Viral Amplification: A Rant and A Hope

Scripture is a never ending source for Catholics.  When a Catholic who has been well instructed in the Faith reads scripture, he reads with an eye to the 'Four Senses" in which Scripture is interpreted.  (Those four being the Literal Sense--what the words actually say and their denoted meanings, the Allegorical Sense--how those things found in Scripture point to Christ and the paschal Mystery,  the Moral Sense--how those things point to Christian Life and Life in the Church, and the Anagogical Sense--how the Literal Sense points to the Christians Heavenly Destiny and the Final Things.  Reading Scripture in this light is always a fruitful, if not a comfortable, experience.

Today's First Reading  comes from the Book of Jeremiah, chapter 23: 1-6.  I shall quote verses 1 though four in full:

"Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pature" says the Lord.  Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people:  "You have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them.  Behold, I will attend you for your evil doings," says the Lord. "Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitfull and multiply.  I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, says the Lord.

Applying the Moral Sense to this reading--which just popped right up as I heard the Lector read it to us this morning--I have to say we have a great many shepherds who have been negligent, who have allowed the flock to scatter and many to be lost.  In fact, we seem to have shepherds who have forgotten their first task and loyalty--to protect and husband their Master's flocks--and made pact with the thieves and wolves that prey upon the sheep and the lambs.   One need only look around, and see the little clots and punches of wandering sheep, and the predations of the wolves and thieves.  If someone as dense and oblivious as I can see it, then I have no doubt at all the Lord can see it as well.  This reading speaks to the condition of the Church, especially in North America and Europe, today as much as it spoke to the Israelites in the times before Christ, and for much the same reasons.

We can look, for instance, at Sister Pat Farrel president of the LCWR who said that "The Church is pro fetus, but remains silent on other issues".  Well, that will make the flowers grow.  The Church speaks out on almost every issue, and she knows it.  This little lie--and it is a lie--shows part of the problem.  Over centuries, the sisters of the active congregations (really, these groups are the product of the Counter Reformation, and started becoming prominent in the early 16th century) have earned the trust and respect of the people.  Not just Catholics, but Protestants and those who don't believe at all.  And people look to them for spiritual, moral and practical guidance.  Yet the sisters of the LCWR organizations, and especially their leaders, have chosen to wander off, to go their own way.  They have left the flock, yet insist on pretending otherwise.  Even the choice of words "pro fetus" shows this.  She did not say " pro life", "pro child" or "pro baby".  The word choice shows her innate lack of  support for what is the most important moral issue of our age--the legalized, government promoted murder of millions upon millions of people before birth world wide.  If you're dead, clean water, social justice, education, political empowerment or economic equality mean nothing--you cannot avail yourself of their benefits.

One can say that the sisters are not in Holy Orders, they are not Deacons, Priests or Bishops.  True.  However, look at some of the bishops, even those who have ascended to the Red Hat.  John Jenkins, a priest, and the president of Notre Dame University, awarded Barack Obama an honorary degree, after the Hierarchy--who have the authority in these matters--stated that pro abortion politicians were not to be honored by Catholic institutions.  He simply decided that he could stray from our shepherds.  Being a shepherd himself, a priest, he is one who made a pact with the thieves and the wolves, to deliver the sheep to their knives and jaws, to be devoured by their lust for power, death and the dissolution of the Flock.  Yet in this, he was only following in the footsteps of 'Father" Theodore Hesburgh, a member of the same religious congregation as  Jenkins, and then president of Notre Dame, who signed (and some say helped mastermind) the Land O' Lakes Statement on the Nature of the Contemporary Catholic University, which basically said "Stuff the Church, except for fundraising and prestige, we want to build large, rich, powerful secular universities and not let Dogma, Devotion, Obedience or Faith stand in our way".  Others also signed, to include Theodore McCarrick, who became Cardinal Archbishop of Washington DC, and while in that position, concealed from the Bishops of the US the Vatican's memo on what to do about pro abortion Politicians.  Yeah, many of our shepherds have decided the grass is greener working with the thieves and the  wolves. 

In the title, I used the phrase "viral amplification".  That's the process by which very few viri enter an organism, then multiply rapidly, and secretly until the disease manifests.  The roots, the origin, of this virus go back to the first half of the 19th Century and are found in the "higher criticism" of German Protestant biblican scholarship and exegesis.  It began to multiply, until the first symptoms appeared.  It was seemingly successfully treated by Poe St. Pius X using the Medicine of  Pascenti Gregis Dominici  and  by Pope Leo XIII using the Medicine of Testem Benevolentiae Nostrae.   The treatment was ongoing, as it was recognized that this virus would not be totally eradicated but could be controlled, with the administration of the oath against Modernism.  Unfortunately, the virus developed a resistance to this treatment, and managed to get control of the doctors, who discontinued it.  At this point, the virus began to amplify, until the Body became sick, and heavily infected.

Now the illness is full blown.  This is seen in things like the "Catholic Campaign for Human Development".  The very name is a lie, for it is neither catholic, nor concerned with human development, being concieved as a way to funnel money from the faithful into leftist political movements and causes.  One of it's architects was Saul Alinsky, who despised the Church, and dedicated his most widely read work Rules for Radicals, to Satan.  This organization is an outreach of the American Bishops,yet supports groups that work for causes inimical to the Faith.  That this group is founded on a lie can be seen in it's promotional literature asking for donations, I believe three years ago.  The cover showed starving children in the Third World, with the slogan "The Poor Can't Wait".  Yet the Charter of the CCHD forbids distribution funds for "mere" relief work--they must go for political organization.  the thieves stole money by false pretense--convincing people that it would go to relieve the sufferings of the poor, and using it to support organizers and political efforts instead.

This can also be seen in the current activities of Catholic Relief Services, who gave over five million dollars to a group that distributes condoms and contraceptives whole supporting abortion.  CRS says in it's defense that the monies were earmarked for projects like water systems, and were not to be used for any other purpose.  I believe them.  But I also can't help but notice that they were supporting a group that is working for the culture of death, contraception and sexual license.  I guarantee that the finished project, and all the things that go with it don't have a label saying "Paid for by the donations of American Catholics".  No, they will be credited to the group receiving the grant.  The recipients will see this and say to themselves "The Catholics did nothing, these people did.  They are the ones who care."  They will look towards the secular influences for help and leadership, and decide we are irrelevant to their situation.  Even though we paid for the well. 

Yes, the virus has amplified, and has infected virtually every part of the Body.  The disease is at it's height.   But here's the weird thing about viral disease--often, when the symptoms are at their worst, the viral load decreases precipitously, sometime disappearing all together.  If the patient survives, they often are then immune to that virus for the rest of their life--that's how inoculation works.   I think we see that happening now.  The old guard of Modernists, and Americanists are aging out, dying off.  They didn't manage to pass on their faith very well, because it was empty, faddish and political.  It did not give life, or connect people to the Eternal Word.  It was empty. 

This is covered in the reading today as well:

"Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.  in his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely.  And this is the name by which he will be called' 'The Lord is our righteousness'.

All, we need to do, is keep ourselves clear of the thieves and wolves,  and wait until we hear our shepherds voice!