The introit of the Mass, if you were following on the sheets that we had printed out,
it says this for the prayer.
All that thou hast done to us, O Lord, thou hast done in true judgment,
because we have sinned against thee, and we have not obeyed thy commandments.
In that prayer, there's a recognition of the misfortunes that we, as individuals,
and we can say as a nation, fall into as a result.
Of our unfaithfulness in conforming ourselves to the will of God.
That is, it's a recognition of God's just punishments
that he inflicts upon us in this world for our correction.
Now, I know that does not sound like a very nice thing,
and yet we find this truth all over the place in sacred scripture.
And again, God is a loving Father who seeks our correction.
And this is a great mercy that he discipline us as his children.
Just as a father who does not discipline his children is not a father who loves his children.
So God is a father who loves us, and therefore he disciplines us and wants to correct us.
So we see the misfortune that our country is falling into in this day.
Our country.
Finds itself in economic difficulty, the decline of the value of the dollar,
the difficulty in finding jobs nowadays, and also the slide toward socialism.
And so all of this, we can really say, is a result of what?
A lack of fidelity on the part of Catholics to conformity to the will of God,
to obedience to his commandments.
You know, today, oftentimes, we hear the talk about conservative and liberal Catholics.
And that's really, those really aren't the terms that we should be using.
You know, those are terms that are appropriate in the political realm.
But in the church, among the members of the church, it's really more accurate to speak of those who are faithful and those who are unfaithful.
Either we believe what we believe.
What we profess to believe.
And we put into practice what the church teaches.
Or we don't.
Whereas in politics, one may be a conservative or a liberal.
In the faith, one cannot be unfaithful.
We must all be faithful.
But the fact is, we have not been faithful.
And as a result, we slide out of faith.
And as a result, we slide out of faith.
And as a result, we slide out of faith.
And as a result, we slide out of faith.
And as a result, we slide out of faith.
And as a result, we slide out of faith.
And as a result, we slide into these difficulties.
We remember, before the 1960s, from what I hear of those who lived, who were alive back then,
They said our country was on the verge of becoming a Catholic nation.
Just think that Fulton Sheen had the most popular television program.
He had the most popular television program.
We think about the apparitions of Our Lady of America.
to Sister Mildred?
And what was the desire of Our Lady of America?
That our nation become the catalyst
for the entire world to propagate virtue
and especially the virtue of purity.
It's unbelievable.
And what do we see today?
Fulton Sheen is, of course,
not the most popular television show,
but what's popular on TV?
Immorality.
Indecency.
And instead of propagating purity,
what does our country propagate?
Impurity.
By means of our television, our movies, etc.
We propagate our vice, have propagated
our vices and sins throughout the world.
And this largely due to unfaithful Catholics.
In particular, the clergy.
Because infidelity among Catholics
always begins,
at the top,
among the clergy.
We go back to 1968
when Pope Paul VI
issued his encyclical
Humanae Vitae
on contraception,
declaring that contraception is immoral.
That it is a mortal sin,
intrinsically evil,
contrary to the meaning
of human sexuality.
And this,
by a great number of the clergy,
was rejected.
You can say by a majority of the clergy,
it was rejected.
In fact, last year,
for the 40th anniversary
of this document,
Human Life International,
headed by a very faithful priest,
Father Eidenhower,
they initiated what's called
the Clergy Pledge of Ascent
to Humanae Vitae.
The Clergy Pledge of Ascent.
to Humanae Vitae.
Now, the fact
that such an initiative
to have the clergy pledge assent
to a papal encyclical
is seen as necessary
or even helpful
is a great commentary
on the infidelity
on the part of the clergy
with respect to this teaching.
And the rejection of Humanae Vitae
is really the reason
root cause of much of the immorality that we see in our culture. In fact, Pope Paul VI himself
predicted in that encyclical that if it were rejected, there would be cultural, widespread
cultural and spiritual degradation, which manifests themselves in broken marriages,
devastated families, and pernicious immorality. And his predictions have come true.
Because we clergy have been unfaithful. We clergy have also been unfaithful at the level
of higher education. Again, going back to the 60s, 1967, Land O'Lakes Conference.
All right, this conference had as its goal of establishing the relationship between higher
education and the hierarchy of the church. It was basically a declaration of
independence from the hierarchy, divorcing Catholic University from the life of faith.
The statement itself says this, to perform its teaching and research functions effectively,
the Catholic University must have a true autonomy and academic freedom in the face of authority of
whatever kind, lay or clerical, external to the academic community itself. And this was signed by the
presidents of Georgetown, Boston College, Fordham, and Notre Dame. And those presidents were all priests.
In fact, this statement was signed by 26 representatives. And 21 of them were clergy.
Now, guess what? This example of disobedience. This example of infidelity starts at the top and
spreads down below.
down below, to the rest of the church, the Catholics at large.
And so we're not surprised that as a result, today, notwithstanding that the majority of
Supreme Court justices are in fact Catholic, that 30% of Congress is made up of Catholics,
we still are killing the unborn at a figure of, the most conservative figure I could find,
over 2,000 unborn babies every day are killed in America under the cover of law.
Thanks to the unfaithfulness of Catholics, especially clergy.
Again, Catholics at large today, 76% think you can still be a good Catholic,
without going to Sunday Mass. 75% have absolutely no problem with contraception.
50% consider themselves pro-choice. And the bad news goes on and on.
Total disaster with regard to the faith. And so, again, we simply recall to mind
those words of the introit of the Mass today.
All that thou hast done, all that thou hast done,
all that thou hast done, all that thou hast done, all that thou hast done, all that thou hast done,
all that thou hast done to us, O Lord, thou hast done in true judgment,
because we have sinned against thee, and we have not obeyed thy commandments.
And so, again, we simply recall to mind those words of the introit of the Mass.
And so, again, we simply recall to mind those words of the Mass.