Blog Hopping

While blog hopping through St. Blog's Parish the other day, I came across Catholic Sensibility.

On Saturday he had a post discussing appropriate liturgy and music for school children. He had a list of things to keep in mind while preparing classes. Here was one of the points he made:

3. Most Catholic school kids don't go to Mass on Sunday. Keep this in mind when forming expectations about songs and rituals you think they should know.

I was surprised and disappointed to hear that some parents of Catholic school students don't require their kids to attend Sunday Mass. I commented stating my concern. What I heard back was that less than half of the student attend Mass on the weekend. One mom wrote in saying she doesn't require her son to attend Mass on the weekend because they celebrate Mass in school during the week and he behaves much better when he is in Mass with his friends.

Yesterday, he had a post titled "Abortion-Communion confluence" concerning the pro-life/anti-abortion movement.

The one thing that worries me is that pro-lifers and especially anti-abortionists have lost most of their steam. Do you get the same feeling? The bishops sure look like they're running on fumes. People who have abortions haven't been listening to them for decades. People who provide abortions don't bother with them. Those who support those who provide probably want to keep making money. Those who support those who support those who provide are trying to maximize their voting popularity. (I guess.) And now we're going after those who support those who support those who support those who provide abortions for those who make the choice. This is the strategy of desperation, not effectiveness.

Maybe it's time to pull back the lobbying efforts, the millions spent to sway opinion that just won't be swayed, the excommunication efforts, and all, and meet to determine the common ground for a societal conversion. Quite frankly when you start seeing your alies as the Enemy, it's time to chill: you're not doing the cause any good, and you're not doing yourself any good. Just for suggesting the mainstream pro-life movement seems out of kilter, I've been villified in the blogoscene. And heck, if you can't convince a pacifist Catholic pro-lifer, I doubt you're going to make serious headway with people who are not pacifists, not Catholic, and not particularly moral.

This was jaymen's comment to him:

"I'm entertained by neotrads suggesting that abortion is The Issue trumping all other issues" The number of abortions in the U.S. since Roe v. Wade is estimated at between 32 and 45 million. The number of Americans killed in wars is well under 2 million. It seems the "neotrads" have some justification for their opinion."

Bishops are barking up the wrong tree to be mixing up their issues of authority and governance with abortion" -- Abortion is a mortal sin and no one should receive the Eucharist in a state of mortal sin.

Bishops, even those "scarred by pedophile and financial mismanagement," are still leaders of our church, and Truth is no less true no matter how unworthy someone is to proclaim it.

"Are there guidelines and judgments for using this last resort?" This reference states that those who participate in abortions are to be excommunicated. While committing the sin is bad enough, convincing someone to commit a sin or endorsing those who commit such sins is even worse. If anything, the bishops are not being as strict as they should.

You mentioned meeting to determine "the common ground for a societal conversion". This is an issue where there is very little room for compromise. Killing innocent children is evil. Period. To think otherwise is to downplay Jesus' love for children. To not rebuke those who endorse or participate in abortion is to neglect our duty as Catholics in a serious way.

We may not be making much headway, but unless we have another plan for stopping abortions, stopping our efforts would be a grevious sin indeed.