An Apocalyptic Pandemic

From the Pastor:    An Apocalyptic Pandemic

      I hope you can handle one more article about the sorry state of affairs in the Church hierarchy today. I promise you that I will not be continuing down this road as it really takes a toll on both the author and his readers to constantly be bringing to the surface the rotting bottom layer of garbage in the compost heap, even though we all know that this arduous task is necessary to produce the fertilizer which the crops need if they are to bear good fruit. So if you can stand the smell today, I promise that next week I will propose a solution to the mess we are in. But first I think it is important to understand how we ever got to the point where so many priests and bishops are either oblivious to, accepting of, promoting, or living the AH/HA life.
   Going back to the beginning of the “College of Cardinals” or “Conference of Bishops” in the Church, we note well that there was one immoral, non-believing traitor among the twelve Apostles, namely, Judas Iscariot. He is the only one specifically accused by Our Lord of not believing in the Eucharist (Jn 6:65,71-72) and it was at the Last Supper that, committing the mortal sin of receiving “the bread dipped” without “discerning the body”, satan entered into him (Jn 13:26-27 and I Cor. 11:29). Because Judas then despaired and killed himself he did not “reproduce”, that is, he did not live to ordain any like-minded unfaithful priests or bishops. Instead, Peter, in the midst of the holy brethren, explained the scriptures being fulfilled as they chose a worthy successor to take the place of the traitor (Acts 1:15-26). But in future times up until today occasionally Judases have been found among the Successors to the Apostles and now they sometimes reproduce, making unholy clones of themselves. Let me explain.
      In this diocese, and I assume there is something similar in most dioceses of the USA, about every five years or so the bishop sends a form to every priest asking who among their fellow priests they believe is cut out to be a bishop and why they believe that. Holiness, capability, friendliness, education, hygiene, etc., should all be weighed properly. Supposedly the bishop then reads with great care the results and, when the Papal Nuncio sends him a similar form, he has on hand a ready response and sends in the names of his very best priests. Then, when an opening arises due to a bishop dying or being transferred or whatnot, the Nuncio has at his disposal a list of the best priests of every diocese and he presents to the Pope a short list of three exceptional priests who seem best qualified for the particular diocese needing to be filled. Then the Pope prayerfully chooses one and, voila, the best priests become bishops. Unless...
      What happens if there is an AH/HA bishop, nuncio or Pope (or any combination thereof)? An AH/HA will never endorse someone who is not either AH/HA or extremely timid. Period. He can never promote someone who will fight against his personally chosen sin of damnation (though, not believing in sin or damnation he would never use such words). So if a “good” priest writes down any names, the form goes in the trash, perhaps after calling to the bishop’s attention a priest or two whom he needs to squash or continue to terrorize. He will only send to the Nuncio AH/HA priests. If the Nuncio is AH/HA he likewise screens out the priests suggested by “good” bishops. Finally, if the Pope would be AH/HA, you can guess what type of priests he would insist on ordaining as bishops and which bishops he would make Cardinals so as to solidify his power and stack the deck for the next AH/HA conclave. This reproduction process starts slowly but builds steam with every new appointment every step of the way. The more AH/HA’s involved, the faster the transformation of the diocese, the Bishops’ Conference, and the worldwide Church.
      I assume you all have seen pandemic and apocalyptic movies where a highly contagious disease is at first undetected or ignored until all of a sudden it becomes known and feared by everyone when it starts infecting huge numbers of people. Scientists race to control it knowing that if they cannot find a cure or at least isolate it, a time will soon come when it is so widespread and has caused so much death and destruction that it will become impossible to eradicate or even partially control. I believe we are seeing the second round of panic in this AH/HA contagion among Church clergy. The first time, the scientists (bishops) put on a public display of cleaning it up by getting rid of any really bad priests who were reported to be infected. And thanks be to God they did! Unfortunately, they were even willing to accept collateral damage and destroy some innocent priests, too, as part of their panicked reaction. They helped bring about a general calm as concrete results brought relief but they never revealed the essential information that they had “carriers” among themselves. With new allegations worldwide about favored bishops being diseased and others knowing and covering for them, we now get to the part of the movie that keeps us on the edge of our seat. Will the evil scientists be outed? Will the contagion be controlled? Or is it too late?
      

With prayers for your holiness,
Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka