[Warning: Unpleasant]
From the Daily Mail:
Catholic sex scandal as undercover reporter 'films priests at gay clubs and having casual flings'
A gay priest sex scandal has rocked the Catholic Church in Italy today after a weekly news magazine released details of a shock investigation it had carried out.Using hidden cameras, a journalist from Panorama magazine - owned by Italian Prime Minister and media baron Silvio Berlusconi - filmed three priests as they attended gay nightspots and had casual sex.Today there was no immediate comment from the Italian Bishops Conference and the Vatican - which has been rocked by a series of sex scandals involving paedophile priests since the start of the year.
The Vicariate of Rome has responded:
The Vicar of Rome today called on homosexual clergymen in the Catholic Church to “come out” and leave the priesthood. ... “No one is forcing them to stay in the priesthood to exploit the benefits,” the Diocese of Rome said in a statement posted on its Web Site. “If they are coherent, they should come out into the open.”
The whole shocking Panorama article is available in Italian here (PDF). The main character seems to have easy access to the innermost circles of the Holy See.
55 comments:
I wonder what orders they belong to.
The terrible folly of accepting that homosexuality is normal and natural.
If these perpetrators of iniquity have canonical status and faculties, well, excuse me while I go and throw up. To the old saying: "There's something rotten in Denmark", we can add: "There's something rotten in Rome, too." Incredible, absolutely incredible!
I'm actually impressed by the response of the diocese - come out and leave. Even an allusion to the "benefits" of the priesthood, as in - you're obviously taking advantage of your protected status and your guaranteed income"
This is the opposite of what would happen in the US - which would be a call to tolerance, diversity and a reminder of the special gifts of the GLBT community and parishioners forming a support group and telling the press how fantastic their gay priests are.
Perhaps the french priest is the lover of a high ranking vatican official.
Well, no surprise here. Things have always been this way, except that now they are coming into the open. Human nature can't be changed.
So another enterprising reporter points out the obvious.....there's lots of active sodomite clergy...EVEN IN ROME!!! So many homosexually-active priests and prelates infest the Church that a painfully obvious conclusion (but one that NO ONE dares say) is that the Lord Jesus has withdrawn grace from the hierarchy at this time. This is not a challenge to Holy Mother Church's indefectibility, but an empirical observation. May Christ grant His vicar, Pope Benedict XVI, the courage 'not to flee for fear of the wolves,'...(even if the wolves swish and carry purses).
Miserere nostri, Domine, miserere nostri!
I think it may be more along the lines of the folly of laymen believing that consecrated celibacy actually offers a safe and constructive way for homosexuals to live out their faith. A similar superstition is the belief that marriage, by itself, cures perverse or disordered sexual appetites. For this reason many Catholics were not bothered when Father was exhibiting slightly effeminate tendencies: they wanted to believe that, whatever his natural proclivities, he was obviously seeking God with his whole heart. Wouldn’t it be cruel to deny him both marriage (sex) and the priesthood? I think this is the real reason Catholics used to be susceptible to the lie that all of these men intended to live chaste lives, even when that obviously was not the case. Now you just have to be blind to believe that.
The response of the Cardinal-Vicar for Rome is ridiculous and foolish. This strong involvement of fallen roman clergy in sodomite circles is an open secret for many a long year. So long the scandalous mantle of secrecy is kept this Vicar remains silent but geez when the evil perversion under his very eyes is uncovered, you hear such feigned statements of consternation. It can be foreseen that none of this perverts will be expelled or deprived of their clerical status.
"The Vicar of Rome today called on homosexual clergymen in the Catholic Church to “come out” and leave the priesthood. "
Notice the Vicar called on "homosexual clergymen", to leave the priesthood.
Not just those who practice a homosexual life.
We need to hear this everywhere in the Church.
The Catholic priesthood is only for heterosexual men.
Cruise the Groove.
A few years ago, when the pervert scandal erupted into the open here in our diocese, I remember a priest telling the congregation during a week-day Mass, that in his opinion, the bishops ought to call for prayers of reparation.
Funny thing is, that just a couple of days later, Father packed up and left. I was told that in a frenzied rush, he had packed and run out the door. It seems the diocese had forewarned him that a list of priests with pedophile charges was about to be made public. His name was on that list.
I agree with Ratkaj's comment here: "The response of the Cardinal-Vicar for Rome is ridiculous and foolish. ...you hear such feigned statements of consternation."
It can be foreseen that none of this perverts will be expelled or deprived of their clerical status.
On the contrary, the Church has been expelling quite a few of these perverts lately. Why would we not take action when their crimes have been exposed and can no longer be hidden?
In the Renaissance the vice of homosexuality again became prominent. This was a matter of great concern to Pope St. Pius V. For this reason, he wrote several important documents against it beginning in the first year of his pontificate. The most important is the Constitution HORRENDUM ILLUD SCELUS.
In our days of moral relaxation and liberalization of customs, we are witnessing a shameful complacence of the religious authority - even the highest - toward the vice of homosexuality in the clergy and seminaries.
We consider it quite opportune to bring to mind those perennial, unchanging principles expressed by St. Pius V in his Apostolic Constitution. Perhaps they will open some eyes to see the depths of the abyss into which we have fallen.
St. Pius V
That horrible crime, on account of which corrupt and obscene cities were destroyed by fire through divine condemnation, causes us most bitter sorrow and shocks our mind, impelling us to repress such a crime with the greatest possible zeal.
Quite opportunely the Fifth Lateran Council [1512-1517] issued this decree: "Let any member of the clergy caught in that vice against nature, given that the wrath of God falls over the sons of perfidy, be removed from the clerical order or forced to do penance in a monastery" (chap. 4, X, V, 31).
So that the contagion of such a grave offense may not advance with greater audacity by taking advantage of impunity, which is the greatest incitement to sin, and so as to more severely punish the clerics who are guilty of this nefarious crime and who are not frightened by the death of their souls, we determine that they should be handed over to the severity of the secular authority, which enforces civil law.
Therefore, wishing to pursue with greater rigor than we have exerted since the beginning of our pontificate, we establish that any priest or member of the clergy, either secular or regular, who commits such an execrable crime, by force of the present law be deprived of every clerical privilege, of every post, dignity and ecclesiastical benefit, and having been degraded by an ecclesiastical judge, let him be immediately delivered to the secular authority to be put to death, as mandated by law as the fitting punishment for laymen who have sunk into this abyss.
(Constitutionn Horrendum illud scelus, August 30, 1568, in Bullarium Romanum,
Rome: Typographia Reverendae Camerae Apostolicae, Mainardi, 1738, chap. 3, p. 33)
Sadly, sodomites hiding amongst the celibate is not new. St. Bernard wrote that in his time there were only a chosen handful of priests who had not succomed to this sin (this was around the same time as St. Peter Damian's book on the subject). Pray that the Lord will reform His Church.
\\The Vicar of Rome today called on homosexual clergymen in the Catholic Church to “come out” and leave the priesthood\\
I wonder if the same things are said to priests who indulge in heterosexual fornication. Don't think there are not any.
\\So many homosexually-active priests and prelates infest the Church that a painfully obvious conclusion (but one that NO ONE dares say) is that the Lord Jesus has withdrawn grace from the hierarchy at this time.\\
If this is true, that means there are no valid sacraments.
\\ This is not a challenge to Holy Mother Church's indefectibility, \\
That's exactly what you are giving.
I would remind you that the Church rejected the Donatist heresy centuries ago.
The spiritual state of the priest does NOT affect the grace of the sacraments he celebrates that those with proper spiritual dispositions receive, though a sinful priest might well celebrate them unto his own damnation.
Well said Jack..
No, this whole crisis isn't about HOMOSEXUALITY, though. NOOOOOOOOOOO...of course not. Well, at least the scandal press is doing the watchdog job that the Bishops conference should be doing. Ironically, they're weeding out the very subversionists that have been the bane of traditionalists for the past fifty years. Just a few billion dollars more and the filth should be routed. Personally, I say thank you to the media and the courts. We couldn't do it without them.
"I wonder if the same things are said to priests who indulge in heterosexual fornication. Don't think there are not any"
It is evil relativism to put disciplinarian trespasses of clerics with sodomy on the same stage.
This is indeed satanic. The priest indulging in sodomy. Enough to make even demons blush for shame.
And what of the widow's mite that these individuals were using to embellish their "lifestyle"?
Questions, questions: how many more are there, for how long has there been a sodomite network in Rome, how high does this go into the episcopacy, what of the master of novices...
Please stop giving money to the diocese! When action speaks louder than words - reconsider (e.g. stopping Communion in the hand, teaching solid faith ands morals, etc., etc.).
Search out holy priests and directly support them.
Nothing has changed since 2002. And why should it? In our diocese, parishioners re-mortgaged their homes to help the diocese pay off the debt. We received not a few "don't punish the Church" "homilies".
Once the powers that be saw that they could pull the wool over the eyes of the sheeple with a church scandal of this magnitude, they knew they had it made in the shade.
The three days of darkness would have been a better chastisement that this seemingly unending one.
Delphina
Many years ago, a certain priest told me that there is a certain place where some Roman officials and prefects meet for lunch. He said that everyone observes carefully which undersecretary is lunching with which secretary or prefect. The changing arrangements reflect the changing love affairs amongst them. He said that it is common knowledge in some quarters that this sort of thing has been going on for years. But nobody can prove anything, so nothing changes. If you catch two of them in the act on a hidden videocamera, you might get a dismissal. But if they are important enough, they will simply claim that the video was doctored.
I'm betting that this sort of thing does not go on in the refectories of the S.S.P.X. But then they are heretics, schismatics, disobedientiaries, Oblates of Disobedience, illiciters, what-have-you.
P.K.T.P.
Anon. wrote:
"Pray that the Lord will reform His Church."
I wonder what was meant by this?
P.K.T.P.
This journalist has done the whole Church a favor. We ought to pray for him especially... he exposed his soul to great danger to get this story (though I have no idea what state his soul might be in already).
Let these evildoers be hounded from the ranks of the clergy. And may the Lord mercifully grant that all active sodomites within the clergy and hierarchy of the Church be exposed and removed from their offices.
If there were a great inquisition of sodomites, can you imagine how legitimate vocations would increase?
"It is evil relativism to put disciplinarian trespasses of clerics with sodomy on the same stage."
Anonymous,
While homosexual sodomy is one of the "Sins crying to Heaven for Vengeance" and is on a different level for its grotesque unnaturalness, heterosexual fornication on any level, is more than a,"disciplinarian trespass". Rather it is a grave sin and if full knowledge, and full volition is present, can damn the soul as well, if unconfessed with contrition.
Cruise the Groove.
Umm... can I partially retract my previous comment? I missed the implication that the journalist may have used an accomplice to actually entice these perverts into sexual activity. That's rather unfortunate.
We must face the fact that, as more and more of this behaviour becomes public, a growing number of faithful will simply abandon the Church. Whether they should do so or not is secondary. Most red-blooded men who are not theologians will just up and leave. Most women who are not thelogians and who are mothers and ladies will just up and leave, taking their children, the future of the Church, with them. In a time in which we are already facing a membership crisis for other reasons, this will greatly quicken the speed at which we are reduced to a remnant. One does not gather grapes from thistles.
Dramatic action is the only way to restore confidence in Holy Mother Church. Instead, we see that Benedict XVI is trying moderate action. His response so far has been much better than that of his predecessors but still falls short of what is needed. Notice his strategy over the last two days? He is writing storybooks for children and now plans to meet with a large group of Altar 'servers'. This is quite clever, really. He understands that the media, owned and ooperated by our very worst enemies, has been trying to associate priests with pædophilia. In response, he is entrenching an earlier association between priests and purity, for children reprsent that quality.
I laud the Pope's endeavour. He understands the problem and is responding in an intelligent way. We have also see him 'take action' in the Archdiocese of Cali, in Colombia, which is probably the worst case to date and threatens the entire Church in Latin America.
I am sorry to opine here, though, that these sorts of strategies are grossly inadequate. Unfortunately, anything less than a thorough purge of the priesthood will ensure a greater disaster. The Pope's strategies can buy him some time so that the collapse will not occur on his watch. But if he wants to reverse this, he will have to clean out the stables with a firehose. There's no other way.
The first step is to discard the seminary document, fire Cardinal Grocholewski, and draft a new one, one that will exclude homerastic candidates to the priesthood 'with extreme prejudice'. Any man who has ever been tempted in this way, even once, and however good that man may be, should be forbidden entrance. Bring out the polygraph machines. Yes, they are imperfect but they can screen out many of the bad candidates.
P.K.T.P.
The state of the Catholic Church is a disaster!
I would like those who might be interested in Malachi Martin to go to YouTube and listen to his interview Malachi Martin -Tempters Hour Pt1 the Channel is civilian42.
There are 16 parts to it.
I believe that we can intellectualize all we want on this blog and it is fine, but Malachi Martin exegesis on the Catholic Church goes strait to the problem.
And please don't believe the lies writen about Father Martin I don't think an exorcist is going to risk the lost of his soul when he knows the reality of the enemy we battle.
"Many years ago, a certain priest told me that there is a certain place where some Roman officials and prefects meet for lunch. He said that everyone observes carefully which undersecretary is lunching with which secretary or prefect. The changing arrangements reflect the changing love affairs amongst them. He said that it is common knowledge in some quarters that this sort of thing has been going on for years. But nobody can prove anything, so nothing changes. If you catch two of them in the act on a hidden videocamera, you might get a dismissal. But if they are important enough, they will simply claim that the video was doctored."
This is despicable rumor mongering about princes of the Church. I reject it. What proof do you have to spread such slander about these men? Provide it now. Otherwise what you have put forth is calumny.
\\"I wonder if the same things are said to priests who indulge in heterosexual fornication. Don't think there are not any"
It is evil relativism to put disciplinarian trespasses of clerics with sodomy on the same stage.\\
If you mean to say that somehow heterosexual immorality is better, or at least not as bad, as homosexual acts, YOU are the one indulging in "evil relativism," not I.
"Heterosexual immorality" IS NOT as bad... It is immoral, but not inherently contra naturam in every instance.
This nothing compared to what will happen in the proximate future, The Catholic Church is deeply wounded by the sins of her children. Pope Benedict XVI is doing far to little, but also, he is far too slow. Only a dramatic change of course can change things(I even doubt if this will solve problems). Let us remember this, we are against demons, fallen angels who have an intuitive intellect(not a fleshly intuition like us, but an angelic one), they see centuries ahead, because they do not learn by succession(school,diplomas, age and maturity),but they possess their knowledge for all eternity. All of this, is only a tiny part of the wounds inflicted to the Church, we can only see a small part of these wounds, because of our intellect which is weak and full of passions.
The bride of Jesus Christ, once mighty and strong, is now derided, scorned, insulted, seen as a pedophile Church. How many souls lost? How many sacrilegious masses? How many priests who do not live up to their sacred calling? How many Catholics, priests, have followed the dark path of the demons that leads to Hell? A demon once told to an exorcist, during a fatal exorcism, that of 54 people who renounce impurity, only three renounce pride, Yes pride, is the first sin, and it is the sin that sends most souls to Hell.
Most Blessed Virgin Mary, refuge of sinners, conqueror of heresies and help of the afflicted, pray for us!!!
"A demon once told to an exorcist, during a fatal exorcism, that of 54 people who renounce impurity, only three renounce pride, Yes pride, is the first sin, and it is the sin that sends most souls to Hell."
Thank you for that, but didn't Our Lady of Fatima say the opposite? In any event, I will take this to heart before it is too late for me to do so.
Delphina
PKTP or whatever your name is
No I'm sure that this does not go on in the SSPX refectories, as I'm sure that it does not go on in F.S.S.P, F.S.S.R % I.B.S refectories; the fact that the SSPX priests are (for the most part) morally upright does not excuse their disobedience to Peter.
Also please stop reporting gossip about which prefects and under-secretaries are alledgedly having love affairs; to do so without naming a source who cannot or will not substatiate his alligations risks in my mind sinning against the 8th commandment, if he has concrete evidence then he should taket it to the appropriate authority.
Finally a plea to New Catholic can you please post some positive news for once? If you don not have any I can provide - In my Parish (I will not say where as the Priest has asked me to keep mum until he notifies the LMS) from September the Extrodinary Form of the Roman Rite will be offfered the first three Sundays of the month
"Any man who has ever been tempted in this way, even once, and however good that man may be, should be forbidden entrance."
Oh come on, this is just silly. Everyone who has had a single homoerotic thought 15 years ago? Exactly what purpose would that serve?
More to the point, can you provide a single reason, based on Catholic doctrine, why such a person would not be fit to be a priest? Or is that just your own opinion based on good old-fashioned prejudice?
"Bring out the polygraph machines. Yes, they are imperfect but they can screen out many of the bad candidates."
And many of the good ones too. Screening produces false positives as well as false negatives.
How long must your people suffer, O Lord? How long?
Have we, your people, been so wicked that you will not spare us sufferings as great as this?
Save, O Lord, your people!
Don't worry Delphina. Will all this mess, the three days of darkness are sure to be just around the corner, at least by 2017 the anniversary of Fatima.
Re. homosexual priests:
Since gays can become ex-gays through psychospiritual therapy, I believe former homosexuals can become priests. In the first place, God often calls imperfect people. Ex-gays experience considerable healing and can make their struggle/thorn in the flesh manageable.
In the case of Dutch priest Henri Nouwen, he had a counseling and psychology background that's why he was able to process himself and most probably avoided the usual pitfalls of a homosexual life. However, even Nouwen had to experience deep psychological crisis (nervous breakdown) and seek outside help. But I'm not closing my doors to former homosexuals. When healed, they can be great wounded healers in a way perfect people never can't.
Regarding what goes on or doesn't go on in SSPX refectories, or other parts of their living spaces for that matter- I would be willing to take that bet, Anonymous. Traditionalism, conservatism, and orthodoxy do not make people immune from that temptation. In fact, they can sometimes serve as a convenient false front.
"Regarding what goes on or doesn't go on in SSPX refectories, or other parts of their living spaces for that matter- I would be willing to take that bet, Anonymous. Traditionalism, conservatism, and orthodoxy do not make people immune from that temptation. In fact, they can sometimes serve as a convenient false front.
24 July, 2010 03:38
I totally agree with you thomas tucker.
No offence to those who are fervent supporters of the SSPX.
We are humans and unfortunately not even the SSPX are immune to the reality of sin, of course if they were to be found out they would be kicked out.
the "folly" lies in the thinking that since it's natural, give in, no matter if you're a priest
Delphina, our Lady said that most souls were lost because of impurity. Impurity is the immediate cause of sin, in the greater part of humanity, and the true source of that sin is pride, a pure sin(pride almost and always carries perfect culpability with it), from which all kinds of other sins come from. With pride, man prefers his own nature or goods to the laws and love of the Divine majesty, which is the most supreme good. Mr.Tucker is right, traditionalism is certainly not immune from such nefarious sins. Terrible battles are ahead, let us not forget that we had the old Mass, the old breviary and so on in the twenties, but the devil got into mighty Catholic fortress anyway, pride can destroy any armor, and without humility, the priest is just a soldier without armor,
Let's not forget what we're dealing with - a tiny minority of less than 1% of the overall total population. It's the homosexual propagandists who crave this type of scandal and gossip because it makes it appear that there are more of them and hence fueling their desire to appear more mainstream.
In a more ideal world, discussion of this deviant minority would not be given the time of day in polite society. In depth discussion of it among Catholics would be relegated to a chapter's subsection within a moral theology book, and perhaps better left in Latin...
I find it disturbing that many of the contributors focus so much on homosexuality. Any student of history will tell us that it has always been with us - It is one of the reasons the earliest monasteries had dormitories rather than cells.
It really does not matter what type of sin we are talking about: the problem is as previously in our Church's history one of TRUTH and CLERICAL DISCIPLINE - being true to ones promises and vows and living a life worthy of a priest. It is for the bishops to impose the discipline on the clergy. There is the real failing.
Stephen
Dear Jason:
There's no calumny. I didn't name a soul. Nor did my source. Perhaps such things should be investigated. It might be a start.
P.K.T.P.
Mr. Ertner writes:
"More to the point, can you provide a single reason, based on Catholic doctrine, why such a person would not be fit to be a priest? Or is that just your own opinion based on good old-fashioned prejudice?"
A priest stands in persona Christi. It is an abomination to suggest that those having such proclivities may rightly represent Christ. Such tendencies militate against the very nature of man qua man. At one time, a man who had a disfigured hand could not enter seminary, and only owing to the symbolism, since this is the hand that confects the Blessed Sacrament.
The priesthood can never be seen as a right. It is a privilege to those who are called to it and, yes, their ordination must not be risk for scandal. 92% of the cases of sexaul abuse so far in the U.S.A. have been cases of homo-epibophilia. So, yes, they should be excluded on principle.
P.K.T.P.
Thomas Tucker:
Of course there may be cases of such temptations in the S.S.P.X. The difference is that aberrant behaviour of that sort is not tolerated there. In the N.O. seminaries, it is not only tolerated but encouraged. The problem now is that normal men will have difficulty living in that environment. They don't want to, which is why the problem worsens over time.
P.K.T.P.
Mr. Ertner writes:
"And many of the good ones too. Screening produces false positives as well as false negatives."
So what? Nobody ever claimed that (a) such tests would be used publicly to identify anyone or (b) that it is best used alone. Nor need such tests be perfect. They will not be perfect but they can reduce the number of problems.
Polygraph testing can be used with other tests to help screen out the sexual inverts. Once they are rejected, they are not told the reason why. They simply receive notices of rejection. Their names would then be entered in a Church database of persons not to be admitted to any seminary. Others would be in the database, people excluded for other reasons.
Homerasty is the main problem, although not the only one. So it needs to be established as a criterion for exclusion. Of course, once this is done, the larger problem needs to be addressed. One does not come to this situation in the first place unless there is a crisis of FAITH. When people stop believing, aberrant behaviour becomes more and more common, just as it did in the Late Roman Empire, a time when people lost hope (albeit for other reasons). So there is a strong connexion between the loss of Faith and the recourse to even the most vile evils, in which men turn their own bodies into sewers.
P.K.T.P.
Mr. Ertner, ever determined to seem 'moderate', writes this silly question:
"More to the point, can you provide a single reason, based on Catholic doctrine, why such a person would not be fit to be a priest? Or is that just your own opinion based on good old-fashioned prejudice?"
Of course I can. The Church teaches that it is wrong to tempt anyone or expose anyone to the near occasion of sin. What do you think you are doing when you take men with inverted tendencies and lock them up with only other other men for six years? You are exposing them to the near occasion of sin. If you gave a damn for their own souls, you would therefore root them out and exclude them from seminary.
P.K.T.P.
Agree with you totally, Stephen.
On my claim, that has raised pretended bursts of outrage here, I would like to make one correction. It was I who added (by mistake) the term 'prelates'. My source, who is reliable, did not specify if any prelates were involved, although he did imply it in referring to the 'top officials'. He said that the priests involved were officials in the various dicasteries, including undersecretaries and the like. He did not name anyone.
I suggest that the real reason for the outrage at my claim is that people here fear that what I am claiming is true; however, they don't want it to be true. It is much more fun to believe what we would prefer to believe. Believing what we do believe can be a real burden.
By the way, just so that everyone here is clear on this, I was originally one of those naive souls who thought that this problem could not 'possibly' be true. In my background, even to entertain such things was a blasphemy; even the idea of such a claim could only be implanted by the fiend. That is how I thought in the 1980s just before the first wave of these cases became public in Canada.
What I have been forced to accept is that these things are VERY common. Just look at that tell-all book from the former Vicar-general of Cali. The Pope must believe him. Why else has he appointed a coadjutor for the Archbishop there and then retired the former Archbishop, who is now a Cardinal-archbishop? While the latter is past 75, 'good men' in his position are normally given their extra five years (e.g. Vidal of Cebu, O'Connor of N.Y., Kitbunchu of Bangkok).
The former Vicar-general, who knew all the priests there very well is saying that something like 40% of the priests are inverts. Of the others, a goodly per centage of them have fathered children and then refused to support them. And that's just the beginning of that story. The inverts were taking money on the pretext of giving it to the poor and giving it to--their lovers. The 'source' here is no rumourmonger: he knew all these men and was in that supevisory position for many years.
Dallas, we have a problem.
P.K.T.P.
Mr. Perkins,
I am no moderate for the sake of being moderate. I base my opinions solely upon truth.
I completely appreciate and agree with your reasons for not admitting persons with homosexual tendencies to Holy Orders - that he may not have major defects, physical or psychological; and the avoidance of occasion to sin.
But for goodness' sake - a person who has once experienced temptations of a homoerotic nature, but does not do so at present does not have homosexual tendencies! He may have had once, but now he does not. There is no reason to believe that he will experience such thoughts again, any more than there is reason to believe that a man who has not felt this way before his ordination will feel it at some point afterwards.
The moral status of a person exists at a point in time. People can change - and do! - both due to the natural development of the psyche and the grace of God.
Your argument is analogous to saying that a man who once had a physical defect, but was cured miraculously, could not ever become a priest, or that converts cannot become priests because they were once non-Catholic.
On the matter of the SSPX allow me to say that it's not that the SSPX don't have sinners, it's that they don't have faculties and the pederasts apparently do. That is the Upside-Down Church of the "new springtime" in the Church of What's Happening Now. There's an apparent injustice here and that's all we are trying to point out. When I was a kid in the 40s and 50s, I would have never imagined such crap in the Church. It's disgusting to the point of being beyond belief.
Maybe 15 years ago, I heard Malachi Martin on a late night radio program state that the reason for the problems with pedophilia in the Church was the POST Vatican II, position to liberalize the standards of allowing homosexuals in seminaries to become priests. since then, they have pranced in the seminaries, become priests, Bishops and Cardinals
I agree with you Stephen.
Nihil Sub Sole Novum:
"There is nothing new under the sun" ... not since the Fall in Eden.
We need to do more praying and less finger pointing. Our Lord will be the judge of these priests. Remember what He said about scandals. Scandals are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come!" - Luke 17
All priests are called to live lives of holiness & renunciation. To follow in Our Lord's footsteps.
I think the key is humility and knowing that without God's grace we can do nothing in temptation. We are capable of wretched, twisted things because of our woundedness from original Sin.
We should offer holy hours in reparation, rosaries, holy communions for wayward priests.
O Lord, grant unto Thy Church saintly priests and fervent religious.
Send forth, O Lord, laborers into Thy harvest.
O Lord, grant us priests!
O Lord, grant us holy priests!
O Lord, grant us many holy priests!
O Lord, grant us many holy religious vocations!
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