Welcome to the Parallel Universe of Aging Liberal Prelates!
Our tour guide will be His Excellency Bishop Howard Hubbard, the not-soon-enough-to-be-retired ordinary who successfully oversaw the decimation of the Diocese of Albany, NY., a multi-year operation that included the implementation of The grassroots planning process, known as “Called to BE Church”, through which “33 worship sites” (otherwise known in the world redeemed by Jesus Christ as “churches” or “parishes”) were closed on his watch.
Our first stop on the tour will be… wait just a minute… who’s this?
Aha! It’s Bishop Matthew Clark, who, according to Bishop Hubbard, is “a role model, a mentor and a source of inspiration” (otherwise known in the Catholic world as the homosexual-sympathizer who was ordered by Cardinal Ratzinger in 1986 to take time out of his busy schedule engineering the destruction of the Diocese of Rochester just long enough to remove his imprimatur from Rev. Matthew Kawiak’s handbook on gay sex, contraception and masturbation).
Moving on… Bishop Hubbard wants to show us some artifacts from the Second Vatican Council, beginning with Lumen Gentium, which, according to His Excellency, “declares that the church is no longer to proceed as a perfect institution” (which in Catholic parlance means that he obstinately denies the Catholic doctrine which states that the Holy Catholic Church “is a society chartered as of right divine, perfect in its nature and in its title, to possess in itself and by itself, through the will and loving kindness of its Founder, all needful provision for its maintenance and action” – Pope Leo XIII, Immoratle Dei).
Next, our gracious docent would like to give us a look at Dei Verbum, wherein His Excellency tells us that one will discover regarding Sacred Scripture, “God’s Word is a living word, which brings about what it proclaims” (a statement in which the Catholic readily senses the stench of that central tenet of protestantism, sola scriptura, in which it is assumed that the teaching authority of the Church and the sacraments entrusted to her are unnecessary since the Bible somehow “brings about” salvation all by itself just like magic).
Bishop Hubbard would now like to call our attention to Sacrosanctum Concilium, which, as he tells it, “restores the vernacular as the ordinary way in which we celebrate the rituals of the church” (which is how liberals understand the very clear directive, “Particular law remaining in force, the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites” – SC 36).
In conclusion, His Most Excellent tour guide wants to make sure that we understand that all of those empty pews, parish closings and priest shortages aren’t really signs of trouble, but rather simply “A Vision for Parish Planning and Restructuring” in action.
“I would contend that it is not so much that Vatican II has been tried and failed but, rather, we have not tapped and unleashed fully its rich potential,” he said, referring to that “potential” newchurch for which he and other citizens of the Parallel Universe of Aging Liberal Prelates long to see.
NOTE: For those who want to learn more about the out-of-this-worldview of Bishop Clark and Bishop Hubbard, please see the aptly named article from American Magazine, Fruits of the Council.