Washington Post: "The Catholic Church is like a dysfunctional family."

Read the entire article here.

Mommy and daddy are fighting, and the anguished children don’t know where to turn.

This is the state of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States today. A small group of very conservative bishops has hijacked the church, or at least the public voice of the church. The bishops are playing the role of the authoritarian father. In case after case, their message to the faithful is “Do it because I say so.”

This is how this article starts. It starts by depicting the Church as a family (which it is) which is having some serious "daddy issues." These issues of course are because of the more conservative bishops exercising their authority to remain true to Catholic beliefs and values. I've already done a post in which I spoke briefly on the non-sensical notion of conservatism vs. liberalism in the Catholic Church and showed how idiotic it is to even remotely suggest there to be such a thing. Because in all honesty it comes down to two things: orthodoxy vs. heresy, and to attempt to artificially inject politics into the Church is nothing more than a pitiful attempt to justify a personally held political belief. But, I digress...

As I was saying, the Washington Post would have us believe that these so-called conservative bishops have put the average Catholic in the pews in an uncomfortable positon. To begin with they talk about the HHS contraceptive mandate and state that:

"82% of American Catholics believe birth control is morally acceptable..."

followed by this little gem:

"A much larger group of more moderate bishops has stayed mostly silent, fearful that to take a stand against the brethren would be to lay bare intramural fissures. They play the role of the silent and frustrated mother."

That's right, the so-called conservative bishops are a bunch of mysogynistic-type bullies! And of course, the victim in this relationship has to be on the side of logic and rational order. Quoteth the article:

"Only one brave bishop has so far explained his refusal to sign on with the authoritarian minority. Like a parent who prefers to work on marital disagreements in private, rather than expose the kids to disharmony and force them to choose sides...he wanted the bishops to do more consensus building."

A "brave" bishop? Really? One who is open to FORCING a religious body to go against its established teachings? How is this, pray tell, "brave?" Sounds cowardly to me. I especially like the part where he is asking for consensus, since when did the Catholic Church become a democracy? There is a link to this "brave" bishop's statement and, surprise, surprise, this California bishop published his offical statement in the left-leaning Jesuit magazine America. So I must ask myself the question: who's playing politics here? The so-called conservative bishops who are holding fast to Catholic teachings or the left-leaning bishop who is calling for compromise on established Church teaching?

Orthodox bishops are cruel and unrelenting! Moderate bishops are brave and pioneering for a better solution! The average Catholics are stuck in the middle not knowing what to do! All is lost! Oh no! Won't somebody please think of the children??? Thank God for the Washington Post! For it truly cares about the children; it is towards the end of the article is where we hit pure journalism [fool's] gold! The article states:

"In the middle, of course are the kids, who love their parents and want them to get along - and hate, no matter where they stand on issues of sexual morality and religious liberty...[they] continue, in their anguish, to attend Mass on Sundays, holding out the hope that future family happiness is somehow possible..."

Now if that doesn't pull at the proverbial heart strings and get you on the side of the "kids and the mother" then I don't know what will. So much of this article is intended to do just that, to depict the Catholic faithful and the "brave" bishops as being on the end of a short stick because of the so-called conservative bishop's evil, manical, traditionalist views! What...A...Load. Here's a newsflash to the anti-Catholic folks at the Washington Post: Daddy is always right.

If in fact, the Church is made up of this so-called family that the Washington Post would have us believe, then let's see how this would be in real life. The father wants what is best for his family, he understands, knows and practices what he preaches. The kids in the family, being children, have unfortunately been told and fed a lot of things inconsistant with what the father has always held to be the undeniable truth; they've sometimes have rebelled, acted contrary to the dad's wishes, even embarassing him a few times but, they're his children and he loves them. The mother is trying to avoid the strife between the children and the father by relenting her role as mother, she would much rather be on good standing with her children then the disciplinarian. She unfortunately has thus put the father into a bad light, and has served as a catalyst of sorts in this whole familial distopia.

In this case, "the father" are all of the true bishops who are holding fast to opposition against governmental intrusion into The Church's affairs. "The mother" are those bishops who are content in giving up some part of ESTABLISHED TEACHING for the common good perhaps even for political reasons (?) and, "the children" are us, the lay faithful who either refuse or accept what "the father" knows is best for us. Refusing to deny and use birth control can be hard for some of us "children" but, daddy knows it is best for us not to use it because of the potential disaserous consequence that it can lead to. Refusing to accept certain teachings from our faithful "father" such as, indulgences and opposite sex marriage only, can be difficult for some of us as his "children" but, he knows why he teaches these things; he teaches them in order to become better human beings and grow in love, charity and humility with Christ our Lord.

Make no mistake, father knows best. For any Catholic to go against what is taught by the Church out of ignorance is one thing but, to deliberately and willfully go against our Father and His Holy Church as well as what Jesus Christ commissioned the Church to do, is another. I would ask that any parents take stock of this post in light of your children and ask yourself, why did you have to discipline your children, if not to correct them? Doesn't the Church, in full communion with Christ and all of the Angels and Saints, have the same authority to do so whether you like it or not? Think about it, if you had to severly punish you child for something that he or she temporally did, how much greater would the spiritual punishment be if the child refused to obey the authority of the Church?