At the annual Red Mass this last weekend — the mass so dubbed to symbolize the fire of the Holy Spirit — Washington, D.C. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick spoke not of fearless truth-telling but of “civility.” And what does he mean by civility? It would appear, judging by remarks he delivered at a Catholic University of America law school forum in September which featured King Abdullah II of Jordan, that civility means softpedaling Christian truth.
While the text of McCarrick’s talk was labeled “remarks,” they were actually a “prayer” which followed an address by King Abdullah entitled, “Traditional Islam: The Path to Peace.” As McCarrick does with the tenets of the Catholic faith, King Abdullah was playing considerably loose with the doctrines of true Islam, muting its association of “peace” with routing infidels.
Notwithstanding McCarrick’s unctuous PC prattle, Christianity and Islam are irreconcilable. All the prayers, hand holding and mushy words will never change the fundamental fact that Muslims reject the divinity of Christ. And, apparently, today, Catholic clergymen are not sure of it either!
McCarrick began his comments with a reference to an earlier occasion when he had the “privilege” to pray for world peace with the King. At that time, he asked Allah “the compassionate and merciful Lord of all the world” to help make Jordan and its people “a bridge across which all nations might walk in unity, fellowship, and peace.” He confidently asserted that his invocation was heard and had been reciprocated.
The Cardinal at the conclusion of his prayer again called for Allah’s intercession: “May Allah…guide and protect you, your family and your beloved country….In the name of Allah, the merciful and compassionate God, we pray. Amen.”
It would be hard to find a more flagrant violation of the First Commandment than those words uttered above. In case McCarrick has forgotten, or maybe he just does not believe it anymore, the First Commandment is meant, among other things, for man to love, worship, and adore God and no other. For Catholics, God is a Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Sorry, Cardinal McCarrick, but Allah is not part of the Trinity.
Except for a couple of vigilant websites which have denounced him, there has been little outrage from the local Catholic community. Nor has the Vatican issued a reprimand. This is not surprising, for while the Cardinal may have shown imprudence in their eyes, the mindless ecumenical spirit animating his talk still finds support in modernist quarters of Rome. In fact, Pope Benedict’s predecessor caused a similar scandal when he said that St. John the Baptist was a saint for Muslims as well as Christians!
Defective prelates like McCarrick can snooker the laity, as it has been snowed by forty years of spirit-of-Vatican II babble about “embracing” and “dialoguing” with other faiths and creeds. So few lay Catholics will say to McCarrick: Don’t you believe that the Church has a duty to baptize and convert all nations? Lame catecthetics have rendered many of the faithful incapable of recognizing the most explicit of heretical statements.
While McCarrick prays to Allah, he forgets who he is supposed to represent in this world. A little hint: it is not the “god” of King Abdullah!
McCarrick is ashamed to mention, too loudly, lest he offend against “civility,” the Deity he confessed at his priestly ordination. But Christ had a warning for such pusillanimous prelates: “For whosoever shall be ashamed of me, and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of man also shall be ashamed of him, when he shall come in the glory of his Father with the holy Angels.”
