Have a Trendy Liberal Lent!

Saint Albert Gore
Patron of Green Fraud and Scientific Deception
THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Straight from the California Catholic bishops, a whole new way of observing Lent is being promoted, one which flushes the traditional meaning of Lent, and replaces it with a trendy new way to make Lent accommodate liberal Marxists, reshaping the thinking of all Catholics across the United States. Under this trendy new way of approaching Lent, the liberal Marxist environmentalists will make for better "Catholics" than those who have been faithful all their lives, because you see the environmental Marxists are already practicing and promoting the very things the California bishops are recommending. Meanwhile Catholics who observe Lent in the more traditional way will obviously not be as "good" or as "conscientious" as those that follow the trendy new way...

(California Catholic) - In its latest Public Policy Insights newsletter, emailed to subscribers on Feb. 12, the Catholic Legislative Network is recommending a new way to observe Lent, which begins tomorrow. The newsletter is produced by the California Catholic Conference, the lobbying arm of the state’s bishops.

“As the Lenten season arrives, the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change has provided Catholics, schools and organizations with more tools and resources for its annual Catholic Climate Covenant,” says the newsletter. “The Coalition was formed three and a half years ago to help implement the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) 2001 initiative ‘Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good.’ Launched last year, the Covenant revolves around the St. Francis Pledge, which correlates five key actions -- pray, learn, assess, act and advocate -- to the issues of the environment and poverty.”

According to the newsletter, “the Archdiocese of Washington's Environmental Outreach Committee has created a particularly useful new tool: a calendar that lists 40 carbon-fasting measures individuals can take to reduce their carbon footprint.” The newsletter provides a link to the full calendar.

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The Catholic Knight observes three main problems with this whole thing...

1. The "science" backing man-made global warming (climate change) is flawed and in many cases fraudulent. Therefore, there is little real evidence that reducing one's "carbon footprint" really does anything to stop global warming, which no longer exists by the way, as temperatures have been trending downward for years now (2005 to 2010).
2. The "message" of the global warming (climate change) environmentalists is Marxism plain and simple. It is a shrouded attempt at wealth redistribution and massive government control over the private sector and the daily lives of everyday people. It is harmful to the developing third-world, and threatens to turn their poverty into desperation.
   
3. The "effect" of global warming (climate change) is to focus on mankind and it's relationship to the earth, more so than mankind's relationship with God, let alone somebody's personal relationship with God. It is a man-centered philosophy at best, or an earth-centered form of Paganism at worst, and completely inconsistent with the Catholic Christian faith.

Now there is a place for green thinking within Catholicism. The pope has laid out the framework for this already. It would be nice if the California Catholic bishops followed it. For starters, our green thinking must not replace our general thinking in regards to our relationship with God and our fellow man. Second, any actions taken to help the environment must not be done in a way that harms our fellow man, especially the weakest among us who are poor, and especially those in the developing third world. Third, our interventions should be based on sound science, and not panic driven hype based on pseudo-science (and falsified records) for the purpose of driving people and governments into doing something they wouldn't ordinarily do.

It is the opinion of "The Catholic Knight' that the California Catholic bishops, along with the U.S. Catholic bishops (USCCB), have a lot more important things to do then issue ridiculous new trendy ways of observing Lent that are not based in reality and do little to nothing to help the spiritual development of everyday Catholics. In an age of a cultural holocaust called abortion-on-demand, a homosexual takeover that threatens our religious freedom, and rampant sexual promiscuity among our youth that has lasted some two generations now, it seems to me the California Catholic bishops could think of a few better ways to observe Lent this year.

On a personal note, 'The Catholic Knight' has been ignoring trendy Lenten fasts for years now. My personal Lenten observance involves traditional practices, such as fasting and abstinence from meat and sweets on Fridays at the very least. The money saved on meat and sweets is given to the poor and 'crisis pregnancy centers.' Then of course I engage in traditional Lenten meditations to get back to the core of what the Catholic Christian faith is all about. That's it. It's all I have time for in my busy life, and it's practical. As far as I'm concerned, putting an emphasis on my "carbon footprint" as a main focus of Lent is a distraction from the true meaning of Lent, and in the end will only serve to pull more Catholics away from the faith, as they become more and more confused on what the faith is really about.