May I let off steam in California?

[Cathy]

catholicvoiceoakland.org/

Prayers and sympathy are needed for the poor orthodox Roman Catholics of the Diocese of Oakland, CA.

First, they have lost their orthodox bishop and have no bishop at the moment. I assume that explains the wandering of the flock as expressed below.

Their diocesan paper, The Catholic Voice , featured the “CruZader” on its cover and gave the comic strip a full page of favorable coverage. The “hero” in the strip is Antonio De La Cruz. According to the article, “De La Cruz, known by his code name, The CruZader, also enjoys special status at The Vatican as the Church’s holy hit man.” The paper notes proudly that the Catholic author went to local Catholic schools. “Born and raised Catholic, Morales said it was almost instinctive for him to tap into his front-pew perspective in the Church for inspiration as he began to craft his comic creation.”

Two pages later, an article praises the gift of a hard-back Harry Potter novel to each eighth grader at St. Anthony Catholic School in Oakland. Harry Potter is the popular series that ends with a main, sympathetic character arranging for himself to be euthanized.

Three pages after that is a half-page article about how Catholic schools will be “celebrating” the inauguration of our first president to be pro-infanticide, anti-marriage and pro-killing-the-ill.

 

[Elizabeth502]

A bit dramatic?

I have a copy of that Voice, and I don’t have the same reaction or perception as you do. The Voice is hardly a radical rag. As to “poor” Catholics, compared to some parishes throughout the country, described on CAF as barely having available priests, the SF Bay Area has several well-staffed parishes, and Catholics can select varieties of liturgies to suit their spirituality – from late-Sunday-night candlelight Masses, to a parish with multiple Latin Masses and multiple opportunities for daily confession.

 

[Cathy]

So Elizabeth, you don’t think it’s a problem that Catholic school children are being encouraged to celebrate the most pro-abortion candidate our country has seen, and one who does not consider even the lives of born children to be sacred (as shown by his lone voice in the Illinois senate speaking out against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act)? Or that the diocesan newspaper considers this celebration as a good thing?

How about that full-page article extolling the comic strip falsely accusing the Vatican of hiring a “hit man”?

No problem, Elizabeth?

What is your definition of “scandal”?

 

[SVP]

Two pages later, an article praises the gift of a hard-back Harry Potter novel to each eighth grader at St. Anthony Catholic School in Oakland. Harry Potter is the popular series that ends with a main, sympathetic character arranging for himself to be euthanized.

Whaaa? I read that book, and that is simply an unfair distortion of how that character died.

 

[Elizabeth502]

#1, I think you need to lighten up a bit.

#2, I’m sorry that you have not made peace with the election results and/or believe that it’s helpful and fruitful to demonize politicians you disagree with, and encourage children to do so, also.

#3, The Catholic Voice is hardly a Vatican rag. It’s a local paper of interest to local Catholics. If it upsets you, you can (a) not read it, (b) unsubscribe, (c) protest to the editors.

#4. Even intense and passionate St. Paul sprinkled his epistles (such as Philippians and Corinthians) with exhortations to concentrate on goodness, virtue, and all that is uplifting, and to be models of joy and praise about others. We are not to dwell in negativity and radiate that negativity to others. From a personal standpoint, the Christian mission is to attract, not to repel.

#5. Scandal comes in many forms, many of those generated by clergy who have been featured in The Voice in the past, but who have engaged in sexual abuse in some cases, in flagrant lack of charity in their parishes in other cases (promotion of calumny, detraction, and more). That upsets me much more than particular schools or classrooms offering an opportunity to participate in a civics lesson.
Scandal also includes the frequent threads and campaigns on CAF which reveal a hatred of both the sinner and the sin, which is strictly forbidden by the teachings of the Church.

 

[TexCatholic4JMJ]

#1, I think you need to lighten up a bit.
THIS IS NO LAUGHING MATTER.

#2, I’m sorry that you have not made peace with the election results and/or believe that it’s helpful and fruitful to demonize politicians you disagree with, and encourage children to do so, also.

MAKING PEACE DOES NOT MEAN SUPPORTING THE
POLICIES THIS PRES. PUT IN PLACE IN THE FIRST DAYS
OF HIS ADMINISTRATION. WE WILL PRAY FOR HIM TO
LEAD IN GODLY WAYS.

#3, The Catholic Voice is hardly a Vatican rag. It’s a local paper of interest to local Catholics. If it upsets you, you can (a) not read it, (b) unsubscribe, (c) protest to the editors.

"VATICAN RAG’ : A BIT DISRESPECTFUL,DON’T YOU THINK?
IT SHOULD MAKE CLEAR IT DOES NOT SPEAK FOR THE
CHURCH.

#4. Even intense and passionate St. Paul sprinkled his epistles (such as Philippians and Corinthians) with exhortations to concentrate on goodness, virtue, and all that is uplifting, and to be models of joy and praise about others. We are not to dwell in negativity and radiate that negativity to others. From a personal standpoint, the Christian mission is to attract, not to repel.

ACTUALLY THIS DOES SEEM TO DWELL IN NEGATIVITY.
THE CHRISTIAN MISSION IS TO PROCLAIM THE TRUTH.

#5. Scandal comes in many forms, many of those generated by clergy who have been featured in The Voice in the past, but who have engaged in sexual abuse in some cases, in flagrant lack of charity in their parishes in other cases (promotion of calumny, detraction, and more). That upsets me much more than particular schools or classrooms offering an opportunity to participate in a civics lesson.
Scandal also includes the frequent threads and campaigns on CAF which reveal a hatred of both the sinner and the sin, which is strictly forbidden by the teachings of the Church.

THERE ARE BETTER WAYS TO BRING THESE THINGS TO
LIGHT, INSTEAD OF CREATING EVEN MORE DISTRESS AND
SCANDAL. MANY PRIESTS WERE ACCUSED AND YEARS
LATER FOUND INNOCENT TOO LATE TO REGAIN THEIR
PRIESTLY VOCATIONS.
PART OF THE CIVICS LESSON SHOULD HAVE BEEN THAT
THE CHILDREN BE TOLD OF THE POLICIES OF THIS NEW
PRESIDENT WHICH ARE CONTRARY TO THE CHURCH’S
TEACHING.
PLEASE BE SPECIFIC OF “FREQUENT THREADS AND
CAMPAIGNS” REVEALING ‘HATRED’. IS IT NOT YOUR
INTERPRETATION OF THINGS WHICH TROUBLE YOUR
CONSCIENCE?
PLEASE KNOW THAT I AM NOT ‘SHOUTING’----I JUST DON’T
KNOW HOW TO ‘COLOR’ MY RESPONSE TO SEPARATE IT
FROM THE QUOTE. DON’T MEAN ANY DISRESPECT.

 

[Elizabeth502]

MANY PRIESTS WERE ACCUSED AND YEARS
LATER FOUND INNOCENT TOO LATE TO REGAIN THEIR
PRIESTLY VOCATIONS.

But many more than that caused permanent harm to innocent children (since many of you are hand-wringers about The Innocent), and some were never prosecuted at all, but moved from parish to parish to engage in their own personal culture of death for decades.

PART OF THE CIVICS LESSON SHOULD HAVE BEEN THAT
THE CHILDREN BE TOLD OF THE POLICIES OF THIS NEW
PRESIDENT WHICH ARE CONTRARY TO THE CHURCH’S
TEACHING.

I have no problem with that, as long as equally those same children would be instructed as to the many manifestations of the Culture of Death engaged in by the recent occupant of the White House, for 8 years. (Torture, promotion of immoral wars, neglect of immense cultures of death in Africa, South America, and more)

PLEASE BE SPECIFIC OF “FREQUENT THREADS AND
CAMPAIGNS” REVEALING ‘HATRED’.

Their numbers are legion. Not enough keystroke space on the forums to name them all. They include the many threads exercised and speculating about the supposed spiritual worthiness of various politicians, clergypeople, laypeople, and the accompanying fantasies about how people whose souls we cannot see should be punished, persecuted, prosecuted, denied Sacraments, declared evil, yadayada.

IS IT NOT YOUR
INTERPRETATION OF THINGS WHICH TROUBLE YOUR
CONSCIENCE?

Absolutely not. I have an excellent ability to discern logic from illogic, moral consistency from inconsistency, and am trained in interpretation. And I know that my leader specifically instructed me, as his follower, not to speculate about the moral worthiness of others (just as you should not speculate about mine), but to concern myself with my own soul and actions, about which I will be judged.

 

[Dale_M]

Their diocesan paper, The Catholic Voice , featured the “CruZader” on its cover and gave the comic strip a full page of favorable coverage. The “hero” in the strip is Antonio De La Cruz. According to the article, “De La Cruz, known by his code name, The CruZader, also enjoys special status at The Vatican as the Church’s holy hit man.” The paper notes proudly that the Catholic author went to local Catholic schools. “Born and raised Catholic, Morales said it was almost instinctive for him to tap into his front-pew perspective in the Church for inspiration as he began to craft his comic creation.”

It sounds a like a “local boy makes good” story.

I understand your uneasiness about connecting violence to the Church, but judging from the first issue (about the hero fighting the KKK - it can be seen here) it appears to be standard comic book fare. The hero uses violence to combat evil in order to prevent an even greater violence.

 

[Cathy]

#1, I think you need to lighten up a bit.

You are most likely right about that, Elizabeth. Thank you.

#2, I’m sorry that you have not made peace with the election results and/or believe that it’s helpful and fruitful to demonize politicians you disagree with, and encourage children to do so, also.

I wouldn’t consider saying what his stated policies and promises are “demonizing.”

#3, The Catholic Voice is hardly a Vatican rag. It’s a local paper of interest to local Catholics. If it upsets you, you can (a) not read it, (b) unsubscribe, (c) protest to the editors.

I do write them as often as I can.

#4. Even intense and passionate St. Paul sprinkled his epistles (such as Philippians and Corinthians) with exhortations to concentrate on goodness, virtue, and all that is uplifting, and to be models of joy and praise about others. We are not to dwell in negativity and radiate that negativity to others. From a personal standpoint, the Christian mission is to attract, not to repel.
He also exhorted us to have nothing to do with the deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

#5. Scandal comes in many forms, many of those generated by clergy who have been featured in The Voice in the past, but who have engaged in sexual abuse in some cases, in flagrant lack of charity in their parishes in other cases (promotion of calumny, detraction, and more). That upsets me much more than particular schools or classrooms offering an opportunity to participate in a civics lesson.

A civics lesson I can handle; it’s indoctrination in a political agenda I have trouble with.
Scandal also includes the frequent threads and campaigns on CAF which reveal a hatred of both the sinner and the sin, which is strictly forbidden by the teachings of the Church.

I mean no offense. I was asking for prayers. I am really upset by this paper’s view of what is good and praiseworthy for our students.

 

[Elizabeth502]

Fair enough, Cathy. I’ll join you in prayers.

To be honest, I’m not terribly fond of The Voice – for the most part. More often than not I am disappointed in some of the trivial and obscure stories they cover, even from a local standpoint. They capture some events and persons, but miss many more. So our perceptions are probably not that far off from each other’s, in that I find their feature stories just weird sometimes. I think I’m just more disappointed than outraged.
Peace,
E.

 

[Cathy]

Fair enough, Cathy. I’ll join you in prayers.

To be honest, I’m not terribly fond of The Voice – for the most part. More often than not I am disappointed in some of the trivial and obscure stories they cover, even from a local standpoint. They capture some events and persons, but miss many more. So our perceptions are probably not that far off from each other’s, in that I find their feature stories just weird sometimes. I think I’m just more disappointed than outraged.
Peace,
E.

Elizabeth,
Thanks for helping me not go too far off the deep end. Iron sharpens iron, as they say. Thanks for your prayers.
Cathy