Comments for Response to Symmachus at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 9 out of 9 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Sun, 19 May 2013 00:12:22 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/response-to-symmachus.html#comment-10587 Cardinal Francis George should have been forced to resign over his disgraceful and inexcusable handling of his priest and serial child rapist Daniel McCormack. Cardinal Dolan decided to barely lift a finger against New York's "gay marriage" bill, or even be in his diocese in New York on the day of the vote. His excuse? He said he didn't believe it would pass so he didn't see the point of being there. Archbishop Chaput however continues to shine as one of the brightest points of light of the ecclesiastical firmament. - MaxIII Tue, 27 Mar 2012 05:33:06 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/response-to-symmachus.html#comment-10580 Read at our Sunday Mass... Pennsylvania's Bishops Call Day of Prayer, Fasting, Abstinence for Religious Liberty "Recognizing the efficacy of prayer and fasting as well as the challenges we face in overcoming the recent attack on our religious freedom, we, the Bishops of Pennsylvania, request that all Catholics dedicate the regular Lenten Friday practice of prayer and abstinence as well as the additional practice of fasting on Friday, March 30, to the preservation of religious liberty." - Matt Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:12:19 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/response-to-symmachus.html#comment-10579 On Friday, March 23rd, my wife and I drove to Trenton, NJ to lend witness to a Right to Religious Freedom rally at one of the 140 sites across the nation. The speakers were both Catholic and Evangelical with the Evangelicals being the more incisive and effective. The reason for this, in my opinion. is the Evangelicals boasted they did not take any Federal money for their few colleges and hospitals and therefore politicians, whether Catholic or not, HAD NEVER BEEN THEIR BUSINESS PARTNERS. That is why Abp. Dolan and eight NY bishops met with Gov. Cuomo in April, 2011 to discuss aid to parochial schools, and Cuomo's living with a woman out of wedlock and his soon to vote position on "same sex marriage" were never discussed. He was their "partner", after all. He was writing the check. No one will be excommunicated. The American church (sic) is truly a scheme to employ perverts and chuckleheads. There is simply no other way to explain it. - Manfred Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:14:01 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/response-to-symmachus.html#comment-10578 " I’m among those who’d like to see some “Catholic” activists and politicians barred from Communion...of course, that's uncharitable..." It may be uncharitable, but in the meantime, unborn infants are dying by the thousands every day because Catholics holding political office refuse to accept Catholic teaching, and some red hats have an unrealistic understanding of their ability to change the minds of those pro-abortion Catholic politicians by sweet talk and teaching. By their refusal to act, these red hats proclaim to the world at large that the Catholic Church founded by Jesus Christ is not really serious about loving the vulnerable, the weak, and the poor. Their failure to act is a kind of abuse of power where the innocent die and the guilty go free. - Louise Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:57:28 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/response-to-symmachus.html#comment-10577 Archbishop Chaput's approach is very welcome. Lamentably, however, the bulletin insert provided by the USCCB to the parishes of the United States to counter the HHS mandate evinces little understanding of the very nature of the struggle in which we are engaged. If our consciences are threatened, then we are in a spiritual war, a war for our souls, not a political war. Our struggle, then, is not with flesh and blood- with the HHS, with Kathleen Sebelius, President Obama, with the “Culture of Death,” with the mainstream mass media- but with the principalities and powers of darkness (Eph 6:12). How is it, then, that within this bulletin insert there is not one word about prayer, about fasting, about storming Heaven? * The insert quotes Thomas Jefferson, the Federal Register, Cardinals Dolan and Wuerl, Archbishop Broglio. There is not one word of Scripture. For deliverance from this draconian decree we should look to our senators and representatives and be sure to write them. In sum, the battle is not the Lord’s, but ours and it is to be waged politically. We have decided to fight the enemy on his own ground and on his own terms. With this kind of leadership, defeat is certain, and not only on this issue. - Lee Gilbert Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:16:30 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/response-to-symmachus.html#comment-10576 God bless Abp. Chaput. May his faithful witness and presentation of the faith be celebrated, engaged, and widely read - and may it bear fruit. Thank you Mr. Miner. I'll spend the 'buck' and be far richer for it! Every Catholic should read his Excellency's book from several years back, "Render Unto Caesar." Let us live the Faith joyfully, and defend HMC vigorously, with charity, not for our own benefit, but for the good of our children and grandchildren. St. Thomas More, pray for us. - Denverite Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:07:53 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/response-to-symmachus.html#comment-10572 " I’m among those who’d like to see some “Catholic” activists and politicians barred from Communion...of course, that's uncharitable..." No it's charitable to admonish the sinner, and Pope Benedict has recently exhorted us to do just that. Pseudo-conservative Catholics alignment with Murray, "Catholics for Obama", and Catholics for Obamacare are part of the problem, not the solution. The ideology of "Health Care for All" has led us to the brink of bankruptcy, both economic and moral. Those who are steering us towards totalitarianism are all too cognizant that the way to manipulate an electorate is to dangle entitlements and sentimentalism in equal portions. - Sue Mon, 26 Mar 2012 05:48:24 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/response-to-symmachus.html#comment-10567 Apparently their living in a sewer or a bombed-out moral chaos or anti-cities of anonymity and loneliness isn't sufficient? - Tony Esolen Mon, 26 Mar 2012 05:12:24 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/response-to-symmachus.html#comment-10564 Yet paganism didn't die a "natural" death - that is to say, its more zealous inheritors during the fourth century didn't simply give up paganism in favor of Christianity on their own as a matter of conscience. A targeted persecution was mounted by the Christians, who were finally able to turn their new-found imperial favor into a chance for revenge against the pagans who had once persecuted them. Peoples' places of worship were locked up, stripped, and sometimes destroyed, and harsh punishments imposed on those who continued their old faith. Whatever Christianity's decline in our current situation, it is due to voluntary and (for the most part) uncoerced - people are leaving Christianity because they feel it to be wrong, incomplete, or inadequate. Christianity must do a better job presenting to the broader culture why these sentiments are wrong in order to turn the tide. - Scotty Ellis Mon, 26 Mar 2012 03:01:59 +0100