Topic: CNSNews.com
Rev. Michael Orsi still can't decide if he's a Catholic priest or a wannabe right-wing pundit, so he's still ranting about things at CNSNews.com. He leapt aboard the anti-transgender bandwagon in his Oct. 19 column (after first ranting about "the legalization, and consequent proliferation, of marijuana"):
Transgenderism is a symptom of mental and emotional conflicts that need to be addressed before they prompt radical, self-destructive actions. But as with marijuana, we have failed to counter the strong economic incentives behind this movement. There’s big money in hormone therapies and sex-reassignment surgery.
Add to that the ideological insanity that’s promoting this nonsense even in our schools, and in spite of parents’ objections (often without their knowledge), and we’re witnessing a health crisis of monumental proportions.
People are not being helped by these barbaric procedures. Bodies are being mutilated. Families are being destroyed. Souls are being lost.
The Church — which is to say we believers who are the Church — must speak out against such plagues as marijuana and transgenderism. We certainly can’t depend on government to do it. The madness surrounding our health officials’ handling of COVID demonstrated their inability to discern appropriate preventive measures.
And now they’re issuing dire warnings about a monkeypox pandemic. Have they told us that the primary way monkeypox is transmitted is through homosexual contact?
CNS wouldn't let anyone forget how monkeypox is primarily spread.
Orsi spent his Nov. 3 column defending getting involved in politics:
I often hear complaints about “that priest down in Florida who gets involved in politics.”
Let me plead guilty to being that priest.
Clergy are often reluctant to take a public stand on political issues. They don’t want to risk alienating members of their congregations, or they fear challenges to their churches’ tax exempt status.
My view is that religious leaders must get involved in politics. Indeed, they have an obligation to address important public questions. Elections determine who will hold temporal power in the nation — and therefore, who gets to determine the civic atmosphere in which people attempt to live their faith.
Living by faith can be difficult under the best of circumstances. Right now, when so many stumbling blocks have been put in the way, conducting a moral, faith-filled life is a special challenge.
Politics matters, because souls are at stake.
Orsi then spouted righ-twing talking points on Republican hot-button issues like schools ("schools today celebrate perversion, and young people are actually groomed to take part in sexual practices that are not conducive to a healthy life and human flourishing"), border security ("Not only do we have a flood of illegal immigrants, we are being inundated with fentanyl and other dangerous drugs") and Ukraine ("We are spending billions of dollars, and putting American lives at possible risk, even raising the specter of nuclear war — all in a part of the world where we have no vital interests").
Orsi's Nov. 22 column was dedicated to bashing the Respect for Marriage Act (which the rest of CNS was already doing):
Lefty political planners are great at coming up with appealing names for laws that accomplish the exact opposite of what those names promise. Recall the Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as “Obamacare”). That law wound up costing most people more for healthcare than before the misnamed legislation.
Now we are presented with something called the Respect for Marriage Act. And a less accurate legislative title can hardly be imagined.
This bit of political sleight-of-hand doesn’t respect marriage at all — at least not marriage as it’s always been understood. What we have here instead is a brazen attempt to force people of faith into accepting relationships that are contrary to God’s law, and consequently have been considered evil by virtually every traditional religion from the beginning of civilization.
Orsi once again went into conspiracy theory territory -- spouting more right-wing tropes -- in his Dec. 15 column:
Society has reached a point where we face a choice, and it’s truly an existential choice — which is to say it touches on our very existence. We must choose between:
(A) the New World Order (otherwise referred to as the Great Reset), in which our educational paths, our economic options, and our life prospects come under central global control; or...
(B) God’s World Order (otherwise referred to as Faith), in which Jesus shows us how to live in freedom and individual moral responsibility.
I hate to say it, but right now I think the New World Order is ahead in its influence and persuasiveness. The most powerful advantage it enjoys is: fear.
Those pushing a globalist agenda have been wildly successful in ratcheting up public anxiety about a broad range of concerns, the foremost of which is climate change.
Orsi then demanded that people distrust expertise (while, of course, denying he was doing any such thing):
We saw fear at work in a similar way during the pandemic. A new illness had come upon us with unpredictable effects, and we were frightened. So we turned to the “authorities,” who told us to separate ourselves physically, wear masks and face shields, stay home, take vaccines that were developed hastily and promoted in an atmosphere of panic.
What was the result? Putting our wellbeing into the hands of “authorities,” a lot of people still got sick. Some died. Others contracted weird and damaging health conditions (often fatal) from the vaccines. Some lost jobs or businesses because of public health restrictions.
Once again we trusted those whom we believed were most qualified. And — ironically — our trust was rewarded with physical, social and economic loss.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not telling anyone to ignore genuine expertise. There’s an old saying that illustrates the folly of that: “A man who tries to be his own lawyer has a fool for a client.”
But God has given us common sense. We must be attentive and astute in discerning between those with real knowledge and those who are feeding us half-baked ideas in order to advance an agenda.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot of the latter type.
Individuals like Bill Gates, George Soros, Claus Schwab, and a host of others with global economic interests or political ambitions have determined that humanity would be better off if national boundaries, cultural distinctions, and constitutional protections were weakened (or eliminated altogether). These folks envision a system where everybody trades in one global digital currency, allowing the “authorities” to monitor our transactions and to “encourage” us toward more “sustainable” and “equitable” living arrangements.
Orsi concluded by trying to put a religious bow on things: "The greatest reset in history was accomplished by Jesus on the cross. We’re called to put our faith in him, face our fears, and choose God’s World Order."
Orsi doesn't seem to understand that Catholics would rather see a priest whose pronouncements on politics are driven by faith rather than whatever conspiracy theory he stumbled across on a right-wing website that morning.
