The spirit of Susan B. Anthony just now appeared to this Hermit-Priest!!!

///  The spirit of Susan B. Anthony appeared at Holy Souls Hermitage just now and told me to publicly congratulate the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation for inviting the most anti-family, anti-woman, anti-life, anti-Catholic President in the history of the nation to at least have a seat at the table. She went on to say that the warning of Pope Benedict XVI that the threat to religious liberty in the United States is unprecedented is a warning best ignored in favor of a laughter which relativizes the deaths of millions of unborn and just born, which relativizes the very real persecution of the Catholic Church that began 1 August 2012. She insisted that Jesus’ sharp condemnations of hypocrites at the very dinners to which He was invited are totally irrelevant to our niceness today. Although she was saddened that Catholic endorsement of Obama will not come with words, the actions which speak louder than any words were a consolation to her. ///end sarcasm

EXPLANATION: In the past few decades it’s been increasingly popular, now as never before, to hold that if one can make it appear that one is “distanced” from the evil that one is doing, so that public perception of the actually and none-the-less scandalously evil behavior is pretended to be minimized (regardless of whether it is or not), then it doesn’t matter what one is doing, since one’s intention is assumed to be… nice. Thus, the director of health care for a famous Archdiocese in the Eastern United States said some years ago that it would be just fine to do abortions in Catholic Hospitals since this was an outpatient procedure, and that, therefore, the Hospital itself really had nothing to do with it in public perception. Get it?

When you read rationalizations for bizarre things that happen, keep the “distancing” thing in mind. You’ll see it again and again and again. I hope that when I go before the Lord for judgment, He will not say to me: “Get away from me! Distance yourself from me, you evil doer!” Our Lord doesn’t pay the least bit of attention to distances and appearances. Come to think of it, no one else does either.

Regarding the sarcasm related to Susan B. Anthony, see this post about Nancy Pelosi’s remarks about Susan B. Anthony appearing to her at the White House.

Regarding Pope Benedict’s warning of an unprecedented attack on religious freedom, think of Stalin, think of Hitler. Pope Benedict, a German, does not take this warning lightly. He’s not laughing. He is deadly serious.