For two weeks every year, the Church ponders St. Augustine’s lengthy sermon On Pastors in the Liturgy of the Hours. It cannot make easy reading for those charged with the cura animarum, the “care of souls.”
Take, for example, this sharp warning from Augustine:
You have already been told about the wicked things shepherds desire. Let us now consider what they neglect. You have failed to strengthen what was weak, to heal what was sick and to bind up what was injured, that is, what was broken. You did not call back the straying sheep, nor seek out the lost. What was strong you have destroyed. Yes, you have cut it down and killed it. The sheep is weak, and so, incautious and unprepared, it may give in to temptations.
The negligent shepherd fails to say to the believer: My son, come to the service of God, stand fast in fear and in righteousness, and prepare your soul for temptation. A shepherd who does say this strengthens the one who is weak and makes him strong…
But what sort of shepherds are they who for fear of giving offense not only fail to prepare the sheep for the temptations that threaten, but even promise them worldly happiness?
What, then, might the 5th-century Bishop of Hippo say of two 21st-century bishops, Cardinal Stephen Chow, SJ, of Hong Kong and Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago?
While the Church was reading On Pastors, Cardinal Chow spoke in Parramatta, Australia, where he insisted that there was no religious persecution in Hong Kong: “Beijing wants to keep religious freedom intact in Hong Kong, because Hong Kong is important for China.” The Beijing regime, the cardinal insisted, takes the Catholic Church seriously and tries to understand it.
How does that attempt at understanding extend, one wonders, to understanding Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai, whose Catholic faith in human dignity and freedom has kept him in solitary confinement for over 1,600 days while being prosecuted on absurd charges of threatening “national security”?
Unlike his predecessor, Cardinal Joseph Zen, SDB, Cardinal Chow has done virtually nothing to support Catholicism’s most famous 21st-century political prisoner or to reach out to Jimmy Lai’s family.
Wouldn’t Augustine think that negligent in a shepherd?
Moreover, how does that alleged attempt to “understand” the Catholic Church involve the Chinese regime replacing sacred images in Chinese churches with placards extolling “Xi Jinping Thought”? How does understanding Catholicism square with compelling priests in Hong Kong to travel to Beijing for indoctrination in the “Sinicization” of religion, which means the complete subordination of Catholic truth to Chinese communist ideology?
While Cardinal Chow was misrepresenting the reality of the Catholic situation in Hong Kong and China, his brother cardinal, Blase Cupich of Chicago, was defending his decision to bestow a “lifetime achievement” award on Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois–a tribute that would certainly give St. Augustine pause, and precisely because doing so involves a gross pastoral failure to lead a member of the Church away from temptation.
Throughout his political career, Dick Durbin has been a promoter of the spurious “right” to abortion; he currently enjoys a 100% NARAL Pro-Choice America rating. Durbin has also been a champion of so-called “same-sex marriage.”
In both cases, Cardinal Cupich’s noble predecessor, the late Cardinal Francis George, OMI, tried to persuade the senator of the error of his ways: not only because settled Catholic doctrine teaches that the willful taking of an innocent human life is an abomination and that “marriage” between members of the same sex is an absurdity, but because the moral truths we can know by reason–the moral truths that should guide legislators in a pluralistic republic–tell us exactly the same thing.
Durbin, evidently valuing the woke orthodoxies of the Democratic Party over truths taught by faith and reason, obstinately refused to change his mind, and ever since has persisted in defending (indeed promoting) the indefensible. Because of that obstinacy on the abortion license, Senator Durbin was justly banned from receiving holy communion in the Diocese of Springfield, where he is domiciled, by a courageous shepherd, Bishop Thomas Paprocki.
For the Archdiocese of Chicago to honor such a man for his “lifetime achievement” is preposterous. If Cardinal Cupich does not realize that, perhaps Senator Durbin might have the decency to decline the award on the grounds that his acceptance of it would further fracture the unity of the Catholic Church in Illinois.
Cardinals Chow and Cupich deserve prayers as well as criticism, prayers that they come to take On Pastors seriously. For they may meet Augustine at the Great Assize, and when he asks them what they thought they were doing, “keeping the dialogue open” may not be a satisfactory answer.
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The seamless garment is shameless too, like a see-through fig leaf. It’s too flimsy to cover up the ideological agendas of these prelates, as if God cannot see us. (Genesis 3:11)
Pope Leo, please do not let the diocese where you received the Faith give this award.
A message from a Father of God’s Catholic Church to those who seek to defend His Truth (St. Augustine on the Gospel of John 8:12):
“All this by faith, so long as we are absent from the Lord, dwelling in the body; but when we shall have traversed the way, and have reached the home itself, what shall be more joyful than we? What shall be more blessed than we? Because nothing more at peace than we; for there will be no rebelling against a man.
But now, brethren, it is difficult for us to be without strife. We have indeed been called to concord, we are commanded to have peace among ourselves; to this we must give our endeavor, and strain with all our might, that we may come at last to the most perfect peace; but at present we are at strife, very often with those whose good we are seeking. There is one who goes astray, you wish to lead him to the way; he resists, you strive with him: the pagan resists you, you dispute against the errors of idols and devils; a heretic resists, you dispute against other doctrines of devils; a bad catholic is not willing to live aright, you rebuke even your brother within; he dwells with you in the house, and seeks the paths of ruin; you are inflamed with eager passion to put him right, that you may render to the Lord a good account of both concerning him. How many necessities of strife there are on every side!
Very often one is overcome with weariness, and says to himself: ‘What have I to do with bearing with gainsayers, bearing with those who render evil for good? I wish to benefit them, they are willing to perish; I wear out my life in strife; I have no peace; besides, I make enemies of those whom I ought to have as friends, if they regarded the good will of him that seeks their good: what business is it of mine to endure this?’ Let me return to myself, I will be kept to myself, I will call upon my God.
Do return to yourself, you find strife there. If you have begun to follow God, you find strife there. What strife, do you say, do I find? “The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.” Galatians 5:17 Behold you are yourself, you are alone, you are with yourself; behold, you are bearing with no other person, but yet you see another law in your members warring against the law of your mind, and taking you captive in the law of sin, which is in your members. Cry aloud, then, and cry to God, that He may give you peace from the inner strife: ‘O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 7:23-25 Because, “He that follows me,” says He, “shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.’
All strife ended, immortality shall follow; for ‘the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed.’ And what peace will this be? ‘This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.’ (1 Corinthians 15:26). To which that we may come (for it will then be in reality), let us now follow in hope Him who said, ‘I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.’”
Many thanks, dear GF, for this vintage Catholic Truth.
Augustine, in this week’s sermons on pastors articulates a steel hard truth, that priestly shepherds, from presbyter, bishop, cardinal, Pope either feed people the truths that lead to eternal life, or destroy his own.
Cardinals Chow and Cupich as Weigel alludes, his quotation from Augustine is sheer spiritual power are those who pursue what is theirs rather than what belongs to Christ. Comfort, esteem. A sense of superior wisdom.
Whereas what belongs to Christ is our humility, denial of self and the willingness to suffer in pursuit of souls in danger of condemnation.
You are so right, dear Fr Dr Peter Morello.
Holy Spirit-filled Saint Paul instructed: “Follow me, as I follow Christ!”
Do we need a directory: “List of Christ-Following Catholic Hierarchs” to give us a clue as to who among them is to be taken seriously. Might George & Carl identify a range of 12 apostolic Catholics to be responsible for keeping the directory relevant? Would CWR be prepared to host it?
Two clarifications that I believe are relevant: first, Sen. Durbin started his political career as a pro life Congressman; in 1982 he lead a statwide pro life rally and as late as 1989 he still publicly endorsed a Human Life Amendment. Second, the ban on Sen Durbin receiving Communion in Springfield dates back to 2004 and was imposed by Bp Paprocki’s predecessor, George Lucas, now Archbishop Emeritus of Omaha.
I say let the laity who are faithful Catholics, who regularly attend Mass and receive the Sacrament of Penance and who financially contribute to the Church as validated by their pastor choose their bishops. Bishops should be chosen from among diocesan priests and must remain in their diocese until age 75 – the age of retirement. The good ole boy network of homosexual predators must end.
May I be allowed to second the motion?
Ken T: I suspect there are many others who are fed up with feckless bishops. They’re a disgrace.
Dear Deacon Edward Peitler, your heart is in the right place, like Saint Augustine, and our dear George Weigel.
Yet, there’s a feeling of helplessness in regard to ‘defaulting shepherds’ – what can we humble sheep, even excellent author analysts like George, and marvellous author editors like Carl Olson, actually do to help The Church discipline feral hierarchs like Cupich & Chow . . ?
Does your comment discern a way? Is there a practical, godly means to introduce a bit of democracy to alleviate the stranglehold of our comatose and/or incompetent oligarchs . . ?
When the Pope doesn’t hold them to account, there seems no other recourse provided to free-up orthodoxy, righteousness, and justice.
Meanwhile we keep praying and witnessing as Christ gives us grace.
Dr. Rice. Thank you for your words of hope.
The faithful sheep within a diocese who are suffering at the hands of evil bishops, can at least consider writhing a letter to the pope, along with a list of signatories from that diocese, demanding removal of said problematic bishop for…listing specific failures and offenses.
Step two would be to take the letter and give it to the press.
That has been a proven method used to address malfeasant politicians in our democratic system.
At minimum, it puts the entire burden of a bad bishop directly in the lap of the one who owns it – the pope.
Deacon, only the clergy know all the clergy… the faithful know just a handful of priests at best. That the diocese selects a bishop candidate from among its deans would be more reasonable?
Mr. Cracked Nut: Let the presbyterate nominate 5 priest candidates for bishop. Present them to the laity for vetting and let the faithful decide. At this point, the presbyterate is so chocked full with homosexuals or weak/effeminate males that leaving it up to them to make the final decision means we’ll get more of the same. Bishops come from the ranks of the presbyterate so we get recycled weak and effeminate candidates.
If anyone thinks the Pope selects our bishops, you have to be out of your mind. A few powerful but clearly inadequate bishops like McElroy, Gregory and Cupich tell the Papal Nuncio who they want and he just goes and makes it happen. The system is rotten to the core.
Deacon Peitler: your suggestion sounds like synodality to me!
Indeed Br Jaques:
Would be a good synodal outcome, in view of the level of corruption Deacon describes 😉
Of course Fr Murr* went one stage further, and suggested it was a freemason – Cardinal Baggio – who vetted the short list and effectively chose the men.
*C.T.Murr.2022.Murder in the 33rd degree.
Except that the bishops just ignore the laity. Worse than that, they have a history of sexually abusing laity.
And they were like sheep without a shepherd.
Mr. Weigel is correct – giving Durbin an award, given his record, is preposterous.
Cardinal Cupich and other “Francis Bishops” deliberately get in the face of people
of faith, traditional and faithful Catholics. They seem to enjoy offending these good
people. Of course, it would help if other bishops stood up and also said “no” to the antics of Cupich & Co. Another Mccarrick , this time in Chicago?
As of today, a week after the announcement, five bishops have come out in opposition to Cupich giving the award to Durbin. That’s five out of 439 active and retired bishops in the USA. Not that impressive.
Crusader,
Agree, not very impressive. Or encouraging. Where is the USCCB when Cupich ignores it directives? Its silence suggests cowardice. As does Chow’s about Jimmy Lai, although in Chow’s case it may be worse, namely, indifference.
Bad shepherds, a seemingly endless problem in the Church
Agreed: bad shepherds, heretical hierarchs so depressing, dear TiF.
These young Aussies – amateurs not salaried – restore by hope.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PpiezP6xRM
Cupich has amply demonstrated the fruits of his shepherdship- he ordained a total of 2 priests this year in a diocese of close to 2.5M Catholics. Meanwhile Bishop Burbridge in Arlington VA, with 1/6 of the Catholic population has ordained 12 priests.
The Augustine quote has backing in the Bible:
*
17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 18 If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. 19 But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you will have saved your life. 20 Again, if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. 21 Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning; and you will have saved your life.” (Ezekiel 3:17-21 RSVCE)
*
Correcting defective faith practices is one of the roles that prophetic witness serves.
Amen! Amen!
I don’t think the system is completely broken down as I consider the election of three outstanding bishops picked recently in New England: Archbishop Henning of Boston, James Ruggieri of Maine and Bruce Lewandowski of Rhode Island. All three of these men were outstanding pastors before becoming bishops. I understand that the newly appointed bishop of Vermont was also an outstanding pastor. In fact one of the Churches in Vermont that I frequently attend is pastored by a young priest who was brought up in one of the parishes that he pastored . Let’s be careful that we don’t think the system is broken because of a few bad apples.
James Connor: yours is an example of ‘sweet lemons.’ You cite a few bishops who in your estimation are modern day Charles Borromeo’s. But the vast majority are weak, effeminate, feckless males.
Is this ‘James Connor’ the same guy who, a year or so ago, defended the excellence of freemasonry?
That Pope Leo XIV seems oblivious to this tragic initiative by Cdl Cupich to ‘honor’ a professed baby killer is extremely saddening for any faithful Catholics who had hopes for a Catholic Pope. Yet he is hugely popular.
Yet we may know the Holy Spirit is at work in the Church because the young priests are heroically entering a disgraced profession to devote their entire lives to the salvation of souls. So good to hear 12 priests ordained in Arlington.
Also we must recognize that the Supreme Court institutionalized both murder in the womb and homosexual unions and that the mass of people follow the government instead of the Church, 60 % of Catholics adhere to the Satanic lie “pro choice”.
When the revelation of antichrist finally breaks upon the world, the full persecution of the whole of Christianity will descend in all of its horror, terror, blood and holocaust.
This is the mechanism of God’s intended purification as described in Revelation.
The world is now ready to receive and welcome this most evil of men. As Pope Saint John Paul II said, “It will be blood that converts.”
It has been years, decades since I have trusted my parish priest having been indoctrinated by Liberation Theology as a child when as an alter boy in the Latin Mass we were set aside.