The latest from Bill Donohue is below. Great analysis as usual.
Ten days before Christmas, we learned that Celebrity Cruises had just
announced that beginning in 2010, it would no longer have priests on board to
celebrate daily and Sunday Masses. We immediately followed up by questioning the
cruise line about its new policy. Just this week we received a reply that said,
“Out of respect for our guests of all religious faiths, Celebrity has chosen to
align the religious services provided for Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and
Interdenominational faiths effective January 4, 2010.” It added that religious
services would be provided for “the major High Holy Holidays of each respective
faith.”
What this statement failed to note is the reason for the new
policy. The following is an excerpt from the letter it sent to Catholic priests
affected by the change in policy: “While we do meet the needs of many guests
onboard by supplying a priest, we have recently encountered a great deal of
negative feedback pertaining to the ‘selective’ support of one particular
religion/faith. After many internal discussions, external research, and
marketing investigations, Celebrity Cruises will only place Roman Catholic
Priests on sailings that take place over the Easter and Christmas holiday.”
In other words, because some anti-Catholics objected to daily Mass
onboard the ship, Celebrity Cruises threw the priests—and the lay Catholic men
and women with them—overboard. Instead of standing on principle and telling
those generating the “negative feedback” that no one is forced to go to Mass,
and that tolerance demands respect for religious freedom, officials at Celebrity
Cruises decided to yield to the bigots.
The Catholic League advises all
Catholics to shop around the next time they plan to take a cruise, but not to
waste their time checking out Celebrity Cruises.
The latest from Bill Donohue is below. Great analysis as usual.
Al, This does not pertain directly to this post but I wanted to comment on the advertising of pilgrimages to the Holy Land and other cruises sponsored by Catholic organizations.
ReplyDeleteHow can any Catholic go on such a trip when Catholic Radio is pronouncing on a daily basis the holocaust and genocide of children in the womb? Is the number now approaching 60 million?
How can we in good conscience proclaim this is spiritual warfare and advertise an upcoming cruise or pilgrimage? The accused killer of the abortionist reflected the life and death struggle that takes place everyday. He was wrong in his action because he then unites himself to the culture of death.
Think about this for a second. The culture of death begins with selfishness. A cruise or a pilgrimage or even the March for Life over a weekend in DC or San Francisco is still selfish because it is limited to the extent that the sacrifice is insufficient and does not match the suffering and crisis of the mother and her unborn child.
I have written this before to many Catholic organizations and have been dismissed because it is not practical. The pilgrimage must be here in this country and must be a Walking Rosary across the U.S. and it must be represented by every Catholic who has been given the gift of grace to be on Catholic radio and television.
This would be a silent Rosary for the silence in the womb and it would be outside of our comfort in order to join in the distress of the expectant mother.
If Catholic radio and tv organizations cannot see this sacrifice as the sacrifice that we are called to make then we are a part of the culture of death due to our spiritual blindness and being conformed to the world's way of perceiving.
I hope you will seriously consider this Al.
The March for Life is selfish? A pilgrimage is selfish? I don't get it.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, If that is all you got out of what I wrote then that is why you don't get it.
ReplyDelete