Faithful Echo: Executive Summary
In an interview on Raymond Arroyo’s World Over Aug. 16 of 2018, Cardinal Raymond Burke said, “we are in the face of a very grave crisis, which is touching at the very heart of the Church because Our Lord acts on behalf of the flock through those shepherds who are ordained to act in His person, teaching, celebrating the sacraments, and governing the Church.”
Since that interview, the disappointment, frustration and anger from good, Catholic faithful has continued to simmer and, at times, boil over. Amid these challenges, the wrong strategy would be through omission to remain silent, complacent or absent. Cardinal Gerhard Müller reminded us in a manifesto of Faith, “it remains the very purpose of the Church to lead humanity to Jesus Christ, the light of the peoples.” Therefore, the costs of not responding in the right measure amid restoring order whereby the Church returns as a beacon of light will only result in grave harm to many souls and society.
If the Church is to serve as a guide for society and to be able to determine the deep conditioning of the course of History, now is the time that Clergy and Laity come together and restore the sacred trust it once shared as Christ founded. These twin towers of Catholic fidelity – Clergy and Laity – together must reestablish the principles of Christendom’s precious ensemble of spiritual, cultural, moral and social values - born of the past - poised to usher in a radiant future and perfect society…a Christian one.
Readiness to act.
Certainly, there is an obligation for justice to be restored, but we also need to restore order across several other situations in the Church. We must come together in this moment of great solidarity; ready for self-sacrifice, ready to work together for the good of all, and ready to get back to the basics. In so doing, we as the Mystical Body of Christ are certain to move beyond the fact of the obligation to fulfilling it.
“If we don’t begin to act the way we think, we will eventually think the way we act.” This epithet written by Marcel Proust an age ago encapsulates the modern Catholic dilemma said Catholic leader and senior lay organizer, Thomas J. McKenna who has been asked by His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke to spearhead this gathering together in the United States at the Faithful Echo Summit. This unique conference and time have been earmarked to begin the process of bridging the gap between clergy and laity and to answering the call to be faithful echoes of fidelity.
“The Church is not a man-made association whose structure its members voted into being at their will. It is of divine origin,” Cardinal Gerhard Müller wrote in a manifesto of Faith. As we come together to answer this call, we will embrace once again the reality the Church essentially is two distinct categories of persons, the pastors and flock; each with specific yet inextricably linked roles or ranks which they occupy within the Church.
Join faithful clergy and laity as we set forth to restore our society to its foundation of Christian order, virtuous living and to the pursuit of God’s eternal kingdom by answering the call as a faithful echo of the Church, the bell of truth that comes down from the sacred towers of Fidelity.
Won’t you join us!
