I’ve seen so much death, corpses in the hundreds. Friends, family, neighbors, parishioners, friends’ relatives, classmates… There is a finality in a corpse that is chilling. It’s over for that individual, their destiny sealed for all eternity.
It’s over.
Wakes and funerals cause me to reflect on my own mortality, and at age fifty, I think it’s safe to say that I have lived more years than I have remaining. My self-reflections take on an added urgency when they take place in that context. I don’t want anything to do with God’s Justice when I die, just His Mercy. Who among us could withstand His Justice? When I go, I’m hoping for lots of sustained prayer for my passage through purgation, and so it is that I find myself increasingly loathe to deny people such as Ted Kennedy and Geraldine Ferraro Masses that are meant to ask for God’s Mercy on their souls.
It’s over.
If anyone in the pro-life movement gloats over their death, or wishes them anything less than God’s Love and Mercy, then such a person is in fearful danger of losing their own salvation and has no grasp of the Gospel message.
There’s worse than abortion.
There is the confused and deplorable state of our Bishops who desperately need our prayers. A priest such as Father John Corapi has been suspended from priestly function for going on three weeks, and an investigation into the allegations that he had sex with grown women has not yet begun. The investigators as of yesterday had not even been chosen. He has been thoroughly trashed in the Catholic blogosphere, with superiors claiming that he enjoys the presumption of innocence while the man drips with the mud through which he has been dragged. Many other men who have suffered false allegation have been similarly slimed by the Dallas Charter’s excesses.
Meanwhile, Catholic politicians who run on a pro-abortion platform, vote hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars for abortion and Planned Parenthood, attempt to destroy pro-life judicial nominees are accorded kid glove treatment by the bishops. They are not held up to any sort of censure, let alone excommunication, for their formal and material cooperation in the murders of scores of millions. Unlike the unsubstantiated allegations against innocent priests, these politicians have public records of their atrocities and receive the presumption of innocence (we don’t know what goes on in their hearts or in confession) from the Bishops.
Yet Canon Law requires some public act of restoration from such public apostasy and atrocity, so the Bishops are acting rather disingenuously in the Eucharist debates.
Something is radically wrong here. If the people seem indifferent to abortion, might they be mirroring their bishops? The point of public censure of such politicians is at once medicinal for the politician, and catechetical for the laity. If the Kennedy’s and Ferraro’s of our time do not merit public censure and prohibition of Eucharistic reception in life, then it seems pointless and even cruel to suddenly get serious about their souls in death.
It’s over.
We should all pray fervently for Geraldine Ferraro’s soul, and moreso for the bishops whose timidity and tolerance may well cost many their salvation.
Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon her.
May she rest in peace, Amen.
Coming Home 
I agree. Who among us is without sin. I have no right to cast a stone. Who is to know what she has said in the confessionals all those years since her campaign. No one, and no other mortal has the right to know, that is between her, her priest and God. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Amen.
A well considered post. Mercy and forgiveness. So true. And a deep desire that people would pay attention to the finality of it all.
I too have been attending many more wakes and funerals than weddings lately. although the children of friends are starting the rounds and my own brood should sustain me during these droughts.
But it is true that when I am there listening to my friends speak to the passing of their parents, or consider the loss of someone I have known in the movement for 20 or 30 years, I have the same thoughts. And especially for those whose public actions have been less than laudatory. I pray for their soul and that God would be merciful to themas I beg him to be with me.
Finally I wish that the leaders in the church would go back to the simple truths that we teach our children and act as if being a Catholic was something more than being a part of a club. It is after all all about relationship and if our relationship with God Almighty is skewed because of the failure of those in authority to teach, then truly God have mercy on us all.
Let us pray for one another.
Wow. Very thought-provoking post. I read the title and was afraid of what it might actually say because, as you mentioned, so many have been quick to somehow laud the fact that this poor woman is dead. I just remember what I’ve read about the children at Fatima seeing hell and how horrified and traumatized they were. They were adamant later that we should pray for all sinners to escape those fires of hell and that they might know God’s loving mercy. I too, pray for this for Ms. Ferraro and all those who seem to be so pro-death.
But what does this have to do with our Bishops? I never connected the dots before, but you did it for me very well. No one can escape the fact that they are the hands, feet and mouthpiece of the Gospel and the Church founded by Jesus Christ on earth. It also can’t be escaped that they have great culpability in the great injustices perpetrated on the Church through silence in the area of the sexual abuse scandals and most notably in the abortion debate where so many of them refuse to tell a public policy-making figure that they are causing scandal to the Church. I’m not necessarily in favor of immediate public denouncement, but you have to believe that some of the Bishops have fallen down on the job where public correction is in order.
Then there’s the issue of the handling of Fr. Corapi and other good priests who are, under the current “zero tolerance” policy, presumed to be guilty until proven innocent. It’s so important to note that Fr. Corapi is not accused of doing anything that would be a criminal matter, so regardless of the findings of the investigation, Fr. Corapi’s order, S.O.L.T. would handle his punishment within the order., or I would presume so. It seems though that the zero tolerance stance is merely zero tolerance for the embarassment of being accused and not really about the actual committing of the crime at all. Not fair and definitely not consistent handling here. This of course is a call to prayer and holiness for all of us. More prayer, love and mercy extended to all is never a bad thing.
This has more to do with our bishops than we may like to admit. Catholic politicians use bishops to lend them support, no, not verbally, but they rush to St Patrick’s Day parades to file past St Patrick’s Cathedral wearing shamrocks waving and smiling. What does that tell the Catholic faithful who are often too lazy to look at any programming other than ESPN and the parade?
These guys are just one of us. They’re OK to vote for.
Not so for Cardinal O’Connor. He gave pro-abortion politicians a run for their money, just ask Mario Cuomo who coined the phrase, “I’m personally opposed to abortion, but I don’t want to inflict my beliefs on others”. The good Cardinal never let him or Geraldine Ferraro away with that kind of doublespeak, and she treated him shamefully.
But, you’re right, she needs our prayers. I think the reason we balk at Catholic funerals is because they become canonizations, like Teddy Kennedy’s in Boston.
Wouldn’t it be refreshing to pro-lifers and instructive to lukewarm Catholics who see Ferraro’s funeral in the news to hear a bishop say, “we know that if she did not repent of voting for the death of millions of unborn children, then she is in hell, so let us pray for God’s mercy on her immortal soul.”
Now that’s Catholicism, justice and mercy!
Nicely done. Really if we want mercy than we seek and spread mercy. But how can mercy be offered, if we think there is no sin. Someone needs to speak up and say hey, this is wrong………so that others can see the light, repent and be reconciled. Exekial 33 comes to mind. Who is the watchman, who will speak the truth? or will we tend to our own needs and ignore what satan is doing to our people?
And on Fr Corapi, the woman who made the allegations was fired from a secular media job, which promoted Fathers stuff. She swore she would destroy him and physically attacked 2 people at work. Take it for what it is worth. Again, this poor soul is trying to destroy a beacon of light because she allowed bitterness in her heart and satan jumped onboard. Perhaps she is mentally unbalanced…..satan loves those who minds are confused or unbalanced. WE need to pray for her as we pray for our beloved priest who is undergoing a dark night in this. Make no mistake………Our Lord permitted it and Our Lord makes good out of evil! Strange world indeed……..just keep plugging on! Or as some would say, keep peddling.
Bravo. Right on the money.
[…] Comments « Abortions & Funerals, Bishops & Politicians: The Dance of Death […]
Beautifully said, and I agree. Who would know if she had a change of thought in her last remaining days or hours? Her soul, as all do, deserves prayers and mercy.
I recall a friend telling me that he met former Gov. of NY Hugh Carey in downtown Manhattan one day, and asked him about his pro-choice policies — introducing abortion statewide, I think. Carey told him that it was a big regret that he was pro-choice. Big regret. Just curious, I checked to see if he made any public statements to that effect and I found this on Wikipedia:
“…In 1989, Carey announced that he was no longer pro-choice and regretted his support for legalized abortion and public financing of abortion as governor. In 1992, he joined other pro-life leaders in signing the pro-life document “A New American Compact: Caring About Women, Caring for the Unborn.”[4] In April 2006 Carey endorsed State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer as a candidate for Governor; Spitzer went on to win the election by a large margin.
Carey endorsed U.S. Senator Barack Obama, of Illinois, for the Democratic nomination for President in 2008. He endorsed Andrew Cuomo in the New York gubernatorial election of 2010…”
Spitzer, Obama, Cuomo?
You can’t make this stuff up.
nice post Gerard.
Mary, you didn’t mention how convenient it was of former Gov. Carey to regret his stance on abortion when he wasn’t running for office anymore. 😉
Very fair and eloquent post. Unfortunately for the Church, there are few Bishop Olmsteds out there. I’d imagine that he’d take to task a pro-choice candidate claiming to be a Catholic, up to denial of the Eucharist. He’s taken his lumps for the St. Joseph’s Hospital issue and is still kicking, I believe. But how many other bishops would be willing to stand with him?
Hear! Hear!