Discovering Discipline: For Believing Catholics Only
by
Thomas A. Droleskey
As Pope Benedict XVI divests a venerable title of the papacy, "Patriarch of the West," which has a history dating back long before its adoption in 1870 as a formal title of the Supreme Pontiff, in an effort to appeal to the schismatic and heretical Orthodox churches, bishops and priests within the Catholic Church continue to mount an open rebellion against the Received Teaching that Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ deposited in His Mystical Bride.
Previous commentaries have noted San Francisco, California, Archbishop George Niederauer's praise of a motion picture celebrating perversity and how most of the bishops in northern California have no intention of even attempting to enforce the heavily loopholed and badly flawed Vatican "Instruction" about the admission of men with perverted tendencies to study and to be ordained for the Holy Priesthood. Nothing ever happens to such bishops. Indeed, they get promoted over the course of time.
Liturgical improvisations continue to multiply within the context of the liturgical abuse par excellence, the Novus Ordo Missae. This phenomenon is worldwide in scope. Entire websites are devoted to documented the worldwide profanations that take place in the name of alleged Catholic Masses, which are usually called "liturgies." Nothing ever happens to those who give such offense to Our Lord.
Christopher A. Ferrara reported in The Remnant thirteen months ago that a Father Bruno Forte had been consecrated as Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto in Italy by none other than the then Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. As Mr. Ferrara reported at the time:
Worse still, [Alessandro] Zagrando [the Rome correspondent for The Latin Mass: A Journal of Catholic Culture], a respected journalist not given to reckless claims, relates that Forte’s 1994 essay Gesu di Nazaret, storia di Dio, Dio della storia (Jesus of Nazareth, history of God, God of history) reveals Forte as nothing less than “the standard-bearer of theories so radical as to the point of putting in doubt even the historicity of the resurrection of Christ. The empty tomb, he argues, is a legend tied into the Jewish-Christian ritual performed at the place of Jesus’ burial. It is a myth inherited by the Christians from Jesus’ early disciples. Therefore, the empty tomb, along with other details surrounding the resurrection, is nothing but a ‘proof’ made up by the community. In other words, Forte is trying to change the resurrection of Christ into a myth, into a kind of fairy tale that cannot be proven.”
According to the February 20, 2006, edition of the Whispers in the Loggia website, Archbishop Forte, having been consecrated by Cardinal Ratzinger on September 8, 2004, is now being touted as a possible successor to the current Holy Father. That's right, a man who believes that the Resurrection of Our Lord, a central truth of the Catholic Faith, is a "legend" is considered suitable enough to sit on the Throne of Saint Peter. Far from being disciplined for his heresy, Bishop Forte is rising fast in the esteem of Vatican watchers and is close to the heart of the Holy Father, who believes in the Hans Urs von Balthasar error of Universal Salvation, himself.
Thus, it is apparent that nothing will happen to the nineteen priests from the Province of Quebec, Canada, described in the story, written by Tu Thanh Ha, for the February 27, 2006, issue of the Toronto Globe and Mail:
MONTREAL -- In an unusual public dissent with their leaders, 19 Quebec Roman Catholic priests published yesterday an open letter taking issue with the church's opposition to both same-sex marriage and the ordination of active gays into the priesthood.
Does the church "have the last word on the mysteries of political, social, family and sexual life?" the 980-word letter asks. "In these matters, the official teaching of the Church has shown itself more than once to be wrong."
One of the authors, Father Claude Lefebvre of the Saint-Étienne parish in Montreal, said the letter stemmed from a discussion group of Quebec priests who felt uneasy about the church's official discourse.
"We don't want people to believe that everyone within the church thinks the same way," he said in an interview.
The priests' pastoral activities with regular faithful had put them at odds with their leaders, he said. "Our contact with people influenced our action and way of thinking. We wish that, within the Church, Christians lend an ear to people who live their homosexual orientation. That they live with the people rather than just with books."
Disputing the Vatican's position that homosexual acts are "intrinsically immoral and contrary to the natural law," the letter notes that humans have endlessly strived throughout history to redefine what is natural to them.
The letter also criticizes the Canadian bishops' presentation to Parliament that opposed Bill C-38 on same-sex marriage. "Was there any trace of the compassion that marked Jesus's passage on Earth? Not a paragraph, not a sentence in your brief that takes into account the historical discrimination against homosexuals and the tragedy of their social and ecclesial exclusion."
Analysts said it has been decades since Catholic priests in Quebec have disagreed so widely and so publicly with their church leadership.
"I wouldn't call this unprecedented but I'd be at a loss to come up with a precedent," said Christophe Potworowski, the Kennedy-Smith Chair in Catholic Studies at McGill University. "It points to a serious crisis in the Quebec church and the lack of communion between priests in pastoral positions and their bishops."
Prof. Potworowski and another expert, Guy Ménard, a professor of religious studies at the University of Quebec in Montreal, agreed there hasn't been such a broad, open protest in Quebec since the 1968 Humanae Vitae encyclical that declared contraception immoral.
Yesterday's letter was signed by priests from five dioceses across the province, in Montreal, Joliette, Longueuil, Gaspé and Gatineau.
The authors say they were prompted to write because of two recent developments: the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops' criticism of the new law on same-sex marriage, and the release in November of guidelines from the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education that restated the church's ban on ordaining priests who are "actively homosexual."
The signatories include the maverick, outspoken Father Raymond Gravel. Father Gravel -- who had a rough-and-tumble youth as a prostitute and barman in a leather bar before he entered the priesthood -- has often criticized the church's views on gays in the past.
The 19 who signed the letter could be gambling on the fact that there is a shortage of priests in Quebec to avoid disciplinary measures from their bishops, Prof. Potworowski said.
Actually, the insidious actions of these nineteen priests, who want to deny the complementarity of the male and female as being part of the nature created by God Himself, is no gamble at all. They will not be disciplined by Cardinal Archbishop of Montreal, Jean-Claude Cardinal Turcotte. They will not be disciplined by Bishop Gilles Lussier of Joliette, Quebec. They will not be disciplined by Bishop Jacques Bethelet of the Diocese of Saint Jean-Longueil. They will not be disciplined by Bishop Gilles Gazabon of the Diocese of Saint Jerome. They will not be disciplined by Bishop Luc Cyr of the Diocese of Valleyfield. And the one cardinal archbishop and his four suffragan bishops will not be disciplined by Pope Benedict XVI for refusing to discipline priests who are promoting one of the four sins that cries out to Heaven for vengeance, the sin of Sodom, which is doubtlessly much more than a theoretical matter for many members of the clergy in the ecclesiastical rat's hole that is Canada.
The reaction an axuiliary bishop of the Diocese of Saint Jean-Longueil, the Most Reverend Louis Dicaire, was reported as follows on LifeSiteNews.com about the public support for perverted behavior and for the continued admission of their fellow supporters (and/or practitioners) of perversion into the Holy Priesthood:
Louis Dicaire, bishop of Saint-Jean-Longueuil, spoke to the press saying the letter was “not an earthquake.”
Canadian Catholic priests have frequently spoken out in the press against their Church’s teaching and the faithful have been left to presume agreement on the part of a stoically silent episcopate.
Bishop Dicaire told Le Journal de Montreal that he was irritated with the priests but not because of their denial of the Catholic Faith, but because of the indiscretion of going public. Dicaire said the discussion should have been kept within the Church.
“They're exercising their right to public expression.” He added, “although one could question whether it's the best way to advance the debate.”
Debate? There is no debate about the binding precepts contained in the Divine positive law and the natural. There is no debate about sin. Debate? There ino debate to "advance."
The report on LifeSiteNews.com went on to state:
The Edmonton-based paper, the Western Catholic Reporter, reports that the CCCB and Quebec Bishops’ Conference refused to comment on the priests’ letter, but that a spokesman for the Quebec bishops directed inquiries to Dicaire’s comments.
It must be remembered that the Archbishop of Toronto, Ontario, Canada,
Aloysius Matthew Cardinal Ambrozic, suspended Father Stephen Sommerville in 2004 for offering Holy Mass for the Society of Saint Pius X. Yes, the Canadian bishops know how to exercise their disciplinary powers, using their fiercely against those who hold fast to the fullness of Catholic Tradition. They are homosexualist thugs.
With very few exceptions, therefore, the only real way to be disciplined by a diocesan bishop these days is to be a believing Catholic.
Father Robert Altier, who serves at the Church of Saint Agnes in Saint Paul, Minnesota, has forbidden the Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, the Most Reverend Harry Flynn, from posting his sermons on his website and on a radio station. It is evidently the case, as the story reported by Steve Scott in the Saint Paul Pioneer Press indicates, that Father Altier is being punished for courageously giving sermons criticizing a mandatory program in matters pertaining to the Sixth and Ninth Commandments that includes graphic material designed to break down the innocence and purity of children.
The homilies and presentations of a St. Paul priest can no longer be published on his Web site or broadcast on a Catholic radio network by request of the archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, according to the priest's Web site.
The Rev. Robert Altier of St. Agnes Church posted a message Thursday that said: "In obedient compliance with the expressed written request of Most Reverend Harry J. Flynn … Father Altier's homilies and spiritual presentations can no longer be published on www.desertvoice.org or broadcast on Relevant Radio.''
The archdiocese had no comment about the decision, and Altier could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Altier is a prominent voice in conservative Catholic circles and operates a Web site called A Voice in the Desert. He has spoken out against a sex-abuse prevention program being taught throughout the archdiocese, including to schoolchildren. Such programs were mandated in all dioceses by U.S. bishops as part of their response to the clergy abuse crisis.
Opponents — including the Twin Cities-based nonprofit group Catholic Parents Online, of which Altier is the spiritual adviser — say the programs are too explicit for children and usurp parents' roles in teaching their children about sexuality.
Archdiocese spokesman Dennis McGrath could not confirm the reason for Flynn's directive because the archbishop did not discuss any communication he had with Altier. McGrath said no impropriety had occurred. "Any communication between a priest and the archbishop is personal and confidential,'' McGrath said. "But obviously there is a point of disagreement there someplace in his homilies or some of the things on the radio.''
Archbishop Flynn, who sent a toady in April of 1997 to denounce the founder of Human Life International, the courageous Father Paul Marx, O.S.B., as a anti-Semite during a Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Paul. His Excellency lacked the courage to do so himself. Ah, but he has shown "compassion" for those the "Rainbow Sash" at the Cathedral of Saint Paul. Monstrous liturgical abuses abound throughout the Archdiocese of Saint and Minneapolis. Nothing is done to stop these abuses. Father Altier, however, has to be silenced for being "disrespectful" of an archdiocesan program that wounds souls and deflects attention from the simple fact that children are at risk spiritually and temporally from all of the archdiocese's programs.
My suggestion to Father Altier and to the good people in a revolutionary stronghold is simple: go to Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Saint Paul. You will find nothing but the truths of the Catholic Faith offered to you in a liturgically and doctrinally safe environment provided by the Society of Saint Pius X. You have the right to live in peace without the unjust exercise of episcopal power. Seek out that peace and protect yourselves and your children from the harm posed by the new religion that seeks to crush out even merely "conservative" voices who are trying to defend the truth as best as they know how.
Father Altier is not alone on this issue.
A priest in the Archdiocese of Boston, Father David Mullen, is attempting to resist a program, whose name will not mentioned, similar to the one in Saint Paul and Minneapolis. He is resisting the felons in the Archdiocese of Boston responsible for covering up the crimes of many perverted priests, one of whom, Father Paul Shanley, was the co-founder of an particularly evil organization, who was enabled by the former Archbishop of Boston, Bernard Cardinal Law, and the man who is now the Bishop of Rockville Centre, Long Island, the Most Reverend William Murphy. Reasoning with spiritual felons is not possible. Resistance is the only language that they understand.
Thus, my suggestion to the good people of Boston, who are about to lose the church where the archdiocese "indult" Mass is offered, Holy Trinity, is simple: go to Saint Butolph Chapel in Norwood or to Saint Roger and Saint Mary Chapel in Roxbury. Once again, protect your Faith from any taint of corruption. Protect your own souls and those of your children.
Finally, there is the sad, sad situation of Saint Mary's by the Sea Church in Huntington Beach, California. Well-meaning parishioners who have tried for nearly two years now to "fight for the Church" in the parish where the great and zealous pastor of souls, Father Daniel Johnson, served for twenty-five years, are being expelled by the acting administrator, Father Martin Tran, with the full support of the Bishop of Orange, the Most Reverend Tod Brown. Their offense? They wanted to have a more "conservative" offering of the Novus Ordo Missae, replete with kneeling for Holy Communion! "Agitation" for this, not for the restoration of the "indult" Mass that had been offered for the last ten years of Father Johnson's pastorate, is what got these parishioners expelled. Not even parishioners who openly support contraception and abortion and perversion get expelled from their parishes.
Here is the story from the Orange Register, written by Steven Greenhut:
In announcing his 10 theses to deal with the dioceses' horrible handling of the child-rape crisis, Bishop Tod Brown pledged, in thesis 4, to "work collaboratively with all members of the diocese." But, of course, the theses stunt was all about public relations rather than repentance. Soon afterward the diocese -- ever tolerant of liberal ideas on church teaching -- cracked down on the one thing the bishop cannot tolerate: traditional Catholicism. He shut down the Tridentine Mass at St. Mary's by the Sea in Huntington Beach, and has been unrelenting in his attempt to impose liberal orthodoxy on that conservative parish.
A number of the congregants have not taken this lightly and have handed out flyers critical of the diocese and the bishop. Liberal modernists came into power promising openness and attacking the old church's emphasis on hierarchy. Now, they are more totalitarian than their predecessors as they crack down on those who don't toe their line.
How has the bishop dealt with the conservatives at St. Mary's? Here's the text of a letter asking some of them to leave the diocese. Ah, so much for tolerance and openness and working collaboratively with all members of the congregation. This was sent by the priest at St. Mary's, but such things can only be sent with the approval of the diocese.
For these following serious offenses (primarily based on the flyer "Restore the Sacred" of "Save Saint Mary's group", issue #15, dated Feb 19, 2006):
- Personal attack and false allegations against Bishop Brown
- False allegations against the American Bishops
- Personal attack and false allegations against Fr. Martin Tran
- False accusations/ condemnations against various ministries of the Diocese of Orange as heresy, supporting abortion and contraception
- Creating misleading, confusion, division and chaos in the parish by intentional disobedience and opposition to the current liturgical norms of the Diocese (mandated by the Bishop), set by the USNCCB and Bishop Brown, approved by Rome
With full responsibility, authority and faculties of an Administrator of St. Mary's by the Sea, appointed by Bishop Brown, for the sake of the common good of the Church, the parish and the diocese, with the approval of the
Bishop, I (very sadly) officially invite you To leave the parish St. Mary's by the Sea and the diocese of Orange.
You will be welcomed back only with your sincere heart-felt repentance/conversion on these issues mentioned above. May God bless you! Sincerely Yours, Fr. Martin Tran, Administrator
I do not know about the "false allegations" against Bishop Brown to which Father Tran is referring. I do know, though, that the Diocese of Orange, according to press reports in late-2004, has agreed to pay out between $85 million to $100 million to victims of its perverted priests. False allegations? Just the facts.
I do know that Bishop Tod Brown personally bestowed the Benemerenti Medal, instituted by Pope Gregory XVI, to Rabbi Shelton Donnel of Temple Beth Sholom on June 10, 2005, at Temple Beth Sholom, which “subscribes to Reform Judaism. Reform Judaism supports the killing of innocent babies under cover of civil law. Bishop Brown helped to protect perverted priests, costing the faithful of the Diocese of Orange millions upon millions of their hard-earned dollars, while at the same time he bestows awards on pro-abortion Jewish rabbis. False allegations? Just the facts. (See the appendix for a list of questions I posed to Father Joseph Fenton, Director of Communications for the Diocese of Orange, that went unanswered last year.)
I know also that Bishop Brown, who is always on the warpath against Our Lady Help of Christians Chapel for not having his "approval," gave approval for a requiem Mass there for the wife of a prominent Baptist minister in San Clemente, California, on July 5, 2005.Thus, Our Lady Help of Christians is "approved" when a prominent Protestant ministers wife, who converted to the Faith and came to assist at Mass at Our Lady Help of Christians, is involved. It is not "approved" on other occasions. Bishop Tod Brown does nothing to stop monstrous liturgical improvisations in the Novus Ordo Missae while he wars against the Church's perennial Tradition. False allegations? Just the facts.
I know Bishop Tod Brown refused to publicly recognize or honor the long service of Father Daniel Johnson, who never stained the priesthood once with any hint of dishonor, to the Catholic Church when he retired in 2004. False allegations? Just the facts. There was not even a note of Father Johnson's retirement or any story in the diocesan newspaper about how he had worked so long for the good of souls. False allegations? Just the facts--and only a few partial, incomplete listing of the facts about the wretched state of Catholicism in the Diocese of Orange under Bishop Tod Brown.
This situation is very close to my own heart. I gave my "Living in the Shadow of the Cross" lecture program (which comprised eleven three-hour lectures) at Saint Mary's by the Sea five years ago when I was still assisting fairly regularly, although not exclusively, at "indult" offerings of the Traditional Latin Mass. It was while giving my lectures there that I met the wonderful woman whom I married a few months later, my dear wife Sharon, who had been received into the Church in 1999 at the hands of Father Daniel Johnson, as had her sister, Bridget Turpin, in 1997. Indeed, Father Johnson received 557 people into the Church over the course of his twenty-five year pastorate, most of whom he recruited by personally walking the boundaries of his parish and knocking on every single door, residential and commercial,. three times in the course of those twenty-five years.
As much as my wife and I love Father Johnson and as much as we are grateful for all that he did for us before we got married and all that he has done for Holy Mother Church, I stated very publicly in The Remnant two years ago that his advice to his flock to "stay and fight for the Church" at Saint Mary's by the Sea was ill-considered and would only lead to the events that Steven Greenhut chronicled in the Orange Register. The institutional church in California is in the hands of hateful revolutionaries who are completely and totally intolerant of anyone who adheres to the fullness of the Faith of our fathers. There is nothing to be gained by waging unwinnable wars against bishops whom Rome will never remove and that only wind up disturbing one's interior peace.
As I have written repeatedly, and I say this again out of true love for the good people who remained behind at Saint Mary's by the Sea and who have now been expelled from the parish where Father Johnson did so much for souls for so long, you have the best place in the entire country to assist at Holy Mass: Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Garden Grove, California. Father Patrick Perez knows more about the Immemorial Mass of Tradition than anyone else, including the late Michael Davies. He offers the Mass of the ages exquisitely. Father Perez is assisted by Father Paul Sretenovic, a gifted young priest who has learned to offer the Mass of Tradition so very well and who preaches with interior conviction of the soul about the truths of the Holy Faith. Over 800 seek out the refuge that Our Lady has provided for them in an area devastated liturgically and doctrinally by Roger Cardinal Mahony and Tod Brown and their cast of supporting villains against the Faith. Join them. Live in peace. Bask in the fullness of the liturgy and in the fullness of the Faith. If a canonical state of emergency exists anywhere--and I believe it exists everywhere--it exists throughout the State of California. Please, please go to Our Lady Help of Christians and protect yourselves and your family members.
The hatred of the Catholic Faith that is possessed by so many bishops and priests is demonic. It is diabolical. These wolves in shepherds' clothing will stop at nothing to discipline savagely anyone and everyone considered to be a counter-revolutionary. In the true spirit of Luther and Calvin and Cranmer and Topcliffe and Danton and Robespierre and Lenin and Stalin and Hitler and Mao and Ho Chi Minh and Castro and a host of other revolutionaries, many of our bishops consider it to be their duty to stamp out all opposition to their revolutionary schemes, using whatever forms of intimidation, starting with sloganeering and ending with expulsion, necessary to have their wicked ways. Conservative and traditionally-minded priests have been sent off to psychiatric hospitals for reprogramming. Parishioners have been browbeaten from pulpits. High altars and statues of Our Lady have been smashed to smithereens. None of this is an exaggeration. These are simple statements of fact as to what has happened--and what is continuing to happen--in the Church in her human elements since the train wreck known as the Second Vatican Council occurred.
We pray for our bishops and our priests. We must, as the Gospel for Holy Mass yesterday, Friday after Ash Wednesday, noted, love our enemies and do good for those who hate us and those who persecute us. This is an imperative given us by Our Lord Himself:
You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thy enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you: That you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust.
For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? do not even the publicans this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more? do not also the heathens this? Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect. (Mt. 5: 43-48)
Yes, we pray for our bishops and priests. We pray for them fervently. However, it is our duty to resist them in these revolutionary times. As Father Lawrence C. Smith noted two years ago, "Disobedience to the disobedient is truly obedience." We do not submit to wolves in shepherds' clothing in anything that threatens the true worship of God or the doctrines He has entrusted solely to His true Church. Fear not any unjust and illicit penalties that may be imposed as a result of resisting wicked men. We need to cleave to true pastors of souls who are faithful to the Mass that Our Lord Himself taught the Apostles to offer and who teach only what He taught them to hand down to us under the infallible guidance of the Holy Ghost.
We pray most of all for our Holy Father. The Diabolical Disorientation that manifests itself so fiercely in the persons of so many bishops and priests can be wiped away if only Pope Benedict would consecrate Russia to Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart with all of the world's bishops. What if the bishops won't cooperate? Simple? Excommunicate them and do the consecration with the handful who are left.
We hope and pray that the Holy Father himself will discover that discipline must not be imposed upon believing Catholics but upon those who are doing the devil's bidding by making war upon Our Lord and His Deposit of Faith.
Our Lady, Help of Christians, pray for us.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.
Saint Jude, pray for us.
Saint Casimir, pray for us.
Saint Basil, pray for us.
Saint Athanasius, pray for us.
Saint Peter Damien, pray for us.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.
Saints Perpetua and Felicity, pray for us.
Saint Philomena, pray for us.
Saint Alphonus Liguori, pray for us.
Saint Anthony of Padua, pray for us.
Saint Francis de Sales, pray for us.
Saint Nicholas of Flue, pray for us.
Saint Boniface, pray for us.
Saint Anselm, pray for us.
Saint Ambrose, pray for us.
Saint John Neumann, pray for us.
Saint Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.
Saint Padre Pio, pray for us.
Blessed Jacinta, pray for us.
Blessed Francisco, pray for us.
Sister Lucia, pray for us.
APPENDIX:
QUESTIONS SENT TO FATHER JOSEPH FENTON, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, DIOCESE OF ORANGE
1) Rabbi Shelton Donnel is an adherent of Reform Judaism. Each and every congregation in the branch of Reform Judaism supports abortion under cover of law and "civil rights" for those engaged in sodomite and lesbian acts and/or lifestyles. Does Bishop Tod Brown believe that support for abortion and sodomy disqualifies anyone, Catholic or non-Catholic, from the bestowal of any awards offered by the Catholic Church?
2) Would Bishop Brown present an award to anyone, Catholic or non-Catholic, who supported the evils of racism or anti-Semitism? If not, why is support for baby-killing and sodomy not a disqualification for awards offered by the Catholic Church?
3) The Council of Florence (1438-1445 decreed the following: "The holy Roman Church believes, professes, and preaches that 'no one remaining outside the Catholic Church, not just pagans, but also Jews or heretics or schismatics, can become partakers of eternal life; but they will go to the everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels,' unless before the end of life they are joined to the Church. For the union with the body of the Church is of such importance that the sacraments of the Church are helpful to salvation only for those who remaining in it; and fasts, almsgiving, other works of piety, and the exercise of Christian warfare bear eternal rewards from them alone. And no one can be saved, no matter how much alms, he has given, even if he sheds his blood for the name of Christ, unless he remains in the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church."
Does Bishop Brown agree or disagree with this decree issued by the Council of Florence? What dogmatic council, if any, has superceded this decree?
4) The Sixth Session the Council of Trent issued the following decree on January 13, 1547: "The holy council declares first, that for a correct and clear understanding of the doctrine of justification, it is necessary that each one recognize and confess that since all men had lost innocence in the prevarication of Adam,[3] having become unclean,[4] and, as the Apostle says, by nature children of wrath,[5] as has been set forth in the decree on original sin,[6] they were so far the servants of sin[7] and under the power of the devil and of death, that not only the Gentiles by the force of nature, but not even the Jews by the very letter of the law of Moses, were able to be liberated or to rise therefrom, though free will, weakened as it was in its powers and downward bent,[8] was by no means extinguished in them." In other words, Jews are not saved by the Mosaic covenant, not then and not now. Does Bishop Wuerl submit to this statement as dogmatically binding upon all Catholics.
4) Has Bishop Tod Brown ever tried to convert Rabbi Shelton Donell to the Catholic Church?
5) Does Bishop Tod Brown believe that it is necessary for Rabbi Shelton Donnel and all of his brother Jews to convert to the Catholic Church in order to save their immortal souls?
6) Does Bishop Tod Brown believe that it is necessary to imitate the first Pope, Saint Peter, who sought the conversion of the Jews rather than to reaffirm them in a religion that was superceded when the curtain in the Temple in Jerusalem was torn in two on Good Friday?
