More banalities from yet another Bishop worshipping at the altar of Americanism, the heresy condemned by Pope Leo XIII.
Does the Archbishop not know that the celebration of Christmas was forbidden in early America by the Puritan/Calvinist populations who were in the ascendant in those days and whose warped culture is still very much with us? Does he not know that fallen away Catholic Abe Lincoln proclaimed this holiday merely to upstage the Catholic holy days that would begin with Advent and then our glorious Christmas?
Yes, we can talk all we want about the Catholic background of a certain "day of thanksgiving" in early America, and all that is well and good. But the Calvinist Thanksgiving Day, a poke in the eye to the Catholics, has nothing whatever to do with these early manifestations. As a Catholic I save my expressions of joy to Advent and Christmas, and pay not the slightest attention to Thanksgiving Day, which is nothing but a mercantilists dream, for it opens up the spending floodgates that follow. One can try to Catholicize this Puritan holiday but I fear all such efforts are in vain. Thanksgiving is the embodiement of a country that went off its rails very early on in its history and never recovered. It simply got worse and worse and has led us, inevitably, to where we are now, a society on the brink of moral, spiritual and financial catastrophe.
I once asked a typical American Joe Sixpack what Thanksgiving was all about. He really had no idea. I then asked, "Who are you thanking? And for what?" I got some clumsy answer about "praying to the deity of your choice."
If that doesn't sum up what is wrong with the phony Thanksgiving holiday, and the US system in general, I don't know what does. And if Archbishops Listecki's poorly-worded boilerplate cliches about Thanksgiving don't perfectly encapsulate what is wrong with the US Catholic hierarchy then, again, I don't know what does.
A humble suggestion: let's forget about Thanksgiving, football and insane spending during a time when our heats and minds should be anticipating the holy time of Advent, the time when we should be preparing for the coming of the Christ Child.
Leave "Thanksgiving" to the sentimental, the poorly informed and the Americanists.
Aged Parent, you are the paragon of a provincial, angry Catholic, oozing with pride and self-righteousness. You give those of us fighting the good fight a bad rep. (I attend Mass in the extraordinary form, by the way.) Your comments are so banal as to be laughable. You single out extremes and hold them up as the norm. You also rely heavily upon the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. Look it up. I won't comment further on your frenzied comments. I worked at the Vatican and have a good handle on Church issues. I am close to Cardinal Burke as well. Your comments are embarrassing. Get off your high horse.
2 comments:
More banalities from yet another Bishop worshipping at the altar of Americanism, the heresy condemned by Pope Leo XIII.
Does the Archbishop not know that the celebration of Christmas was forbidden in early America by the Puritan/Calvinist populations who were in the ascendant in those days and whose warped culture is still very much with us? Does he not know that fallen away Catholic Abe Lincoln proclaimed this holiday merely to upstage the Catholic holy days that would begin with Advent and then our glorious Christmas?
Yes, we can talk all we want about the Catholic background of a certain "day of thanksgiving" in early America, and all that is well and good. But the Calvinist Thanksgiving Day, a poke in the eye to the Catholics, has nothing whatever to do with these early manifestations. As a Catholic I save my expressions of joy to Advent and Christmas, and pay not the slightest attention to Thanksgiving Day, which is nothing but a mercantilists dream, for it opens up the spending floodgates that follow. One can try to Catholicize this Puritan holiday but I fear all such efforts are in vain. Thanksgiving is the embodiement of a country that went off its rails very early on in its history and never recovered. It simply got worse and worse and has led us, inevitably, to where we are now, a society on the brink of moral, spiritual and financial catastrophe.
I once asked a typical American Joe Sixpack what Thanksgiving was all about. He really had no idea. I then asked, "Who are you thanking? And for what?" I got some clumsy answer about "praying to the deity of your choice."
If that doesn't sum up what is wrong with the phony Thanksgiving holiday, and the US system in general, I don't know what does. And if Archbishops Listecki's poorly-worded boilerplate cliches about Thanksgiving don't perfectly encapsulate what is wrong with the US Catholic hierarchy then, again, I don't know what does.
A humble suggestion: let's forget about Thanksgiving, football and insane spending during a time when our heats and minds should be anticipating the holy time of Advent, the time when we should be preparing for the coming of the Christ Child.
Leave "Thanksgiving" to the sentimental, the poorly informed and the Americanists.
Aged Parent, you are the paragon of a provincial, angry Catholic, oozing with pride and self-righteousness. You give those of us fighting the good fight a bad rep. (I attend Mass in the extraordinary form, by the way.) Your comments are so banal as to be laughable. You single out extremes and hold them up as the norm. You also rely heavily upon the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. Look it up. I won't comment further on your frenzied comments. I worked at the Vatican and have a good handle on Church issues. I am close to Cardinal Burke as well. Your comments are embarrassing. Get off your high horse.
Post a Comment