I've been making a list of moments in the past century when the [United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and its predecessors] has shown itself to be an alien, enemy force in this country. Many of these items apply also to individual bishops, of course.

1. Defied the Pope and supported the draft and U.S. entry into WWI.

2. Campaigned for high taxes, steep progressive taxes. (Anti-family.)

3. Supported national socialist health care.

4. Supported ethnic cleansing ("urban renewal").

5. Refused to teach Humanae Vitae.

6. Took the  Soviet line in Central America.

7. Took the Soviet line on nuclear weapons.

8. Silent about (or condemned) the Rescue [pro-life] Movement. Refused to teach police that removing obstacles (animate or inanimate) from clinic doorways makes one a direct accomplice to abortions.

9. Abuse scandal. Sixty-six percent of bishops hid crimes.

10. Refuse to obey Canon 915 [forbidding Holy Communion to those in mortal sin, most notably, Catholic politicians who favor abortion]. In 2004, asserted non-existent authority for bishops to command their priests to violate Canon 915.

11. Support increased immigration, when 70% of immigrants vote pro-abortion.

12. Has never seemed conscious of the Principle of Subsidiarity [which says that societal problems are best handled the closest local political authority].

Have I forgotten any?

To that question, another knowledgeable participant in our email chain reminded the good priest that the bishops also backed American entry into World War II, and did little or nothing to oppose The Bush Crusade in Mesopotamia, despite clear statements from Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI against it.

The "National Catholic War Council," the priest observed, was "founded to help Wilson get us into the war, because most Catholics were German or Irish."

Most of the episcopal war-mongering occurred because bishops feared that opposing American imperial ambitions would invite a charge of disloyalty.

Irony is, almost everything the bishops have done the past century has ended in something bad not just for Catholics but all American Christians. To put it bluntly, the bishops are disloyal; they are harming the country with their advocacy of treason.

While I am, as Westbrook Pegler wrote of himself, a member of the rabble in good standing, I am also a Catholic. I try, often without success, to be a good one. And so here I fraternally correct the princes of the Church, as is my duty, and remind them of the admonition from their predecessors: The floor of Hell is paved with the skulls of bishops.