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.

In a recent thread, a discussion about Radical Orthodoxy arose. In this discussion, Hierothee mentioned that at least some within the RO movement are able to advocate for unnatural sexual acts as theologically justified. RO arises out of the Protestant ethos and, even though they promote the importance of the authority of tradition, their Protestant ethos still imbues their thinking and so their rejection of the Christian anthropological tradition.

One such RO author is Gerard Loughlin. Loughlin writes a chapter in a volume edited by John Milbank, Catherine Pickstock, and Graham Ward, entitled Radical Orthodoxy. The volume is meant to be a representative summary of Milbank, Pickstock, and Ward’s school of thought. Thus, it would seem, that Loughlin’s essay is representative of RO’s anthropology. Loughlin’s article is entitled: “Erotics: God’s Sex.”

Loughlin uses Hans Urs von Balthasar’s theological articulation of the analogy between Trinitarian Processions and the marital sexual act as his foil, primarily using the second volume from Balthasar’s Theodrama. Loughlin wishes to critique Balthasar (and by explicit implication, John Paul II’s Theology of the Body) by privileging the insights of none other than the French pervert postmodern essayist/philosopher Georges Bataille, who obviously was a bit sick, having volunteered to be a human sacrifice for a group of his friends. Bataille apparently never saw a Rorschach chart that he couldn’t find obscene, finding the mechanical aspects of sexual copulation in almost everything he saw. Bataille’s pornographic milieu, then, is Loughlin’s point of departure for evaluating Balthasar’s analogy.

The main thing he takes from Bataille, perhaps aside from his pornographic obsession, is his attachment to the postmodern literary parody. Loughlin decides that he wants to substitute parody for the theological concept of analogy because it entails the burlesque which “couples [Loughlin is clearly enthralled with the "parody" of this grammatic/logical phrase and the sexual-mechanical inference] the polite with the vulgar, the metaphysical with the indecent” (italics mine, p. 145). To replace parody with analogy simply illustrates either ignorance of the metaphysical foundation upon which analogy stands or an irresponsible disregard for analogy’s metaphysical implications. Wayne Hankey’s insights suggest to me that it may be both.

Loughlin, though a Cambridge scholar, who, I understand, claims to be Catholic, does not seem to have a solid grasp of the Catholic tradition in terms of metaphysics or theological anthropology. He very often appears unable to extract himself from his postmodern categories, which, after all, are ironcially modern distortions that are simply taken in a different direction. This leads him often to accuse his foils of the very faults he himself possesses. For example, he finds that Balthasar falls into a crude biologism (see p. 158). This charge comes from his apparent inability to distinguish between relational and substantial categories.

Perhaps his critique of Sister Mary Timothy Prokes treatment of human sexuality might be sufficient to illustrate what I mean. He says:

Prokes, who with Balthasar, is surely correct in stressing the intimacy of persons in the sexual relation, is nevertheless so concerned to distance human sexuality from the animalistic-from the itch and yearning of sexual organs-that one might think the attraction and desirability of the body-its physical comforts and excitements-had nothing to do with human sexuality. Prokes offers a peculiarly passionless, unsexy, sexuality. In short, she fails to think the erotic (p. 148).

This quotation, it seems to me, is quite revealing. Loughlin seems to want to equate the “animalistic” with eros. He appears to say that without this animalistic “itch and yearning” one cannot have eros. In other words, like many who promote libidinism (a sexual ethic which elevates pleasure to an end rather than accepting it as a secondary, non-essential fruit of the sexual act), he either does not understand or rejects classical Christian anthropology.

The human affects (appetites, emotions, etc.) are good, but they serve primarily the animal aspects of the human person. But man is a hylomorph; he is a body-soul unity and the soul has priority, though this does not diminish the essential (in a metaphysical sense) importance of the body. The functioning of the affects becomes an issue in our fallen state.

Human nature was created for grace. We do not require grace in order to be human, but we do require it in order to function integrally. Our human affects were created to be subordinated to human reason, but our loss of original integrity makes this subordination a challenge and a task. The tradition calls this challenge concupiscence. Too often, post-moderns (or better, late-moderns) emphasize human experience but they refuse or at least neglect to contextualize this experience as fallen. Truth be told, they want to make even their fallen experiences normative.

Loughlin seems to fall into this trap. He appears to want to make his experiences paradigmatic. Thus, he conflates the animal aspect of his experiences with the fallen animalism to which he apparently succumbs. He does not see that eros and the erotic must be purified from concupiscence. Nor does he desire to subordinate sexual urges (which in his thought include the unnatural) to reason. This he finds to be “passionless, unsexy, sexuality.”

Interestingly enough, this leads him in the complete opposite direction of the communion for which the personalistic end of the sexual act tends. In fact, Loughlin, clearly, has chosen his terms wisely. For the sexual act outside of the Church’s understanding of sexual intercourse is a parody, a mocking of its intended personalistic and natural ends-communion and procreation, respectively. These ends correspond to the hylomorphic aspects of the human person. When one severs the unitive from the procreative, one gets neither. We are left with what is authentically animalistic and contra-personal.

Sub-personal animals also reflect divine perfection, but in a lesser way than humans. Like their human counterparts, sub-personal animals also seek a sort of communion. However, without a spiritual soul, this communion is reduced to consumption. It is manifested in eating, in which the animal annihilates an often lower nature and takes it up into its higher nature. It is joined to the other but in the antithesis of personal communion. Instead of self-giving/self-sacrifice, it is the other that is taken/sacrificed. Perhaps this insight can explain why we speak of “comfort foods,” which we seem drawn to, especially when we have relational problems.

The eroticism that Loughlin seems to seek is this mocking parody of authentic, sexy, sexuality. His is the desire to follow his animal inclinations, to reject human reason, and to pursue a fallen, and in his case unnatural, communion with another. Thus he advocates the consumption of another soul for the sake of his pleasure-”the itch and yearning of [his] sexual organs.” Is it any wonder that unnatural sexual acts are “parodies” of eating?

There is much more that can and will be said about Loughlin’s article but this will have to do for now. If he is indeed representative of “Radical Orthodoxy,” then theirs is a most unorthodox and vulgar orthodoxy.

H/T to Terry Nelson of Abbey-Roads2:

The Battle For Normality; A Guide For Self-Therapy For Homosexuality Van den Aardweg

“Van den Aardweg asks the question: ”why are so many protestant and catholic homosexuals, male and female alike, interested in theology, and why do they not infrequently want to be ministers or priests?” he says that part of the answer lies in their infantile need for sympathy and contact. and i quote: ”they view church professions as soft and sentimentally ‘caring’ and imagine themselves in them as being honored and revered, elevated above common human beings. they see the Church as a noncompetitive, friendly world where they may enjoy high status and be protected at the same time.

for male homosexuals, there is the additional incentive of a rather closed men’s community where they need not prove themselves as men; …. and in the catholic and russian orthodox churches, there is the attraction of the garments and the aesthetic rituals, which male homosexuals may, in their childish perception, experience as feminine and which enable a narcissistic showing off, comparable to the exhibitionist joys of homosexual ballet dancers ….

These interests stem for the most part, then, from an infantile, self-centered imagination and have precious little to do with the objective contents of Christian belief. What some homosexuals thus see as their ‘calling’ to the priesthood is an attraction to an emotionally rewarding, but self-centered, way of life. these are self-imagined and ‘false’ vocations.”

He goes on to claim that needless to say these priests preach soft, humanistic reinventions of traditional beliefs, especially of moral principles. and a distorted concept of “love.” he also asks *do real vocations never go along with homosexual interests?” he answers,” i do not dare to affirm that fully; perhaps i have seen a few exceptions in the course of the years. but as a rule, a homosexual orientation, whether acted out or experienced only in the private emotional life, must certainly be regarded as a contraindication to the supernatural source of priestly interests.”- Commentary on van den Aardweg

One of the biggest problems of those with deep-seated homosexual tendencies and who identify themselves as “gay” is they are typically unwilling to examine the posibility of emotional conflicts having any correlation to their homosexual tendencies and attractions. This makes for a formula for disaster in a Church which is continually under attack and where the merciful protection from evil is sought by and assured to the humble and obedient. For a little more evidence or insight to the incompatibility between those with deep seated homosexual tendencies and the Roman Catholic priesthood, I included a Zenit interveiw I found a while back, with Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons, who is a psychiatrist and author/contributor to the Catholic Medical Association’s document “Homosexuality and Hope.”

These individuals in the priesthood have a significant affective immaturity with excessive anger and jealousy toward males who are not homosexual, insecurity that leads them to avoid close friendships with such males and an inordinate need for attention.

Most of these men had painful adolescent experiences of significant loneliness and sadness, felt insecure in their masculinity, and had a poor body image. Well-designed research studies have demonstrated a much higher prevalence of psychiatric illness in those who identify themselves as homosexual.

Under severe stress they may even experience strong physical and sexual attraction to adolescent males, as has occurred in the crisis in the Church. Frequently, they may have difficulty working in a collegial and comfortable way with heterosexual males.

Unresolved paternal anger is regularly misdirected as rebellion against the magisterium and the Church’s teaching on sexual morality. Unfortunately, their denial, defensiveness and anger block their openness to seek the Lord’s help with their emotional and behavioral weaknesses.

What an injustice it is to all of the souls influenced by the self-imagined and false vocations. The cause of so much pain and dissent, metasized heresy and confusion. May we never doubt the love and endless mercy of God and trust His greater good which comes from all our evil deeds. Using a title I found on the Curt Jester blog as a inspiring source of hope in why we should never stop praying for the protection of all of our priests, especially for mercy on those with the greatest need: “Denying the possibility of conversion is to deny the possibility of grace“.

Part II of Zenit interview.

The Vatican dicastery is kicking off a world wide search for mothers. Following the example set by our Blessed Mother, is a campaign which would entrust all our priests to Mary, the mother of the high and eternal Priest, through spiritually adopting each and every one of our priests. The resources are here for those who would like to explore the possibilities of spiritually assisting priests with their self-offering, prayer and penance.

Through Zenit:

“In order to continually maintain a greater awareness of the ontological link between the Eucharist and the priesthood, and in order to recognize the special maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary for each priest, it is our intention to bring about a connection between perpetual Eucharistic adoration for the reparation of faults and sanctification of priests.”

The campaign asks that “a prayer of adoration, thanksgiving, praise, petition, and reparation, will be raised to God, incessantly and from every corner of the earth, with the primary intention of awakening a sufficient number of holy vocations to the priestly state.”

Can you imagine the possibilities if we actually pulled this thing off? I just wonder how I may look in the eyes of God when I point out the faults of others while saying no to the graces which could save them? Just a thought.

A man who usually went to Mass prior to protesting the local Planned Parenthood was arrested for trespassing on St. Matthew Catholic Church property in San Mateo, CA. The church officials said they banned him from Mass because he failed to abide by an agreement they had which required him to cover the graphic anti-abortion pictures and words on his truck, which were visible to the parish school children. In a letter sent to the man from the pastor, Fr. Anthony McGuire:

“You informed me that you would not conform with one of the demands which we had agreed to on Thursday, Sept. 20; namely that you would not attend the children’s Mass on Friday mornings. You also agreed to cover the pictures and words on your truck when you came to church. Because you reversed your position … you are no longer welcome at St. Matthew’s Church.”

The man disputes Fr. McGuire’s assertion that he agreed to stop attending the children’s Mass permanently, and also never agreed to cover up the anti-abortion words on his truck. The parishioner doesn’t feel the priest was justified in having him arrested.

Update: I found that California Catholic has been following this story for some time. 1, 2, 3

A new study released which involved almost 1,000 Catholic nuns, priests and monks over 12 years revealed that those who were most conscientious had a lower risk of developing Alzheimers disease. It’ believed that being conscientious might result in a capability to better cope with plaques that may build up in the brain, eventually leading to a progression of the disease.

Nuns, priests and monks with scores in the top 10 per cent had an 89 per cent lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s than those with scores in the lowest 10 per cent and also found that conscientiousness was associated with a slower rate of mental decline. . (more)

Conscientious – guided by or in accordance with conscience or sense of right and wrong; displaying or resulting from a sense of responsibility or devotion to duty faithful performance of his duties

The outgoing rector of Saint John’s Seminary in Boston, Rev. John A. Farren, O.P., recently sent a stinging letter of rebuke to a pair of Church officials regarding the sale of properties adjoining the seminary to Boston College and Weston Jesuit Seminary. Farren argues that the doctrinal integrity of the seminary is at risk given the close proximity of these two Jesuit-run institutions – both infamously heretical in their theological orientation – to the seminary. Indeed, Boston College will now be in charge of the seminary’s library (I can only imagine how stupid the new titles acquired by the library will become).

Reverend Richard M. Erikson, who was at one time a professor at Saint John’s and is no doubt a dim-bulb proponent of Rahnerian clap-trap theology, could not disagree more vehemently with Farren:

“We are preparing men for ministry in the 21st century in an extraordinarily diverse diocese of 144 communities, 2 million Catholics, and many urban centers, and if our seminarians don’t face these challenges and issues as seminarians, they will the day they’re ordained. I’m not afraid that having a very diverse and wide experience at seminary is somehow going to corrupt our seminarians.”

Father Farren, on the other hand, rightly points out that Weston’s staff is populated by several openly gay and lesbian individuals and that several of its seminary theologians are under suspicion for heresy by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Of course, the glorification of sodomy and otherwise open heresy are not legitimate expressions of diversity in the Mystical Body of Christ. So, what on earth do the seminary students at Saint John’s have to gain from rubbing shoulders in their formative period with pseudo-Catholics and intellectual hacks who think that Elizabeth Johnson’s infantile perorations are the height of theological profundity and sophistication? Yes, there is no doubt that these young men will have to deal with that kind of idiocy and lunacy in the parish setting. But, the contemporary seminarian already knows about all that bunk anyway. The seminary should be a time of spiritual and intellectual purification, not a period of further spiritual and theological confusion. What do you think these young seminarians got growing up, anyway? A living Catholic culture? You’d have to be a knave to think so.

Father Phillips with information on concrete guidance for bishops and married Protestant ministers (who don’t qualify under the Pastoral Provision for former Episcopalians) asking to be considered for Catholic priesthood.  The “Minimum Profile of Formation for Former Protestant Ministers Who Desire to Be Ordained Catholic Priests” speaks of  the human , spiritual  and pastoral formation requirements.

 As the antithesis of the retiring Archbishop Flynn, incoming Bishop John Nienstedt will most likely be patient and avoid making any immediate policy changes in the notoriously troubled archdiocese. I have seen and heard of the frustrations that some have with Cardinal George in Chicago, and expect there may be similar expectations of immediate and revealing changes in St. Paul and Minneapolis with Bishop Nienstedt. While sometimes we would rather our Bishops assume the role of Jesus with the money changers in the temple, we also need to recognize the patience of our Lord in our own baby steps in our pursuit of holiness.

Here is a great story from the ole homestead that you may have already seen. Nevertheless, the San Antonio Express News reports on a Father and Son ordination to the Diaconate last Saturday. The son was ordained a transitional deacon in the Legionaries of Christ and the father a permanent deacon in the Archdiocese of San Antonio. Both were ordained by Archbishop Gomez, the local ordinary. In fact, it was the son who inspired his father to deepen his knowledge of his faith and eventually led to the father’s ordination. Go read the story. It is a good one.

For the past 22 years Fr. Leaon has been sexually involved with a female parishioner and while he admits what he has done (and continues to do) has hurt The Lord, he also believes that his relationship “has brought real fruits to The Church“. In support for Fr. Leaon who has been sanctioned and can no longer say Mass, the parishioners have been boycotting the Mass with their new priest for the last three weeks.

The BBC article reads more like a soap opera review than that of a sad and tragic story of a Roman Catholic priest and parish who had lost it’s way. While Fr. Leaon appears to acknowledge what he has done has been hurtful to God, there’s evidence to him, in his own mind that what he is doing is o.k. because he see’s the “fruit” of his sin. How typical is it in some of us who struggle with sin, to find anyway possible to justify doing what we do, because we hold on the appetite of our sins, and in someways, fear the thought of letting them go.

A few days ago, we did a post on Richard Sipe in the context of a new book that he coauthored with two others. One of the co-authors, Fr. Thomas Doyle, took issue with some of our facts and the tone of our blog in an e-mail. Because we closed down comments and as a matter of fairness, I am posting his e-mail here (though of course, I will also have my own comments afterward):

Dear Mr. Delaney,

I am writing this to you because it appears that you are one of the directors/managers of the blog site on which the review of Sex, Priests and Secret Codes appeared. If I have your title or role wrong, please accept my apologies. I have no intention of continuing the debate that was apparently closed.

I had never heard of the site until someone sent me a copy of the review on line. I read it over and the attached comments. I happen to be one of the three authors and am disappointed that the review was not actually a critical review, which I would have welcomed, but rather and attack on the authors.

In this regard I’d like to point out that there are several factual errors in both the review and the ensuing comments. Mr. Sipe’s name is misspelled but more important, it is alleged that he is still obligated to celibacy. Mr. Sipe was dispensed and laicized before he initiated a relationship with his wife. He was validly married in the Catholic Church and has remained a close friend of his former abbey in Minnesota. The same is true of Patrick Wall, also validly dispensed and married.

I read with both interest and amusement the theory advanced as to why I have some of the supposed (but quite incorrect) attitudes toward the hierarchy and the Church. One of the statements held that it stems from my experience as a tribunal judge. I will not comment on my personal attitudes but I will say that this statement is totally false. It is true that I served for many years in various tribunal positions and it is also true that I did a great deal of research and writing into canonical issues related to marriage. It is also true that my experience with the Chicago tribunal where I did nearly all my tribunal work, was enriching and spiritually fulfilling. I was privileged to learn from the experience of some preeminent canonists and priests, all of whom are retired now or deceased.

My final thought or comment is this: I read with great interest the remarks attached to the review but also much of the other information that I was able to find on the blog page. I found much of it interesting and personally enlightening. But I was also struck by a tone that saddened me and it is this: a significant lack of charity manifested by many who disagree with the ideas or writings of others, especially the so-called ˜liberal or critical people. In my many years in the priesthood I have gone through many phases and perhaps the most painful one has been facing the fact that many of us have sacrificed charity, a core Christian virtue, for our concepts of orthodoxy.

God’s blessings on you.

Thomas Doyle

I have been familiar with Fr. Doyle for many years, though I have never met him. He was stationed as an AF chaplain at a nearby airfield to my assignment in the early 1990s. This is where I learned some things, second hand, about his background. This is perhaps also why almost every time I come across something written by him, I am saddened, as one is when an friend or near acquaintance goes astray. Perhaps the added camaraderie that is often shared among servicemen, especially from the same service, adds to this. However, more than that, the sadness also comes from his office as priest I suppose. That one who took a vow to help shepherd Christ’s people through the authority given to him by the Church, has taken it upon himself to misuse that authority to teach the sheep using his personal opinions about what he thinks the Church should be. Fore example, in June 2002 he wrote an article for the National Catholic Reporter in which he espouses a reductionist view of the Church. He states:

Medieval church is dying

All one has to do is take an impartial look at the traditional governmental model, clearly outlined in the Code of Canon Law, to see the concept of monarchy loud and clear. That model doesn’t work anymore! The false presumption of uneducated, sinful masses is a figment of history. The people, led by the abuse survivors, won’t tolerate an institutional church that puts looking good and the preservation of power and control above the emotional and spiritual welfare of persons. The medieval church is dying, terminally afflicted with the virus called “œclericalism.”

This is all a painful reminder of the fact that the Catholic church is centered on Jesus Christ, not any human structure. Furthermore, its claims to reflect the word and example of Christ must be present in the real life of the church, not just in sermons or theology books. It means little to a wounded survivor to say “the church is love unless we do it, not by word but by action.

To consider the hierarchical structure of the Church something separate from the constitution of the Church herself is clearly outside the bounds of authoritative Church teaching. In fact, his whole article can be understood as flawed expectations arising from a distorted ecclesiology. What I mean is that he espouses a caricature of the hierarchical aspect of the Church as a power hungry monarchy and then criticizes Her for not acting according to this caricature when it comes to problem of the abuse of minors by some priests. He then jumps to an unwarranted conclusion that it is this structure that is fundamentally the problem.

What I find most troubling is that it seems to me that the three authors of the book discussed in the earlier post, are in a sense complicit in further victimizing these abuse victims. Instead of helping them to heal through reconciling them to the Church of which they feel alienated and victimized because they were abused by one of Her representatives, they further fan the flames of distrust of the Church as an institution. In fact, it is becoming clear that they and others are raising the expectations of these victims to consider that unless the Church changes Her structure and Her teaching on priestly celibacy (among other things) then She is not adequately or sincerely responding to the victims. This is the message in Fr. Doyle’s article, the message I get from perusing the Doyle, Sipe, Wall book, and especially the message articulated by organizations like SNAP and VOTF (both of whom Fr. Doyle seems to have close ties with).

True healing for the victims of clergy sexual abuse requires many things, but it cannot come without an authentic understanding of the nature of the Church and their reconciliation with the Church in these terms. They must be helped to recognize, contra Sipe’s Freudian jibberish, that it is not celibacy, and contra Fr. Doyle erroneous ecclesiology, that it is not the Church’s hierarchical structure that led to their abuse. Rather, it was the crimes of sinful men in the most sinful abuse of trust imaginable. But abuse does not warrant disuse of a structure (the Church hierarchy) or gift (consecrated celibacy) that Christ suffered and died to give us.

The findings of the National Review Board make it obvious that celibacy and Church structure were not the problem. The John Jay Report makes it clear that while a problem has always and will always exist in the fallen world, the proportion of bad priests is returning to the extremely low rates, compared to the larger society from which the Church draws Her priests, that it saw prior to the turmoil of the 1960s.

To the extent that the three authors are motivated by authentic concern for victims I am not faulting them, but I do earnestly pray for them because good intentions alone are insufficient. That is why I also pray for their victims because they will not find the healing they need and deserve until they are freed from those who tell them to seek revenge and especially change in ways that cannot come. They need to hear from these people that they need to forgive and to return to the embrace of Christ through His Mystical Body–the Catholic Church and Her Sacraments.

According to the Linacre Institute, the major cause of the sex-abuse scandal in The Church goes beyond isolated incidents and poor judgment of disturbed individuals. The problem of today can actually be traced back to the 1950s, when the basic religious purpose and intellectual formation of many priests began to mutate into what is commonly referred to today as a progressive Catholic. Catholic World News highlights an in-depth analysis from a book called After Ascetism: Sex, Prayer, and Deviant Priests which explains why the sexual problems of some go well beyond pedophilia or pederasty, and more importantly outlines the key elements which provide a solution. These solutions can empower the Church to break free from some of the failures of psychology specialists who have never had an interest or comprehension of religious devotion, chastity, prayer, ascetical discipline, in other words, an adequate understanding of the whole human person.

The Linacre Institute, which was founded within the Catholic Medical Association to develop position papers on various bioethical issues, has taken a special interest in the role that the sciences and professions have in shaping judgment and opinion on sexual ethics, and the treatment of disturbed priests, and has supported efforts to advance Catholic social teaching in these areas. With After Asceticism the Institute has made an important contribution to a discussion– long overdue– about the collapse of clerical discipline that allowed the sex-abuse crisis to develop.

The core change over the course of the twentieth century was one of purpose or allegiance– leaving behind ascetical discipline, having disdain for religious tradition, and adopting the therapeutic mentality, a popular belief that fulfillment of the human person springs from emotional desire in a quest for self-definition, or self-actualization, without regard to an objective philosophical, religious or moral truth. Further, the therapeutic mentality views sin as a social concern and discourages loyalty to religious authority; it is profoundly anti-ascetical.

As society becomes more deeply immersed in pagan sexuality, the Catholic Church will remain mired in sexual crisis absent a return to its ascetical tradition.

It all started with this post, which resulted with the moratorium of the monthly gay mass in Park City, Utah. The March 17th Mass will be it’s last:

What Bussen didn’t expect was the immediate opposition within his own parish and the state – or the pulsing controversy his actions created across the country as the news spread via the Internet. He found himself in the midst of a firestorm of criticism.

For the past few years, an anonymous Catholic priest has been publishing a Web log about his struggles with his homosexuality. The writer describes being in the seminary in the 1970s when nearly 20 percent of the priests left to get married. He explored a slow awakening to his own sexuality, rampant homophobia in the church and the need to help other priests confront these issues. Eventually, the blogger writes that he is at peace with himself.

“My bishop gave me the supportive counsel,” he writes. “I was right in claiming, embracing and cherishing this dimension of my life. . . . This holy fire is sacred, not secret. It must not be trashed by anyone.”After Bussen began celebrating the Mass for gays and lesbians, some people concluded that he was the author of the blog and circulated it.

Some members of his parish confronted him and, Ozog says, he acknowledged he was the author. They felt it indicated a kind of moral ambivalence about church teachings and have sent a complete copy of the blog, now closed to the public, to the Vatican. In an interview, Bussen declined to confirm or deny the authorship or talk about his sexual orientation.

It took a while for me to finally publish the post pointing out who Fr. B was, because (1) I didn’t want to damage to reputation of an innocent priest, (2) nor do anything that was uncharitable and mean spirited in nature. After further discernment and making certain the priest of the blog was indeed Fr. Bussen, I decided that doing nothing would probably be more scandalous, as the doctrine he was teaching could, in fact, endanger his soul and that of others. I sent our blog post to Mark Shea. Knowing he has a huge reading audience, I hoped someone involved with the situation, given Fr. B’s ministry to those with same-sex attraction and his opinion on homosexuality being contrary to Catholic teaching, would eventually know best how to handle the situation. I just hope I did the right thing for the right reason. I wish Fr. B well and will pray for him. I have read that he has continued to be obedient to his vow of celibacy and also found some of his writings to be heart felt.

May God bless all our priests, especially those most in need of mercy.

The book “Space Vulture” is a collaboration of efforts between long time friends Archbishop Myer of Newark and Gary Wolf, creator of Roger Rabbit. It was very recently sold to Tom Doherty Associates and will hopefully be published later this year or in early 2008. Archbishop Myers said there’s nothing in the book that would embarrass him or the church, but admits it has Star Wars type violence and unsavory characters, but also a PG rating because of the way things are presented.

The influence of the Archbishop evidently made a good book, better.  Instead of the signature Wolf sex scenes, there are characters who pray, in addition to some scenes that teach a moral lesson. More

Monsignor J. Terrence Fitzgerald, of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City supports the monthly “gay” mass as an opportunity to extend Christian love and respect to those with same-sex attraction, with the hope of welcoming them into the Church. In a statement on the monthly Mass, the Monsignor acknowledged that the Church teaches that a homosexual inclination is not a sin, but believes pastors should also help gays and lesbians live healthy, chaste lives because of the objectively sinful nature of engaging in homosexual acts.

Unfortunately, Father Busen, the openly “it’s O.K. to be gay” priest believes in his heart that there is no conflict with Catholic teachings and the gay lifestyle. The Church, in all of her wisdom and compassion, understands the burden of the cross that some men with “deep-seated” homosexual tendencies must carry, and therefore affirm, they should not be ordained priests. Sadly, Father “B” himself, has a strong desire to feel a part of and belong to the normal community which, I believe, confirms the above mentioned Church’s criteria for priests, and also disqualifies him from ministering to those with same-sex attraction. Father “B”’s blog (internal link to previous post) is now password protected, so you will not have the opportunity to read some of his posts; some of which are beautifully done, while others illustrate how his battle with same-sex attraction has taken a toll on his heart and intellect.

H/T In God’s Image on Long Island

The Versace Clerical garb line – who’s designer was inspired by the personal secretary to Pope Benedict XVI, Father Georg Gänswein – won unanimous praise yesterday at the Men’s Fashion Week in Milan. According to designer Miss Versace, Father Gänswein represents, “a triumph of more brain and less muscle”.

“I was certainly inspired by him,” she said. “I find his austerity very elegant. It is the right moment to show an ethical and spiritual man, free from all those pointless details. I also like Gregorian garb.” She said her ideal man has biceps but “looks for his inside quality and trains it up, the muscles of the soul.”

Rumor has it that Pope Benedict offered a majority of the Vatican staff and employees his poor impression of the Versace personal secretary collection.

In a separate matter, Prada announced this morning that they will be working on an upgrade to their Papal Spring line for early 2008.

Father Chris Carpenter has decided to leave the priesthood over same-sex issues and other matters after taking a yearlong leave of absence, while a diocese spokesman reported that Fr. Carpenter remains a priest in good standing with the Diocese of Phoenix. One of the issues that has bothered Fr. Carpenter is his opinion of the Church attempting to use it’s authority, in the same way it did when it was culturally respected and accepted. If I understand the article correctly, he was committed to bringing the homosexual lifestyle into the Church. Since Bishop Olmsted’s arrival to the diocese, there have been six priests who have left the priesthood and another four are on leave of absence.

Sometimes it drives me nuts when I don’t accept the fact that some of us see some things so differently from others; like priests, for example, who appear to ignore the most essential and simple parts of what it means to be Catholic, and then spin it into a bad thing. It’s a wonder why some of our dissenting priests even ’sign up’. If not for changing the Church to what way they think it should be, what’s the point? Without humility and obedience, love is reduced into a relative term and measured according to one’s own imperfect emotions. More prayers here, please.

Father Rodney Rodis, who was indicted last week on embezzlement charges for allegedly stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from two churches in Virginia is suspected of living a double live as a priest and a married father of three. Neighbors of 3 1/2 years were surprised to learn that he was priest, as he portrayed himself as a married man and never dressed the part. Father Rodis is listed on a court document as living with a woman and three children, to which he has admitted, but denies being married. He is no longer an active priest and moved away from the diocese after he retired, but as a priest, he is required to continue to live his life with holiness, including celibacy.

We need to pray for Father Rodis and those in most need of mercy.

The Marines used to have an advertising tag line with the phrase “we’re looking for a few good men” (which was subsequently co-opted for a book and then a movie). The Church is as well and thankfully we have many that have heard and answered the call. Shelray recently did a post on a new blog begun by the pastor of Our Lady of the Atonement parish in San Antonio, TX. This is a Catholic Parish employing the Anglican Use Rite and the pastor, Fr. Christopher Phillips, is a former Anglican priest who was one of the first to be ordained as a Catholic priest under the pastoral provision.

Fr. Phillips recently did a post about his gratitude for being called to be a priest. He discusses “priestly burnout” and honestly confirms that he does not understand the phenomenon. Believe me, if any priest should experience burn out it would be Fr. Phillips. As the only priest at a large parish that is just finishing a major expansion project, saying two masses on weekdays, four on Sundays (there is no vigil Mass but there is a Saturday Mass), running a major primary and secondary school, teaching well attended Bible studies, etc., many of today’s priests would be burned out. Here are some snippets from the post:

I make it no secret that I absolutely love being a priest. I have never understood the whole “burn-out of priests” issue. I don’t doubt those who say it happens, but I can’t really understand it, and I pray earnestly that God preserves me from such a thing, however it comes about in the life of a priest. I hope I am on fire for Christ, but I can’t imagine burning out. For more than twenty-three years I have looked forward to getting up in the morning to say Mass, and to care for God’s people as best as I can. It gives me a quiet joy. For that I am very grateful, and I hope for another twenty-three years, at least.

I especially love being a priest who is pastor of a parish with a school. I can’t imagine why every parish doesn’t have a school. To me, that is a mystery (and not of the theological kind). It seems to me that the Council of Baltimore was right. The bishops of this country, in an earlier age, enjoined the pastor of every parish to build the school first, before anything else. They were answering the question that must have been in their minds, “How can we raise up a generation of educated and faithful Catholics if we entrust their education to someone else?”

[snip]

When we built our recent expansion for the church and school, I was able to move my office to a location just inside the front doors. This means that I see the children and their parents constantly. Very often, someone will stop by to chat, or to make a confession, or to ask a question. I have had parents come in to talk about getting their marriage regularized, because through their children they’ve seen how important the Catholic faith is. Our high school students will drop in to talk about the things that young people talk about. Scarcely a day goes by that one of the little ones doesn’t come to my office to bring me a hand-drawn picture, or a sample of cursive writing. And yes, sometimes someone will stop by to register a complaint or a concern, and I need to hear those, too. It’s all part of the care of souls.

What priest wouldn’t want to be in the path of daily blessings like that? And I actually get to say Mass for these children and their teachers every single day! You can’t hear five hundred children praying and singing together, without humbly thanking God. And I am always impressed, as we approach the solemn moment of consecration, that there is absolute silence. Five hundred children — from four-year-olds to high school students — five hundred of them know, absolutely and assuredly, that the Lord Jesus Christ is preparing to make Himself present on the altar in front of them. And on Fridays, something special — they’re children, after all, and they like to show off a bit, even to God. We have Mass every day, but on Fridays we have Mass in Latin. How they love to chant. Kindergarten voices chanting “Pater noster…” Surely God is pleased. I know I am.

We could use a few more good men like that!