Episcopal Politics

Even though many of you have seen it, for those who haven't Bishop Thomas Doran of Rockford went off... and off... and off... in his latest column in the diocesan newspaper:

Many of the issues that confront us are serious, and we know by now that the political parties in our country are at loggerheads as to how to solve them. We know, for instance, that adherents of one political party would place us squarely on the road to suicide as a people.

The seven “sacraments” of their secular culture are abortion, buggery, contraception, divorce, euthanasia, feminism of the radical type, and genetic experimentation and mutilation. These things they unabashedly espouse, profess and promote. Their continuance in public office is a clear and present danger to our survival as a nation.

Since the mid-1940s we have been accustomed to look askance at Germans. They were protagonists of the Second World War and so responsible for fifty million deaths. We say, “How awful,” and yet in our country we have, for the most part, allowed the party of death and the court system it has produced to eliminate, since 1973, upwards of forty million of our fellow citizens without allowing them to see the light of day. They have done their best to make ours a true culture of death. No doubt, we shall soon outstrip the Nazis in doing human beings to death.

I do not think that we should spend a great deal of time in lamentation over the children whose lives have been snuffed out by the barbaric practice of therapeutic abortion. They passed from their lives quickly in this world and have gone into the hands of the Lord of Life and Mercy for all eternity. We must make it clear too, that many who have sought to have practiced on themselves therapeutic abortion are in many instances driven to it by persons heedless of their welfare, or by well- meaning but inept parents or guardians who regard abortion as a solution and not as what it is — an immense problem. There are some, I think few, largely given over to immoral lives who regard abortion as a good, but their number is not great.

What we have to remember is that violence breeds violence. When we tolerate unjust attacks upon the tiniest innocents among us, we habituate ourselves to violence. And so we have allowed these barbaric practices to corrupt our laws, our medical practice, and even our ordinary lives. How accustomed we have become to the immense loss of life in our wars throughout the world! Those who have killed millions under their mother’s hearts cannot be expected to balk at a mere few thousand killed in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Somalia, in Darfur, in Bosnia, in Madrid, in London, in Baghdad, in Beirut, in Washington, in New York. The violence of abortion coarsens the lives of all of us.

Make of it what you will.

Elsewhere, Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe continues his campaign against the government of President Robert Mugabe:

Ncube, a fierce critic of Mugabe's policies, also dismissed the veteran politician's Heroes Day message which extended gratitude to faith-based organisations for their role in helping disseminate a positive image about his regime.

"His talk is mere empty talk and we will not bow down to that nonsense," Ncube said on Wednesday.

"It's all part of his (Mugabe) slyness. He is a very manipulative man, I know so because I have been to his house once. He served us hot tea and greeted me in my mother's tongue, most probably to placate me."

The archbishop, who has crossed swords with Mugabe on several occasions about his misrule, added that his problem with government is rooted in its tactics aimed at enticing the church to peddle lies on its behalf while the masses suffer.

"My problem with these people is that they want us to be hypocrites and tell lies that the situation is normal when it is not. There is hunger, inflation is very high and school fees continue to rise. How will the people survive?" Ncube said.

He said the only positive thing to date was the resilience of Zimbabweans because they "are peace-loving and have had to put up with government nonsense".

The pinko liberal archbishop is missing the point: Abortion is illegal in Zimbabwe (there are just 70,000 or so performed underground each year) and Mugabe is nothing if not anti-buggery.

The absence of any Democrats there seals its place as sheer paradise... right?

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