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n a recent interview on the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) Cardinal George of Chicago stated; “The conference [of bishops] isn’t supposed to engage the politics of a country directly.

“It’s supposed to give rules so that the lay people can engage their president, their congressman, their mayor. The bishops don’t elect people ... They are elected by lay people and if the world is a mess it’s the lay people’s fault because it’s their business to rule the world.

“It’s our business to govern the church. Their business is to rule the world. It’s very easy for Catholics to write to their bishops and say ‘Why don’t you do this?’ and I write back all the time and say ‘Why don’t you do it?’ because after all it’s your job and it’s not my job.”

The Cardinal’s statement indicates the reason why the church is presently paralyzed to effect moral change in society.

To a certain extent the Cardinal is right. The laity is called to live a life of holiness while working within the world to transform it. So in a certain sense one can say it is the laity’s responsibility to ensure the world does not become corrupt.

However, the Cardinal fails to mention that, since Vatican II, the bishops have not governed the church as they should have due to their own house being divided.

This division within the ranks of the Episcopate has led to a division within the ranks of the laity.

Roughly only half of all Catholics today stand behind the Pope and the orthodox teachings of the Church’s Magisterium. This is why the laity has only minimally been able to influence society. So the underlying fault for the way in which we find the world today lies with our bishops.

Of course the bishops will never admit that they are divided or that they are in any way to blame for the world’s situation and this in turn makes it doubly difficult for the laity to effectively wage a positive war against modernity.

As long as the bishops keep up their facade they will not be able to govern the church and the world will continue its descent into spiritual darkness.

Sadly, after Vatican II, numerous bishops quietly recruited modernist theologians in an attempt to adapt church teachings to modern times.

Thanks to a series of strong Popes, however, they have failed miserably.

Paul Kokoski
Hamilton, Ontario