PhD's in Perdition
Part Ten of
CATHOLIC IDENTITY CRISIS IN THE USA
Spring brings on the dirth of controversial commencement speakers and nowhere is this more evident and defiant, even deviant, than in supposed 'Catholic' colleges where loyalty to the tenets of the True Faith are cast to the winds, just as so many mortar boards are flung into the air in abandonment. Truth and Faith have truly taken a holiday in these institutions of higher learning.
"When questioned on their decision to invite and honor such enemies of true Catholic teaching, these schools tend to spew forth the typical jargon that true education demands an open discussion of all issues and a willingness to interact with those one does not agree with. They usually remain straight-faced long enough to then regurgitate the trash that inviting, honoring, and providing a forum for these people does not necessarily mean that the school completely agrees with or promotes their views. They might even argue that institutions of higher learning have a duty to be at the forefront (?) of progress, reform, and dialogue which leads to change in attitudes and long-held biases and injustices, etc."
The rites of late spring ring familiar in our minds every year….the crack of baseball bats, the scent of fresh flowers and freshly cut grass, and the nausea of fawning adoration spewed toward celebrity frauds posing as messengers of wisdom at graduation ceremonies. More often than not, those chosen to wax poetic about the secrets of happiness and fulfillment know no more about these mysteries than the fresh faces watching them from below. Their inclusion in the commencement ceremony is more the commencement of true hypocrisy for these graduates ready to face the world armed with their alleged degrees of separation from ignorance. Nowhere is this more evident than in the despicable sight of legions of honored speakers who line up yearly to speak at supposedly Catholic institutions of higher learning which is higher in distortion than truth.
Just a Small Sample
Cabrini College in Pennsylvania, The College of New Rochelle in New York, Marquette University in Wisconson, Regis College in Massachusetts, and Maramount College in New York have respectively invited White House Correspondent Helen Thomas, actress Cicely Tyson, newswoman Cokie Roberts, Sarah Lightfoot, and Hillary Clinton to speak and/or be honored at their graduation ceremonies.
Rudy Giuliani was on this list to speak at Commencement exercises at Loyola College in Maryland until Baltimore's Cardinal William Keeler said no to the former Republican Mayor of New York. Wouldn't it be wonderful if he was more assertive toward his own pro-abort 'Catholic' politicians such as Senator Barbara Mikulski?
But as far as pressure from U.S. Bishops on any of the others, well, don't hold your breath. Thomas is on record as defending and favoring stem cell research and abortion, Tyson is a public advocate for Planned Parenthood, Giuliani is an advocate of unrestricted abortion and sodomite rights, Roberts has criticized the Church on numerous issues, Lightfoot is Chair of The MacArthur Foundation which is a leading contributor to abortion groups and, of course, Clinton never met an abortion she didn't favor.
Lest I forget, St. Bonaventure University in New York, St. Xavier University in Illinois, and Villanova University in Philadelphia have also invited heretics and enemies of God and now seek to honor them as well. St. Bonaventure seeks to give an honorary degree to Rep. Amory Houghton, who the abortion lobby calls a "consistent vote for choice". St. Xavier decided that it was a good idea to invite Sister Margaret Farley, Yale ethicist and outspoken critic of Church teaching who joined Catholics for Free Choice in a 1984 public campaign favoring abortion rights. Last but not least, Villanova has decided to invite and honor Sister Elizabeth Johnson and Irish President Mary McAleese.
Just in case anyone thinks that boldly defiant and arrogant politicians who believe that their view of the Catholic faith defines that faith are limited to such American luminaries as John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Jennifer Granholm, Kathleen Sebelius, and Nancy Pelosi, please take note of the President of Ireland. While McAleese is reported to be pro-life, her stance on the female priesthood and other areas leaves much to be desired.
Like so many political Catholic frauds as those mentioned above in this country, this woman supports sodomite rights and favors so-called reforms that seek to dismantle the true Faith while depicting that Faith as outdated and biased. She caused great controversy upon receiving Communion at a Protestant church despite claims that she is a "practicing and devoted Catholic". For all of her questionable acts, however, I wish to focus on what may be her most outrageous act of all in the form of absurd, blasphemous, sacrilegious, and despicable comments made regarding Christ's Divinity and the female priesthood.
When Words are Windows to Ignorance
Speaking with regard to the view that Christ did not wish women to be priests, McAleese stated,
"If I truly believed that Christ was the authority on the proposition that women are to be excluded from the priesthood by virtue simply of their gender, I would have to say emphatically that this is a Christ whose divinity I do not and will not and cannot believe"
No wonder Ireland is no longer Catholic as it once was! Ireland has embraced the same booty of mammon that the United States has. It truly is mind-boggling to hear the president of a country which produced so many priests for America, now speaking anathema. Simply put, this woman is saying that her belief in Christ's Divinity is incumbent upon His message and teachings being consistent with and conforming to her view of what is just, proper, and fair. She is boldly saying that her acceptance of that Divinity is dependent upon whether or not Christ fits her interpretation of what Christ should stand for. Taken to its natural point, this view would hold that Christ can only be Divine for each of us if His teachings and message conform to what we think those teachings and message should be! The degree of that Divinity, then, is tied to the degree of agreement between Christ's teachings and authority and our personal views of morality and social justice. This distorted trash conforms to those people who dribble that "the Christ I believe in would not do or say that" or "the Christ I choose to believe in would embrace this and that". This kind of thinking is nothing if not the meeting place of arrogance and ignorance in a sinister brew of rationalization and perdition.
Johnson has greatly criticized Church teaching on female priests as well, calling this teaching a "patriarchal resistance to women's equality."
Given the limited space of this article and my own inability to stomach vile absurdity, we will stop our list here.
Christ is Not a Salesman!
What McAleese, Johnson and their ignorant lot do not realize is that Christ is not some salesman going door-to-door looking for people to buy His spiritual appliance. It is not His job to "sell" Himself or His teachings to us nor is it our privilege to decide if we should buy or not buy that appliance! While all of the pluralist, relativist, and lukewarm buffet Catholics love to see whatever it is that they call their faith this way, they are buying a very cheap and useless vacuum cleaner that will never clean their conscience or souls.
In fact, the absolute and true reality is that just the opposite is the case.
Rather than Christ being a salesman seeking our purchase of His teachings or some plastic figure in a store which we can choose from among many versions or models depending upon our tastes and whims, the fact remains that there is one absolute truth, one true reality that God has revealed to us and that we must accept and follow if we wish to find salvation. Christ is offering and not selling us salvation. He is not about persuading us to buy or take what He offers. His Divinity is not about what we feel comfortable with or wish to bless with our acceptance or agreement. Christ is Divine and the Absolute Truth, Way, and the Life whether we agree with His message or not. He is the only Son of God Who died for us whether we agree with His message or not. He is the Way and the Truth and the Light whether we accept His teachings and authority or not. And yes,
He is Divine whether McAleese and the rest of her like, who call themselves 'Catholic,' believe it or not!
Arrogant Defiance Dressed as Enlightenment
When questioned on their decision to invite and honor such enemies of true Catholic teaching, these schools tend to spew forth the typical jargon that true education demands an open discussion of all issues and a willingness to interact with those one does not agree with. They usually remain straight-faced long enough to then regurgitate the trash that inviting, honoring, and providing a forum for these people does not necessarily mean that the school completely agrees with or promotes their views. They might even argue that institutions of higher learning have a duty to be at the forefront (?) of progress, reform, and dialogue which leads to change in attitudes and long-held biases and injustices, etc.
This attitude can be traced to the subtly brewing belief expressed by Rev. John W. Howard, alumnus and longtime faculty member at Boston College, a supposedly Catholic college. In explaining the increasing protests by some Boston College students against the school's reluctance to embrace total protection of homosexuals against alleged discrimination, Howard explained,
"I heard one university official say that this is the price we pay for having bright kids coming to BC"
Howard was implying that accepting the sodomite lifestyle was consistent with the Jesuit message against injustice, and that smarter students saw this supposed inconsistency between that message and the school's treatment of homosexuals.
Simply put, these defiant schools defend their decisions by embracing such compromise of true Catholic teaching as reforms, progress, enlightenment, and greater wisdom. By their actions, these schools betray their Catholic roots and tradition while fawning and racing to accept secular, modernist, feminist, sodomite, and radical views contrary to those roots, all in the name of supposed academic freedom and a search for wisdom. Even as they claim to be wise, they show their true ignorance, arrogance, and defiance of God's Word and Christ's teaching.
By honoring the enemies of God, they join those enemies and surpass their blasphemy, for it is worse to claim to follow God while spinning sin than to spin such sin while never claiming to follow God at all!
But as we have seen only too often, the paper tigers of the USCCB may give lip service to what should be done, but rarely ever follow through with any kind of definitive action. These institutions not only have no respect for Christ, or the faith but even their own weak-livered bishops. To call these colleges and their administrators 'Catholic' is an atrocity and a total misnomer.
The Right Course
Until higher institutions start adhering to their Catholic principles, they won't be Catholic in any sense of the word. More need to follow the example of a Catholic prep school in Ohio. Recently it demonstrated the right course of action by canceling its invitation to the infamous pro-abortion Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius after criticism from a Kansas pro-life group. This woman who claims to be a Catholic has sold her soul to the devil in return for votes and dollars. She vetoed House Bill 2176 which would have imposed restrictions on abortion clinics in April of 2003 and has consistently protected and defended such death mills as Women's Health Care Services in Wichita, whose owner George Tiller "the Killer" has contributed heavily to Sebelius. Despite its initial error of even thinking that it was the right thing to honor this hypocrite and fraud politician, the school had enough common sense, integrity, and courage to rescind that error and correct its actions. So, too, Loyola in Baltimore, though it was not because it wasn't the "right thing to do" but rather because of undo pressure put on them which would put them in a bad light. I have news for them. They were already in a bad light by even considering the idea.
It is too bad that too many so-called Catholic institutions are embarrassments and stains on true Catholic teaching that twist the Catholic tradition of truth and justice into the devil's brand of deception and distortion. This despicable reality is a sad and tragic window to what the Catholic faith has become and will continue to degrade into in this country. More and more, Christ will be the last One ever invited to speak or be honored at graduation ceremonies. It is truly ironic that He Who is The Way, The Truth, and The Life - the True Light of Knowledge - has become No way, Mistruth, and not Right at ceremonies that purport to honor wisdom and truth! Ah, yes, the Political Correctness of modern 'Catholicism'!
Conclusion
Ignorant arrogance, insolence, and defiant stupidity have become politically correct in these times, especially here in the 'get-with-it' United States. Politics rules the roost rather than ethics and college administrators, even religious, who disregard their roots and cast out into the deep and dangerous seas of relativism which leads to the whirlpool vortex of hell. But such opinions, as we have seen, are not limited to American shores. Mary McAleese, the President of Ireland, represents that fact given her statements noted above. By making her belief in Christ's Divinity dependent upon Christ fitting her view of what He should stand for, McAleese represents the kind of arrogance few can aspire to.
Those who attempt to argue for Christ on their terms, whether politician, professor, journalist, liberal cleric, or lawyer fail miserably in the Celestial Court by presenting evidence of their ignorance. In attempting to present Christ on their terms, liberal journalists reflects the radical and twisted media rhetoric against God that we have all come to expect. In attempting to instruct us on how we should see Christ, these basic "Know-nothings" fail the only course that matters, which is the one that holds the Word and Will of God above all else. In attempting to gain the vote of secular and modernist fools, they join so many of their ilk in selling truth for deception and distortion. In arrogantly defying the true Faith, these so-called "practicing Catholics" shows us that they still need more practice. Finally, in proclaiming the theme so many advance in their commencement addresses as "building bridges", they reveal to all that the only bridge they are building dips downward and that there is no firm footing on the other side. All the honorary degrees they garner only adds up to PhD's to Perdition. That these people mentioned above should be honored and speak at supposed 'Catholic' graduation ceremonies is an abomination and reflection of just how many so-called Catholics and Catholic institutions are willing to abandon ship for the moors of mammon. One final thought: Do they realize that when standing before the Eternal Judge at their Particular Judgments, they will have to answer for being accomplices to the demise of those students' souls? It doesn't take a PhD to realize that!
Gabriel Garnica
THIS SATURDAY: PART ELEVEN: The Perdition of the American Buffet Mentality
Columns in this series thus far:
Editor's Note: Heaven is once again under attack by those who would seek to ignore and overthrow God's majesty and authority. Gabriel Garnica, educator and attorney, submits regular insights and commentaries to remind and help guide readers toward a deeper and more assertive faith. Touching on topics and issues ranging from personal faith, doctrine, education, scripture, the media, family life, morality, and values, Gabriel's notes are music to traditional ears but unpleasant tones to those who have bought into the misguided notions so prevalent and spreading in today's Catholic world.
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