Pope Francis Releases Letter on Abuse

[KSU]

Annie and OraLabora, in your replies you have changed the topic I addressed, which is the discrete, narrow question framed by OraLabora: “I wonder though, if the root cause has been identified and will be addressed.”

Your replies changed the topic to predatory behavior by a sizable percentage of the entire human race; a mix of alcohol, immaturity, a sexually-charged atmosphere; a legalistic rather than a healing approach; etc.

I’m not making light of your replies, but you might as well have blamed the root cause on the world, the flesh and the Devil, which would have been the more correct but still completely irrelevant and impractical answer.

The root cause of the problem to be solved is a mix of homosexuality (the fire) and Clericalism/disobedience to the rules (the gasoline). Anything more is, as SuscipeMeDomine said above: “Talk, talk, talk.”

I’m sorry my friends, but we don’t need any new rules or additional decades of study and talk. The filth in the Augean Stables needs to be cleaned out now. How much longer do you think God will allow His innocent ones to be raped and sodomized, and His obedient shepherds to be browbeaten and silenced, and his Body On Earth to be ravaged by an evil cancer?

His grace is enough for anyone to overcome the flesh, the world and the Devil. We can’t be swayed by misplaced sympathy for those who choose not to avail themselves of that strength. Chaste homosexuals–God have mercy on them and help them–have proven it can be done.

One thing really disgusts me: The rest of society–secular and religious–short of a people’s revolt will never agree to clean out their just as filthy stables. They, their media and their lawyers just point their fingers at Catholics, while hypocritically raking in the money. I suppose, as usual, the Church will have to lead the way. The rest of society will see that it can make money by exposing the evil under discussion in their own stables.

 

[OraLabora]

The root cause of the problem to be solved is a mix of homosexuality (the fire) and Clericalism/disobedience to the rules (the gasoline).

I think fixing those issues alone will prove to not be enough.

That is my point.

You still won’t have created circumstances that attract young men to priesthood.

 

[kyrie03]

an absolutist and legalistic approach to sexual morality, rather than a healing and encouragement approach;

Certain sins against the 6th commandment are absolute: fornication being one of them. Homosexual behavior is not only against the moral law, it is against the natural law as well. It is precisely the the “healing and encouragement” mentality that minimizes these grave offenses against God

 

[KSU]

With all due respect, I believe that providing a safe and orthodox seminary environment is all that is needed to attract young men to the priesthood. Such an environment will permit parents and the Holy Spirit to do the rest, as has always been true.

 

[OraLabora]

No arguments there. But remember that young men today are bombarded by all sorts of temptations. You have to train soldiers and a priest is a soldier for Christ. The seminary must equip him with the right tools and spiritual weapons.

It starts with the faculty practising what they preach. Not preaching one thing and doing the exact opposite like O’Brien did.

 

[OraLabora]

Of course that’s necessary.

But I still say it requires more. Especially in today’s world where every depravity imaginable is a mouse click or two away.

 

[kyrie03]

I don’t think the root cause is homosexuality in and of itself. I think the problem is with predatory behavior. Predatory behavior can be found among heterosexuals as well.

No, I think that’s a symptom.

According to numerous saints, homosexuality IS considered the root cause.

St John Chrysostom 4th century Doctor of the Church:
“All of these affections [in Rom. 1:26-27] . . . were vile, but chiefly the mad lust after males; for the soul is more the sufferer in sins, and more dishonored than the body in diseases. The sins against nature are more difficult and less rewarding, since true pleasure is only according to nature. But when God abandons a man, everything is turned upside down! . . . A murderer only separates the soul from the body, whereas these destroy the soul inside the body . . . There is nothing, absolutely nothing more mad or damaging than this perversity.”— St. John Chrysostom, “Homilies on Romans”.

St Peter Damien, 11th century Doctor of the Church:
“Without fail, it brings death to the body and destruction to the soul. It pollutes the flesh, extinguishes the light of the mind, expels the Holy Spirit from the temple of the human heart, and gives entrance to the devil, the stimulator of lust. It leads to error, totally removes truth from the deluded mind … It opens up hell and closes the gates of paradise … It is this vice that violates temperance, slays modesty, strangles chastity, and slaughters virginity … It defiles all things, sullies all things, pollutes all things …

“This vice excludes a man from the assembled choir of the Church … it separates the soul from God to associate it with demons…. Unmindful of God, he also forgets his own identity. This disease erodes the foundation of faith, saps the vitality of hope, dissolves the bond of love. It makes way with justice, demolishes fortitude, removes temperance, and blunts the edge of prudence. (Liber Gomorrhianus )

 

[kyrie03]

No arguments there. But remember that young men today are bombarded by all sorts of temptations. You have to train soldiers and a priest is a soldier for Christ. The seminary must equip him with the right tools and spiritual weapons.

It starts with the faculty practising what they preach. Not preaching one thing and doing the exact opposite like O’Brien did.

St Basil the Great’s advice should be heeded, after all, he is THE Father of Eastern Monasticism and wrote up the original rules for men living in community and would know what temptations they faced:

“The cleric or monk who molests youths or boys or is caught kissing or committing some turpitude, let him be whipped in public, deprived of his tonsure, and reduced to eating rye bread once a day in the evening three times per week. After six months living in a separate cell under the custody of a wise elder with great spiritual experience, let him be subjected to prayers, vigils and manual work, always under the guard of two spiritual brothers, without being allowed to have any relationship . . . with young people.” ( St. Basil the Great, in St. Peter Damien, Liber Gomorrhianus )

Too harsh? Not if those in the Church recognize that the whole purpose of the Church is to help men save their souls!

And again, St Peter Damien who helped Pope Leo IX to write up rules:
He insists that it is the responsibility of the bishop or superior of a religious order to curb and eradicate the vice from their ranks. He minces no words in his condemnation of those prelates who refuse or fail to take a strong hand in dealing with clerical sodomical practices either because of moral indifferentism or the inability to face up to a distasteful and potentially scandalous situation

He notes that there is a tendency among prelates to treat the first three degrees of the vice with an “improper leniency,” preferring to reserve dismissal from the clerical state for only those men proven to be involved in anal penetration. The result, Damian states, is that a man, guilty of the “lesser” degrees of the vice, accepts his milder penances, but remains free to pollute others without the least fear of losing his rank. The predictable result of his superior’s leniency, says Damian, is that the vice spreads, the culprit grows more daring in his illicit acts knowing he will not suffer any critical loss of his clerical status, he loses all fear of God and his last state is worse than his first.

St. Peter Damian's Book of Gomorrah - A Moral Blueprint for Our Times - Featured Today - Catholic Online

Part I by Randy Engel Editor's Note: CFN has asked Randy Engel to help ...

www.catholic.org

 

[Annie]

I understand what you are saying.

Perhaps predatory behavior is enabled by access and by lack of “consequences,” and so the problem is not homosexual behavior per se but of sterile sex. At the time these saints were writing, homosexual sex was the only kind which was definitely going to be sterile.

 

[Annie]

What is truly sad is that the Church had dealt with these behaviors before, and had clear guidance and rules for how to deal with it. It was the bishops’ ignoring Catholic wisdom in favor of the world’s which led to all these current problems.

 

[kyrie03]

Pope Pius V Bull against clerical sodomy published August 30, 1568 (450 years from yesterday).

Horrendum illud scelus

On August 30, 1568, Pope St. Pius V issued the bull Horrendum Illud scelus. We present it now on its four hundred and fiftieth anniversary. –The Editors

thejosias.com

It says, “Who am I to judge”.

No, actually, it’s a good and short read. The icon is also beautiful to meditate upon.

 

[jeannetherese]

Would not masturbation also be a form of sterile sex?