Why Kneeling Catholic will be silent for while

Friends!

I just received some counsel from a visiting confessor that it might be best for me to take a time out from following His Holiness.  Mind you, he did not tell me to stop blogging, but then again it is hard to blog without examining headlines and those headlines are likely to have something to do with  His Holiness.

Please pray for me!  These times, where we are almost daily bombarded with some rumor about the Church shifting its stances and creeds and practices, have certainly knocked the wind out of me!  Sometimes I feel my personal faith hangs by a thread and the Holy Father need only load it down with one more revolutionary pronouncement and it will snap!  Where do I go then?  I  raised my children in this Faith.  I  taught them that the Church cannot mislead.  If the Church is simply another denomination and apparently one  that has much to learn from her 'separated brethren' and indeed to catchup with them---  Now!  do you see my sadness?  I'm beginning to feel like one of John the Baptist's disciples asking our Lord if they should look for another.   It will be a welcome vacation to pretend for a while that....

1) the Pope is far away and his future plans have little to do with me
2) the Pope stands in harmony with his 260+ predecessors and any noise to the contrary has to be wrong 
3) the Pope has good will towards Catholic traditionalists

signing off for now.....

kc

Vatican's MSGR Tomasi Defends the Indefensible before the UN

 kc's comments are in red.

From I24 News:  (http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/europe/140505-un-anti-torture-watchdog-grills-vatican-over-child-sex-abuse)

"The Holy See has no jurisdiction over every member of the Catholic Church," Tomasi said

..................;What ????? MSGR??!!!!   Nice deflection! Does the UN accuse us because, throughout the world, hundreds of thousands of Catholic laity are serving well deserved jail terms?  NO!!!  They accuse us because thousands and thousands of homosexual PRIESTS have used the Church's youth groups as their own happy-hunting-grounds and the Hierarchy has been complicit in protecting  predators and sometimes has even been involved in the crimes.

Are you telling us now, MSGR T,  that the Vatican has 'no jurisdiction' over 'every member' of the priesthood?  Then why did Pope Benedict  laicize so many of them?  Why is Pope Francis' inner circle trying to 'administrate' 'controls' and 'procedures'?  If the Pope has no jurisdiction, then there cannot be a papal solution, and both Benedict and Francis have been pretending! 


"Persons who live in a particular country are under the jurisdiction of the legitimate authorities of that country and are thus subject to the domestic law and the consequences contained therein," he said.
But critics say the Vatican and individual dioceses have helped abusers escape justice by failing to report their crimes and transferring them to new parishes, sometimes abroad.

The committee vice-chair Felice Gaer said the Vatican should take responsibility for actions in the Church's branches worldwide.

"The convention aims to ensure there is no safe haven for perpetrators of torture, or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment," she said.
Benedict XVI, pontiff from 2005 to 2013, was the first pope to apologize to abuse victims and call for zero tolerance. His successor Pope Francis has stepped up efforts.  oh really?  Then why has the rate of defrockings gone down since Pope Francis took over?
http://kneelingcatholic.blogspot.com/2014/01/reuters-reports-that-vatican.html
it is a shame when facts get in the way of a good narrative!

The committee session came two days after a Vatican panel including US Archbishop Sean Patrick O'Malley and Irish victim and campaigner Marie Collins announced that it would develop "best practices" to curb abuse and protect minors.

I really am sick of hearing how "best practices" and "curia reorganization" are going to fix evil.  [[ANALOGY]] It's kind of like saying that the well-fed Crimean bureaucrats whose buildings were overrun by Russian Spetsnatz could have saved the day with a few more file folders and paper clips!  We are at war.  Do none of our 'generals' know this?

Those of us who have had children subjected to the various 'Circle of Grace' programs and other such horse-#?$%, have gotten the impression that the whole 'best practices' thing is just a giant CYA on the behalf of Catholic clergy who see themselves as bureaucrats because they lack fortitude and must take cover behind 'best practices'.  With 'controls' and 'best practices' in place, when future cases come up--and I thnk there will be many because the Church refuses to recognize the root of the problem is disloyal and evil priests and religious--I suspect it will be blame-the-victim time all over again.


 If this is the Holy Father's only silver bullet solution, and if MSGR Tomasi's pathetic  excuse is the Holy Father's trial balloon, we need to pray for the Pope!! 



[[sarcasm to follow]] Oh, that's a relief! This just in!  Another clarification from Father Lombardi in Rome!  MSGR Tomasi didn't mean to say the *Catholic* Vatican has no jurisdiction over the Catholic faithful. MSGR was talking about Vatican, Texas!

Kneeling Catholic's comment which was removed from Father Alexander Lucie-Smith's Catholic Herald Article

 Friends!  I am not paranoid!  Well, maybe I am!  You can read Father's article at their site.  He decries the shrillness of Catholic apologists who do not know when to keep their mouths shut, basically....btw, Father ALS, you may comment here, I will not censor you!

Catholicism is essentially a calm faith and has no need of shrill defenders

Angry polemics usually give the impression that the Faith we hold rests on shaky foundations

By Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith on Monday, 5 May 2014

Kneeling Catholic>>>>>>>>

Father, respectfully, I must disagree with you if you are saying that 'calmness' is the overriding characterisic of our Faith. just a couple of examples...St. John the Baptist doesn't strike me as being calm, nor does Our Lord impress me that way. Being from England you are familiar with star of English martyrs, St. Edmond Campion. He certainly had a calm demeanor--but he was burning up inside and considered it his duty to instruct the ignorant and admonish sinners even if it offended them.....from Campion's famous 'brag'......

>>>>I am to sue most humbly and instantly for combat with all and every of them, and the most principal that may be found: protesting that in this trial the better furnished they come, the better welcome they shall be<<<<

Church Greeters Can Be the Enemy of Eucharistic Reverence!

I just finished Joseph Shaw's LMS Chairman article Protect the Pope: double standards, Part 3 !

Mr. Shaw mentions... 'parish busybodies who show no respect for the Blessed Sacrament.'

Boy oh boy, that hits a nerve!

At the Cathedral we have greeters that meet as you enter right in front of the Blessed Sacrament.  Hand shake, bulletin, a few nice words. 

You really have to be rude just to disengage yourself from the chatter to genuflect!  It's a small wonder that most people so-greeted just skip 'the ceremonial'.   The same thing happens at dismissal.  Greeters station themselves before the Blessed Sacrament and hence screen it out.Small thing, eh?

Small thing, hell!  I hate these small things!  Why must Church people undermine Eucharistic reverence?  Here's an idea:  Put the greeters outside the doors!  That would be nice. No competing with Jesus to see who gets the most attention!

Why Kneeling Catholic will remain anonymous!

Over the years, kc has been challenged----by some very good Catholics, e.g. Diane of Te Deum, an Ordinariate mutually enriching priest I much admire, and some very progressive Catholics, e.g. praytellblog--- to man-up and stop being anonymous.

Despite my deep respect (I mean this sincerely) for my challengers.  I don't see the advantage or the spiritual benefit of outing myself.

1) I have always intended this blog to be my little spiritual act of charity....why should I want a trumpet to blare out my name and not my message?  I might become the issue and my message might be drowned out.

2) (a less than noble motivation)  suffice it to say: I  have a highly placed ministry in my diocese, Corpus Christi.  Why should I endanger my position not-to-mention the positions of my loved ones who also enjoy serving his Excellency? (should my free-expression ruffle the wrong feathers!) 

3) (another less than noble motivation) my full-time job entails a background check wherein a large internet footprint is a liability.  Why should I endanger my livelihood and (that of my loved ones) when it is not necessary?

4) I am more than willing to out-myself to clerics  and those whom I trust who promise not to tell, IF they have a need to know.

5) I might be wrong...but I don't believe persecution is something I should invite and in the current climate, broadcasting *me* might bring that on.  Why should I make it easy for my ordinary to do-his-Holiness-a-favor, have word with me and suggest I take a prayerful-timeout?

6) The words and actions of Cardinal Mueller and Bishop Campbell ([don't] Protect the Pope) should serve as a warning to Catholic bloggers, especially loyal, traditionally minded ones, that being the friend to 'conservative' clerics can backfire.  Loyal SOCs (sons of the Church) can get treated like Royal SOBs, and vice versa!

I invite anyone to try to convince me otherwise!