LA Cardinal Mahoney: Arizona Laws That Enforce Legal Immigration Are Like Techniques Used by Nazis and Stalin
Posted by Jim Hoft on Tuesday, April 20, 2010, 10:14 PM
Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahoney says laws that enforce legal immigration like the one just passed in Arizona are similar to techniques used by Nazis and Communists.
What a disgrace.
The LA Times reported:
Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony lambasted legislation passed Monday by Arizona lawmakers that would crack down on illegal immigrants, likening it to “German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques” that compelled people to turn each other in.
“The Arizona legislature just passed the country’s most retrogressive, mean-spirited, and useless anti-immigrant law,” he wrote on his blog. “The tragedy of the law is its totally flawed reasoning: that immigrants come to our country to rob, plunder, and consume public resources. That is not only false, the premise is nonsense.”
Mahony is the head of the nation’s largest Roman Catholic archdiocese and a powerful, influential voice among Catholics and others nationwide. His comments are the highest-level statement from the Catholic hierarchy on the Arizona legislation. The Los Angeles archdiocese is nearly 70% Latino.
The Arizona legislation, which has yet to be signed by Gov. Jan Brewer, would make it a crime to be in the state illegally and require law enforcement officers to check the legal status of those they suspect are undocumented. The legislation would also bar people from soliciting work or hiring workers under certain circumstances, a provision aimed at the day-labor trade.
ADVERTISEMENT
-
Featured Story:
Busted!… Obama Headlined a DEMOCRAT SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA Event in 1996 **FLIER**
Published May 24, 2012 at 8:46 pm - 84 Comments
vargas commented:
Cardinal Mahoney does not speak for the mainstream Catholic church. After reading Mother Angelica’s book and the fights that she has had with him over the years, I don’t unfortunately have much respect for him.
Winston commented:
Shut up Cardinal. You better take care of your child abusing church houses
mbabbitt commented:
I guess the Catholic Church is such a pristine moral example in the world today that it thinks it should question the legal right of a nation or state to protect itself from illegal entry. Bringing up the Nazis shows you he has lost his argument and moral bearings. And he is a Cardinal!
Opaobie commented:
Let the record show that it wasn’t a TEA Partier who used the “YOU’RE A NAZI” phrase, it was a LIBERAL, collared or not. Shame on Cardinal Mahoney for advocating breaking God’s Commandments against STEALING, BEARING FALSE WITNESS, COVETING, …and a few more that I don’t care to mention…..
dlew commented:
Ahhh! The catholic church trying to engratiate itself to it’s latest target demographic…Latinos.
Those darn Europeans just got too darn uppity…..started questioning God’s earthly reps too darn much.
newton commented:
He invoked Godwin’s Law, I guess…
VIVA LA RAZA!! commented:
In our own words, in under 4 minutes – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajkAP_M4ZAM
Yes We Can! SI SE PUEDE! SI SE PUEDE!
pjean commented:
Social justice?
wanumba commented:
………………
“The tragedy of the law is its totally flawed reasoning: that immigrants come to our country to rob, plunder, and consume public resources. That is not only false, the premise is nonsense.”
……………..
Starting his argument with a lie and goes downhill from there.
INVA$ION USA commented:
BREAKING NEWS:
NOT FROM CNN CENTER IN ATLANTA – http://www.BorderInvasionPics.com
U.S. Citizens place hidden cams along the Arizona border, to document the Invasion.
John 2 commented:
Mahoney should give his job to an illegal alien and put his money where his mouth is.
Obamanation @ Notre Dame commented:
Nothing the Church does surprises me anymore – http://www.FreeTheND88.org
czekmark commented:
The good cardinal seems caught up with the phony ‘social justice’ lefty thing that has made deep inroads into the church. By getting caught up in what should be normal governmental decisions he shows that he had forgotten Christs admonishment to ‘render those things that are Caesars to Caesars and those things that are Gods to God’.
Flyover Sam commented:
It’s not surprising to see that this Cardinal, a representative of an imperial, hegemonic power that has molested democratic society for nearly two thousand years, would extend the order’s oppressive context into a system that promotes the exploitation of Latin American individuals by an abusive capitalist system.
Akin to Catholic priests taking advantage of young boys, Mahoney defends and promotes a system that entices vulnerable immigrant workers to enter the United States and become dependent upon a political system for their sustenance. Imposing clear prohibitions on the system that enables their enticement, recruitment and exploitation are naturally opposed by the Church. While objective persons seek to establish clear and transparent regulations respective to immigration and citizenship, ensuring no predator can exploit the process for their benefit, the Cardinal naturally seeks a system that leaves immigrants dependent and subject to the demands of a hungry deviant, seeking personal and/or political power.
Whether it’s helpless children or immigrants, it’s apparent none of us can trust the Catholic church and its senior leadership to provide responsible leadership on these issues.
MANHATTAN DECLARATION commented:
Catholic Drudge – http://www.PewSitter.com
crosspatch commented:
I knew a man who is now passed. He was a devout Catholic. He was a rancher in California. There were Mexican families that worked for him for generations. He made sure they had a doctor when one of the women was with child, he made sure the children were baptized. When he was ill in his old age, it was not unusual for members of his worker’s families to come calling to check in on him to come by and check on his wife (now in her late 90′s) and to pay their respects.
That man left the church over remarks like this from his local Priest and Bishop.
There was not a better Catholic but he refused to buy into the notion that someone was entitled to something just because they wanted it.
BigJ commented:
I can’t wait until Cardinal Mahoney is relieved of his duty next year.
IN MEMORY OF MARY JO commented:
Catholic Church does not even follow own Catechism – http://www.oneoldvet.com/?=15372
Stephen Kruiser commented:
As a practicing Catholic in the archdiocese of Los Angeles, I won’t be upset when the Cardinal retires. This is his own misbegotten opinion. He doesn’t represent the Church or the laity so all of you on this comment thread who are just here for the Catholic bashing can feel free to shut it.
Jo commented:
Los Angeles is Mexico, If Roger Mahony says anything contrary to Mexican ascendancy into power of the USA they will beat him up and kill him and take his money.
Marsh commented:
This is why I keep putting off my plans to become a Catholic. It’s been hijacked by leftist idiots who think Jesus would have wanted us all to be communists.
Andreas K. commented:
Nazi bat. Check.
Classic tactic. Bring out what we call “Nazi-Keule”, the Nazi bat, and pretend to be on the moral high ground with it.
They do that here as well. The Catholic church is one of the forerunners to let more illegals into Austria. Because, oh those poor people, they have a right to stay!
Yep, the moment some foreigner sets foot on our soil he has the right to stay.
That’s what the Catholic church wants in my country. that’s what the left wing wants in my country.
Plus a basic financial security for everyone. Paid by, guess who, the already overtaxed working people.
Saddam Hussein could pop up in our country and he would have a right to stay. Plus he’d get money from the government.
These people want to ruin us.
And of course, the Catholic church here also sucks up to islam. Because islam is peace and brings god back into our societies.
Hey, Mahoney, want to see how a national-socialist system really works? Go to North Korea. Want to see true fascism? Go to Iran or Saudi-Arabia.
Andreas K. commented:
Somewhat related as it shows how two-faced people like Mahoney are:
Berlin, Germany: 14 year old Kurdish girl sold into marriage for 15,500 Euros.
Her father says “It’s tradition in our culture!” And of course the daughter is to blame. She was in puberty and didn’t want to listen to her parents. That justifies slavery in that “culture.”
But these people with their rich culture and joy for life, they’re an enrichment for us and our societies, as a female German politician said not too long ago.
The Catholic church is silent. The left wing is silent.
man_in_tx commented:
Mr Hoft
You are an honest man!
For you, as a practicing Roman Catholic, to post this takes courage.
As a non-Catholic, I find the Cardinal’s statement nothing less than despicable.
Thank you for telling the truth.
Carbon Monoxide commented:
“powerful, influential voice among Catholics”
Uh, no.
For all you idiots who contantly say: “The Catholic church is silent on _______”
LISTEN
Go to Catholic sites and see what we are doing.
Half a millions Muslims convert to the Catholic Church in Africa each year.
And since you want people to listen to the Church, here is a list YOU can start on:
1)Stop looking at porn. That includes most of what passes for TV. Stop fantasizing about your secretary and the 16 year old next door. Stop treating women like objects.
2)Stop masterbating.
3)Stop screwing people of the same sex.
4)Stop screwing outside of marraige.
5)Stop screwing your second (or third) wife/husband because, like it or not, you’re still married to your first.
There. You go work on that, Mr./Mrs. Self Righteous.
We’ll go work on the Mahoneys and the Muslims.
One final thing: Anybody who leaves the Church because of what a person said or did, is not really much of a Catholic because it’s not about any one or group of people, it’s about JESUS.
There is a leftist assh*le at work and yet you still go to work, right? Stop lying to us and yourself and face the fact that you left the Church because it’s hard to be Catholic and you are not up to it.
squeaky commented:
part of an interview of saul alinsky to playboy magazine in 1972 – if you want to see his view of the middleclass…and remember who he dedicated his book too
[ALINSKY: Conservative? That's a crock of crap. Right now they're nowhere. But they can and will go either of two ways in the coming years -- to a native American fascism or toward radical social change. Right now they're frozen, festering in apathy, leading what Thoreau called "lives of quiet desperation:" They're oppressed by taxation and inflation, poisoned by pollution, terrorized by urban crime, frightened by the new youth culture, baffled by the computerized world around them. They've worked all their lives to get their own little house in the suburbs, their color TV, their two cars, and now the good ]
Galt commented:
Today’s “social justice” is yesterday’s “liberation theology” repackaged and warmed over. Neither entails true justice or true liberation. Seductive in any event (to the dim-witted).
But hey, the church is comprised of human beings, and like any organization of humans you get smart ones and dumb ones.
You also get people working at cross-purposes. A generous welfare state AND open borders… Which idiot thought THAT would ever work.
Betsy Ross commented:
Interesting how these so-called Catholic leaders are so eager for people to run rough-shod on American laws…..but oh, boy, try to take Holy Communion if you’re not Catholic….see only their rules are to be enforced..
Andreas K. commented:
@Carbon Monoxide
Come to Germany. See how your Catholic church kisses up to islam, how it betrays the followers every day. See the same all across Europe.
Come to Austria. See how your Catholic church has protected pedophiles from the law for decades. There was never a trial, never even an investigation, never any justice for the victims.
One final thing: Anybody who leaves the Church because of what a person said or did, is not really much of a Catholic because it’s not about any one or group of people, it’s about JESUS.
No, it’s about making money. I left because they wanted my money and I never got anything for it (blind dogma based on a heavily censored and mutilated book doesn’t give me answers, period.) They wanted my money because of a law Hitler started up, and this law is still used in Germany and Austria. Hitler is bad, that’s what we hear all the time, but the Catholic church has no problems with keeping that one law from him Why? Because… pecunia non olet. Money makes the world go around. Don’t tell me that the pope, who sits in his palace, surrounded by all the luxury, gives a crap about Jesus, or the people.
Sure he cares, right? That’s why under John Paul 2′s reign the church procclaimed that women shouldn’t have anesthetics while given birth, because the pain is punishment for Eve’s sin, right? And that’s totally not fascist at all, right?
1)Stop looking at porn. That includes most of what passes for TV. Stop fantasizing about your secretary and the 16 year old next door. Stop treating women like objects.
2)Stop masterbating.
3)Stop screwing people of the same sex.
4)Stop screwing outside of marraige.
5)Stop screwing your second (or third) wife/husband because, like it or not, you’re still married to your first.
6) Stop telling me what I should do. Mr Fascist. What gives you the right to judge me? Who are you to judge me?
I do what I want, not what you want, within my own set of virtues and values. Which are a lot more strict than what the Catholic church allows to pass these days, mind you.
You’re ranting it’s about Jesus. Jesus said that you shouldn’t judge others. Typical double standards of a Catholic, eh? Kinda sad when a non-Christian knows things like that, and a Catholic obviously doesn’t, no? If it’s about Jesus, why not follow what he said?
Mr Self-righteous? That’s you.
Because women don’t treat men like objects, right? I’ve been working in environments where I was often a minority as man. Women are like us men in some aspects. They check out guys, they fantasize. They are HUMANS! What a shocker! They are just an influenced by their hormons as we men are. And you should have heard some of the comments about some guys from these gals. Jeez! But if men do that they’re bad and treat women like objects. Yep! Totally!
Double standards here we come again!
There is a leftist assh*le at work and yet you still go to work, right? Stop lying to us and yourself and face the fact that you left the Church because it’s hard to be Catholic and you are not up to it.
That comparison doesn’t fly. Work is important. I work and get paid money for it, which is something I need to survive. Because with money I can pay my rent and can buy food. And other things (like porn, yep, I like my porn, you touch my porn and I’ll shoot you.)
I left the Catholic church because if I want lies, protection of criminals, support for islam and other crap like that… well… I don’t want any of that. And why should I pay for it? Because it’s the “true” religion? Says who? No honestly, how do we know? We don’t. Some people believe it (which always makes my point about Penguinism and the Great Penguin 100% valid.) But as history proves, religions come and go. Christianity won’t be the last. Same with islam. It will disappear in a couple of hundred years. Something new will come instead.
You all know what I always say: we are primates on the third planet of a small solar system in one of the arms of our galaxy. One of, likely, billions of galaxies in this vast universe. But we have the one true god? How more arrogant can we be?
Talk about human hubris.
PS: just joking about the porn part
No Man commented:
Typical socialist catholic (in name only)/sociocath: His teaching infers that the Holy Spirit told him (he and Obama have direct DSL lines to the Holy Spirit) that the Seventh (thou shalt not steal) and the Tenth (thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods) were repealed by majority vote among the people in Purgatory.
This detritis is why the commie, unborn-baby- exterminating media is libelling and slandering Pope Benedict but not dastard Mahony; despite the fact that Mahony actually committed the crimes (cover-ups, secret transfers, allowed to multiply the abuses) that the liars in the media accuse of Pope Benedict.
See today’s WSJ, “Mexican Plaintiff Sues Cardinals”, page A16.
I prefer Pflegmatic Pfleger. He’s good for a few laughs . . .
Sal commented:
Betsy- there’s no room here for a detailed exposition on the Holy Eucharist, but please believe that the rule is there for your protection, not as a means of discrimination. What do you think the calls for openly scandalizing pols like Kennedy and Pelosi to be barred from Communion are about?
I’ve yet to see the lefty bishop who’s got the answer to how illegal immigration is not theft.
Look, I’m sorry as can be that Mexicans live in a corrupt kleptocracy, but I’ve got my own corrupt kleptocracy to deal with.
As for “they work”, if someone comes into your home and steals, say, your computer, does it make it okay if they sweep up and do the dishes first?
Jerome commented:
Is there anything more despicable and destructive than the Catholic Church? No, there isn’t. Catholics prove time and again that they are brainwashed zombie puppets and their precious priests, bishops, cardinals, popes, and all the other con artist “holy men” pull their strings and make them dance. You can’t be an American and a Catholic, period. So-called Catholic “Americans” are guilty of sedition because they are loyal to a super-national criminal organization that wants to destroy every first world country and replace them with third world hellholes where their garbage theology is more easily forced on the peasant populations. I’ll take Islam over this filthy religion any day of the week.
Chisum commented:
Jerome,
It isn’t that I want to interrupt a good tirade but everything that you accuse the Catholic Church of sounds suspiciously like our current democrat progressive administration and their sycophants.
I think you are confused.
Saint commented:
Hitler and Stalin actually allowed a great deal of immigration into their countries…as slave labor.
Oh, and if you think the other religions
Jerome commented:
Here’s a quaint little picture for you, Catholics: your beloved John Paul II posing with Fidel Castro:
http://nimg.sulekha.com/others/thumbnailfull/pope-john-paul-fidel-castro-2009-4-1-10-0-51.jpg
Two flaming Communist peas in a pod. One has already gone to his reward (rotting in the ground) and the other is well on his way.
Chisum commented:
Poor Jerome,
Your twisted little prog brain can’t grasp the concept of a good and holy man praying for an evil man.
Can’t wait to hear about your conversion to Islam.
Dave In Houston commented:
Mahoney’s comments are despicable. He does not speak for this Catholic and he should be ashamed of himself. He’s pandering to his Hispanic base in a shameless way that would embarrass all but the most craven of politicians.
I hope many in LA refuse to donate to the church to express their anger. I have here in Houston. I donate only to the my local parish and no more.
Jerome commented:
Chisum,
So the Catholic Church and the Obama Administration have a lot in common. Why is one rightly condemned by most conservatives and the other is venerated by a huge portion of them? Especially considering Barack Obama could only dream of having the sort of stranglehold on his subjects that the Pope has on his. In fact, I’ve never seen any Obama supporter as rabidly defensive and irrational as Catholics get when you dare to bring up the fact that their church has raped thousands of children and covered it up.
Gary Keith Chesterton commented:
I thought FT’s comments were moderated. I had something to say about this post, but I’m not dipping a toe into this slime pool.
Chisum commented:
“So the Catholic Church and the Obama Administration have a lot in common.”
I don’t see the connection.
Btw, membership to the Church is voluntary. If you cannot grasp that concept then I can’t help you. In case you haven’t noticed the BO policies come with mandates.
If you are here to bash the Catholic Church then go away.
” In fact, I’ve never seen any Obama supporter as rabidly defensive and irrational as Catholics get when you dare to bring up the fact that their church has raped thousands of children and covered it up.”
Oh please! BUY A CLUE!
Anyone who proclaims that Islam is superior to Christianity is a MORON! Especially after claiming that THE CHURCH raped thousands of children. As if Church doctrine encourages child abuse. Unlike Islam, which does.
Red commented:
Whenever I hear these comparisons I immediately question the intelligence of the speaker.
Comparing people to nazis and socialists gets old.
This cardinal is a boob.
so cal chick commented:
Mahoney is a political animal not a Priest. His arrogance was experienced first hand by my husband’s cousin who filmed a documentary of the L.A. Cathedral back when it was newly constructed…he’s been pro-illegal and anti rule of law for years!
It’s tough being a Catholic with guys like this masquerading as Priests.
Betsy Ross commented:
I am all for immigration….just not ILLEGAL immigration. It pains me to be called anti-immigration just ‘cuz I strongly believe that the rule of law must prevail, otherwise what are laws for? If laws don’t mean sh!t then how is a society supposed to function? If you believe that laws are racist then what is the remedy, let everyone do as they like? What kind of world would that be?
Ladue Pundit commented:
St. John Chrysostom said, “The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops.” This was hundreds of years ago.
None of these scandals or heretics can change the true message of Christ’s Church.
If you are Catholic, find a Latin mass in your area. Chances are you will hear a deep, theologically intellectual sermon in the presence of true believers, not some fruity froth where you are surrounded by rubes in tank tops racing out after Holy Communion.
God bless you, Jim Hoft. Keep the Faith.
Alfred J.Lemire commented:
Ladue Pundit said it for me. My iMac’s OED-derived dictionary widget defines faith in part as, “strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.”
I have kept the faith, despite the leftist leanings of the high clergy, the Network of some religious (nuns) orders, the leftiness of Catholic News Service, and The Scandal.
The Cardinal wanted to declare his solidarity with the Latins in his midst, many of them here illegally. However, he failed to recognize the legitimate interest of Arizona in protecting its territory from invasion, albeit peaceful. And he hurled the political “N” and “C” accusations, as unacceptable to most of us as the racial “N” word is to African-Americans.
As with many others on the Left (and remember, the bishops supported DemCare, except for the abortion provision) he has the best of intentions, but is an ignorant, incompetent, and destructive fool. (He has other negative characteristics, but one should keep this short.)
logprof commented:
The irony of the Hitler/Stalin comparison is that those regimes tried to keep their citiziens *in* their respective countries, not out.
Rob commented:
Perhaps the cardinal would care that we send million of Latino illegal aliens to the Vatican because jobs, opportunities and free homes are plentiful in the Vatican or Rome?
Kathy from Kansas commented:
If you’re a Catholic who’s as frustrated as I am with the overwhelming pro-illegal-immigration slant of the Church hierarchy, you should read this book by a Catholic priest who has spent his whole life fighting for human rights in various ways all over the world:
On the Immorality of Illegal Immigration: A Priest Poses an Alternative Christian View,” by Father Patrick J. Bascio.
http://www.amazon.com/Immorality-Illegal-Immigration-Alternative-Christian/dp/1449001858/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271865751&sr=8-1
His arguments are well worth considering. Cardinal Mahoney should read it! (In fact, I wish ALL the U.S. bishops would read it!)
No Man commented:
Jerome,
You’re a real conservative.
That “know nothing” crap was passe in 1865.
Sorry you feel that way, tho.
I bet you voted for Obama.
No Man commented:
Jerome #34:
“Is there anything more despicable and destructive than the Catholic Church?”
Yes, your hatred.
ahem commented:
The Catholic church is contaiminated by the marxist virus, aka ‘social justice’. Mahoney should keep his big fat mouth shut. It’s a matter of national security–not so-called socail justice. We have to maintain control of our borders or we are not a sovereign nation.Drug runners and Islamic terrorists are entering through Mexico.
Jayne on the left coast commented:
In CA. we call him Cardinal Baloney. He had a cathedral built that is a cold, ugly sight. I do not listen to what he say’s. The best Catholic’s are in the pews.
Don Rodrigo commented:
Another useful idiot conflating illegal immigration with the legal kind.
kay commented:
1. I would like Cardinal Mahoney to put out spanish commercials that say “come to LA if you feel prosecuted for being in Arizona”.
2. then I, a catholic, would like to tell Cardinal Mahoney, to BLOW ME ASS WAD.
3. sorry for the above outburst, but the catholic church, my catholic church, has gone so far off the rails, it might as well be Acorn.
4. I have stopped giving to the Catholic church regular fund drives and have made donations only for the upkeep of the buildings and stained glass. Not giving to the Bishops fund or such nonsense, especially after that crap cardinal recognized Flaming Flager in Chicago with that award, and I know a woman who was my childhood friend who works for the diocese, I wrote to her and asked her WTF?, and she told me that nobody wants the parish, that Flager has done a lot of good for the people there in bringing the money in, she knows that he’s a quack but there’s nothing to be done as nobody else wants to take over that parish. I responded with: Does the cardinal have to recognize a guy who hangs out with Farrakhan – a muslim that wants to wipe out all catholics? I have yet to receive a reply.
*
So goes another long time friendship when people start taking a stand. But I will not compromise and I’m sorry she has to live in Chicago where I left (kicking and screaming) because my dad couldn’t take it anymore. He didn’t pay off the precinct captain and so the snow plows dumped the streets’ worth of snow in front of his business and then the police came by and told him that he needed to clean the sidewalk by the next 2 hours because it was a security issue. I’m now so grateful to my dad as I can see what has happened to this country now that I don’t live in Chicago. Hey dad – this one’s for you – You were right, and I was wrong. Didn’t think I would ever admit it did you? Love ya dad!
BigJ commented:
@Jerome
“In fact, I’ve never seen any Obama supporter as rabidly defensive and irrational as Catholics get when you dare to bring up the fact that their church has raped thousands of children and covered it up.”
So you obviously don’t mind the fact that Islam is blowing up innocent civilians in the Middle East, yet claiming to be peaceful. Talk about double standards.
Kathy from Kansas commented:
Betsy Ross
April 21st, 2010 | 6:20 am | #30
Interesting how these so-called Catholic leaders are so eager for people to run rough-shod on American laws…..but oh, boy, try to take Holy Communion if you’re not Catholic….see only their rules are to be enforced..
Betsy, the Eucharist is a making-present ( anamnesis , a Greek word that doesn’t translate precisely into English) of Jesus’ self-sacrifice and communion with us in that one big event that extends from the Last Supper all the way through His death on Calvary–and in a bigger sense, from before the beginning of all time all the way through the eternity (alpha and omega). There is no “time” as we know it with God. When Jesus said at the Last Supper, “Do this in remembrance of me,” that word “remembrance” has a very specific meaning that modern Westerners don’t really “get” unless they are very steeped in the traditional Catholic worldview/way-of-being.
Believing Jews have a better concept of this meaning of “remembrance” than many Christians do. Every year at Passover, they “remember” the Exodus that happened thousands of years ago–but the prayers at the Passover Seder are all about “this happened to us ” — “the Lord brought us out of Egypt.” It is something that you need more than strict linear rationality to understand, but it’s absolutely real.
Holy Communion is precisely that: a holy communion in Jesus’ sacrifice. Believing Catholics affirm that the Eucharist really is the actual flesh and blood of Jesus Christ our Savior, Lord of the Universe, Creator of all things including ourselves, and yet who humbled Himself to be incarnate as a human being like ourselves. This is the most awesome mystery, which no human being can understand, and we take it very, very reverently and seriously. NONE of us is worthy of it. No human being that ever lived is worthy of it. Yet we have faith that we are saved by faith.
We participate in this incomprehensible mystery of the Eucharist with awe and humility and wonder, knowing that we can never understand it nor deserve it. We accept it as the gift of our good and gracious God Who is so solicitous of us, so on FIRE with desire for us, that He is willing to humble Himself, not only to have emerged from heaven into this visible world, not only to have suffered and died an excruciating death in order to save us so that we might have life, but even to have given His own Body and Blood as food and drink for us that we might have life abundantly.
Can you even begin to see why one must be in full communion with the Church, Jesus’ own Mystical Body, in order to partake of the Sacrament of His Body and Blood? Read 1 Corinthians 10 and 11. Paul says one must not partake of the Sacrament “unworthily”–i.e., without full faith that it really IS Christ in the flesh. “Worthily” here does not mean any of us is ever deserving of God’s gifts. But it does mean, in the eyes of the Church that Jesus founded and gave His authority to, that one has faith, that one is in communion with His Church to which He gave Peter the keys, and that one is not conscious of being in a state of mortal sin, that is, full rebellion against God, having done things that CUT OFF one’s communion with Him.
If you are genuinely interested in understanding the Catholic worldview–what Chesterton called “the sacramental imagination”– I suggest a book by Karl Adam called The Spirit of Catholicism. If you are not interested, please have the graciousness to accept the Catholic Church’s ways of trying to safeguard as best it can the sanctity of the Eucharist. It’s not about judging or disrespecting non-Catholics; it’s about trying to honor the Lord’s own teachings about how the Church should do things, which the Gospels and Acts 1 tells us He spent 40 days giving the Apostles instructions about. Paul’s letters and the book of Acts make it clear that these teachings given by Jesus were handed down to us through the Apostles and their successors, the bishops, led by Peter and his successors, the Popes.
No, that does not mean that every bishop or pope is sinless. NOBODY is sinless. When they start messing around in politics, they can make mistakes, just like any other human being. But we Catholics do believe that for all its human flaws–since it is made up of human beings–the Church is Jesus’ own (wounded and scarred by our sins!) Body.
BigJ commented:
…(adding to my last comment)…
And you’ve obviously never been in here when word gets out that Jim Hoft is criticizing Obama on his blog.
Ruth commented:
We have had a number of more liberal bishops in the 60′s and 70′s who let a lot of things slide. We are reaping that now with the abuse scandal. Happily, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have been naming strong amazing bishops to replace them and taking strong action to right many wrongs.
Cardinal Mahoney leans left and will retire soon. These personal announcements from him do more harm than good.
The hate onslaught against the Church on blogs seems like a two year old who has been told can’t have his candy and toys. (Jerome wants his porn)
The Catholic Church stands for good AND is a church of sinful people in need of redemption to “turn away from sin and follow the gospel”. Priests, bishops, cardinals, and popes as part of the Catholic Church are included. That’s why our holy priests, bishops, and popes continue to pray for God’s grace and mercy in the office they’ve been called to.
The faithful will continue to love and pray for our Church and bear quiet witness to the love of God while always understanding that we all fall short, “but for the grace of God go I”.
Maria commented:
Have him transferred to a church in Mexico…
MVH commented:
What a joke this man is. Using those murderous regimes to incite. People aren’t as dumb as the makes them out to be, uttering those outlandish statements.
It would really be nice if HizEminence would be just as hyperbolic against true abuse and injustice committed against real victims with no voice: those who have been sexually abused by the [finger in your mouth] good cardinal’s priests!
If culture is so important to HizEminence, his “immigrant” congregations, and Catholics of the cardinal’s ilk, they really should stop honoring a Jewish mom, and stop worshiping her Jewish Son as G-d and Messiah. I think an Aztec god will suffice. Although that sacrifice thing might prove to be a little dicey. Jesus did it once and for all. It was Huitzilopochtli who had to be constantly appeased with fresh blood sacrifices.
Come to think of it, when Christians don’t have Christ as their center, that “botherhood of man” teaching goes out the window. And the church stops being catholic–from the Greek katholikos i.e., universal.
The day is coming in this country, if it’s not already here, where Catholics will officially “self-hypenate.”:
I’m a Catholic_____.
or
I’m a______Catholic.
What fills the blank is what is most important.
Marie commented:
The catholic church were neutral during the Holocaust while many Jews died.
Why arent they neutral on ths issue ?
Oh yeah it all about he money!!!
Buffalobob commented:
Keep the people stupid and poor and fill up the collection plate with pesos.
man_in_tx commented:
To: CO
“5)Stop screwing your second (or third) wife/husband because, like it or not, you’re still married to your first.”
So, let me get this straight: You are saying that a divorce is not a divorce?
Very interesting!
A ludicrous statement if I ever read one. You’d have a hard time proving this from Scripture.
It may be a sin in many cases to remarry following a divorce. However, divorce is divorce. Nowhere in Scripture is a divorce denied as a reality — whether or not the divorce is justified.
And, yet, I am rather confident that you would, without batting an eye, turn around and justify the devious Romanist practice of annuling marriages — a practice that is a clever dodge around the unScriptural “no divorce ever” teaching of Rome, as well as a money-maker for the bishops. Funny, Teddy Kennedy was able to get his first marriage “annuled.” This totally invalidates your argument about those leaving the Catholic Church: There is nothing “hard” (only expensive) about getting your marriage annulled!
By the way: I am still married to my FIRST wife after decades, so please spare me any of your lectures about making excuses for myself.
Radegunda commented:
Hey, Mahoney, the Communists are the people who want open borders. They despise national sovereignty and federal law—just like you do. They believe they have a “universal” mandate, as you do. They put abstract, self-righteous moralizing above the concrete effects on actual people (Americans), just like you do.
Admit it, Mahoney, you just want more Catholic bodies in the pews–at the expense of the American citizenry.
Another thing, Mahoney: the Communists built walls and used force to KEEP PEOPLE IN! We just want walls to protect Americans from a hostile invading force.
BigJ commented:
@Marie:
Contrary to what you’ll hear from the Lamestream Media, thousands of Catholics were killed in the Holocuast, too. It wasn’t all Jews. A lot of ‘em also hid Jews in their houses. Did you ever hear of Anne Frank? The family that hid her family was Catholic. When Jews were being deported out of Italy into concentration camps, several hundred Jews were hidden in the Vatican itself, and thousands more were hidden in monasteries.
DANEgerus commented:
Cardinal Mahoney is treated like a saint by the MainStreamMedia when he touts the agenda… maybe he should not the coverage he gets on predatory homosexual pedophiles and avoid being such a tool.
Dennis D commented:
How many Illegals are wondering around Vatican City ? Would the Swiss Guard allow ONE?
Dennis D commented:
Wandering