The Skunk at the Lawn Party of Cardinal George's Letter to Fr. Pfleger

After reading several faithful Catholic sources praising Cardinal George for his letter to Fr. Pfleger, I wonder...what planet am I on?

Here is a con man who has committed the worst spiritual crime a priest could possibly commit, ripping souls from the Body of Christ and robbing them of their salvation -- and Cardinal George explains how he's tried to "make equally good use of your talents in ministry"?

I want to admire Cardinal George for suspending Fr. Pfleger, but I can't get there.


Cardinal George mentions nothing about the years of scandal or scores of victims. It's almost as if getting people into Heaven is not even a consideration in a priest's vocation. Perhaps that explains why he was putting children under Fr. Pfleger's tutelage.

And, this is lame:

A Catholic priest's inner life is governed by his promises, motivated by faith and love, to live chastely as a celibate man and to obey his bishop... Bishops are held responsible for their priests on the assumption that priests obey them. I have consistently supported your work for social justice and admired your passion for ministry. Many love and admire you because of your dedication to your people.

Do you mean to tell me that all of the antics of Fr. Pfleger were carried out under the obedience of Cardinal George?

CMR reports that Fr. Pfleger's supporters marched and protested at Cardinal George's residence. That's nothing compared to what Pfleger has taught them to protest against Christ.

Chicago Cuckoo Priest Pfleger Running For Mayor

“America is the greatest sin against God.” Pfleger

New show producer, Bud Billikin of Chicago’s South Side Productions, Inc., has announced that the new show will follow the Father Pfleger as he embarks on the adventure of a lifetime, a run for Mayor of Chicago.

On Friday Pfleger is expected to announce his run against long-time Democrat strongman Richard Daley whose father, a Mayor before him, was famed for having “helped” JFK win the White House in 1960.

“We expect quite a show,” Billikin told reporters. “The good Father has all sorts of great catch phrases to make his run interesting and what a speaker!

Creepy.

I once read on Fr. Z's that Cardinal George was afraid to discipline him because Pfleger is in tight with gangland style killers in Chicago and the Cardinal wants to live. That would kind of make Pfleger a mafia type, eh? The guy should have been defrocked years ago. I must confess, I don't get how any Cardinal would prefer to sit back and do nothing to save your own life letting a priest loose who is destroying immortal souls and is so powerful with killers that the lives of people are in danger all around him.

'Cowardice' doesn't quite explain away why George would award Pfleger with the "priest of the year" award. Do you do that for a man you fear would and could send out assassins that are at his disposal?

To me, this explains why the Episcopal Conference has been supportive of politicians whose policies and administration massacres infants in utero. People who have other people killed for the "common good" can be honored and awarded. Killing isn't a problem in a 'pluralistic society' unless it's their own backsides.

The Blame Game

The audacity of Bishop Zavala to say the USCCB is troubled by faithful Catholics who have taken to exposing their dissent, corruption and ineptitude was the subject of Michael Voris's Vortex yesterday.



Meanwhile, remember how Cardinal George criticized millionaire Sr. Carol Keehan and the Catholic Health Association for setting up a parallel Magisterium?

Today,Secreaty of Communications for the Bishop's Conference, Ms. Helen Osman, gave Cardinal George a can of whoopass, saying Cardinal George never said any such thing, she has an audio proving it but of course will not release it.

At the time of this blog entry, Cardinal George had not stepped up to the plate.

Thread at Fr. Z's.

Any more questions about why bloggers have taken the feather to what's left of the USCCB spines and push them aside to start a conduit for the new evangelism?

As a commenter points out on Fr. Z's blog, Cardinal George is the same guy who awarded Fr. Pfleger with a lifetime achievement award.

Mr. Jeckyll, meet Mr. Hyde.

Carol Keehan is the love child of the counterfeit church the USCCB has been erecting for 40 years. With every act of wimpiness, cowardice, lies, corruption and cover up, the division gets wider and our resolve gets stronger.


There are two armies now gathering within the Catholic Church - today's Vortex:

Sr. Anita Baird "Apologizes"

Sr. Anita Baird, the founding director of the Office of Racial Justice for the Chicago Archdiocese, has apologized for saying that President Obama is simply pro-choice and not pro-abortion, and now professes that "there can be no distinction" between the two.

"In order to clarify my quote that appeared on LifeSiteNews.com, I am affirming my belief in the teachings of the Catholic Church and understand that there can be no distinction between pro-abortion and pro-choice, because the choice at issue is the choice to kill a child," wrote Baird in a statement released Wednesday. "I also apologize to those who were scandalized by my statement."

I can't quite put my finger on what's making me uncomfortable about this "apology".

Is Cardinal George and Sr. Baird admitting they're giving a lifetime achievement award to a priest who is not only clearly a loon, but who they now admit helped set up a regime to put policies in place to kill more children to help the poor manage their budgets and limit government spending on their children?

Is there anybody who is lucid considers this an "apology"?

If you give a lifetime achievement award to priests who promote policies that kill children, what is next?    

Cardinal George awarding Paul Shanley with a lifetime achievement award?

The insincerity compounds the scandal for people who believe Cardinals coddling priests promoting babykilling is worse than their coddling pedophiles.

And, by the way - that's a pretty nice set of pearls on Sister.


What do you think, that's about a 38 inch set, wouldn't you say?   That's about fifteen grand hanging around her neck.

Cardinal George's Lifetime Achievement Award

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when Michael Voris finds out Cardinal George is giving a lifetime achievement award to Michael Pfleger, wouldn't you?

Yes, the Archdiocese of Chicago’s “Office of Racial Justice” is bestowing the demagogic Pfleger of the St. Sabina parish with a “lifetime achievement award” for his “service in pursuit of dismantling racism, injustice and inequalities on behalf of African Americans and all people of color” — and the Archbishop of Chicago himself, Cardinal George, is the official “presider.”
In June 2008, the racial cowards of the Chicago Archdiocese put Pfleger on a temporary leave to quell churchgoers’ outrage over Pfleger’s Hillary Clinton-mimicking, America-bashing, Vanilla Ice-prancing, Jeremiah Wright-impersonating, Louis Farrakhan-embracing cult leader. After laying low a measly few weeks to “reflect” on his outbursts, Pfleger returned triumphantly to the pulpit. And now, he’ll be feted by the Archbishop for his toxic tongue.

What makes this development so duplicitous is that Cardinal George sent a letter about Tom Roeser's Board of Directors asking them to muzzle his expositions of diocesan wizards.

Dear Mr ______,

           I write to you because you are a member of the Advisory Board of Catholic Citizens of Illinois whose chairman is Mr. Thomas F. Roeser. 

         Mr. Roeser has taken in recent years to writing essays that are filled with factual errors and misrepresentations about events in the Archdiocese of Chicago.  His writing about both clerical and lay officials of the Archdiocese are also personally insulting and filled with contempt.  At times when the Pope or the bishops’ teachings or activities do not conform in every detail to his political convictions, he descends to hate mongering. I’ve included a recent example for your consideration. 

         Would it be possible for you to use your role as advisor to Catholic Citizens of Illinois to put an end to the hate literature produced by the Chairman?  Thank you. [Emphasis mine]. 

                                                  Sincerely yours in Christ,

                                                 Francis Cardinal George OMI

                                                Archbishop of Chicago.

Is he kidding?

Less Than Fully Catholic to Finally Come Under Scrutiny?

The USCCB is circling the wagons of hijackers of Catholic identity.

Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Nov. 16 that Catholic publications, universities or other organizations that insist on complete independence from their bishops are “sectarian, less than fully Catholic.”

In his presidential address at the opening session of the fall USCCB general assembly in Baltimore, George announced that the bishops “have recently begun discussions on how we might strengthen our relationship to Catholic universities, to media claiming to be a voice in the church, and to organizations that direct various works under Catholic auspices.”

According to NCR sources, those issues were to be the main topic of discussion in a three-hour executive session the afternoon of Nov. 18, when the bishops were slated to meet alone behind closed doors, with all reporters and observers and virtually all USCCB staff excluded.

George placed his comments in the context of the bishops’ role in governance as promoters and guarantors of church unity.

I'm really excited about the prospect of finally obtaining clarity for the sake of our children and the propagation of our faith.

“Since everyone in Catholic communion is truly interrelated, and the visible nexus of these relations is the bishop, an insistence on complete independence from the bishop renders a person or institution sectarian, less than fully Catholic. The purpose of our reflections, therefore, is to clarify questions of truth or faith and of accountability or community among all those who claim to be part of Catholic communion.”

At a press conference later that afternoon George declined to name specific Catholic media, higher education or other organizations that the bishops might have in mind, but he said that more generally “if any institution, including the media, calls itself Catholic,” it is the moral responsibility of a bishop to assure that it is Catholic.

That offers the bishops “a chance to clarify the relationship” and see if the entity in question is operating within the bonds of Catholic communion, he said.

Phenomenal.

More coverage here.

Cardinal George also spoke about the responsibilities of bishops as teachers, defending the right of the bishops to define what it means to be Catholic and "to clarify questions of truth or faith and of accountability or community among all those who claim to be part of Catholic communion."

In making that remark about Catholic identity, Cardinal George was referring to two separate but related controversies: his own decision to set up USCCB committees to set standards for Catholic identity in educational institutions and media outlets; and the current political debate over health-care reform, in which the US bishops' conference has been heavily involved. Regarding the latter, the cardinal defended the right of Church leaders to engage in the public debate, noting that bishops are moral leaders, and "issues that are moral questions before they become political remain moral questions when they become political.”

Cardinal George Fires Another Warning Across the Bow of Obama's Ship

Catholics Who Vote for Freedom of Choice Act Could Face Automatic Excommunication

At a press conference at the fall meeting of the USCCB held in Baltimore last week, CNSNews.com asked Cardinal George if the language in the Catholic Catechism that says “formal cooperation” in abortion incurs the penalty of excommunication would apply to a Catholic member of Congress voting for FOCA.

“The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense and the church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life,” CNSNews.com asked.

“If openly Catholic politicians vote for this Freedom of Choice Act, which would pretty much allow unfettered access to abortion in the United States, would it be an automatic grounds for excommunication? But even if it’s not automatic … could you just explain the process of the excommunication?” CNSNews.com added.

“The excommunication is automatic if that act is in fact formal cooperation, and that is precisely what would have to be discussed once you would see the terms of the act itself,” responded George.

“Could you expand on that, Cardinal,” a reporter asked.

“The categories in moral theology about cooperating in evil, which make you complicit in the evil even though you don’t do it yourself, are material cooperation, which is usually remote and therefore doesn’t involve you in the moral action except in a very auxiliary and minor way, and formal cooperation, which would involve you even though you are not doing it, in the way that makes you culpable,” said George.

“So we would have to take a look at each case, and at each law, to determine whether or not the cooperation is material or formal. We’ve never done that,” he added.

I'm really encouraged by the leadership of Cardinal George.

Deal Hudson does a good job at flushing out the definition of formal cooperation.