The silence of our Bishops is deafening

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LoveMercyGrace

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Perhaps a couple of US Bishops have spoken out , Bishop Thomas Tobin comes to mind. His recent post on Twitter and the backlash he received, maybe this is the reason there is overall so much silence?

What can ,or should we, as Lay people be doing to encourage our Bishops to stand up? Mostly to pray for them. Is there anything else we could be doing?

Peace
 
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Are you speaking specifically in relation to gay pride month or just having our Bishops stand up in general, for all errors and attacks against the faith?
 
Who cares about backlash?
Everytime in history people have worried about backlash is when nothing gets done.
If anything, Christians should read the history of the martyrs and then think if they should worry about backlash about standing for the faith.
 
Unfortunately our Bishops no longer seem to stand together anymore. There was no unifying voice to denounce McCarrick or the corruption that led to his rise in prominence.

Very few Bishops even acknowledged the claims made by Abp Viganò and whether or not they even agree with what he’s saying.

There doesn’t seem to be any outcry from the USCCB in regards to clergy like James Martin, who at times pushes very confusing and ambiguous views regarding homosexuality and the Church.

No, I don’t believe we will see our Bishops stand together on much of anything anymore, because frankly, they don’t all share the same views and beliefs regarding what’s right and what’s wrong. Or at least, what’s important and what isn’t.
 
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To be fair, Saint Augustine described something very similar to pride events occuring in the late Roman empire and while he clearly judged it to be a vain, inappropriate and impious thing, I’m not aware of the bishops or Popes of that time thundering down in judgment about the secular culture of the day in response. In practice, they tended to pursue dialogue and have private meetings with non-Catholic civil groups. Saint Augustine would meet and have regular dialogue with Africa’s Donatist bishops, for example. He criticized Manicheanism too but if memory serves that was also a philosophy/doctrine that included a lot of Christianity.

The bishops have usually focused their criticisms on doctrines being promoted by clergymen in the Church that made claim to define or interpret the Catholic faith on essential points or matters. Hence Saint Augustine was more worried about what Pelagius and his followers were teaching than what “effeminate [pagan] priests” were getting up to or publicly promoting independently of the Church.

It’s somewhat ironic that hard-line traditionalists feel they are singled out for criticism while so much else that is wrong in the world seems hardly to get a mention; but that is not actually new. Pelagius and Pelagians may have felt similarly; they were after all strident on the importance and necessity of virtue in a world becoming increasingly lax and decadent and experiencing internal moral and disciplinary decline and decay (though to be sure the demands of the Roman state and empire were becoming increasingly extreme).

My only point here is that bishops are firstly called to defend and promulgate the integrity of the Catholic faith as such. Their first concern is the discipline of Catholics and the integrity of the received tradition and doctrine of the faith: it’s exactly Catholics and especially those in holy orders who are in a position to radically distort the gospel because of their knowledge of and familiarity with it. Similarly could Pharisees and Sadducees distort God’s law and saving truth/revelation in Jesus’s day.
 
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Interesting that people are assuming the OP is speaking about a certain topic, when the OP has not defined at all what topic?
 
Well, one can know by looking that the Twitter post from a bishop that received backlash, as mentioned by the OP. That said, I haven’t read the Twitter post, hence, have no idea what it’s about 😂
 
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I’d rather have the OP make clear their post than jump to conclusions.
 
In appreciation of your Bishops for the good care taken while we lived in the United States, let me share with you ,Little Lady , so you may in turn share for those interested, when you deem appropriate in any thread.
This is just June…

http://www.usccb.org/news/

Thank you Bishops for your gratuitous work . I hold very good memories of our Bishop then , Bishop now Cardinal Di Nardo,as from Father Barron( that is how by real chance I found his videos then), Bishop Barron
 
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TheLittleLady said:
I’d rather have the OP make clear their post than jump to conclusions.
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True. I assumed they may have been referring to the issues with gay pride month, since they mentioned Bp. Tobin and his recent remarks regarding Catholics not to partake in it. If so I believe @SeraficLeo comment makes sense.

My other comment was more directed at a general view of not seeing our Bishops at the forefront of certain issues. But again that’s just my view and I don’t mean it to sound disrespectful. I just wish at times we’d see them speak with a single voice.
 
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Crusader13 said:
I just wish at times we’d see them speak with a single voice.
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Agreed–as St. Augustine said in his sermon to pastors:
All shepherds should therefore be one in the one good shepherd. All should speak with the one voice of the one shepherd, so that the sheep may hear and follow their shepherd; not this or that shepherd, but the one shepherd. All should speak with one voice in Christ, not with different voices. Brethren, I beg all of you to say the same thing, and to have no dissensions among you. The sheep should hear this voice, a voice purified from all schism, freed from all heresy, and so follow their shepherd, who says: My sheep hear my voice and follow me.
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And this includes not just synchronic unity (ie bishops now speaking with one voice), but also diachronic unity (bishops past and present saying the same thing). It is especially the Pope’s job to serve this unity of voice, not to pursue divisive novelties himself.

Sad to say, but I don’t recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd in many shepherds today…
 
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The biggest problem with bishops nowadays is that they are afraid of offending and alienating people, especially politicians. It’s why you won’t see many bishops, outside of a select few, uphold canon law and restrict pro-abortion candidates from communion. They try to straddle the fence, say something against the platform, but say it so you don’t offend the person, in the hope that they’ll get the message across, but not make someone too mad in the process. Then they end up pleasing no one. It’s a strategy that is ultimately doomed to failure. Jesus warned against being lukewarm.

There are other problems too, but this is the one that is most frustrating to me. It’s not like they have to worry about losing their livelihood because they speak out against abortion or same-sex marriage. Average Catholics, depending on their profession, do have to worry about such things.
 
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I don’t know what all the fuss is about. Some people must be superb mind readers in order to know so well the thoughts and motives of bishops. Or, if not mind reading, it could be rash judgment.
 
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The silence of our LAITY (,other than critiquing bishops) is deafening.
In my state the voters, a large number of whom are Catholic, keep electing pro abortion Catholics to office…then the laity denounce the bishops for not excommunicating them!

The bishops are responsible for doing, or not doing, some things in their jobs, sometimes well, sometimes not.

But the laity keep Denouncing the bishops for what really is the laity failure. Why is it so easy to get laity as wannabe bishop evaluators, but so hard to find laity willing to work for prolife, sanctity of marriage, school vouchers, etc?

Hasn’t anyone read the V2 document on the laity, or several of JP2’s documents concerning the role of lay activity? What we have instead are internet sites trashing the bishops as part of fundraising campaigns.

When LSN and CM trash the bishops, it’s a cash cow. If they were to hold the laity responsible for doing the Laity job, people would stop donating.
 
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LoveMercyGrace said:
What can ,or should we, as Lay people be doing to encourage our Bishops to stand up? Mostly to pray for them. Is there anything else we could be doing?
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Evangelize. Be the change that you desire to see in the world. Stand up and speak out, not against bishops but for justice, truth, life, faith, hope, and charity.
 
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I agree with you. I would also add the following observations:
—Getting to a comfort zone: Many bishops have reached a point in their lives where all is good. Why would they change it?;
—Becoming lazy: The default line is “go along to get along”. What is the need to do more? Why would they fight the media and many of their colleagues and laymen? Why expose themselves to charges of intolerance, hatred and all the x—phobias?
—Losing faith: Do they even believe in Christ and the Magisterium? Isn’t the Magisterium outdated and itself needed to change to be accepted by the world? They are not comfortable representing the Church—let alone proclaiming the gospels.

Despite my distressing observations, at every age in the life of the Church, there have always been faithful bishops, priests, nuns and laity who stood up for Christ and the Magisterium. It is no different now. Currently, there are (although few) bishops who have worked so hard to feed their sheep and to defend the faith. It’s quite comforting. There will be saints made resulting from this difficult/confusing time. Christ has always kept His promise to keep the Church from the gates of Hell.
 
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Randolph said:
There will be saints made resulting from this difficult/confusing time. Christ has always kept His promise to keep the Church from the gates of Hell.
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This is helpful for me. Thank you for posting this.
 
No website ever went broke urging people to confess and repent the sins, or omissions, or “silence”, of persons other than themselves. it’s a cash cow.
 
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