I Can’t Do It
I CAN’T DO IT
I can’t be the priest I am being asked to be.
I can’t just be a functionary while the wolves are devouring my family.
In so many words, I’m told, “Stop with all of your warnings about the wolves, and just do your scheduled Masses and plug in your parish programs. It’s not your place to stand against the forces of evil. Leave that to others. If you stand against those who are devouring/influencing your people, it will be seen as ‘political,’ and priests can’t have the optics of being political.”
HOGWASH! History is replete with clerics who stood against the powers-that-be in their times, beginning with the original persecutor Nero, who many scholars believe was the “beast in question” with the number 666 in the Book of Revelation.
In fact, clerics play a major role in the normalization of evil when their silence “green lights” this normalization. The laity very naturally believe, “If the clerics don’t care, why should we?” Murdering unborn babies has been with us now for 48 years because almost all clerics chose to remain silent, outside of a few “check the box” statements on abortion.
Don’t tell me I am wrong. During the first half of my priesthood it was common knowledge among clerics to never even speak the word “abortion,” for fear of offending abortion advocates and being pegged as “political.” There are far too many clerics, even today, who still remain silent. They fear the tag, “Divisive,” and “not being liked.”
And, “yes,” I have vivid memories of my congregation being thinned out from the day I decided, “Nuts, I am talking about the evil of abortion openly.” Literally, I watched as folks made their “showy exits” in the middle of my homily. But, an amazing phenomenon occurred. Those emptied pews were “filled back in” by nearly twice as many who were longing to be with a “strong Catholic family.”
You see? I believe I am called, not to be a business manager of an organization, but to be a “Father.” A Father who wholeheartedly accepts his call to be protector and provider.
Nobody is advocating any diminishment of Sacraments, etc. to give way to this battle against the present-day forces of evil. Listen, I offer Mass on my day-off and on the rarely offered Saturday morning. We offer an enriched Ordinary Form and the Extraordinary Form. I have a 24/7 Confessional. We are excessive in the offering of Eucharistic Adoration. We teach about and provide an excessive amount of sacramentals. We practice just about every devotion known to Catholicism. I have a teaching website (romancatholicman.com/wp) and a spiritual warriors training website (usgraceforce.com), and I have written 7 books that trains us in living the Divine Life in Christ. Most especially, we are making every effort to “unite” ourselves with Christ and “unite” ourselves as a family of God. Very simply, as a “Father,” I am doing all I can to “provide” for my Catholic family.
It’s the “protector” part of my “fatherhood” that is met with resistance. Listen, my original intent in writing this article was to itemize all of the ways the “powers that be” are assaulting my family. Instead, I will just say this …
It is those who seek to silence me, as they accuse me of being political, who are the real “political animals.” Why? They are seeking to ingratiate themselves with some of the most corrupt and worst persecutors of Christians in all of salvation history. The radical secular progressives of our time have grown to become, not only God haters, but see God’s followers as more dangerous than Al–Qaeda.
These historically corrupt (follow the money) political leaders are quickly turning our country into a Godless wasteland, while these “political animals,” who accuse me of being political, joined in driving out the greatest “friend of Christians” in American history … just when we needed him most; our Constantine.
No, I will not be the business manager you want me to be. I will not shirk my responsibility as “protector”; of being a “true” Father who “actually” cares for his family, as I do everything within my power to appreciate the friends of Christians, while I warn my Catholic family of the wolves, so they may be at peace in verdant pastures and beside restful waters.
I LOVE YOU, DEAR FAMILY!!
