An open letter to our family:
Unless and until something changes with the Roman Catholic Church, I and my family are not attending Catholic Church nor participating in Catholic rituals. This is not a decision we have made lightly or without a GREAT DEAL of thought and discussion.
See why below.
With excerpts from, and with some changes to:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-miles27apr27,0,7484116.story?coll=la-news-comme
nt-opinions
and
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/04/25/2003251921
During the Presidential election, it was then Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) that wrote a letter to U.S. bishops while the campaign was in progress, instructing them to deny Communion to any Catholic candidate unwilling to criminalize abortion. Ratzinger's letter did not win anything close to unanimous agreement, even among the American bishops, yet he succeeded in creating a public question about John Kerry's status as a Roman Catholic.
The shift among Catholic voters in 2004 was small in absolute numbers -- President Bush increased his support among Catholics by 6 points from 2000 to 2004 -- yet, according to one analyst, it was large enough to turn the election in Ohio, Iowa and New Mexico. Arguably, then, Ratzinger won the election for Bush.
Today, the United States faces an unprecedented Bush administration effort to use religion to bring about one-party rule in the United States. The Republicans seek to eliminate any opposition, beginning with what Republicans had earlier named -- all too unmistakably -- the "nuclear option," by preventing Senate filibusters against judicial nominations. Once filibusters against judicial nominees can be eliminated, they can be easily eliminated for any other matter before the Senate.
A key part of the Republican strategy is to falsely claim that it is hatred of religion that has moved the Democrats to oppose these judicial nominees. "Justice Sunday: Stop the Filibuster Against People of Faith," a TV program produced by evangelical leaders, was simulcast Sunday via the Internet, just as Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist was preparing to call for a vote on the anti-filibuster measure. Evangelical Protestants have led the way in portraying Democrats as enemies of God. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., Board Member of the Dobson-led "Focus on Family' group (see more below), has said that they "believe that the Roman church is a false church and it teaches a false gospel," and verified his commitment to that statement on Thursday April 21, 2005. He went further saying, "And indeed, I believe that the pope himself holds a false and unbiblical office."
Even so, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has joined with the Focus on Family on this topic. Catholic Bishops have chimed in on the issue of judicial nominees in a recent mass mailing to parishioners timed to yield constituent letters just as the matter comes to a vote.
It's not just judicial nominees either, it's the ENTIRE JUDICIAL SYSTEM and the US CONSTITUTION. Tom DeLay, the ultraconservative, ethically-deficient Republican leader of the House of Representatives, recently said, defiantly, to a group of reporters: "We set up the courts. We can unset the courts. We have the power of the purse." In an audio recording obtained by the Los Angeles Times of Protestant leaders at a private meeting, the most influential among them, James C. Dobson, provided chilling detail: "Very few people know this, that the Congress can simply disenfranchise a court. They don't have to fire anybody or impeach them or go through that battle. All they have to do is say the 9th Circuit doesn't exist anymore, and it's gone."
If Republicans don't like ANY law, ANY court ruling, ANY facet or function of our society, all Republicans have to do soon will be to present a change in the Senate rules, and it will succeed unless at least six GOP senators dare to break with the extraordinary radicalism of the Bush administration and join with all the Democratic senators (and one independent) to defeat it: Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe, John McCain? The roster of the brave is ominously short and too cowed to challenge for fear of retribution.
During the presidential election, each candidate had an issue that he could call upon to claim Pope John Paul II as an ally. Kerry had the unnecessary, falsely-rationalized, and illegal war in Iraq, which the pope opposed; Bush had abortion. But Ratzinger, the Pope's primary spokesman and leader of Catholic Doctrine, would have nothing of such evenhandedness. "Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia," the future pope wrote to the U.S. bishops. "There may be legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not, however, with regard to abortion and euthanasia."
What his letter seemed to suggest was that if Bush gave Rome what it wanted on the abortion issue and the (now strategically inflamed, thanks to Terri Schiavo) euthanasia issue, Rome would do its best to give Bush what he wanted regarding the death penalty and, above all, war. The question that now arises is whether the Pope is offering a similar deal with the U.S. Constitution at stake: If Bush backs Rome on abortion and euthanasia, the Universal Roman Catholic Church will do what it can to turn U.S. Catholics against the filibuster, thus providing the Republicans with their unchalleged, one-party, free-to-do-as-they-please, national government. The fact that the mass mailing will swing only a minority of the country's Catholics against the filibuster is irrelevant. The minority, as it did in the last election, may make the difference.
And we refuse to tolerate or be party to it.
We don't believe that Jesus (you know, the guy whose life Christians are SUPPOSED to model theirs after?) would put corporations and the ultra-rich ahead of the common man and the poor ("I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.").
We don't believe Jesus supports ANY political party (Render unto Caeser what is Caeser's and unto God what is God's).
We don't believe that Jesus ever called upon anyone to hate homosexuals, or anyone else for that matter.
We don't believe that an all-powerful God, the ultimate Force of Good, demands that someone have a physical penis to be a spiritual leader.
We don't believe that wearing a condom condemns a soul to eternal damnation.
We believe in the separation of Church and State and the Constitutional right (for now) that says Americans have an undeniable freedom OF and FROM religion ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof").
And we certainly don't believe that molesting children is acceptable or that, as Ratzinger has done while Cardinal and Leader of the Doctrine of Faith, it is acceptable to be actively involved in the conspiracy to cover up and hide such heinous sins from civilian authorities and victims and their families.
Ratzinger's instructions are clear on the Church's exclusive right to investigations on child molestations by priests in a letter he wrote in 2001. He states that the church's jurisdiction "begins to run from the day when the minor has completed the 18th year of age" and lasts for 10 years. So a priest can sexually molest an eight year old altar boy and, according to the man who is now Pope, absolutely NO ONE outside the Church, not the family and certainly not the civilian law enforcement authorities, has a right to know anything about it until that abused child is 28 years old. It orders that "preliminary investigations" into any claims of abuse should be sent to Ratzinger's (former) office, which has the option of referring them back to private tribunals in which the "functions of judge, promoter of justice, notary and legal representative can validly be performed for these cases only by priests."
"Cases of this kind are subject to the pontifical secret," Ratzinger's letter concludes.
Breaching the pontifical secret at any time while the 10-year jurisdiction order is operating carries penalties, including the threat of excommunication.
Father John Beal, professor of canon law at the Catholic University of America, gave an oral deposition under oath on 8 April last year in which he admitted that the letter extended the church's jurisdiction and control over sexual assault crimes.
The Ratzinger letter was co-signed by Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone who gave an interview two years ago in which he hinted at the church's opposition to allowing outside agencies to investigate abuse claims. "In my opinion, the demand that a bishop be obligated to contact the police in order to denounce a priest who has admitted the offense of pedophilia is unfounded," Bertone said.
UNFOUNDED?
What would Jesus do, indeed?
We believe in Jesus. We believe that salvation exists only due to His life and crucifixion on our behalf. We believe in God's Holy Word when He challenges us to love our neighbors as ourselves (It says so at least 8 times in our Bible -- Lev 19:18, Matt 19:19, Matt 22:39, Mark 12:31, Luke 10:27, Rom 13:9, Gal 5:14, and James 2:8). We believe that when Jesus said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me" that He did not actually intend for children to suffer, but rather that children, before any others, have primary access to God and His goodness due to their innocence and fundamental love.
We don't believe that the men (only) in charge of this incarnation of the Church are acting in accordance with the Will and the Word of God and His only begotten Son.
Of one thing we are certain: Know that we love you all. This is not written nor sent with the intent to influence you or your beliefs. This is solely about us and our beliefs and is obviously, fundamentally, immensely important to us and we thought this was something that was important enough to share with you.
We realize this may be of no consequence to some, and cause great turmoil to others. If you would like to talk about it, we would be happy to do so. If you want to argue with us or tell us we're going to hell, we would prefer it if you would simply offer your silent prayers for our salvation than presuppose that you are the arbiter of our Divine Judgment.
With our love,
Paul and Holly Brannigan