Obama's War On The U.S. Catholic Church

Originally posted back on July 3, 2009. I brought it back from the archives to shed some light on Obama's recent HHS mandate....

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: It is the opinion of this blogger that alleged President Barack Obama is actively working to do everything he can to crack and split the U.S. Catholic Church in half. His appointment of exclusively pro-abortion Cafeteria Catholics to key positions in the government, coupled with the statements below demonstrate this beyond the shadow of a doubt. Allow me to elaborate....

Obama has a pro-choice Liberation Theology (i.e. "Christian" Socialism) agenda, and the only thing standing in the way is the U.S. Catholic Church, which officially opposes both. Unfortunately, the U.S. Catholic Church has been considerably weakened in recent years, plagued by sex-scandals (which only affected 5% of the clergy), and other scandals related to associations of the USCCB, coupled with a general liturgical crisis and poor catechises over the past four decades. The U.S. Catholic Church is ripe for schism, and President Barack Obama knows if such a thing were to happen, it would only help clear the way to push his agenda through. Nothing would serve the Obama administration better than a U.S. Catholic Church torn by infighting and reorganization.

There is nothing new about this strategy. It's been successfully employed in the past by Marxist regimes in Central and South America, where Liberation Theology (i.e. "Christian" Socialism) was born and has pitted the Catholic clergy and laity against each other in that region. Obama is doing the exact same thing here in the USA, except he's just a bit more subtle about it. It all starts with the appointment of dissenting Cafeteria Catholics (who agree with his pro-abortion Marxist goals) to key positions in government. Obama has made it clear that Catholics who actually believe and practice what the Church teaches on abortion and socialism are not welcome in his administration. In other words, Catholics who oppose the teachings of the Church will be rewarded with high level cabinet positions, while Catholics who adhere to Church teaching need not apply.

Okay, so what does this do?

Well, the U.S. Catholic Church is already split on social issues about 50/50. Approximately 50% of U.S. Catholics are what we call "practicing Catholics" (actually the number may be a little less than that, but about 50% rise to the occasion when the bishops call them to on key issues). The other 50% are what we call Cafeteria Catholics, and these are the dissenting group who may (or may not) regularly go to mass, and like to "pick and choose" which teachings of the Church they will follow, and which they will not. It's sort of like a "salad bar" approach to the Catholic faith. According to the Vatican, and the U.S. Catholic bishops, this Cafeteria Catholicism is unacceptable, and in some cases it causes those who practice it to put their status in the Church in jeopardy. In other words, Cafeteria Catholics aren't really good Catholics, they just say they are.

By exclusively putting Cafeteria Catholics in key government positions, Obama is pandering to the Cafeteria Catholic community, and in the United States, that's about 50% of all U.S. Catholics. Simultaneously he shields himself from any criticism of anti-Catholicism, because he has plausible deniability. As soon as the accusation is made, he can simply say that such charges are ridiculous because he's appointed more "Catholics" to government positions than any other president in recent memory. He won't bother to point out, of course, that these are only Catholics who oppose the teachings of the Catholic Church. His most recent nomination of a Cafeteria Catholic to the U.S. Supreme Court was his crowning achievement in implementing phase one of his plan to crack and split the U.S. Catholic Church in two.

Phase two is now underway. Barack Obama will embark on a media campaign, directly engaging U.S. Catholics, via press interviews and photo ops with the pope and various Catholic leaders. This is where the propaganda war goes into effect. What Obama started in appointments, he now follows through with in commentary. On July 2nd, Obama met with a Catholic press conference ahead of his July 10th meeting with Pope Benedict XVI. In that interview he had the following to say, among many other things, but the trigger lines I have bolded for clear recognition....

“When I was first becoming interested in social justice issues, the American bishops were talking about nuclear freezes and sanctuary for illegal immigrants and protesting U.S. policy in Latin America, and there was, I think, a very different set of perspectives that were represented, arising out of the Second Vatican. And then there was a decided shift that I think took place within — among Church officials. And, in some ways, that tracked changes in American society at large, or at least American politics... I think responses to my administration mirror tensions within the Church as a whole. Cardinal Bernardin was strongly pro-life, never shrank away from talking about that issue, but was very consistent in talking about a ‘seamless garment’ and a range of issues that were part and parcel of what he considered to be pro-life, that meant that he was concerned about poverty; he was concerned about how children were treated; he was concerned about the death penalty; he was concerned about foreign policy... and that part of the Catholic tradition is something that continues to inspire me. And I think that there have been times over the last decade or two where that more holistic tradition feels like it’s gotten buried under the abortion debate. Now, as a non-Catholic, it’s not up to me to try to resolve those tensions... All I can do is to affirm how that other tradition has made me, a non-Catholic, I think reflect on how I can be a better person and has had a powerful influence on my life. And that tells me that it might be a powerful way to move a broader set of values forward in American life generally.”

Okay, notice how Obama is trying to pit one side of Catholic Social teaching against another, and thereby trying to pit Cafeteria Catholics against practicing Catholics. He's lecturing the U.S. Catholic bishops (and ultimately the pope) on how Catholic emphasis on the holocaust of abortion is clouding the "larger" social teaching of the Church. In effect, he's telling the U.S. Catholic bishops (and the pope) that they ought to tone it down a bit on the abortion issue, so more Catholic Americans can "recognize" how much he supposedly agrees with the other aspects of Catholic social teaching. But does he really expect the pope and bishops to take his advice? Of course not! He may be a narcissist, but he's not stupid. Obama knows perfectly well that his supposed "advice" will fall on deaf ears with the pope and bishops, and in fact, he's counting on it. The comments are not intended for the pope and bishops. They're designed for the 50% of U.S. Cafeteria Catholics who would be more inclined to agree with him on the matter. The point here is to come across as seeming "reasonable" and "open to dialog." The idea being that he wants to paint the pope and U.S. Catholic bishops as being "unreasonable" and "stubborn." His coming photo op with the pope will be his capstone on this phase of the plan.

Notice, however, that Obama let the cat out of the bag with the second bolded comment. He said "I think responses to my administration mirror tensions within the Church as a whole." This is the wedge people. He just pointed out the very thing he hopes to exacerbate by his actions and comments. In this one comment he has revealed that he is all too aware of the catechises problem within the U.S. Catholic Church. He is mindful of the sad fact that the U.S. Catholic bishops have nearly lost control of half of their flock, and indeed some of those bishops are contributing to the problem. Then he goes on to lament how the Catholic bishops "unreasonable and stubborn" emphasis on abortion has "obscured" the "larger message" of Catholic social teaching, of which he claims to be in agreement on. We can expect a lot more comments like this in the near future, as this is the strategy folks. He's trying to paint the leaders of the Catholic Church as intolerant and unreasonable. Simultaneously, he's trying to make himself out to have a greater understanding of Catholic social teaching than the Church does. It's designed to drive the wedge deeper between Practicing Catholics and Cafeteria Catholics. It's designed to pit as many Catholics as he can against the leadership of the U.S. Catholic Church. It's designed to create a full-blown and all-out schism in the U.S. Catholic Church, and thus neutralize the influence of U.S. Catholic bishops on the 2012 election, and any major issue of his agenda that comes up between now and then.

Of course, the last thing Obama will let us know is that he really doesn't agree with the Catholic Church on ANY of it's social teaching. That's the dirty little secret. You see, Catholic social teaching on poverty and fairness is based on the principle of SUBSIDIARITY. Essentially it's an anti-Marxist principle. The idea of subsidiarity is that it's immoral for larger government functions to take over and perform the roles of smaller entities (state, city, local, neighborhood, family, parish church, private charity, etc.) when those entities are perfectly capable of performing those functions for themselves. The larger government entities should instead refrain from direct interference (i.e. micro-management) and instead attempt to coordinate efforts between them, to help things run more smoothly. In other words, the American principles of limited government and federalism are consistent with the Catholic principle of subsidiarity, while the Marxist principles of huge government and micro-management are not. Unfortunately, the kind of Liberation Theology Obama believes in is Marxist in principle, and flies in the face of subsidiarity. The Social Teaching of the Catholic Church is very clear that all social principles are based on subsidiarity, and subsidiarity is the "hinge" upon which all Catholic Social Justice turns.

Islamists and Secularists -- They Have So Much In Common

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: So here we have yet more evidence that militant Secularism is really no better than militant Islam if you're an orthodox and practising Christian...

(Irish Independent News) - A HOMILY delivered at Knock shrine by the Bishop of Raphoe, Philip Boyce, is being investigated by the Director of Public Prosecutions following a formal complaint by a leading humanist who claims the sermon was an incitement to hatred.

The gardai have confirmed to former Fine Gael election candidate John Colgan that they have prepared and forwarded a file to the DPP after he made allegations that the address by Dr Boyce was in breach of the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act, 1989.

The homily, entitled: "To Trust in God" was delivered to worshippers during a novena at the Marian shrine in Co Mayo last August and subsequently reported in the media, including The Irish Times, under the headline: "'Godless culture' attacking church, says bishop."

Mr Colgan, a retired chartered engineer and economist from Leixlip, Co Kildare, referred in his formal complaint to two key passages in Dr Boyce's homily which he believes broke the law.

One of the passages referred to the Catholic Church in Ireland being "attacked from outside by the arrows of a secular and godless culture"....

read full story here

Yes, I said it, and I'll say it again. IF YOU ARE AN ORTHODOX AND PRACTISING CHRISTIAN, THAN MILITANT SECULARISM IS REALLY NO BETTER THAN MILITANT ISLAM. In the end the results will be the same under both. Stand up for your faith, and you'll find yourself behind bars, that is, if you're lucky! It is strange how Secularism and Islam are at war with each other, since they are both cut from the same cloth. Maybe it's just a competition for dominance thing.

Religious Freedom LOST In the United States

(CNA/EWTN News) - Pope Benedict XVI warned today of a “grave threat” to religious liberty in the United States that requires American Catholics to respond with intelligence and courage.

“It is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres,” he said Jan. 19 in an address to a group of American bishops visiting the Vatican.

The Pope said he was particularly concerned with “certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion.”..

read full story here

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(Star-Telegram) - The United States is a nation founded on the principle of life, liberty and justice for all. Throughout the history of this great nation, the religious communities and those in posts of civil authority have recognized that free practice of religious belief is foundational to our country.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...." But in recent days the latest salvo in the attack on religious freedom was fired by the Obama administration and, sadly, by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic.

On Jan. 20, Sebelius announced the administration's decision to mandate the inclusion of particular health services in insurance coverage that would result in Catholic institutions having to provide coverage that violates Catholic Church teaching and, therefore, Catholic conscience.

The HHS ruling requires that sterilization and contraception, including controversial abortifacients, be among the "preventive services" coverage in almost every healthcare plan available to Americans, including health plans offered by religious organizations.

read full story here

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(CNA/EWTN News) - Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan, head of the U.S. bishops' conference, says the Obama administration has revoked the religious freedom of groups that do not regard women's fertility as as “disease.”

“The Catholic Church defends religious liberty, including freedom of conscience, for everyone,” the New York archbishop and conference president wrote in a Jan. 25 Wall Street Journal editorial, addressing the government's final decision to require contraception coverage in most new health plans.

With this decision, the cardinal-designate wrote, “the Obama administration has failed to show the same respect for the consciences of Catholics and others who object to treating pregnancy as a disease.”

On Jan. 20 the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed it would impose the contraception coverage mandate on most religious institutions, with a narrow exception for groups whose main purpose is the “inculcation of religious values” among people of the same faith.

“Even Jesus and his disciples would not qualify for the exemption,” Cardinal-designate Dolan noted, “because they were committed to serve those of other faiths.”

Health and Human Services finalized the contraceptive mandate just days before the annual March for Life, an event that mourns the anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision...

read full story here

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: In what is threatening to become the story of the 21st century, religious freedom is being lost (particularly for Catholics) in the United States of America. The culprit is in 'how' the courts and the legislatures interpret the term 'religious freedom.' In that, the judges and politicians are interpreting 'religious freedom' strictly in terms of religious worship, meaning freedom to engage in the ceremonial rites of one's choice. While religious conscience, the freedom to morally act according to one's beliefs, is being ignored. The latest case with the Obama administration and the HHS is just another link in a long chain of offences. This however, is Obama's second attempt to take what had been a state and local conflict to the national level.

Previously, Catholic Charities have been shut down in a few states throughout the Union, due to the Church's refusal to adopt children to homosexual couples. Furthermore, the City of San Francisco, one of the most homosexual-friendly cities in the nation, has openly condemned the Catholic Church in an official statement, calling upon Catholics to openly rebel against Church teaching. The United States Supreme Court has sanctioned this action, allowing the city statement to stand, without any fines or penalties.

Now, the Obama administration has made two direct attempts to undermine and attack the inner workings of religious institutions in America. The first was in the form of forcing churches to hire women and doctrinal dissenters to teaching positions within religious schools. Thankfully, the Supreme Court struck this down unanimously (9 to 0) in what was a humiliating defeat to the Obama administration. With that failure behind them, the Obama administration has pushed ahead full-speed toward forcing all religious institutions (especially the Catholic Church) to provide medical services that directly contradict religious conscience. The administration knows this and that is why it is doing this. By pushing forward in driving a wedge between religious worship and religious conscience, the administration knows it can make inroads into controlling religious institutions within the United States, with the long-term eventuality of defining 'orthodoxy' for them.

Catholic bishops across the United States are unifying against this clear threat to religious freedom that is presently under way. Catholics are being urged to contact their congressional representatives and demand a stop to this assault on religious liberty.  Non-Catholic Christians would be wise to join them.

NEWS FLASH: Most of Catholic Sex-Abuse Scandal Is Media Hype

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Just a little news flash for you folks out there in the blogisphere. In the wake of the Los Angeles diocese settlement over sex-abuse allegations, here are some little factoids you won't see in the anti-Catholic mainstream news media...

1. Reports of sexual-abuse in the Catholic Church are now at the lowest levels they've ever been since the 1950s...



2. The election of Pope John Paul II, followed by Pope Benedict XVI, appears to have contributed to a decreasing number in sexual-abuse cases...



3. Of all priests accused of sexual misconduct, the overwhelming vast majority of them are no longer in ministry...



4. Sex-abuse in the Catholic Church was often the result of Catholic churches failing to practice Catholicism... read the story here

5. 96% of all Catholic clergy in the United States had nothing to do with the scandal and were never accused of any sexual misconduct... read the story here

6. The sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church was overwhelmingly the result of homosexuality not pedophilia... read the story here

7. Since the scandal broke in 2002, homosexuals have been barred from the seminaries entirely, and can no longer become priests, even if they promise to remain celibate... read the story here

8. Sexual abuse of minors is actually higher in Protestant churches than it is in the Catholic Church... read the story here

9. Since the 2002 sex-abuse scandal broke, the US Catholic Church has set a new national standard for institutional reform, and has led the way on strategies of protecting children from sexual predators. Today, other public service industries look to the US Catholic Church for leadership in this area.... read the story here

10. A child is nearly 100 times more likely to be molested in a Public School than in a Catholic or Protestant church... read the story here

Black Ministers Protest The SPLC

H.K. Edgerton, former president of the Asheville North Carolina chapter
of the NAACP, stands in protest of the SPLC headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama.
Photo Courtesy of Dixie Outfitters

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Well it's about time!....

(LifeSiteNews.com) - A coalition that includes black pastors and pro-family organizations held a protest outside the headquarters of the Southern Poverty Law Center yesterday to protest the organization’s ongoing “slander” against pro-family organizations.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which has traditionally sought to counteract racist organizations in the south, has recently begun to categorize pro-family groups as “hate groups” for opposing the homosexual political agenda and condemning homosexual behavior as immoral.

Groups condemned as “hateful” by the SPLC include The Illinois Family Institute, Mass Resistance, Abiding Truth Ministries, and Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, all of which appeared at the protest or made supporting statements. The Family Research Council has also been condemned by the SPLC.

Among the African-American pastors protesting at SPLC headquarters were Pastor Glen Sawyer, of the Mt. Zion Church of God in Christ (Camden, North Carolina), Pastor Wil Nichols, Victorious Praise Fellowship (Durham, North Carolina), Pastor Jon Robinson, Kingdom C.O.M.E. Ministries (Clairton, Pennsylvania), and Pastor Kenneth Jefferson of Greater Harvest....

read full story here

In addition, the SPLC has been slandering traditional Catholics for a number of years as well, including the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) in particular. Dixie nationalists and Southern independence organisations are very familiar with the methods of slander and libel frequently employed by the SPLC.

Many Traditional Catholics have been
slandered by the SPLC.

Waving a Dixie flag and believing in state's rights (subsidiarity) does not make one a racist any more than worshipping at a traditional Latin mass and questioning some of the perverse interpretations of Vatican II. The SPLC uses the tactic of guilt-by-association, which in itself proves nothing, but in their case, the association is not always real to begin with. Sometimes it's just implied, assumed or even just made up. The SPLC lost all credibility with traditionalist and family values groups a long time ago. Now with this latest episode, it's become apparent that they've lost all credibility with a growing number of black communities around the nation.

Liberal Modernists love to cite the SPLC's research papers as 'proof' that their ideological opponents are motivated by 'hate.' They use them as a means to discredit their opposition without ever giving an answer to their opponents arguments. Organisations like the SPLC have for years given Liberal Modernists the ammunition they need to skate past the tough questions and scrutiny often applied disproportionately to traditionalist pro-family groups. The real bigots are the ones running the SPLC and now the whole world can see that plainly.

Gay Pride Is Morphing Into KKK

Some Gay Pride Groups Frequently Harass Catholics and their Churches

(Huffington Post) - Cardinal Francis George, the Archbishop of Chicago, this week told a Chicago news station that he agreed with a local Roman Catholic church's objections to the city's recently-adjusted Gay Pride Parade route passing by its doors and warned that the parade could "morph into the Ku Klux Klan....

read full story here

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: I submit to you the good cardinal is on to something here. What we have emerging in the post-modern 'Gay Pride' movement is gradually morphing into a virulent anti-Catholic community on par with the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) of the early 20th century.

I would like to encourage my readers to be on watch, and alert other Catholics, especially priests and civil authorities, to the Klan-like activities of some of these Gay Pride organisations. Clearly, we Catholics are being targeted by these hate-groups for our religious beliefs. Rarely do these Gay Pride hate-groups go after Orthodox Jews and Muslims with the same intensity. Such systematic 'targeting' of a particular religious group is very Klan-like in nature. While the Klan opposes many religious and ethnic groups, one of the historic strategies of the Klan has been to target one group at a time, focusing all their efforts against one class so as to maximise intimidation.

Vatican Official Sees Persecution of Christians In America's Future

Cardinal Raymond Burke

(LifeSiteNews.com) – One of the highest ranking cardinals in the Vatican has said that the United States is “well on the way” to the persecution of Christians.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, former Archbishop of St. Louis and now the head of the Vatican’s highest court, told Catholic News Agency that he could envision a time when the Catholic Church in the U.S., “even by announcing her own teaching,” is accused of “engaging in illegal activity, for instance, in its teaching on human sexuality.”

Asked if the cardinal could even see American Catholics being arrested for their faith he replied, “I can see it happening, yes.”...

read full story here

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Why should this surprise us? The United States is already working to crush Christianity in the Middle East. Why not here at home too? We all know however, that the form of persecution the U.S. Federal government (and some state governments) will level against American Christians will be subtle and insidious. It works its way in the form of moral relativism and institutionalised political correctness. This is particularly evident in the debate over 'gay rights,' wherein churches are forced to change their teaching and policies to accommodate the state-sponsored homosexual orthodoxy. Already this has forced Catholic charities to shut down in three U.S. states -- California, Massachusetts and Illinois. This is just the beginning and the tip of the iceberg. The warnings of Cardinal Burke should not be taken lightly. He is a very wise and powerful man within the Vatican -- one of the Catholic Church's highest ranking officers, and potential candidate to the Chair of Peter (the papal throne). He has been right about many other things before. There is no reason to doubt him now.

In all likelihood, the rising economic and social crisis in the United States will eventually result in an 'unofficial' form of dictatorship, in which the president will eventually be given extraordinary powers to quell some unrest or perceived national security matter. Already the United States Congress is doing this very thing with the latest defence spending bill...

(CBS News) - The Senate on Tuesday voted to keep a controversial provision regarding military detainees in a Defense spending bill, setting up a showdown with President Obama.

The controversial language in question would require the military to detain terrorist suspects, including U.S. citizens, allowing for their indefinite detention....

read full story here

The legislation is designed to combat radical Islamic terrorists found in the U.S., however, we all know that the word 'radical' is a relative thing, and one doesn't have to be Islamic to be considered a 'terrorist.' The measure gives the president unprecedented powers not seen since the Civil War. (No president since Lincoln has suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus on U.S. soil.)   It also allows the president to use the military against U.S. citizens. (We haven't seen that since the Civil War either.) The potential for abuse of this legislation is phenomenal. To his credit, President Obama has promised to veto it. Hopefully he keeps his word on this.

We have seen now what this Republican Congress is willing to do to our civil liberties and the U.S. Bill of Rights. These are the defenders of Christian America? These are the candidates produced by the TEA Party? My God! Something has run terribly amok!

This however is just the beginning, as we will see similar efforts by future congresses to do the exact same thing, and one of these days, the president (whoever the next one may be) will take them up on it. Such powers lead to dictatorship, and such dictatorship leads to absolute tyranny. This is the future that awaits the American Empire. This is the final product of the Civil War. The shadows of Lincoln are resurfacing in the most terrifying way. Combine these proposed extraordinary powers of the president with today's politically-correct orthodoxy, and you have the perfect storm, a combination for a catastrophe in civil rights, pure government persecution of any Christians that cling to orthodoxy. Yes my readers, Cardinal Burke is right, persecution is coming.

Now that I've scared the pee out of you, let me balance this article with the good news. Nations rise and nations fall. Empires have come and gone. In all of this, the Catholic Church remains. We will survive this time of trial and tribulation. We will endure. We will overcome. If not us, than certainly our children, but I predict our time of American tyranny will be short-lived, because the United States no longer has the resources to foot the bill of a dictator for very long. The end result will be the collapse of our federal government, sometime after it has been exposed for the anti-Christian tyranny that it has become. When that happens, we will likely see the breakup of the USA into multiple smaller nation-states. As Our Lady of Fatima warned 'entire nations will be annihilated,' but in the end her 'immaculate heart will prevail.' This last prediction forecasts not only the restoration of the natural law and a time of peace, but also the triumph of the Catholic Church within the Christian faith, for no other Church honours her Immaculate Heart more than the one head-quartered in Rome.

More Liberal Hate and Intolerance

Actress Susan Sarandon
Former Catholic &
Current Anti-Catholic

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT:  Here we have just one more example of Liberal Modernist hatred toward Catholics in general and the pope in particular. Thanks to comment moderation, you my readers are spared from the constant onslaught of nasty anti-Catholicism that frequently hits this blog. I would say this blog gets about 20 to 30 nasty hate-filled comments a week, most of which attack Catholicism, all of which never see the light of day here, because yours truly gleefully hits the delete button. I especially like the extra long comments, knowing that such person took a great deal of time composing them, watching them evaporate into cyberspace in less than a second. They can't say they weren't warned. I placed the disclaimer on the comment form prominently. So they are without excuse.

I put this link up today to bring attention to the new anti-Catholicism that is sweeping America. Unlike the old anti-Catholicism which was based on Protestant sectarianism, this new anti-Catholicism is based on militant Secularism and moral relativism.  Catholics and former Catholics who oppose the Church's teachings are treated as the little darlings of the political and entertainment establishment in the United States, while Catholics who are faithful to the pope, and the teachings of the Church, are considered 'dangerous' to American life.  So in the eyes of the national media/political culture, the only good Catholic is a bad Catholic!

This may help explain the 'Nazi' comments of Susan Sarandon toward Pope Benedict XVI.  Now she may actually believe this, or she may just be trying to score brownie points from her entertainment friends.  Either way, she has fallen into the self-loathing 'recovering Catholic' culture that has become so common in America today.  When anti-Catholic statements like this are made, we should call out those who made them.  It is anti-Catholic, and it is hate-filled, and it is intolerant.  Just because the person who made them may have been a former Catholic, or a self-loathing 'Catholic' who continues to attend mass for some strange reason, doesn't give them the right to make such degrading statements toward practising Catholics or their spiritual leaders.  Suppose we replace the word 'Catholic' with 'Jew' and replace the word 'pope' with 'chief rabbi.'  Let's see how that sounds.  Anti-Semitic comments are never tolerated any more and they shouldn't be.  Regardless of the intent of the person who makes them, they are degrading toward the Jewish people and their spiritual leaders.  Now it's one thing to have a point of disagreement with a religion, its adherents and its leaders.  It's quite another thing to start name-calling and comparing people to heinous figures in history.  The former is just a disagreement, while the latter is intolerance and hatred -- not to mention just plain immature and tasteless.

Political Traditionalism

Click Image To See Page

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT:  A loyal reader sent me a link to a new page on Facebook called Political Traditionalism. While The Catholic Knight does not have a Facebook account, I was sent the information on this page, and it sounded like a fairly viable school of political thought.  Political Traditionalism -- also known simply as 'Traditionalism' and its followers as 'Traditionalists' -- is a form of Conservatism based more on religion, morality and historic Western culture than political ideology. 

I believe Patrick Buchanan coined the term 'Paleoconservatism' to contrast his more Traditionalist Conservative beliefs with the emerging 'Neoconservatism' movement that has come to define the Republican Party, and is now threatening to completely take over the TEA Party Movement unless Traditionalists act.  While Buchanan's term 'Paleoconservative' is highly descriptive in a technical sense, it leaves the average population scratching their heads.  I think the term 'Traditionalism' and 'Traditionalist' makes a lot more sense when plugged into a political context.  Anyway, please check out the page and let me know what you think.  I think it's time we all start thinking outside the box in a political sense, and when it comes to politics in the United States, the two mainstream parties have pretty much lost their relevance.  People are beginning to define themselves in a more ideological or cultural sense now, rather than by party, and in the end, I suspect that is probably a good thing.  For better or worse, it shows that the general population is starting to wake up and think!

U.S. Supreme Court To Decide Womenpriests For Catholic Church

Dissident Vested Laywomen Lobby Vatican To Do What It Cannot

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: I know this title sounds crazy, but that is exactly what is going on in the United States Supreme Court right now. The Obama administration has sued in a case charging that the federal government's anti-discrimination laws apply to churches and religious organizations. Thus, if the Obama administration gets what its asking for, than the United States Federal Government will be able to legally ORDER the U.S. Catholic Church to ordain women to the priesthood, apply quotas, and prosecute dioceses for failing to comply. This of course wouldn't just apply to the Catholic Church, but to every single denomination and Christian affiliation in the United States. However, we shouldn't expect the federal government to apply such rules fairly, as certain denominations (the U.S. Catholic Church in particular) would certainly be targeted for enforcement over and above others that already allow female clergy....

(CNA/EWTN News) - A Lutheran teacher's lawsuit led to a provocative question being asked in the Supreme Court on Oct. 5: could government efforts to end job discrimination jeopardize the all-male Catholic priesthood?

The case pitting the commission against Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School does not directly concern the issue of women and the priesthood. But justices were quick to connect the matter at hand – involving the Lutheran group's right to hire and fire ministers at their discretion – with the issue of Catholics' and other groups' right to determine who will exercise ministries....

read full story here

The Supreme Court justices picked up on the implications of this immediately, and repeatedly described the Obama administration's stand as 'extraordinary.' I believe it is highly unlikely the U.S. Supreme Court will side with the Obama administration on this issue. If it does however, we Catholics here in the United States will be faced with a very big problem

Let's assume the U.S. Supreme Court sides with the Obama administration, and allows the federal government to begin enforcing gender quotas among clergy in religious institutions. As my very astute and well-educated readers may already know, in 1994 Pope John Paul II infallibly affirmed that the Catholic Church does not have the authority to ordain women. Therefore, any women 'ordained' by civil mandate would automatically be null and void. The woman 'priestess' would in reality be nothing more than a vested laywoman. Whenever said 'priestess' confects the Eucharist, that confection would be invalid and non-existent. Thus the bread and the wine would remain just that -- bread and wine. While the bishop who 'ordained' her might be able to be forgiven with confession, because he was legally forced to do it against his will, parishioners would have to abstain from any mass offered by such a 'priestess' or risk committing both idolatry and blasphemy by adoring a 'host' that has not been consecrated, and is thus not really an Eucharistic 'host.'

So the end result would be this. Mass at St. Anyone's Church would be offered at 8 AM and 10 AM. St. Anyone's has two priests, a male and a female. Mass at the male priest time would be packed wall to wall, while mass at the female priestess time might only have one or two pews filled at most (these are the dissident 'spirit of Vatican II' Catholics). But to make matters worse, suppose the male priest at St. Anyone's Church is transferred somewhere else. Than the parishioners at St. Anyone's have no place to go for mass in their town. Some will drive an hour to find another parish, most will not. Thus faithful Catholics will be deprived of the sacraments, while dissident Catholics will be free to blaspheme and commit idolatry at will in Catholic parishes across the United States.

Theoretically, we should have first amendment protection, and the Supreme Court justices will likely toss this case out and give the Obama administration a blistering opinion that will shame Obama beyond imagination. However, in this republic there are no guarantees. Anything can happen, and we are talking about the same branch of government that gave us Dred Scott and Roe v. Wade. So based on historical precedence -- anything goes!

U.S. Government DECLARES WAR on the Catholic Church

The Administration's failure to change course on this matter will, as the attached analysis indicates, precipitate a national conflict between Church and State of enormous proportions and to the detriment of both institutions....

His Excellency Timothy Dolan
Archbishop of New York
source

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: These comments were recently made in an official letter from Archbishop Timothy Dolan to President Barack Hussein Obama. They are in regards to the administration's promotion of homosexuality and gay-marriage. The good archbishop is resorting to diplomacy here, in what has become obvious attacks on the religious freedom of faithful Catholics in the United States.

Already a few states (Massachusetts, California and Illinois) have declared war on the Catholic Church, one city in particular (San Francisco) in the most direct way, which the U.S. Supreme Court has sanctioned. Now under the Obama administration, the United States Federal government has declared war on the Catholic Church as well, and by extension, he has declared war on all faithful Catholics in America.

If you are a faithful Catholic, who believes in the teachings of the Church on marriage and family, than the Obama administration, along with the full force of the United States federal government, has declared war on YOU -- personally. According the the United States federal government, you (a faithful Catholic) are a bigot! No different than a racist, and the Church to which you belong is on the same par with the Ku Klux Klan. Your beliefs have been deemed obsolete and prejudiced. As far as this administration is concerned, you have no rights, or at least you should be deprived of them at the earliest opportunity. A few states have recently put a stop to your Church, the Catholic Church, from operating charities according to the 'bigoted' teachings of Rome. In time, the U.S. Federal government will actively work toward shutting down Catholic charities throughout the nation unless they comply with federal regulations against homosexual discrimination. Your children will be made to learn who is really in charge here.

The United States Federal government, along with a few state governments, most notably Massachusetts, California and Illinois, have effectively engaged in an undeclared war against the U.S. Catholic Church. (In the case of the City of San Francisco, the war has actually been declared.) The only thing missing are the bombs and bullets. No, the U.S. Federal government only bombs Catholics (Orthodox) in other countries, like Serbia for example, and limits its warfare against Catholics in America to legal manoeuvring. In this case, the legal battle is over homosexuality.

The United States has a very LONG Anti-Catholic history.
Many anti-Catholic ordinances are already enshrined
in state constitutions called "Blaine Amendments."

It has been pointed out here on this blog, and by numerous other bloggers, that religious freedom and gay marriage cannot coexist. One will always trample over the other, and in this case, the U.S. Federal Government has made its choice. From now on, Washington DC will favour gay marriage over and above religious freedom. Don't expect that policy to change if or when we change the administration. Republicans have a long record of failing to fix problems created by Democratic presidents. We cannot expect the courts to help us on this, not even the U.S. Supreme Court. So until the U.S. Federal government finally collapses under its own colossal weight, an inevitability many are already preparing for, faithful Catholics in America can look forward to fighting a new enemy in Washington DC -- our own government!

Please make sure every Catholic you know in the United States gets a copy of this message.

Michele Bachmann Rejects Anti-Catholicism

2012 Presidential Candidate Michele Bachmann

(The Christian Post) - Michele Bachmann has received a much-needed endorsement from Catholics following media reports saying she quit her Lutheran church, which believes the Pope is the Antichrist.

“We find no evidence of any bigotry on the part of Rep. Michele Bachmann,” Catholic News Agency quoted Bill Donohue, president of America’s largest Catholic civil rights organization Catholic League, as saying Friday. Donohue, however, also said it was “regrettable that there are still strains of anti-Catholicism in some Protestant circles.”

Donohue was responding to Thursday’s report in The Atlantic that said the Minnesota Republican was likely to face controversy over her affiliation with Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church in Stillwater, a member of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, which says the Roman Catholic Pope is the Antichrist.

Rep. Bachmann has “condemned anti-Catholicism” and “just as President Barack Obama is not responsible for the views of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Rep. Bachmann must be judged on the basis of her own record,” the League president said, referring to Obama’s former pastor’s statements in 2008 that the U.S. government may have spread AIDS among the black community and that some American wartime activities constituted terrorism.

According to the director of communications of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, Joel Hochmuth, the 55-year-old congresswoman was released from her family’s membership on June 21, six days before she formally announced her candidacy for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination...

read full story here

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: I need to point out here that this is a really big deal.  Many Republican presidential candidates have had ties to anti-Catholic Protestant groups in the past.  The list includes John McCain, Mike Huckabee and George W. Bush.  In each case, the candidate has distanced himself from the anti-Catholic views of the person or group in question, but none have ever cut themselves off from that person or group completely, until now.  What we have in the case of Michele Bachmann is a clean break from not only her former Lutheran parish, but her entire Lutheran denomination as well, in addition to a public statement that categorically rejects the teachings of her former religious affiliation.  "I love Catholics, I’m a Christian, and my church does not believe that the Pope is the Antichrist" Bachmann said, in complete opposition to her former denomination's official stand...

We reject the idea that the teaching that the Papacy is the Antichrist rests on a merely human interpretation of history or is an open question. We hold rather that this teaching rests on the revelation of God in Scripture which finds its fulfillment in history. The Holy Spirit reveals this fulfillment to the eyes of faith (cf. The Abiding Word, Vol. 2, p. 764). Since Scripture teaches that the Antichrist would be revealed and gives the marks by which the Antichrist is to be recognized (2 Th 2:6,8), and since this prophecy has been clearly fulfilled in the history and development of the Roman Papacy, it is Scripture which reveals that the Papacy is the Antichrist.

source

Statement of Faith

Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS)

We do not know what Michele Bachmann's personal interpretation of her previous church's doctrine was. We do now know if she ever even accepted it at all. At present, we still do not know what nondenominational church she currently attends, though it appears there are only about a half-dozen of them in the Stillwater area. There is only one thing we do know. Based on Michele Bachmann's personal words and actions, she clearly DOES NOT believe the pope is the Antichrist. Furthermore, based on her few comments on the matter, it would appear the very idea of such a thing is repulsive to her, and this may have possibly contributed to her decision to leave the WELS denomination.

Now as a Catholic (born Lutheran and descended from a man who helped form the WELS) I've got to say this was a pretty gutsy move on Bachmann's part.  She went above and beyond the typical Republican response to this problem.  She backed her words with action, and that's just something you don't see every day.   Good for her!

The Cult of the Omnipotent State

ATHENA
Greek Goddess of Government & Democracy

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: The state is their God. Not so much in their words, but in their actions, they demonstrate their belief that there is no power higher than the state, and all morality is based entirely on state law, which of course can be changed to suit their fancy. Outside of state law there is no morality, and outside of the state there is no god greater than the state. All gods, most especially the Christian God, must be subject to the state. Of course these people are a little timid about enforcing their state-god upon the Muslims, but make no mistake about it, they believe Allah is subject to the state as well, and the same goes for any follower of Mohamed.

So who are these people? Are they the ancient Greeks or Romans? No. The ancient Greeks and Romans were more direct and honest about their intentions. They made no attempt to hide their state sponsored Paganism. Are they the modern Chinese Communists? Not exactly, though they have a lot in common with the Chi-coms, they are not the same people. So who are they?

These are the modern Left-wing Liberals driving the state and cultural entertainment industry in Europe, Canada, the American Left-Coast and New England. Their goddess is the state, and they put all their cares and dreams at her feet. Anyone who puts the government in the place of God is part of this cult. No temples have been built to honor the "cult of the omnipotent state" but there need not be any. Every temple imaginable already exists -- in Washington DC -- the Mecca of Democratic Imperialism. We could say that various idols have been erected in cities across America, to the cult of omnipotent government, but that would be a stretch, for art means different things to different people. No, modern worship of Athen's goddess is embodied more in actions and attitude, than in wood and stone.

We began to see the cult of the omnipotent state arise in New England and the Left Coast during the late 1960s through 1990s. These became the strongholds of modern Athenian worship. This of course was immediately adopted by Washington DC, which seized every opportunity to consolidate power and centralize bureaucracy. Washington DC however, was not the only place where the cult seized power. As I said, all of the West Coast states, along with New England became firmly entrenched in the cult, and now it is spreading into the Rust Belt states and even the Northern Midwestern states. The State of Florida has not escaped it's influence either. We have seen it's national imposition upon all the people of America through the United States Supreme Court with the issues of abortion, religion in public schools, and eminent domain. However, the states are now jumping on the cult's bandwagon concerning the issue of gay-marriage.

THE LIE...

State advocates of gay-marriage assure churches and synagogues that the creation of gay-marriage will have no effect whatsoever on the free exercise of religion. They promise that churches will continue to be allowed to not recognize gay-marriages and not be forced to perform them. They are also assured this will in no way have any effect on their private charitable institutions. THIS IS A LIE!!!! And SHAME ON YOU if you believe it! The evidence is plain for all the world to see. Catholic Charities have already been shut down in Massachusetts, California and Illinois over the gay-marriage issue. This is because these states were attempting to legally require Catholic adoption agencies to adopt children to gay couples, on the grounds that failure to comply amounted to discrimination and therefore a violation of state law. So you see, the cult of the omnipotent state requires that all bow the knee to Athena, including churches, synagogues and Catholic Charities. The next step is hate-crimes laws, wherein pastors will likely be prosecuted for preaching against the sin of homosexuality. Already, a bill has been passed in California, making it officially ILLEGAL to have a Bible on public school campuses. The cult of the omnipotent state marches on.

ISLAMOPHOBIA

Nowhere is the fear of Muslims more evident than among modern worshipers of Athena. Well, at least in America anyway. They're starting to get a little more courageous in Europe these days. American Athena worshipers do believe that Allah and Mohamed are subject to Athena, and they must submit to the state no matter how much state laws violate their religious beliefs. Muslims reading this should take note here. The cult of the omnipotent state makes no distinction between Allah and Jehovah, Mohamed and Jesus, Muslims and Christians. All are subject to Athena -- the omnipotent state -- who through democracy and kritocracy impose all forms of immorality upon the churches, mosques and synagogues. The only reason why the cult of the omnipotent state has not cracked down on mosques in America is because the established worshipers of Athena are still afraid of Muslims. As demonstrated in Europe however, their fear of Muslims will subside eventually, and when it does, Muslim institutions will be forced to recognize gay-marriage too.

American Muslims should fight back (non-violently of course), and there is only one way to do it. Start organizing ritual worship for Muslims schoolchildren in public schools. Tell the school boards and superintendents that if they don't allow prayer rugs and hijabs on campus, than they are violating your religion and your rights. Fight them in the courts, and demonstrate, demonstrate, DEMONSTRATE! We Christians will probably join you since we've been fighting them on this for decades. If you know any Muslim Americans, please make sure they read this article.

CHRISTOPHOBIA

The cult of the omnipotent state has always feared Christianity, perhaps more so than any other religion. But in their fear of Christianity, the worshipers of Athena have lost all fear of Christians. They've been persecuting us for decades you see. They have banned us from praying in public schools, and if the Muslims begin to demonstrate against the state to defend their religious rights, than I'm afraid we have no choice but to join them now, for what the Athenian worshipers are now doing to them, they've been doing to us for decades.

MODERN PAGANISM

The cult of the omnipotent state is nothing new. Variations of it were put forward in ancient Egypt, Babylon, Greece and Rome. The ancient Greek cult of Athena probably best represents modern Pagan Imperialism. This is because Athena was the Greek goddess of war, craftsmen and government. Democracy was born in ancient Athens -- named after the goddess Athena -- and America's founding fathers made sure to model our physical institutions of national government after the architecture of the ancient Greeks and Romans. In times past, America still had a strong Christian society, and so appeals to Greek Paganism in government were simply viewed as a harmless novelty. Indeed at one time they may have been, but today, the secular culture is such that the attitudes and actions of those running the government (both state and federal) are far more "Pagan" than America's Founding Fathers could have ever imagined. Ancient Paganism was far more obvious and honest about it's intentions, and worship of their deities often took on religious ceremonies as well as state laws. Modern Paganism is a different story. As the modern world is infested with notions of atheism and secular deism, the cult of the omnipotent state (Athena) is played out more in actions and laws exclusively, while physical representations of the deity are limited to subjective art.

Two Babylons -- an Alternate History

A Full-page Anti-Catholic cartoon in Harper's Weekly, September 30, 1871

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Once in a while I get an email that takes me back to my old Evangelical Fundamentalist days. Regular readers of this blog know about my history. I was born and baptized Lutheran, raised a Baptist, became a nondenominational Evangelical as an adult, with heavy Fundamentalist leanings. My Fundamentalism was due primarily to ignorance of Christian history and an irrational fear of religious ritual. It was at this point I became a raving anti-Catholic loon. My Evangelical pastor saw some potential for ministry in me, so he put me in charge of some Bible study groups in our local Calvary Chapel™ and set me on the path toward ordination as an Evangelical pastor.

It was during my pastoral studies that things started turning around for me. I was the zealous type that would never settle for just textbook information. I always wanted to dig deeper. For example, I knew Jesus was Jewish, so I fully explored the Jewish roots of the Christian faith, even to the point of celebrating the Passover Seder meal and other Jewish feasts. I also wanted to dig down into the earliest of all Christian roots, so as to understand the "mind" of the early Church. I read several history text books, but these always seemed a bit dry, and failed to produce what I was looking for. I did notice however, that all of these history books cited writings from early Christians as sources, dating all the way back to the early Church period. So I decided to read these writings for myself, and wow! did I get an eye opener! Once I was exposed to original source documentation from early Christians, my entire worldview was turned upside-down. These early Christians were a lot more "Catholic" than I would have ever thought. In fact, based on the history I previously learned, they weren't supposed to be Catholic at all. Well, you can guess what happened next. My Fundamental Evangelicalism died out rather quickly. I spent some time in The Episcopal Church for a while, and identified myself as an "Anglo-Catholic." Then as I began to see the writing on the wall of the coming demise of the Anglican Communion, while I simultaneously continued to explore more Church history from original source documents, I came to understand the Catholic Church is the one true Church established by Jesus Christ and built on Peter the "rock." My wife and I were received into the Catholic Church simultaneously on the Easter vigil of 2000. We were both about thirty years old when we received the sacrament of confirmation.

The subject of this article is not really about me. I only cited my religious history to establish my credentials. The subject of this article is actually about "alternate histories," and it's something that I happen to know a thing or two about.

You see, it was Cardinal Henry Newman, and Anglican convert to Catholicism, that said "knowledge of history is the end of Protestantism." He was right. A sound understanding of historical Christianity puts all of Protestantism on it's deathbed, and this most especially applies to Evangelical Fundamentalism. I can attest to that personally. So, one of the ways Protestantism continues to survive and flourish is through a propaganda tool I like to call "alternate histories," and no form of Protestantism does this better than Evangelical Fundamentalism.

This is how it works. Fundamentalists see history as a problem - a big problem - that if their people were exposed to, it would result in the loss of their followers. So how do you deal with such a problem? Simple. You just "change" history. That's right, you change the story, to make it fit your purposes. This is what they do, and they've been doing it for a very long time. They didn't start it you see. Their spiritual forefathers started it centuries ago. The first one to do this was Martin Luther of course, the father of the Protestant Reformation. His "alternate history" was really very simple, and it wasn't really a retelling of "history" at all. Rather it was a labeling of sorts. He simply labeled the institution of the papacy as the "Whore of Babylon" written of in the Book of Revelation. It was a clever little strategy that helped him win a few more converts, and politically portray himself as the lone hero standing up to the "colossal tyrant" of Rome -- a classic "David and Goliath" comparative. What Luther started, others would build on centuries later. The Protestant English crown was adept at twisting current events to villainize the Catholic Church. The history of the Spanish Inquisitions, as reported by the English, is a classic example of this kind of propaganda. Reports of abuse were exaggerated a thousand-fold to produce the desired effect among English Protestants. This propaganda was recorded in history books, for school children to learn for generations, until just recently (in the last 20 years), when the accounts were revisited by academic historians and found to be shockingly inaccurate. Then of course, by the 1700s, English Protestants began to intermingle with Freemasons, an alliance perpetuated to this day among all branches of English Protestantism. This intermingling resulted in a far more organized form of anti-Catholicism that spread to the English colonies in America and played a large role in the early political parties of the United States. Yes, Americans have been subjected to tales of alternate histories from the very beginning of this once great nation. American history is riddled with anti-Catholicism from the early colonial period, all the way up to the presidential election of 1928. However, the apex and pinnacle of anti-Catholic alternate histories is encapsulated in Presbyterian minister Alexander Hislop's book "Two Babylons" (learn more here) written in 1853 through 1858 and published in 1919. It is a masterpiece in propaganda and constitutes the greatest conspiracy theory of all time, citing an alternate history to implicate the Catholic Church as a continuation of Babylonian Paganism disguised as Christianity. Though historians and scholars of all stripes have repudiated the book as diluted fantasy and factually inaccurate, it remains a hot item on Protestant bookstore shelves across North America. The book can be read for free online here, brought to you by your friendly neighborhood anti-Catholic website called "BibleBelievers.Com." Go ahead and visit the links if you dare, but be warned, they're likely to elevate your blood pressure and expose you to some very inaccurate information based on ignorance and bigotry. Herein lies the zenith of Protestant alternate history propaganda.

From this source, "Two Babylons," derives a plethora of modern anti-Catholic propaganda shared by Protestant Fundamentalists and Progressive Liberals alike. Each having their own reason for using it, these opposing groups see the Catholic Church as the common enemy. It's a classic case of the mindset that the "enemy of my enemy is my friend -- for now." It is unclear just how much of a role Freemasonry has in all of this, but suspicions run high, especially in Europe. Hundreds of anti-Catholic books and pamphlets have been published during the 20th century, citing "Two Babylons" as their primary source of information. These texts often build on Hislop's work with their own conspiracies and tales of alternate history. The United States remains the largest producer of such anti-Catholic material which is heavily laced with American nationalism. Sometimes when reading such literature, one would think the United States itself is the Church. Of course, probably the most notorious producer of anti-Catholic alternate history is the comic book retailer "Chick Publications" which again cites "Two Babylons" as it's primary source for information on Catholicism, along with the testimonies of alleged Catholic clergy and religious who claim to have left the Church because of this "valuable information." It should be noted the Vatican has no record of many of these people. When I say "no record," I mean no record of them even being Catholic, let alone a priest or a nun. So make of that what you will.

The alternate history these people rely upon basically goes like this. If you're an Evangelical reading this, it may sound familiar. Here it goes in a nutshell. According to the propaganda, the Church established by Jesus Christ and the apostles went into hiding after the first century and never emerged until the Protestant Reformation 1,400 years later. During the interim period, Christians were first persecuted by the Pagan Roman empire. Then in 312 AD, Emperor Constantine had a brilliant idea, so the propaganda goes. He thought, "if you can't beat em - join em!" So he brought together all the Pagan priests of Rome and told them to start imitating the Christians, mixing Pagan worship with Christian rhetoric, thus creating a new hybrid religion called "Catholicism." (In addition to Protestants, you would be shocked to learn how many Catholics have actually bought into this nonsense.) Thus the secret Pagan religion of Catholicism was born, and of course the pope serving at the head of this new "Babylon" religion, must be none other than the "Antichrist" himself. As you can see this retelling of history is heavily dependent on ascribing certain motivations to dead historical figures who are no longer able to speak for themselves. For example, the heroic act of Emperor Constantine that legalized tolerance of Christianity in the Roman Empire in 312 AD is turned into something negative and villainous. Christians who suffered for their faith in the late third to early fourth centuries are maligned as "traitors" to the gospel. While every faithful Christian who has served the Church for over a millennium thereafter is made out to be an evil servant of the devil. The propaganda goes on to imply that "real Christians" (modern Evangelical Fundamentalists of course) remained in hiding during this time, only to be martyred by the Catholic Church whenever they revealed themselves in public. This of course explains why there is no historical record of them. That is until Martin Luther, and the other fathers of the Protestant Reformation, made Europe safe for "true Christians" to finally emerge from hiding and begin public worship for the first time since the first century AD. Of course, the United States of America would eventually become the "promised land" of all "true Christians" everywhere.

Now fortunately, this alternate history is no longer taught in many Protestant churches. Yes, some Protestant Fundamentalist churches still teach it, but the majority of Protestant churches have dropped it. Even many Baptist, Evangelical and Pentecostal churches have dropped it entirely, recognizing it's poor scholarship and outright lies. Unfortunately, in the absence of the propaganda, many pastors no longer teach on Christian history at all. Thus the result is a rather large portion of the Protestant population in the United States has no knowledge of any Church history between AD 100 - 1517, a collective memory gap of some 1,417 years! This is nothing short of spiritual amnesia! But it is in many ways what keeps Protestantism alive and well.

Now most Protestants simply go through life content with this 1,417 year gap in history. Some however are not, and I think it's safe to say that about 90% of those who actually start reading real history to fill in the gap, end up turning Catholic eventually. I myself am fond of original source documentation, written by the people who were there and lived through it. The following website contains some excerpts from writings of early Christians. They are categorized to specific early Church doctrines. The website is here. However, you can read all of the writings in their full context here. Enjoy!

Anti-Papal Anglicans Attack Emerging Ordinariates

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: It's not everyday one finds conservative traditionalists fighting against the pope. Usually such strange manifestations are contained to groups such as the SSPX and various Sedevacatist orders. Of course, in the Protestant world we could point to Evangelical Fundamentalists, though not very traditionalist as far as Christian standards go, they are usually conservative. I suppose if we really look hard enough, we can find traces of such lunacy in the conservative relics of mainstream Protestantism. I'm thinking of the two Lutheran synods in the United States for example, which still technically claim the pope to be the Antichrist, at least on paper anyway. However, it has been my experience that in these cases it is simply a matter of doctrinal technically, referring to the office of the papacy (as they misunderstand it), and not necessarily the man himself. Most conservative Lutherans I know tend to find this doctrinal technicality a little embarrassing. So on the conservative side of the Protestant world that's pretty much it. If you want to find anymore Protestant opposition to the pope, you're going to have to look on the liberal side, of which there is plenty to go around.

Occasionally however, we run across something a little unusual. Such is the case with the bitter Anglo-Catholic opposition developing against the emerging Anglican ordinariates within the Catholic Church. The Anglo-Catholic opposition seems to exist mainly in North America for now, as the English Anglo-Catholics were considerably more friendly about it. In the UK, the Anglo-Catholics each went their own way after the decision to consecrate women bishops in the Church of England. Some chose to stay and fight it out in the Church of England. Some chose to go with a breakaway continuing Anglican group. While some chose to venture into the pope's ordinariate for Anglicans. For the most part the parting of ways was bittersweet. Each side was sorry to see the other depart, but understood the reasons why and were generally respectful of their respective decisions. For the most part, the situation remains that way in England, with only a few very minor exceptions. To find real opposition to the pope's ordinariate plan in the UK, one must look to the liberal side of the spectrum.

In North America it's a different story. A very small, but vocal group, of Anglo-Catholics in the United States and Canada are putting up quite a stink. The American branch of the Traditional Anglican Communion, (the “Anglican Church in America” or “ACA”) has broken into two bodies, those who are for the ordinariate and those who are against. Those who are for it have reorganized under an umbrella organization titled the “Patrimony of the Primate.” While those who are against it are now in firm control of of the ACA. The Patrimony of the Primate is a considerably large chunk of the former ACA, and when combined with other groups aspiring to enter the ordinariate, the list is rather large.

Sadly, the ACA, along with a few sympathizers in Canada, have done much to harass those entering the ordinariate, even to the point of claiming that embracing the pope's offer is nothing short of abandoning one's Anglican heritage and is altogether a “dishonest” way of becoming Catholic. Not less than a few articles have been written, on blogs that cater to such groups, which have consistently misled readers with fabricated information, or at the very least distorted data cited out of context. One such blog even had the audacity to publish a private email exchange between a Roman Catholic bishop and the Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion. (I wonder who leaked that email and if that person still has a job.) This is probably the worst example of anti-papal Protestantism I've ever seen in a group that claims to be “catholic.”

I only bring this up so my readers may be aware of what's happening. This is a very small, but very loud, group that is doing this. Unfortunately, many Catholic and Secular news sources are unaware of the politics behind the stories, and are publishing links to those news stories on their news aggregation websites. I think it's only fair to warn those news sources to beware and consider where the news is coming from. Even some of the news coming from the Apostolic Delegates, for the American and Canadian ordinariates, isn't entirely accurate. That's not to say there is any malicious intent there, as I don't believe there is, just that I think some of the information they're letting out is a bit obsolete and sometimes incomplete. We have to remember, the job of the pope's apostolic delegates is to gather information and report on the emerging ordinariates, not guide or direct them, so we shouldn't expect them to have all the answers.

I'm not going to point out the problematic blogs and news sources here. Rather I prefer to point my readers in the right direction. To the best of my knowledge, the most reliable source for information on the emerging Anglican ordinariates is The Anglo-Catholic Blog, and the Ordinariate Portal Blog. Anything written by Damian Thompson on the Telegraph Blog is usually pretty good stuff. Of course, yours truly (The Catholic Knight Blog) will endeavor to bring you the most accurate information as well. Beyond that, I wouldn't trust anything else unless it comes directly from Rome.

US Supreme Court Says Anti-Catholicism Is Okay

The United States Supreme Court

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: It is with great sorrow that I regret to inform my readers the United States Supreme Court has refused to hear the case regarding the civil lawsuit against the City of San Francisco for it's 2006 anti-Catholic resolution calling authentic Catholic moral teaching "hateful and discriminatory." The resolution also spoke of Vatican officials in a very derogatory way, referred to the Vatican itself as "foreign" and called upon San Francisco Catholics to ignore and disobey the teachings of the Church. Immediately after it's passage a lawsuit was filed against the City of San Francisco for violation of the U.S. Constitution's establishment clause.  The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the suit last year. Now the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review the case (read more here). This in effect makes government sponsored anti-Catholicism LEGAL in the United States of America.

The text of San Francisco's anti-Catholic resolution can be downloaded as PDF and read here.

The City of San Francisco, ironically named after a revered Catholic saint, has become the most anti-Catholic city in North America. If faithful practicing Catholics feel unwelcome there, they should, as the city has gone to great lengths to make sure of it. Now the door has been opened for other cities throughout the United States to follow suit with similar resolutions. The cowardice of our United States Supreme Court justices has officially made the United States an anti-Catholic nation once again, not only in culture but also in law, just so long as anti-Catholic legislation remains "non-binding" in print. Welcome to the new America -- the return of Know-Nothing politics.

The real danger presented here is long term.  While the City of San Francisco is well known for it's anti-Catholic culture, and now for it's anti-Catholic city ordinances, the United States Supreme Court has effectively allowed the city's resolution to set a new legal precedence in the United States.   As we have seen from Supreme Court cases such as Engel v. Vitale, which effectively banned prayer in public schools, these things have a tendency to snowball over time.  Legal precedents create public attitudes, or at least they lend to them.  They give prejudice the legal cover it needs to perpetuate itself.  In time, another U.S. city will pass another anti-Catholic "non-binding" resolution.  That will be followed by another and another, until perhaps within a decade or two, these things become rather common.  When cities, counties and states use "non-binding" resolutions to define a religion (such as Catholicism) as "hateful and bigoted" it's only a matter of time before those legal definitions become the settled attitude of the people, especially if they work for government.  What seems like "no big deal" now will soon become a very big deal within a decade or two.

Anti-Catholicism has become the "last acceptable prejudice" in the United States.  We've come such a long way since the days of the Know-Nothing Party, the Blaine amendments, and the 1928 presidential campaign of Al Smith.  While some Protestant Fundamentalists still seek to defame and slander the Church at every opportunity on the Internet and in print, they have effectively become a marginalized fringe that are no longer taken seriously by mainstream Protestants.  However, over the last two decades a strange new alliance has taken shape.  They say politics makes strange bedfellows, and the same could be said for bigotry.  During the early 1990s a new type of anti-Catholicism surfaced in America, and this time it was centered in the Left-wing news media and the Democratic Party.  The very party that once served as a safe haven for Catholics in the early to middle 20th century, actually turned on the Catholic Church toward the end of the 20th century.  The type of anti-Catholicism that emerged among Leftists in American politics was one of subtle defamation.  Catholic politicians who effectively disowned the teachings of the Church became the little darlings of the Democratic Party, while those who took their faith seriously were quietly asked to leave the party.  A Catholic Democrat running for office could expect to get full backing from the Democratic Party if he opposed the Church's teachings on abortion, homosexuality and private property.  This opposition need not be in word, but it certainly had to be in deed (i.e. "voting record").  Democratic politicians who fit this description, (such as Ted Kennedy, John Kerry and Nanci Pelosi), sailed to the front ranks of the Washington political establishment.  Those who didn't fit this description soon found themselves politically orphaned, without a party to represent them, unless they went to the Republican Party which has thus far only given them lip service.  Now what was once just found in politics and media rhetoric is working it's way into city resolution that are being upheld by federal courts.  The new Anti-Catholicism is simple and easily embraced by anyone, regardless of their religious beliefs.  It can be summarized simply as "The only good Catholic is a bad Catholic," meaning one who doesn't follow the teachings of the Church.  By approaching anti-Catholicism in this way, the Church and it's teachings can be attacked, without looking like Catholic people are being defamed directly.  It's just an illusion though.  In fact, Catholics are being defamed, along with their religion, if they so choose to practice it and take it seriously.

Ironically things have a way of coming full circle.  That marginalized fringe of anti-Catholic Fundamentalists are now getting a whole new set of readers for their anti-Catholic material.  Strangely enough, many Left-wing Liberals are now reading, and in some cases reprinting, much of the same anti-Catholic propaganda used by Protestant Fundamentalists in generations past.  It seems the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Anti-Christian Liberal Tyrants

Have A Nice Day!

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: The problem with so-called "Liberalism" or "Progressivism" is that at it's heart there is nothing really "liberal" or "progressive" about it. What it really amounts to is a bunch of Leftist ideas that if given free reign will result in the oppression and downright persecution of literally ANYONE who dares to speak out against it. In the above video Michael Voris has gone to Manilla to assist the Catholic Church in opposing a pro-contraception law that once implemented would effectively jail anyone who publicly opposes it. So you say, "Sir Knight, this is another country, what does that have to do with us in the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe?" Actually, it has a lot to do with us, because you see one of the main organizations that is sponsoring the anti-free-speech contraception bill is none other than "Planned Parenthood."

As a child growing up in the public schools of Southern California, I remember getting "the talk" in our sixth grade classroom. First our principle came in and explained the mechanics of sexual relations, then another person was introduced to us, a female representing Planned Parenthood. At this point we got another "talk" about how to prevent babies and other problems using so-called "safe sex" contraception devices. The point of this anecdotal story is to point out just how deeply organizations like Planned Parenthood are wrapped up into our public educational system like an octopus. For children in public schools, there is literally no escape. Indoctrination comes at a very early stage in the United States, and based on Planned Parenthood's support of this contraception bill in the Philippines, it would appear that if they could have their way, they would crush all written or verbal opposition to such things (including this blog) using the full force of the government.

We shouldn't be surprised really. That is, after all, the nature of Leftists. Their greatest enemy is free speech. Their greatest opposition to imposing their ideological agenda is free speech. So long as people are allowed to protest their intentions, their agenda will be hampered, and in the Leftist mindset the ends always justify the means.

That's why we shouldn't be surprised when Leftist organizations, such as Planned Parenthood for example, would have no problem supporting a bill that would effectively jail every member of the Catholic clergy in an entire nation. That's why we shouldn't be surprised when they would support a bill that would (if enacted) effectively shut down every newspaper, blog and magazine that opposes the bill within that same country. That's why we shouldn't be surprised when they use whatever legal means available to them to try to prosecute anyone and everyone who dares to expose this evil organization for what it truly is. It isn't just about Planned Parenthood though. There are plenty of other Leftist organizations, many of them stationed right here in the United States, that are just as radical and would gladly do whatever they can to shut down free speech in as many nations as possible.

That is the nature of "Liberalism" or "Progressivism" That is what it's all about when you really get down to it. "The ends justify the means, and do whatever it takes to get the agenda enacted." There is really nothing "liberal" or "progressive" about it at all, but then, that shouldn't be a surprise either. Leftists willingly embrace those labels because they effectively mask who and what they really are, giving them the cover they need to go about their business virtually undetected.