CINOs -- An Acronym to help us Examine Our Conscience

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|Fr. Rutler’s Weekly Column

October 27, 2019|
|If “ religio ” is translated as being bound to a particular outlook on life, then everyone is religious. The saints simply have bound themselves to true religion. Today that is a socially unacceptable assertion, but “political correctness” is itself a form of religion.

Early Christians were condemned as atheists because they refused to worship the gods approved by the government. The term “agnostic,” presumably coined by T.H. Huxley in 1869, is just a lazy form of atheism. But institutionalized atheism, which the Soviets called “ gosateizm ,” has caused the deaths of hundreds of millions. In our own country, it has created a hollowness of spirit and consequent despair. It is not irrelevant to this case that the most impressionable age group in our society, adolescents, have had a 56% rise in suicides in the last ten years.

Saint Polycarp could have been spared death by burning had he renounced “Atheism,” which meant Christianity, but he shocked the pagans in the stadium by shouting that they were the real atheists. Around 110 AD, Pliny the Younger, governor in northern Asia Minor, would exonerate Christians if they would worship the emperor Trajan as a god, along with the statues in the state pantheon, “which it is said bona fide Christians cannot be induced to do.”

Thus there were even then what we now call “CINOs”—Catholics in Name Only, not “bona fide,” who claim to be Catholic only when politically convenient, or in order to get married in a pretty church. “Secularism” is a religion with a non-creedal creed censuring those who do not believe in unbelief. Young people in the United States who claim to have “No Religion”—called “Nones”—now outnumber Catholics, and they have their own prophets, redefining morality and predicting apocalypse by carbon emissions. “Politically incorrect” thinkers are banned from universities as heretics.

Attorney General William Barr recently exposed this in an address at the law school of Notre Dame University: The secular project “is taking on all the trappings of religion, including inquisitions and excommunication. Those who defy the creed risk a figurative burning at the stake—social, educational and professional ostracism and exclusion waged through lawsuits and savage social media campaigns.” Some church leaders have tried to cajole secularists by avoiding mention of true religion.

By contrast, Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan, whose family suffered under Stalin’s pogroms, has said that a dispirited Catholicism is “an extremely cunning method of Satan to take away the successors of the Apostles and priests from prayer and evangelization—under the pretext of a so-called ‘synodality.’”

The Founder of what politically correct idolaters in every age have considered heretical atheism warned: “For he that shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him the Son of man shall be ashamed, when he shall come in his majesty, and that of his Father, and of the holy angels” (Luke 9:26).

Faithfully yours in Christ,

Father George W. Rutler|

** (a CINO is a Catholic in name only)
 
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Step 1: Don’t give them their own trendy name that will inevitably be used in a snobby and elitist way
 
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You mean they will like their new name and call those who try to live their faith…hypocrites? Jesus was called many names and he called the fake followers some hard, unfavorable names.
 
Elitism is the belief or attitude that individuals who form an elite—a select group of people with an intrinsic quality, high intellect, wealth, special skills, or experience—are more likely to be constructive to society as a whole, and therefore deserve influence or authority greater than that of others."
There are those in the Church who like to use the term elitism to describe some Catholics…it is a judgmental term.
Jesus came to save sinners, loved the poor, picked mostly fishermen, and a tax collector to be the Apostles of the Church. There are a few wealthy Catholics who go to Catholic Universities that no longer teach what the Church teaches and some clergy who like to accompany the rich, and “politically correct” Catholics who feed their modernist beliefs and even possibly their pockets.
And of course there are very generous, wealthy Catholics who give to the poor, and help missionaries. These Catholics , try by Gods grace, to go through the eye of the needle…Luke 18:24-30
 
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Divine3 said:
“Secularism” is a religion with a non-creedal creed censuring those who do not believe in unbelief.
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It’s a very simple method, to identify a thing by it’s characteristics. Observe a thing’s behavior and it’s components, and classify it. Fr. Rutler as well as countless others have done this with various forms of atheism and political tribes. He pegs their system of belief as a religion without a God. However there may be some other kind of god. Although using the word god would probably be out of the question. A term like ‘core value’, or some other nebulous shifting target would work.

In the end, something should be apparent through observation alone. That these characteristics of a people’s beliefs are common to all people not just some people or ‘those people’.
 
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Divine3 said:
You mean they will like their new name and call those who try to live their faith…hypocrites? Jesus was called many names and he called the fake followers some hard, unfavorable names.
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But you’re not Jesus. He had unique authority.

Jesus, your parents, a friend, and a stranger all have different levels of authority to speak to you a certain way.

Labeling Catholics a certain way is not helpful. Labels like that are quickly used in a way to reinforce a social clique.
 
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Pray for them and never stop preaching the truth to them. Someday they will repent from their sins. Hopefully before it’s too late.
 
This is how it was taught at Vatican 2:
He is not saved, however, who, though part of the body of the Church, does not persevere in charity. He remains indeed in the bosom of the Church, but, as it were, only in a “bodily” manner and not “in his heart.” All the Church’s children should remember that their exalted status is to be attributed not to their own merits but to the special grace of Christ. If they fail moreover to respond to that grace in thought, word and deed, not only shall they not be saved but they will be the more severely judged.
Lumen Gentium 13
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What can we do? Love more. Respond to grace and be grateful for what we have been given.

That is my guess.
 
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TK421 said:
Labels like that are quickly used in a way to reinforce a social clique.
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Labels are necessary for identifying error and avoiding confusion such as liberal politicians who identify as ‘Catholic’ while supporting abortion or so called same sex marriage.
 
@yankeesouth

At what period in human history has anybody ever been able to know a person’s views on issues based on if they were Catholic or not? Name one century between Christ and the present day.

Massive numbers of Catholics have been (and are) communists, fascists, nationalists, slavers, warlords, hedonists, etc. The list could go on.

So no, the label isn’t necessary. People need to just get to know individuals and decide from there how trustworthy they are in public office or any other position. You can’t trust a person because they go to a parish. People believe whatever they want to believe and that doesn’t change if you were baptized in a Catholic Church. It doesn’t matter what Rome teaches. If a person’s views are at odds with Rome they can compartmentalize their thoughts. Humans aren’t rational.
 
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I’m never bothered by being told, openly or through inference, that I am:
  1. Not American enough
  2. Not Patriotic enough
  3. Not (fill in the name of any political party) enough
and, especially
  1. Not Catholic enough
Matthew 7:5 - Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the splinter out of thy brother’s eye .
 
This article is not about name calling or labeling people, that’s your assumption and the depths of this article are about religion, the first commandment, and the abuse of those who label those who follow Christ and his teachings as even atheist, absurd as it sounds. I have a gigantic doubt that CINO is going to be the big catchy phrase that everyone can’t wait to use. The article is more important to me than the abbreviation of Catholics in Name Only…
 
It’s not really about intention. I don’t know if the person intends to label people or not - I’ll give the benefit of the doubt - but that is nonetheless the result.
 
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I think we all are or was at some points of life hypocrites. Myself for sure. Sometimes we know what it is right but don’t want to do it for many reason, like fear of consequences, lack of strenght ( without asking for God help) , pride etc.
We need to try our best and pray whenever we can to have the strenght to be choerent and irrheprensible.
We will make mistakes and fall, and may be seen as “CINOs” by others, but we must pray for each other and persevere
 
The Church should not be playing politics like this. This “INO” stuff is used to force a definition that does not exist. As a Catholic, I believe in the Sacraments and that they leave an indelible mark upon a soul. A person might be a sinful Catholic (like the rest), or a poor Catholic that ignores most of the faith, like many do. But there is no such thing as a Catholic in Name Only. If one is a Catholic, that is more than just nomenclature.
 
I don’t like labels myself except when going shopping or medicines etc. People are not things or robots. But I have met Catholics who say they are Catholics and are not living their faith, ----they are a scandal to those who are not Catholic. O but do they use their title or label to get their pretty wedding or funeral? You know that saying…the next time you see a church, make a visit —so when you die God won’t ask who is it?
 
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Fr. Rutler used the term CINO only incidentally. That is not what his essay was about. Rather, his main topic appears to be the false gods of our day.

But since @Divine3 seized upon CINO (Catholic In Name Only) for the thread title, I would like to say that the term CINO is of no use to faithful Catholics, and using this term will do more harm than good to all Catholics.

The term cannot help but be pejorative. The “in name only” implies falsehood. How would you feel is someone called you anything “in name only”?

Whoever calls another Catholic In Name Only is making a very serious judgment based on very flimsy evidence. First of all, the one who is judged to be CINO may someday repent. Many of us have been there and done that. Second, who among us is competent to judge? The one who considers himself worthy to judge may be as flawed as the other, if not worse. Take heed of today’s Gospel (Luke 18:9-14).

So, my friends, I urge you to avoid the using the term CINO and gently admonish anyone who uses it.
 
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