Rome Is Burning

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It's over. At the merest mention that successors of the Apostles might grovel at the feet of infanticide-supporting Catholic politicians, begging them to refrain from receiving Holy Communion, the Vatican steps in and crushes their efforts.

After half a century of bowing to the God-hating Marxists bringing down the Church and Western Civilization, a few bishops realized that having Joe Biden as a president would be scandalous.

They didn't speak up, of course, when he ran for the Democrats' nomination. Nor did they speak up when he got the nomination. Nor did they say anything when he promised to make Roe v. Wade the "law of the land." The bishops didn't even say anything when the D.C. swamp anointed Biden president.

It was only after Biden's inauguration that a few of them thought, "Maybe we should say something."

On Jan. 20, Los Angeles archbishop Cdl. José Horacio Gómez broached the topic. As soon as he did, leftist Catholics lost their minds.

Gomez lamely offered, "Our new president has pledged to pursue certain policies that would advance moral evils and threaten human life and dignity, most seriously in the areas of abortion, contraception, marriage and gender."

He added, "Of deep concern is the liberty of the Church and the freedom of believers to live according to their consciences."

All of it is completely true and totally understated. In just over 100 days in office, Biden has shown an unwavering commitment to infanticide, the destruction of the family and forcing people to betray their consciences in support of so-called transgender ideology.

Chicago's archbishop, Cdl. Blase Cupich is the self-proclaimed mouthpiece of Pope Francis in the United States. He slammed Gómez's statement, calling it "ill-considered" and an "internal institutional failure" since it was drafted without "a collegial consultation that is [the] normal course for statements that represent and enjoy the considered endorsement of the American bishops."

Afterward, there was talk the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops would draft a letter requesting that Biden and other Catholics publicly opposing Church teaching voluntarily refrain from receiving Holy Communion.

Then, last week, the Vatican stepped in — and not just some under-secretary of a secretary, but the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cdl. Luis Ladaria, a Jesuit.

Ladaria reminded the U.S. bishops that during their 2019–2020 annual visit to the Vatican, he spoke about Catholic politicians' unworthy reception of the Holy Eucharist.

He urged them "that dialogue among the bishops [should] be undertaken to preserve the unity of the episcopal conference in the face of disagreements over this controversial topic."

Ladaria went on to say that "such a policy, given its possibly contentious nature, could have the opposite effect and become a source of discord rather than unity within the episcopate and the larger Church in the United States."

And just like that, any sort of episcopal action is snuffed out. A wise and outspoken priest, Fr. Stephen Imbarrato, on Monday offered a solid rebuttal to the Jesuit guardian of the Faith:

Division in the Church comes thru [sic] disobedience and sin alone. The Eucharist can never divide! It is heresy and other mortal sin [sic] that divide. Sins against the fifth and sixth commandments divide. Letting heresies and heretics run unabated divides. Virtue, obedience, morality and truth can never divide. Jesus in the Eucharist unites. Satan, in his defiance of the Eucharist, divides.

It's evident that many bishops have lost the Faith and do not fight for their Holy Mother Church. That leaves it to the rest of God's people to do so.

Learn more by watching The Download—Rome Is Burning.

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