"Springtime of Vatican II"
Update

The Bishops Hide Behind Their Bureaucracy

by Christopher A. Ferrara

        As expected, the American bishops (with three or four noble exceptions) have hidden behind the United States Bishops’ Conference in an effort to avoid any confrontation with pro-abortion "Catholic" politicians who defiantly receive Holy Communion in violation of the law of the Church.

        On June 18, 2004 the U.S. bishops, meeting at the luxurious Inverness Hotel and Conference Center near Denver, Colorado — nothing but the best for our faithful shepherds! — approved a statement on Catholic politicians who support "abortion rights" yet present themselves for Holy Communion. As reported by CWNews.com the statement — surprise, surprise — "attempts to strike a balance between the Church's clear teaching on the immorality of supporting abortion, while also giving the final say on how to deal with individual politicians to their local bishops."

        A balance, you say? Yes, according to Bishop Richard Hanifen, the retired bishop of Colorado Springs, "There’s a balance. There’s an obvious renewal of the clear commitment we have to life from the beginning of life to the end. There’s never going to be wavering on that. But the individual circumstances each bishop faces in his own dioceses have a lot to do with how each bishop responds."

        So the key word here, folks, is balance. But just how does one "balance" the rights of God Almighty against the impudent demands of evil pro-abort politicians, who would dare to desecrate the Blessed Sacrament by receiving It in their blood-drenched hands?

        Who do these bishops think they are kidding? The obvious aim of their prattling on about "balance" is to give each of them an escape hatch that allows them to avoid offending pro-abort politicians. As Hanifan himself admitted when asked whether the statement provides "a definitive answer" on denying Communion to a pro-abortion "Catholic" politician: "I think you'll see in there there’s not a directive one way or another." That is, the bishops’ statement is nothing but a political dodge by which they give the appearance of addressing the very issue from which they flee.

        Never mind that pro-abort politicians offend God Almighty and call His vengeance down upon themselves when they dare to receive the Body and Blood of His only begotten Son while their own hands are stained with the blood of millions of butchered babies. After all, the bishops cannot actually see God with their own eyes, can they? On the other hand, the pro-abort politicians whose human respect they crave are quite visible and quite prominent in society. Better to avoid offending the man they can see than the unseen God whose justice seems (at least to certain people who meet in luxury hotels) so remote from the world of human affairs. Better to let the incalculable sacrilege go on in the face of God’s seeming silence than to incur the ire of exceedingly vocal politicians.

        Quite simply, we are dealing with bishops who are moral cowards and will not stand up for the Faith, or who no longer have the Faith at all. And by their fruits we have known them. Look around you, dear reader, and behold the results of their stewardship of Holy Church since the "renewal" of Vatican II got underway.

        In T.S. Eliot’s Choruses from the Rock the voice of God declares to the men of our time: "I have given you speech — for endless palaver / I have given you my Law — and you set up commissions…" Such are the bishops who hide behind this worthless statement issued from their swank hotel in Denver.