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Supernatural Bankruptcy

Gettysburg Times
March 4, 2020

http://www.gettysburgtimes.com/article_f9c9c7fe-0c33-5ab8-8dfe-6d36b6a6b877.html

Out of the eight Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania, the Harrisburg diocese is the first to file for bankruptcy under Chapter 11.

They won’t be the last.

Due to widespread sex-abuse lawsuits, 20 other Catholic diocese have also filed, nationwide.

It has been less than two years since the Pennsylvania state attorney general’s office released a grand-jury report of over a 1,000 allegations of sex abuse against 300 clergy dating back decades that now includes a growing number of lawsuits filed in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Some states have relaxed their statutes of limitations allowing additional litigations. Pennsylvania isn’t there – yet. However, in 2019, a state appeals court ruled that a case accusing the Altoona-Johnstown diocese of a conspiracy to cover up abuse could continue. Similar cases have been filed statewide.

In an effort to assuage the pain, if such a thing is possible, the diocese’s Survivor Compensation Program formed last year has dished out more than $12 million to 111 victims. Those who accepted settlements are excluded from suing the church.

Harrisburg’s bankruptcy filing reveals liabilities between $50 million and $100 million. With assets valued at $10 million, it left the diocese “with no other path forward,” according to Bishop Ronald Gainer in a letter read last Sunday at all diocesan Masses.

Suing will compensate the victims, but does nothing to solve the problems. The monies collected throughout the years by the diocese have been donated by the laity for the needy, and the continuing education and care of the clergy. Those guilty abusers are also thieves as they were entrusted to be faithful stewards of such treasure. Those in the hierarchy who turned a blind eye have not only fleeced the faithful and bankrupted their dioceses, but have proven that they are incapable of policing themselves.

In a telling revelation of the times, Gainer’s letter referenced Luke Chapter 6, verse 48 where one cannot build anything without a strong foundation saying that the “diocese currently lacks that strong foundation…” a revealing statement that underscores how deep the problem truly is.

That foundation was routed piecemeal over the last five decades in this post-Vatican II era that has been witness to a major drop in priestly and religious vocations, and a front row seat to the closings of churches, schools, seminaries, convents and hospitals.

The majority of those who remain in the pews have little familiarity, knowledge, or appreciation of the majestic history of the faith of their fathers.

The smells and bells of traditional Catholicism with its grandiose architecture, marble back altars and stately, centered tabernacles, communion rails and in particular the Tridentine Mass have all been exiled. Before Latin was the language of science, medicine, and the law, it was the Church’s liturgical tongue that spoke to and converted Western Civilization.

In its place, the Altar of Sacrifice was turned away from God facing the people, and the liturgy said in the vernacular, tabernacles pushed to the side, sacrilegious reception of communion in the hand, Eucharist “ministers,” altar girls, felt banners, liturgical dance, and folk guitars that deposed of the time-honored beauty and traditional music of the Church.

Even Martin Luther himself would find it quite vexing.

Muscular Catholicism has been left to atrophy as the transmission of the faith has been diluted, dismissed and disdained under the rubrics and weight of indifference.

On the Saturday after the bankruptcy was announced, the gospel was instructive. It was from Matthew 16: 13-19, where Jesus declares Peter the rock upon which he will build His Church. The Church, despite being the oldest institution in Western Civilization, is in the world, but not of it, faces an ongoing supernatural battle of good vs. evil.

There exists an acute lack of supernatural fidelity among too many in the Church’s episcopacy. The root stems from their disbelief in the Real Presence of the Eucharist, the source and summit of the faith. It is no wonder why every poll underscores that most self-professed Catholics also do not believe.

For the first time in its 47 year, history the president of the United States spoke at the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. and sounded more Catholic than the majority of those who are fill the ranks of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Archbishop Vigano, the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, has said there is a corrupted mafia running the Church that is driven by homosexuals within the hierarchy.

Do any of these men fear God’s divine justice or His righteous anger or wrath?

The Harrisburg diocese has provided a page on their website for questions, just as they did last year when Gainer made his abuse apology tour throughout the deanery. When submitted last year, questions about offering the Tridentine Mass at parishes, and ending reception of communion in the hand were ignored.

This came as no surprise since, The Catholic Witness, the diocesan newspaper, for years has not encouraged or for that matter published any letters to the editor. The administration seems to be banking on how the average parishioner has little knowledge of how penetrating the problems in the Church are nationally, and internationally.

When Archbishop Fulton Sheen addressed the Knights of Columbus at their Supreme Convention in 1972, Sheen, who is being considered for sainthood, was also prophetically speaking to the Church of today: “Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops, and your religious act like religious.”

It seems that the clergy are too fearful, reticent or debased to tackle the problems. It will be the laity, by virtue of their priesthood of the baptized, who will have to rise up and demand holiness from their clergy and religious, as it is their duty by Canon Law to demand such.

What the clergy will not do, the laity must.

To that end, Gainer has assembled a group of nearly 30 lay members, two religious sisters, two permanent deacons, and two priests in what is being called the “Diocesan Pastoral Council.” According to the most recent issue of the diocesan newspaper, the council is a consultative board that will assist the bishop by providing advice, and serve as a constructive means of communication between the faithful and the bishop.

The council certainly has their work cut out for them because when you consider the damage being done to the faith, it is only through God’s Grace that we have been sustained. Otherwise, we would have been crushed back into that Ash Wednesday dust under the weight of its overwhelming magnitude.

We all were chosen to be in this particular time and place to fight this battle for the Bride of Christ.

The passionate and vibrant Church that triumphed over the Roman Empire and has sustained and nourished Western Civilization must be revived.

That revival has always been with us and it is called, tradition.

Let’s hope the Diocesan Pastoral Council is paying attention and can find their way home and bring the bishop along with them.

 

 

 

 

 




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