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Book Review: Confusion in the Pews sheds light, offers answers

By Diane Levero

Every Catholic who has watched, with dismay and anger, his own particular comer of the Church self-destruct can identify with Cecilia Martin as she describes her experiences in the Diocese of St. Augustine, Florida.

In Confusion in the Pews: How We Can Make OUT Church Catholic Again-One Parish At a Time, Ms. Martin recounts her shock as a series of speakers were invited to the diocese's Marywood Retreat Center. a rabid pro-abortionist, pro­homosexual radicals, dissenting nuns and priests, and proponents of New Age spirituality and paganism.

Martin and other like-minded Catholics reacted first with calls, faxes and letters of protest to the bishop, and when they got no response, resorted to prayer vigils and picketing.

The parade of objectionable speakers continued. The protesters organized themselves into the Marywood Protectors and started a newsletter, The Catholic Advocate.

Gradually, came the realization that their experience was far from unique.

"What the Marywood Protectors discovered is a problem in the St. Augustine Diocese is a problem throughout the country," says Martin.

In general, the bishops are part of the problem. The hands of the clergy who labor under liberal bishops are tied.

That leaves the laity.

The author points out that Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said, "The laity must save the Church."

Says Martin, "Only a laity that is courageous and well-informed can do this."

In order to understand and defend their faith, Martin advises, concerned Catholics must become familiar with four basic books: the Bible, the documents of the Second Vatican Council, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the Code of Canon Law, all of which are neither hard to find nor hard to understand.

Martin then examines the major problematic areas within the Church.

Central to all abuses have been those perpetrated upon the liturgy of the Mass.

After the Second Vatican Council, the American bishops asked the International Committee for English in the Liturgy (lCEL) to translate the Latin Mass into English.

ICEL, dominated by liberal political opportunists, translated the liturgy to conform to politically correct concepts, such as gender inclusiveness, that have substantially altered the very meaning of the Sacrifice of the Mass.

Close on ICEL's heels. at diocesan and parish levels. have been the liturgists. "a new class of ecclesiastical elitist," says Martin, who constantly alter the Mass to suit the latest vogue.

Just as the language of worship affects and reflects the beliefs of worshipers, so does art and architecture. says Martin.

Under the dubious auspices of the 1978 National Conference of Catholic Bishops document. Environment and An in Catholic Worship (EACW), liturgical consult­ants have ripped out altar rails, dismantled confessionals. removed magnificent stained glass windows and thrown out statues.

Modernist architecture of the type promoted by EACW. with churches built resembling airplane hangars, gymnasiums or auditoriums. is adamantly opposed to the transcendent and sacramental nature of Catholic worship. says Martin.

She traces the unsettling phenomenon of the feminization of the Church to the late '70s, when teaching nuns. taking summer courses at universities. fell under the influence of radical feminist theology.

Many resigned as teaching nuns and. took posts in chanceries. becoming lay religious professionals: directors of religious education. parish administrators. teachers of seminarians, etc.

In these posts they push their liberal feminist ideology, calling for women's ordination, a lay-run church, and the general watering­down of Catholic doctrine.

Bishops have dragged their feet on supporting the pro-life cause in large part because of the influence of these feminist bureaucrats. says Martin.

The blight of sex. education in Catholic schools originated with a cozy relationship between Bishop James McHugh, former director of the U.S. Catholic Conference Family Life Division, the National Catholic Education Association, and Planned Parenthood's Sex Information and Education Council of the United States, which was established to introduce sex education into the schools.

The Planned Parenthood inspired sex education programs now used in Catholic schools bear much of the blame for the fact that today's Catholics are as likely to engage in promiscuity, undergo abortions, divorce and use artificial birth control as anyone else, says Martin.

The homosexual movement, recognizing the Catholic Church as its chief obstacle to complete acceptance of its lifestyle, has successfully infiltrated the Church, causing untold havoc and scandal.

Catholic pro-homosexual agencies such as Dignity and News Ways Ministry contradict Church teaching that homosexual behavior is intrinsically disordered and cannot be condoned.

The Church has been deluged with homosexual ministries, conferences, retreats, and Masses celebrated for homosexuals, culminating in the seriously flawed "pro­gay" pastoral letter, Always Our Children, from a National Conference of Catholic Bishops committee in 1997.

While the conflict over the homosexual agenda within the Church has been fairly "up front and in-your-face," the radicals' social justice agenda has been little understood and carefully concealed, says Martin.

Liberal, feminist ideologues have been promoting social justice programs that are in direct opposition to Pope Leo XII's social encyclical, Rerum Novarum and Pope John Paul II's Centesimus Annus.

One agency that has skillfully promoted the liberal political agenda under the aegis of the Catholic Church is Network, a social justice lobbying group founded by 47 nuns in 1971.

Network nuns give workshops through diocesan Justice and Peace commissions that are skillfully designed to push the liberal policies of the Democratic Party.

Although Network has shrewdly not taken any official stand on abortion, it nevertheless supports pro-abortion politicians.

Maryland's staunchly pro­abortion Senator Barbara Mikulski speaks "glowingly" of Network, says Martin.

Another questionable charitable agency, says Martin, is the Campaign for Human Development, which has funneled millions of dollars each year from trusting Catholics to organizations purportedly promoting social justice.

But recipients of CHD funds have included organizations that promote abortion, gun control and socialized medicine.

Reacting to criticism, the bishops have since overhauled CHD, forbidding grants to groups in conflict with Church teachings.

Martin also charges the bishops with giving scandal by:

Failing, for the most part, to

take a strong stance against abortion. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops' adoption of the "seamless garment" theory, used to equate abortion with all other social causes, has allowed Catholics to vote in good conscience for pro-abortion candidates.

Their "10-year pussyfooting, foot-dragging and outright cowardice" in enforcing John Paul II's Ex Garde Ecclesia, requiring Catholic Colleges and universities to be faithful to Church teachings.

How can we the laity clean up all these abuses in the Church?

Ms. Martin offers a step-by­step strategy and some valuable pointers.

Take the case of serious liturgical abuses-if you believe invalid matter is being used for Communion. for example: first, research and document the reasons for your objections.

The General Instructions for the Roman Missal, found in the Sacramentary, contains the laws governing the Mass, and will answer many of your questions.

Then approach your pastor courteously with your information­first individually, then. if necessary, with a group, and finally, by petition.

If you get nowhere with the pastor, then approach your bishop.

If letters and even a meeting with the bishop fail, go public, with fliers and pickets, to inform Catholics in general of the abuse.

The last step is often effective, says Martin, because "Disingenuous bishops fear two things: bad press and empty coffers."

When all else fails, concerned Catholics can and have appealed to Rome.

This can work as in the case of pro-homosexual activist dissenters Fr. Robert Nugent and Sr. Jeannine Gramick, who were silenced by the Vatican after numerous complaints; but it takes a long, long time, warns the author.

Ms. Martin ends her book on an optimistic note of special interest to Maryland Catholics.

After Bishop John Snyder, the liberal bishop of her Diocese of St. Augustine, retired in 2000, John Paul II named as his successor Msgr. Victor Galeone, pastor of St. Agnes Church in Catonsville, Md.

Defend Lifers, recalling the good Monsignor Galeone's participation in pro-life prayers at abortion mills, can second Ms. Martin's hope that his appointment is a sign of change for the better in the Church.