy for centuries, and it's not going to change.
Everyone, and I mean everyone, in the hierarchy has to repent of this arrogance, which doesn't reflect Christ's attitude one bit. Otherwise, the Church will continue to deteriorate.
I have come to recognize that there are people in this world that wrap themselves in a "holier and smarter than thou" cloak, when they are, in fact, the enemy.
Spot on Adrienne!
Dolan has given more evidence that he's not living in the real world. This is insane and inane beyond belief! www.lifesitenews.com/news/usccb-president-cardinal-dolan-celebrates-catholicism-of-vp-picks-biden-and
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