Los Pequeños Pepper

Publication of Los Pequeños de Cristo

June 2018

The Vatican’s China Game: Deal or No Deal with Beijing?

China’s Communist government still wants an agreement over bishops’ appointments, but the Vatican appears more ambivalent in the face of criticism and recent problematic developments.

Page 5

The Priestly Story Dioceses Tell:

Reasons for Optimism in the US

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A Vulnerable Church Can Not Afford to Forget Its Enemies

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Cover: Recently murdered Mexican priests: Fathers Juan Miguel Contreras Garcia (killed 4-20-18, age 33), Ruben Alcantara Diaz (killed 4-18-18, age 50), and Moisés Fabila (killed 4-25-18, age 84).

According to the Catholic Multimedia Center, at least four priests have been slain in Mexico this year and 23 have been murdered since 2012. It says Mexico tops Latin America in the killings of priests.

Rev. Sergio Omar Sotelo Aguilar, director of the Catholic Multimedia Center, says that “corruption and inefficiency of some authorities of the country have allowed the unstoppable advance of violence and crime in Mexico….[According to investigations] in 80% of the cases organized crime is present which, in the case of extortion, kidnappings and murders, (the attackers) want to impose power.”

Los Pequeños Pepper

Newsletter of Los Pequeños de Cristo June 2018 Volume 20, Number 6 Mexican bishops decry the murder of another priest and call for reconciliation The bishops of Mexico have launched an urgent appeal for a culture of peace and reconciliation. It comes after the murder of a Catholic priest who was attacked in the parish of Jalisco. Father Juan Miguel Contreras Garcia is the fourth priest to be killed in the nation since the beginning of the year. By Linda Bordoni

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The Vatican’s China Game: Deal or No Deal with Beijing? China’s Communist government still wants an agreement over bishops’ appointments, but the Vatican appears more ambivalent in the face of criticism and recent problem-atic developments. By Edward Pentin

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Dinosaurs on the Move By David Warren

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The Priestly Story Dioceses Tell: Reasons for Optimism in the US By Anne Hendershott and Makenzie White

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A Vulnerable Church Can Not Afford to Forget Its Enemies By Bob Sullivan

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The Touching Encouragement of an Archbishop By Francis Slobodnik

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June Calendar Page 15

Newsletter of Los Pequeños de Cristo Stephanie Block-editor, Carol Suhr-copy editor

Correspondence to The Pequeños Pepper may be addressed to: P.O. Box 20428, Albuquerque, NM 87154-0428

Phone: 505-293-8006 or email: www.lospequenos.org The Pequeños Pepper is published monthly

We are an Archdiocesan-wide Catholic lay organization committed to a charitable defense of the Catholic Faith by means of education, communication, and prayer. We are devoted to the Roman Catholic Magiste-

rium, the Holy Father, and to the bishops and clergy in union with him. Our members believe what the Church believes and we promote what the Church teaches. To this end, we believe that no individual, whether

cleric or lay person, has the right to alter the substance of the gospel message or moral truths which have been inerrantly and infallibly held by the Catholic Church since Her founding.

Pequeños Pepper 4 June 2018

Mexican bishops decry the murder of another priest and call for reconciliation The bishops of Mexico have launched an urgent appeal for a culture of peace and reconciliation. It comes after the murder of a Catholic priest who was attacked in the parish of Jalisco. Father Juan Miguel Contreras Garcia is the fourth priest to be killed in the nation since the beginning of the year. By Linda Bordoni

The Mexican Bishops' Conference has released a statement in which it expresses grief and dismay for the mur-der of 33-year old Father Juan Miguel Contrera Garcia who was murdered by a group of armed assailants in his parish in the State of Jalisco on Friday.

The attack reportedly took place immediately after the celebration of Holy Mass. It is only the latest of a series of attacks against priests in Mexico and follows the assassination of Father Ruben Alcantara Diaz on April 18th, just prior to Mass at his parish in the Diocese of Izcalli.

Attacks on clergy have become common in Mexico, where the homicide rate reached historic high levels in 2017, and the violence consuming large swaths of the country has not spared the Catholic Church.

In their statement the bishops launch an urgent appeal to build a culture of peace and reconciliation. "These deplorable events call each of us to a deep and sincere conversion" the statement said. "We ask competent authorities - it continues - to shed light on this dramatic event and to take action according

to the laws of justice". The bishops also appeal to the perpetrators of violence "not only to lay down their arms", but also to reject

"hatred, resentment, vengeance and all destructive sentiments".

The funeral of Alejo Naborí, one of the three priests mur-dered in Mexico in 2016

Fr. Felipe Altamirano Carrillo, killed 3-27-17.

Pequeños Pepper 5 June 2018

The Vatican’s China Game: Deal or No Deal with Beijing? China’s Communist government still wants an agreement over bishops’ appointments, but the Vatican appears more ambivalent in the face of criticism and recent problematic developments. By Edward Pentin

The Holy See needs to be humble and willing to end talks until they obtain “anything

real” from the Chinese government, Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun has said. In [recent] comments to the [National Catholic] Register — made in the wake of a

range of recent actions by the communist government that appear hostile to the free prac-tice of religion — the bishop emeritus of Hong Kong said if Rome “cannot get anything real from the negotiations, they should acknowledge the objective impossibility and fail-ure and say goodbye to the other side till they have anything new to talk about.”

The cardinal, an outspoken critic of the Vatican’s current approach to China, added that, in the meantime, the Holy See should continue about its “business, strengthen our own Church and be ready to suffer, waiting for God’s good time.”

His comments came after months of speculation that, in a possible deal aimed at nor-malizing relations, the Vatican would be given a say in the appointment of future bishops in China, while Beijing would have more control over the country’s churches loyal to Rome.

Under the terms of the proposed deal, the Catholic Church is expected to have very restricted oversight over the appointment of bishops, with the Pope holding, at most, a veto. In return, the “underground” Church would be accepted by the state.

China’s 12 million Catholics are split between those registered with the state-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association, which rejects the authority of the Holy See and appoints its own bishops in collaboration with local Church communities, and a larger community of “underground” Catholics who recognize the Pope, are loyal to Rome and have historically resisted the Patriotic Association. The split dates back to the Communist Party victory in 1949 and Beijing’s subsequent break in diplomatic relations with the Holy See in 1951.

A major sticking point in re-establishing relations has been over the appointment of bishops. Most bishops are now recognized by the Holy See and the Patriotic Association. Occasionally, however, Beijing has ordained its own bishops in the face of Vatican opposition, which has led to excommunications.

Cardinal Zen’s remarks also come after the Chinese government placed religious affairs under the ruling atheist Communist Party at the end of March — a move widely seen as a means of exerting greater control over the Church and other religions. The decision followed the introduction of revised “Religious Affairs Regulations,” introducing new restrictions on religious practices.

The Hong Kong cardinal, who once taught in a seminary in China, has strongly criticized the possible deal, accusing the Vatican of “selling out” to the Chinese Communists, deploring a lack of communication between the Holy See and the Chinese faithful, and saying they feel they are on the “periphery.” Chinese government officials have reportedly said the framework for the deal has already been worked out and talks have been in “full swing,” but the Vatican has publicly denied its signing is imminent, signaling different approaches to the issue. The Regis-ter understands from informed Vatican sources that the agreement “won’t happen in the next days, weeks or months.”

Controversial Moves

But the Vatican has already taken highly contentious steps along the path of the agreement: In December, it made the decision to order 88-year-old Bishop Peter Zhuang Jianjian of Shantou of the underground Church to step aside for a state-backed bishop to succeed him and be reconciled with the Holy See and to give Bishop Zhuang the title “emeritus.”

At the same time, a government-appointed bishop, Zhan Silu, was allowed to take the place of a Vatican-recognized bishop, Guo Xijin of Mindong. Bishop Guo was made an auxiliary and granted official recognition in

Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun

Pequeños Pepper 6 June 2018

return. Police arrested Bishop Guo in March, after he refused to concelebrate with Bishop Zhan at a chrism Mass, as

Bishop Zhan is still excommunicated due to his membership in the state-controlled church. Following Bishop Guo’s release, the authorities banned him from celebrating any Mass as a bishop, as he is not recognized by the government.

“Bishop Guo was called to the office of the public security and had a two-hour conversation,” Cardinal Zen recounted to the Register. “He came back to pack and was taken away for that night.”

He conjectured that the authorities freed him the next day because the government was “not able to force him to concelebrate with the illegitimate ‘bishop’” and so told him “not to celebrate a parallel chrism Mass.”

“These exchanges of bishops have no precedent and are very serious in themselves,” Cardinal Zen remarked about the situations of Bishops Zhuang and Guo, adding they are “much more serious if you consider the impact on their clergy and faithful.” He said such a policy comes as a “shock” to the faithful, who “cannot but feel betrayed.”

“And what can the other 30 underground bishops expect for themselves?” he asked. “Probably to be declared emeriti if they refuse to join the Patriotic Association.”

Weigel’s Assessment

Others drawing on historical precedent, such as George Weigel, distinguished senior fellow at Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center, see this approach as doomed to failure and reminiscent of Ostpolitik — the con-troversial strategy pursued by the Vatican in the 1960s and 1970s to appease and make agreements with Soviet Communism.

Weigel told the Register April 11 that, for almost 30 years, he has been in contact with “the people who kept Catholicism alive behind the Iron Curtain,” and they would answer: “No, there is nothing to be said for that ap-proach.” He also said the Ostpolitik approach allowed the Vatican to be “severely penetrated by East bloc secret

intelligence agencies.” Asked why he believed the Vatican was determined to pursue what ap-pears to be the same strategy, Weigel said: “Italians in the Secretariat of State have been obsessed with getting some sort of diplomatic arrangement with China in place for at least 30 years, and they undoubtedly see this proposed deal on nominating bishops as a step toward that.” He added it would be “a remarkably bad idea” to have the Chinese Com-munist Party nominate bishops, particularly now that President Xi Jinping has shifted responsibility for the oversight of religious groups from the Chinese state to the Communist Party. Through such actions, including restrictions on selling Bibles, Beijing has made it clear in recent months that it wants total control over the Church. Weigel added that he found it “astonishing” that the Secretariat of State is so resistant to the “empirically verifiable fact” that the Ostpolitik of the 1960s and 1970s “was a complete failure” and, in some cases such as Hungary, “made matters far worse for the Church.” Vatican Misperception? Both Weigel and Cardinal Zen believe the Vatican is operating on the false premise of continuing to seek to wield the global influence it had in the 19th century, when it was in possession of the extensive territories of the Papal States. The Italian officials in the Curia, Weigel wrote in a recent article in For-eign Policy magazine, fantasize that today’s Holy See “can act internationally as if this were 1815, when Cardinal Ercole Consalvi, Pope Pius VII’s chief diplomat, was a significant actor at the Congress of Vienna.

“Those shaky foundations and that fantasy are not a prescription for diplomatic success. They are, rather, a prescription for both diplomatic and ecclesiastical failure, which is the likely result of the deal now being bruited between the Vatican and China.”

Cardinal Zen similarly said the Holy See was deluded in thinking “themselves big players in world politics” and believes recent comments by Holy See officials in praise of China, despite its poor record on religious freedom and human rights, just mean that “historians are, and will be, laughing at them.”

Our Lady of Deliverance, Empress of China...pray for us!

Pequeños Pepper 7 June 2018

Some Vatican insiders speculate that the overall aim of the Vatican’s strategy is to secure an historic papal visit to the country — a development that would mark a significant step in the normalization of relations. Cardinal Zen said “that may be,” adding that “all the popes had such a desire.”

But he said Pope Francis “should know that a visit by him to Beijing will not be like a visit by John Paul II to Poland,” as he would be “manipulated” and would cause “so much sadness in the good faithful.”

Weigel did not think a papal trip was a motivating factor, but simply an “Italian obsession of long standing.” He said both Pope St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI could have pursued the proposed Vatican agreement, but “refused it because they knew it would increase regime pressures on the Church in the short term and would im-peril the Church’s evangelical future in China.”

Rome’s Position

In Jan. 31 comments to La Stampa, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, argued that the Church is called to “distinguish more appropriately the spiritual and pastoral dimension from that of politics,” us-ing words such as mercy, forgiveness and reconciliation rather than “power, betrayal, resistance, surrender.”

He said “a serious problem” exists if the Church is not prepared to “change this approach” of “thinking and acting only politically.”

The Holy See, he said, “hopes for everyone a sincere pastoral conversion inspired by the Gospel of mercy, in order to learn to welcome one another among brothers and sisters, as Pope Francis has often called for.”

The cardinal also said it takes “greater humility and spirit of faith to discover to-gether God’s plan for the Church in China” and warned against falling into “sterile po-lemics that hurt communion and rob our hope for a better future.”

The Italian cardinal, who said he prefers to see “not two Churches, but two communi-ties of faithful called to follow a gradual path of reconciliation toward unity,” underscored his belief that the process is “gradual” and will therefore require “time and patience” in order to build trust.

Neither Cardinal Parolin nor Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states, wished to answer ques-tions on the issue when approached by the Register for comment in early April, after the Chinese government had communicated pub-licly and forcefully that all religions active in China are required to acknowledge the pri-macy of the state.

But speaking on background, a Vatican source told the Register that the Holy See rejects the accusation that the approach is similar to Ostpolitik, which it sees as an approach related to “majority-Catholic” nations, such as Po-land, and where the Church had a political role in the history of a communist country.

By contrast, the source said the Vatican sees the situation in China, which does not have such a history, as very different. The Pope, therefore, wants to enter into the pastoral situation of the country and the Church’s pastoral mission in China, where the emphasis is on dialogue rather than politics.

The source also said the Pope and senior Vatican officials are “very attentive to all views” but stress the impor-tance of working “in unity” and in dialogue, without polemics.

In comments to German media April 11 [2018], Cardinal Zen said the Pope is better informed now than before and is surrounding himself with more “levelheaded, mature people” who have “now warned him” of possible dan-gers.

Persecuted Catholic Church in China by Chinese photographer Lu-Nan More of these photos can be viewed at: pro.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&ALID=2K1HRGQKM_B

Pequeños Pepper 8 June 2018

Dinosaurs on the Move By David Warren

We have all seen the latest Gallup poll. . . . What? You missed it, gentle reader? Don’t worry, you’ve heard it all before: attendance is falling in Catholic

churches across the USA. It was a huge fall, corresponding temporally to the “Spirit of Vatican II,” but it was eve-ning out under the restorative pontificates of St John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Now, for some reason, we are slid-ing again.

From what I can see, in anecdotes from innumerable reports, the numbers conceal a significant detail. More-or-less all the “New Mass,” adaptive, modernist congregations are declining, with churches closing every day. And more-or-less all the “Old Mass,” rigid, traditionalist churches are growing, in congregations and vocations both. Those “dinosaurs” out there are also having lots of children. It seems to me that the Holy Spirit is sorting us out, after all.

A Jewish friend, who long lived in New York, provides an analogy. Only a small minority of Jews were Ortho-dox in the 1950s, and pretty much everyone else agreed they would soon be extinct. Today, they may be a slight majority, because lo and behold, the liberal, modernizing Jews are disappear-ing. They don’t go to synagogue, so the synagogues close. They intermarry with the goyim and neglect to generate children.

In my humble but unanswerable opinion, Modernism is on the shoals. My modernist friends disagree, however. One who forwarded the Gallup

poll to me yesterday morning (which I had already seen) rejected the side-light I have offered above. He said the traditionalist types are simply switch-ing parishes. And yes, there is a lot of that, judging from my own first-hand experience. And lots of three-year-olds must be doing that, or moving to South Dakota.

They were rather shocked in France, recently, when the Guvmint pro-posed gay marriage, and the old-school backward Catholics with all these kids put a couple million on the road to Paris, to express their disapproval. The media in Paris were having conniptions: “We had no idea so many dino-saurs were still walking the earth.”

I’m an old dinosaur myself but – Vivat! – the young ones multiply around me. Our total numbers are perhaps no less than they were in the thirteenth century, but our proportion of the general population in the Christian West shrank. Modernism had its moments.

God made fairly plain in Scripture that He isn’t much interested in number crunching; He looks at His people one at a time. I am, myself, especially not interested in statistical projections. We do not know what is coming. God may not be into surprises – He never said He would change with the times – but events can be surprising.

For we are the ones capable of moving, towards or away from fundamental truths. The one I wish to adduce this morning is on the efficacy of prayer.

* “I’m praying for you!” can be an irritating remark, in my recollection. I can remember thinking, “What fat use

is that?” in my pre-Catholic days. And today, we are constantly reminded not only by secular society but by many of our own priests that we should, “Not just pray but do something.” It is a well-meaning instruction, I am sure, but it reveals a terrible loss of faith. For prayer is, in fact, doing something.

Some years ago, an old Catholic was driving me around Ottawa, pointing to all the old Catholic buildings – so many of them monastic establishments – that were now converted to “other uses,” such as condominiums, and parking lots.

This was easy to explain, in terms of abandonment and betrayal. A once fairly Catholic town had “moved on” to other interests. One thing leads to another, and at some point the wrecking balls arrive. We may consult the economists on supply and demand.

But my friend made a point that went the other way. He mentioned the principal work done in all those old monastic establishments. The inmates were praying for us.

And as they ceased to pray, there was an effect on us, which could almost be demonstrated statistically. We, who ceased to be prayed for, also ceased to pray. The bonds that had held us to the Church were being broken, and

Spirit of Vatican II?

Pequeños Pepper 9 June 2018

the most significant of those had been sacramental prayer. The sustaining prayers of all those invisible religious continued behind the institutional walls.

What happens when your own mother doesn’t care for you anymore? For you are after all just a statistic, and you’re on your own now. It’s not as if you depended on her for money. Really, you only depended on her for prayer. What if the monks and nuns themselves – I think of the nuns, most tearfully – can no longer be bothered? Does it make the slightest difference?

Yes. Or so I say, being a notoriously backward Catholic, who actually believes what the Church always taught, and still teaches in a few places. I pray for others, and I need their prayers, in the mysterious workings of the Di-vine Economy.

And by all this I do not mean prayer as an attractive form of packaging, rather as the medium of exchange. My vulgar analogy is to a point, and might be enhanced by the observation that, “you get what you pay for.” But this, within an economy of Love.

I have nothing to say about the most recent apostolic exhortation, that tells us among many other things that holiness must be expressed in action, and demeans the silence of monastic retreat, taking little digs at Cardinal Sarah. The pope says what he says, and we hear him.

What I want to say is about monastic prayer, in its utterly specific, traditional form; but also about the silences, and monastic prayers, within each Catholic. Either it is believed to be efficacious, or it is not. If not, the whole Church must continue to empty, except an eccentric remnant who believe.

________________________

David Warren is a former editor of the Idler magazine and columnist in Canadian newspapers. He has extensive experience in the Near and Far East. His blog, Essays in Idleness, is now to be found at: davidwarrenonline.com.

The Priestly Story Dioceses Tell: Reasons for Optimism in the US By Anne Hendershott and Makenzie White

While the Church in the United States faces serious demographic and geographic chal-lenges that have continued to require parish closings in urban cores of cities in the North-east and Upper Midwest, there is reason for optimism. According to the annual survey by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, there were 590 men ordained to the priesthood in the United States in 2017 — an increase of 47% over the 401 men who were ordained in 2008. What is most striking about the data is the great disparity in priestly ordinations by dio-cese. While successful dioceses like Arlington, Virginia, and Newark and Paterson, New Jersey, have had dozens of ordinations over the past decade, other dioceses like Dodge City, Kansas, and Laredo and El Paso, Texas, have had several years of no ordinations at all — becoming almost like “mission territory” for Catholic priests. A simple explanation for this disparity might suggest that the ordination-rich dioceses simply have a larger percentage of Catholics. For example, the ordination-rich Archdiocese of Newark has 1,318,557 (47%) Catholics out of a total population of 2,784,183. Likewise, nearby Paterson has 424,722 Catholics (38%) out of a total population of 1,129,405. But this simplest of explanations cannot explain why there are so few ordinations in several large dioceses with high percentages of Catholics — like Brownsville, Texas, where Catho-lics comprise 85% of the diocese with a population of 1,336,323 — and why small dioceses like Lincoln, Nebraska — where Catholics make up only 17% of the total population — had eight ordinations in 2016, surpassing some of the largest dioceses in the country. We need to consider the cultural factors of a diocese — specifically, the role of the

bishop, his vocations staff and the commitment by the laity to support vocations — as important variables in un-derstanding disparities in ordination rates.

A thriving—rapidly grow-ing—Catholic parish in Houston, Our Lady of Walsingham

Pequeños Pepper 10 June 2018

A now classic article entitled “Crisis in Vocations?” — published in 1996 by Archbishop Emeritus Elden Cur-tiss of the Diocese of Omaha, Nebraska — did just that.

Pointing to ordination-rich dioceses, including Peoria, Illinois, Arlington and Lincoln, where vocations were flourishing in the ’90s, Archbishop Curtiss wrote: “When dioceses and religious communities are unambiguous about the ordained priesthood and vowed religious life; when there is strong support for vocations and a minimum of dissent about the male celibate priesthood and religious life loyal to the magisterium … there are documented increases in the numbers of candidates who respond to the call.”

Sociologists Rodney Stark and Roger Finke provide quantitative data to substantiate Archbishop Curtiss’ asser-tions in an article in the Review of Religious Research published nearly two decades ago. Attempting to explain the declines in ordinations for some dioceses, data collected by Stark and Finke suggested that contributing to the de-cline in Catholic vocations were the radical revisions in religious roles interpreted from the Second Vatican Coun-cil. They argued that as the most central sacred aspects of religious roles, such as community life, distinct religious clothing and rhythms of prayer were dismissed or discontinued, “the sacred gratifications of religious vocations were thereby greatly reduced, as were features of the religious life that sustained and even generated these gratifi-cations.” No longer were priests considered “a people set apart,” as the Council seemed to have “nullified the basic ideological foundation for eighteen centuries of Roman Catholic religious life” (Wittberg, 1994).

In their 1992 book The Churching of America, 1776-1990, Stark and Finke warned that “the more a religious organization compromises with society and the world, blurring its identity and modifying its teaching and ethics, the more it will decline.”

This is not to suggest that the Catholic Church must adopt a “conservative” solution to increasing priestly ordi-nations, but as Stark and Finke conclude: “A liberal church cannot motivate the intensity of commitment needed to fill positions requiring high levels of sacrifice.”

Their data, like our current data, point to the importance of or-thodoxy and the crucial role of the bishop and his vocations staff in encouraging and nurturing vocations. We have found that the strongest predictor of an increase in ordinations in one diocese is the bishop’s success in increasing the number of ordinations in a previ-ous diocese.

It is not a coincidence that Newark’s Archbishop Emeritus John Myers, who had presided over one of the most successful dioceses in the country in terms of numbers of ordinations, arrived in Newark after experiencing remarkable success in the Diocese of Peoria — one of the most ordination-rich dioceses in the country in the 1990s.

In fact, Archbishop Myers was so successful in producing priests in Peoria that he was featured in a 1991 feature article published in Newsweek entitled “Now Praying in Peoria.” The article’s author, Kenneth Woodward, lauded Archbishop Myers for having ordained more priests than Los Angeles, the nation’s largest archdiocese, and as many as New York — crediting the bishop for “re-priesting” Peo-ria’s parishes.

Beyond the raw data, which of course would unfairly compare large dioceses like Brooklyn to small ones like Burlington, Vermont, we see similar patterns. Controlling for the total number of Catholics in a given diocese by looking at the total number of ordinations per 100,000 Catholics, we find that the size of the diocese matters much less than the culture of the diocese. Laredo struggles to ordain any men to the priesthood — despite large Catholic majorities of more than 90%.

Some have suggested that ethnicity plays a role in explaining the lack of ordinations in some parts of the coun-try, as Hispanic/Latino Catholics comprise about one-third of all U.S. adult Catholics but have ordination rates of only 15%. But ethnicity does not explain why some California dioceses with significant populations of Hispanic Catholics have much stronger numbers of ordinations each year.

Cultural factors — including the role of the bishop — play the far more important role. Just ask Catholics liv-ing in the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin, where the number of seminarians has increased sixfold since the arrival in 2003 of an inspiring new bishop, Robert Morlino. And it is not a surprise to Catholics living in Arlington that Bishop Paul Loverde — who once led the U.S. bishops’ conference’s committee to encourage priestly vocations and who prioritized vocations when he arrived in Arlington in 1999 — welcomed some of the largest classes of seminarians in the country by the time of his retirement in 2016.

2015 Mass of Ordination in the Diocese of Lincoln, NE

Pequeños Pepper 11 June 2018

In an interview for Catholic World Report, Bishop James Conley of Lincoln said that the secret of a successful vocations program “begins with prayer.” In Lincoln, there are two communities of cloistered nuns who pray for vocations constantly. In addition to prayer, Bishop Conley suggested that one of the reasons that young men are attracted to the priesthood in Lincoln is due to “the security of knowing that the Diocese of Lincoln is 100% faith-ful to Church teaching on faith and morals.”

This is exactly what Archbishop Curtiss said back in 1996, and our data still demonstrate: Where there is ortho-doxy, there are vocations.

______________________________ Anne Hendershott is professor of sociology and director of the Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life at Francis-can University of Steubenville. Makenzie White, who is a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh, is Anne Hendershott’s research assistant.

A Vulnerable Church Can Not Afford to Forget Its Enemies By Bob Sullivan

The 1960s were extremely hard on the Catholic Church. The damage done by relativism, contraception, abor-tion, no-fault divorce (summed up as the Sexual Revolution) and Cultural Marxism has resonated for five decades. When dissident priests such as Fr. Charles Curran advocated for a distorted version of social justice in Catholic colleges and universities, the prophetic teaching of Humane Vitae and the true intent of the Vatican II documents were mutilated by the secular media as well as by many Catholic writers and theologians who misused their skills to attack the kingdom of God.

At a time when sound catechesis and evangelization could have impacted the largest generation of high school and college aged Catholics in the history of the US, misinformation, confusion and outright heresy prevailed in many classrooms and too many Catholic churches across the country.

“Catholic” schools have now churned out hundreds of thousands of graduates who have little or no concept of what the Church actually taught, much less the sound reasoning, science and scriptural basis for her teachings. Some of these graduates are now tenured teachers, department chairs at colleges and universities, some are in the

hierarchy of the Church in the US, and some are at very high levels of our state and federal governments. Many more are the parents and grandparents to generations who received their catechesis and evangelization through the words and deeds of people who live lives of little or no witness to an ortho-dox Catholic faith. Some faithful Catholics made it through the 1960s, 70s, and 80s with a firm and authentic Catholic faith, but as we look back on the decline of Christianity in the US since 1960, we see that these Catholics are the excep-tion to the rule. Yet these faithful Catholics have been our lifeline to ortho-dox Catholicism. In 1965, there were about 46 million Catholics in the United States and 55 percent of whom attended Mass on a weekly basis. Today, we have about 73 million Catholics in the country and only 23 percent of us attend Mass on a weekly basis. If you do the math, you will find that there are over 8 mil-lion fewer Catholics at Mass this weekend, than there were on the same weekend in 1965. If you compare today to 1950, the numbers are even more depressing. Some sources say the weekly Mass attendance in the 1950s was

more than 70 percent. Catholicism has been on a 70-year slide in the US. We have more people who identify as Catholic than at any

One liturgical experiment that drives people out of the Church

Pequeños Pepper 12 June 2018

time in our history, but we have less than half of the sacramental marriages and baptisms we had in 1965. There has also been a 37 percent decrease in the number of priests since 1965 and a 75 percent decrease in religious sis-ters (nuns). If the American Catholic Church was a publicly traded company on the stock exchange, our shares would be extremely cheap, if they had any value at all.

The vultures sense that the Church is weak. Because we are so weak, we cannot forget the things of the past. In 2016, WikiLeaks released emails from John Podesta, which confirm that there were groups specifically formed to cause the corruption and/or destruction of the Catholic Church in the US. The email exchange was between Sandy Newman at Voices for Progress and John Podesta in his capacity as Chairman of the Board of the Center For American Progress, a progressive think tank in Washington, D.C. Their brief email exchange is set forth below:

On February 10, 2012, Newman wrote:

This whole controversy with the bishops opposing contraceptive coverage even though 98% of Catho-lic women (and their conjugal partners) have used contraception has me thinking… There needs to be a Catholic Spring, in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a middle ages dictatorship and the beginning of a little democracy and respect for gender equality in the Catholic Church. Is contra-ceptive coverage an issue around which that could happen. The Bishops will undoubtedly continue the fight.

Does the Catholic Hospital Association support of the Admini-stration’s new policy, together with “the 98%” create an opportu-nity?

Of course, this idea may just reveal my total lack of under-standing of the Catholic church, the economic power it can bring to bear against nuns and priests who count on it for their mainte-nance, etc. Even if the idea isn’t crazy, I don’t qualify to be in-volved and I have not thought at all about how one would “plant the seeds of the revolution,” or who would plant them.

Just wondering… On February 11, 2012, Podesta responded:

Re: opening for a Catholic Spring? just musing . . .

We created Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good to organize for a moment like this. But I think it lacks the leadership to do so now. Likewise, Catholics United. Like most Spring move-ments, I think this one will have to be bottom up. I’ll discuss with Tara. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is the other person to consult.

The “Tara” referenced by Podesta was likely Tara McGuinness. On February 12, 2012, McGuinness had an

article published by New Republic which fit in perfectly with the musings of Newman and Podesta. In the article, McGuinness says that “Mine is a family in which priests and nuns outweigh any other profession except nurses.” In the article, McGuinness (who does not claim to be Catholic herself) was trying to use her Catholic affiliations in order to attack USCCB’s opposition to the contraceptive coverage in the Affordable Care Act.

Notice that McGuinness’ article was published within one day of John Podesta’s response to Newman. But let’s look at the emails a little closer to see what has been going on in the powerful circles at the highest

level of American politics and government. First, we have an email that calls for a “Catholic Spring.” If you recall December 2010 through 2011, gave us the “Arab Spring” in numerous North African and Middle Eastern countries which resulted in the total overthrow (often through extreme violence and chaos) of established power in those countries. Podesta’s reference to “a moment like this” indicates he was familiar with the term and the concept.

Newman saw the contraception issue as a potential spark for the destruction of the Catholic Church in the US. But due to his lack of familiarity with the Catholic Church, he turned to Podesta, who represents himself as a mem-ber of the Catholic Church. Newman wondered who could “plant the seeds of the revolution.”

Podesta drew on his apparent knowledge of a longstanding effort to destroy the Catholic Church, which is a strange interest for someone who claims to be Catholic. He informed Newman of at least two organizations which were founded for the specific purpose of starting a revolution in the American Catholic Church: Alliance For The

John Podesta

[T]here were groups specifically formed to cause the

corruption and/or destruction of the Catholic

Church in the US.

Pequeños Pepper 13 June 2018

Common Good and Catholics United. But he had his doubts as to their potential for success due to what he deemed to be weak leadership. Instead, he recommends “Tara,” who is likely the author of the article which shows up the following day, and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.

Who are all these people and organizations? You probably recall that John Podesta was Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager and would have likely been her

Chief of Staff had she won the election. Sandy Newman was simply a non-Catholic progressive who wanted to advance the progressive agenda by de-

stroying the Catholic Church. Newman founded Voices for Progress in 2009. Tara McGuinness was the Senior Vice President for Center for American Progress Action and Communica-

tions in February, 2012 (at the time her article was published by New Republic). Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is the oldest child of Bobby Kennedy. In 2012, she was chair of the American

Bridge, an organization which raised funds for Democratic candidates and causes. She was also on the board of directors of the Center for American Progress. On February 13, 2012, she appeared on C-Span, speaking out

against the Bishops’ opposition to the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act. It does not appear to be a coincidence that her television appearance took place two days after Podesta’s response to Sandy Newman. Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG) was started by Alexia Kelly after John Kerry’s failed bid for the presidency in 2004. Kelly was Kerry’s religious outreach coordinator during his campaign. CACG has received substantial funding from George Soros and was closely affiliated with Podesta, Catholics United, Catholics for Choice and other organizations who falsely claimed to be Catholic. CACG’s primary objective was to advance access to contraception and abortion. At this time, CACG appears to be inactive, but the people behind it and the agenda it embraced are anything but inactive. Since Kelly once worked for the USCCB’s Catholic Campaign for Human Develop-ment, we can expect to see her involved in something similar to CACG in the near future. Catholics United (CU) aggressively promoted same-sex “marriage” as well as numerous other issues which contradict the Church teachings on morality.

CU’s executive director is James Salt, who used to work for Kathleen Sibelius, a self-described pro-choice Catho-lic and the former Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Barack Obama.

We are all wise to respect passages such as Proverbs 6:16-20,

There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil, a lying witness who testifies falsely, and one who sows discord in a family. My child, keep your father’s commandment, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

Here is the point of all of this. In today’s fast-paced world of constant information and distraction, we are prone

to forget important things that happened less than a few days ago, much less years ago. One tragedy replaces an-other, one atrocity casts its shadow over the prior atrocity… We don’t want to think about Stephen Paddock, An-thony Weiner, Abdelhamid Abaaoud or Jerry Sandusky, and we don’t have to because they will be superseded by a new mass murderer, pervert, terrorist or pedophile before we know it.

As Catholics, we need to remember that there are well-connected and well-funded people who were trying to dismantle the Catholic Church right here in our very own country. We need to realize that these people have not gone away, nor have they given up. At best, they have taken a break until they are called into action once again. More likely, they have been working quietly, sowing seeds of revolution in the hope that revolutionaries will spring up as soon as the moment is right.

We must remain diligent and make sure that the USCCB is not employing the likes of Alexia Kelly, that people

Pequeños Pepper 14 June 2018

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like Jeannine Gramick are not welcomed into your parish as legitimate “Catholic” speakers and that groups like New Ways Ministries or Catholics for Choice and publications like the National Catholic Reporter, are not mis-taken for trusted sources of Catholic information.

As we can see, a simple email exchange can result in the publication of propaganda within 24 hours and a tele-vision appearance within 48 hours. The power of those who hate the Church is capable of spewing out propaganda at a moment’s notice. Such is the benefit of not needing to be accurate or true.

The poor catechesis and evangelization after the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s has resulted in a lot of very devious people who claim to be Catholic, yet they plot revolution against the Church’s teachings. It is our job to make sure the influence of these people does not give rise to a revolt against those bishops, priests, institutions and lay Catholic leaders who remain faithful to the Church on matters of faith and morals.

We must remain familiar with the names of these individuals and these organizations as well as their tactics so we can spot illegitimate claims and propaganda when we see them. We must also keep other faithful Catholics informed, so people are not duped into trusting a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

The Touching Encouragement of an Archbishop By Francis Slobodnik

There are many ways, big and small, to fight against today’s anti-Christian culture. There are public displays of Faith that are impressive in their scope and organiza-

tion. This can be seen every year at the National March for Life as well as similar marches in states and cities all across America. There are also tens of thousands of Public Square Rosary Rallies, and rallies in defense of traditional marriage nationwide. Still others hold public rallies of reparation and protest against blasphemy, Satanism or public vice. All these actions have a great impact far beyond what the participants imagine.

There are more private actions that are also essential. Unseen heroic pro-lifers pray, inform and counsel at abortion clinics. Families, friends and individuals pray the rosary together in their adoration chapels, homes and schools. Some pray grace before meals in public. Some speak out or turn away when improper conversation takes place at work. These acts also have a tremendous effect.

However, one powerful witness to Catholic moral teaching is the willingness of many generous parents to accept a large family from God and thus fulfill His command to, “be fruitful and multiply.”

Today, so many couples, even Catholic couples, desire only one or two children, or even no children at all. They use contraception to prevent new life and live a selfish life turned toward pleasure. Such behavior is a denial of God’s providence and the order He put in society. In the past, most families had numerous children and made great sacrifices out of love for God and for the precious children God gifted to them. During those times, God was first, then one’s family. Careers and material things were rated way down the scale.

One touching gesture to encourage large families in these neo-pagan times is that of Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Kansas City, Kansas archdiocese. For four years, he has been doing something unique that pro-motes the beauty of large families. Whenever a family has more than two children, Archbishop Naumann has offered to personally baptize any additional child.

In a 2014 column in the archdiocesan paper, The Leaven, the archbishop stated, “The question for Catholic couples should not be: How many children do we want to have?” Archbishop Naumann then outlined his new

Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Kansas City, Kansas Archdiocese

Pequeños Pepper 15 June 2018

June Calendar

Los Pequeños Monthly Meeting

June 22, 2018 Call (505) 293-8006 for information.

Pro-life Prayer: Planned Parenthood Abortuary

701 San Mateo Blvd. Holy Innocents Chapel:

(505) 266-4100 Times: Monday-Friday 8 AM – 3 PM

Helpers of God’s Precious Infants

Planned Parenthood Abortuary 701 San Mateo Blvd.

Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays: 8 AM – 11:30 AM Wednesdays: 12 Noon – 3:00 PM

For more information, call Phil Leahy: (505) 440-3040

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policy saying that “as a small gesture to encour-age Catholic married couples to be generous in their openness to life, I am offering to baptize any child who is at least a couple’s third child…. My purpose in doing this is to demon-strate my personal support for those couples who take seriously the call to be generous in cooperating with God’s grace in giving life.”

This is an excellent initiative to promote Christian society, life and the family. The archbishop describes this gesture as small but it is also great in meaning. Archbishops have many responsibilities and busy schedules. Tak-ing time to baptize numerous infants is no small action and it means a lot in the great battle for Christian culture. Indeed, this small action is a victory that should be known and celebrated.

Such actions may seem insignificance, but when performed out of love for God, they have far reaching effects both in Heaven and on Earth. Archbishop Naumann’s baptisms of these infants brings new souls into the Church and helps fill the ranks of the Church Militant with those who will eventually, with God’s help, transform American society into a culture of life. The family is a key part of any return to God.

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"Parishioners are incarnate beings whose senses are dulled by pedestrian liturgy, banal art, amateurish music and graceless architecture. ... When we worship, should we not exult in the glory of God? Should we not offer God our best? 'My soul doth mediocritize the Lord' is not an inspiring motto."

- Dana Gioia, California's poet laureate

"Parishioners are incarnate beings whose senses are dulled by pedestrian liturgy, banal art, amateurish music and graceless architecture. ... When we worship, should we not exult in the glory of God? Should we not offer God our best? 'My soul doth mediocritize the Lord' is not an inspiring motto."

- Dana Gioia, California's poet laureate