Edit: Bishop Huonder has been a faithful Catholic bishop in German speaking Switzerland, possibly the only one. He's been featured here on this blog for some time, and it's a wonder he's persevered as long as he has, given the resistance of the Swiss civil servants who hold most of the official posts in his dioces and sabotage him.
We don't expect he will survive this professionally and may join other bishops like him, who've been unjustly dealt with in early retirements.
Here's an eloquent post from Deacon Keith Foirnier in defense of this embattled and noble Catholic bishop, and friend of tradition:
In the politically charged language of the present, Bishop Vitus Huonder is a “conservative” if not an “extremist.” In fact, he is simply a faithful Catholic Christian. And for that he’s being threatened with three years in jail. It’s happening in Switzerland, but the conflict epitomizes a wider phenomenon of anti-Christian secularists on both sides of the Atlantic using the courts to target Christians for simply standing up for biblical truth.
In 2011, Huonder, the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Chur in Switzerland, supported parents being able to opt out of having children as young as four subjected to mandatory “sex education” which rejected the truth about the dignity of human sexuality, the gift of sexual differentiation, and marriage. In 2013, he issued a pastoral letter to the faithful under his care exposing unbiblical gender identity theories and defending the Christian vision of the human person, the family and a truly just and human social order. He called upon the faithful of the Catholic Church to “use their social rights” to protect “the dignity of man founded on the order of Creation and of Redemption.” Last February, he called for a Swiss priest who had purportedly “blessed” the union of a lesbian couple to step down from his ministry.
Here is the challenge he faces. In Switzerland, there is a wholesale rebellion against the Christian vision of the human person, and of the family and society founded upon it. Leaders of the rebellion abhor the clear and unchangeable teaching of the Bible and the Catholic Church. Included in the ranks of these dissidents are some Catholic clerics. To say their leaders do not like this Catholic Bishop is an understatement.
https://stream.org/bishops-faces-three-years-in-jail-for-defending-marriage/
AMDG
3 comments:
If there were but a few more men like this. God uphold him and reward him.
Well he's only been the bishop of the diocese since 2007. In gonna go ahead and say that Pope Francis will be merciful and accept his early retirement.
This will, I suspect, become the 'norm' in the very near future. Faithful Christians will not only be persecuted by the state, but by the Church Herself. There is another priest, Fr. John Duffy of Toronto, Canada that has been literally 'defrocked' when he asked for help from the Diocese in trying to put to rest a group of influential parishioners who were grossly scandalizing his name. They came to have a meeting with him, in which he thought and they indicated, would be an offer of resolution....finally.....after he waited months for some kind of help. They offered to give him a meager amount of money if he would sign an affidavid stating none of this had happened, but the Diocese was free to basically refute his complaint, pretty much calling him a 'liar' at their 'discretion.' If he didn't 'sign on the dotted line' he would not receive his meager pittance and was on his own completely. So now this priest is wandering on his own and accepting whatever charity people will afford him. According to his flock, they say he is a traditional, faithful and good shepherd that was available 24/7 for whoever needed him. What is happening in the Church is no less than DIABOLICAL and these stories will increase in number. End of story.
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