By DEXTER DUGGAN
PHOENIX — In what he describes as a “call to battle,” Thomas J. Olmsted, bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix, challenges men to confront evils as old as the wiles of Satan, and as current as the videos exposing Planned Parenthood barbarity.
Olmsted’s Into the Breach (www.intothebreach.net), “An Apostolic Exhortation to Catholic Men, My Spiritual Sons in the Diocese of Phoenix,” attracted wide attention on the Internet among religious observers after it was issued on the Feast of the Archangels, September 29.
Asked by The Wanderer on October 2 about reaction he’d already received, Olmsted replied, “Very positive, actually. A lot of interest. A lot of people saying, ‘What’s next?’ They want to be moved to action.”
Although he didn’t know the number of responses, Olmsted said, “I’ve been told by our media people that (reaction) is really widespread, around the country and beyond.”
The bishop’s themes may seem alien to dominant secular media, but that only illustrates the degree to which Catholics and other Christians have been immersed in a hostile culture.
Olmsted calls for Catholic men to re-engage with their responsibilities, for their own welfare and salvation, as well their families’ and society’s.
“This battle is often hidden, but the battle is real,” Olmsted writes. “It is primarily spiritual, but it is progressively killing the remaining Christian ethos in our society and culture, and even in our own homes.”
In “The Deacon’s Bench” blog at the Patheos website, Deacon Greg Kandra, of the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y., wrote on September 29:
“Bishop Thomas Olmsted just might be making history with this, and utilizing the tools of the modern era in a bold new way. This is an Apostolic Exhortation, targeting specifically men, released with its own splashy website and dramatic promotional video, almost like the trailer of a Hollywood movie.”
Blogger Fr. John T. Zuhlsdorf, a former Wanderer columnist, wrote on September 30:
“Liberal Catholics want to wussify the Church. They effectively embrace the world’s ways and think the Church should adapt her teachings and practices to shifting secular mores. They accuse those who still dare to stand up in the public square and defend what is written into our being by God and what is taught through divine revelation and the Magisterium of the Church of being ‘culture warriors’.”
However, Zuhlsdorf said: “Please, God, would that more, nay rather, all Catholic bishops would write and speak like” Olmsted.
Tom Perna, a blogger who also oversees faith-formation ministries at a Diocese of Phoenix parish, posted on September 30:
“As a Catholic man, this letter says to me that there is so much more that I should be doing in my daily life. It makes me realize that some of the decisions I chose in my youth were not the best for me. It helps me realize that I am not alone, that other men, ‘bands of brothers,’ are fighting just as I am fighting. Finally, it makes me realize that even in dark times, the light of Christ’s hope shines for all to see.
“This Apostolic Exhortation is truly a rallying call to not only the Catholic men of the Diocese of Phoenix, but to all Catholic men in every diocese in the Universal Church,” Perna continued. “The two words that came to mind when I read this letter are — Boldness and Fortitude. Bishop Olmsted speaks to his ‘spiritual sons’ in the way that we need to hear it.”
Dominant secular media may prefer to develop story lines about lesbian nuns and “welcoming” priests who scoff at the idea of personal sin, but Olmsted dares to mention the necessity to battle for one’s salvation, as well as warning of the punishment of Hell.
Olmsted enumerates “devastation (that) is all too evident” in the 21st-century United States, pointing to significant numbers of Catholics leaving the faith, as well as declines in parish religious education of children, Catholic school attendance, infant Baptism, adult Baptism, and Catholic marriages.
“This is a serious breach, a gaping hole in Christ’s battle lines,” Olmsted emphasizes. “While the Diocese of Phoenix may have fared better than these national statistics, the losses are staggering….
“As our fathers, brothers, uncles, sons, and friends fall away from the Church, they fall deeper and deeper into sin, breaking their bonds with God and leaving them vulnerable to the fires of Hell,” the bishop writes. “While we know that Christ welcomes back every repentant sinner, the truth is that large numbers of Catholic men are failing to keep the promises they made at their children’s baptisms — promises to bring them to Christ and to raise them in the faith of the Church. . . .
“Many fruits of our Christian heritage still exist, but the roots below the soil are under siege,” Olmsted continues. “Much about our culture remains good and must be preserved, but it would be foolish to ignore the current and growing trends that threaten the remaining good, and dangerous to risk squandering the patrimony with which we have been blessed.”
Olmsted also warns against “the rapid advance of a ‘gender ideology’ (that) has infected societies around the world. This ideology seeks to set aside the sexual difference created by God, to remove male and female as the normative way of understanding the human person, and in its place, to add various other ‘categories’ of sexuality.
“This ideology is destructive for individuals and society, and it is a lie,” he says. “It is harmful to the human person, and therefore, a false concept that we must oppose as Christians. At the same time, however, we are called to show compassion and provide help for those who experience confusion about their sexual identity.”
Recommending that “We look to our Savior to be transformed in Him, to be the men we are called to be, and to let others see Him in us,” Olmsted “call(s) upon my brother priests to awaken the sense of transcendence in the hearts of men through reverent and beautiful liturgy, helping men to rediscover Jesus in the Eucharist each and every Sunday.”
Citing nations where deadly persecution currently rages and courageous witness is needed, Olmsted says:
“Men, we must never believe that holiness and courage are things of the past! You and I are called to a holiness that shows Christ to the world as our forefathers have done countless times throughout history, following the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, in this time of evil’s growing boldness, each man must prepare himself for nothing less than martyrdom, whatever form this may take, and to instill in his children and grandchildren the willingness to do the same.”
At another point, he writes: “Recall the famous words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: ‘You were not made for comfort; you were made for greatness.’ Any greatness that we might merit as Catholic men depends upon this fight for holiness. It is the same fight Jesus Christ fought in the desert, and the same fight our Christian forefathers fought in order to hand down the faith.
“Woe to us if we do not pick up the weapons of the Spirit — offered to us freely — and accept them bravely and gratefully! Courage, confidence, and humble reliance on God’s infinite resources are called for here as we engage,” Olmsted writes. “Forward! Into the breach!”
The bishop reminds his readers to frequent the sacraments as well as practice daily prayer, an examination of conscience, and read the Bible.
He says men should “rise above” machismo. “The display of machismo attempts to seek safety in an image of toughness and emotionless living. However, it is merely a thin outer mask covering a deep inner fear of true bonds with others, bonds that come with true relationship and make one’s life rich and meaningful.”
Olmsted calls on men to be true to their wives and children. He notes the tragic results when they’re not:
“Today’s attack on fatherhood, and by extension, motherhood, is multi-pronged and breathtakingly damaging. Forty-one percent of children are born into unmarried homes in our day, an increase of 700 percent from 1950, when the out-of-wedlock birthrate was a mere 6 percent. These children are not fatherless because of some sweeping physical conflict, like World War II, which caused many wounds of fatherlessness, but rather because, far worse, fathers’ own willed absence is happening on a massive scale. . . .
“The child is forced to ask the question: ‘Where is my Daddy?’ What then is the impact on a child’s heart, on his or her understanding of the world, of love, and of the Heavenly Father, when the answer to this question is ‘He left us,’ or ‘I don’t know,’ or ‘From the sperm bank, and he left no contact address’?”
Despite men’s failures, Olmsted writes, “we must never give up, my sons! Pray and be renewed in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Christ strengthens us through Confession and the Holy Eucharist to spend ourselves in rebuilding fatherhood in whatever way possible.”
This Travesty Of Our Times
Drawing toward his conclusion, Olmsted notes current news about the Center for Medical Progress’ videos exposing Planned Parenthood performing abortions and dissections of infants to sell their organs to procurers.
“As I write this exhortation, videos are being released documenting the barbaric practice of selling baby body parts by Planned Parenthood. Since this infamous agency receives around half a billion dollars each year from the U.S. government, funds to carry on their slaughter of innocents, no American citizen, and certainly no man, can remain silent about this travesty of our times. We need to get off the sidelines and stand up for life on the front lines,” Olmsted writes.
“We need faith like that of our fathers who defended the children of previous generations and who gave up their own lives rather than abandon their faith in Christ,” he writes. “My sons and brothers, men of the Diocese of Phoenix, we need you to step into the breach!”
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