“Just another guy with a blog.  No big whoop.”

November 12, 2009

St. Louis Archbishop Carlson Now Under Media Attack


I'll tell you what. I am
stoked to see the new wave of American bishops taking courageous, articulate, and effective public stands against evil in its many forms. This is exactly what the Heavenly Doctor ordered (John 10:11-15), and it's something I haven't seen, at least not like this, not in such numbers, in my nearly 50 years of being Catholic. Thank God Almighty that more and more of our bishops are standing up like men to fight the good fight. May the Lord strengthen them!

Those thoughts were prompted by an article I saw just now at the St. Louis Catholic Blog which details how the media has now turned its guns on Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis because of his efforts to rally resistance to uphold and defend the traditional understanding of marriage (i.e., one man and one woman).
Archbishop Robert J. Carlson [is under attack] for donating to the effort to uphold traditional marriage in Maine. This successful effort defeated a ballot initiative that would have allowed couples to pretend that living in a sodomitical relationship is the same as marriage, with all of the attendant legal rights and obligations thereof.

Tim Townsend
has the story at STLToday. He attempts to paint the Church in a bad light by juxtaposing this donation against the layoffs this summer at Catholic Charities:

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The St. Louis Archdiocese released the following statement to the Post-Dispatch:


In June of this year, Archbishop Richard Malone of Portland, Maine sent a letter to all U.S. bishops asking for financial support for issues the church considers to be moral issues. Archbishop Robert J. Carlson approved a donation for $10,000 which was charged to the special needs fund. This fund has traditionally been the archbishop’s for discretionary spending, not for formal operations, and is funded by private gifts. These funds were already available when Archbishop Carlson arrived in St. Louis. Archbishops of St. Louis have made donations in the past to help other dioceses around the world for various causes ranging from disaster relief, to pro-life issues.

Carlson was installed on June 10. The contribution from the St. Louis Archdiocese was received by the Portland diocese on July 16.

Less than a month earlier, on June 22, the archdiocese eliminated four positions at Catholic Charities, the largest private provider of social services in Missouri. Catholic Charities president, Monsignor Mark Ullrich
said at the time that the job cuts were “due to our need to economically downsize.”

The archdiocese has been stung by the struggling economy. In January, it eliminated 25 part-time and full-time positions - representing 6 percent of the jobs within its administrative and educational offices, not including Catholic Charities. Last November, the archdiocese said its revenue had dropped 37 percent because of decreases in investment income and contributions.

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See, the insinuation here is that the Archdiocese is either lying about the reasons for the layoffs, or else is willing to spend money to discriminate against homosexuals but won't spend money to help the poor. A pretty lame effort, even for the Post-Dispatch.

Please Pray for My Little Grandson, Killian Patrick



Many of you have been following the saga of Killian's premature birth almost a month ago. He was born three months early, but he's been improving, little by little, ever since. There is, however, a major new setback the little man has to face: surgery today, starting at 2:00 p.m. ET. In other words, he is in surgery right now, as I post this.

My son Timothy has posted updates on Killian on his blog with an explanation of what this surgery entails.

Everyone in the Madrid family would be profoundly grateful to any of you who would stop what you are doing right now and say some fervent prayers for Killian. Thank you.

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