The annual Stations of the Cross in reparation for abortion will take place once again this year on Good Friday. Instead of wasting your time at the “ecumenical stations” like our diocesan leaders, come and pray for an end to abortion in our world and the right to life for countless infants slaughtered each year.
The event will begin at McQuaid Jesuit high school, located at 1800 South Clinton Ave, on Good Friday (April 22nd) at 9 AM. Following the prayer service, those participating will march to a local abortion facility and pray the Stations of the Cross and Divine Mercy chaplet.
Please consider attending. Feel free to invite your local bishop.
Tags: Events, Orthodoxy at Work, Pro-life
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In my opinion either one is good but it says something that our bishop has never once (as far as I know) found the time to pray with the group that goes to the abortion site on Good Friday. To not ever be there sends a message that abortion doesn’t matter, and that is just the opposite of what our Church teaches on this most important life issue. His presence there or at other pro-life events would inspire others to become involved and in so doing might actually lead to the lives of unborn children being saved and their mothers and fathers being spared the awful experience of aborting a child.
Check your facts: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1101328.htm
To Anon. 10:37- It is my understanding that the Pro-Life Planning Committee that organizes the Good Friday pro-life Stations has invited the Bishop over the years, but he has always declined.
I believe this is the 22nd year of this prayer servive. The bishop did lead a prayer service at the cathederal the first year but did not process with us to the abortion site. And yes he has been invited every year that we have organized this prayerful gathering on Good Friday. We would greatly welcome him this year if he would come. I would ask all you viewers to invite him and their parrish priests, deacons and staff to join us this year.
Anon, you provide no proof that the Holy Father will pray with members of other faiths. This was the point Annon 9:22 was attempting to make to justify Bishop Clark praying the ecumenical Stations of the Cross instead of joining his fellow Catholics at the annual pro-life Stations, which he continues to avoid year after year.
When they take people away from the Eucharist, are we to call them our friends?
I’d rejoice at the opportunity.
I don’t support apathy or indifferentism. We are the one, truth Catholic faith. Protestant denominations are in error one way or the other, and we need to work to bring them back to the truth. We do not need to compromise our beliefs, but rather to assist these people in understanding them better. This is true ecumenism. False ecumenism would be what you seem to support. That is, the idea that it doesn’t matter what faith you belong to because we all believe in the same God. It does matter. It’s not right for us to sit by and watch Protestant communities like Lakeshore steal our sheep away from the Church and the Holy Eucharist because we are too afraid to do anything! This is not what the Popes or Council fathers had in mind. We need to continue to be fervent in our defense of the Church. We need to reach out to lost sheep and stop our faithful from turning to false religions.
Touche, Dr. K!!
A baptized person who does not believe all the teachings of the Church is called a heretic. By definition, protestants do not believe all the teachings of the Church. Ergo, all baptized protestants are heretics. Now, many of them are material heretics, but the operative word is still heretic. If our goal is the salvation of souls (and this MUST be our goal), we must work and pray for the conversion of heretics and apostates.
@ Abaccio-
I am not really sure if the Church believes what you have stated. Those who split from the Church initially (Luther, Henry VIII) were heretics. Those who are Protestant now are not, just mis-guided. At least that is my understanding. If I am wrong, please correct me.
You also state that “our goal is the salvation of souls, we must work and pray for the coversion of heretics and apostates”. Could this not be what the Bishop is doing by participating in what is considered a traditional Catholic devotion, with those who may not be Catholic?
And finally, (and I am NOT defending the Bishop, just merely asking a question), why would anyone want to participate in something as meaningful and spiritual as the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday with a bunch of people who have no respect for him?
Jim M. here: Persis, Bishop Clark has been invited to participate in the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday every year! Having refused this request for over twenty years, how could you accuse people of having no respect for him, when he himself chooses not to join us? Should we respect the yearly rejection of the invitation?
Persis, Enlightened/Pompous Anon 7:02
Hence my clarification of “material” heretics.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states,
2089 Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. “Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him.”
The Church’s moral theology has always distinguished between objective or material sin and formal sin. The person who holds something contrary to the Catholic faith is materially a heretic, but is not guilty of formal heresy unless they willingly embrace what they know to be contrary to revealed truth.
Hence, all adult Protestant Christians are in a state of material heresy. These Christians adhere to various Protestant heresies condemned by the Council of Trent or condemned by the Church in other ways, at other times. They obstinately doubt, or obstinately reject, important teachings on faith or morals or salvation that are required beliefs of the Catholic Christian Faith.
They are being led astray by false shepherds.
Persis- First, in regard to the pro-life stations of the cross, you make quite an assumption when you say concerning the bishop, “why would anyone want to participate in something as meaningful and spiritual as the Stations of the Cross with a bunch of people who have no respect for him?” Those who are involved in this include a wide range of Catholics from the DOR who probably have varying opinions of the bishop. Certainly, many may be frustrated by the little that is done in the DOR to advance pro-life, but I wouldn’t call this group a tough crowd.
Secondly, it shouldn’t matter anyways- the bishop should just do what is right. Participating at least once over a two-decade period of time would be the right thing to do, and would show that he appreciates the importance of the issue.
Is Bishop Clark the bishop of St. Mary downtown or is he the bishop of the Diocese of Rochester? I think it would be wonderful to have Bishop Clark come to the pro-life Stations and pray with his flock. Instead of avoiding the pro-life Stations, the Latin Mass community, and Our Lady of Victory, why doesn’t he visit these groups and reach out to those who may have been hurt in the past? What a gesture that would be!
Anon the last,
That comment took about…5 minutes? It’s quite easy to get these things out quickly when you know the teaching of the Church. This is a HUGE problem in the Church today, and points to the futility of these “ecumenical” endeavors in many instances. Unless they are rooted firmly in the truth, they serve absolutely no purpose. If, instead, people called a spade a spade (For instance: if you are a heretic, you are at risk of eternal damnation) we might actually start to see some degree of unity. As long as everyone is afraid of being un-PC, nothing gets done. Heresy has no rights. We are NOT called to let everyone remain in ignorance, but to go forth and preach the truth, the whole truth of the Catholic faith.
When our Lord offered a challenging teaching (unless you eat of the flesh of the son of man…my flesh is meat indeed…) Jn 6: 67-68, “After this many of his disciples went back; and walked no more with him. [68] Then Jesus said to the twelve: Will you also go away?”
He didn’t go running after those who refused to believe the truth, telling them “oh, no, you don’t understand, i meant it as a symbol!” He didn’t go back and say, it’s okay, I’d rather you follow me than believe the truth. He turned to the twelve, and asked if they were going to leave as well. Tell me, was our Lord being…”unfaithful to the Gospel?” Did he lack charity and a unifying outreach?
John the Baptist:
Christ:
If only St. John the Baptist and Christ were more charitable and used less venom, right?
John Paul II promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Therefore, I would say it “stands square with the teachings of our late pope.”
The Bible is quite specific about what issue John the Baptist had with Herod that lead to his demise.
Do that one more time and you will never post here again.
Expecting a little decency in the Mass is hardly the same as laying an oppressive burden on people. Wanting the faith taught accurately does not contradict the teachings of Christ. Nobody here is calling down wrath of God upon our fellow man.
from the D&C (this is the ecumenical one):
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110423/NEWS01/104230329/Faithful-walk-Stations-Cross-city?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|News
“more than 150 people walking side by side in a procession that extended for 100 yards on the sidewalk along Genesee Street.”
I find it odd that Bishop Clark will participate in the Stations of the Cross in the Bulls Head neighborhood, but he will close the Catholic churches in that exact same area. Sure there are the diocesan-run social agencies such as DePaul, but not a Catholic church to be found. The closest Catholic church would be St. Monica’s at the far upper end of Genesee St. and that’s not even close to Bulls Head.
Maybe Bishop Clark figures that these children of God in the Bulls Head area have no need of the Catholic faith.
I was at the Stations of the Cross for Life, with a LOT of other people. It was crowded, but I am not good at estimating crowds, so I can’t put a number on it (plus I was in the middle of things, and didn’t have the full view. We estimated 4 across on the sidewalk, rather than two by two like the ecumenical one the newspaper and our bishop favored, so I can’t estimate how long our “thicker” line of people was [the paper gave their favored walk an estimated length].
Was anyone else there? Does anyone else have an estimate of attendees?
We had a biting wind yesterday, a little pain to offer up on Good Friday, along with, for me, the pain of the nearby walkie talkie blaring, at top volume, the chant – distortedly and not beautifully, effectively completely drowning out the voices of the faithful right around me. [The facilitators had expressed concern there might be “dead zones” in the line, with some people not being able to follow along, so I guess they overcompensated. Also the singing leader sang her part AND ours with a LOUD determination, certainly in effort that everyone got to hear, but this, over the walkie talkie, further distorts and blares].
In spite of these wonderful opportunities to offer things up, there was, yet, a deep reverence in the united quiet and focus of all these people, a sense of holiness, and for me, a feeling that there was no more right place to be on this Good Friday. We processed slowly from McQuaid down Clinton past Tops and past offices, and stopped on the sidewalk in front of the Dr. Wortman’s abortion clinic, where we finished the Stations and said a few prayers before returning. The clinic sits below grade, and Wortman has been growing a thick stand of pines in front, between the sidewalk where we stood and his large, nicely paved lot in from of his clinic, in order to block from the clinic the view of the expected protesters. As I recalled from a previous Walk for Life, Wortman’s latest abortuary is a very lovely building – clearly no expense was spared in making it invitingly beautiful, with the peaceful appearance, outside, of a fine country estate. How looks can deceive. Yes, abortions are a high-profit, low-accountability business…
I loved the presence of all the faithful priests in their robes leading the faithful. What a comfort it gave me to see that there are priests like this here in the DOR. I just wanted to hug them! They are a faithful remnant, it seemed to me. But without a visible shepherd! Where was Bishop Clark, our leader, in his robes, and with his shepherd’s crook? Why wasn’t he with his flock, quietly and reverently leading them, and visibly representing our Church’s brave and stalwart stand for Life? Oh, he was with some other flock… How sad. And sadder, still – how expected.
Anonymous 12:15, you are certainly very well-versed in the confused DOR theology! You must be a student of St. Bernard’s! Your writing has that distinct Pharisaic stamp. For example:
“People such as yourselves– Pharisees…” In typical narcissist style, you call us what you are. The DOR usses it’s pulpit to name-call anyone not on thier agenda, and “pharisee” is a typical name they call. But this doesn’t stand up to logic.
Your “you people”, along with “your own kind” of your comment and are the signature divisive/blaming language of the DOR, used routinely by our bishop and his ilk, effectively and systematically, to divide and cripple and thin out our diocese.
But the DOR theology makes no sense. When someone cites canon law to one of you, you are compare Canon Law to the manmade laws of the Pharisees. But the laws of our Holy Chruch are inspired and protected by the Holy Spirit, and there is no comparison to the manmade Pharisees’ bean-counting and self-serving laws which Jesus condemned.
You are wrong that Jesus was unconcerned with Herod’s immoral marriage and lustful lifestyle. But that is DOR theology you spout! What does God care about mortal sins of the flesh! It is nothing, so you say! But Jesus was so offended he wouldn’t even speak in the presence of Herod. Any Sainted Catholic theologian will tell you that sins of the flesh matter a great deal.
Yes, it is Clark and his elite DOR leadership that are the Pharisees. They do things their own way and they are immune and unaccountable to anyone, particularly the people they are called to serve, because they see themselves as the special elite. The little people don’t understand their “higher” ways, and are just not important. They can be ignored – or publicly derided. Whatever it takes! Because the ends justifies the means! Its the DOR way.
It is the DOR leadershipe that is characteristically arrogant and entitled – just like the Pharisees. All of us “common folk” can see that. The Pharisees did not fool the common people of their day, and you aren’t fooling us.