A report of a Fireside Chat with Cardinal George

His (Cardinal George's) most sobering comment concerned the status of the Church in twenty years. His foresees the Catholic Church being forced underground as in China (with less physical persecution).

He argued that for example, a woman sues the Church to be a priest saying it is her right. She gets five justices to agree that it is a right. The Church cannot argue legally from a sacramental standpoint, because Roe v. Wade changed the argument from institutional and community to individual rights, as such the Church must argue on the basis of rights, and here has no argument. The Five justices decree women's ordination, the result is two churches. One a state sponsored Catholic Church and the other an underground Catholic Church. His actual timeframe was ten years.

He finally closed with the need for a New Evangelization to reach out to the post-Christian World, Europe and America and bring them back. To do so, one must use both Faith (Bible and Tradition) and Reason. Again arguing that it is vitally important to the Faith.

This is a brief summary as best as I can remember, it was a powerful talk, he talked for 2.5 hours.

Full report is here.