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A Further Perspective
Cardinal Wuerl’s Open Scandal
His spokeswoman has filed a complaint against me with TAS.
Last week Cardinal Donald Wuerl lodged a complaint against me with my editors at TAS, via his communications director, Chieko Noguchi, after my article, “Cardinal Wuerl’s Dereliction of Duty,” appeared.
This is pretty much what I expected. Wuerl is notoriously thin-skinned about sharp criticism from orthodox Catholics. And since he likes to operate in the shadows — confrontation is “not his style of pastoral ministry,” he told a reporter in 2007 — he had his paid PR agent do the dirty work for him. Say this for Tod Tamberg, Cardinal Roger Mahony’s former spokesman: he at least wrote a straightforward letter to the editor denouncing me after I criticized the former Los Angeles prelate. Two, actually. In the first, Tamberg dismissed me as a “medievalist,” which should give you a sense of the low esteem in which Mahony holds the age of Aquinas. In the second, Tamberg accused me of sloppiness while botching the spelling of my last name.
But as I say, at least he put pen to paper. Ms. Noguchi, perhaps reflecting the style of her boss, prefers to create troubles for me by phone.
Go ahead and do damage to me in this city, Cardinal Wuerl. I don’t care. I will not surrender one inch to PC prelates like yourself who punish dutiful priests while pandering to the enemies of the Church.
This moronic controversy, triggered by a self-described practicing “lesbian Buddhist” who effortlessly mau-maued Cardinal Wuerl into a craven apology and trumped-up “administrative leave” order to Fr. Marcel Guarnizo, is a grotesque farce beyond the satirical imagination of Evelyn Waugh.
I petition the Holy See — if anyone happens to read TAS there — for urgent relief. This scandal is sickening. Cardinal Wuerl has damaged the reputation of a faithful priest, exposed the Holy Eucharist to sacrilege, scandalized confused congregants, and handed a propaganda victory to forces of secularism that seek to destroy the Church in America.
Knowing Cardinal Wuerl, he will probably write to allies at the Vatican after this column appears. That was his practice in Pittsburgh, where he served before arriving in D.C. In 1994, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Wuerl, whenever he saw criticism of his heterodoxy appear in a conservative publication like the Wanderer, would move into action:
If The Wanderer or a letter-writer attacks him, Wuerl doesn’t wait for Rome to send him an inquiry. He immediately writes to the appropriate Vatican office, enclosing a copy of the Wanderer article and full documentation on any diocesan program in question.
This ”shows that our teaching material here is absolutely orthodox. But the second purpose is to show that there are a lot of irresponsible statements made, and they need to be accepted as just that,” he said.
Wuerl doesn’t believe that Vatican officials take The Wanderer and its like seriously.
”I have never received an inquiry from Rome based on that type of accusation. If (Vatican officials) were taking it seriously, I think they would raise some questions,” he said.
But not all bishops are as savvy as Wuerl, said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit political scientist who makes his living studying the bishops.
“Wuerl is sophisticated. He understands the Vatican, he knows who to talk to. The bishop who has never worked in Rome probably doesn’t know which office to respond to — and the people in Rome don’t know him. Wuerl is known and respected in Rome. When (conservative pressure groups) start accusing him, they lose their credibility,” Reese said.
Did you notice the source of that last quote — Fr. Thomas Reese? He is the openly heterodox Jesuit ninny who had the gall to say that Wuerl should send Fr. Guarnizo back to the gulag. “If I was Cardinal Wuerl, I’d buy him a one-way ticket to Moscow,” the Rolodexed Reese said to a purring press.
Perhaps non-Catholic readers of TAS, who have stayed with this column up to this paragraph, are wondering why they should even care about Wuerl’s fiasco. Isn’t this just one more tedious sectarian squabble in the Church? I agree with you that it is boring, but it is not trivial. As pretentious as it sounds, these skirmishes form small battles in a larger war that affects everyone. Both Catholic and non-Catholic Americans, whether they realize it or not, benefit from a free and orthodox Catholic Church for a very basic reason: it stands as the era’s last major barrier to the triumph of the coercive secular state.
The capitulations of the Wuerls to the atheistic agitprop artists of the age — the “lesbian Buddhist” at the center of this controversy stands as a symbol of them all — hasten the disintegration of that barrier. Without it, the coercive state will simply replace God, and all Americans will wake up one day to find this pitiless secular deity on their doorsteps, red in the tooth and clause of Obamacare, ravenous for their freedom.
About the Author
George Neumayr, a contributing editor to The American Spectator, is co-author, with Phyllis Schlafly, of the new book, No Higher Power: Obama’s War on Religious Freedom.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (162) | Leave a comment
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Stuart Koehl| 3.26.12 @ 7:17AM
As a Greek Catholic, I cringe when I hear of these Eucharistic abuses in the Latin Church. Not only do they offend against God, but also against our own sense of piety and propriety. For us Greek Catholics in particular, there is the added pain of having to explain this situation to our Eastern Orthodox brethren, for the Orthodox zealously guard the Chalice, and will not only turn away non-Orthodox Christians, but also Orthodox faithful who have not followed the Eucharistic discipline of their Church (which involves fasting from midnight before receiving communion, recent confession, and attendance at Saturday evening Vespers and Sunday morning Matins).
In contrast, the Eucharistic discipline of the Latin Church can truly be said to have collapsed almost entirely. Few go to confession beforehand; fasting regulations can be described as "Spit out your gum upon entering the church"; and reception is treated as a right, rather than a privilege which we should approach with full consciousness of our own unworthiness.
The push for frequent communion begun by Pope Pius XI was a well-intentioned, indeed, necessary return to patristic practices, but in its desire to promote the new policy, the Latin Church overturned important safeguards upon the Chalice and lost its sense of balance. Indeed, as the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Maximos IV once said of the Latin Church, "They go from one extreme to the other".
Alan Brooks| 3.26.12 @ 7:37AM
"Tamberg dismissed me as a 'medievalist'... "
Haven't you heard of the Renaissance?
Ryan| 3.26.12 @ 9:18AM
Not that the medieval period was all fun and games, but it was there, and not necessarily the Renessaince, which laid the foundation for Western Civilization.
ENOUGH ROPE| 3.27.12 @ 1:19AM
The Eucharist withheld by Fr. Guarnizo IS the body and blood of Christ which can be received only by Catholics who are in the state of grace. If a Catholic receives the Eucharist while being in the state of mortal sin, then that Catholic commits a sacrilge which is a very serious mortal sin. The woman's claim to be a practicing Buddhist disqualifies her to receive the Eucharist because she in effect admitted that she was NOT a Catholic. That makes her ineligible to receive the Eucharist because she is not a Catholic. Fr. Guarnizo knew the woman was in the state of mortal sin by her own introduction of her lesbian lover. Cardinal Wuerl failed to uphold a very firm scriptural admonition by St. Paul about receiving the Eucharist unworthily.
Cardinal Wuerl chose political correctness instead of the Word of God. He should be removed from his pastoral duties and be demoted to bishop to preclude his ability to vote for a Pope in conclave.
Fr. Reese is a well know heterodox, as are too many of his fellow Jesuits. Georgetown U, a Jesuit university, concealed the Crucifix behind Obama for Obama's speech at GU. That is denying Christ! For shame!
phoo| 3.27.12 @ 9:34AM
Cardinal Wuerl WANTS TO BE POPE! not just vote. This action is he declaration of intent. It is served to the modernist clique of cardinals that will be in the conclave after Benedict XVI's death. The Abomination wants to stand where it ought not!
ADHD| 3.29.12 @ 2:13AM
Demoted to bishop? Are you kidding??
What Mr. Wuerl needs is to be totally defrocked, excommunicated and anathematised - and the same with Signor Carlo Martini (ex-"archbishop" of Milano, Italy) is absolutely no less necessary!!!!
Alan Brooks| 3.26.12 @ 9:58AM
"the coercive state will simply replace God, and all Americans will wake up one day to find this pitiless secular deity on their doorsteps, red in the tooth and clause of Obamacare, ravenous for their freedom."
He wants to link everything to Obamacare??
Neumayr isn't a conservative, he is a paranoid Rightist.
Stuart Koehl| 3.26.12 @ 10:45AM
Control of health care gives the government a compelling interest in regulating the most minute aspects of personal life (in the interest of cost saving, of course). Since bad life choices can lead to health problems that pull on the public purse, the government can regulate what you do, what you eat, what you weigh, and what you believe. There are already more than enough psychologists and psychiatrists ready to identify religious faith as a form of psychosis--or, at the very least, to label a number of religious moral positions as deleterious to mental health--that suppression of religious belief, or its limitation to a closely held private opinion, is actually not all that difficult to conceive.
Alan Brooks| 3.26.12 @ 11:16AM
"or, at the very least, to label a number of religious moral positions as deleterious to mental health"
Religion is escapism, as are all efforts to flee the unpleasant aspects of reality. As long as you know in the back of your mind it isn't real...
Purple Lips| 3.26.12 @ 11:34AM
Have you ever considered that Christianity is the ultimate reality? Just saying.
Alan Brooks| 3.26.12 @ 1:11PM
And so can Satanism be.
PaulyD| 3.26.12 @ 1:35PM
Alan Brooks,
I presume you speak about Satanism from personal experience?
SUBVET| 3.26.12 @ 1:36PM
I would rather live my life as if there is a God, and die to find out there isn't.
Than live my life as if there isn't, and find out there is.
The great Satan| 3.26.12 @ 5:51PM
I have, and it isn't.
Dan| 3.26.12 @ 9:45PM
Yawn.
Jack in Wi.| 3.27.12 @ 3:42AM
Alan: I can define atheism in 3 sentences. We came from nothing. We are here for no reason.We are going nowhere. With such a reality is it no wonder that most of the world's population has embraced some religion? You atheists have no answers for anything.
phoo| 3.27.12 @ 9:32AM
YES!! It is even MORE SUBTLE...government control of healthcare is a form of ownership of the body, i.e like slavery. If the government owns your body - it owns you! so reasons Obama, the new slavemaster.
The great Satan| 3.26.12 @ 5:49PM
I think the writer Using the word Medievalist was referring to that period in history when the Catholic church held all power, ecclesiastic and secular. A period most of us call the" Dark Ages" for the obvious reason that the church plunged all civilization into an orgy of superstition, abandoning all knowledge.
The Road Warrior| 3.26.12 @ 7:44PM
The "Dark Ages" were the result of the collapse of the Roman Empire, which was Christian, and fell to pagan barbarians. The Church was the only thing that held the remnants together and was the institution that eventually tamed and civilized the barbarians.
To enlighten your benighted ignorance, I recommend to you "How the Irish Saved Civilization:"
http://www.amazon.com/Irish-Sa.....0385418493
Jack in Wi.| 3.27.12 @ 2:58AM
The Catholic church invented Western civlization. There is a book by that title written by Dr. Thomas Woods that documents the facts on the isssue. From the Catholic Church comes the idea of the universal brotherhood of all mankind, the University, mass charity to the poor, the hospital, The Just War Doctrine in an effort to bring peace to the world, great art, literature, architecture, music, theology, philosopy. The Church also gave the world modern science which comes out of the Church's univerities and monastries. It is still today, the world's largest private provider of healthcare and education. That includes many impoverished 3rd world countries.
Jason| 3.26.12 @ 11:16PM
It seems that you have abandoned knowledge. Your understanding of history is flawed. Try opening a book instead of letting the left fill your head with lies that you dutifully regurgitate as knowledge. Frankly, it makes you look stupid.
Stuart Koehl| 3.26.12 @ 11:21PM
There ought to be criminal penalties for practicing history without a license.
Praying Mantis| 3.27.12 @ 12:11AM
And there ought to be a law against those who try and revise it.
Jack in Wi.| 3.27.12 @ 2:31AM
The Renaissance came out of the Catholic Church Alan.
Stuart Koehl| 3.27.12 @ 2:54PM
Even more so out of the Byzantine Empire, which provided Italy with the corpus of Greek philosophical writings (all of Aristotle, not just the small fraction that Averroes translated into Arabic, and thence into Latin), art and poetry. The influx of Greek scholars from the Christian East begin in the 13th century, and continued for the next two hundred years. If the Renaissance starts with Petrarch, then look at Petrarch's teachers.
Jack in Wi.| 3.26.12 @ 8:16AM
George here, and other Catholic Neocons, with their consistant warmongering are just as big a scandel as any liberal Catholic. The Wanderer is consistant in its following Catholic Doctrine on sexual matters, theology, and Just War Doctrine. It is a fine publication that deserves support from consevatives of all faiths. Read it online if you don't want to buy it, it is full of great history and theology. I knew we had changed the culture here of the Church in Milwaukee, when Archbisop Dolan allowed the Wanderer to advertise in the Catholic Herald, the local Catholic paper. The old Archbishop Weakland was a consistant hater of the Wanderer.
PJ| 3.26.12 @ 10:23AM
Jack,
Did you know the Wanderer was writing about the priest (& sisters) physical abuses since at least the 1970s, along w/the other abuses the priests were performing during Mass?
Skip| 3.26.12 @ 4:01PM
Please, Jack, to outside and practice falling down. Soon!
This article isn't about "Neocons" (look, there is one under my bed!) or even the just war doctrine.
In case you missed, support of "gay marriage" and condoning the lifestyle is considered a "non negotiable".
The Ron Paul R3volution moves to your mom's basement.
George Neumayr| 3.26.12 @ 4:05PM
To Jack in Wi:
I am not a "Catholic neocon" and I do not support "warmongering." You are slandering me. Please knock it off.
George Neumayr
Jack in Wi.| 3.26.12 @ 5:45PM
George did you or did you not support the Iraq war which in no way can be considered just? Do you now advocate an attack on Iran which again can not in any way be considered anything but a preventive war which is condemned by both Catholic Just War Doctrine and International law? Do you condemn the Israeli aggression and assassination all over the Midle East?
Nick| 3.26.12 @ 7:22PM
Pay no attention to Jack-boot, Mr. Neumayr.
He is an apologist for Hitler and the nazi regime. Oh, and a rabid anti-Semite. He thinks everything is the fault of the Joooooozzzzzz!
Jack in Wi.| 3.27.12 @ 1:33AM
Pay no attention to Nick who is a consistant little warmonger. I am no fan of Hitler and have said so on many occasions. He just doesn't like my historical persective which is very similar to people like Herbert Hoover, and Pat Buchanan among others.
Nick| 3.27.12 @ 1:57AM
Your historical perspective, such as it may be, Jack-boot, is the same as Himmler's and Goebbels'.
Jack in Wi.| 3.27.12 @ 1:49AM
George: I don't believe I am slandering you. I have read your stuff for months and have challenged you on numerous occasions. You don't like criticism any more then Cardinal Wuerl does. You have in my opinion been a consistant supporter of warmongers like Santorum and Gingrich, who are disgrace to the Catholic faith. Tell me you don't belong to the same group of people like Bill Bennet, Michael Novak, Father John Neuhaus, Bill Buckley, etc who carried water for the war in Iraq over the Holy Father's efforts to stop it? As Pope Benedict has said the War in Iraq was against everything in the Catholic Catechism teaches on just war. He has also met with the leaders of Iran in an effort to stop the coming war with Iran. It is time for real Catholics to call out for a stop to this insane rush to war. I follow the Prince of Peace not the gods of war.
Nick| 3.27.12 @ 1:55AM
You can't be an anti-Semite and a Catholic, Jack-boot.
In case you were unaware,
the Prince of Peace was a.........Joooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!
Jack in Wi.| 3.27.12 @ 2:35AM
Nick when are you going to realize that being a zio nazi is no better the being a German nazi. They are all racist murders. end the terror end the hate integrate the Israeli state. Equal rights and justice for all the people of old Palistine Jew, Muslim, and Christian.
Skip| 3.27.12 @ 1:45PM
Jack, I thought I politely asked you to go practice falling down.
Again, the "just war" theory doesn't fvcking apply here. Stop hijacking the fvcking discussion.
The topic is Cardinal Wuerl's suspension of a priest for following the catechism.
Unless you're going to provide an ex-Cathedra statement by the Pope on the Iraq War, or a statement by the USCCB labeling it a "non-negotiable" or "intrisic evil", you have two things: Jack (pun intended) and SQUAT.
The Ron Paul R3volution moves to your mom's basement.
Purple Lips| 3.26.12 @ 11:40AM
And pray tell, what happened to Byzantium? Mind you, I have nothing against all of these small hyphenated Catholics, but I do tire of thier holier-than thou attitude. And yes, from a long term historical perspective, the Eastern Church had all of the brains, high culture, exquisite art-work and smells and bells. But, 2000 years have gone by; it seems thier only point is to act as a smarmy reminder to the vulgar Roman Catholics just how vulgar we really are.
But then again, the Haiga Sophia makes a swell Islamic museum.
Alan Brooks| 3.26.12 @ 1:12PM
It is going in that direction, yes.
Tiddly| 3.26.12 @ 3:25PM
What happened to Byzantium? It was a little Greek fishing village that under the Romans became Constantinople, and then the capital of the Byzantine Empire.
Roman Catholicism, which was constantly quarreling with Eastern Catholicism's leadership in Constantinople, might disagree that the Eastern Church's culture and theology were superior.
It's only been 540 years, not 2000, since the Muslims took Constantinople and Hagia Sophia (not Haiga), the jewel of the Eastern Church.
Jack in Wi.| 3.26.12 @ 5:53PM
The trouble with both the Eastern Church and the Protestants is that they almost always fall under the sway of the civil governments. Only the Western Church has usually stood up to the civil authorities on matters of morality and justice on a consistant basis. No other church is really Universal. The Eastern church is more nationality centered. The Protestants are 35000 squabbling groups fighting over the Bible which comes from the Catholic Church. I include our Eastern brothers in the Catholic Church. The Bible comes out of the united Church.
Stuart Koehl| 3.26.12 @ 11:22PM
Again, practicing history without a license.
Jack in Wi.| 3.27.12 @ 1:35AM
I have a degree in history Stu. Where is yours. By the way no one needs a license to comment on history.
Nick| 3.27.12 @ 1:51AM
Now you've done it, Jack-boot!
You should have searched Mr. Koehl's name first, before asking such an idiotic question?
By the way, how did you get a degree in anything? When you can't spell or use proper punctuation and grammar?
I smell an anti-Semitic rat!
Jack in Wi.| 3.27.12 @ 2:40AM
Nick is a Zio nazi racist, chicken hawk who loves war and Israel's many crimes against international law and human and civil rights. I am a believer in universal brotherhood of all mankind, as all real Christians are. There are no more Jews or Gentiles we are all one in Jesus Christ.
Stuart Koehl| 3.27.12 @ 2:57PM
Me, too, smartass. And, moreover, I make my living at it--something very few can say. And my degree was in Medieval European History and Diplomacy. And I've written on Byzantine history. And I study Orthodox theology for fun. So bugger off, Jack.
Nick| 3.28.12 @ 12:27AM
Chicken hawk?
Sorry, Jack-boot, I served this great country, for four years, in the Army. I also served in a war zone during Operation Desert Shield/Storm. I spent six months choking on dust and dodging scorpions in the desert while you sat in Wisconsin and mangled the English language.
Yes, we are one in Christ. But, you reject Christ when you defend Hitler and the nazi regime. And, when you equate the evil deeds of Arab terrorists with a country trying to defend herself. And, when you lie about OEF and OIF being condemned by Pope John Paul the Great and Pope Benedict.
Clint| 3.26.12 @ 6:53PM
Uh Oh, Cringe Boy !
"From a letter read today, February 12, in all US Melkite Greek Catholic parishes from Bishop Nicholas Samra, mandating the end of "First Communion" celebrations in US Melkite parishes (which goes against the traditional Eastern practice of Infant Communion):
"Some object saying that the children will miss something important in
their lives. A "First Communion Ceremony" is not a child issue but
rather it is an adult issue. I have witnessed in my 42 years as a
priest and 23 as bishop that children receiving the Eucharist since
infancy, if properly taught by their parents, have a good understand
that what they receive is Jesus! Adults think it is cute to dress up
the young ones, and have a reason for a party and gifts. Dress them up
every Sunday and bring them to Church for the great thanksgiving
"party" of the Eucharist."
"I ask you priests and deacons especially, to walk with me on this
issue, even if you have personal objections. You should not be telling
your faithful that you disagree with your bishop in a public manner;
this only creates dissention. Teach our proper customs, and I expect
your full support."
Full text here:
https://melkite.org/wp-content/uploa.../DOC013012.pdf
Stuart Koehl| 3.26.12 @ 11:38PM
What is to cringe? First communion is not part of the tradition of either the Eastern or the Western Churches. For 1200 years, the Western Church baptized, chrismated and communicated infants in one rite of initiation in three distinct mysteries. Paedocommunion was the rule in the Western Church, and only by accident of history did it end (when the Fourth Lateran Council withdrew the Chalice from the laity and began administering the Eucharist under just one species).
In the Christian East, the ancient practice continued without interruption, in both the Orthodox and later in their offshoots, the Eastern Catholic Churches. Only in the United States, Canada and other Western countries with large Roman Catholic populations was the authentic Tradition suppressed in favor of Western usage, a process called "latinization", which was denounced at the Second Vatican Council in its Decree on the Eastern Churches Orientalium Ecclesiarum. The subsequent Code of Canons for the Oriental Churches (CCEO) and the accompanying "Instructions for Implementing the Liturgical Provisions of the CCEO" both call upon the Eastern Catholic Churches to restore the fullness and integrity of their authentic liturgical, spiritual, theological, doctrinal and disciplinary patrimony.
Sayedna Nicholas (my bishop) is doing nothing less than implementing the directives of the Holy See, consistently reasserted over the course of the last half century. This is fundamentally different from the situation of Bishop Wuerl, who is punishing a priest and criticizing the laity for upholding both the canons and the Eucharistic discipline of the Latin Church.
You probably misunderstood Sayedna Nicholas' point regarding "first communion" within the Melkite Church. In fact, we do and have practiced infant communion universally since 1996 at the latest; the same is true of most other Greek Catholic jurisdictions here--Ukrainian, Ruthenian, Romanian and Russian. When we speak of "first communion", it's not in a literal sense, but rather a meaningless "coming of age" type ceremony for kids who have actually been receiving regularly since their baptism. Its primary purpose is social, not theological--a blind aping of the practice of the Latin Church that provides photo ops for fawning mothers, aunts, Babas and Jajas. Its suppression does not change the actual practice of our Churches.
Now, if you want paradox, there are a number of Orthodox jurisdictions in the U.S. which also have the same practice--notably ACROD and a number of Ukrainian Orthodox Churches which were formed or drew much of their membership through defections from the Greek Catholic Churches over the issue of clerical celibacy. They have retained the ceremony for the same empty social reasons as Greek Catholics. Few of their bishops are willing to take on the Baba Mafia to do so, thus Kudos to Bishop Nicholas for having the intestinal fortitude to tackle this petty but extremely sensitive issue.
Ryan| 3.28.12 @ 1:20PM
FWIW, in the Presbyterian-PCA, though we don't do paedocommunion, the PCA church practices paedobaptism with some pretty stringent requirements on the parents and a detailed explanation about baptism every time we do it (which is about once a month or so).
As an aside, I'm a reformed Baptist attending a PCA church.
Boanerges| 3.26.12 @ 11:48PM
Well said, Stuart. But that's the nature of the Church when the goofy's are left to run things. Kindness in the discipline of the Eucharist helps those who do not understand. Instead they would sooner defile the Lord than protect Him AND increasing the sins of those who are misinformed.
phoo| 3.27.12 @ 9:36AM
that would be "Pope St. Pius X" who led the veneration of the Eucharist.
Mark30339| 3.27.12 @ 3:59PM
While I respect your Greek tradition Stuart, the latin tradition prefers to differ. At the end of the day, do you really think the Christ that shared table fellowship with tax collectors and prostitutes, is offended that we latins do not single out and demean under-qualified communicants in the moment that the community is receiving the sacrament? Jesus probably loved the pharisees of his day with great reluctance, and I doubt that he dances for joy now that we have more of them in the form of George Neumayr.
Stuart Koehl| 3.28.12 @ 12:26AM
In fact, the early Church treated all the Holy Mysteries with the utmost seriousness, in both the West and the East. So seriously, in fact, that only the fully initiated were allowed to be present for the celebration of the Eucharist--pagans, Jews, catechumens and those under varying degrees of penance were made to leave the church after the reading of the Gospel and the homily. Even saying the Creed was considered something only the initiated could do, so only those who could properly receive communion were allowed to remain. The vestige of this practice is still found in the Byzantine Divine Liturgy, with the proclamation (in full) "Catechumens depart. All catechumens depart! Let no catechumen remain. In wisdom let us profess our faith" [Creed]
So, not only would the Church of Rome not have allowed a self-professed lesbian Buddhist to receive, such a person would never have even been allowed to remain in the church past the reading of the Gospel. Current Latin practice is not in any way associated with the tradition of the Western Church; it is a simple innovation.
WickedDickie--Virginia| 3.26.12 @ 7:35AM
Just what do you expect in the age of Kerry and Pelosi? And, God Help Us--Notre Dame bestowing great honor upon a baby murderer.
Kenny| 3.26.12 @ 8:22AM
It will take a while yet for the post-modernist heretics and homosexuals who now pollute too much of the American Catholic Church's clergy and hierarchy to die out.
The Vatican prefers this gradual approach while those like me would have opted for a quick, strong purge of the accumulated filth.
Rick| 3.26.12 @ 8:41AM
In the sexual revolution, the US bishops have been afraid to engage the enemy in the streets, so now they must fight them in the sanctuary.
christopher manion | 3.26.12 @ 9:32AM
It is interesting that Ms. Noguchi registered the archdiocese's "complaint" by phone. That precludes the existence of any record of the complaint or its particulars. For instance, did she affirm Mr. Neumayr's facts but bemoan his tone? Did she introduce new facts? Did she transmit a quotable comment from Cardinal Wuerl, from whom nothing has been heard to date? That would have been real news. And so on.
What about the source of the complaint? Ms. Noguchi is a spokeswoman. For whom is she speaking? For herself? Or for Susan Gibbs, the archdiocesan spokeswoman? Or for Bishop Knestout (who wrote the original condemnation of Father Guarnizo in an apology to the 'Buddhist Lesbian" without hearing Fr. Guarnizo's side of the story first)?
Or for Cardinal Wuerl himself?
I hope that Mr. Neumayr requests a written version of the "complaint" so that 1) he will know its substance, and hence 2) he will be able to respond to its particulars, and 3) that his readers will know which of the several points raised in his original article are disputed and by which individual(s) in the Archdiocese they are so disputed, and 4) he will be able to apologize profusely for any errors, or request that the archdiocesan individuals apologize if the errors are on their side -- all in Christian charity, of course. .
After all, the archdiocese, and several of its officials, have been flooded with "complaints" in print and by telephone regarding the "Buddhist Lesbian" events (yes, there's more: she and her "longtime partner" were honored guests at the heretical "New Ways Ministry" LGBT convention in Baltimore a few days ago. That's "New" as opposed to "Catholic," by the way, in case you didn't get it).
One can "complain" because the soup was served cold, or because it poisoned his child. So please, Mr. Neumayr, complain about the complaint until we can see what the complainer (whoever) was complaining about!
Alan Brooks| 3.26.12 @ 10:05AM
blame Obamacare!
Stuart Koehl| 3.26.12 @ 10:47AM
Actually, I think I'll blame you, Alan. You've always been something of an ulcerating sore here. Under Obamacare, I hope we can have you cauterized for free.
Alan Brooks| 3.26.12 @ 11:20AM
"Under Obamacare, I hope we can have you cauterized for free."
Then you are a double-dealer: pretending you don't want Obamacare, but secretly planning for it.
In fact, Stu, you are going to vote for Obama in Nov. aren't you? Good, will see you at the polls.
albert constantine jr.| 3.26.12 @ 2:16PM
Mr. Brooks;
If Obamacare does not cauterize you for free, I feel confident that many who post here will contribute generously to cover the fee for service.
Alan Brooks| 3.26.12 @ 10:04AM
Why, they were complaining about the red in the tooth and clause of Obamacare, of course.. ravenous for their freedom, tearing your heart out to swallow like a starving Bengal tiger (from India, must be a Buddhist) driven mad from drinking fluoridated water from a stream in the black hole of Calcutta ruined by Obamacare.
Foster Brooks| 3.26.12 @ 10:36AM
Son, you got to stop this non-stop drinking. You don't make sense when you are at your best.
albert constantine jr.| 3.26.12 @ 2:24PM
"starving Bengal tiger (from India, must be a Buddhist) "
Your religious ignorance reveals itself, Mr. Brooks. While Buddhism has its roots in India, the majority religion in what is currently India is Hindu, with a bunch of muslims and Sikhs, among others. Bangladesh (from whence "Bengal" comes) is majority Muslim.
Notwithstanding "secular Myanmar", Thailand is your closest majority Buddhist land with tigers native to it (though my friends from Laos might disagree).
Timothy L. Pennell| 3.26.12 @ 10:06AM
This is nothing new, least of all for the Catholic Church. In the 60's they were out there with the Bill Ayers, and the H.Rap Browns. Demonstrating in the streets. Some of them, even throwing the Molotov Cocktails. In the 70's and 80's, they "Ministered" to the Souls of the Marxist/Communists in Central and South America. "Viva El Comunista!" The Jesuits were on the Front Lines, for these GODLESS IDEOLOGIES.
The Corruption of Power, is nothing less than Satan whispering in a man's ear. You don't believe me?
How many times have we seen Decorated Military Officers, hang their own Troops out to dry, in the service of a Liberal Democrat Military Hating President? We have a President, Hell Bent on dismantling our Military, and yet, none of these men has Resigned. The Joint Chiefs have remained silent, as one $500 Billion Cut, after another, is put through by the Muslim. Less Equipment. Less Personnel. Less Nuclear Deterrent. They not only don't Resign, they stand beside He who would Decimate their Legions, and smile for the Cameras, and nod their heads, up and down.
We have seen the Church's inability to HONOUR its own Canons for a very long time. Granting Annulments to the Scumbag Kennedys, and Absolution for the Soldiers of Infanticide, on the Left. None other than Mario the Pious, the former Governor of New York, made his pronouncement that: "I personally believe that Abortion is wrong (MURDER) and my Catholic roots tell me so, but I will not "IMPOSE" my beliefs on others".
We have one of the two Political Parties, who is as GODLESS as the Red Chinese. They PROMOTE the murder of 150,000 unborn Babies a year. They Rally in the streets of Washington D.C. every year, with their banners, and their placards, and they scream and shake their fists, for their RIGHT to murder their Children.
How many PRO LIFE DEMOCRATS have been turned over to the Dark Side? Bill Clinton was Pro Life. Al Gore was Pro Life. Where's Ben Nelson these days? Is Bart Stupak still getting threats?
"What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his Immortal Soul?"
Once again the Church is under attack, and like anyone else who's been attacked, it has Traitors in its midst. Those Traitors should be mustered out. Those Politicians who SPIT ON CHRIST'S TEACHINGS, should be SHAMED and SHUNNED, with Excommunication. If they won't Stand in HIS light? Let them crawl on their bellies in the Dark, with the other Serpents who make their deals with Him who whispers in their ear, in exchange for the whole world.
I wrote this on March 19. I think that it still fits this guy. And, Ms. Nogouchi?
Are ya sure she's not some Philapina Hooker that he keeps at the ready, just behind the Kneeler?
Stuart Koehl| 3.26.12 @ 10:50AM
You've REALLY go to STOP with the CAPS--people are going to think you're some sort of Victorian OLD MAID having a case of the VAPOURS.
phoo| 3.27.12 @ 9:22AM
there's NO KNEELERS, duh. the churches were re-done years ago. "every knee will bend" is medieval! where have you been? This is the American Catholic Church over here, the Roman Catholic Church is across the pond.
Stuart Koehl| 3.27.12 @ 3:05PM
Surprisingly, a lot of older Greek Catholic Churches still have kneelers, even though, under the de-latinized rubrics now in use, kneeling on Sundays is prohibited (every Sunday is Pascha). Of course, pews themselves are a recent (and Protestant) innovation; in Orthodox churches there are no pews and few chairs, and everyone stands. Such was the custom in Latin churches, too, down to the Reformation. Protestants, who made the endless sermon the centerpiece of their worship services, locked the congregation into place as a captive audience through the use of pews. But the congregation is not the audience, and the celebrant is not a performer; God is the audience, and both celebrant and congregation must be free to use their whole bodies in the liturgical drama we offer up to God.
Thus, kneelers, too, are an innovation. Want to kneel? Do so on the hard floor (I did, one Good Friday, with a Latin friend. My knees never did recover). My observation is kneelers cause kneeling. A Ruthenian parish that had kneelers, and whose congregation knelt during parts of the Liturgy, opened a mission in a neighboring county. It celebrated Liturgy in a Catholic school gym, with the people sitting on folding chairs. The same people who knelt in the home parish (with kneelers) stood at the mission (which did not). Conclusion: kneelers create the irresistible urge to kneel. But kneeling is supposed to be a penitential posture, and using kneelers make it far too comfortable--like a ergonomic chair, in fact. It's far more comfortable to kneel like that, than to sit on a hard wooden pew.
Sparch| 3.26.12 @ 11:12AM
This is the continuation of the Church's modern persecution. It eats itself from the inside while trying to react to to events in the culture it is ill equipt to deal with. The bishops of the Catholic church have bought into much of the PC cutural myths leaving confusion between these myths and Catholic orthodoxy. Much of what the American Church accepts as teaching is really not. They are frozen in their own reaction.
Vern Crisler| 3.26.12 @ 11:30AM
As a Protestant, I have serious problems with Catholic teachings, but to me this seems like a no-brainer. A priest who doesn't fence the table sufficiently that even lesbian Buddhists can partake is little better than a, let's see, an Episcopalian.
Savonarola| 3.26.12 @ 12:16PM
This is being handled in an attemptedly adroit, but less than candid, manner by the archdiocese. Avoid more bad publicity but also avoid admission by silence (qui tacet consentire videtur) - so, a staff person phones [no paper or e-mail trail]. As the comment above asks, just what is the complaint about - Mr. Neumayr's facts or the effective way in which he presented them?
Purple Lips| 3.26.12 @ 1:52PM
Cdl Wuerl's obviously doesn't appreciate critiques from below. And more importantly, he detests even more critiques from the more orthodox laity.
Forty some years ago, the hetrodox were in a fit of anticlericalism. After VII there would be no more Pray, Pay, and Obey. The Laity would triumph in a calvacade of guitar masses, felt banners,and Marty Haugen hynms. But, once ensonced in power, the hetrodox proved that they were just as much clericists as anyone else.
danshanteal| 3.26.12 @ 12:42PM
My interest in the church dimmed after 6-1/2 years in the seminary. It cratered after I got married by a judge at city hall. I wouldn't think of receiving communion... even recently when I helped to bury my brother-in law at church. If you got rules, abide by them; otherwise you have a church but not a religion. Good for you for keeping the cardinal's patent shoes to the fire.
nathan| 3.26.12 @ 1:24PM
Well the Church has been less than sterling in enforcing its doctrines historically hasn't it? This problem is by no means new is it? Were people directly involved in the Holocaust ever threatened with excommunication? I mean look at those good French Catholics who happily herded Jewish French citizens onto those cattle cars bound for Auschwitz. Were any of them denied the sacraments? Did Pius issue an edict that they, and Catholics in other countries like Poland who were directly cooperating with the Germans be told they could not enter the church if they were so engaged? No.
But worse still the ratlines? Catholic monastaries and other organizations directly involved in helping wanted war criminals get out of Europe. One of the "interesting" stories to say the least is that war criminals would be in one wing, Jews going to Palestine in another and both groups told positively not to move during the night. And of course the ratlines did not operate without certainly the knowledge of the Vatican. Let's be honest here.
So we look at what's happening here and express SHOCK that people who support the murder of unborn children should be allowed to be given communion. Shock? Or given the Church's behavior during the Holocaust, the support of the Inquisition and just so many other things, more like business as usual? (And please before you start in on me, yes I'm more than aware of what Pius did for "some" Jews during the war. It's not a question of him not doing anything, it's that he didn't do nearly enough. Read the book "Under His Very Walls" which gives a really good account of what he did and didn't do and makes a compelling case why you don't canonize him. And yes, we harbored war criminals too like the head of the Gestapo but then we weren't the supposed highest moral authority in all the world were we? The rat lines had literally no defense whatsoever. No given who was involved.)
What maybe makes what is happening so disturbing is that given what did happen during WWII, what did the Church learn? Anything? That maybe you don't compromise your values and beliefs for any reason? Given how the Church reacts towards Pelosi and Kennedy and other "celebrities", doesn't look like it does it?
Purple Lips| 3.26.12 @ 2:09PM
"I mean look at those good French Catholics who happily herded Jewish French citizens onto those cattle cars bound for Auschwitz. Were any of them denied the sacraments?"
Could you name just one or two? And please give proof that they were practicing Catholics in "good standing".
"But worse still the ratlines? Catholic monastaries and other organizations directly involved in helping wanted war criminals get out of Europe. One of the "interesting" stories to say the least is that war criminals would be in one wing, Jews going to Palestine in another and both groups told positively not to move during the night."
You've been listening to too muc Art Bell. Or was it Jack Chick?
"What maybe makes what is happening so disturbing is that given what did happen during WWII, what did the Church learn? Anything?"
You could ask St Maxmillian Kolby. Oh wait a minute, he died at Auschwitz. Or perhaps you could write to Sister Katarina Celestia Farone. Wait a moment, she died at Treblinka.
But what about those horrible fascist Italian priests (and the Pope)? Mmmm... the monastary at San Greigorio Magna hid thousands. As did Sisters like Mother Riccado Beauchamps. The Vatican itself was responsible for hiding and saving 800,000 Jews.
And how many Jews did FDR take in? See the SS St Louis incident.
nathan| 3.26.12 @ 2:56PM
St Louis is judged in hindsight. No one at the time had the slightest idea that Auschwitz was on the horizon. No one. Where did the Jews on that ship end up? In Holland right? Find me anyone who anticipated that a year later? Germany was going to invade Holland and send them later to the camps that with the exception of Dachau hadn't been built yet.
What did I say and please read me carefully about Pius. Did he do something? Yes. Enough no. Did individual Catholics do a lot, yes. Should the monument at Auschwitz for them have been removed? No. In terms of France, it's mostly by religion a Catholic country. If you want to make a case that the people putting those Jews on the trains were heretics and non Catholics, be my guest. Good luck with that. But you'll get about as far as you would saying that most of the night riders in the south, most of the cross burners and lynchers didn't attend churches. Good luck with that too. Pius never issued a straight forward public condemnation of the Holocaust and y0u and everyone else can't find it. His Christmas 1943 message when he knew full well what was going on (read it for yourself, I have) says NOTHING. Even with HINDSIGHT you can't discern anything from it.
The problem plaguing the church and this has been discussed to death is the doctrine of deicide which Pius in the midst of the Holocaust didn't repudiate and wasn't repudiated until 1948.
Read about the Holocaust in Poland. Poland had to apologize for a strictly "Polish" incident earlier attributable to the Germans. Poland is what percent Catholic? Far too many people in France and Poland and Germany, heavily Catholic too open assisted in the Holocaust. What would have happened if Pius had issued a forthright edict saying folks, you engage in this, forget about the sacraments? Others besides me have speculated that would have put at least "some" crimp in the Holocaust. Those Catholics who were involved would have thought twice. But he didn't.
The ratlines are so very well known and I don't want to get into this. Look everyone misbehaved after the war ourselves included. No explanation has been given for this and you won't see one. But Pius made it clear that he considered Russia over all a bigger threat than the Germans and was playing statesman. He actually tried to broker a peace between the allies and the Germans which of course was going to go nowhere. (Really good case for separating church and state?) But the ratlines have been so well documented, I'm not going to continue that discussion.
The 800,000 number is probably questionable by the way. Again go to Amazon and grab a copy of Under His Very Walls. It's probably the best book you're going to read on the subject.
Once again, I didn't say he didn't do anything. I said he didn't do enough. And trust me the American ambassador to Rome and a lot of other people sent home messages saying exactly that. I'm not remotely alone in this.
The problem again is that we didn't see decisive action then, no "participate in this and no sacraments for you no nothing period" straight forward condemnation and we're not seeing it now are we? History repeating itself again. At what point does this Pope put his foot down and issue a straight forward edict that says, you all want to support abortion, go start your own church, there's no room in this one for this nonsense. You want to support gay marriage, hit the road. We're not seeing that. And frankly sorry we didn't see that straight forward condemnation back then either. Read the 1943 Christmas message and tell me what YOU take from it. NOTHING. No, the Germans are ghastly horrible people who are murdering millions. He doesn't even mention them. Some have said he felt a need to put the members of the Church first and foremost and not risk the chance he would end up in Auschwitz the moment he did light the Germans up. Maybe but too many of those members were open participants in one of the worst crimes in history and deny it all you want but frankly he knew it. And he didn't say anything. And that's it. And we are seeing too much of that today. We still are.
PJ| 3.26.12 @ 3:29PM
You need to get your facts straight & stop spewing anti-Catholic crap that has been refuted many times. Examine this website for the facts from primary sources: Pave The Way Foundation, http://www.ptwf.org/. Educate yourself!
Nick| 3.26.12 @ 4:07PM
You don't know what you're talking about, as usual, Nathan.
Nobody did more to save Jews during WWII than Venerable (soon to be Saint) Pope Pius XII. Nobody.
It was because of the actions of the Holy Father, in part, that the chief rabbi of Rome converted to the Catholic Church, after the war. When Pius XII died, many Jewish leaders, like Golda Meir, wrote praises of the Supreme Pontiff. Look it up.
Stop reading anti-Catholic propaganda and educate yourself, okay?
Revising Reality| 3.27.12 @ 7:36PM
The ONLY Holy Father is God.
Nick| 3.28.12 @ 12:17AM
Revising Reality,
Sorry, but you are wrong.
God the Father is the First Person of the Most Holy Trinity. This the Father that Christ, as the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, always refers to in the Gospels.
The Holy Father, on the other hand, is the Pope, a.k.a. el Papa. Or, Father. More literally, it means Daddy.
So, the Pope is holy. And the word pope means Father. Ergo, he is called Holy Father.
Hope that clears this up.
God Bless!
Stuart Koehl| 3.31.12 @ 12:16AM
All Orthodox priests in Greece are known familiarly as "Papa", or "Pope". And the reason he's called the Pope of Rome is the existence of an entirely different Pope, whose see is equally ancient and equally honorable, the Pope of Alexandria. The most recent holder of that honor, Pope Shenouda III, Archbishop and Patriarch of Alexandria, Africa and all the East, just recently fell asleep in the Lord. May his memory be eternal.
Anthony M| 3.26.12 @ 10:16PM
What did Jews do to stop the holocaust? I keep hearing about how the Pope was supposed to immolate himself in St. Peter's sqare but I don't remember hearing about any Rabbis standing up to Hitler. It was a bunch of Christian Americans and Brits and Frenchman and athiest Russkies who liberated the camps, not Jews.
Jack in Wi.| 3.27.12 @ 3:26AM
50 million Christians were murdered in the USSR with the help of huge numbers of Jewish Communists. The Soviet experiment was cheered by Jews all over the world, even religious Jews. The Jewish historian Richard Pipes has stated that Hitler was impossible without Communism in Russia. I say Communism was impossible without the Jews, who thought it up and ran a lot of it, for most of it's existence, at least in Europe.
The Pope did what he could for the Jews from behind the Fascist borders he was confined too. The Jews of his time heaped him with honors. The Knesset sent the Israeli National Orchestra to play for his 80th birthday.
Now in regards to some anti semitic incidents in Poland after the war. Perhps Nathan here would care to comment on all the murders Jewish Communists did both in Eastern Poland after the division of Poland by Stalin and Hitler and after the war when the Soviets came back. The same could be said about Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia where large numbers of the local Jewish population went over to Stalin, in 1940, and many Christians were sent to Siberia or executed. I don't condone any revenge that the Christians took on the Jews but the Jews were hardly innocent, as a people.
Stuart Koehl| 3.27.12 @ 3:07PM
I say Jack's a moron who greatly oversimplifies a very complex situation.
Ken| 3.26.12 @ 1:41PM
Here's one non-Catholic who congratulates you on your stand for what's right, not what's expedient. Why doesn't the Pope remove him? Catholicism isn't worth preserving if it doesn't adhere to its principles.
Stuart Koehl| 3.27.12 @ 3:12PM
Most non-Catholics believe the Catholic Church to be far more monolithic and hierarchical than is actually the case. I suspect this comes from looking only at canonical documentation, and not the actual implementation of the canons.
In theory, the Pope is an absolute monarch, except when he chooses not to be. In practice, he has no choice but to be a constitutional monarch, hedged about by a host of practical constraints on his power, not the least of which is the inherently conciliar nature of the Church, which is always in dynamic tension with its primatial or monarchical nature. The Pope could never just dictate to the bishops--not even Innocent III, Gergory VII or Boniface VIII managed to pull that off. Pius IX settled for a lot less than the ultramontanes wanted. At the end of the day, the Pope's writ runs only so far as he can convince the bishops to adhere to it, because there are just far too many canonical means for a recalcitrant bishop to evade or slow-roll papal directives. The best definition of the Petrine Ministry I ever heard said that "the Pope mediates within a consensus".
mejamom| 3.26.12 @ 1:42PM
I was born and raised Catholic by very devout and educated parents. I "fell away" in my late teens and early twenties, but never considered another church. One of the reasons was noticing how the Catholic Church didn't change the most important doctrines to reflect cultural acceptance.
I'm not talking about "no meat on Friday", but it's always been a sin to miss Mass on Sunday and Holy Days, to have sex outside of marriage, to employ artificial contraception, to have a homosexual relationship, to name some. I liked knowing that there was a religious organization that was consistent in it's core. Are all the members and clergy that way? No. But the basic truths are and that's what brought me back.
If Cardinal Whuerl can't follow the rules he should like anyone, go somewhere else. It's people like him that give Catholics a bad name.
Chef Schnauzer| 3.26.12 @ 4:45PM
Thank you mejamom.
ds80| 3.26.12 @ 1:52PM
Two comments:
(1) I scroll past anything posted by Alan Brooks
(2) The smoke of Satan wafts here in secular Annapolis, MD, as well.
This from the pastor at St Mary's Catholic Church, in last Sunday's Bulletin:
"Shortly after my arrival here at St. Mary's, I was confronted with the question: "Why do we give certain politicians Holy Communion? ... "
He continued, quoting a two-year old statement by our now outgoing bishop, Edwin O'Brien:
"Some American bishops, after engaging public office holders to no avail on this serious issue, have opted to forbid their reception of the Eucharist within their jurisdictions. In so doing they are within their rights, and I respect their decision. However, and upon soul-searching reflection and prayer, I have decided that I will not take this public step."
The pastor's misguided take?
"... no one, absolutely no one but the Cardinal himself can decide to deny anyone Holy Communion. Not I as your pastor, no priest, deacon, or Eucharistic Minister can make that decision. ONLY the Cardinal himself. You may or may not agree with him, but that is Church law and that is his decision and I as your pastor will abide by it until I am instructed to do so otherwise."
Of course the pastor, and Cardinal O'Brien are wrong. And in fact, he has already been instructed: no less that Pope John-Paul II himself has taught:
"... a Catholic politician's formal cooperation in abortion or euthanasia, that is, his consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws, constitutes an objective situation of sin" (Evangelium Vitae)
The scandalized faithful cry out for adherence to Canon 915: "Those ... obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.”
Purple Lips| 3.26.12 @ 2:14PM
"... no one, absolutely no one but the Cardinal himself can decide to deny anyone Holy Communion. Not I as your pastor, no priest, deacon, or Eucharistic Minister can make that decision. ONLY the Cardinal himself. You may or may not agree with him, but that is Church law and that is his decision and I as your pastor will abide by it until I am instructed to do so otherwise."
Perhaps you and he should refer to the Cathechism and Canon Law. Any priest who knows comes across an unrepentant sinner during Communion has a holy obligation to protect the Eurcharist and deny said sinner communion. No Bishop (not even the Pope) can remove that obligation. But, then again, it is probably not a good career move, as many a priest can attest.
According to Church dogma and St Paul, anyone who takes the Body of Christ unworthily commits 2 sins, not 1.
ds80| 3.27.12 @ 6:44PM
Canon 915 ... I thought that was clear from my post.
Paul A'Barge| 3.26.12 @ 2:28PM
The article is not trivial and it is not boring.
Unfortunately, the article is yet another stick in the eye of the Catholic Church.
My suggestion to Catholics who find this kind of behavior repulsive is: convert to Protestantism. Find an American Protestant church that supports you spiritually and that does not violate your values and your philosophy.
Let no man stand between you and God.
SeymourGlass| 3.26.12 @ 4:17PM
'...Find an American Protestant church that supports you spiritually..."
I'll get right on that, after I push this camel through the eye of a needle...
Maggie| 3.26.12 @ 2:32PM
Bravo, George!
Teresa Buonafede| 3.26.12 @ 2:54PM
Maybe Cardinal Ouellet can transfer him to Rome and dust the Vatican Library or something.
They are cleaning house in Quebec and choosing in an unconventional way, bishops. Maybe Cardinal Ouellet can do that to Washington.
obadiah| 3.26.12 @ 3:27PM
atheists are amused by doctrinal inquisitions, anathema battles and other enrobed clown shows.
Tarr| 3.26.12 @ 4:38PM
The exhibitionist atheists convened in DC for their own clown convention. This intellectually bankrupt, low rent, Nuremberg rally called for the mockery and ridiculing of people of faith. Atheist propaganda minister Richard Dawkins called for persecution of Catholics especially.
Instead of proposing atheism as an alternative to faith these buffoons offer nothing but obsessive hatred of religion.
mjs_pa| 3.26.12 @ 4:41PM
The effects of Cardinal's Wuerl's dereliction of duty are reverberating around the country. Since his actions on Fr. Guarnizo, I have had two other priests write to me and ask me to remove opinions they had published on the internet in which I had copied to sites of my own. They had already been instructed by their superiors to take down their pieces and were in fear of retribution and termination.
cicero| 3.26.12 @ 5:05PM
Weurl is a Prince of the Roman Catholic Church. Does anyone really believe that he ascenddedd to the hierarchy without anyone noticing that he would say or do anything, whether orthodox or not, to climb the ladder? He is symptomatic of why the Church is in such a state today. He feels right at home at the highest levels. It is far better to be politically correct that to stand on principle, and perhaps risk wealth and favor.
More fundamentallly, he does not believe the tenets of his own church. If the host is truly the body and blood of the risen Christ, and he knows that the recipient is a sacreligist individual, approaching the altar soley for the purpose of mocking the Eucharist, just how did he explain his acceptance of her communion?
Alphonsus Jr. | 3.26.12 @ 5:23PM
The Wanderer is conservative? Huh? This is way out of date. The Remnant was started precisely because The Wanderer is sold-out to Modernism.
Stuart Koehl| 3.26.12 @ 11:43PM
There also ought to be a law against employing philosophical terms without a license.
albert constantine jr.| 3.26.12 @ 5:55PM
What I can't understand is why, if Cardinal Wuerl had some disagreement about something which appreared in TAS or AMSPEC Blog, why didn't he just jump on the thread and post his thoughts like everyone else here?
albert constantine jr.| 3.26.12 @ 5:56PM
appeared would have been better than "appreared"
Condemn Vatican II| 3.26.12 @ 6:42PM
Bishop Wuerl is an emeny of God and of His holy Church. He is ANETHEMA!!!
Maybe these sinful apostates and heretics will not get the formal excommunication they deserve by I PERSONALLY excommunicate them and disown them from my Catholic Church Family.
BE GONE, all you evil Bishops. BE GONE!
Nick| 3.26.12 @ 7:19PM
You have no such authority, so, your declaration is meaningless.
And sinful.
Christ deals with His bishops, not the laity.
Try praying for His Eminence, Cardinal Wuerl. He surely needs them. As all the bishops, priests, deacons, and religous need all of our prayers.
James| 3.26.12 @ 8:17PM
"Christ deals with His bishops, not the laity."
Another way of saying they're untouchable. What a joke.
And as to authority? ALL Christians have His Power AND authority to reject whatever or whomever isn't abiding by the Bible. John 1:12.
Your Apostate Religion and its leaders need to repent and become Christian, according to the Bible.
Nick| 3.26.12 @ 9:38PM
James,
"Another way of saying they're untouchable."
No, not at all. The bishops are subject to the Holy Father, but to Christ ultimately. The bishops have great latitude in administration, though. Not so when dealing with faith and morals.
"ALL Christians have His Power AND authority to reject whatever or whomever isn't abiding by the Bible."
John 1:12 doesn't say that. Read it again, in context.
"Your Apostate Religion and its leaders need to repent and become Christian, according to the Bible."
I am a Christian, James. I am no apostate and the Catholic Church teaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as Christ taught the Apostles. Check out my reply to you, in that other thread, for more answers.
God Bless!
Dan| 3.26.12 @ 10:03PM
Friend Nick:
It is perfectly legitimate for the laity to point out the sins and foibles of the hierarchy. Respect, of course, is due to their office but not necessarily to those who disgrace their office or their cloth. Cardinal Wuerl has clearly done both, and this is not the first time he has done so.
We must not fall for this old bromide that e laity have to just sit still and shut up and wait for Our Lord to handle things. We were given free will, after all.
No, my friend. Cardinal Wuerl needs to be called out on this day in and day out until this horrible scandal is stopped. And, sad to say, if Rome wont do anything about it then the laity have to. And they would be acting like Catholics.
Nick| 3.26.12 @ 10:26PM
Dan,
Please, don't misunderstand me. I agree that bishops should be held to account. I used to read The Wanderer quite regularly.
Just, don't let informing turn into attacking. I've said some pretty nasty things about certain bishops and priests that I shouldn't have. It is not the place of the laity to punish, or demand punishment for, the acts of bishops and priests.
The only power we have as laymen, is to PRAY to the LORD of the harvest for good laborers for the harvest (cf. Matt. 9:38; Luke 10:2).
This is the most powerful weapon we have against the Enemy, remember? Not our big mouths! Satan wants our bishops and priests to be milquetoast. Pray that they will be strong.
We get the bishops and priests we deserve, really. Based on how hard we pray for true warriors for Christ. I know I don't pray enough for this intention, that's for sure!
God Bless!
Nick| 3.26.12 @ 10:33PM
p.s. I should add, that the laity do have rights under Canon Law. So, I'm obviously not talking about a bishop or priest who has violated his duty under the law, i.e., celebrating an invalid Mass. But, there are juridical procedures for such things.
DDPGH| 3.27.12 @ 10:24AM
Your posts are exactly correct, Nick.
Nick| 3.28.12 @ 12:04AM
Thanks, DDPGH.
I appreciate it.
God Bless!
Ryan| 3.27.12 @ 9:26AM
Actually, it's not up to the individual Christian to excommunicate. Scripture is pretty clear - within both Catholic and Protestant contexts - that it should be a longer process of examination and done so through church leadership.
Stuart Koehl| 3.27.12 @ 3:14PM
Actually, we excommunicate ourselves. From time to time, the Church deigns to take note of this.
Revising Reality| 3.27.12 @ 7:34PM
Is that when you're not too busy revising reality, Stuart?
Stuart Koehl| 3.28.12 @ 12:31AM
I merely reiterate a theological truism: we separate ourselves from the Body of Christ by our thoughts, words and deeds. No formal proclamation is necessary--a situation the Catholic Church recognizes as "excommunicatio latae sententiae". Certain acts, thoughts or beliefs automatically put one outside the pale. If the Church should happen to make a formal proclamation of that state for a particular individual, it should be seen mainly as therapeutic, not a punitive action intended to shock the sinner back to reality, repentance and return to the fold.
Ryan| 3.28.12 @ 2:13PM
You're more or less right. It's church leadership making a declaration and enforcing reality, in a sense.
Pete | 3.26.12 @ 8:00PM
George, keep up the great articles! They are far from being boring . This Cardinal Wuerl reminds me of the Biblical quote, paraphrased "You are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, and I will spit you forth from my mouth." Wuerl seems to want to be neither this thing nor that, and paying fealty to two kingdoms. A creature of comfort.
CJ| 3.26.12 @ 8:28PM
Well, Nick you should read Holy Scripture and read what canonized popes have to say on who is "anathema". I too wipe the dust from my feet and personally "excommunicate" Bishop Wuerl, Hubbard, Mahoney, Kmiec and the entire host of anethema bishops. I reject EVERYthing and EVERYbody who is of the Devil. I may still pray for them AND I DO as instructed, but as also instructed..."let them be anathema!"
Nick| 3.26.12 @ 9:28PM
CJ,
You don't have that authority. Bishops are under the authority of the Holy Father, and, ultimately, Christ. Not you.
This is what the Scriptures have to say, in part:
"Obey your leaders and submit to them; for they are keeping watch over your souls, as men who will have to give account. Let them do this joyfully, and not sadly, for that would be of no advantage to you." - Hebrews 13:17
"Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." - 1 Cor. 13:7-13
"But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you [...] For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? [...] You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." - Matthew 5: 44, 46, 48
God Bless!
Christ is King| 3.27.12 @ 3:03PM
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your Name give Glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!”Psalm 115:1
Nick| 3.27.12 @ 4:06PM
Amen! Amen! Preach it from the rooftops!
God Bless!
Christ is King| 3.28.12 @ 12:19PM
Nick,
Do you think the Pope would like this song?
tp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il2whd6TLA0&feature=youtu.be
Nick| 3.28.12 @ 6:34PM
Sorry, your link is broken.
Christ is King| 3.29.12 @ 1:02PM
So sorry. Here it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il2whd6TLA0&feature=player_embedded
Nick| 3.30.12 @ 2:55AM
I don't know the Holy Father's personal taste in music, but, seeing that he is such an intellectual, I don't think he's into Christian hip-hop.
God Bless!
Fallow Ground| 3.31.12 @ 1:52PM
Too smart for Jesus?
Jonathan| 4.1.12 @ 5:34PM
Nick says:
"You don't have that authority. Bishops are under the authority of the Holy Father, and, ultimately, Christ. Not you."
Wrong.
Read Jn. 1:12. Every born again believer has the authority with which to judge the spirits. Born of God, born of His Spirit.
To Hell with your false Religion.
TrueCon| 4.4.12 @ 4:54AM
What a Christian you are--condemning people to Hell!
Bless you!
SB| 3.26.12 @ 9:23PM
Mr. Neumayr,
You have become my favorite writer after Mark Steyn. You are feisty!
Frank Natoli| 3.26.12 @ 9:23PM
Hey, George, how did this guy become a cardinal? After all, the first thing we check when a judge makes a ruling that has nothing to do with the constitution or the law is: who appointed this clown, almost inevitably, Obama or Clinton or Carter. Last I heard, the Senate does not have to give advice and consent on appointment to the college. So? How did he become a cardinal?
Dan| 3.26.12 @ 9:43PM
Keep giving him hell, Mr Neumayr. Wuerl would like nothing better than to have this story just go away quietly into the night.
Wuerl learned the tricks of his trade from his old mentor, the sinister John Cardinal Wright. They are two peas in a pod.
hopie changee| 3.26.12 @ 9:52PM
George -- these two articles bashing Cardinal Wuerl diminish you as a Catholic and TAS as a repositiory of intellectual commentary. Your ad hominem, sophomoric rhyming of Wuerl with less than honorable adjectives makes your articles seem puerile. The Cardinal and the other American bishops have the prerogative to pick which fights they want to have in the public square, and not get dragged into it by a rank-and-file priest from another diocese. You stoop to Maureen Dowd's level when you write scathing articles like there.
albert constantine jr.| 3.26.12 @ 10:49PM
You know, if you pronounce it as two syllables, Wu-erl might rhyme with pue-rile, too.
Alvin H. Belt| 3.26.12 @ 11:04PM
I, a Protestant, do find it paradoxical that our best allies are firm Catholics, and not the modernist (firm?, modernist? I'm struggling for words here) ones that would seem to be closer matches. It does make me wonder what I could do, though.
And, hopie changee,
Your ad hominem, sophomoric rhyming of Wuerl/ with less than honorable adjectives makes your articles seem puerile.
Intentional or not?
George Kadlec| 3.26.12 @ 11:09PM
A few Chesterton quotes:
“There are an infinite number of ways to fall, but there is only one way to stand.”
"I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean."
“Be careful not to be so open-minded that your brains fall out.”
“I want a church that moves the world not one that moves with it”
“Take away the supernatural and what remains is the unnatural”
“Moral issues are always terribly complex for someone without principles.”
“Only a live fish can swim against the current, the dead go with it.”
“The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man."
Some other quotes:
Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man ‘against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household. (Matt 10:34-36)
St. Athanasius is the first recognized Doctor of the Church and has the title “Father of Orthodoxy.” The following quote has been attributed to him “The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of Bishops.”
Hillaire Belloc stated “It is a nice question whether ignorance or stupidity play the greater part in human affairs.”
aged parent| 3.31.12 @ 5:40PM
Once, Belloc was at a literary dinner party and one of his fellow diners was having sport by ridiculing the Church. After listening for awhile, Mr Belloc had a fine retort:
"The Catholic Church," said Belloc, "is an institution I am bound to hold as divine. But for those who do not accept that let me point out that no merely human institution conducted with such knavish imbecility would have lasted a fortnight."
And how true. Belloc was a Catholic to the very marrow of his bones but he could see clearly the inadequacies of many a high-ranking prelate.
Imagine what he would say were he alive today.
George Neumayr| 3.26.12 @ 11:13PM
Mr. Natoli: The custom is for Rome to rely on the names of episcopal candidates from the USCCB to choose a new one. This has resulted in a vicious circle in which bad bishops nominate bad bishops.
hopie changee: You failed to read the article carefully. I didn't coin "Wuerl the Girl"; Church insiders did. I simply reported it. Here is a tip for you: Acquire basic reading comprehension before trying your hand at criticism.
hopie changee| 3.26.12 @ 11:53PM
It's the old canard "I didn't coin it -- I'm simply reporting what others say". You're no different from the left-wing media. It's not a matter of reading comprehension, it's reading between the lines.
Alvin H. Belt| 3.27.12 @ 12:34AM
If the cardinal hates being called 'girl', maybe he should give being a churchman a whirl?
Couldn't resist. didn't think I needed to.
POST American| 3.27.12 @ 2:42AM
---Great piece!
NOW, could we have that FIRST article
on 'christian' fake op, and 33rd degree
FREE 'MAY---SIN' Pat Robertson's
recent spit in the face of Christ uttered
doctrine by greenlighting dumping your
spouse should they contract Alzheimers?
------You might follow that up with an
unflinching profile of Hearst created
'christian crusador' 33rd degree FREE
"MAY--SIN' Billy Graham's 5 decades
of Arminian infiltration?
------And then you might take a spot to
the recent, high profile calls by Princeton
capstone EUGENIST Dr Peter Singer's
calls for discretionary extermination of
children up to age 3.
----------------And them -----
----------------------And then ------
---------------------------And then --------
--"Everything OLD is NEW--Remberg AGAIN!'----
Russell| 3.27.12 @ 3:29AM
Wuerl errs in fast-forwarding Neumayr into medieval times.
His is a mind deformed in a darker age, and God grant the republic a good deliverance from his ilk.
Johnson| 3.27.12 @ 12:00PM
Neumayr basks in praise from his knee jerk Amen chorus. Red meat works every time, right George?
phoo| 3.27.12 @ 9:04AM
you absolutely have it on Wuerl!! yes, it is VERY IMPORTANT because Wuerl is jousting to be the next Pope. This incident serves as Wuerl's calling-card to the gay softees in the next conclave that he (Wuerl) is their candidate....Cardinal Ted McCarrick has been LIVING IN ROME wheedling his way among the whispering hallways of the Vatican prepping the whole pro-gay takeover of the Papacy. And Wuerl is McCarrick's protege and successor. We now have the Obamanation over here, and may soon have the Abomination over in Rome if Wuerl gets his way.
Steve| 3.27.12 @ 10:34AM
Good work, George! Keep up the pressure. Don't back down!
melquiades| 3.27.12 @ 12:04PM
I do pray that the Holy Spirit would remove Wuerl and his cohorts from their office permanently. Wuerl and others like him has been offending Jesus Christ for so long. Their wicked action has been destroying the Mother Church. May God's Justice befall upon Wuerl and the like of him, for the sake of the innocent souls that they will lead to perdition. May God forbid him and his allies to enter the Papacy.
Christ is King| 3.27.12 @ 3:34PM
"In God is my Salvation and my glory; The Rock of my strength, And my refuge, is in God." ~Psalm 62:7
Azul Condor | 3.27.12 @ 8:00PM
Has anyone ever tried to find out who this useful idiot in the Catholic Church in America associate with? Who in the Vatican controls and props him up? For all we know, he and his minions in the Lavender Mafia could be among those Bella Dodd revealed as the "young men" she and her once Communist associates sent to the seminary for the purpose of destroying the Church from within.
I won't be surprised at all if one day soon this robed homo-budhist loving slime is exposed for what he has shown himself to be.
Russell| 3.27.12 @ 8:45PM
Now, now, there is little love lost between Neumayr and the Dalai Lama
POST American| 3.27.12 @ 11:37PM
TRUTH OPENED
"The Vatican has been totally infiltrated
since the 1950s."
-MALACHI MARTIN
CASE CLOSED
DDPGH| 3.28.12 @ 9:19AM
"Totally infiltrated" is a theological impossibility.
John II| 3.28.12 @ 8:15PM
Worse yet, "totally infiltrated" is superfluously pleonastic, rather like "completely permeated" or "mindlessly liberal."
And now back to "Ball of Fire" (1941), in which Gary Cooper plays a pedantic professor (more pleonasm) full of one-liners written by Billy Wilder.
Christ is King| 3.29.12 @ 1:09PM
"The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great [is] that darkness!"
Mt. 6:22 & 23.
ItIStheOrientation| 3.28.12 @ 11:22AM
"Whispers in the Loggia" is his style. Thank you for speaking up in defense of a priest who cares about the salvation of souls instead of looking on the church as a "career".
Philip Charles| 3.28.12 @ 4:01PM
"... it stands as the era's last major barrier to the triumph of the coercive secular state."
And you would not call the Neanderthalic Catholic Church coercive?
lome | 3.29.12 @ 1:10AM
I am not sure if this was the same fr. Wuerl that I criticized in 2007. I think I was right about him.
I didn't like the guys.
Dear Father Donald Wuerl,
I think I have to blame you and the likes of you why many uninformed Catholics made it possible for a lot of liberals to secured a Govt post primarily Obama.
.What kind of Godly, conscientious Government gives money for the killing of the unborn? The helpless? The aged, the handicapped s?
You and they are of the same feather. Your nice talk doesn't show in your action. I am lost in comprehending Fr.Jenkins until I read about his being under the mantle of the liberal minded trustees of ND. But to me, still plain cowardice. So is with Georgetown, st. Anselm catholic school,, and some more.
Please let me share to you my response to St.Anselm College why they in good conscience invited the likes of Clinton, and Pelosi and Now Obama at Notre Dame. Georgetown College? I call this Cowardice!
Pls. note Good Conscience? Knowing that the sources of all that are good are from God, How can this be good in the eyes of the Almighty?
Our Blessed Mother calls this intrinsic evil the foulest of Deeds?
Which you simple discarded.
Just sayin| 3.29.12 @ 12:59PM
I would have written it "red in the tooth and claws . . . ." not "clause," but who am I?
Brian Mershon | 3.29.12 @ 2:17PM
George, Keep up the good work. I too had the misfortune of dealing head-to-head online with Cardinal Mahony's spokesman you named here. Please just know that as a former journalist who now plies the Media Relations trade, there are some apples among us who don't fall for Cardinal Mahony's or Cardinal Weurl's machinations.
Keep up the good work!
Allyson Smith| 3.31.12 @ 8:00PM
George, thank you for writing this followup and for your original piece about Cardinal Wuerl's dereliction of duty.
I am the "persistent reporter" who in 2007 asked Wuerl, during a visit to San Diego, if he would withhold Communion from then recently-elected pro-abort House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And yes, his response to me was exactly as you described: He said "No." Based on that conversation I had with Wuerl five years ago, I am heartbroken but unsurprised by his persecution of Father Guarnizo.
What does surprise me is how Bill Donohue of the Catholic League has come out against you for writing the very things that many faithful Catholics feel about Wuerl. Donohue accuses you of being "a right-wing fanatic, a man whose dogmatism is as scary as the authoritarians on the left." I say, shame on Bill Donohue for saying such things and thank God for right-wing, dogmatic fanatics like you!
If only Wuerl were similarly right-wing, fanatical and faithful, we would not be having this sad conversation about Father Guarnizo, and pro-abort politicians would not continue to brazenly present themselves for Holy Communion.
Keep up the good work, George, and don't let Wuerl and his ilk wear you down!
Alice| 4.6.12 @ 12:23AM
George - you are NOT an "orthodox" catholic.
lacoste schoenen | 4.9.12 @ 7:12AM
great article