The Worthless USCCB

[00:00:00] Foreign. [00:00:13] Last week's USCCB meeting just highlighted what we all already know, that the USCCB is an irrelevant organization that just does more harm than good. [00:00:23] So why don't the bishops understand this and why don't they just pack up and move on and. And dispense banned the usccb that's what I want to talk about today on Christ Point. Hello, I'm Eric Simons, your host, editor in chief of Crisis magazine. Before we get started, you know what to do. [00:00:38] Smash that like button. Like we should smash the USCCB to bits. I mean that metaphorically, of course. People, we're not calling for violence in this podcast, but do commit violence to the like button and smash it and hit the subscribe button. Let other people know about our channel. Also, you can follow us on social media, Crisis magazine, and you can subscribe to our email newsletter. Just go to crisismagazine.com, put in your email address and you will get an email each morning, a friendly email, 9:00am Eastern Time, with links to our articles for that day. [00:01:12] Okay, so I want to talk to USCCB today because they had their annual meeting last week in Baltimore. But before I do, I want to tell a story. So gather your chairs around, you know, get your pipes out, whatever, get your coffee. I'm going to tell a little story. And there is a point to the story. It's related to the. It is. It has to do with usccb. [00:01:32] It's my own interaction, direct interaction. I've had. I had a few, but the main one I've had with USCCB and it really typifies the organization and the problems of the organization. [00:01:44] So back in 2011, I was contracted to write a high school textbook for a Catholic publisher. [00:01:54] And if you don't know, the USCCB had set up years before this even structure of exactly what subjects high school should Catholic high schools should cover in their religion class. [00:02:05] And they had some required courses like church history, morality, scripture, and then they had some options like Catholic social teaching, things like that. One of the options, it was Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue. Now, no book had ever been written for a Catholic publisher on ecumenism and religious dialogue, but this guy, your host, was asked to write the first one and I did. And here it is right here. Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue. What a title. [00:02:35] By Eric Sammons, part of the Didache series, which by the way, I think is an excellent series of books. [00:02:41] You know, I was contracted in 2011 and publishing it in 2013. [00:02:46] Now, just to be clear, at this time I had just started going to the Latin mass. I was very much just your stereotypical conservative, Novus ordo normie Catholic at this point. I mean, definitely conservative. I wasn't progressive. I was more traditional leaning maybe than the average conservative Catholic at that point. But really I was pretty solidly in that conservative, you know, Novus ordo Normie type attitude towards things in the church. [00:03:18] So I wrote this book from that, from that way of looking at it that's important to remember. This was not. I mean, I wouldn't write this book now, by the way, I don't think I say anything wrong in this book, but like, I'm very much completely done with ecumenism. I mean, I wrote a whole book Deadly Indifference that basically undermines the whole idea of ecumenism, most of it at least. [00:03:41] Read the book if you want to know more. But in this book, I basically just went with the company line of Catholicism with ecumenism and understanding from a conservative standpoint. So I wasn't like saying like all religions are equal or anything like that. I would write it from the perspective of the Catholic Church. So the first two chapters on Catholicism, then Orthodoxy, then Protestantism, then other religions like Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, things like that. [00:04:05] So any book, textbook for that a Catholic publisher has to publish, wants to publish, they have to submit it to the USCCB for a conformity review. [00:04:15] Now this is actually a good thing, this process. I mean, that's what you want. And the reason they implemented this, in fact, was because so many Catholic high school textbooks and, and school textbooks were so bad, they were actually explicitly heretical. So it's trying to keep that from happening. [00:04:32] So this book was submitted and I just felt like, okay, it's probably going to be fine. Might be a few little things that happen here or there that might be problems. You know, I might worded something not clearly, things like that. [00:04:45] So then we get the conformity review back from usccb. This is actually after it's published, you publish it without the conformity review connection. But then once it gets for your view, you can republish it with that kind of stamp of approval. [00:04:59] Well, it got rejected. It basically. I mean, that's not atypical for it to get rejected. It got rejected, said these, these things have to be changed in order for it to be accepted. And it was pages upon pages and pages of edits and corrections it said it needed to make to be in conformity with Catholic doctrine. Remember, that's the purpose of this. It's a conformity review to Catholic Doctrine. It's not like we like this book. We like the style. We don't like this book. We don't like. So it's just. Is it. Does it conform to Catholic doctrine or not? [00:05:30] Well, I, according to this, it did not. And I look at these pages and pages of notes, and some of them were actually some good points where it's like, okay, the way I worded something, it's not that it was heretical or didn't conform to Catholic, but it wasn't 100% clear. [00:05:45] So they gave suggestion clear. I was very appreciative of that. I thought that was great. [00:05:49] However, so much of it was not that. It was not conformity review. It was a. This, remember, this is the first time they're reviewing a high school textbook on ecumenism and dialogue. So they're new at this, too, the USCCB. This is 2014 and 15, I think they're doing this. [00:06:08] And so they're brand new at this, trying to figure out what. What is in conformity with humanism. I mean, if I say something erroneous about Protestantism, for example, that's not really out of conformity with Christian doctrine. I don't want to say something eronious about Protestantism, but it's kind of a weird situation. [00:06:24] Well, so much of it was just simply. They didn't like my tone. Now, remember, I'm writing this before I really became a trad. [00:06:34] I'm writing this and I'm trying to give the most. I'm trying to be very clear about what other restrictions religions teach, where it agrees with Catholicism and where it doesn't. Because that was kind of my mandate was, okay, make sure you're clear about what Catholicism teaches in the first few chapters. Then explain each of, you know, Orthodoxy, Protestantism, Judaism, Muslim, all that stuff. Explain what they believe, how it is also agrees with Catholicism, how it doesn't leave it at that. It's like a great. I will. [00:07:06] I want to just read a couple things of what it said, the conformity review about the section on Islam, because that was the most egregious. [00:07:15] Remember, I'm not. They're not supposed to judge. They're just supposed to judge whether or not what I wrote is a conformity with Catholic doctrine. Instead, here's what I get Overall, the tone. This is the tone about the section on Islam is negative. It seems to highlight many negatives about Islam, I.e. its conquest and hostility towards Christians, without offering similar highlights of real positives of Islam, especially practice. [00:07:39] When positives are mentioned, they are Presented in a neutral manner, I.e. the five pillars form the basis of Muslim spirituality and that's it. More precisely, compare the strong language of the first paragraph under the subtitle of the Crusades with say, the very unanimated language in the opening paragraphs under Islamic belief and practices. [00:07:59] This kind of style seems to establish a tone of we versus them and again seems to present the Muslims in a negative light by highlighting their flaws, sins while passing over less strident, colorful language, their virtues. Like the Five Pillars. [00:08:16] This latter perhaps does damage to dialogue by seemingly always pitting our best against their worst. An uneven, though perhaps unintentional way of keeping Islam in an inferior position. [00:08:28] While there are serious flaws with Islam, a book on ecumenism, interreligious dialogue, it seems best to put the other religions in a more positive light. [00:08:36] Note what was said there not one thing about this book being out of conformity with Catholicism. [00:08:44] Also, remember, I mean, read the book if you, I mean, okay, first of all, I wrote the book pretty mild. But even after I wrote it, the publisher did tone down some things. Like I had a sidebar on the difference comparing Muhammad to Jesus and how Muhammad was a military conqueror and Jesus was not. But I actually didn't like, I didn't bring up like, you know, Muhammad being like marrying a nine year old girl or anything like that. It just simply, you know, kind of was giving some facts so people would under, so Catholic children would understand the, the history of Islam and what it believed. But yet this whole thing is just about my tone about we versus Them. I mean, I didn't even have that. I mean, I have a way, way stronger tone of the, the evils of Islam today than I did, you know, 12 years ago when I wrote this, whatever it was. [00:09:32] But it's just like it, it's like it's going to present Muslims in a negative light. I mean, like, it literally says, like it's like a way of keeping Islam in an inferior position. [00:09:43] Islam is an inferior position because they're false religion and Catholicism is not. [00:09:49] I mean, I don't, I don't make the rules. I'm just simply stating. I mean, it's just a fact. Every religion other than Catholicism is in an inferior position to Catholicism because it has falsehoods in it. Duh. [00:10:03] Okay, later in this conformity review. [00:10:07] Here's, let me, I'll skip that part. Okay. [00:10:10] Is that the one. Okay, let me find the thing I was talking about. Oh yeah, it's, it quotes me in, in the book. It says, although Islam And Christianity may seem worlds apart. The two faith traditions do have a core of comm. Beliefs. For example, both worship God as the Creator and consider Abraham their father in faith. Yet they're also major points of disagreement. That's what I wrote. Sounds real crazy, doesn't it? I mean, just very kind of bland, to be honest. [00:10:35] And then the conformity review says here you can see the imbalance in tone. Even if there is obvious truth in such a statement, Muslims at least will see the negative tone here. What are you even talking about? What do I care? The book is for Catholic kids. The book is for Catholic high school students and not for Muslims. [00:10:52] If a Muslim reads it, it's by accident or because they're sitting in a Catholic classroom and learning about Catholicism. [00:10:58] I mean, it's just, It's. It's ludicrous. What? And this is the USCCB telling me that my book. Not that it's not in conformity, which is what their job was, but like, they don't like the tone and that Muslims might be offended. [00:11:11] And then they have a. I have a quote where I. They quote from my book where I said, in the year 610, Muhammad claimed to have had a vision. [00:11:18] And they say Muslims would be offended here because I said he claimed to have a vision. [00:11:24] Well, if we're Catholic and we don't. If you don't think he was just claiming. If you think he really had a vision and it was a true vision from God, then go become Muslim. What the heck are you doing? Still, as a Catholic, I mean, it's just. It's unbelievable. [00:11:39] They're afraid Muslims are going to be offended because a Catholic said that Muhammad claimed to have had a vision. [00:11:47] It's unbelievable. [00:11:49] And then, like, you know, like under the Crusades, in this first paragraph, there is truth in this. That is the Muslims sacked Jerusalem because that's what I mentioned. However, Muslims see it differently. That is, they see their seizure of the Holy Land as a liberation of sorts and that greater toleration for all was exercised under them than when Christians occupied the city. The point here is that there is a need for more nuance. And in the presentation of the Crusades in general and documentation and points offered, I don't give a flying rip how the Muslims see it. Of course they see it as good. They wouldn't have invaded and taken over the Middle east if they didn't think that was a good thing. But we don't think that's a good thing as Catholics. So in a Catholic textbook at a Catholic high school, To Catholic school children. I think it's okay to say it wasn't good that Islam took over Jerusalem, but this was exactly what I was told. I've had like 10, over 10 years to think about this. That's why I'm a little worked up about it. You wouldn't. Oh, you would not. My wife could tell you stories about how I was when I first got this report because I was just so livid, because I had purposely written the book to be relatively non controversial. I mean, to try to be as fair as possible to other religions. I even had some of the language neutered a bit by the publisher before it went to print because they wanted to make sure. So it's not like we were like, hey, this is like an SSPX book that we're trying to like, you know, say how awful the other religions are or something like that. No, this was literally trying to be a true ecumenism and a religious dialogue book. And yet the USCCB in just in its job to check for its conformity to Catholic doctrine was, Was not, Did not find the dial. You know, the way it was written, the style, it was too offensive made to Muslims just because I was simply stating facts. [00:13:35] So that's my story time, and I will calm down now. But it does lead me into the point of this podcast, which is talking about the usccb. [00:13:45] That was one. I've had a couple different, like I said, interaction with the usccb that was the most egregious. But last week, the USCCB had their annual meeting at a hotel in Baltimore. Why at a hotel Baltimore, you ask? Well, first of all, it is in Baltimore for a good reason, because Baltimore is the first C of the United States. It's the. It's the primary sea of the United States. It's the first one. So having it in Baltimore makes sense to me. Like in the Diocese of Baltimore, having a hotel, though, I mean, they just do not get the optics. Do you have to have it in a hotel conference room? It just looks like a bunch of middle managers who all decide to wear black that day, you know, at some corporate, you know, useless convention and, you know, learning how best sales techniques for, you know, selling their hair products or something like that. I mean, that's what it looks like and they don't get that at all. [00:14:38] Also, why couldn't you have it? For example, in the Diocese of Baltimore, there is the Mother Seton Shrine, which has like a, like the old. [00:14:48] Oh, I'm blanking on the seat. The Mother Ann Seton Order of Nuns they have a whole monastery there. That's that, that has lots of space. Why don't they have it there, for example? Why don't they have it? A monastery in the middle of America Sometimes. Okay, yeah. Having Baltimore every once in a while, having a hotel in Baltimore. They just don't get how awful the optics are for it. It does not look like successors to the apostles. Like I said, it looks like P and G brand managers having a corporate, you know, conference on how best to sell their products. [00:15:20] So at this meeting though, it was just nothing. Here's the thing. People might be like, what? Did something major happen at this meeting that got you so upset, Eric? I mean, what's your deal? [00:15:30] You've done a podcast before how terrible USCCB is. We know it is, but that's the thing. It was another waste of time and it was another example of how clueless the USCCB is. And I do want to say, I want to separate the USCCB from individual bishops because the whole is not the sum of the parts in this case, because usccb and I'll talk about this more in a minute. It really does. [00:15:56] It's its own entity. It's like a beast of its own. And so individual bishops, yes, make up the usccb, but it's also got its own life, obviously. It's got its staff and offices and things like that. Things it does. And the average bishop might have very little dealings with usccb, like directly. I mean, they're always going to interact with USCCB throughout the year because they're asked to vote on things or ask their opinion of things, all that stuff. [00:16:19] But for a lot of bishops, it's not like their whole life revolves around USCCB for most of them. [00:16:25] But the USCCB itself, these annual meetings just show how worthless an organization it is. I mean, here's one example. They had the Nuncio from the Vatican, Cardinal Pierre Christophe Pierre, he spoke at it. [00:16:41] And you literally could not have a better example of an out of touch bishop than this talk he gave. [00:16:51] The whole thing was about how Vatican II is the, the way forward, the only way we can really understand the church today and the way forward is through Vatican ii. And synodality is going to be the means by which we Vatican II even harder. And the, the perfect example, the, the prophet of synodality and Vatican Twoing more and more and more is, is Pope Francis. And so we have to do exactly what Pope Francis says. And Pope Leo is going to be the, the twin separated at birth of Pope Francis. And I mean, it was just so tone Deaf. I mean, he talked about vacuum two being the key, the guiding light, the map for the journey ahead, the indispensable reference point. I mean, it just was completely irrelevant to the world. And here's the thing I ask. [00:17:36] Does the average bishop who's sitting in that hotel conference room listening to him drone on about Vacant 2, what does he think? [00:17:43] Does he actually agree with him? I think some, like a Cupich would, obviously a Gregory might, a McElroy would, they'd be cheering him on. They're probably giving a big, you know, pat on the back afterwards saying, that was a great one. Man. You really hit the nail on the head. You really know what's going on. [00:17:58] But does the average bishop think that. I don't know. I mean, I honestly, I do not know the answer to that. Because how much is the, is the typical bishop's life spent speaking, hearing, you know, people like him, like Cardinal Pierre, talking about Vatican ii, hanging out with the large donors and things like that, doing like, you know, some doing confirmation masses? How much of it is actually talking to the lady in the pews, listening to them as Citadelity says we're supposed to. How much of it is really talking to them and listening to their concerns Yesterday or no, today we had an article from Cheryl Colmer out at Crisis about the USCCB meeting and I thought she made a great point. [00:18:37] She's like, why don't the bishops find out? Like, why don't they hear confessions more regularly of the laity? Then they'll find out what we're concerned about. [00:18:46] I guarantee people are not going to be there saying, father, forgive me because I threw away my aluminum can in the trash and I'm afraid that's going to bring about a greater climate change or, or father, forgive me, because I, you know, an immigrant murdered poor innocent girl last week and I had negative feeling that immigrant. And so please forgive me. What's my penance? They're not going to hear that. [00:19:16] They're going to hear people confessing about their struggles with, you know, the pornography out there with, you know, dealing with broken families, you know, frustrations with the church. They have to go to confession about it. The real life problems. [00:19:33] The bishops are given by Christ a duty to address and to try to, and try to help us with. But instead they're too busy talking about climate change and things like that now. [00:19:47] So I don't know, do the bishops think that Cardinal Pierre is right, that really, that, you know, we should be Vatican to ing harder Cidality is the way forward to Pope Francis is the prophet of our age. Or do they recognize that that is just a load of hogwash? And Colonel Pierre has no clue what's going off on in the real world, at least in America. [00:20:08] He has no clue what's going on in the pews here. He's just 100% a product of the machine, and that's all he is. So how many of the bishops are like that? Now, we did see at this meeting, one highlight that was Bishop Strickland. Bishop Strickland showed up. I didn't think he was even allowed, in fact, to be honest, when he. When he also. I saw this clip, I was like, wait a minute, they let him in. I guess if you're a bishop, even if you don't have a diocese you're assigned to, they let you in. They have to. I guess they let him in anyway. And he gave a brief intervention where he basically, you know, he goes up and he speaks. He's at the microphone, I should say, and he speaks. And he brought up that scandalous video that was going on our social media of a confirmation Mass of a man who is in a. Currently in a homosexual quote, unquote, marriage. [00:20:56] And you know, that he received communion at. And Father James Martin was pronounced because James Martin was there. Of course, this is scandalous. We know Father James Martin is trolling any orthodox Catholics. He loves to flout, you know, that he basically can't get punished even though he's going to just, you know, throw everything gay in your face. [00:21:15] But Bishop Strickland just asked, I mean, if we're talking about doctrine and, you know, practicing the doctrine, shouldn't we do something about this? [00:21:22] And of course, all it meant was, all it happened was, you know, silence. The bishops kind of looking comfortably maybe at the ceiling or at their notes or something like that, and then it was done. I mean, they just ignored them. There's the only bishop there that really spoke the truth about something that matters to us, like, for example, the ambiguities of church leaders when it comes to important teachings on sexuality. And they just ignored them. [00:21:47] And like I said, mostly the whole meeting was nothing. Now, I will say, you know, the elected president and vice president, they had elections every three years. They do this, the election for a new president. Quick, who was the last president of usccb? Who was the president, I should say probably currently president until the new ones induct. I don't know what the date is. Maybe it happened already, but who's been the president of CCB for the last three years? [00:22:11] I Bet you if I ask if I polled Catholics, no more than 1% would know. In fact, I am starting to blank on his name myself. I think he's the guy. Broglio. I can't remember his last name. He was. I think he was a bishop of military services. [00:22:24] I follow the church for a living and I don't even care and nobody else does either. So they make. It becomes like a big deal for a day or two on social media, like, oh, this person's president or whatever. It's meaningless. It does nothing. Now, I will say it was nice they voted for a guy who's clearly not terrible. Coakley Archbishop, I think of Oklahoma City. I mean, this is a guy actually found out that he's very pro life. He was actually back in 1991, arrested at a. In front of an abortion clinic. Protesting abortion clinic with Operation Rescue. Their Summer of Mercy rescues. They did in Wichita, Kansas in the summer of 1991. I remember that very well. I don't remember him personally being arrested. I just remember the Summer Mercy well. And so he's solidly pro life. I love the fact that infuriated the left Catholics, the progressive Catholics, because they thought he was this terrible thing. Now, like I said, it's not. Doesn't matter who the president of the USCCB is, but it does. It was kind of nice. But the big thing that came out of this meeting, the thing that was most like shared on social media and people talked about was the bishops. For the first time, as they said in 12 years, they decided to release a special message with the capital S and capital M. So, you know, it's important. [00:23:31] This was a special message the bishops, and they thought something was so important, so, so vital to tell the faithful that they needed to redress this. I mean, something happened that, you know, hadn't happened this important in 12 years. Was it an apology for the McCarrick business that, oh, we shouldn't have let him run free for years abusing people? [00:23:53] Was it. [00:23:54] Was it an apology for the way they handled Covid? That'd be a good special message that, you know, maybe we shouldn't have denied every single Catholic in America the sacraments for two months because of basically a. [00:24:09] A glorified cold? Yes, I know people died, but people die all the time from. From lots of things. [00:24:15] But you shut down the sacraments. You did not peop. When people are dying. It's actually when you need sacraments the most. But anyway, did they apologize for that? No, that wasn't it. They decide a special message of okay, we really need to. We're going to start civil disobedience to stop legalized abortion. We're tired of the murder of innocent human beings in the womb of their mothers. Was it a call to action to overturn gay marriage in this country? Was it a call to action of let's, you know, we have to stop the scourge of transgenderism in this country? Maybe even against political violence. [00:24:55] Like, why is it the left keeps on wanting to shoot and harm conservative politicians, conservative commentators? You maybe talk about Charlie Kirk or something like that. [00:25:05] You know, probably by now that's not what it was. I'm going to play. I cannot play the whole video, even though it's only four minutes here, because I just couldn't stand to watch it for that long. [00:25:13] Let me show you a little bit, the beginning at least, of the special message from the USCCB pastors. We, the bishops of the United States, are bound to our people by ties of communion and compassion in our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:25:28] And we are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement. We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. [00:25:44] We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to power. I mean, look how serious they are. They are very concerned. I mean, my goodness, we have the. [00:25:56] The kind of blank background, the serious faces, the whole, like, the whole genre of. You have a script that different people read from. This is a special message, folks. Astral care. We lament that some immigrants in the United States have arbitrarily lost their legal status. We are troubled by threats against the sanctity of houses of worship and the special nature of hospitals and schools. We agree. Yeah. So there we had cardinal 99, baby. Okay, I can't go any on any longer. It just. It's just too much to even listen to. So this was. Their special message was immigration. They're just so upset with what's happening with the enforcement of immigration laws in this country. That's the special message they need to have. I mean, it's like, where do you even get started how ridiculous this is, how ludicrous it is that this is the special message they made. I just want to note, for four years, for the past. Four years, before this past January, for four years, we had a president who said he was Catholic and he promoted abortion on demand and without apology. [00:27:10] He promoted gay marriage. He promoted his administration, I should say, because we all know he had no idea what was going on. But still, the point is, under his watch, they promoted transgenderism, surgeries for kids. [00:27:25] They promoted the most vile and awful behaviors. I mean, just remember the stuff that was going on. The people they had promoted to the highest offices in the administration, the degenerates, the awful people. They did. And yet, did we ever have a special message during those four years? No. According to CCB themselves and been one for 12 years. [00:27:47] We haven't needed one since 2013. [00:27:52] We didn't need one during the last part of Obama's administration. We didn't need one during Biden's administration. [00:27:57] There wasn't a special message needed during Biden's administration. Yet there is one, months into the Trump administration. [00:28:04] Why? [00:28:06] Because he's not letting every immigrant on earth show up at our borders and take over our country. [00:28:14] It's just, it's ludicrous, it's ridiculous. And it just shows how unbelievably tone deaf and out of touch our bishops are. I know what they think. [00:28:25] They think they're like these prophets speaking truth to power. [00:28:29] That's what they think they are. They picture themselves when they make this serious video, this special message with their nice, you know, dark background and their serious faces and everything. They think, okay, now we're really being bishops. We're bishoping hard now because we're being prophets. We're speaking truth to power. We're standing up to the dictator, Trump. [00:28:49] That's what we're doing. [00:28:51] But of course, did they stand up at all in 2020? [00:28:56] I mean, when everything was getting shut down under Trump, by the way, here. So if there's so much like, you know, we can stand up to him, why did they stand up to their local governor? Because really, it was the governors who implement. I mean, Trump was not innocent of the whole Covid disaster. But the point is, it was the governors who implemented it. Not a single bishop, not a single bishop in America stood up to their governor and said, now we're going to keep Mass open. We're going to keep, we'll put in some place, some, some precautions, some safety measures, but we're not going to deny sacraments to our people. We're not going to let people die without their family members needed them. We're not going to let people die without the access to the sacraments. [00:29:32] That is speaking truth to power. That is being a prophet. [00:29:36] Did they stand up to Biden when, you know, he's promoting transgenderism, abortion, gay marriage, whatever. [00:29:42] That would be speaking truth to power. That would be being prophetic. No, instead, what they do is they release a message. If you listen to the whole thing, it's the typical bishop position on immigration. They will not classify between legal and illegal. They will not make any, like. They will not give any specific endorsement of any specific measures to halt some immigration. I mean, literally, you never. They'll make the generic throwaway line about like, oh, yeah, a country can impose, you know, have certain laws, whatever, but they'll never say, yes, we think these people should not be allowed in. [00:30:18] It's never that. [00:30:19] It's always just like, you know, we need to welcome the immigrant. It's effectively open borders every single time. Which is, by the way, not the teaching of the Catholic Church. That's what's so infuriating, of course, is they're not actually doing their job as Catholic bishops of implementing church teaching. Church teaching makes it very clear that a country has the right to. To deny entry to immigrants in case of the common good and for other reasons. [00:30:44] And so, really, to be honest, the immigration debate is really for the laity, the bishops on the immigration debate, I mean, because they should just make clear that, yes, it's good when a more powerful country welcomes in members from a less powerful country, when they have a need, when those immigrants are truly needful of escaping or where they were from. There's nothing wrong with that in practice, in theory. And also, it's very good for a country to deny access if they feel like it's going to harm their own citizens to grant too much access to too many immigrants. If they just simply stated that, stated the Church teaching. Like, they could say the Church teaching abortion is always murder should never be legal. [00:31:26] Gay marriage isn't really marriage. Homosexuality is. Homosexual activity is a sin, transgenderism and mental illness. They just stated those principles. [00:31:34] They'd be doing their jobs. [00:31:38] Excuse me, I've had a cold. I'm getting over. So my throat might be given out here soon. [00:31:43] But instead, they get directly into the political realm and give their own opinions. And it is their opinions about how things should be done instead of letting the laity do that, as they should. [00:31:54] And so really, ultimately, it's clear to me that the USCCB is worthless. Now, some Catholics might be like, that's pretty strong language to say like a bunch of bishops are worthless. That's not what I'm saying. Remember what I said earlier? USCCB is different from just saying this group of these bishops, something like that. USCCB is a bureaucratic layer in the church which has no divine foundation. I want to remind you that the priesthood actually we'll start from the bomb. The Diaconate Divine foundation, the Priesthood Divine Foundation. [00:32:32] The Episcopate Divine Foundation. The Papacy Divine Foundation. [00:32:37] National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Human made in the last hundred years. In fact, it basically, you know, started up in the 20th century. [00:32:45] And I'm like, maybe it was set up for good reasons. Make things more efficient, Allow people to organize, bishops to organize and work about national issues, things like that. Okay, fine. I mean, it's not like, you know, bishops in countries have gotten together before. It's not like bishops didn't, like, you know, sometimes, you know, in countries get together and plan things, things like that. I mean, the Baltimore Catechism was planned by the bishops of America Gang together in the 19th century. But the USCCB as an entity is a modern creation that has no divine foundation. And it does more harm than it. Than it really. [00:33:20] Than any good it does. Because it just like my story, I said from the beginning, it gets this power and it doesn't keep within the boundaries of what it can do. Because now it's like, in order to have a high school textbook, it's good that the bishops, before high school textbook goes out, they say, okay, whether or not this is in conformity with Catholic doctrine, I don't have a problem with that. I think that's a good thing. I think you could have individual bishops do it, though. [00:33:48] Like, just go to the imprimatur system where a Catholic high school textbook has to be approved, given an imprimatur by the local bishop. And yes, you would have a situation where a bad bishop might give an imprimatur to one that's not truly in conformity. But what happens now is, like, you have to go through USCC bureaucracy. It wasn't a bishop, I guarantee that wrote that. All those notes about my tone about, you know, about Muslims or whatever, that was simply a bureaucrat, probably a priest, a bureaucrat working at the USCCB staff offices. That's the real issue. [00:34:20] Bishops getting together for some purpose in a country makes sense. Having an ongoing bureaucratic institution that has to justify its own existence. That's the problem. [00:34:33] That's why it becomes worthless. Because really, it's not the bishop's voice, like the divine voice of the bishops working together. Instead, it's just a bureaucratic institution that's justifying its own existence. And ultimately the problem is, is what it does is it clips the wings of the good bishops. Because what happens is good bishops don't want to speak out and go against kind of the whole institution of the USCCB but the bad bishops keep doing whatever they feel like doing. [00:35:03] And they don't. They don't get their. Their wings don't get clipped at all. Their devil wings don't get clipped. Only the angel wings get clipped. [00:35:10] I mean, what's happened, too, is we've seen how worthless it's become, how irrelevant it's become. The USCCB and this is what's almost comical about watching this video, with their serious voices and their serious faces and their, you know, their serious background and their serious look and all that stuff. [00:35:26] They don't realize what a joke they've become. They have no moral voice anymore as an institution, as the USCCB Institution of bishops. There are certain individual bishops who still do have a moral voice, obviously, Bishop Strickland, but even others, like a Bishop Cordleone or somebody like that, they do still have a moral voice. [00:35:44] They don't use it enough, I don't think, but they do have one. But the USCCB Institution has no moral voice at all. No moral authority whatsoever. [00:35:53] This video will have zero impact on politics. It will have zero impact on Catholics. It will have zero impact on anybody. What it was, was. It was a, you know, just an exercise in futility. [00:36:06] And the sad part is if they did do a video against abortion or something that really mattered, it would have a very limited effect as well because of the fact that they have squandered their voice by doing stupid videos like this one. [00:36:23] What I hope is, I hope bishops, like, in real life, start to recognize they don't need the USCCB to do their job. Like, I get there's politics involved, and if they just distance themselves too publicly in the USCCB the Vatican will probably come calling and say, why aren't you a team player? I get all that. [00:36:42] But just don't. Don't even get involved with, like, just stay as far away from the USCCB as you can and just do your job as the ordinary of your diocese and don't worry about, like, all this other stuff. Be the moral voice for your people. Like, I have a local ordinary that I need to listen to, and that's the person I should have some connection to and obedience to. Not obedience like the vow of obedience, but within the proper limits of understanding of obedience. [00:37:12] I have zero. I saw somebody literally calling for obedience to the president of usccb. I have zero obligation to obedience to him. If I'm in his diocese, I have a certain degree. [00:37:25] Not full. Like, not vow, but still some. But the president, usccb I have no vow of obedience to. I have no duty to obedience, no obligation to obedience to him. No Catholic does. And so USCCB just, I hope bishops realize it's just a organization that we all think is a joke. I mean, literally, we think it's a joke. Politicians in Washington think it's a joke. It's not like you're some powerful voice that represents millions of Catholics. [00:37:51] Everybody knows. Nobody listens to you. Everybody knows. We don't care what you think. And so just, you know, just distance yourself from the usccb. I wish the USCCB would just disband and pack it in. I know it's not going to happen. So I would just urge good bishops don't really be too associated with the usccb. I think. I think it's just not worth it. So, okay, let me look at the comments. Here we have Christopher Feeney. They are definitely, most assuredly, and absolutely worthless. Yes. The usccb, by the way, I just want to be clear. I know I'm not saying, Christopher saying this. I'm not saying bishops are worthless. We obviously need bishops. The bishops are required for our faith. They're part of the divine institution in the church. But USCCB absolutely is. Is worthless. Dave Earnhardt said Earhart says there are a few good bishops, but my archbishop isn't one of them. I just give my donations to my parish. Yeah, I don't blame you. I mean, now the parish has to usually give money to the archdiocese as well, but, yeah, support your parish as much as you can. So Juan says the USCCB never congratulated Trump for ending Roe v. Wade, but silent and devout Biden who promote lgbt. Vance should be firm with the USCCB and tell him to pound sand. Yeah. If Vance ends up becoming president, as a Catholic president, I hope he just completely ignores 100% the USCCB. I mean, Trump does, but it's a little different. [00:39:07] But you're right. Why wasn't there. Has there ever been a usccb? Congratulations for Trump? I know there was something Barron was involved with. Bishop Barron involved. Something that did say something good about the Trump administration once, but they're real quick to make special messages against Trump. And. And nothing again, nothing against Biden. [00:39:26] The eggy spammy says they stole Jerusalem, Damascus, Bethlehem, etc, and the Christians continue to survive by the Skinner teeth, yet get no support from USCC Beer nor the Vatican. Yeah, I mean, this is what he was talking about from what I read at the beginning of the program about what they were saying about how, like, we need to look at how the Muslims sacked, you know, took over Jerusalem in a more positive light. I mean, give me a break. We know what would happen if Islam took over this country. Who would be first to, to convert to Islam? [00:39:53] St. Martin said 17773 says our Lord is making them excellent teachers in spite of themselves. They are very public example of salt losing its saltiness and imminent trampling. Yeah, it actually is a good lesson for us, a good lesson, hopefully from bishops when they become bishop. Like, just, you know, don't be like this, that it's, it's, you know, even the graces of the episcopate aren't a guarantee that you're going to be strong in the faith. [00:40:17] And, you know, the pressures of this world are just too great. And so I really just pray for your bishop, pray for your local bishop. I mean, really, I'm not saying don't pray for all the bishops, but you do have a certain duty to pray for your bishop. Don't pray for the usccb, Pray for your bishop, pray for the Pope. [00:40:36] And that's really, that's your obligation. And you can pray for other bishops as well. I mean, you can pray for Bishop Strickland, Bishop Cordleone, somebody like that, Bishop Cupich, his conversion to Catholicism or whatever, but pray particularly for your own bishop, that he would be a faithful shepherd, a faithful successor to the apostles, not a middle manager meeting in a hotel in Baltimore. [00:40:59] Okay, well, that's it for now. Until next time, everybody. God love you, Sam.