The truth about priests

Here is an excellent article published on MacLean's web site. I found it very balanced and down to earth. It talks about the horrible sexual abuses committed by too many priests over the years. It offers a very compassionate discussion of the immense suffering that the victims have undergone. It sympathizes with the contempt that good priests now have to face because of the sins of their brothers. But the article points to a truth that is too often overlooked and that needs to be repeated:

But at the risk of downplaying decades of unspeakable abuse—or forgiving a Church hierarchy that moved heaven and earth to suppress scandal and protect criminal clergy—an obvious point is often ignored: the vast, vast majority of Catholic priests are not sexual predators. In fact, the scientific research suggests that men who target children are no more pervasive in the priesthood (and perhaps less pervasive) than in any other segment of society. Depending on the study, somewhere between two and four per cent of priests have had sexual contact with a minor. Or, to put it another way, between 96 and 98 per cent have not.

“It’s part of that myth—the myth of the pedophile priest who can’t help himself,” says Thomas Plante, a psychology professor at Santa Clara University who has published dozens of studies about sexually abusive priests. “It’s really an issue of perception rather than reality. Believe it or not, probably the safest place for a kid to be is in a Catholic church environment.”

My only reservation with this article is that it tends to use the term "pedophile" to describe these priests who abuse children. Later they say that a more accurate term would be "ephebophiles,": which means "people

Another great witness by Bishop Tobin on denying communion

Watch the video below.  Some very courageous and bold statements by the bishop, yet very balanced and charitable.  Bravo to Bishop Tobin!

I wish our bishops and priests would step up to the plate and follow this example. In fact, it is their obligation to do so, because the Vatican has spoken clearly on this matter several times in the last few years. The most explicit document was a letter written by Cardinal Ratzinger in 2004, a year before he became Pope.  It's a short letter but very rich in teaching about a number of important issues.  Paragraphs 5 and 6 are so explicit on this issue that even a child would grasp them:

5.  Regarding the grave sin of abortion or euthanasia, when a person’s formal cooperation becomes manifest (understood, in the case of a Catholic politician, as his consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws), his Pastor should meet with him, instructing him about the Church’s teaching, informing him that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist.

 6. When "these precautionary measures have not had their effect or in which they were not possible," and the person in question, with obstinate persistence, still presents himself to receive

Dear clergy: please fulfil your calling

It's true that our Church is in bad shape. But God doesn't abandon His children. There are always some faithful shepherds who will give a good example. Today's news brings us another such instance.

LifeSiteNews reports that Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin instructed a pro-abortion politician, Patrick Kennedy (son of Ted Kennedy) not to receive communion because of his dissenting views. Now there are elements in the Church who think that such a statement by a Bishop is un-Christian, uncharitable, unloving, etc. If we had eyes to see the truth as God has revealed it, we would realize that such a statement by a Bishop is an extreme act of virtue and is of immense benefit to the Church in many ways:

1. First and foremost, this directive by the Bishop sends a clear message to the recipient that he or she is endorsing a grave sin and that their eternal salvation is in peril. It is therefore a strong call to repentance and conversion, which is what the Gospel is all about.
2. In cases where such a directive is made public, as in the current case, it also instructs the other faithful of the gravity of the sin that is being endorsed by the politician. It therefore gives them reason to pause and rethink in their own positions.
3. It protects Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament from sacrilege.  Jesus gave us a priceless gift in the Eucharist.  Do we want to repay Him with love and worship or by offering Him a dwelling place that is full of filth and corruption?
4. It prevents further sin by the politician by protecting him from the opportunity to commit sacrilege.
5. It ensures the salvation of the Bishop's soul, because it is his responsibility before God Almighty to instruct the faithful and to call sinners to repentance. If he were to shun away from this responsibility, his own salvation would be in peril.  As St. John Chrysostom once said, “the road to hell is paved with the skulls of bishops.”

I sure wish that other bishops and priests would realize the benefits of this type of fraternal correction. It need not

Catholic priest speaks boldly about bishops who cover up sex abuse scandals

A powerful yet simple message by Fr. Tim Moyle at Where the Rubber Hits the Road.  A reader asked him why bishops cover up sex abuse scandals by priests.  Read Fr. Tim's answer here.  Well said!

Does this repulse you?

Let me show you a couple of recent headlines from the secular media. First, from the CBC: 

Life sentence in 30-year-old Longueuil murder

A 61-year-old Longeuil woman has been sentenced to life in prison for the first-degree murder of her sister and her sister's partner in August 1979... (Source)

Do you find that headline offensive?  Does it make you feel that the Quebec authorities are too strict and grumpy?  I didn't think so.  Grave crimes require grave punishment, right?  Let's try another headline from the UK:

Ben’s law: Knife murder minimum sentence raised to 25 yrs after Kinsella campaign

Knife killers will spend up to a decade longer in jail after a successful campaign by the family of victim Ben Kinsella. Justice Secretary Jack Straw announced the tougher new penalties yesterday. It means a minimum sentence in most cases increasing from 15 to 25 years – just five below the 30-year term for gun murder... (Source)

Does that headline scare you? Does it make you feel like the authorities in the U.K. are mean or negative people?  No?  Me neither. Murder is serious business and requires a serious penalty.

So what's my point?  You might be asking yourself what I've been smoking. Let me show you a third headline:

Spanish Bishop Says Catholic Politicians Who Vote for Abortion Excommunicate Themselves

The secretary general of the Spanish bishops' conference, Auxiliary Bishop Juan Antonio Martinez Camino of Madrid, warned that Spanish Catholic legislators who vote in favor

Where are you, Msgr Gilles Lussier?

As recently reported by LifeSite, outspoken liberal priest Fr. Raymond Gravel has once again stirred up some controversy. This time, he appeared on a TV show claiming that people with homosexual attractions could never overcome those tendencies. This is an absurd claim, of course, made all the more ridiculous in light of the fact that he was sharing the stage with a man named Laurent Leclerc who was explaining his personal experience in successfully overcoming his own homosexual tendencies.

The most disturbing part of this incident was that Fr. Gravel dismissed the notion of homosexuality as being disordered. This is in direct contradiction of Church teaching, which is very clear on this matter:

Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must

Ottawa Citizen gets it wrong on priest sex scandals

The Ottawa Citizen recently published an article where Janice Kennedy, who describes herself as a liberal Catholic, tries to explain the true causes of the sex abuse scandals in the priesthood.

Given her liberal leaning, you won't be surprised with her conclusions.  She essentially says that the problem would go away if:  1) priests were allowed to marry and;  2) if women were allowed to become priests.  Quite predictable and not exactly a deep revelation.

On her first point, she argues that celibacy is unnatural and fosters uncontrollable impulses.  Unfortunately, this argument does not hold water.  Research has shown high rates of sexual abuse among teachers, Protestant ministers and other professionals.  Do you know what these groups have in common?  They're allowed to marry.  Consequently, the fact of having regular sexual relations with a consenting adult does appear not "cure" anybody of their pedophile tendencies.  

On her second point, about women priests, is largely irrelevant to the point being discussed.  How would the existence of women priests affect men's ability to control their sexual impulses?  In fact, many Protestant churches report a high incidence of harassment an sexual abuse of their women ministers by the males.  Moreover, about 41 percent of all sexual abuse of children in the U.S. is done by women, so they certainly are not immune to pedophilia.  Ms. Kennedy's article also contains a momentous historical inaccuracy, where she claims that women priests were common in the early Church.  This is totally false and unsubstantiated.

The truth is that the priesthood and the vow of celibacy are not for everybody. Jesus himself told us so (Matt 19.12).  A man who feels called to the priesthood has several years of formation and discernment in which he must ask himself if he can handle the vow of celibacy.  If he cannot, he should do everybody a favour and leave the seminary.  It would be imprudent to assume that some miraculous transformation will occur after his ordination and that he'll suddenly be able to manage it.

The union of man and woman in sexual intercourse is meant to imitate the union of love within the Persons of the Trinity, as well as to anticipate the intimate union we will have with God in Heaven.  Although the vow of celibacy may seem unnatural from a purely worldly point of view, it is entirely natural from a spiritual point of view, since it skips the intermediate "sign" of sexual union and jumps directly to the union of the soul with God, which we all hope to enjoy in the beatific vision.

God asked the priests to repent first

You can learn so much from a good homily. But it requires that you pay attention. It also requires that Father makes an effort to open up the Scriptures to the faithful.

On Friday, the first reading at the Mass was from Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-2. It goes like this:

Put on sackcloth and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar.  Come, pass the night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God!  Grain-offering and drink-offering are withheld from the house of your God. Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly.  Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. Alas for the day!  For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.

Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain!  Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near— a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness!  Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, or will be again after them in ages to come. 

Not exactly a very cheery passage, but the Church put it in the readings for a reason.

As it happened so many times in the Old Testament, the people had strayed far away from God and had to repent.  In the homily, the priest pointed out that God asks the priests to repent first.  This is interesting.  Why the priests first?  Because as leaders of the people, the priests have a huge influence on the morals of the people.  As go the priests, so goes the people.

I thought this was very relevant to our current situation, where the clergy needs to get their act together.  It shows that our calls for the repentance of the bishops are very biblical and very well founded.  This growing movement is not rooted in some fanaticism.  It is firmly grounded in Holy Scripture. 


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