Standing at the Top of the Slippery Slope

So an elderly priest from Canada spoke his heart and was silenced.
The diocese played the "we need to love everyone card" -- which translated to diocesan garble means--"don't offend any one and please be politically correct."
It smacks of relativism and if you follow the reasoning of the diocesan spokesperson--we end up with no absolute truths--a slippery slope.  But how can you argue with a diocesan spokesperson who says "we are all loved unconditionally...."?
You can't--
But, by taking that position the church hung the elderly priest out to dry and aligned itself with moral relativism.  Bad form.

Excuse me...NGSR

When I was a young seminarian we would attend evening prayer and Mass with the monks.
So, for the first part of the Mass we would chant the psalmody.  It usually was a beautiful experience.
On one such evening I had a monk sitting to my right.
He thought it best to change every gender identifying pronoun to a non-specific non-gender pronoun.
So every time God was referenced in the psalm as He--it became God, or Lord, or Creator (but too many syllables would not flow--you get the aural picture).
Every psalm.
Every messed up syllable.
Every blessed pronoun.

Yeh, good prayer.

Later that week someone in seminary referred to the Trinity as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.
Okay...I get it.  I know the arguments from all sides and all genders (only two genders right??)

Yesterday at Mass my wife had a non-gender-specific responder or (NGSR's) as I am now officially coining the phrase--post this and tweet it from the blogosphere
Now parishes will have to post on their bulletins and pages and promotions if they are NGSR.

Anyways this woman was next to my wife at Mass.
I think she was a nun.

In the old days you knew of a women religious by their garb---now you know them by their response at Mass.

I know, in the greater scheme it is no big deal.  In fact if I was the therapist for this rant I would laugh and tell myself to chill.
It just gets old. Why does someone need to pointedly not respond the way the community is responding?
Is it really about praising God the Father? (excuse me--God the Creator)--or is it more about simply drawing attention to one's own relationship with Christ? (excuse me--Redeemer --cause the descriptor 'redeemer' is so much more personal to me).

When I didn't want to live and play by the rules--I left--(canonically we call it excommunicated.) BUT when I returned (by the Grace of God) I understood one thing--I had to leave my agendas and baggage and crap at the door--(and believe me I had some crap)--but nothing that a letter from the Pope couldn't clear up.

My point?--NGSR is inherently flawed.
They need to stop.

Pride and Money and Bishops and Priests

Looks like the demons are raising their ugly heads.
There is a story in the church about a pro life priest and a bishop.
The priest is being called back to the diocese by the bishop.  He isn't suspended or anything, just called back, plucked out of his pro-live apostolate.
I think the priest is ticked.  He played his hand to the media early and basically said that the old bishop understood, but this new guy...well it just isn't working out, so he's going to find some other place to 'be a priest'.

You can search the internet for all the takes on the story--from the financial concerns to the ministerial.  I won't plague you with all of that here.


But, from a praylium perspective--the whole entire thing just smells bad--the demonic has taken up residence.

Pride and ego and money are in the mix, actually ALOT of money.  Now don't jump to conclusions but between you and me...money....and who has it....are you surprised?  Really?

Money (or lack of it) and entitlement go hand in hand.
If a person has money and wants for nothing--they live in the world of entitlement.
And, the opposite is also true--I found as a therapist that many people who were 'playing the social system' felt entitled to do whatever, whenever, to whomever, because they had nothing and something was 'owed' to them.
And, if that isn't enough there's more to this web of entitlement--if a person is jealous or envious of another's money, they may begin to believe that that are somehow entitled to have a piece of it.
In all three scenarios the behavior of the 'entitled' is selfish, obnoxious, and maybe even abusive and violent.   Clericalism really is entitlement with robes.

So, money and entitlement, and power and authority--good mix for satan.
By the way, the priest is appealing to Rome.  He really really doesn't want to go back with this bishop.  Do you think he has any connections in Rome?

Who has the bigger 'connections' the bishop or the priest?