Culture of Care

Pope Francis gets to the heart of the matter. The outcry from the pews has been heard, but the answer is not what people want to hear: penance!

We must become a penitential people if we ever hope to root out sin among our priests and bishops. How can we fault them for sexual sins against their vocation when 85% of the laity contracept??

What is ending the scourge of abortion in this country is not laws. It's penitential prayer. It's people standing on the sidewalk in humble, penitential prayer outside of abortion sites. It seems strange to say that the end of abortion starts with my own sinful heart. I am not seeking nor will I ever seek to end a child's life, but my penance is what matters.

I did not perpetrate abuse on young men. I did not cover up knowledge of such abuse. But my penance is what matters. The entire community of God's People must make reparation for these sins of a few. It's the only solution that has ever worked in the history of the Church.

Repent! Pray and fast for an end to abortion. Pray and fast for an end to clerical corruption. Pray and fast for end to systemic racism. Pray and fast for an end to abuse of power. Pray and fast for an end to contraception. Pray and fast for all these sins that cry out to heaven. Pray and fast for an end to the Culture of Death. Heed the words of our Holy Father:

Consequently, the only way that we have to respond to this evil that has darkened so many lives is to experience it as a task regarding all of us as the People of God.  This awareness of being part of a people and a shared history will enable us to acknowledge our past sins and mistakes with a penitential openness that can allow us to be renewed from within.  Without the active participation of all the Church’s members, everything being done to uproot the culture of abuse in our communities will not be successful in generating the necessary dynamics for sound and realistic change.  The penitential dimension of fasting and prayer will help us as God’s People to come before the Lord and our wounded brothers and sisters as sinners imploring forgiveness and the grace of shame and conversion.