One of my Lenten resolutions is to avoid reading the Legacy Media’s coverage of the Papal Interegnum. I know it will make me wildly uncharitable — and that is not the purpose of Lent.

BTW, Christopher — thanks for reading this crap, so that I don’t have to.

If there is any one institution in this world that has relentlessly stood with the poor and oppressed, washed their wounds and educated their children, gave food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, comforted the imprisoned and forgotten, eased the pain of their deaths, and gave dignity to their lives, it has been the Catholic Church.

The problem Ol’ Tom has is that the Church is not amenable to his utopian dreams of a world where everyone is a suburban middle-class over-indoctrinated bleeding heart, incapable of sustained logical thought, or (God forbid) theology, who helps the poor not by doing anything useful, but by insulting cardinals in Italy.

Unlike Ol’ Tom, She is down with that whole suffering victim thing.

Most of the comments under three column are quite good. There are also links to Catholic bishops’ replies.

This guy is an idiot. I put a link a couple of posts down to Thomas McDonald’s meditation on the pope’s retirement and it’s the best reflection I’ve seen of how many Catholics (including this one) and a fair few non-Catholics feel about losing this pope. That’s the reality: Enrich is the secularist fantasy.

For the one millionth time: The Church belongs to Christ and He set it up to help every individual to tune oneself to the principles that he set he set. It is not there for each individual to tell the Church and therefore Christ that he should keep up with the times and change the fundamental principles to suit each individual’s personal vision and animal inclinations. It is there to help us gain our redemption into eternity not for some “hedonistic” heaven on earth.

I have a challenge for this guy: I dare him to put the record of the Catholic Church in relation to services and support for the poor the marginalised and the deprived against that of the Episcopalians in particular and any other religious group or government, including services to gays suffering from AIDS anywhere in the world. So let him with a beam in his eye not cast aspersions against those for a mote in their eye.

Incidentally has this bright ever heard that the official language of the Church is Latin. Every document (including every encyclical which is then forever identified by the first two or three words of the Latin version) or decree issued by the Holy See is written in Latin and then translated into other languages. The Latin version is the official one.

I had the fun of reading a discussion about what the Catholic church will be like in 100 years, and the general view was that it will be exactly like the Episcopal church today, but somehow, it will magically work this time, or it will stay the same and entirely disappear while people flock to churches that are exactly like other liberal mainline denominations. Riiight.

“translated into seven languages of Europe”

Unlike the global reach of The Episcopal Church, with its “2.4 million members in 16 countries and 110 dioceses” which countries comprise “United States, Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe.”

These countries speak such languages as English (that’s a European language), Spanish (hey, that’s European too! Hey, no Portuguese-speaking nations under your aegis? Why not, TEC?), French (I’m beginning to see a pattern here…) and Mandarin (phew! at last, a non-European language!)

“not into any of the African, Asian or Middle Eastern languages spoken by emerging Catholics.”

Well, by cracky, then I must have hallucinated hearing Arabic spoken yesterday, in Benedict’s final audience. Along with English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish which, I must admit, are all European languages. And even if we do get our First Black Pope (Cardinal Turkson), things will not improve linguistically, as guess what the official language of Ghana is? English! (“As with many ex-colonies in Africa, the official language of Ghana is the English language. Nine languages have the status of government-sponsored languages: Akan, Ewe, Dagomba (Dagbani), Dangme, Dagaare, Ga, Nzema, Gonja, and Kasem”).

Note to the Reverend Mr. Ehrich: ever watched the “Urbi et Orbi” broadcasts? Just a simple “I greet you and give you my blessing” line in a selection of the languages spoken by members of the Church takes up at least twenty minutes.

Even worse, though: some of the original Gospels were probably written in Greek (yet another European language!) instead of Aramaic (the language spoken by the emerging Catholics of the Middle East, I quite agree, Rev. Ehrich). Simply on the grounds of intelligibility and being a common language understood by diverse peoples whose native languages were not the same! Tsk! How uninclusive, Eurocentric and backwards- thinking!

Who does Ehrich’s culture – the richest and most influential empire on earth today – oppress as much as those who uphold the virtue of chastity? Only the countless slaughtered unborn.

Here’s a Confessionalist Lutheran appreciation of Benedict XVI (by an Anglican-turned-Lutheran, btw), far more cogent and interesting than Ehrich’s stale Episcopalian claptrap:

http://www.canadianlutheran.ca/thoughts-on-the-retirement-of-the-professor-pope/

All too many people do not realize how much, and on how many fronts, Benedict will be missed. Today brings me to a sort of (I do not think the word is too strong) grief. Effusions such as Ehrich’s bring me to a regret that I do not have the money to ship them each a case of Midol or Tucks.

“Christianity has a reputation that smaller denominations and individual congregations struggle to escape.” I am thankful for this and can accept the Roman Church as the face of Christianity. I believe it represents my beliefs as an Anglican too. What a telling statement from Ehrich.

I had to chuckle at little Tommy’s rant about covering up sex abuse scandals: Bennison and Bede Parry come to mind as well as countless rumors in various Episcopal prep schools in the North East.

Tom is just grumpy because no one gives a rosy rat’s rear about the official TEC view of much of anything.

It is just professional jealousy.

I also got a laugh out of his “concern” for young adults who find church “harsh, judgmental, intolerant, angry, old and dull.” That was TEC’s excuse to take a beautiful example of classic English worship (the 1928 Book of Common Prayer) and turn it into something which was a real disappointment and theologically unsound (the 1979 Book of Alternative Services). And yet, the young adults are still making the same complaints. Maybe they need a different set of young adults?

It’s ironic in the extreme to hear this progressive Episcopalian (but I repeat myself) talking about bad theology. Bad theology is what TEC does these days. Take almost any Piskie under forty and ask him to attend a 1928 Holy Communion or Morning Prayer. He won’t recognize it, either its words or its theology.

But Ol’ Tom is wrong. He has been invited to come near. Tom doesn’t want to be healed. He wants God to leave him in his sins and call them good.

We’re with MargaretC – Thanks for reading all this crap… CJ is spot on. I just don’t have the patience any more.

I was going to post something directly on the original RNS site but I see those who already posted there have put the pompous bag of gas in his place.

I see he is still smarting from Archbishop Gomez dropping his column from LA’s. Catholic paper.

Tom Ehrich is serious. My, my, my! One has only to look at TEc and the CoE to see how his gozpell (TM)is reaching out to those he belabors the Pope with in this bit of Pharisee-ism. Nice to see how that Zeitgeist plays out in eIsegesis, Tom.

Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison. On Tom.

The bigotry is strong with this one.

I should be ashamed of myself; it’s Lent, I’m supposed to be engaged in prayer and fasting and alsmsgiving.

Instead, I’m having way too much fun teasing poor Tom Downs (I think he may, from what he’s said, be the Rev. J. Thomas Downs, Jr., rector of St. Paul’s, Gladwin in Eastern Michigan) who is manfully defending Tom Ehrich against us barbarians who are mocking and jeering and generally not agreeing with the wisdom and clarity exhibited in the article.

“Ad hominem attacks such as these usually suggest that the speaker has no legitimate response to the subject, so attacks the speaker instead.”

Ah, now, Tom (Downs), that’s a bit harsh about poor Tom (Ehrich) – oops! No, you mean me and another commenter!

Go, Fuinseoig! Heresy/accomodationism/sheer cluelessness (among so much else) do not stand down during Lent. Nor, therefore, can we.

Being serious for a moment, if you want to see real-time coverage of the Pope leaving the Vatican, head over now to the Vatican Radio website and click on the “Vatican Player – TV Live/On Demand” links to the right.

As of 8 p.m. Roman Time (which is 7 p.m. GMT and I don’t know what in American time zones, but New York is 7 hours behind Irish time right now), there will be no reigning pope, and we will have a sede vacante.

May God keep us all and guide the cardinals when they go in conclave.

With its largest force stuck in the 19th century,

I am beginning to think that a simple key to people’s thought is checking their almost always random references to the Xth century. Do the Enlightenment, Napoleon, second suppression of the Jesuits, Jansenism, 1849, and continued slavery in the United States (even after the Industrial Revolution and suppression in other countries) mean nothing to Tom? The nineteenth century was in many ways a turbulent time, a logical bridge between the eighteenth and twentieth in philosophy, elitism cloaked as populism, poverty, desperation, and violence.

Those crying for kindness

I know that the following will make me sound like a libtard, but I really wonder how much animus against the Holy Father is simply a result of his being German. Maybe I am just sensitive about being called Hitler as a child due to my ancestry and physical appearance … but I do not understand how anyone who knows Pope Benedict XVI at all would say that he is not a kind man. I recently read a statement of his saying that he enjoyed his stay in a particular place because all of the hospitality team treated him familiarly as though he were … one of their children.
_______________________________

Again, the Pope is virtually a prisoner of the Magisterium. Whatever his temptations or sins may be, he cannot teach contrary to Tradition. It is just not an option. And so there is not much point in the election of someone who would really like to do so; it would only lead to personal frustration.

how much animus against the Holy Father is simply a result of his being German.

A huge amount. Panzerkardinal? God’s Rottweiler? You’d think these idiots had never read Schiller and Goethe, or heard Schuman and Beethoven. German baby blankets are not in Feldgrau.

“Even worse, though: some of the original Gospels were probably written in Greek (yet another European language!) instead of Aramaic (the language spoken by the emerging Catholics of the Middle East, I quite agree, Rev. Ehrich).”

Well played, Fuinseoig! Well played indeed! Thank you for that.

Fuinseoig, I’m confused. My handy dandy Apple computer dashboard insists that Ireland is five hours ahead of the U.S. Eastern Standard time, as usual. And you’re one hour behind Rome. So at 12:15 p.m. EST Benedict’s active papacy will last one hour and 45 minutes more.

I wish I could say there are lots of emerging Catholics in the MIddle East. The fact is that Catholics and other Christians are fleeing the Middle East if they can. The churches (Catholic, Orthodox, both Eastern and Oriental, Anglican, and other Protestants) are still there preaching the Gospel and making converts where they can. There are some converts, which is kept very quiet for the safety of those converts, but in general Christianity is in siege in the Middle East, while it is spreading like wildfire in Africa and Asia.

Tom Ehrich, just another Episcopal cleric displaying his identity as an exemplar of the mascot of the Democratic Party of the U.S.

It was also good to see that His Excellency, Bishop Paprocki took Ehrich to task publicly in response to the latter’s rudeness and incivility.

Pax et bonum,
Keith Töpfer

Katherine, as my mother used to tell us kids, “You’d confuse a nation” and I seem to have lived up or down to that standard.

It’s right now 6:10 p.m. Irish time, which makes it (looking at world time map) 1:10 p.m. New York time – is that Eastern Standard time?

Anyway, in about an hour our time (that is, 7 p.m. Irish time, 8 p.m. Roman time and it should be 2 p.m. east coast U.S.A. if I’m calculating correctly) then the pope will officially have stepped down and the Church will be in the state of sede vacante. The Swiss Guard will leave their posts outside Castel Gandolfo, as their role is to protect the reigning pontiff, which Benedict will no longer be and the Vatican police will take over security duties instead, the Papal Ring and Seal will be defaced as per tradition, the Papal Apartments will be sealed, and the job of electing a new pope will begin.

I think it still has to really hit some of the cardinals because it’s not like a death where yes, there is shock, but there is finality. Anyway, as Benedict said today in his farewell address to the cardinals:

“And among you, among the College of Cardinals, there is also the future Pope, to whom, here to today, I already promise my unconditional reverence and obedience.”

“Its harsh treatment of women…” And here I thought that rash on my ankles I’ve been scratching all morning was due to having imprudently walked through a patch of wild nettles out on my property yesterday.
And, btw, for those who like to throw around “19th Century thinking” as a pejorative, it’s rather odd how many of them are, in some manner or other, adherents of that most rigid, vicious, and intellectually baseless of all 19th Century thought-wads, Marxism.

Yep, that’s it, Fuinseoig. Boston, New York, Washington DC, Atlanta, Miami, all on EST, five hours behind Ireland and the UK and six hours behind Central European time. I think we changed daylight saving time to the same dates Europe changes, too, so there shouldn’t be any confusion, although I wish we didn’t stay on it so late into the fall. What remains confusing is when one translates to India time, which is 10.5 hours ahead of EST except when we’re on daylight time, when it’s 9.5 hours, and some Muslim countries in or near equatorial climes which go off of summer time if Ramadan is in the summer and then don’t bother going back on it.

This Episcopalian priest, Tom Ehrich, is just horrible, and he’s consistent with his liberal, progressive playbook which is unfortunately infecting all Faith-Traditions.

He does say something which has a large measure of accurate truth in his rant (despite the specks/logs in TEc’s own eyes) however:

“Its institution-first responses to sex abuse by clergy are appalling.”

I wish it weren’t so. And that it would be just a baseless, vacuous rhetorical charge. But I have just read a post on LifeSite News which I believe is credible (both the article and the journalistic website):

Catholic expert details ‘Huge homosexual underground in the Church’

This is scary and it will take courage, and not cowardice, to fight against this embodiment of “powers and principalities” not of this world.

P.S. Has anyone else heard about prophecies and the fulfillment of prophecies about the last pope in history to resign, and his successor? Anybody believe it?

Ehrich has his nerve talking about “institution-first responses.” As our host said, cough, cough, Bede Parry, Katharine Jefferts Schori. And since TEC not only tolerates but celebrates “gay” sex, how many other silent horrors are ongoing? After all, there’s nothing wrong with it, right?

Nah, I don’t believe oddball prophecies. The Lord said we do not know the day and the hour of His return. I take Him at His word.

The Lutheran article linked by Dr. Tighe is an excellent example of real ecumenism: doctrinal integrity and Christian charity.

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/world/pope-reflective-at-final-public-audience-677233/

This article reports that the crowd at the pope’s last audience was “largely young”. And then there the hundreds of thousands at the World Youth Day events. Yes, the Catholic Church is losing the next generation, or perhaps Ehrich is projecting? When a World Youth Day crowd is larger than your entire denomination’s average Sunday attendance, a bit of defensiveness might be expected.

Why is it that these little franchise managers of the Episcopal homosexual death-cult think they have any business “speaking ‘truth’ to power”?

Keep up your screeching to empty pews, Tommy boy. BTW, may the blessing of Pope Pius IX be with you, asshat.

BTW, the “prophecy” attributed to St. Malachy is probably political schticking for a Renaissance papal election (or thereabouts). Its pretty “precise” up to the then current point and then gets all vague and “mysterious”. I wouldn’t put a bit of stock in it.

When young American adults are asked what “church” means to them, they answer with words like “harsh, judgmental, intolerant, angry, old and dull.”

That pretty much describes the Episcopal Church.

“Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus” and founder of the Church Wellness Project.” He is also, by all appearances, a world-class douche.

Panzerkardinal? God’s Rottweiler?

I’ve always called him those out of affection.

Some faithful Catholics (as far as I know) are concerned about the actions of homosexual clergy in the RCC and its impact on the papal enclave.

(1 of 2)

Cardinal William Levada and Cardinal Roger Mahony: one impostor defends the other..”

Excerpts: “Cardinal William Levada has addressed the media in the San Francisco Bay area and allowed more of his modernist opinions to drip. Levada is another impostor who will join the 2013 Conclave in Rome for the election of a new Pope.

Cardinal Levada defended Cardinal Roger Mahony’s participation in the 2013 Conclave, in spite of the storm of protests surrounding Cardinal Mahony’s horrendous cover-up of pederasty and other forms of sexual abuse, in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Is it a mere coincidence that in the Catholic Church there is a parallel between the growing presence of the homosexual culture and the incidence of pederasty?

It is not surprising that these modernist Roman Catholic Church officials have failed to protect so many children from sexual predators inside the Church – and have covered up the incidence of pederasty and other sexual crimes, in violation of the very positions that they have held at the Vatican and throughout the world.

There goes the Conclave

The impostors that will walk into the Sistine Chapel will turn the 2013 Conclave into a masquerade. It is the duty of all faithful Roman Catholics to oppose the participation of such impostors, in order to protect the legitimacy and sacred character of the Conclave that will elect the successor of Saint Peter.”

(2 of 2)

Liar, liar, Pants on Fire

Excerpts:

“On Monday, February 25, 2013, at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, Calif., Cardinal William Levada gave a media conference at which he defended the presence of retired Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony at the upcoming papal conclave in Rome. Readers of The Rite of Sodomy will recall that St. Patrick’s Seminary was where the now deceased homosexual predator Bishop Joseph Ferrario used to bring his young prey David Figueroa for homosexual liaisons.

As for Levada’s statement that seeks to separate homosexual priests from “pedophile” priests, let’s get our language straight, shall we.

For 2000 years the Catholic Church has always referred to homosexual acts by an adult male against an adolescent boy or young man as pederasty, derived from the Greek paiderastes, literally, a lover of boys. Why does Levada fail to use this traditional term? Why does he refer to “pedophile” priests instead of pederast priests?

Is he fearful that the Catholic laity with draw the obvious connection between the “gay clerical Mafia” in the Church and the increase in pederastic crimes by clergy and religious?”

Until the election of the next pope, when the folks who write these columns revert to their “it’s unfortunate the pope believes all that Catholic stuff” my mental response to articles like this is a simple “bite me.”

Panzerkardinal? God’s Rottweiler?

Our German Shepherd!

Ehrich is just dyspeptic because TEC is growing more irrelevant by the day and he knows it.

Once the Diocese of South Carolina finishes cleaning TEC’s clock in court, life will become more and more tenuous in TEC Land.

Get used to it, Tommy boy!

TU&D, what evidence do these columnists offer for their allegation that incidents of pederasty among RC clergy are increasing? Most reports indicate the incidence, and the associated cover-ups, peaked fifteen to twenty years ago, and that the past decade has seen credible and consistent efforts to stop both the events and the coverups.

Well, if two or three unworthy electors will invalidate the conclave, then we are already in trouble. Cardinal Mahony is certainly not the first “problematic” cardinal to grace the Sistine Chapel with his vote, nor will he be the last. If err are going to judge cardinals by their failings, don’t forget O’Mallet and Weurl, who’s record on dealing with porto-abortion Catholic politicians is less than sterling. Dolan makes nice with President Obama. I’m sure we can hang something on all of them.

“TU&D, what evidence do these columnists offer for their allegation that incidents of pederasty among RC clergy are increasing?”

You’d have to ask them. But at least you recognize, along with them, that pederasty among RC clergy exists. At least there’s not a denial or a minimization of its existence.

Is it increasing? Decreasing? The same? At least all these questions about which direction the arrow is pointing recognizes that a significant problem of pederasty exists in the RCC. The aforementioned Lifesite News article is helpful in that regard.

Pederasty exists among clergy of all denominations, and is not exclusive to the RCC. The just-resigned Pope acknowledged and addressed the problem, as have the American bishops. The current bishop of Los Angeles removed Mahony from all his duties because of his disgusting behavior during the sex abuse troubles at their height. I agree that he ought not to be voting for the new Pope out of shame for his own actions. What I don’t see is that the conclave is so riddled with homosexualists that they are likely to elect a man who will turn his eyes away from their activities.

The American voting electorate voted in Obama for President two times. It’s safe to assume that the papal enclave wouldn’t do an analogous version of what the American voting electorate has done, yes?

Good Lord, TUaD, I believe there is a fair bit of difference between the papal enclave and the great unwashed American voting electorate, don’t you?

“Good Lord, TUaD, I believe there is a fair bit of difference between the papal enclave and the great unwashed American voting electorate, don’t you?”

I think so. At least I hope so.

Obama’s re-election was a greater surprise than the first one. I hope that the next pope won’t be a bad surprise, and that he’ll really clean up the “huge homosexual underground in the Church.”

We need to be realistic: there have been some stinko popes elected by stinko cardinals, and before the College of Cardinals, by manipulating Roman families. The point had been made that early bishops of Rome were not particularly distinguished among bishops. And of course, the Church of Rome had at times been utterly corrupt, fiscally, morally, and politically.

“We need to be realistic: there have been some stinko popes elected by stinko cardinals”

Well, let’s hope and pray that the next pope is not a stinko! And that stinko cardinals get removed.

“Good Lord, TUaD, I believe there is a fair bit of difference between the papal enclave and the great unwashed American voting electorate, don’t you?”

Here’s another example of a “fair bit of difference”: The Supreme Court of the United States.

Yet SCOTUS deemed Obamacare legal by a 5-4 margin. Chief Justice Roberts, a Catholic, surprised a lot of people with his vote for the legality of Obamacare.

Now Obama is urging the Supreme Court to overturn California’s Proposition 8.

Here’s another example of a “fair bit of difference”: The Supreme Court of the United States.

What in Lower Slobbovia has that got to do with the conclave?

Apparently the Pope did not translate his resignation into Klingon.

Fools like this are a dime a dozen and have the intelligence of a dime. (the modern dime, not the silver dime we carried around as kids)

But, good for a laugh.

The internet has changed so much. When I was young, we couldn’t post our stupidity (theological or criminal behavior) on YouTube for all the world to see for all time.

For which I am grateful.

Aw, c’mon, TU&D. Give it a rest. Most of us are soooo tired of this “Catholics Have Cornered the Market on Sex Abuse” meme.

It’s. Not. True. Period. All respected studies — independent studies, mind you — indicate that the incidence of Catholic clergy sex abuse has dropped precipitously in recent years. We are cleaning up our mess. Which is more than can be said for many, many other churches.

Study after study has shown that the incidence (percentage-wise) of clergy sex abuse is roughly the same across all churches and communions. Google it if you don’t believe me.

Nowadays, in fact, according to a Baptist abuse-monitoring site, the incidence seems to be *lower* among Catholics. That’s right. Another myth bites the dust!

“Let any man (or communion!) who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” If non-Catholics spend all their time insisting that this is “just a Catholic problem,” they run the very real risk of ignoring egregious sex abuse and coverups in their own communions.

Just ask Sovereign Grace Ministries, the latest evangelical mega-church conglomerate embroiled in a giant sex-abuse-and-coverup scandal. Google them…they are asking for a dismissal of the class-action lawsuit against them on First Amendment grounds. Nice, huh? If the Catholic Church pulled something like that, the media and the TU&Ds of the world would never let us hear the end of it.

Sheesh. Does this ever get OLD!