Welcome to the Weekend Roundup! – News & Views – 3/28/20

Welcome to the weekend, my house-bound friends!

• Parish’s drive-in offers Catholics safe way to adore Blessed Sacrament

Last weekend, I mentioned some Catholic parishes were instituting drive-by confession in reaction to the COVID-19 virus. This week, I see some parishes are lining up cars in the parking lot so people can worship the Jesus wafer as it sits outside displayed in a “monstrance” (photo above). The worship of the faux Jesus wafer is the result of the RCC’s literalist interpretation of John 6 and the Last Supper accounts in the four gospels.

• Pope announces extraordinary ‘urbi et orbi’ blessing on March 27

Pope Francis brought out the heavy artillery yesterday against COVID-19 by issuing a “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world) extraordinary papal blessing. Everyone who witnessed the blessing live via television, internet, or radio was allegedly granted a “plenary (full) indulgence” which is purported to remove all temporal punishment remaining after confession and/or punishment for venial sins that would otherwise have to be expiated in purgatory. Did you understand all that? Don’t worry, 95% of Catholics could not explain a “plenary indulgence” or what “temporal punishment” was either.

• Catholic church modifies legalistic practices amidst Covid-19 pandemic 

The Catholic religion is inextricably bound to its sacramental ceremonies administered by its priests inside of their consecrated church buildings. But what are practicing Catholics to do when their churches have been closed during this pandemic and the sacraments are not available? The RCC is trotting out such emergency alternatives as “spiritual communion” and “general absolution.” But some inquisitive Catholics must be wondering, if these alternatives are OK in emergencies, why not at other times? The vast majority of Catholics could not care less either way because they don’t attend obligatory Sunday mass or yearly confession even in the best of circumstances.

• Pope Francis: If You Can’t Get to Confession, You Can Confess Directly to God

What? Pope Francis is advising housebound Catholics to confess their sins directly to God? Is Francis turning Protestant? No, this is a concession to these extraordinary times when sacraments aren’t available, but Catholics are still taught they must merit their salvation.

• Vatican decrees plenary indulgence for all Catholics dealing with coronavirus

Speaking of plenary indulgences, the RCC is opening the floodgates and issuing indulgences to everyone who contracts the COVID-19 virus, all caregivers of COVID-19 patients, and even everyone who prays for the COVID-19 sick. What about the poor Catholic who has some other serious illness and misses out on this “plenary indulgence” granted strictly to those affected by COVID-19? Are they chopped liver? [Please, no emails. I’m being facetious.]

• Some bishops allowing Catholics to eat meat on Lenten Fridays because of pandemic chaos

It’s difficult to get out and even buy groceries these days, so some Catholic bishops are “magnanimously” lifting the ban on meats on Lenten Fridays. Some bishops are saying Catholics have already sacrificed enough during this pandemic crisis and don’t need the hassle of Lenten Friday meat abstention.

The various reactions to the virus pandemic by the Catholic hierarchy and clergy are shining a spotlight on the inanity and arbitrariness of the Roman church’s legalistic rules and rituals. The modification of legalistic precepts during this crisis should cause Catholics to question their validity. However, there is a Gospel that NEVER changes despite the circumstances and that is the Good News! of salvation by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.

• Canadian Bill Would Jail Christian Parents Who Attempt to Discourage Their Child’s Same-Sex Attraction

Canada is several years ahead of the U.S. as far as “progressive” legislation, but I can see this happening here in the U.S. very soon.

• John MacArthur: The Gospel, the Church, and the COVID-19 Pandemic and an Unavoidable Irony

In this excellent, 17-minute video presented by Ligonier Ministries, John MacArthur addresses what the Christian’s attitude should be in the midst of this COVID-19 pandemic. He also mentions a startling irony: the country is rightly concerned with properly treating all of the victims of the virus, approximately 1700 Americans have died from the virus to date, and protecting all of the healthcare workers, yet there is comparatively little regard for the 2400 daily victims of the ongoing abortion genocide in the U.S. One of the blessings of this pandemic is that some pregnant women will reconsider going to a facility and having an abortion. Several states are pressing to have abortion classified as “nonessential surgery” during this pandemic crisis.

Welcome to the Weekend Roundup! – News & Views – 3/21/20

This past week, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to shake the nation and the world. The full ramifications of this crisis are still nowhere in sight. But believers are trusting in Almighty God, Who is sovereign over ALL circumstances.

• U.S. Catholic dioceses suspending public masses until further notice due to COVID-19 epidemic

Catholic dioceses across the country are cancelling masses for the public until further notice. The mass, with its alleged eucharistic sacrifice, is the primary component of the Catholic salvation system, and is claimed to provide both grace for resisting all sin and forgiveness of venial sins. Many Catholics are relieved to be dispensed from obligatory mass attendance, while others will sorely miss the ritual. Practicing Catholics without their church building and the mass are like fish without water. Our evangelical church is streaming services online each Sunday. We’ll miss fellowship with our brothers and sisters, but our trust is in Jesus Christ through faith alone, not in priests and their faux sacrifices and sacraments.

• Priests beginning to offer drive-through confessional amid coronavirus outbreak

Relatively few Catholics participate in the mandatory sacrament of reconciliation (i.e., confession), but for those who do, a few priests are making concessions to the coronavirus by holding “drive-by” confessions in church parking lots (see photo above). Auricular confession was/is a great evil, the tool of predatory priests. Breaking news reports indicate the Vatican is considering “general absolution” in localities hit hard by the virus rather than requiring individuals to go to confession. It’s not clear from the articles how bishops are going to administer these “general absolutions” because of the prohibitions against large gatherings.

• Virus-hit Philippines calls off ritual crucifixions

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, don’t look for Good Friday ritual crucifixions in the Philippines this year. The crucifixions as well as the ritual flagellations are blatant holdovers of Catholic asceticism/self-mortification. Mortification involving self-harm was quite common in Medieval Catholic Europe and still has adherents among some conservative and traditionalist Catholics in North America.

• Pope entrusts world threatened by coronavirus pandemic to Mary
• Lourdes closes for first time in history

Catholics claim to only “venerate” Mary, but their actions confirm that they certainly do worship Mary as a deity. Millions of Catholics are praying to Mary for relief from the coronavirus pandemic.

• Catholics told, “Don’t believe the hype: St. Corona is not the patron saint of pandemics”

Some Catholics are “mistakenly” praying to St. Corona for relief from the coronavirus, but they need to get their patron saints straight. St. Corona is alleged to be the patron saint of treasure hunters while St. Edmund is the patron saint of epidemic and pandemic victims. Nowhere in the entire Bible is there an example of a believer praying to anyone but God. On the contrary, attempted communication with the dead is strictly forbidden.

• Evangelical pastor mocks ‘pansies,’ won’t close church for coronavirus

Seriously?

• An oral history of Catholics eating beaver and muskrat during Lent

Last Sunday, I mentioned that papal dispensations were granted to various regions allowing for particular meats on Lenten Fridays, including beaver in Quebec and muskrat in Michigan. Muskrat? Yup. See the enlightening, 2-minute video here.

• Gal Gadot’s celeb-packed ‘Imagine’ cover spawns outrage

Israeli actress and international “celebrity,” Gal Godot, attempted to cheer up a world dealing with the COVID-19 virus with a video featuring John Lennon’s atheistic paean, “Imagine.” Among the lyrics of the song are “Imagine there’s no heaven, It’s easy if you try, No hell below us, Above us only sky” and “Imagine…no religion too.” Lennon couldn’t get along with his first wife or his fellow Beatles and deliberately estranged himself from his first son, Julian. Lennon was murdered in 1980. So much for the “brotherhood of man.”

Welcome to the Weekend Roundup! – News & Views – 3/14/20

Welcome to the weekend, friends. What a week.

• Vatican Closes St. Peter’s Basilica To Tourists Over Coronavirus Fears
• As coronavirus spreads, changes come for Catholics at Mass

This past week, Catholic and secular news sources have been DOMINATED by stories of the coronavirus pandemic. The Vatican announced it is shutting down its tourist attractions until April 3rd. Catholic churches around the world are temporarily suspending such virus spreading practices and objects as the shared communion cup, communion on the tongue, holy water fonts, the use of hymnals, the sign (handshake) of peace, holding hands during the rote recitation of the “Our Father” prayer, and kissing “holy” objects. The above precautions emphasize how Catholic “worship” is greatly focused on the physical/temporal. Catholics are normally obligated to attend Sunday mass under threat of mortal sin, but on Tuesday, cardinal Timothy Dolan, head of the archdiocese of New York, urged Catholics under his jurisdiction who are concerned about the coronavirus outbreak, especially older Catholics, to skip mass. “If you’re not up to it or if you’re a little worried about your health, don’t go,” said Dolan. The Rochester bishop has issued a similar “dispensation” and I imagine all other U.S. Catholic bishops are doing the same.

• Whistle-blower Buffalo priest seeks lifting of suspension imposed by disgraced bishop

The Buffalo Catholic diocesan soap opera continues. The hierarchy claims to be all about rooting out abuse, but it’s still a good, ol’ men-abusing-boys club.

• ‘Be truly Christians and good citizens’ Pope tells Chinese Catholics
• Pope prays Chinese Catholics will be ‘good citizens’—by Beijing’s standards?
• Vatican-China deal conceived under JPII, expert claims

Francis is advising Chinese Catholics to suck it up and dutifully toe the Chinese communist party line. As an interested observer, the 2018 Vatican-Beijing accord was a startling accommodation and a betrayal of underground Chinese Catholics.

• John MacArthur: ‘Identity Groups’ Have Led to Division, Loss of Joy in Churches

There is an increasingly popular attitude throughout society to identify as a victim entitled to recognition and/or restitution. I’m all for temporal justice, but the greater reality is we are all sinners deserving eternal punishment.

• Women Catholic deacons possible after ‘Synodal Way,’ says German bishops’ chairman

The progressive German Catholic bishops are making the ordination of female deacons THE priority in their trailblazing “synodal way” deliberations.

• Baltimore priests working to reverse decline in confession in novel ways

This article claims 43 percent of American Catholics participate in mandatory confession at least once per year, but Catholic sources put the actual number at only 26 percent (see here). Any organization that prescribes mandatory ordinances that are flouted by 74 percent of membership is a sham.

• FDA, FTC Order Jim Bakker to Stop Selling Fake Coronavirus Cure

No need for the Babylon Bee with Jim Bakker still on the loose.

UPDATE: Pope slaps woman’s hand in St. Peter’s Square

This past New Year’s Eve, an incident at St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican made international headline when a very distraught, Asian woman reached out and grabbed pope Francis’ hand, pulling him towards her. Francis freed himself from the woman’s grip by violently slapping at her with his free hand. Throughout this very-brief, five-second encounter, the woman loudly harangued the pope in an undetermined language. See the video far below.

A January 2nd article posted on the website of the American Jesuits’ magazine, America, speculated that the Asian woman had possibly “come from China to complain directly to the pope about recent Vatican efforts at rapprochement with Beijing” (see here). Surely, someone would eventually translate her words. I continued to check the web, but found nothing…UNTIL I recently stumbled across a blog posting dated January 9th. The Roman Catholic blogger, Eric Mader, lives in Taiwan and states that he is thoroughly familiar with Mandarin and has some knowledge of Cantonese. After studying the audio extensively, he determined the woman is not speaking either of those two languages. Acquaintances also confirmed that she is not speaking either Japanese or Korean. Mader’s conclusion? The woman is Chinese, but is speaking very broken English. He determined that she is saying:

“Why destroy their faith? Why destroy the Chinese? Look for the Chinese feelings. Talk to me!”

The woman’s frustrated plea makes sense to those who are familiar with the 2018 Vatican-Beijing accord, by which Francis threw underground Chinese Catholics under the bus and pragmatically recognized the quisling, communist government-backed, Catholic Patriotic Association (CPA) as the binding Catholic authority in the country.

I’m indebted to the blog article below for the revealing information. Why weren’t media linguistics experts working on this?

“Why destroy their faith?”: What the Asian woman said to Pope Francis before he slapped her
http://claytestament.blogspot.com/2020/01/why-destroy-their-faith-what-asian.html

Why should evangelicals care about an internal Catholic squabble such as this? Because the Vatican-Beijing accord, like many other events in his papacy, exemplifies how Francis is willing to bend the rules and make accommodations and concessions in order to raise his (and Catholicism’s) worldwide profile and appeal. The pope’s pragmatic strategy is already having a huge impact on ecumenical, inter-religious, and international diplomatic efforts and that will continue. Evangelicals, there’s a very good chance that your pastor is already “Francis-friendly.”

 

Welcome to the Weekend Roundup! – News & Views – 3/7/20

Welcome to the weekend, my friends!

• Coronavirus closes Lourdes’ healing waters
• Some Catholic churches remove holy water at church doors to prevent coronavirus spread
• Catholic archdiocese calls for protection against coronavirus at Mass

Catholics put great stock in “blessed” water, but the spread of the coronavirus is causing them to think twice about dipping their fingers and toes into germ pools. The coronavirus is now an international crisis, an example of how conditions in the world can turn dire very quickly.

• Catholic Diocese of Buffalo files for bankruptcy, acknowledges over 500 claims of clergy abuse
• Abuse survivors sue Catholic parishes directly to get around Buffalo diocese bankruptcy

It took a long time, but the train finally arrived. On Friday, February 28th, the Roman Catholic diocese of Buffalo, New York became the 21st Catholic diocese in the United States to declare bankruptcy. The action was taken to shield diocesan finances from survivors of priest abuse and cover-up. In an attempt to circumvent the bankruptcy roadblock, Buffalo survivors of priest abuse are suing individual Catholic parishes directly.

• From Tiny Beginnings, Catholic Charismatics Celebrate 53 Years of Holy Spirit-Led Renewal

In February 1967, during a weekend gathering at The Ark & The Dove retreat center near Pittsburgh, a group of Duquesne Catholic University students and teachers manifested the Pentecostal practice of glossolalia aka “speaking in tongues.” The Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement (CCR) is now 160-million strong, including tens of thousands of priests, and serves as a bridge between Roman Catholicism and “evangelicalism.” Catholic Charismatics still follow Rome’s false gospel of sacramental grace and merit, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem for many unwitting, experientially-focused “evangelicals.”

• Retired archbishop in Poland says he won’t keep quiet about pope as ‘heretic’

Conservative and traditionalist Catholic clerics are appalled by pope Francis and his doctrine-bending reforms, but they must walk a fine line because he’s still the boss who ultimately signs the checks. But retired Polish archbishop, Jan Lenga, continues to publicly call Francis a heretic and refuses to be silenced.

• Cardinal Zen says Pope Francis being ‘manipulated’ by Chinese Communists

Pope Francis’s betrayal of the Chinese Catholics to the Beijing communist government is reminiscent of the Western Allies betrayal of Eastern Europe to Stalin at Yalta. One of the few prelates with the nerve to say anything is retired cardinal, Joseph Zen, of Hong Kong.

• New Jersey Catholic church lambasted for denying autistic boy, 8, First Communion ‘because his disability means he can’t determine right from wrong’, parents say

A Catholic parish denied an eight-year-old with autism his first communion, saying he wasn’t cognitively at the “benchmark required to make his communion.” I participated in my first confession and first communion at age seven and neither myself or my parochial school classmates really knew what was going on. Eating the faux Jesus wafer doesn’t give anyone eternal life as Catholicism claims.

• Evangelical churches booming, mainstream churches dwindling

As Catholic churches and mainline Protestant denomination churches in America continue to leak members like a sieve, non-denominational churches thrive. The problem is many of the non-denominational churches preach the TBN false prosperity gospel.

Welcome to the Weekend Roundup! – News & Views – 2/29/20

Welcome to the Weekend Roundup, my friends!

• Mardi Gras brings $1B to New Orleans economy

In predominately Catholic regions, such as New Orleans (photo above), which was founded by French-Catholic refugees from Acadia/Nova Scotia, people whoop it up on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. The day is known as “Fat Tuesday” or “Mardi Gras” in French. The idea is to overindulge prior to the rigors of Lenten abstentions. That’s just sheer religious hypocrisy, folks.

• Why Catholics wear ashes for Ash Wednesday and give up their favorite things for Lent
• Pope Francis asks followers to give up trolling for Lent

This past Wednesday, many Catholics got ashes on their forehead and proudly wore them throughout the day. God’s Word explicitly forbids such a thing. See Matthew 6:16-18. Pope Francis is tired of conservative Catholics trashing him on the internet and recommends that Catholics give up their iPhones and trolling for Lent.

• Chick-fil-A, Arby’s, Wendy’s, McDonald’s and more serve up fish sandwiches, specials for Lent
• Catholics question whether meatless ‘meat’ violates the spirit of Lent

American Catholics flout their church’s other mandatory rules, but for some strange reason they seriously take to heart the restriction forbidding meat on Fridays during Lent. All the fast-food outlets are ready to oblige. There’s a debate now going on within Catholicism whether eating vegetable burgers on Lenten Fridays, such as Burger King’s “Impossible Whooper,” violates the “spirit of Lent.” Oy vey. The exacting legalistic scrupulosity is painful to witness.

• Episcopal Church will cease to have Sunday worship attendance in 30 years, seminary pres. warns

I imagine there’s some genuine, born-again believers attending churches in the old, mainline “Protestant” denominations, but it has to be so troubling and discouraging to sit under a Bible-denying “pastor.” Why stay? Find a church in your area that believes the Bible and preaches the Gospel.

• Poll: Majority of Catholics don’t follow church’s teachings

Most Catholics still identify with their religion in some sense, but they rarely attend obligatory Sunday mass and never go to confession.

• Survivors stunned after Buffalo Catholic bishop celebrates mass with abusive priests

Despite their manifold pledges of sympathy and support for the survivors of priest abuse, the Catholic bishops just cannot “get it right.”

• Most Evangelical Christians Live Outside North America and Europe, New Study Finds

Pastors in America historically included a degree of national chauvinism in their sermons, however, the Gospel knows no borders. Sadly, many of those now identified as “evangelical Christians” throughout the world are actually prosperity gospelers.

• Tickets on sale now to see Kanye West, Joel Osteen at Yankee Stadium

Kanye West and Joel Osteen are teaming up for an appearance at Yankee Stadium on May 2nd. Osteen wears the mantle of Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Schuller who propagated the positivity and self-actualization false gospel before him.

Welcome to the Weekend Roundup! – News & Views – 2/22/20

• Protestants to take Catholic communion at Calvin’s Cathedral in Geneva on leap year day

The above article is a sad testimony to how far much of “Protestantism” has drifted from the Gospel of grace. Next Saturday, February 29th, Saint-Pierre Reformed church in Geneva, Switzerland will host a Roman Catholic mass. Protestants are invited to attend and even receive Catholic communion, which is still “somewhat” forbidden by Rome, although pope Francis has introduced ample discretionary “wiggle room.” Reformer, John Calvin (1509-1564), was pastor of Saint-Pierre. What would Calvin say about a Roman Catholic mass being celebrated at this church? He had rightly declared that the Catholic mass “is filled with all kinds of abomination.” See here.

• Dubia cardinal criticizes German ‘synodal path’ as protestantizing Catholic Church

We’ll continue to keep tabs on the “synodal path” that’s currently underway in Germany. Expect this reform process that’s steered by German Catholic progressives to “push the envelope” beyond what even pope Francis is (publicly) comfortable with.

• Disappointment, outrage over papal document on the Amazon

Last weekend, I reported pope Francis’s surprising decision NOT to allow the ordination of married men to the Catholic priesthood in the Amazon region. This past week, Catholic progressives reacted to the news with anger and frustration. They had anticipated with great enthusiasm the pope’s approval of married priests in the Amazon region as the tipping point for the eventual ordination of married men generally as well as the ordination of women to the diaconate and then to the priesthood.

• Cardinal Zen: Vatican Is ‘Giving Everything’ to China’s Communists

Few Western Catholics are aware of pope Francis’s betrayal of Chinese Catholics to the Chinese communist government with the signing of the 2018 Vatican-Beijing accord. Remember the distraught Asian woman who had her hand slapped by Francis on December 31st? I just discovered a very relevant article that I’ll be posting about very soon.

• It’s not a crime to support Catholic Church, but donations will help pay for the crimes of pedophiles and their enablers
• Another Catholic diocese seeks bankruptcy after abuse deals

What goes through the minds of Catholic pew sitters when they drop money in the Sunday mass offering bucket? Are they totally oblivious to the fact that they are enabling pedophiles and their enablers? The Catholic diocese of Harrisburg, PA just announced that it is filing for bankruptcy to shield its financial assets from abuse victims, making it the 20th diocese in the U.S. to do so. I’m seeing multiple reports that bankruptcy is also imminent for the nearby diocese of Buffalo.

• Conservative Baptist Network launched amid ‘woke’ trend in SBC, emphasizing Scripture, evangelism

My wife and I attended a small, Southern Baptist church here in Rochester for one year (2014-2015), but we had to leave because the new pastor was leading the church into ecumenical compromise. There are still many solid SBC pastors and churches, but the convention as a whole is drifting into ecumenical compromise and other doctrinal errors.

• Televangelist-shyster, Jim Bakker, hawks “silver solution” to cure coronavirus

I almost had to pull the car over when I heard this news on the radio about Jim Bakker hawking a cure for the coronavirus. Convicted shyster, Bakker, has no shame.

• Pete Buttigieg hits back after homophobic comments about mayor kissing husband

I generally try to avoid commenting on national politics, but will make another exception in this case. Democratic presidential candidate, Pete Buttigieg, regularly makes it a point to kiss his “husband” at public campaign events. Buttigieg may or may not be the next American president, but we can foresee a time when the first lady or the first gentleman of this country will be the same sex as the president. In general, we have witnessed the bar of “acceptable convention and decorum” sink lower and lower among national politicians of both parties. That’s disturbing, but this is a fallen world. We are ambassadors and sojourners here, not deeply-rooted citizens.

Welcome to the Weekend Roundup! – News & Views – 2/15/20

• Pope avoids question of married priests in Amazon document
• Can the Roman Catholic church survive two Popes? – one Catholic and one Roman

Wow, I’m truly surprised that pope Francis did not rule in favor of ordaining married men as priests in the Amazon region, which would have been the first step in dismantling mandatory clerical celibacy throughout the entire Roman church. However, Francis must cautiously walk a tightrope in promoting his progressive agenda while also not unnecessarily infuriating Catholic conservatives and traditionalists who already rue the day he was elected as “pontiff.” Did pope-emeritus Benedict XVI’s recent reaffirmation of mandatory clerical celibacy cause Francis to blink?

• Pending Vatican report on ex-cardinal McCarrick: Questions needing answers

The removal of cardinal Ted McCarrick in June 2018 for the sexual abuse of boys and young men was the beginning of the scandal tsunami that has racked the Roman church ever since. Higher-ups were certainly aware of Uncle Ted’s predilections and “lifestyle,” but don’t expect them to admit to any culpability in the upcoming report.

• Portuguese cardinal allows divorced and ‘remarried’ Catholics to receive Communion

Pope Francis guilefully overturned the ban on communion for remarried divorcees in the footnotes of his 2016 “Amoris Laetitia” encyclical. Why then are conservative Catholics surprised that progressive cardinals, bishops, and priests are now following through with Francis’s “reform”?

• Minister says ecumenical prayer service offers glimpse toward ‘wholeness’

These ecumenical services that join together Roman Catholics and Protestants (including misguided evangelicals) are happening all over the U.S. and the world.

• Pope Francis, Wayward Shepherd

This article is a good summary of why conservative and traditionalist Catholics view pope Francis as heterodox and even heretical.

• 23 Chicago-area Roman Catholic parishes to close, merge in latest round of restructuring

The current scandal tsunami rocking the American Catholic church that began with the ouster of sexual predator, cardinal Ted McCarrick in June 2018, and continues with numerous state investigations into priest abuse and cover-up throughout the U.S. has further shaken the “faith” of the membership resulting in an increasing number of empty pews and empty churches. I’m still waiting on statistical reports for the full impact of the scandal tsunami.

• Bishop Baron suggests RCC police conservative Catholic web sites

Conservative and traditionalist Catholic websites (Lifesite News, Church Militant, Lepanto Institute, etc.) are chipping away at support for pope Francis and his progressive agenda. Francis supporters are recommending some type of formal clamp-down on the rad-trad agitators. We live in VERY strange times when most of the opposition to the papacy is coming from Catholics rather than evangelicals (some of whom errantly embrace the RCC as a Christian entity).

• Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith motivated him to vote for Trump’s removal from office

I try to make it a point NOT to discuss politics in this forum despite some rather large elephants in the middle of the room. I believe interest in the worldly/temporal has sidetracked many Christians living in America from the spiritual/eternal. However, I did listen to Senator Mitt Romney’s very public appeal to his Mormon religion as a factor in the recent presidential impeachment proceedings. Senator Romney follows the false Mormon god and the false, works-righteousness Mormon gospel. As Jesus warned Nicodemus in John 3:1-21, being sincere in your religious beliefs won’t save you. You MUST be born-again in Christ Jesus according to Biblical truths. For my posts on Mormonism, see here.

• Former Rochester Catholic Bishop ordered to testify on priest abuse

Two weeks ago, I reported that lawyers representing Rochester Catholic bishop-emeritus, Matthew Clark, had claimed he wasn’t able to testify in the current priest abuse/cover-up court proceedings due to the onset of Alzheimer’s. The judge has ordered Clark to testify anyway. The abuse survivors correctly suspect Clark enabled many predatory priests in the Rochester diocese by transferring them from parish to parish.

Welcome to the Weekend Roundup! – News & Views – 2/8/20

• Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo: Bankruptcy imminent
• Buffalo Catholic diocese to close seminary amid $500K losses

The Catholic bishop of nearby Buffalo, Richard Malone, was forced to resign in December amidst allegations that he had enabled multiple sexual predator priests. As abuse survivors continue to file legal claims as part of the no-time-limits, one-year window provided by the Child Victims Act, the diocese teeters on bankruptcy. This past week, diocesan administrators announced the closing of the beleaguered Christ the King Seminary (photo above). For 163 years, the seminary both attracted and fostered sexual deviants and sent them out to oversee the Catholic children of Buffalo as well as to propagate Catholicism’s spiritually-deadly false gospel. In recent years, the Buffalo media has reported on multiple complaints from seminarians of being sexually harassed by teachers and administrators at Christ the King. See here.

• Knights of Columbus drops secret initiation ceremony in attempt to attract new members

The Knights of Columbus was founded in 1882 as an alternative for Catholic men who were forbidden by their church from joining Freemasonry. The K of C aped the Masons in several respects, with its own secret oaths, secret handshake, and secret ceremonial rituals. These days, young men aren’t attracted to secret societies/fraternals so the Knights are forced to modify some of their stodgy rituals. Back in the 1960s, when I was a boy, it was the Knights who placed ads in newspapers for free informational booklets (photo below) to try to lure Protestants to Catholicism. The mission of the K of C was to spread Catholicism and oppose the Gospel of grace. These days, with the pope and his prelates teaching that everyone – Protestants, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and even atheists – can merit Heaven, the militant K of C has no reason to exist.

• Catholic confirmation should be life-changing. Why isn’t it?

Our 14-year-old step-granddaughter just completed Catholic confirmation classes, but she has expressed that it was the last thing she wanted to be doing. Catholic churches and dutiful Catholic parents crank their youth through the sacramental assembly line – baptism, first confession, first communion, and confirmation – whether they want to be there or not. It’s all a sham. No one was “confirmed” in anything except the fact that they’re still unsaved. See a relevant post from a few years ago here.

• Catholics told to stop kissing religious images to prevent spread of Coronavirus

Read all of the apostle Paul’s epistles and then try to imagine him kissing and venerating/worshiping religious statues. There’s just no way. Instead, I can easily imagine him toppling a few.

• German appeals court denies bid to remove anti-Semitic relic

Next week’s Throwback Thursday post is devoted to the anti-Semitism that was rampant in the Catholic church for 1500 years. Regrettably, Martin Luther and some of the other early Reformers were affected by the prejudice that had permeated European Catholic culture.

• African Catholic archbishop forbids receiving Holy Communion in hands

Catholicism is somewhat new in Africa so the bishops there still take their ritualism seriously. Conservative Catholics in the U.S. were indignant, and remain so, after pope Paul VI allowed communicants to take the faux Jesus wafer in their open hands. Legalistic religions tend to idolize the rubrics of their rituals. See a relevant post here.

• Analysis: Pope Francis and the German Catholics

Conservative Catholics are fearful that the “synodal path,” currently underway in Germany, is going to introduce reforms too liberal even for pope Francis. Actually, Francis has been pushing hard for decentralization of the church.

• Shen Yun: Coming to an auditorium near you

You may have seen the ads on your television the last couple of years for something called, “Shen Yun.” It looked to me like some kind of traditional Chinese dance extravaganza. After a little internet sleuthing, I found out the performances are actually presented by a wacky Chinese religious cult called Falun Gong. See the Wiki article here. Unwary audience members at “Shen Yun” (translated as “the rhythm of a divine spirit” or more simply, “god’s melody”) presentations get sucked into the Falun Gong ideology. It reminds me of people who unwittingly attend the Hill Cumorah Pageant in nearby Palmyra, not realizing it’s a Mormon missionary propaganda tool.

Welcome to the Weekend Roundup! – News & Views – 2/1/20

• Pence to Pope Francis: ‘You have made me a hero’

Vice President, Mike Pence (photo left), was brought up in a “devout” Irish-Catholic family and served as an altar boy at St. Columba Catholic church in Columbus, Indiana.  He claims to have accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior while in college and subsequently left the Roman Catholic church behind. However, Mr. Pence still believes the RCC is a valid Christian entity. Pence was overwhelmed when he met with pope Francis this past week, addressing him as “Holiness,” and profusely thanking him for a papal medal that he plans on re-gifting to his Catholic mother, which he claims will make him a “hero” in her eyes. Better that Pence should present the Gospel of grace to his mother (if he is in fact saved) and warn her to leave the Roman church with its false gospel of sacramental grace and merit. Pence does a disservice to lost Catholic souls and undiscerning evangelicals by compromising the Gospel.

• Priceless relics of three French Catholic saints are lost in an airline mixup at Sydney Airport sparking a frantic search

One of the most bizarre aspects of Roman Catholicism is how the body parts of dead “saints” are regularly shipped all over the world to be venerated/worshiped by the credulous Catholic faithful.

• Pope Francis highlights hospitality during Christian unity event

Since the Second Vatican Council, the Roman Catholic church has been working unceasingly to regather the Protestant “separated brethren.”

• Cardinal Tells Catholics Who Protest Pope to Become Protestants

While pope Francis is busy trying to regather Protestants under his “authority,” his progressive allies are telling the pope’s conservative Catholic critics to GET LOST.

• Motion filed for retired Rochester Catholic bishop to testify in priest sex abuse proceedings

Rochester Catholic bishop-emeritus, Matthew Clark, was the diocese’s bishop from 1979 to 2012. Numerous problem/pedophile priests were transferred from parish to parish during Clark’s tenure and many survivors correctly assume the former-bishop is indirectly culpable for the abuse they suffered. They want to question him in court, but he’s in the early stages of Alzheimer’s.

• These Spiritual Precursors to the Amish Met a Gruesome Fate

Many people incorrectly assume the Anabaptists were the precursors of today’s Baptists. The Baptist movement that we know today actually began in 1609 when minister John Smyth and his congregation broke away from the Anglican church over the issue of believer’s baptism, although there are some Baptist groups today, called Landmark Baptists, who believe they can trace their ecclesial lineage back to the New Testament church. While the Anabaptists of Luther’s and Calvin’s era held to believer’s baptism, they also subscribed to other doctrines that were pretty wacky.

• Keeping the sisterhood from extinction: The struggle to save nuns in America

There were 180,000 Catholic nuns in the United States in 1965, but now there’s only 31,350 and most of them are elderly.  These deluded women thought they could merit their salvation by turning their backs on their families and living a spartan existence with other nuns in convents. There are few things more cultish than a convent full of nuns, but the radicality of the institution was muted due to social conditioning.

• Catholic Priest: Kobe Bryant sought redemption through his Catholic faith

Sports fans were overwhelmed by the accidental death of Kobe Bryant, the former Los Angeles Lakers basketball player, in a helicopter crash last Sunday. Eight others also died in the crash including Kobe’s daughter. Kobe was a practicing Roman Catholic who had attended mass just hours before the accident. The theology behind the Catholic mass contradicts the Gospel of salvation by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone on MULTIPLE levels. I don’t sit in judgement of Kobe’s soul, but the Bible judges the Catholic mass to be a spiritually deadly ritual of a false, pseudo-Christian church. See here and here. Referring to the above headline, Catholics seek redemption through their institutional church and its false gospel of sacramental grace and merit rather than through Jesus Christ.

• Gideons Announce Daring Plan To Sneak Bibles Into Progressive Churches (SATIRE)

It’s comical but also sadly true.