Clergy Then, Clergy Now
"The Most Rev. Prelates do not need us to tell them...that this open and opposite conduct--this practical repudiation by one Bishop of the official action of his brother Bishop...is, day by day, working loss of faith among the simple ones of the Catholic Church, and, among those of a less humble spirit is bringing the authority of the Episcopate in this country into contempt."
The above sounds like a reaction to one bishop declaring that he does not want to start a fight at the altar by denying communion to pro-abortion "Catholic" politicians while another bishop declares that he will deny communion to any such “Catholic” politicians.
However the quote was not written during the 2004 Presidential Campaign. It appeared in the Freeman's Journal and Catholic Register of April 8, 1876.(1) Yes, even when our nation was just 100 years old, American bishops were mishandling things as they have, in our own time mishandled scandalous Catholic politicians, the Just War Theory and practicing-and-promoting-homosexual priests' predation of adolescent males.
The issue in 1876 that exposed the episcopal dissonance was the bringing to justice of The Molly Maguires (2), a criminal gang who inspired terror and sensation in the southern anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania. Over the decades the Mollies were made over into heroic crusaders for justice for exploited miners. The legend may have originated as anti--union propaganda put around by the Reading rail and coal company to associate unions with lawlessness.
But, while their namesakes in Ireland did rise up against the brutal genocidal policies of the English, the Pennsylvania Mollies were nothing but thugs. They were not even miners, many not even employed at all except to sell drinks to their comrades. Their murders were undertaken to settle personal grudges. There being no such things as FBI's or even state police, the Mollies were finally taken down and brought to the gallows by the Pinkerton Detective Agency in the employ of the Reading Railroad.
Some bishops and priests in Pennsylvania, all of Irish ethnicity, condemned the Mollies; some did not, giving tacit approval. It was a priest who told the Mollies that a Pinkerton man was among them. The Catholic Church at the time was officially against Catholics belonging to secret societies. Joining what required a demotion of allegiance to the Church was an excommunicable offense.
In the 1870s, it was impossible for some clergy to see around the old-country belief that informing on fellow Irishmen, even sending them up to their just deserts, was the most heinous of crimes. So clouded was their moral vision by the habits and attitudes of their upbringing, their allegiance to groups they, men who had been exposed to moral theology, ethics, the Ten Commandments could not tell right from wrong, the bad guys from the good guys.
The same is very true of modern-day bishops, priests and nuns who drive around with Kerry/Edwards stickers on their bumpers and who are unmindful of the teaching in black & white in the CCC(3) that abortion is always wrong while capital punishment and war can be legitimate exercises. There is also the Code of Canon Law, 915. They were born Democrats, raised Democrats and they just can't get around being Democrats, even when the party has joined up with the Culture of Death. It looks like a number of them will be going to Hell as Democrats.
(1) As quoted in Broehl, Jr., Wayne G., The Molly Maguires, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1964
(2) No one knows where the name Molly Maguire came from. One legend has it that the original Mollies fought oppression in drag.
(3) Catechism of The Catholic Church: Abortion, 2270-75; Capital Punishment, 2266; War, 2309-2329
(4) Canon Law 915: Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or the declaration of a penalty as well as others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to communion.
Copyright © 2005 by Neal J. Conway. All rights reserved.