Self-Proclaimed Catholic: "God Does Not Directly Speak To Us"

Oh. Dear. Heavens. Excerpts:

As critics repeatedly point out, 98 percent of sexually active American Catholic women practice birth control, and 78 percent of Catholics think a “good Catholic” can reject the bishops’ teaching on birth control.

The 98% statistic is really misleading for the reasons laid out here.

What the church teaches is what the bishops (and, ultimately, the pope, as head of the bishops) say it does.  But is this true?...

Ummm...yes. One of the definitions of being Catholic. You're kinda committed.


This is the one Church of Christ which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic,  which our Saviour, after His Resurrection, commissioned Peter to shepherd, and him and the other apostles to extend and direct with authority, which He erected for all ages as "the pillar and mainstay of the truth"..This Church constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him...

Disagree with this, and, well--you may be Orthodox.  You may be Protestant.  You might still be some brand of Christian.  But you are not Catholic.

The only issue is how, if at all, the government should “respect” this teaching.

Not so much. If the teaching is a teaching of the Church according to the self-definition of the institution, then by golly, it's a teaching of the Church. No matter how this guy wants to redefine the sources of magisterial authority in the Church, he totally lacks the power to do that.

Further, in what sense does the federal government have the right to apply tests of religious orthodoxy to the churches claiming a religious exemption? "I'm sorry, you claim that x is a matter of conscience, but we hold that the true teachings of your church are y. Therefore, this is not an action protected under the first amendment." In other words, because you have been found by the government approved ecclesiastical authorities to be a heretic, you shall be punished. Isn't that what people get mad at the Spaniards for doing with the Inquisition?

Even if only the bishops held to the teaching in Humanae vitae, requiring Catholic charitable organizations to pay for birth control would still be a violation of the First Amendment, since the clause deals specifically with an establishment or institution of religion. As in, a religious organization. Further, the bishops are American citizens with the right to freedom of religion and freedom of conscience. Forcing them to violate a tenet of their religion would remain a violation of liberty of conscience, even if every other Catholic in America stood in opposition to the teaching.

But since we live in a human world in which God does not directly speak to us, we need to ask, Who decides that God has given, say, the Catholic bishops his authority?

And here we see the guy depart, not just from Catholicism, not just from Christianity, not just from the Judeo-Christian realm, but any religion that is not deism or atheism. This is a secular statement. "since we live in a human world in which God does not directly speak to us"--for the love of heaven, has the man never touched a Bible? Cause that's what it's predicated on: God revealing himself to man, as happened in this story.

I can certainly continue, but it's just too rich.  Suffice to say--this is an early example of the sort of thing that's been discussed by Cardinal George:

...This is the first time in the history of the United States that a presidential administration has purposely tried to interfere in the internal working of the Catholic Church, playing one group off against another for political gain. What isn’t always understood is that the Bishops of the Church make no attempt to speak for all Catholics; they never have. The Bishops speak for the Catholic and apostolic faith, and those who hold that faith gather around them. Others disperse. That dynamic is clear in history and became clear also in the official visit to Rome that the Bishops of our region made this week...

And have there been times in the past when the Church has faced this sort of divide and conquer strategy? I seem to recall something--oh, let's see...