New York City, N.Y., Sep 11, 2017 / 12:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- On the clear, sunny morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Fr. Kevin Madigan heard an explosion overhead.
He grabbed oils for anointing, ran out the door of St. Peter’s parish in New York City, and wandered towards the center of the commotion – the World Trade Center only a block away.
Fifty blocks uptown, Fr. Christopher Keenan, OFM watched with the world as the smoke rising from the twin towers darkened the television screen. Looking to help, he went to St. Vincent’s Hospital downtown to tend to those wounded in the attack – but the victims never came.
All the while, he wondered what had happened to a brother friar assigned as chaplain to the firefighters of New York City: Fr. Mychal Judge, OFM, named by some the “Saint of 9/11.”
Sixteen years ago on this day, hijackers flew planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. In a field in southern Pennsylvania, passengers retook control of the cockpit and crashed the plane before it could reach its intended target, presumed to be in Washington, D.C.
The consequences of the attacks have rippled throughout the United States as the attacks spurred a new global war on terror and irreversibly changed the country’s outlook on terror, security, and international engagement.
For Fr. Madigan, Fr. Keenan and Fr. Judge, the day changed their own lives and ministries, as a pastor lost nearly his entire congregation, and a friar put himself in harm’s way to take on a new position – an assignment he only received because another friar gave the ultimate sacrifice as the Twin Towers came down.
“This experience has seared our soul and our spirit and our life, and it has so seared our spirit and our life that it has penetrated our DNA,” Fr. Keenan told CNA.
“It has changed our lives and we will never be the same,” he said.
It was like losing a village
On Sept. 11, 2001, Fr. Kevin Madigan had been assigned to St. Peter’s Church in the financial district of Lower Manhattan. The parish is the oldest Catholic Church in New York State, “half a block literally from the corner of the World Trade Center,” Fr. Madigan explained to CNA.
“Prior to 9/11 it was a parish that basically serviced the people who came to the neighborhood who came to Mass or Confession, devotions and things like that.” The parish had a full and well-attended schedule of liturgies and prayers, with multiple Masses said during the morning and lunch hour. September 11th changed that.
“Immediately after 9/11, that community was no longer there, because it was like losing a village of 40,000 people next door.”
Fr. Madigan was leaving the sanctuary that morning, heading back to the rectory when overhead he heard the first plane hit the towers. Immediately he made his way towards the commotion, looking to minister to anyone who had been hurt by what had happened.
“I took the oils for anointing anyone who was dying – I didn’t know what was going on there,” he said. However, most of those fleeing the building did not need anointing, Fr. Madigan recalled. “Most people either got out alive or were dead. There weren’t that many people who were in that in-between area.”
Then, there was another explosion from the other tower, and an object – the wheel of an airplane, in fact – went whizzing by Fr. Madigan’s head.
“After the second plane hit I went back to the office and made sure all the staff got out of there fast,” evacuating staff who were unaware of the chaos outside.
Fr. Madigan was back on the street when firefighters began to wonder if the towers might fall.
Thinking it ridiculous, Fr. Madigan kept an eye on a nearby subway entrance, which linked to an underground passage north of the towers. Then, a massive cloud of dust swept towards Fr. Madigan and another priest as the towers did collapse; they ducked into the subway station, emerging amidst the thick smoke and dust several blocks away.
After the towers came down, Fr. Madigan made his way first to the hospital for an emergency health screening, then back to check on St. Peter’s. While he was away from his parish, firefighters and other first responders made use of the sanctuary, temporarily laying to rest over 30 bodies recovered from the wreckage.
The death of Father Mychal
In September of 2001, Fr. Christopher Keenan had been assigned to work with a community ministry program near the parish of St. Francis in midtown Manhattan. At St. Francis, he lived in community along with several other Franciscan Friars, including an old friend he had known for years – Fr. Mychal Judge, chaplain for the Fire Department of New York City. Through Fr. Judge, the Friars became especially close with some of their neighbors at a firehouse across the street, who let the friars park their car at the firehouse.
Although the plane flew overhead, Fr. Keenan told CNA that “like everyone else, we found out while watching TV.” As the friars and brothers watched the events unfold on the television, they saw the second plane hit the South Tower; Fr. Keenan decided to go to St. Vincent’s Hospital – one of the closest medical facilities to the Word Trade Center. At the time, he thought there would be injured people who would need to be anointed or would like someone to hear their confession.
However, once he got to St. Vincent’s he found a long line of doctors, nurses and other responders who had come to help: together they “were all waiting for these people to get out who never came.” Victims were either largely able to walk away on their own, or they never made it to the hospital at all.
Instead, Fr. Keenan told CNA, “my responsibility was after people were treated to contact their family members to come and get them.”
As patients began to go home, Fr. Keenan continued to wonder about his brother friar, Fr. Judge, asking firefighters if they knew what had happened to the chaplain. Fr. Keenan left the hospital in the early evening to go hear confessions, but stopped at the firehouse across the street to ask the firemen if they knew where Fr. Judge was: “they told me his body was in the back of the firehouse.”
The mere fact that his body was intact and present at the firehouse that day was in itself a small miracle, Fr. Keenan said. “Mychal’s body that was brought out was one of the only bodies that was intact, recognizable and viewable,” he said. Among those that died in the Twin Towers, he continued, “everyone was vaporized, pulverized and cremated” by the heat of the fire in the towers and the violence of the towers’ collapse. “He was one of the only ones able to be brought out and to be brought home.”
That morning, Fr. Judge had gone along with Battalion 1 to answer a call in a neighborhood close to the Trade Center. Also with the battalion were two French filmmakers filming a documentary on the fire unit. When the towers were hit, the Battalion was one of the first to arrive on the scene. In the film released by the brothers, Fr. Keenan said, “you can see his face and you can tell he knows what’s happening and his lips are moving and you can tell he’s praying his rosary.”
The group entered the lobby of the North Tower and stood in the Mezzanine as the South Tower collapsed – spraying glass, debris and dust throughout the building.
“All the debris roared through the glass mezzanine like a roaring train and his body happened to be blown into the escalators,” Fr. Keenan relayed the experience eyewitnesses told him. In the impact, Fr. Judge hit his head on a piece of debris, killing him almost instantly.
“All of a sudden they feel something at their feet and it was Mychal, but he was gone.“
Members of the fire department, police department and other first responders carried Fr. Judge’s body out of the wreckage, putting his body down first to run as the second tower collapsed, then again to temporarily rest it at St. Peter’s Church. Members of the fire department brought it back to the firehouse where Fr. Keenan saw his friend and prayed over his body.
Fr. Mychal Judge was later listed as Victim 0001 – the first death certificate processed on 9/11.
Despite the sudden and unexpected nature of the attacks, Fr. Keenan told CNA that in the weeks before his friend’s death, Fr. Judge had a sense his death was near.
“He just had a sense that the Lord Jesus was coming.” On several occasions, Fr. Keenan said, Fr. Judge had told him, “You know, Chrissy, the Lord will be coming for me,” and made other references to his death.
“He had a sense that the Lord was coming for him.”
The grueling aftermath
“There was no playbook for how you deal with something in the wake of something like that,” Fr. Madigan said of the aftermath of 9/11. Personally, Fr. Madigan told CNA, he was well-prepared spiritually and mentally for the senseless nature of the attacks.
“I understand that innocent people get killed tragically all the time,” he said, noting that while the scale was larger and hit so close to home, “life goes on.” For many others that he ministered to, however, “it did shake their foundations, their trust and belief in God.”
While the attacks changed the focus of his ministry as a parish priest at the time, they also posed logistical challenges for ministry and aid: St. Peter’s usual congregation of people who worked in and around the World Trade Center vanished nearly overnight. Instead, the whole area was cordoned off for rescue workers and recovery activities as the city began the long task of sorting and removing the debris and rubble.
In addition, a small chapel named St. Joseph’s Chapel, which was cared for and administered by St. Peter’s, was used by FEMA workers as a base for recovery activities during the weeks after the attack. During that time, the sanctuary was damaged and several structures of the chapel, including the pulpit, chairs and interior were rendered unusable. According to Fr. Madigan, FEMA denies that it ever used the space.
Still, the priests at St. Peter’s saw it as their duty to minister to those that were there – whoever they were.
“The parish, the church building itself was open that whole time,” he said, saying that anyone who had clearance to be within the Ground Zero area was welcome at the church. In the weeks after the attacks, the parish acted as sanctuary, as recovery workers who were discovering body parts and other personal effects “would come in there just to sort of try to get away from that space.”
“Myself and one of the other priests would be out there each day just to be able to talk to anyone who wants to talk about what’s going on,” he added. “We’d celebrate Mass in a building nearby.”
Today, Fr. Madigan has been reassigned to another parish in uptown Manhattan, and St. Peter’s now has found a new congregation as new residents have moved into the neighborhoods surrounding the former World Trade Center site.
Only two months after the attack, Fr. Keenan took on the role of his old friend, Fr. Judge: he was installed as chaplain for the 14,000 first responders of the the FDNY.
Immediately, Fr. Keenan joined the firefighters in their task of looking for the remains – even the most minute fragments – of the more than 2,600 people killed at the World Trade Center. “The rest of the recovery process then was for nine months trying to find the remains.”
For the firefighters in particular, there was a drive to find the remains of the 343 firefighters killed at the World Trade Center and help bring closure to the family members. “You always bring your brother home, you never leave them on the battlefield,” Fr. Keenan said.
The resulting amount of work, as well as the “intense” tradition among firefighters to attend all funerals for members killed in the line of duty meant that the job became all-consuming, with all one’s spare time spent at the World Trade Center site. Sometimes, Fr. Keenan said, he would attend as many as four, five, or six funerals or memorials a day – and many families held a second funeral if body parts were recovered from the site.
“Here are the guys, overtime, going to all the funerals, working spare time on the site looking for recovery, and taking care of the families,” he said. “I was 24/7, 365 for 26 months.”
In addition, Fr. Keenan and the rest of the FDNY worked inside “this incredible toxic brew” of smoke, chemicals and fires that burned among the ruins at Ground Zero for months.
“I would be celebrating Mass at 10:00 on a Sunday morning down there,” he recalled, “and just 30 feet from where I’m celebrating Mass at the cross, the cranes are lifting up the steel.”
While both buildings had contained more than 200 floors of offices, there was “not a trace of a computer, telephones, files, nothing. Everything was totally decimated.” Instead, all that was left was steel, dirt and the chemicals feeding the fires that smouldered underground in the footprint of the towers.
“The cranes are lifting up the steel and the air is feeding the fires underneath, and out of that is coming these incredible colors of yellow, black and green smoke, and we all worked in the recovery process.” The experience working the recovery at the World Trade Center site is one that Fr. Keenan considers a “gift” and an “honor.”
“It was an incredible experience really,” he said.
Fr. Keenan recounted a conversation the firefighters had with him a few days after he was commissioned. After pledging to “offer my life to protect the people and property of New York City,” the other firefighters told their new chaplain “we know you’re ours, don’t you forget that every one of us is yours,” promising to stand by their new shepherd. “I’m the most loved and cared for person in the world and who has it better than me?”
While the formal recovery process has ended and a new tower, One World Trade Center, stands just yards from the original site of Ground Zero, the experience – and the chemicals rescue workers came in contact with for months – still affect the firefighters.
In 2016 alone, “we put 17 new names on the wall,” said Fr. Keenan, “who died this past year from of the effects of 9/11.” He explained that in the years following the attack, thousands of rescuers and first responders – including Fr. Keenan himself, have developed different cancers and illnesses linked to their exposure at the World Trade Center site. In fact, at the time of the interview in 2016, Fr. Keenan had just returned from a screening for the more than 20 toxic chemicals the responders were exposed to. He warned that the “different cancers and the lung problems that are emerging are just the tip of the iceberg,” and worried that as time progressed, other cancers and illnesses linked to the attack recovery would emerge.
The first responders are also dealing with the psychological fallout of the attacks among themselves, Fr. Keenan said, though many are dealing with it in their own way, and with one another.
Looking back, Fr. Keenan told CNA he still finds it difficult to express the experience to others or to make sense of what it was like when he would go down into “the pit” to work alongside the firefighters and other first responders. “The only image I had as time went on and I asked ‘how do I make sense of this as a man of faith?’ is that it was like I was descending into hell and I was seeing the face of God on the people that were there.”
The same image had come to his mind to make sense of taking care of patients with AIDS in the 1990s he said, even though nothing can fully make sense of events like these.
“I was like a midwife to people in their birthing process from life to death to new life,” he recalled. “All I can do is be present there, they have to do the work, I can be present there I can pray with them.”
“That’s how in faith I kind of sort of comprehended it.”
This article was originally published on CNA Sept. 11, 2016.
[…]
Deo Gratias!
Can. 915 Those upon whom the penalty of excommunication or interdict has been imposed or declared, and others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to holy communion.
God bless you Archbishop Cordileone. And prepare for grief from Rome.
I pray that the good archbishop’s courage will give strength and courage to the SCOTUS justices whose upcoming ruling will determine whether millions of sweet, funny, beautiful children will be allowed to live.
The time of martyrdom is upon us. God grant us the strength we will need to stand up for the truth.
“Speaker Pelosi, we love you. It’s not too late. Choose life” (Archbishop Cordileone quoted by Kevin Jones in another CNA article and reminding us Cordileone means Heart of a Lion).
Admittedly, I thought he carried on the roses appeal too long and should act, then retracted my criticism. He is every bit of a good, loving shepherd, seeking to coax the lost back into the fold. Now he’s made it official, she cannot receive the Eucharist.
Cordileone, like many faithful priests has endured the ire, demands to Rome for his removal by the very sheep he loves. Like Christ he perdures. Now we wait to see what his Holiness will do. Will he dare abuse, attempt to shame Cordileone as he did DiNardo? Surely, Archbishop Cordileone now has a host of iron mailed supporters.
As a San Franciscan, I am sure that Archbishop Cordileone sincerely hoped that he would never have to take this step. What to some seemed like weakness or procrastination was a truly loving patience. I have no doubt that he is not thinking of the politics of this.
Albert, when I hesitated and retracted my criticism of what I perceived as procrastination my thoughts later went to what I read on such instances as Mrs Pelosi’s sin, and the ancient Church policy of making every effort to reconcile the penitent. Even after excommunication [as alluded to by Pope Francis elsewhere on the article on recent pontiffs on abortion] as love for the sinner].
We’re all, except for the few critics of Catholicism who posted rejoicing over Archbishop Cordileone’s compassionate, but faithful and concise response to the House Speaker’s intransigence. Now it’s the moment for all of us to pray that she reconsiders, and converts for the sake of her soul’s everlasting sorrow or happiness.
I think what you wrote is exactly what Archbishop Cordileone is thinking and it could not have been put better. Thank you.
Thank you, Archbishop Cordileone.
Here is a misguided Archbishop who by his teaching and declaration is misguiding the faithful not only in his diocese but beyond who are led to believe that one’s position on abortion is the only criterion of being a Catholic in good standing worthy of receiving the Eucharist. His claim of simply applying the Church’s teaching in this act is either an intentional misrepresentation or an utter misunderstanding of the Church’s position. Even by going back to the teaching of Jesus, at the last judgment on who inherits eternal life (Matthew 25), one is judged not on abortion but one’s action on active – not only affective – care of (not only the unborn but above all) the born: the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the stranger (immigrant!), the imprisoned (especially those facing the death penalty). It’s high time we Catholics get beyond the limitation of the understanding of being Pro-Life as limited to concern for the unborn (even as some bishops called for it to be considered the pre-eminent) but for all life especially the born, that is the whole range of life from womb to tomb. On weighing matters of life prudential judgment calls for consideration of all life issues not just abortion. The archbishop neglects to teach the Social Teaching of the Church and the Bible (like Matthew 25) by focusing on abortion alone which sounds too protestant-like (faith alone, grace alone, bible alone!). The true Catholic position is not “Pro-Life” (the way it is currently [mis-]understood to consist as anti-abortion alone) but “Pro-Whole Life” (the full range of life; from womb to tomb.
Paula: Your ability to squeeze so much sanctimonious falsehood into such a short space is nearly breathtaking. It’s certainly nauseating.
The Archbishop never says or suggests that “one’s position on abortion is the only criterion of being a Catholic in good standing worthy of receiving the Eucharist.” In short, you are lying.
“His claim of simply applying the Church’s teaching in this act is either an intentional misrepresentation or an utter misunderstanding of the Church’s position.”
Another lie. Read his letter. Read canon law. Read the Catechism.
Do you really think that Christ, in condemning lust, divorce, idolatry, and a host of other violations of the Commandments (surely you’ve heard of the Sermon on the Mount?), really had no concern in upholding the Fifth Commandment? He did, after all, say: “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them”(Mt 5:17).
“On weighing matters of life prudential judgment calls for consideration of all life issues not just abortion.” But, of course, it’s impossible to clothe, help, aid, assist, support, feed, and otherwise care for someone if she is killed in the womb.
Your misrepresentation of Abp. Cordileone’s stance, as well as the beliefs of pro-lifers in general, is false and despicable. I just addressed these sort of ugly lies and slanders yesterday in my editorial on abortion and adoption.
“… by focusing on abortion alone which sounds too protestant-like (faith alone, grace alone, bible alone!).”
Another lie. And I find it especially angering as a former Evangelical Protestant, because you not only slander Catholics, you use Protestants as straw men, showing that your disrespect for those who don’t adhere to your false claims has few, if any, bounds.
Proverbs 26:12 (ESV) 12 Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes?
There is more hope for a fool than for him.
That describes Paula…and Nancy Pelosi.
I suggest that Carl Olson stop using “lies” to counter the position of others like Paula, implying that Paula is a “liar’ and intentionally falsefying what she knows to be the true and the real about pro-life issues, and so attributing evil motives to Paula. Paula’s motives and her conscience may be as pure as Carl Olson’s. Call her “mistaken”, call her “misguided” even perhaps claim that she is the willing victim of others’ lies, but avoid anything that calls her a liar. St. Augustine said lying was among the most serious sins any human could commit and was a direct affront to God whose creation endowned humans with the ability to know the true and the real, and if they intentionally falsyfied to others what they believed in their heart and mind to be true, this was a grave sin. Augustine could not even justify “white lies.” Even the Archbishop seems to hold out some hope that the Speaker will eventually recognize her “misunderstanding” on the issue of abortion.
“Call her ‘mistaken’, call her ‘misguided’ even perhaps claim that she is the willing victim of others’ lies, but avoid anything that calls her a liar.” Why? If the shoe fits, wear it.
Her first sentence does contain a lie. And it continues from there with more of the same.
At last. Spine from one of our Bishops. Thank you. I, personally, know at least ONE person who has been considering leaving his Protestant church and moving toward Catholic, BECAUSE of the Sacraments, yet he has railed against Ms. Pelosi “What good is something sacramental if the likes or her and Biden and other supposed Catholics can go to Communion and still literally fight for killing the unborn?”. He sent me this news in shock,…and pleased..yesterday. One more person moving toward the Sacraments.
Thank you Carl Olson. I pray the next Pope will be of the same caliber of AB Cordileone and repair the errors that have been spread on the unsuspecting catholic culture and help return them to the true Faith of Jesus Christ. “Be in the world but not of the world”.
More mangling of Matthew 25. Will Catholics ever become serious students of Scripture again? Read the Church Fathers’ interpretation of this passage. It is nothing like the modern mis-exegesis of the chapter.
The consensus of the Fathers is that “the least ones” of Matthew 25 refers to Christians. In fact, they are virtually unanimous on this point. And the internal evidence the text of Matthew 25 fully and strongly supports their position. The “brethren” of Jesus in the book of Matthew are his disciples, and the “least ones” is simply an alternate form of the “little ones” –also a reference to Christ’s followers. Jesus is not identifying with poor, hungry, and suffering people generally; he is identifying with his poor, hungry, suffering disciples. That is what the text indicates, that is what the Fathers teach, and that is the correct interpretation of Matthew 25. Too many Catholics today are Scripturally illiterate.
Paula, what a pitiful montage of manipulation of Catholic teaching you have written and besmirched with falsehoods the good intentions of the Archbishop. What you have written is indeed a scandalous misleading of the Faithful. Shame on you.
You would do well to heed St. Paul’s warning and refrain from receiving as well, Paula.
Paula, NOBODY has ever said that one’s position on abortion is a sole criteria for judging their standing within the church.However, BOTH Pelosi and Biden have given public scandal repeatedly on the subject of abortion. Not just tolerating it as public officials but actively pushing legislation to make its availability wider, and justifying it, all while citing their “Catholic” faith. Pelosi has evidently refused to speak to the archbishop one to one on the subject. Thus she should not be shocked at his action. Any REAL catholic who attends church regularly knows the remaining social teachings of the church. “Love your neighbor” covers a lot of ground and church members actively engage in that mandate.
You have the right to be wrong. Archbishop Cordileone is not using Canon 915 as the only Church teaching that one must believe to be a “devout Catholic.” It is simply the one that Nancy Pelosi is publicly and loudly denying every time she opens her mouth on the subject of the murders of children in the womb. It is sufficient to keep her from receiving the Body and Blood of Christ worthily. Most of us try to lead lives that honor our beliefs. She publicly doesn’t. We go to Confession to restore our relationships with God and promise to “sin no more.” She apparently doesn’t. Archbishop Cordileone is simply affirming what Pelosi has done by supporting murders in the womb — she has excommunicated herself, and he has agreed with her decision.
“I knew you before I formed you in the womb.”
That certainly demands some respect, eh?
Paula, have you ever even heard of the concept of a strawman argument? I’ll explain it to you. It’s when you think you refute someone’s argument by refuting positions they have never taken. Not very complicated. And it’s easy to bolster phony refutations with false analogies made to premises that were never held by the target of your contempt. Worst of all, it involves reducing the innate dignity of other human beings and what they value most sincerely to simplistic caricatures. You seem to have accomplished a hat trick in demeaning false-witnessing and trivializing truths for which people sacrifice to give witness. There is a Commandment from God against doing this sort of thing.
I was involved in pro-life work for years as a non-religious atheist prior to my conversion. There goes one of your stereotypes. As far as the stereotype of not caring for children after they’re born. How can you be so sure that all the doctors and nurses and teachers and attorneys and scientists and scholars and technicians and homemakers and construction workers and truck drivers and emergency workers and others from numerous other vocations who comprise the pro-life movement never once did anything for a child after they were born? I’ll tell you what. If you will agree to pay me back for all the bills I paid for my children after they were born, I’ll let you insult me personally and you can accuse me of never having done anything for born children, but the deal only applies to me, no one else. I warn you there is a lot of money involved, but you can have the privilege and joy of insulting me. Deal?
Pelosi would have it both ways, (a) that she a sacramental Catholic, and (b) that late-term child abuse is “sacred ground.”
Besides possible ill-will, and besides possible very deep-seated “invincible ignorance,” and besides the protest that allegiances in the domain of personal conscience have no bearing on notorious advocacy in the public domain (for abortion)— might there be yet another and cultural presumption that accounts for such contradictions?
Are Pelosi & Co. actually aligned with probably the deepest fallacy of Islamic (!) thought?
Under Islamic thought, it is possible for something to be both true theologically and false philosophically. Contradictory. This is the premise of the double truth—as in a religion of “peace” which does not prohibit violent jihad. Certainly, this fallacy of the double-truth is very much in play in the antics of the German “synodal way” and generally the fictional and imposed “paradigm shift” in moral theology.
The 11th century Sufi mystic, al-Ghazali, explained it this way: “It is not farfetched that [contradictory] ideas should coincide, just as a horse’s hoof may fall on the print left by another . . .” (Al-Munqidh min al-Dalal, translated by R.J. McCarthy, Al-Ghazali’s Path to Sufism: His Deliverance from Error, 1999, p. 39).
In what is still resilient in human thought (not parochially Western), we recognize, instead, the “non-demonstrable first principle of non-contradiction,” which states that contradictory propositions cannot both be true in the same sense at the same time. This principle applies in some way to the abortion culture where the unborn child is only half human, as it is apparently possible to be only half-pregnant!
As a possible prerequisite for any faithful Evangelization, Pelosi & Co. must first decide whether (a) they are heirs to consistent thought and to the revealed coherence of the Incarnation—and indeed, to non-schizophrenic thought!—or whether they are unwitting Muslims; and then (b) rethink the undeniable contradiction between their stated conscientious adherence and their imposition of mandatory public funding for Aztec rituals.
Although the Aztecs [and Mayans] practiced extensive human sacrifice and were known to cannibalize their fallen enemy, they were candid about their excesses and made no effort to camouflage this as medical care, as do abortionists [except that is was worship of sun god Huitzilopochtli]. They might have been offended by the comparison.
Catholic purveyors of abortion do indeed unwittingly worship an alien god. The Prince of this world.
Praised be Jesus Christ! It’s about time we had a Bishop stand up; I sincerely pray it causes a ripple effect within the other Bishops to do the same thing in their dioceses.
I wonder whether the decision on Pelosi will lead to a similar decision being made about President Biden.
Unlikely that William Koenig, Biden’s Ordinary in Wilmington, will broach the topic. Wilton Gregory has already said that he will refuse to enforce Canon 915 when Biden is in DC.
Thank you, Archbishop Cordileone, for making the difficult decision. We are grateful.
Thank you Good Shepherd, for your faithful shepherd Archbishop Cordelione.
May the God of Hosts strengthen him, and strengthen the faithful for the spiritual combat we are called to fight.
Thank you Archbishop Cordelione, for being true to your name.
!?!
?
For real ?!
A successor of the apostles arises!
Archbishop Cordileone is simply agreeing with Nancy Pelosi’s excommunicating herself. She alone must take responsibility for denying Church teaching and, therefore, denying herself access to the Eucharist. Perhaps Nancy is confusing “devout” with “deluded.” I will join Archbishop Cordileone in praying for her conversion.
Bible Verses about Abortion.
Exodus 20:13.. thou must not kill.
Psalm 139:13-16.. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Psalm 127:3-5… Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him.
Let the innocent souls live. I would ask the Speaker if she would look into the brilliant eyes of her many grandchildren and ask “which one would you have aborted”. What more can be said!
Finally…..one person in this church of millions steps up and shows a smidge of what a true Christian church is supposed to do….practice church discipline. Too bad they didn’t do this when the priests and lay people were abusing little boys and girls.
Abundant blessings on Archbishop Cordileone! Thanks be to God we have a courageous true and holy Archbishop who is not afraid to witness and proclaim the truth of Christ, stand up for the sacredness of life in a world of chaos and evil destruction of God’s creation.
This is a good beginning.
This raises the obvious question – who, if any, will follow The Archbishop’s courageous statement? Will it be honored in other dioceses? I refer of course specifically to Washington D. C. – will Cardinal Gregory follow Cordileone’s action?
This has now become a yes or no issue – there is no wiggle room left.
Archbishop Cordileone on barring Nancy Pelosi from Communion: ‘I cannot in my conscience allow the situation to continue.’
The Gloria Purvis Podcast
May 20, 2022
On May 20, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said in a public statement that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a life-long Catholic, will be barred from Communion in her home diocese of San Francisco. Gloria Purvis, the host of America Media’s “The Gloria Purvis Podcast”spoke to the archbishop about his decision.
The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Better late.Then never.I say! 50 years and 60 Millon lost lives later.The light bulb has finally gone on. Obama’s storm troopers of Biden,Pelosi and the “Rent a Mobs”outside the SCOTUS homes,and Court House itself.Testify to how serious Soro’s,Gates,and Zuck think this issue of Mass Murder has become to their plans,and ending it will start their whole
house of evil cards to crumble.The Devil himself has come out of his basement to lend a hand.
What I find telling is the refusal of Pelosi to even respond to AB Cordileone’s request for a meeting. One would think that by all norms of personal, professional and polite behavior that one would at least respond to an Archbishop’s communique. Is her refusal to respond hubris? It appears that Pelosi feels that she must answer to no one. Her actions, or lack thereof would indicate that. I pray that she has a conversion of heart, repentance and sacramental forgiveness before her end of days. But power is so intoxicating. ..
Will democracy survive our dichotomous ego?
I am taking some liberty by mixing politics and religion. That said, I will continue at my own risk.
I am a Catholic Republican with an exuberance for both, politics and religion. I have found flaws in both, particularly my party.
Nothing less than treason. The US Capitol, our citadel of democracy, is being invaded by Trump supporters with the intent of overthrowing the government. Trump labels those who take issue with his policies “RINOS”, (Republicans in name only). I consider myself a RINOP, (Republican in need of a party). He warns “Don’t cross me” to politicians seeking office. Finally, I will focus on dogma.
Carl Olsen clips “I’m not interested in defending the Stupid Party, but the Evil Party needs to look in the mirror (it won’t; it never does); from the WSJ:” Divisive by any metric.
I am pro-life with exceptions. For a threat of physical/mental health to the mother’s life, rape and incest.
When Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone refuses Nancy Pelosi communion at the altar, things got hot. Will he give the host to those silent abortionists who follow in the line? The mass murders, especially among Black citizens, over the last decade have not motivated our clerics to “walk the walk”. Prayer is essential given the sin of murder.
The GOP support for the NRA, which is associated with the radical right, take no prisoners… No law for background checks. No law to address the use of military-style high-capacity ammo clips, AR15. I ask if Wayne LaPierre ever attended the funeral of a murdered child killed by the AR15?
God save our republic.
Speak for yourself regarding a dichotomous ego, especially given your propensity to commit sociological presumptions, without basis, and project attitudes onto those who irritate you as though this represents the expression of coherent principles. It does not.
Given your willingness to dole out death sentences to babies whose exterminated lives would only exacerbate the already strained personal psychologies of women, a much greater long term trauma experienced through the crushing of their children, that also serves to expand the fault lines of a deteriorating social ethos, your decisions to blind yourself to how God does not cause long term social errors in the lives He decides to create, leads you to forfeit any role as moral arbiter, especially towards those of whom you lie about with such frivolous ease. You would do well to discover and learn more about the Catholic religion by reading the comments Donald Trump made to the nation at the March for Life in 2020.