Thanks be to God for holy archbishops like Archbishop Burke in St. Louis!
Sadly, Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital invited Sheryl Crow to perform a concert for the benefit of the hospital. Ms. Crow believes that cloning human beings and then destroying them is good to do and actively lobbied in the recent Missouri elections that saw the passage of legislation enabling scientists to clone and kill human beings.
So while it is a good goal for the hospital to raise money, having Ms. Crow as the performer is not good at all.
Archbishop Burke, as he explains in this video, asked Cardinal Glennon to withdraw their invitation to Ms. Crow, and they refused.
So Archbishop Burke resigned from the hospital’s board in protest. How awesome to see a courageous man in Christ stand up against the evil of cloning, abortion, and embryonic stem-cell research, and to do so in a valiant, gentle way.
This man is the successor of the Apostles: Peter, John, James, and the other first followers of our Lord, and he has shown in today. May God strengthen him and his brother bishops!
Thursday, 26. April 2007
Way to go Archbishop Burke!
It’s unfortunate we can’t share the same joy in Austin. Catholic Charities of Central Texas had Kristin Armstrong as their Honoray Chair for their recent luncheon fundraiser. Ms. Armstrong is a strong advocate for in-vitro fertilization. And the keynote speaker for the same event was our own bishop. Sad.
Sunday, 29. April 2007
My good friend Adam, I understand where you are coming from. Archbishops Burke and Chaput are beacons of light from Christ in their archdioceses and in our nation, and I hope that all bishops will grow in their courage, faith, and love to boldly proclaim Christ and the truth of our faith.
That being said, I know you would also agree that we are blessed with our bishop, who, though he less often makes such public statements, still proclaims the truth in many ways. I am thinking of his establishment and commissioning of Father David and now Father Mike as a full-time vocations director for our diocese, which in part has led to the greatest number of seminarians our diocese has had in 50 years, of his support of vocations retreats and constant invitations to parishes to pray for vocations, of his promotion of the Sacraments in the diocesan newspaper, of his support of life at the rally for life at the capitol and at the Texas Alliance for Life banquets.
I think we must trust that he considered the matter of this banquet for Catholic Charities with prudence and wisdom and decided on the best course of action. Has he made a mistake? Perhaps, and if so, we need to pray for him all the more, for courage and discernment to know how best to handle such difficult situations.
Yours in Christ!
Monday, 30. April 2007
Devman ol’ chum,
I certainly agree with you that Bishop Aymond has been a blessing to our diocese. Sharon and I always praise the wonderful things he does.
Of course the good bishop is still human and mistakes are expected. Being the position he holds that it is, those mistakes are visible to the public eye and can be perceived in many ways.
This situation is no different than the one regarding Archbishop Burke. I fail to see how one is justifiable while the other is not. Ms. Armstrong has greatly influenced many families in her own parish with her support of IVF and now we can begin to expect similar effects in the diocese. This scandal must stop and I would hope the bishop would correct it.
God bless our shepherd, protect his flock!