Bishop takes to Twitter, urges faithful to ‘wake up’ to civilization’s destruction

[Cathoholic]

Behold! The voice of one of our shepherds.

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Bishop Joseph Strickland

Bishop takes to Twitter, urges faithful to ‘wake up’ to civilization’s destruction​

Doug Mainwaring

TYLER, Texas, September 20, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — A clear, recurring theme has emerged in the recent social media warnings of a U.S. Catholic bishop: “Wake up.”

In three consecutive tweets over the course of 18 hours, Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas urged his fellow bishops, all Catholics, and all believers to “wake up” to the perils threatening the Church, inside and out.

Tweet 1: “Wake up” to the disregard for life in the womb​

When someone tweeted, “An expert in adult stem cell research told a San Francisco court Wednesday that fetal hearts used in research are harvested from living babies” and asked, “Where is the outrage…are we pagans?,” Bishop Strickland responded Thursday afternoon:

“These abominations which desecrate life must be eliminated from our society. So many lament the senseless violence and disregard for the lives of children and vulnerable people & rightly so but we must wake up to the disregard for life in the womb as the seed of this violence.” . . .

. . . Tweet 2: “WAKE UP” to courts insisting that Catholic hospitals must provide hysterectomies to transgenders

Before the crack of dawn this morning, Bishop Strickland posted on Twitter an article about the legal quagmire a Catholic hospital in California now faces after declining to remove the healthy reproductive organs from a woman who seeks to “identify” as a man. . . .

. . . Tweet 3: To his fellow bishops regarding another homosexual priest scandal: “Wake up indeed”

Two hours later, Strickland delivered the same message, “Wake up indeed.” This time, his remark was directed at bishops who had failed to take aggressive action regarding the scandalous actions of a priest who “sat on a Catholic tribunal for over 20 years despite leaving the priesthood, entering a ‘gay marriage,’ rejecting Catholicism in favor of Episcopalianism, and publicly opposing the Church’s teaching on marriage.” . . .

. . . According to George Neumayr, the investigative journalist who reported the story at The Spectator , the former priest of the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, who until this week was employed by the Wilmington, Delaware diocese, said he remains “unlaicized.” . . .

Bishop takes to Twitter, urges faithful to 'wake up' to civilization's destruction - LifeSite

Thank you Bishop Strickland!

 

[Cathoholic]

Catholic25 criticizing Bishop Strickland . . . .

This seems to be fear-mongering.

No it doesn’t.

I prefer the optimistic messages of Pope Francis.

I prefer them BOTH and see no mutual exclusivity here with Bishop Strickland and Pope Francis.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

Something very bad is going to have to happen to turn back the tidal wave of crazy.

I don’t know what it would look like, and there’s good reason to believe that folks wouldn’t even recognize a wake up call when it came.

 

[Mark121359]

“Fear mongering”

Wow! If that’s the perception of what this bishop is doing, we’re all in a world of trouble. You want to talk fear? Look at Germany. There’s real fear my friend. A real chance of schism. Now that’s really something to fear!

 

[JimG]

I wonder if the only wake up call that will be heeded would be the second coming. Civilization has sunk to the depths of perversity and seems quite satisfied with itself.

 

[Zach]

The ancient Judeans also turned from God and then neglected to listen to Jeremiah. How’d that work out?

Jeremiah 2:19

Your wickedness will chasten you,
and your apostasy will reprove you.
Know and see that it is evil and bitter
for you to forsake the Lord your God;
The fear of me is not in you,
says the Lord God of hosts.

 

[ontheway1]

That ship sailed long ago. We are just now noticing it.

 

[AlNg]

“Wake up indeed.” This time, his remark was directed at bishops who had failed to take aggressive action regarding the scandalous actions of a priest who “sat on a Catholic tribunal for over 20 years despite leaving the priesthood, entering a ‘gay marriage,’ rejecting Catholicism in favor of Episcopalianism, and publicly opposing the Church’s teaching on marriage.” . . .

I agree that Catholic bishops should wake up to this. But I don’t see what effective steps the layperson can take about priests who favor SS marriage if the bishops do nothing?
One possible problem as I see it is that a precedent has been set already for going against commandments we read in the New Testament because these commandments are asserted to be a reflection of the cultural mores in effect at that point in time. That is how it was then, but it does not have to be that way now. For example 1Cor11 or 1timothy2. In accord with the precedent of rejecting the teachings in those passages, the SS marriage advocates feel justified in claiming similar exemptions from the Biblical prohibitions against SS marriage.

 

[Cathoholic]

AINg . . . .

But I don’t see what effective steps the layperson can take about priests who favor SS marriage if the bishops do nothing?

Good point.

But we as laity CAN share teachings on marriage bypassing weak clerics. (Thankfully not all clerics are weak).

Home Bible studies, “coffee table” discussions, inviting Catholics (or even non-Catholics) to area Conferences that you know have reliable trustworty speakers (i.e. Dr. Scott Hahn, Dr. Janet Smith, Dr. Brant Pitre, Fr. Mike Scmidtz, and others).

Admittedly, it won’t change the “Tribunal” but it helps society as a whole. Since the laity are called to sanctify the temporal order, this is part of that call Mother Church gives us.

One possible problem as I see it is that a precedent has been set already for going against commandments we read in the New Testament because these commandments are asserted to be a reflection of the cultural mores in effect at that point in time. That is how it was then, but it does not have to be that way now. For example 1Cor11 or 1timothy2. In accord with the precedent of rejecting the teachings in those passages, the SS marriage advocates feel justified in claiming similar exemptions from the Biblical prohibitions against SS marriage.

Then bolster or augment Biblical passages with natural law and common sense-type of arguments.

One common-sense type of argument in the past for me on the “gender fluidity” delusion was to ask if Shaq can come out of retirement and “tear up” womens NBA?

I couldn’t get an answer back then. It was too obvious. In answering they would have undermined their own position.

Now days with the further lurch to the left, they would probably just tell me “Yes!”. (Who knows what they would say today?)

 

[IdaCatholic]

What is the optimistic message of Pope Francis and how does it differ from this?

 

[Cathoholic]

From Bishop Strickland (from the OP article) . . . .

. . . Tweet 1: “Wake up” to the disregard for life in the womb . . .​

. . . Tweet 2: “WAKE UP” to courts insisting that Catholic hospitals must provide hysterectomies to transgenders . . .

. . . Tweet 3: To his fellow bishops regarding another homosexual priest scandal: “Wake up indeed” . . .

Not from Bishop Strickland (yet it certainly could have been coopted by him).
Not from Bishop Strickland, but from today’s Mass Reading 1 (from the Prophet Amos, Chapter 6, verse 1 and following) . . . .

Thus says the LORD God of hosts:
Woe to the complacent in Zion! . . . .
. . . They drink wine from bowls
and anoint themselves with the best oils;
yet they are not made ill from the collapse of Joseph! . . .

Bold mine.

 

[stpurl]

But. . .Isn’t God the embodiment of Mercy AND Justice?

God doesn’t promote one as better than the other, does He?

 

[Cathoholic]

Bishop Strickland speaking with gifts and authority granted him from Jesus
(“Behold! The voice of one of our shepherds.” – Here)

I know this voice! Many readers here do too.
Again. Many thanks Bishop Strickland.

JOHN 10:1-15 1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber; 2 but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens; the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him,
for they know his voice.
5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not heed them. 9 I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hireling and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd;
I know my own
and my own know me,
15 as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.

 

[abucs]

Hopefully faithful Catholics and other Christians can organize and act on the good Bishop’s call.