Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex

Here is the final installment for my letter to Fr. “Gary.”  It is perhaps, worth noting that the final report for the Apostolic Visitation showed up on the USCCB website recently without much fanfare.  In general, the findings are that diocesan seminaries are by and large (but not universally) healthy.  Seminaries run by religious, not so much.  The latter have problems with fidelity to Church teaching, an authentic understanding of the priesthood, and recognition that same sex attraction disorder is in fact a disorder.

However, even within the healthy seminaries there are problems of dissent from moral teaching with at least a few faculty members.  By and large, spiritual formation is lacking in most seminaries.  However, things are not as dire as they were as recently as the 1990s.  They point out, however, that this is based upon spot checking of seminaries and there is no guarantee that the visitation has uncovered all problems.  In fact, since there was plenty of warning about the arrival of the visitation, one wonders that even this much was uncovered.

I would say that this report corresponds with what I understand from my contacts with seminarians and priests going through various seminaries around the US.  Things are getting better at the larger diocesan seminaries but there is still a long row to how before we might call seminary formation solid, as a whole, in the US, .  This perhaps explains the reason so many of us are familiar with the problems reflected in Fr. Gary’s homiletics.  Here is the last installment of what I shared with him:

Finally, I think that content wise there are several messages of which so many Catholics are desperately in need.  I think these messages are what the laity is missing if it is to be motivated to change.  Now I agree that the emphasis should be upon the what and why before we address the consequences for all too long the lacunae in preaching on some matters has sent the message that  there are no consequences for one’s actions or non-action.  Here are the lacunae to which I refer:

Hell – I am not trying to suggest that we need to go back to the “fire and brimstone” sermons that were more popular prior to the late 60s.  What I am suggesting is that what we have lost is the connection between our actions and their consequences as if we get to choose both.  People need to understand anew that hell is real; furthermore, it is a real possibility if we choose to live a radically selfish life that is closed to God’s will (not as difficult to do these days as some theologians would have us believe).  If we radically choose our will over/against God’s (i.e. the truth) then we are choosing for ourselves how we will spend eternity; that is, separated from God which is the very definition of hell.

Purgatory – There are many others items that need to be heard, the need to pray for the souls in Purgatory and to live lives that will avoid the need for purification after we die (assuming we do so in a state of grace).  This is a teaching that is infallibly taught by the Extraordinary Magisterium and can never be reformed.  The mystics are emphatic about the need to pray for souls of the faithfully departed, especially for those who have no one to pray for them.  With so few people who are hearing about this reality these days, there are less and less people who are making reparations for those in Purgatory.  This is kind of like the problem with Social Security, more and more people are in need of reparations for them but there are less and less people who are providing for their needs.

Chaste living – the need to live chaste lives in our sex lives.  For example, married couples need to shun artificial birth control and endeavor toward chaste marital relations and those not validly married need to live chaste lives.  We need to be more discriminating in the movies and the TV shows we watch, in the magazines we read, and in the video games we play, etc.  The lack of chaste living, I believe can be correlated with the sociological ills of our society and I am convinced this explains why we see abortion as commonly accepted today as it is; why we are seeing the family and society fall apart; and why the West appears to be on a trajectory to repeat the Fall of the Roman Empire.

I will save you the details but to summarize that the lack of chaste living has taught us to think of others as objects rather than persons and has led to this culture of death in which we are now mired.  While some say that a priest has no credibility to talk about such subjects, I suggest that he, as one who has heroically (especially in our hedonistic culture which assaults chastity) dedicated his life to chaste living in the single state, provides the living example that chaste living is a gift from God if we are open to it.  There is no one else who has the credibility to say that it cannot be done when we have tens of thousands of examples showing that it not only can be done but that there are great graces for doing so.  These are the primary sources of grave sin today and nothing psychiatrists or moral theologians say will be able to change the grave nature of impure thoughts and acts.  This is something Catholics need to be taught once again.

Sacraments and Grace – Most Catholics do not understand that sanctifying grace is a share in God’s very nature and radical communion with the Three Persons of the Trinity through the Son.  They do not understand the Sacrifice of the Mass -that Calvary is made present at Mass.  They do not understand the Real Presence- that they join with Jesus Christ, Body, Blood, Soul and divinity in Holy Communion.  They do not understand that the ordinary means for our being made holy is through the Sacraments, especially Confession and the Eucharist.  This alone explains the lackadaisical attitude people have toward the Mass and the Eucharist.

Confession – The need for regular, individual, private, confession again needs to be emphasized.  The fall off in the numbers of faithful who make use of this awesome grace is staggering and I believe the primary reason that we see no difference between Catholics and the general population in all of the categories of societal ills such as divorce, prison populations, etc.  For Catholics who ignore this, their ordinary means of grace, it is difficult to see how they will get that grace otherwise.  Hebrews 2:3 comes to mind here and frightens me, “…how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation.”  Not reject, not ignore, just neglect…

Father Gary – I don’t know if you have made it this far.  If so, I sincerely hope that I have not sounded condescending or lecturing.  If so I apologize, that was not my intent.  I have tried to, with all humility, and  understanding that I am a sinner in great need of God’s mercy, to identify those things that I sincerely believe are critical for any priest to effectively pastor souls in today’s hostile environment.  I am most open to your feedback and/or criticisms if you desire to dialogue on any or all of my points.  None of this lessens my love for you as one of the pastors of my soul and I have earnestly prayed that for you it does not damage our relationship. I continue to keep you and your priesthood in my prayers.