The insightful little piece is from Fr. Z's blog. Fr Z is very traditional and very outspoken. The following perfectly demonstrates how this Church is being run over by organized groups of conservatives. This deals with a poll being conducted by the Cincinnati Enquirer which was measuring the amount of Catholic support for the ordination of women priests. The poll was being conducted in lieu of Archbisop Pilarczk's dismissal of Sister Louise Akers over her stance on women's ordination. It took Fr. Z and his followers very little time to completely skew the results of this poll.
On the website of the Cincinnati Enquirer there was an article about the disciplining of a woman religious who works in for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. She is in favor or, working for, the ordination of women. Archbishop Pilarcyck is telling her to knock it off. (Oh, come now, he did a little more than that.)
The Enquirer posted a POLL for readers to say if they think women should be ordained.
Never mind the fact that this is impossible. A woman can no more be ordained as a priest than an… eggplant, or giraffe. (Nice to know I'm the ordinational equivalent of an egg plant or a giraffe.)
Never mind the fact that this is impossible. A woman can no more be ordained as a priest than an… eggplant, or giraffe. (Nice to know I'm the ordinational equivalent of an egg plant or a giraffe.)
The Church, faithful to Christ, has no authority to ordain women. This is the Church’s infallible teaching. At the time of this writing, the poll is leaning 75% in favor of ordination of women.
I ask you… do you WDTPRSers think that will be a good outcome?
So… do something about this! Read that article and then….
VOTE…NO! VOTE..NO! VOTE..NO!
CLICK HERE NOW!
VOTE…NO! VOTE..NO! VOTE..NO!
CLICK HERE NOW!
Do you have a blog? Post on this. (I am Father. I'm posting on this---except maybe you might not have meant me.)
UPDATE 2223 GMT
This post has been up for about a half hour and the POLL has shifted to 66%!
Should the Church allow women to be ordained as priests? Yes (1256) 66.04% No (576) 30.28% I’m undecided (70) 3.68%
This post has been up for about a half hour and the POLL has shifted to 66%!
Should the Church allow women to be ordained as priests? Yes (1256) 66.04% No (576) 30.28% I’m undecided (70) 3.68%
1902 UPDATE 2258 GMT
Yes (1513) 57.51% <--- Note... the heretical position is getting some support... VOTE! No (1044) 39.68% I’m undecided (74) 2.81% Total Votes: 2631
Yes (1513) 57.51% <--- Note... the heretical position is getting some support... VOTE! No (1044) 39.68% I’m undecided (74) 2.81% Total Votes: 2631
UPDATE 2310 GMT
The enemy position is getting traffic. So, it appears that the struggle has been joined!
The enemy position is getting traffic. So, it appears that the struggle has been joined!
Note the growing number of votes in the (heretical) "Yes" category, while the (correct) "No" is gaining ground much faster. Yes (1561) 55.65% No (1168) 41.64% I’m undecided (76) 2.71%Total Votes: 2805 (Someone is starting to have too much fun!)
UPDATE 2351 GMT
Okay… WDTPRS just shifted the poll. The truth is now winning. Yes (1634) 48.72% No (1640) 48.9% I’m undecided (80) 2.39% Total Votes: 3354
The false position still has support. The true position has more support.
UPDATE 3 Sept 0304 GMT
Keep the pressure on! Yes (2067) 39.73% No (3029) 58.23% I’m undecided (106) 2.04%Total Votes: 5202
UPDATE 0529 GMT
Yes (2166) 37.01% No (3577) 61.11% I’m undecided (110) 1.88%Total Votes: 5853
UPDATE 1417 GMT
And the morning report is….The heretical position gained: 440 The Christian position gained: 1242 Yes (2606) 34.49% No (4819) 63.78% I’m undecided (131) 1.73% Total Votes: 7556
UPDATE 1800 GMT
And the pressure continues. NB: I discovered this poll when there were 75% in favor of the ordination of women.
Look what YOU have done! Yes (3017) 34.14% No (5655) 63.99% I’m undecided (165) 1.87% Total Votes: 8837
UPDATE 2221 GMT
Yes (3287) 32.79% No (6560) 65.44% I’m undecided (178) 1.78% Total Votes: 10025
Note the gains since my last update: YES: 270 NO: 905
UPDATE 4 Sept 1445 GMT
The liberals have regrouped and are trying to take back the poll. Do not let them!
Yes (4876) 34.65% No (9004) 63.98% [Note the drop in the percentage of the lead.] I’m undecided (194) 1.38% Total Votes: 14074
God HERE for the page where you can VOTE NO and take back the poll! Vote "NO!", you do not think the Church should (futilely attempt) to ordain women.
UPDATE 5 Sept 0436 GMT
Yes (5615) 31.7% No (11896) 67.15% I’m undecided (204) 1.15% Total Votes: 17715
Also, CNA picked up the story. (YES THEY DID FR. Z. THEY ARE ONLY 3 DAYS BEHIND THE NCR! THAT'S BECAUSE CNA IS NOT A NEWS ORGANIZATION. IT'S A RIGHT WING POLITICAL FRONT. I CAN HAVE FUN TOO!)
UPDATE 5 Sept 1609 GMT
Note the over night gains. Yes (6044) 28.22% No (14864) 69.41% I’m undecided (506) 2.36% Total Votes: 21414 (Hooray Fr. Z wins---except the heretics weren't really playing. It was more of a forfeit.)
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For those who are wondering, WDTPRS stands for What Does The Prayer Really Say or in this case What Does The Poll Really Say? The answer to that question is it says a lot about the zeal of Fr. Z's followers and the reach of his blog. It also says the poll is worthless and that it will be cited somewhere by some conservative blog as indicative of how out of step the liberals are with the real Church. Fr Z also asked his WDTPRSers to flood Cardinal O'Malley's blog article on Ted Kennedy's funeral Mass. They did, but it was a respectful and polite onslaught. Cardinal O'Malley is a Cardinal after all, and not an egg plant or a giraffe. Now if only Fr Z could get his troops to flood Archbishop Chaput's in box on the Legion investigation. FOLLOW THE MONEY TRAIL is pretty simple to type and it looks good in caps.
For a long time I've been wondering how long the centrists, progressives, and left wing nuts were going to allow the theo cons, traditionalists, and right wing nuts free reign to control the voice of this Church. Our silence or indifference has let one unrepresentative faction of the Church control all the dialogue up to and including the decisions about what is discussed. They have forced a pastoral policy which uses the Eucharist as punishment, and blindly let predatory moneyed interests use Catholicism for their own ends. But things are changing--kind of.
On Tuesday the National Catholic Reporter ran an article by John Allen on a pastoral letter of Kansas Bishops Flinn and Naumann which dealt with health care reform. It was a hard sell job for the Republican tea bag party, and it wasn't even subtle. With in 24 hours it had generated well over 200 comments, 95% of which blasted the bishops for partisan politicking and betrayal of Catholic social justice values.
Many people wanted to know when the voice of the other moderate bishops
would be heard, or where were the bishops who would stand up for the Church's authoritative teaching on the right of people to health care. This is all good. These bishops need to hear they have some kind of support. If this article proved anything, it's that they do have support. But......
By Thursday morning the only way you could access this article was by searching the archives. You couldn't even find it by clicking on John Allen's profile and index of articles. Someone has maybe put a little pressure on the Kansas City based National Catholic Reporter. What's interesting to me is this suddenly closeted article was written by John Allen, not one of the usual suspects such as Sr Joan Chittister, Fr John Dear, or Bishop Gumbleton. I guess John Allen writing it makes it a whole lot more scarier to certain vested interests.
In any event, it was one of the first times I've seen the kind of response from the left that Fr. Z can routinely get from the right. The health care debacle and some of our Republican bishops blatantly political 'pastoral' musings, may just be the straw that broke the silence of the lambs on the left. But something else is happening.....
I have also written, that the moneyed interests which fuel the zeal of the right were getting too blatant, and that very soon some of the most pure hearted of these Catholics lambs were going to see they were getting fleeced. Today I find an expose of Tom Monaghan's little fleecing of the faithful, otherwise known as Ave Maria Town and Ave Maria University, being exposed by the Wanderer. The Wanderer agrees with me on what ole Tom was really up to, and it wasn't traditional Catholicism.
No one would ever confuse the Wanderer with the National Catholic Reporter. Had a reporter from the NCR asked for access to Monaghan and Healey they would have gotten exactly nowhere. The Wanderer's reporter was not just a reporter, but a purchaser of a house in Ave Maria Town. She got access and I don't think Tom is going to like her take on his little venture in Catholic living and Catholic education.
Then there is the Legion investigation in which all sides are appalled and starting to point fingers at John Paul the Great. John Paul's refusal to deal with the Legion, his penchant for surrounding himself with Opus Dei and Legion clerics, and his friendship with Neo Catechumenate leader Kiki Arguello, will make more sense when the money trail is uncovered. It will be uncovered. It will lead to some familiar names and faces. It will let us all know, just who and what really runs Catholicism. It isn't the sheep of either side of the pasture.
Real evil could care less about Latin Masses, women priests, or non negotiables. Real evil cares about power. It appears to me this is a lesson that both sides are starting to learn. The right is learning how they can be used by power, and the left is finally learning how to flex a little power.
