D
DL82
Guest
First of all, I don’t want this thread to be a rant about pedophile priests, or about the way the Church handled that whole incident. I want to use that as an example to challenge our faith in the validity of the sacraments of Holy Orders and the Eucharist.
I walked by an old prison building in London the other day, which held Catholic priests during the religious persecutions under Henry VIII. Many of them went on to be martyred for their witness to the faith. (It also then held protestant pastors during the persecutions under Mary Tudor, and then Catholic priests again, demonstrating the difficulties of having a state religion, but that’s beside the point).
What really struck me was that, during this time, many ordinary people in London used to gather outside the prison, where the priest would celebrate mass and distribute the sacrament through the prison bars. The faith of these people, going right up to the prison guards and receiving from the hands of these condemned men who were considered enemies of the state, is incredible.
It also got me to thinking: the respect we have for priests should be based on the indelible mark of their ordination, God’s calling in them, not their own righteousness. Although there is a world of difference in God’s eyes between these brave martyrs and the priests in our jails today for abusing young children, they are both alike empowered to confect the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.
And that, in turn got me to thinking: If there was no other way to receive the Eucharist, if there was a serious shortage of priests in your diocese, or even no Catholic Churches at all, would you accept that the Eucharist is of such great value, irrespective of who gives it? Would you travel to a prison to receive Mass from a convicted pedophile priest?
I walked by an old prison building in London the other day, which held Catholic priests during the religious persecutions under Henry VIII. Many of them went on to be martyred for their witness to the faith. (It also then held protestant pastors during the persecutions under Mary Tudor, and then Catholic priests again, demonstrating the difficulties of having a state religion, but that’s beside the point).
What really struck me was that, during this time, many ordinary people in London used to gather outside the prison, where the priest would celebrate mass and distribute the sacrament through the prison bars. The faith of these people, going right up to the prison guards and receiving from the hands of these condemned men who were considered enemies of the state, is incredible.
It also got me to thinking: the respect we have for priests should be based on the indelible mark of their ordination, God’s calling in them, not their own righteousness. Although there is a world of difference in God’s eyes between these brave martyrs and the priests in our jails today for abusing young children, they are both alike empowered to confect the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.
And that, in turn got me to thinking: If there was no other way to receive the Eucharist, if there was a serious shortage of priests in your diocese, or even no Catholic Churches at all, would you accept that the Eucharist is of such great value, irrespective of who gives it? Would you travel to a prison to receive Mass from a convicted pedophile priest?
that is very thought provoking.