The NZ Conference of Catholic Bishops' election statement released today is actually anti-Catholic. Abandoning Church teaching on socialism, the Bishops have jumped ship and climbed on board the post-conciliar, apostate, left-wing Francis church whose "social justice" mantra is only the condemned Liberation Theology by another name.
The Bishops don't seem to realise they're addressing overwhelmingly white and Asian demographics who don't speak Te Reo. To use it in this context is bad comms, serving only to irritate or infuriate the aforementioned and shore up the "I always vote Labour" convictions of the few Maori who will read this document.
Labour 's Grant Robertson with partner Alf Kawai, 2013. Looks like he's keeping Alf out of the public eye
The election gives us all a voice and a responsibilityHe hōnore he kōroria ki te Atua, he maungarongo ki te whenua, he whakaaro pai ki ngā tāngata kātoa. Tihei mauri ora! Honour and glory to God, peace upon the land, and goodwill to all people.
Only to "people of goodwill", surely? Or can the bishops do better than the angels at Bethlehem?
Ki a tātou, ngā mokopuna o te Atua, ngā ākonga o te Ariki, to all the children of God, followers of Christ. Tēnā ano tātou kātoa kei Aotearoa. He mihi tautoko tēnēi. Greetings to all the people of this land.
"All the children of God" - i.e. the baptised - are not followers of Christ. Unfortunately, they haven't been evangelised. By you, your Excellencies.
The 2023 general election is a time to reflect on our nation and our hopes for its people. In this pre-election statement, we are writing our reflections, for those who are standing for political office, and to all voters who are invited to reflect and make their voices heard as we go as a nation to the polls.
As bishops we have reflected together in the light of the Gospels and Catholic Social Teaching on the issues affecting our country.
At this terrible and portentous moment in our history, brought upon the nation by six years of misrule and suffering from this Government's imposition of mandates for a vaccine of proven harm, NZ Catholics actually need direction from their bishops more than they need "reflections."
We have discussed the rising levels of poverty and mental health, the lack of housing in our various dioceses, and the storm events that have beset our islands as global climate change impacts on us and so many in our world.
Surely it's the spiritual causes of "rising levels of poverty" etc that need discussing, your Excellencies. That's your brief. "Rising levels of poverty" etc are only to be expected when the state of the nation's soul goes unexamined.
We lamented the growing indifference to the sanctity of life.
Lamentation is no use to the unborn and their parents. Spiritual and practical support is what they need and the front line right now is outside our hospitals, where pro-life people are being moved on by the police to somewhere else, anywhere else that's out of view of these unfortunate women - and out of view of the "doctors" and "nurses" who murder their smallest patients.
We affirmed our commitment for Te Tiriti o Waitangi as offering us a pathway of unity for our nation. And we talked about the rapidly growing toxicity in our communities that is dividing us and that generates anger, hate and even violence. These are but some of the many issues we face.
Did the Bishops talk about the preposterous claims made for Te Tiriti by Te Pati Maori, who some commentators see as the driver for Labour/Greens, and by a vociferous minority of Maori and academics who constitute a large element in the "toxicity in our communities"? ?
At the same time, we are concerned with the growing trivialisation of politics, with the focus of politicians and media being on mistakes, misdemeanours or scandals of individual parliamentarians instead of being on the scandals of poverty, mental health, and the diminishment of the sanctity and dignity of life.
But your Excellencies, are politics not poisoned by those very scandals which are caused by people, politicians and media who have forgotten God (Solzhenitsyn) because you, your Excellencies, have failed to remind them of Him? You have failed especially by your uncritical acceptance of Francis' Traditionis Custodes which has cancelled diocesan celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass, the greatest force for good on God's earth. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archbishop-vigano-pope-francis-wants-a-schism-by-excommunicating-latin-mass-devotees/
We are concerned that so many of the issues affecting all of us are treated as political footballs. Successive election-season promises and the changing of policies in line with the agenda of each new government are not working. More and more people in our land are becoming disillusioned and feel disenfranchised. Our hope is that the politicians who will form the Government that voters elect on 14 October will focus on the issues that beset us as a nation and work together across party lines to make real progress in finding genuine, lasting solutions.
Pious hopes. Such hopes need reinforcement by prayer, but where in this election statement, at this critical moment in the nation's history, is the call to prayer? Where is the reminder of Holy Mass and the Rosary as the most powerful, heaven-sent, measures for change at our disposal?
As we approach the election, we, with many of you, are asking, “Who will I vote for?”
As Christians we believe in the right relationship, the whanaungatanga, that is found in Jesus’ commands to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and your neighbour as yourself (cf. Matthew 22:37-39). These commands unfold throughout the Gospels and Catholic Social Teaching and point us to a care and concern for our neighbours, especially the poor and vulnerable.
We are reminded to have a love of the creation to which we belong and which is God’s great taonga entrusted to us for the well-being of all people.
Would the Bishops kindly direct us to Scriptural evidence specifically for "a love of creation"? All we can find is “to till [the earth] and to keep it” (Gen 2:15), which does imply caring for the earth - which any Catholic who loves God Who made it, wants to do. But tilling the earth and keeping it hardly implies or justifies the screeds of verbiage issuing from Francis on the subject. One is forced to suspect that Francis is driven more by the World Economic Forum's 2030 Agenda than by Scripture or the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.
And the three references to caring for creation in Catholic Social Teaching (CST) in the Bishops' statement reinforce the strong impression gained from Francis' inordinate ruminations that such teaching dates from Vatican II.
We remember that as life in all its stages is sacred and every life is sacred, so too we must love our foes and pray for those who persecute us, a teaching that reminds us that charity must be extended to those whose views are different from our own. So many of our nation’s issues are a fruit of not being in that right relationship.
Speaking of fruits, your Excellencies, there's that mural on the wall at St Joseph's cathedral school in Dunedin which seems to be evidence of your views on "Aroha and Diversity in Catholic Schools" - https://juliadufresne.blogspot.com/2023/09/lgbtq-propaganda-in-dunedin-catholic.html
With the ballot papers we are being asked to have our say in the future leadership of our country. We recognise it can be difficult to find a party or candidates which subscribe to all we do as the followers of Christ. In considering who you will vote for, we ask you to be informed and to look seriously at the policies of each party and the position of each individual candidate in your electorate in light of the various issues that are important to us all.
Family First's "Value Your Vote" is required reading.
At times we cannot find parties or candidates who subscribe to all we believe. When this happens, we make choices, informed by our conscience guided by the Gospel and Catholic Social Teaching, for the party or candidate which will bring forth the most common good, especially for the poor and vulnerable, and at the same time whose policies will bring forth the least moral harm.
Try Catholic Social Teaching pre-Vatican II. So in the last clause here, the Bishops seem to be saying, vote for any party but Labour, ACT or Greens. Or National, who are Labour-lite. Which leaves only the minor parties. Good!
This election campaign reminds us as a nation that we all have a voice and a responsibility. May that voice and responsibility be guided by Christ who calls all people to unity, justice and peace, and the fullness of life.
Ah, dear Bishops - Christ calls us first of all to repentance and conversion. That's why He calls you, by your ordination, to preach repentance and conversion.
We end as we began: He hōnore he kōroria ki te Atua, he maungarongo ki te whenua, he whakaaro pai ki ngā tāngata kātoa. Honour and glory to God, peace upon the land, and goodwill to all people.
Peace was announced by the angels at Bethlehem only to "people of good will". Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will (Lk 2, 14).
That is your calling, your Excellencies: to preach repentance and conversion, to increase in our country the number of men and women of good will.
✠ Stephen Lowe, Bishop of Auckland, Apostolic Administrator of Hamilton and NZCBC President
✠ Paul Martin SM, Archbishop of Wellington and NZCBC General Secretary.
✠ Michael Dooley, Bishop of Dunedin and NZCBC Vice-President
✠ Michael Gielen, Bishop of Christchurch✠ John Adams, Bishop of Palmerston North (from 30 September)
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| St John the Baptist El Greco |
John was in the desert baptizing, and preaching the baptism of penance, unto remission of sins
(Mk 1, 4)
We dont have anybody to blame but ourselves. When I immigrated here in 2013 more than 60 % of NZ identied as Christians. By the time Labour came into power it was less than 40%.
ReplyDeleteThat is on National... not Labour..
Look to Key who signed us up to UN.
The wolf in sheeps clothing.
The churches historical teachings have clearly defined socialism as a global evil. Even liberalism is not thought well off.
ReplyDeleteTrue freedom is not to do what you want when you want. It is attained but a well trained, skilled and masterful practitioner or artist who makes it all look so easy.
I read the Bishops 2023 election advice, I was left underwhelmed and directionless. I hardly know where to start but let's look at; "We affirmed our commitment for Te Tiriti o Waitangi as offering us a pathway of unity for our nation." The bishops must know that the treaty and co governance, and the politics that surround them, have become some of the most contentious issues for the upcoming election. This is the opposite of "a pathway of unity".
ReplyDeleteIt is our Catholic faith that should be unifying us (and I dont mean Catholic Social Teaching which the bishops can't stop talking about, which seems to be a radical reinterpretation of scripture designed to make God look like the original Karl Marx).