Image credit: Sacred Heart being adored by Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart & Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, Corrado Mezzana, 1922
Happy Father's Day!
I like this post from Fr. Clinton Sensat's FB page. Today is the beginning of the novena to Ss. Peter & Paul, whose feast is June 29. Maybe this is a good time to make good on what follows, given that many Catholic politicians have moved to in-your-face defiance regarding their promotion of abortion, etc.:
As Father's Day nears, I want to ask you all to pray for one very special group of fathers.
I ask you to pray for our bishops.
They are not soulless bureaucrats. They are not spineless politicians. They are not shadowy globalists. They are men. They are priests.
Have they failed, repeatedly, in their tasks? Yes. But so have I. What man hasn't? And their duties are sterner than most.
They are men, and for the most part men of gentle heart and quiet disposition. They are averse to conflict, rightly or wrongly, and now they're being squeezed into a big one.
Let us be clear. Catholics in unrepentant mortal sin MUST NOT receive Jesus in the Eucharist. That is clear in both Scripture and Canon Law. Even more, Catholics in public and flagrant mortal sin must be denied the Eucharist after being warned by those who have their pastoral care.
These two things are not up for a vote. They are not debatable. And they are not political.
Are you the Grand Wizard of the KKK? You must be denied Communion.
Are you pushing to nuke Muslim countries? You must be denied Communion.
Do you publicly and unrepentantly deny Catholic dogmas? You must be denied Communion.
Do you promote homosexual marriage? You must be denied Communion.
Do you enable the slaughter of the unborn? You must be denied Communion.
To this point, rightly or wrongly, the bishops have taken a non-confrontational approach. They would preach the faith, and rely on Catholics who denied that faith to have both the conscience and the common sense to abstain from Communion.
But now they are being publicly challenged on both sides, and I don't think that approach has much of a future.
So please join me in praying for them. They're being squeezed, and hard. They deserve from us something more than our constant criticism, our social media crusading, and our ideological inquisitions. They are our fathers in Christ, and they deserve our prayers.
So on this Father's Day please remember them. You may not like them. You may rage at their faults. But they, too, are truly our fathers. And they deserve our spiritual support.
