Christianity is weak.
- Catholic students get harassed for an hour by a group called the "Black Hebrew Israelites," and are called some of the most despicable things in the English language.
- A mentally-ill race-baiter is then allowed to pound a drum in their faces.
- Their Bishop's immediate reaction is to actually condemn the students.
- School is canceled out of fears of violence against the Catholic students.
- The students have to hire publicists and lawyers to obtain apologies (in case you missed it, Bishop Foy has now fully apologized following the students' litigation threats).
Does anyone here believe that an Islamist group of students would have taken such abuse? Or that their schoolmaster would have criticized Islamist students instead of the Black Hebrew Israelites and the Native American race-baiter? Do you think an Islamic school would have canceled school following this incident?
Catholic heirarchy seems intent on apologizing for being Catholic. Followers of Islam are proud of their religion. They are mentally strong and unapologetic.
We are going to get run over.
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I include the Bishop when I say Left based on his subsequent intransigence regarding the situation. bishop Loy refused to offer an apology, did not take down the rush to judgment condemnation from the diocesan website, and ordered the boy to stop giving interviews to defend himself after he appeared on Fox with clear threat implied of expulsion implied.
This is an utter shame.
Your point is well received, but there are weak bishops, just like there are weak priests, just like there have been weak popes and even apostles. I happen to think the students acted mostly correctly, and their bishop is not acting correctly.
There are a lot of Catholics who confuse mandatory Doctrinal principles (e.g., soul converting voluntary charity) with merely tolerated non-doctrinal options (e.g., soul chilling forced redistribution of wealth)...even at the bishop level. They forget that Christ called individuals to act to convert souls, not governments to act to improve inequality...and they imbue what they perceive as noble goals with religious mandates...and that leads them to mistakenly vote Democrat. Those Catholics who don't fall prey to that misinterpretation of Tradition are usually Republican, because they know that Christ encouraged freely given charity to convert souls, not forced redistribution of wealth to help the poor (the latter often being counterproductive to convert souls).
Any time the faithful extend mandatory principles (as another example, the spiritually required aspects of Genesis) to optional principles (e.g., optional historical/metaphorical aspects of creation stories), they create problems for the Church. Unfortunately, it happens on both sides of the political spectrum, as my second set of examples shows (creationists usually being Republican).
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So I'm probably wrong here, in every way. But I have viewed Matthew 22:15-22 (render unto Caeser...) as a fairly clear statement that Jesus wants us to live an orderly life in whatever society we live in but recognize that our salvation comes from our devotion to Him. We don't seek salvation based on our devotion to Caesar. Matthew 22:15 is one reason why I do not understand Catholics who believe (like you pointed out) that the government should be the agent of helping the poor and in effect our souls.
Thank you for your enlightening/educational response. You are correct that Bishop Foy does not speak for the entire church and that my post overgeneralizes. However, he probably represents a significant portion of Catholics and their thinking.
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"Render unto Caesar..." was Jesus avoiding a trap...set by evil men, no less. It was not his core message to us, and that passage makes nothing mandatory...it merely tells us what we should tolerate for society and for the health of the Church. It is not a requirement for social justice. There is no such requirement.
Paying the Imperial Tax to Caesar
15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
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Is all Jesus bullshit talk. And the crucified Jesus what a weak loser.
The Bishop was (probably justifiably) afraid of the mob. Rushing to judgment like most here, not exactly following with WWJD...
Being Catholic and white surely didn't help, but it was the MAGA hats and pro life stances that did the triggering.
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Notre Dame’s hypocrisy
After Notre Dame University surrendered to political correctness and announced it would cover 19th century murals of Christopher Columbus following Native American protests, a friend smells hypocrisy.
He writes: “The weird thing is that ND gave an honorary degree to the disgraced Cardinal McCarrick and has not rescinded it, unlike other schools. So ND is ok with McCarrick but ashamed of Columbus.”
Link: https://nypost.com/2019/01/26/president-trump-is-down-but-not-out/