UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
Almost 2,500 bishops a half century ago, acting as a general council, the Catholic Church’s highest authority for almost 2,000 years, confirmed overwhelmingly in 1965 that the Church consists of all Catholics as the “People of God”. All were supposed to be entitled to have some say on important Church matters, as they often did in the earliest Church. Of course, this turned out to be a ruse.
As happened in 1789 with the short sighted French king, bishops and nobles, and the general populace, before the French Revolution, when the Second Vatican Council bishops left town, the Vatican bureaucracy and their carefully selected and elected papal monarchs generally disregarded the will of the People of God. Three years later in 1968, Pope Paul VI even rejected the will of his own birth control commission comprised of the People of God. Robert Blair Kaiser, a former Jesuit seminarian and top reporter for a half century, who just passed away on Holy Thursday, had vividly described this Vatican ruse in his classic book, republished as an e-book, that he made available as a free download as part of his permanent legacy.
Catholics seeking essential reforms now appear to have three choices: (1) accept this Synod, (2) leave the Church or (3) stay, resist and join the Vatican Revolution that just began in Chile. As to the first option, the Vatican since at least 1965 has operated, and still operates, as if it alone is the Church on all important matters. The Synod in October will be just more of the same, from most indications — just another ruse as discussed below.
The Synod agenda and participants were secretively “cherry picked” by the Vatican. For example, no families and certainly no women will vote on family matters. Moreover, the fundamental issue of bishop accountability, especially for their protection of priest child rapists, is absent from the agenda, see BishopAccountability.org . The reversal of the cruel contraception ban and Christian respect and acceptance of married gay Catholics have already, in effect, been rejected overwhelmingly at the initial Synod last October, it appears. Only the “money subsidy issue”, communion for divorced and remarried Catholics, appears to be up for any further discussion.
As to the second option, tens of millions of Catholics have already left the Church completely, while hundreds of millions more have reduced their participation and/or donations. As to the third option, a “Vatican Revolution”, Catholics are increasingly resisting and pushing back, some perhaps even violently. In Chile, Catholics recently protested vigorously in church, some even shoving their bishops. Significantly, one of the leaders of the ongoing Chilean opposition, top US communications executive, Juan Carlos Cruz, lives in Philadelphia. He may reasonably be expected with many others to greet the pope with similar peaceful protests when the pope visits Philadelphia this summer.
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