Here in the People’s Republic of Marxachusetts, the name of one of the two most sacred Christian holidays is treated very much like one of the most vile curse words imaginable. Few dare utter it in public even though a significant majority of us celebrate Christmas enthusiastically. I know the same holds true for wherever progressives make up more than a token minority of the population, They are very good at bullying people into compliance with their demands.
It is most depressing to see town after town in my part of the world hold Holiday Tree Lighting ceremonies and Holiday Bazaars. Not a single one of the couple dozen towns I’ve seen listings for on social media mention Christmas.
Back in the 70s, 80s and 90s my town was lavishly decorated for Christmas. This included an elaborate Nativity Scene right on the Town Hall grounds. The Nativity Scene disappeared decades ago to appease progressive bullies who claimed it violated the “separation of church and state.”
Nowhere in the Constitution is the phrase separation of church and state. Some claim that it is part of the Establishment Clause. This is false because the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment only prevents the federal government from declaring an official religion for the United States. This clause does not reach down to the state or local level.
Progressives turn a blind eye to the free exercise of religion clause of the First Amendment, along with similar clauses in all state constitutions. I know the Massachusetts Constitution contains more than one clause protecting the free exercise of religion.
The war on Christmas is fought most fervently in schools. In a great many school districts Christmas parties are verboten. Candy canes and Christmas colored napkins are banned. On the website for my local school district, the students will have the next week off for “Holiday Break.” Christmas is not listed at all, however, New Year’s Day is listed.
Christmas is treated like a vile swear word because progressives claim naming it will offend some nameless individuals. That is claptrap. Only whiny progressives are offended. It is utterly shameful that we have catered to these wretched bullies.
Lt. Barney Greenwald: I’m glad you brought that up, Mr. Paynter, because that’s a very pretty point. You know, I left out one detail in the court martial. It wouldn’t have helped our case any. [to Maryk] Tell me, Steve, after the Yellowstain business, Queeg came to you guys for help and you turned him down, didn’t you?
Lt. Steve Maryk: [hesitant] Yes, we did.
Lt. Barney Greenwald: [to Paynter] You didn’t approve of his conduct as an officer – he wasn’t WORTHY of your loyalty! So you turned on him. You ragged him – you made up songs about him. If you’d given Queeg the loyalty he needed, do you suppose the whole issue would have come up in the typhoon? [to Maryk] You’re an honest man, Steve, I’m asking you. You think it would’ve been necessary for you to take over?
Lt. Steve Maryk: [hesitant] It probably wouldn’t have been necessary.
Lt. Barney Greenwald: There!
Ensign Willie Keith: [horror-stricken] If that’s true, then we *were* guilty.
Lt. Barney Greenwald: Ah, you’re learning, Willie! You’re learning that you don’t work with a captain because you like the way he parts his hair; you work with him because *he’s GOT* the job, or you’re no good! Well, the case is over. You’re all safe. It was like shooting fish in a barrel.
Mortal sin is a horrible thing and of the mortal sins murder ranks high on the list and abortion is one of the worst types of murder there is.
It is the murder of an entirely innocent person.
It not only kills the child but all those who would be descended from that child
It’s a murder that is done with the consent of the mother and often with the complicity of the father & grandparents
That is what makes it something to be fought and opposed but in terms of a sin deadly to the soul there is one sin that sin is pride.
C.S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters #7
Pride is the sin of the devil, pride is the sin that created hell, pride is the sin where we put ourselves up above God. Pride is the sin that offends the first and greatest commandment. Remember what Christ himself said when asked about the subject:
One of the scribes, when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied,
“The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, ‘He is One and there is no other than he.’ And ‘to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself’ is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”And when Jesus saw that (he) answered with understanding, he said to him,
“You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Mark 12:28-34
Note that Jesus put the love of God before the love of neighbor. To fight abortion is a fine and worthy cause but to love God comes before it.
And that’s where the danger to Frank Pavone comes in.
One of the primary vows of a priest or religious is obedience. Obedience to valid authority above him or her. The rule doesn’t say “obedience if the person is smart”, “obedience if the person is holy” it’s obedience.
The church has been around for 2000 years, Over that time we’ve had Popes and Bishops that ran the entire gamut from Saintly, to, mediocre to bad as is normal in any institution. This is also true for Priests, in my lifetime I have been in parishes with good priests, saintly priests, prideful priests and bad priests but the mass was still the mass and the Eucharist still the Eucharist.
Moreover if we want examples of obedience to a seemingly bad decision we can turn not only to the great saints but great saints in living memory. Padre Pio for example had his authority to hear confession and say mass removed from him for years before they were restored. Or consider this exchange between the Lord and St. Faustina when Christ commanded her to request permission for a particular mortification and was refused:
I apologized for taking up Mother’s time and left the room. At that very moment I saw Jesus standing at the kitchen door, and I said to Him. “You commanded me to ask for these mortifications, but Mother Superior will not permit them. Jesus said:
I was here during your conversation with the Superior and know everything. I don’t demand mortification from you, but obedience. By obedience you give great glory to Me and gain merit for yourself.
The Diary of St. Faustina Notebook 1 #28
I will concede that obedience, particularly to a request we might find unjust and when it seemingly impedes a beneficial end is not easy but again it cuts to two critical things
Trust in God
Keeping the priorities in order
CS Lewis put it very well:
Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means you have almost won your man and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours—and the more “religious” (on those terms) the more securely ours. I could show you a pretty cageful down here.
C.S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters #7
Again I don’t know the details or the history concerning the former Fr. Frank Pavone, the Vatican or the individual Bishops he has crossed swords with. I don’t know what is true and what is not and my personal dealings with Fr. Pavone have always been great. He always struck me a priest dedicated to the cause of life.
If he were to ask my advice on the matter, I’d say submit in humility and in prayer, while still working with Priests for life. There is no reason why Mr. Frank Pavone can not advance the cause of life as long as he has God behind him and if God wills that he once again be Father Pavone it will happen.
He has already made one statement in his exchange with the folks at Church Militant on these events which is likely the single most important public statement he could have made.
It’s fair to say that as a priest Fr. Frank Pavone has done a lot to advance life and save souls but In my opinion this statement by Mr. Frank Pavone may do more to save souls that might be in danger than anything else he could do as it directly addresses the third great danger which will be the subject of my final piece in this series.
I’ll continue to pray for him and all involved in the case I suggest you do as well.
Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying,
“The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice…”
Matthew 23:1-3
Before I begin this series of posts let’s stipulate the following right up front:
The fight against Abortion is just and right and the efforts of Priests for Life in general and the former Father Frank Pavone in particular to oppose abortion and promote life have been to my knowledge a fine and noble undertaking in the best traditions of the Catholic Church and a service to all humanity.
That being said let’s get to the issues at hand.
There is a lot we don’t know about about the Frank Pavone case and the Vatican can take a lot of credit for this. However there are priests who have some background because when he was still Fr. Frank Pavone they were aware of the history between himself and the Bishops over him. His willingness to defy edicts from Bishops would not tend to grab sympathy from people who like him have taken a vow of obedience to such authority nor might the final result be a surprise to them.
But all of this is internal from as one might put it, “inside the club” outside the club this looks very different.
It looks like the Vatican which has over the last few years been very forgiving to those openly flaunting church teachings even to the point of advocating mortal sin while cracking down on the faithful.
As the Vatican letter states Fr. Pavone is a very public figure and creating this image, without explaining to the faithful the background behind it is not only foolish and short sighted, it plays into the hands of every group whose primary goal is to bring down the church, it increases the chance of schism and suggests a double standard for those who follow church teaching on subjects like abortion and those who do not. Given the recent history of the church under this pontiff I suspect very few daily mass Catholic will find such a double standard surprising
The folks at Church Militant put it best, even if all that is alleged by the Vatican is true and correct, and it’s very possible that it is, this was not the way to do things in a media age.
More importantly it illustrates the problem with putting off an issue that was illustrated during the gay pedophilia scandals.
Over and over the church rather than confronting the issue up front when it happened, they punted, transferred and tried to hide the issues. Stalling only made things worse until the scandals exploded much worse then it would have been it they had just been taken care of when they first came up.
If the then Father Pavone was disobeying his bishop back in his days in NY the church would have been better off cracking down at once, punting on the issue and stalling on the issue is one of the reasons why it’s a crisis for the church.
I know and concede that the Vatican by it’s very nature moves slowly and quietly and whenever possibly privately but this is just plain stupid and contrary to the spirit of Christ who when before Annas said:
The high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his doctrine. Jesus answered him,
“I have spoken publicly to the world. I have always taught in a synagogue or in the temple area where all the Jews gather, and in secret I have said nothing. Why ask me? Ask those who heard me what I said to them. They know what I said.”
When he had said this, one of the temple guards standing there struck Jesus and said, “Is this the way you answer the high priest?”
Jesus answered him,
“If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?”
John 18:19-23
When you have truth on your side, the thing to do is be open. The church should understand that and act accordingly.
Of course there is the possibility that the folks at the top who made this decision DO understand it and are silent because of it. I hope and pray this is not the case. I honestly don’t know, and frankly I suspect most of the people who read this post don’t know either.
Pittsburgh, a longtime example of how a city can change from an industrial mess to a tech haven, is running into a variety of problems in places run by Democrats.
As a journalist in the 1970s, I covered organized labor and needed a shower after trips through the blazing heat of the steel mills. On several visits in the 2000s, however, I found a city that had changed from Budweiser to craft beer and from kielbasa to kale.
Downtown Pittsburgh had changed from shuttered stores to bustling restaurants and museums.
Recently, however, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has documented the fraying of the social fabric that brought the city back from the brink.
“Frustration over shootings, fights, panhandling, and open drug dealing boiled over during a recent meeting between Downtown business owners and merchants and top officials within Mayor Ed Gainey’s administration,” the newspaper reported last weekend in a front-page story.
“Some worried about losing commercial or residential tenants if the situation doesn’t change or how they can cajole workers back to the office given anxiety about safety. Another fretted about losing businesses or restaurants.”
Although other cities have experienced far higher crime statistics since the end of the COVID crisis, Pittsburgh businesses, particularly in the downtown area, have grown accustomed to safe streets.
In a recent meeting with the new mayor, business leaders expressed concern that city leadership isn’t doing enough, particularly to address issues like aggressive panhandling, fights, unruly youths, and loitering.
Like many Democrats, the new mayor is taking a hands-off approach to street crime, which has many business leaders worried.
“We’ve got to stop kidding ourselves. We’ve got to stop fighting about it and just say, go outside, smell it, look at it, experience it. It’s bad, and it’s getting worse,” said Kevin Wade, executive vice president of the PNC Financial Services Group. “If you keep up this resistance, it’s going to be beyond repair.”
Ralph Falbo, who owns a condominium building, said tenants get upset over issues like aggressive panhandling. “I got people calling me saying as soon as my lease is up, I’m gone,” he said.
Tom Smith, the managing partner of the Pittsburgh office of K&L Gates, said the law firm had tried everything from pancake and bacon breakfasts to cornhole tournaments to entice people back to the office.
But it turned out that the event that drew the biggest crowd was when Pittsburgh police came to speak about the downtown area. “It was very eye-opening to me. The point someone made about perception is the reality. Certainly, the perception is that things are really bad and that something needs to be done,” he said.
As many visitors to Pittsburgh will attest, the city has rebuilt a vibrant downtown. It would be sad to see it go the way of other major cities!
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