Denver Catholic

19 DENVER CATHOLIC | JULY 13-26, 2019 A PRO-LIFE JULY FOURTH It was a hot sunny day on July 4, 1776 in Philadelphia. It was 90 degrees and muggy. It was especially dif- fi cult because of all the diseases such as malaria that were mosquito borne in the southern colonies of American. It took a great deal of courage to remain in the city in the summer with the increased chance of being ill when you could be far more comfortable and safer in most other places in the British Colonies. But it was a life and death situation on this July 4 because of what was transpiring inside the Philadelphia Court House. Everyone here knew there was a self-infl icted hanging waiting for them if they actually did, and failed, what they conspired to do this day. Through the open win- dows, the gathered crowd could hear John Hancock's voice drone the list of tyrannies of King George and England causing the "Declaration of Independence" by the 53 dele- gates to the Continental Congress. The most important man-made document the world had ever known was being written in this small room in Philadelphia. It was a long declaration of 1458 words, but the declaration's heart and soul was the 37 words in the opening. We can listen in as the fi rst Americans did. "We hold these truths to be self-evi- dent, that all men are created equal , that they are endowed by their Cre- ator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Thanks to the wonderful courage and wisdom of our founding Fathers, and the bravery and strength of the common American soldier-citizen the Revolution was a miraculous success. Today, America will have a very dangerous and di« cult time in the coming months. Our Judeo-Chris- tian founding philosophy of our God-given Right to Life and our Culture of Life is being destroyed by an invincible ignorance of right and wrong, good or evil, truth or false- hood, good law and bad law. Some of the political elite are calling for a culture of death with abortion for the unborn and even those born alive. This same class of political activists have instituted physician-assisted suicide in some states. These tragic assaults on human life have brought all the evils of complete government control of the human condition as experienced in Russia, China, Cuba, North Korea, and recently Venezuela. Until 1973, when Roe v. Wade made abortion of human chil- dren a legal procedure, America protected human life in all ages and in all conditions. We have a chance to now return to the cul- ture of the love for life by selecting leaders capable of leading us back to a nation of freedom and love for all humans. So help us God. -Donald Chisholm, Dillon, CO stated goals of infi ltration by secret societies, upheaval surrounding the Second Vatican Council and liturgical reforms, and current confusions over doctrine. Accusations of Communist and Freemasonic infl uence infi ltra- tion are leveled in general fashion, without even distinguishing the dis- tinction of the two movements and their general historical trajectories, such as the dynamics of the Church in Communist nations. These complex issues are strewn together in an infelicitous manner and their signifi cance to the narrative is not always spelled out but rather implied. Sometimes they are intro- duced in such passing manners that their essence becomes obscured, such as in the Modernist controversy, a subject I've studied and taught, and which, in my opinion, is not accu- rately portrayed; and likewise with the nouvelle theologie, a movement of return to the sources of Scripture and the Fathers, which Marshall por- trays in one sided fashion, without acknowledging contributions made by these theologians, despite genuine concerns. Di¢ culties in the Church sur- rounding sexual morality are not pre- sented in light of the general cultural upheaval of the sexual revolution, but rather as a long-standing plot against the Church. His narrative also over- simplifi es the pontifi cates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI by reducing them to a few issues that fi t within his perspective and does not present the full complexity of the Vatileaks scandal. There are also some holes in the narrative. For instance, in refer- encing Bella Dodd's congressional testimony in 1953 on Communist infi ltration of the Church beginning in the 1920s, Marshall creates a list of possible Communist Cardinals. To take one example of Cardinal Francis Spellman, he was ordained a priest in 1916. One wonders how he could be part of a plot that began in the late 1920s to plant Communist seminari- ans. The former Cardinal McCarrick's time in St. Galen, Switzerland is introduced in conjunction with the nearby presence of bizarre Masonic group, but without evidence of any connection between. Pope Francis is treated as the climax of Freema- sonic infl uence without any serious exploration of his Peronist political background or the turmoil of the Jesuits during the time of his ordi- nation. Marshall also fails to consult more recent and updated research on the death of John Paul I and the assassination attempt on John Paul II, which debunk what he implies in his narrative. Overall, we should be concerned about the problematic infl uence of the modern world on the Church. Even if it is true that on occasion leading churchmen have been infl u- enced by Masonic or Communist ideology, which appears to be true, the bigger problem is that a majority of Christians have been following the world more than Christ. Rather than addressing the multifaceted and com- plex di¢ culties facing the Church in a sober and responsible way, Marshall infl ames the current crisis of the Church and in his conclusion advo- cates a "recognize and resist" mental- ity. The solution is much more fun- damental: the Church must embrace genuine reform through radical conversion to the Gospel. This will not come from policies and programs, but a deeper adherence to the truth and grace o˜ ered to us by the Church through the holiness of Christ, not the strength and purity of her own members or leaders. LETTERS courage to remain in the city in the summer with the increased chance of being ill when you could be far more comfortable and safer in most other places in the British Colonies. But it was a life and death situation on this July 4 because of what was transpiring inside the Philadelphia England causing the "Declaration of Independence" by the 53 dele- gates to the Continental Congress. The most important man-made document the world had ever known was being written in this small room in Philadelphia. It was a long declaration of 1458 that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Thanks to the wonderful courage and wisdom of our founding Fathers, and the bravery and strength of the common American soldier-citizen the Revolution was a miraculous success. Today, America will have a very

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