Some Questions for CUF's Suprenant

Blosser notes that Leon Suprenant, President of Catholics United for the Faith (CUF) has advice for Catholics who have a hard time swallowing some of the antics of various priests and Bishops. He also notes that Dale Vree of New Oxford Review, has questions about Suprenant's answers.

1) "We can't control the actions of others, but we surely can take it upon ourselves to strive to become saints. At the judgment, we will not be asked about our bishop or pastor, but we will be accountable for what we did with our own talents." (Suprenant)

Pope Felix III said, "Not to oppose error is to approve of it." Again, as Edmund Burke said, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Yes, depending on our talents, God might ask us if we stood up to a cowardly bishop or a dissident or weak-kneed pastor. Suprenant seems to think that saints are mild and gentle. However, St. Paul rebuked St. Peter to his face. St. Catherine of Siena challenged her pope. St. Thomas Aquinas said, 'When the faith is in imminent peril, prelates ought to be accused by their subjects, even in public.' (Vree)

Since bishops and pastors are our spiritual fathers, we are commanded to honor them as such by the Fourth Commandment.... [and] encourage a healthy, positive loyalty and reverence toward ... our spiritual fathers (Suprenant)

Invoking the Fourth Commandment is quite a stretch! Two-thirds of our bishops did nothing about the priestly sex scandals; they just moved the pederast priests around. (Vree, in a point which hits home in Milwaukee...)

"No," [Vree] says, "silence is not golden; it's yellow."

So Blosser, the professor, sums:

Is that the bottom line, then? Is the betrayal of silence and complicity simply a betrayal of cowardice? Or is it something different? Is it a betrayal rooted in an erroneous conception of the role of the laity vis-a-vis the clergy and their respective obedience owed to the Church and, thus, to God? Or is this no betrayal of silence and complicity at all? Is this exactly what we should be doing and no more -- praying in silence for our clerics, for our Church, for better days, "offering up" the sufferings and abuses and scandals of our present times, waiting for the Lord to act in His time?

Good questions.

Blogging is at least part of the answer. This blog is surveyed, regularly, by two or three ISP's from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. We post bits and pieces of information about Diocesan and parish affairs (as well as info on arcana like musica sacra) regularly.

Some of that stuff is "news" to the Archbishop. And sometimes, he makes the Church's position clear.