It has taken several days to get past the anger regarding Catholic Family Center’s recent “services” debacle, ensnaring the most vulnerable, and ignoring truth and reality on multiple subjects.
So what do 500+ employees of Catholic Family Center actually do? In CFC’s articulation of its own mission, its website states:
“Our Mission: Catholic Family Center partners 
with people – especially the vulnerable and those facing poverty – to help them achieve their full human potential. A division of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rochester, CFC offers compassionate and comprehensive services to families and individuals in need across all stages of life.”
So, let’s consider first what makes for “full human potential.” It can be nothing less than achievement of eternal life and the joy of the Beatific Vision. It is not about comfort, money, health, knowledge, environment or myriad other desires; it is simply about ‘whatever it takes’ to receive the gift of eternal life. It is really quite a simple and beautiful goal. But that is why it is so confusing, so illogical, and so dangerous that alleged parts of the church, although inconsistent with Church Teaching, seem to reject the good, and embrace what is evil or, at the least, what is meaningless and lacks spiritual value. In that tone, we note the preoccupation of Catholic Family Center, among others, about idolatry of “mother earth” or, as it was called during the Amazonia Synod: “pachamama.” CFC’s preoccupation with such idolatry is indeed a “non-essential” service. Send those employees home, or at least recognize that donations to CFC can only proportionally be deductible, eliminating what is political, for example. Worse than any impropriety under claiming 401(c)3 exempt status not deserved is the effect on souls, their relying on CFC’s credibility as “Catholic” in unrelated matters.
In CFC’s April and May issues, in the “Salt and Light” attachments, there is celebratory language about the 50th anniversary of Earth Day (if things are so bad, what is there to celebrate after 50 years of trying?) and the 5th anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si,” which was the subject of the book “Half a Dialogue” which I wrote in reply to Pope Francis’ invitation to comment on his encyclical. The rough draft is still partly on CF.
First, let’s be specific about how the Catholic Family Center has gone astray, potentially risking souls as well.
Paradise on Earth? Nope. Christ never promised us such a thing.
It’s hard enough keeping our souls weeded through frequent confession!
Worse, redirecting our time, energy and resources to creating paradise on earth is a waste of effort. For we know from all three synoptic gospels, that :
That truth certainly does not endorse treating the earth without responsibility, but one can’t build a religion around environmentalism. Why is it even implied? It is because there is a myth, a distortion, an error that claims if we all could just be one religion, worshiping the environment, all would be beautiful and perfect. It is directly a rejection of Christ Himself, and all that He taught. Notice: He did not add an extra Corporal Work of Mercy re the environment to Matthew 25!
The Catholic Family Center plays to the myth of Climate Change. It is one of the biggest hoaxes foisted on the world. It is actually a socialist strategy for redistribution of wealth. One example from a conference in Brazil chaired by Bp. Bergoglio is to tax other countries for the oxygen they consume, produced by the Amazon. Even if one didn’t believe the foregoing viewpoint, it is nevertheless completely inappropriate to use a tax exempt organization’s written communications to take sides and lend any credibility to such a contentious viewpoint.
If one is unsure of the claim of climate change, just consider if there is anything at all in the Gospels, or even in the entire New Testament, which claims that Jesus repaired an environmental blight. Did He ever condemn someone’s actions against the environment? Revelation does warn of environmental effects which will come in the endtimes, but from the Hand of God, not from climate change. Does Christ ever mention watching for such a sign of the endtimes? One unrealistic claim in what CFC states is the idea that humans can change climate. No we can’t. In all the stewardship conferred by God to Mankind, climate and weather are not mentioned. So, if we can’t fix it, how can we cause it?
One strange connection being drawn without logic seems to be linking the pandemic to some kind of failure in environmental stewardship. It is almost as if the writers are delighted to find something else to bolster their claim to a crusade for managing the weather! Such a link is claimed without any proof, even by Pope Francis who describes it as ‘mother’ earth having an emotional tantrum due to human alleged neglect.
But God is the author of most plagues and pestilences, so why not say so? Aah! because that would acknowledge God, in Whose Hands all things rest. And which no human effort will wrest from His Hands. It is quite odd to find in the CFC’s writings arguments regarding restarting the economy slowly so as not to disturb factors over which we have no control or knowledge anyway; i.e. as if they really knew what “jump start the auto industry” actually means. These ignorant masses just slavishly bow to the few who know but won’t disclose the true meaning. The definitions seem to take on a life of their own.
The Catholic Family Center, by embracing the language of idolatry, makes itself party to that cause. A “Pachamama Alliance”? That despicable hunk of wood which besmirched the Vatican Gardens, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Carmelite Church? and even the Pope Himself? The evil one must be rejoicing.
A Catholic Climate “Covenant” — another holy word of agreement with God becomes agreement among the people He created, now despoiled by joining those who oppose God. It is reminiscent of the determination of the people who built the Tower of Babel! Both of these are about choosing up sides, and we are indeed invited to choose. God is “pro-choice” in the sense that He makes us choose. What will it be? Goat or Sheep? Weeds or wheat? We can never say we were forced to accept Pachamama.
Finally, although relatively incomplete, I will add CFC’s being a shill for the Democratic Party, or the ‘left’ if one prefers, as the party itself seems to be falling apart. CFC has apparently run a list of “10 things to do in the next 10 years to save the earth.” Let’s just look at the last one which says more than it is meant to say.
Note the glaring gall to presume we can save the earth. Christ saved souls. God created the world. Do we dare assume with such magnificence and munificence that He is incapable of saving His own creation? That He didn’t give us the means to endure until He returns? And, if we don’t have the means, then He must be coming. Soon. “Come, Lord Jesus.” Let’s not hold it up! But certain parts of the Church and of humanity are so incensed at the idea of bowing to what God has done, and to Whom God is, that they dare to think they are needed to sustain His work. What arrogance. Ten years? That even assumes we have 10 years remaining. We may be surprised. And is cleaning up plastic how you’d like to spend your last 10 years on earth?
So, then there is the usual left-hood rallying call to lobby for the absurd “Green New Deal” which would surely bankrupt America, and that is more the purpose than anything green (unless its green American dollars in the pocket!) And what is that tiny print, unreadable to many, which purports not to be urging voting for any particular party or candidate. Hogwash. It is very clearly begging for votes for the left. “New Deal” is coined from the historic program under FDR. No minuscule lettering can change that intent. Elsewhere in its materials CFC notes the role it plays in managing CRS and CCHD funds, which inadequacies and conflicts of interest are mentioned elsewhere on Cleansing Fire.
Where the Catholic Family Center fails overwhelmingly on behalf of families is in not standing up and praising the most pro-life president we have ever had, who keeps his promises, and has steered more funds toward the kind of work CFC should be doing, including in encouraging their clients and would-be-clients to hold all representatives accountable who murder in the womb, and at birth, the tiniest and most vulnerable human beings — just like Andrew Cuomo sponsored and celebrated. He, and the CFC, shouldn’t have the right to call themselves “Catholic.”
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