Cardinal Burke concedes persecution could be looming for the Church in the United States.
"It is a war," he stated, describing the battle lines between "a culture of secularization which is quite strong in our nation," and "the Christian culture which has marked the life of the United States strongly during the first 200 years of its history."
He says it is "critical at this time that Christians stand up for the natural moral law," especially in defense of life and the family.
"If Christians do not stand strong, give a strong witness and insist on what is right and good for us both as and individuals and society," he warned, "this secularization will in fact predominate and it will destroy us."
The cardinal also thinks persecution may be looming for the U.S. Church.At times I can roll my eyes over the idea that we Catholics in the United States are actually persecuted - especially in the light of the bloodied persecutions happening in Islamic countries - such as the assault upon Egyptian Copts and the attempts to eradicate Iraqi Christianity. Nevertheless, in reality there really is open hostility towards Catholic-Christian teaching and the promotion of traditional morality as it applies to family issues from marriage to reproduction. Everyone knows it, but we like to ignore it or tell ourselves to buck up and take it - or placidly turn the other cheek and let the progressive activists impose their secularist dogmas upon 'us'. For many years there has been a propaganda campaign of social intimidation and marginalization against Catholic teaching in particular - like I said, everyone knows that. It's a form of persecution and polarization in an effort to silence the Church - no doubt about it.
"Yes, I think we’re well on the way to it," he said, pointing to areas of social outreach - such as adoption and foster care - where the Church has had to withdraw rather than compromise its principles.
This trend could reach a point where the Church, "even by announcing her own teaching," is accused of "engaging in illegal activity, for instance, in its teaching on human sexuality."
Asked if he could envision U.S. Catholics ever being arrested for preaching their faith, he replied: "I can see it happening, yes." - CNA
And I think it is accelerating. The Cardinal thinks so too.
Here is the message of Advent: faced with him who is the Last, the world will begin to shake. Only when we do not cling to false securities will our eyes be able to see this Last One and get to the bottom of things. Only then will we be able to guard our life from the frights and terrors into which God the Lord has let the world sink to teach us, so that we may awaken from sleep, as Paul says, and see that it is time to repent, time to change things. It is time to say, "All right, it was night; but let that be over now and let us be ready for the day." We must do this with a decision that comes out of these very horrors we have experienced and all that is connected with them; and because of this our decision will be unshakable even in uncertainty. - Alfred Delp, S.J.
Thanks to Daniel Cassidy for the links to LifestiteNews and the CNA interview.
Terry, do you have a Kindle by chance? I was going to recommend a book for you. (Free, as are 95% the books I download.)
ReplyDelete"...Asked if he could envision U.S. Catholics ever being arrested for preaching their faith, he replied: "I can see it happening, yes." - CNA..."
ReplyDeleteThe two red lights the Cardinal sees on the horizon?
The Bus.
Most of the Catholic Hierarchy in America have missed it.
They have spent the last forty plus years chasing novelty and modernism, and things have gotten away from them.
Pop Quiz for American 'Catholics'
What are the Seven Precepts of Holy Mother Church?
The Devil is not afraid of the average American Catholic.
He has no need to persecute them; they might get religion and embrace Tradition if he does.
I think the only 'persecution' that will happen is the Prosecution of homosexuals that preyed upon children in Church.
Why isn't the suffering of molestation victims ever called 'Persecution'?
Or a Holocaust?
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Cathy - I do not have a Kindle - what book were you thinking of.
ReplyDeletePablo - thanks for the comments - I never thought of molestation as a form of persecution.
"Disagreement" is not "persecution."
ReplyDeleteWhat a drama queen Cardinal Burke comes across as.
ReplyDeleteA number of thoughtful responses to his and others' contention that "the church" is being persecuted can be found here.
Peace,
Michael
Oh, and see also here.
ReplyDeleteI am afraid I must disagree with the dear Cardinal..
ReplyDeleteThose of us in the US live in the United States of America, NOT the Catholic States of America..
The laws of this country are a melting pot of MANY views, not just Catholic...
WE are not supposed to look to the US government to protect us and do things as WE want them to..after all there is separation of Church and State.
As others have mentioned--the persecution of Catholics and Christians in the US is NOTHING compared to many parts of the world, we should not be whining over a bit of spilled milk that we are "picked on" by the media or whatever..incidently..just TRY being Catholic in predominately Mormon Utah.. :)
And incidently--there are many religious groups that have just the same moral and family values as Catholic Christians..if we want good elected officials we need to band with them, and not continally draw lines because they do not think EXACTLY as we do...
Sara
“...after all there is separation of Church and State…”
ReplyDeleteWould you please document that statement with the Law or Statute that gives life to that belief?
“…And incidently--there are many religious groups that have just the same moral and family values as Catholic Christians..if we want good elected officials we need to band with them, and not continally draw lines because they do not think EXACTLY as we do...”
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!
Madam, you cannot be equating Holy Mother Church with heretics, Freemasons, and others of that ilk are you?
We are not Catholics because our minds have created Catholic thought processes; we are Catholics through God’s grace and mercy.
All others, Madam, all others fall short of the Kingdom.
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
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The whole "separation of church and state", as understood by the modern mind, would have struck the nations earlier generations as not only odd, but preposterous and suicidal.
ReplyDeleteThe issues at stake are not merely "Catholic" issues, but issues, but issues which will destroy any society, period.
Secularism is not neutral, it is a substitute to religion. The public schools teach their warped beliefs to children, and those beliefs are not just inimical to Christians, but to any semblance of reality or civilization.
Pablo, I do not think she meant to say that Protestants are equal in their beliefs, only that they oppose the rabid secularism as much as we do.
Michael Bayley, just stop.
With all respect, Mercury, both Sara and Michael are entitled to say what they believe, even without your approval or agreement. They both raise valid points which should be addressed by their merits.
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect, Thom, I never said they didn't have that right.
ReplyDeleteI think they're wrong of course, just as I'm sure they think I am wrong.
Probably though, as Catholics, we can at least assume that we agree on clear Church teachings, right? Or not?
Oh, Mr. Bayley always makes valid points, does he? Like how the Church *must* change any moral stance that he doesn't like, right?
ReplyDeleteSeparation of Church and State is a construct based on one of Thomas Jefferson's letters but people act like it's part of the Constitution.
ReplyDeleteWe have a first amendment right to freedom of religion, which means the Church (and any other religious organization) has the right to choose whether or not to cover birth control or abortions as part of its health care package.
In addition to the Constitutional right, HHS is committing a SS 1981 violation as it is a government actor committing a discriminatory act (discriminatory as it has now come out that the narrow language used in the "religious exception" clause was deliberately written so as to oppose Catholic Church teaching.
"...They both raise valid points which should be addressed by their merits..."
ReplyDeleteHomosexuality and Modernism are not, have never been, and never will be considered valid points by Holy Mother Church.
The Magisterium and Holy Fathers of the Church have denounced them both.
They have declared Anathema Sit upon anyone that espouses them.
Those points are only valid in a Godless Society.
Truth is not our making, but God's.
And hence the Church in her history, due reparation made, has always welcomed the heretic back into the treasury of her souls, but never his heresy into the treasury of her wisdom.
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Are you high?
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Mercury and Nan said. Heck, even agree with what Pablo said too.
ReplyDeletePluralistic society is anything but. It's basically just a pipe dream we blind, untested Christians like to console ourselves with when the nighttime questions start budging in about who we are and where we are at and where we are going. Oh and those other questions, like, "Who do you say that I am", and so forth.
Like "B.C." and "A.D." We've completely lost our sense of revelation. Or we've never had any good sense of of it in our age, and generations before us.
Yep, totalitarianism is being built in the name of pluralism.
Right in front of our eyes. Yep.
I'm sure gay people can understand how being labeled negatively and marginalized can tantamount to a form of persecution.
ReplyDeleteNow, apply that to the Church. When those who promote the gay lifestyle succeed in having the Church's teachings seen as "bigoted" and "hateful", you can bet that the eventual fall-out will be the Church losing some of her rights as well as being marginalized in public discourse.
That is what the Cardinal is warning about. And I think it's a valid point.
Paul - my biggest point is that secularism is not neutral, not by any means - this is a notion that people have been taught in both American and European schools for generations, that somehow religion can exist in the private sphere, but that public life must be free of such things.
ReplyDeleteIT sounds nice, but the problem is that the human person is not designed to live in a climate with an absence of belief - it doesn't exist. So secularism, as a belief system, one which is even fervently believed in by some (see the EU or the British, French, or German state), is not "neutral" but is a rival and hostile force.
The Founders, though mostly Protestant, knew this as well, which is why one can find in their writings that they admitted a republican system of government could not and should not exist in the absence of Christian values.
And I believe what we are seeing now, and will see, is that a "post-Christian" democracy is always destined to become an anti-Christian totalitarian state, whether that totalitarianism is soft, with strong social coercion and the exclusion of opposing ideas, as in modern Europe (see how long you keep your job if you say gay sex is immoral), or hard, as in the Soviet Union, China, etc.
I agree with Paul, Nan, Mark, Merc and the Cardinal.
ReplyDelete