I have often written that the reason some folks persist in
calling themselves Catholic is to be ready when reporters from the
New York Times come to call. Sometimes I think that the
Old Gray Lady might someday be the catalyst for many conversions to
the faith, should serious thinkers ever meditate on just why the
Church is so often in her crosshairs.
The Catholic Church is the largest institution in the
world, and probably the oldest still in existence; and as such, her
ways have been and still are well known throughout the globe. Why
then, must she constantly explain herself to those who neither hold
to her tenets nor share her mission? And even more curiously, why
are her attempts to lead her own flock the subject of so much
controversy? Surely, in this enlightened age, no one is forced to
be a Catholic. If those who chafe at Rome’s bit wish, there are
many options out there from which to choose. But this exercise of
free will does not serve the real agenda of those who wish all
worship of God expunged from our nation.
A case in point is the recent
decree by Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Arizona which revoked his
consent for St. Joseph’s Hospital to “use the word Catholic or be
identified as Catholic in the Diocese of Phoenix,” because he
learned that an 11-week-old baby had been aborted in direct
contravention of Church teaching. Prior to this unfortunate action
he was forced to take, he also privately informed a nun, Sister
Mary McBride, who sat on the hospital’s ethics committee that, as a
result of her consent to the abortion, she and all other Catholics
involved had automatically incurred excommunication.
Anyone familiar with this issue knows that, as has been
pointed out by myself and many others including
Pope Benedict XVI, that this self-excommunication, or
latae sententiae, is supported
by Canon law, “which says that the killing of an
innocent child is incompatible with receiving communion, which is
receiving the body of Christ.” This also explains why Bishop
Olmsted was correct in removing the Blessed Sacrament from the
hospital chapel and forbidding the celebration of Mass on the
premises.
Which is where the Times and its ongoing
anti-Catholic crusade come in. An op-ed piece
by Nicholas Kristof entitled “Tussling Over Jesus” begins thusly:
“The National Catholic Reporter newspaper put it
best: ‘Just days before Christians celebrated Christmas,
Jesus got evicted.’” (A note to those who think NCR
is a Catholic publication representing the views of a great many
Americans of the Faith: NCR and its ilk are no more
representative of adherence to the Magisterium of the Church than
are Planned Parenthood and its supporters in encouraging women to
become parents.)
In keeping with Times’ policy as stated in my
opening paragraph, Kristof then quoted a total of four “Catholics”;
the hospital’s president, two writers from NCR, and
vampire chronicler Anne Rice, who
recently “quit being a Christian;” a group she now calls
“quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious and deservedly infamous.”
Kristof then goes on to crow that “The Catholic Health Association
of the United States, a network of Catholic hospitals around the
country, stood squarely behind St. Joseph’s.” Except that, the CHA
— which naively backed ObamaCare, believing promises that it
contained no federal abortion funding — has since recanted and
issued a statement supporting
the bishop and recognizing that he is the “authoritative
interpreter” of the ethical and religious directives that guide
Catholic health care in his Diocese.
And in choosing to revoke St. Joseph’s Catholic
designation, Bishop Olmsted cited continued abuses by the hospital
and its parent organization, San Francisco-based Catholic
Healthcare West. Indeed, CHW and its
affiliates are responsible for distributing numerous types of
contraception, performing sterilizations and granting monies to
organizations that promote Planned Parenthood and the homosexual
lifestyle; all of which may seem desirable to some, but not to
faithful Catholics.
And that’s the problem. Most folks, and indeed many
Catholics who have not been properly catechized, simply do not
understand the Faith. They don’t understand, for example, that
excommunication is far from being a tool to punish and permanently
separate Catholics from the Church, but an act of charity aimed at
getting the person to recognize their error and return to a
faithful reception of the sacraments; most often accomplished
simply by making a sincere sacramental confession and receiving
absolution.
Servant of God, Archbishop Fulton Sheen, once famously
said, “There are not over a hundred people in the United States who
hate the Catholic Church. There are millions, however, who hate
what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church — which is, of
course, quite a different thing.”
And this, my friends, is what consumes the New York
Times and its minions; expanding on the lies and distortions
about the Church and her Founder. It’s why folks like Kristof, who
make a habit of
denigrating people of a certain faith — hint: it’s not Islam —
will continue to seek out disgruntled Christians who have lost
their way as proof that religion is indeed merely the opiate of
bitter clingers.
But when it comes down to it, the only ones evicting
Jesus are the people who have chosen to expel him from their hearts
by rejecting the hard parts of his teaching that interfere with
their chosen lifestyles.
