Bishop Lynch FINALLY Speaks Out ...
... refers to prudential matters like immigration, capital punishment, and the Iraq War as "litmus tests" [pdf]:
Let me offer three examples from the current moment as a litmus test as to whether or not we truly, ecclesially and individually reflect the caritas Christi. In this local Church, there are approximately 115,000 illegals. For the most part they are working, for below subsistence wages and because of their illegal status they are not accessing social services. They are in baptism overwhelmingly our brothers and sisters in the faith. Where are our voices against the proposed draconian legislation passed by the House of Representatives which in its present form could make this diocese and me a felon for our mobile health car van moving among the camps providing minimal primary medical care? Where is our vocal support for Father Demetrio Lorden and Our Lady of Guadalupe parish, whose whole parish can be deported if this legislation passes. All of our priests and religious are at risk if they choose to offer the love of Christ to an illegal and so are our dedicated generous lay women and men.My Comments:
The legislation which has passed one chamber and is under current consideration in the Senate could bring about the destruction of families among the illegals and in its present form it will criminalize many of our historical works of mercy among our brothers and sisters. There is no one word of acknowledgment of the contribution to our lives and to our society of these brothers and sisters, hermanas y hermanos. This legislation in its present form makes a mockery of all America stands for and suggests that perhaps we should chisel new words into Emma Lazarus’ famous greeting on the statue of liberty: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free, unless they come from Mexico or some other Central American country. Where my brothers are our voices? Are we afraid? Do we fear risking the ire of those whose minds are settled by a few afternoon radio talk shows? [ED.: That last sentence tells you all you need to know about Bishop Lynch.] Where is the spirit of the Lord? I beg you to stand with the Church of immigrants to seek a more realistic, far less draconian solution that upholds the dignity of every human person and the unity of every family.
***
Another area where it might sometimes be more comfortable to remain silent than to address an important justice issue is in the area of capital punishment. This whole week we focus until Easter Sunday on the death of an innocent man. We know that innocent men and perhaps women have already been executed in this country. [ED.: Well, I know of one innocent woman who was executed in her hospital bed while you played Saul and looked on, holding the cloaks of those who did the killin'.] The Sanhedrin and the Romans probably got away with executing Jesus precisely because he was a poor man who could not afford an attorney to call witnesses in his behalf and make the case for his innocence. [ED.: Huh? Is that what they teach about Christ's Self-sacrificial crucifixion in Catholic seminaries?] Sometimes on this issue I think the Church acts more like the apostles in retreat and in hiding than like the great prophets of old. Have we lost our soul for this part of our ministry? Are we afraid to speak as Pope John Paul did, against the war in Iraq which costs us the lives of too many of our young women and men? Have we lost our soul’s thirst for justice in these times?
(emphasis and editorial comments added)
You have some gall, after giving aid and comfort to those who euthanized Terri Schiavo, to make such a statement!
In case you haven't noticed - I realize you were probably too ... uh ... busy with some of your sideline pursuits to bother studying up on what the Church REALLY teaches - NONE of the 3 issues you mention as "litmus tests" qualify as intrinsic evils, but rather involve prudential judgments. Unlike, say, euthanasia, which IS intrinsically evil, but which you couldn't be bothered to denounce in the case of Terri Schiavo.
Where was YOUR support for Terri Schiavo and the Schindler family when they needed YOU? YOU failed in the ultimate test of speaking out on behalf of the voiceless, defenseless "least of these" in Terri's hour of need. So spare us your indignation over your pathetic litmus tests! Successor to the apostles or no, you make me sick!
(Hat tip: Catholic World News)
UPDATE:
Anthony of Jumping Without a Chute also notes the strong stench of hypocricy emanating from Bishop Lynch.
posted by Pro Ecclesia 7:34 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
The Sanhedrin and Romans got away with executing Jesus because it was what God asked of Jesus to submit to. The only powers that the Romans and Jews had were given by God to achieve His plan, not given by Jesus' social status.
How do these guys preach the Gospel when they only read it to support their assertions?
Good point. And what's with this Jesus couldn't afford to make the case for his innocence crap?
Jesus was silent like a lamb before the slaughter ... fulfilling prophecy, by the way ... precisely because He wasn't there to make the case for His innocence.
This excerpt you've highlighted, JimBo, really tells us more about Lynch than anything else. He doesn't understand - or at least doesn't believe - Jesus' mission.
He obviously doesn't think Jesus' death was sacrificial and necessary - something for which we should be grateful for the sake of our own souls. Rather, he thinks Jesus' death was nothing more than a tragic miscarriage of justice brought to bear against a social reformer with no money to pay for a lawyer.
"Sometimes on this issue I think the Church acts more like the apostles in retreat and in hiding than like the great prophets of old."
Perhapes the only good point he made, proven by the fact that he has retreated from defending human life.
Hey! That's kinda cool how "Lynch" and "stench" rhyme!
They do?
The way I pronounce them with my East Texas accent they do.
But I'm removing that comment from my update as unnecessarily provocative.
The saying goes that one is entitled to one’s own opinion but not one’s own set of facts, and Christians ought to appreciate that our ten-commandment sanctions on not bearing false witness extends to all identifiable groups, institutions, historical figures, living and dead, and even to how one goes about framing a moral question.
Bishop Lynch has repeatedly held that the House border-security bill would criminalize social service to illegals. Actually, the House immigration bill makes it illegal to “assist” an illegal immigrant to “remain in the United States.” This merely reinforces existing laws. It doesn’t place nuns at risk of prosecution for providing services to needy immigrants. The bill stipulates that to break the law requires assisting an illegal knowingly to procure illegal identities and to evade immigration authority. It is not aimed at social workers but at vicious “coyote” smuggling rings that exploit illegals in the course of bringing them here for exorbitant fees and victimize the illegals and all Americans with wholesale identity thefts. David C. Iglesias, a U.S. attorney in New Mexico, has written in the Washington Times, “Our existing alien smuggling laws are inadequate, outdated and unnecessarily complicated.” Prosecutors want the law up-dated to help them to punish the smugglers, the drug dealers, the identity thieves, the potential terrorists, and the cop killers, not to indict someone working at a homeless shelter that happens to house an illegal immigrant.
Welcoming the majority of illegals who came here in honest desperation should not invoke our Bishop’s insulting characterization of dissenters from pseudo-compassion as “those whose minds are settled by a few afternoon radio talk shows.” And sympathy for those within designated “victim groups” should never exclude a recognition of those the victims themselves directly or indirectly victimize.
Granted there are a lot of us who believe that Bishop Lynch should be treated as a felon but for other reasons. At odds with his church and brother bishops and employing shameless sophistry, he sanctioned as morally legitimate, and therefore aided and abetted, the torturous and willful murder of Terry Schiavo a year ago.
Post a Comment
<< Home