This really needs to be read and understood...

Excerpts are from an article by Steve Kellmeyer titled "Dreaming is Believing".

George Weigel appears to be at odds with the USCCB. In a recent interview with Newsmax.com, Weigel said, “[T]he bishops [must] as a group to make clear that Senator Kerry is systematically misrepresenting the nature of Catholic teaching on the life issues…

Back in December 2003, Cathy Cleaver Ruse, the official pro-life spokeswoman of the USCCB told the New York Times in part, “when it comes to contraception as a policy issue - access, availability - the Catholic bishops do not get involved in that debate."

Now there’s an amazing statement. Catholic bishops don't get involved on a debate concerning mortal sin. One wonders why any of them bothered getting consecrated bishop. But wait – it gets better.

Fr John Hardon was outspoken in his denunciation of contraception and the evils that spring from its acceptance by society and by many of the Catholics (including many of the bishops).

But let's continue:

If the USCCB was lobbying to abolish abortion, why wasn’t it lobbying to abolish contraception? Both are mortal sins, both take human lives. I couldn’t see how the bishops distinguished between the two.

She quickly set me straight. The bishops don’t distinguish between the two.

“No, there is no ‘lobbying to ban abortions for everyone’ as that too has been precluded by the Supreme Court, for the time being,” she wrote in reply, “rather, there are efforts directed toward achievable goals…” She then went on to list a few of the USCCB goals: “the partial-birth abortion ban, [work] against mandating inclusion of contraception in health benefits packages; against making its acceptance a condition for providing other kinds of developmental assistance; protecting parents' rights in the case of minors, [etc.]”

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE AT THE USCCB?

Steve has kinder words than I.

It takes one’s breath away. Instead of preaching on the intrinsic evil of contraception, instead of insisting on the total abolition of contraception and abortion, US bishops are merely attempting to maintain the status quo circa, say, 1975. Pope John Paul II has repeatedly asked them what they are doing to change the culture. Well, now we know the answer: nothing. They aren’t trying to change the culture, they are trying to freeze-frame the culture in one of its most delectable states – the year Maude had her abortion on a national sitcom. We all know people who yearn for the 1950’s. Some benighted souls even yearn for the 1960's. But who knew there was anyone that yearned for the seventies? The bishops have been told in very stern terms by the Unites States Supreme Court that they are to stop trying to abolish contraception and abortion, so… they scrape, bow and obey.

I have often wondered why Fr Hardon preached and preached and preached about the evils of contraception and of it being the source of all of our decay. He did so because it was the TRUTH. Evidently he did so because too many bishops refused...Perhaps prayers for his intercession are in order - prayers that God may instill courage into the hearts and wills of weak bishops. And perhaps the fear of the Lord in those who fail in their obligation to serve Him as they should.

But I digress...One more quote from Steve and I'll give you the link.

So, this is the situation. The USCCB is not working to ban abortion. It is not working to ban contraception. The Supreme Court has forbidden it to do either, and the USCCB takes its marching orders from the US Supreme Court on these two issues.....

Pray for them and for yourself. Pray hard....

Catholics don’t take their marching orders from nine men in black robes. We follow one man, with holes in His hands and His feet and a bloody crown on His head. We aren’t democrats or republicans, we are monarchists. The King is calling us out. It’s time to march.

I continue to learn something new everyday - Sometimes, it makes me want to cry. In times past, saying that would have been an embarrassment for me, being a guy and all.

But no more...I cry for the pain that Christ must endure, I cry for the pain of His Blessed Mother, I cry for the Church and for all of the faithful who have been led into darkness and sin.

In 1946, Pope Pius XII said that the sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin.

Fr Hardon reminds us that we, as Catholics, must take our responsibility seriously regarding contraception - otherwise we should resign ourselves to being just one more of the civilizations that disappeared from the face of the earth because, as a people, we were so evil in God's sight.

The link to Steve Kellmeyer's article is here.