A great elucidation on Pope Benedict’s recent Christmas message on renewal in the wake of moral compromise and dysfunction within the Church, especially related to the sexual abuse of children. A really important commentary.
A great elucidation on Pope Benedict’s recent Christmas message on renewal in the wake of moral compromise and dysfunction within the Church, especially related to the sexual abuse of children. A really important commentary.
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December 30, 2010 at 9:49 pm
When will priests have the courage to speak the truth on what wasn't a pedaeophilia crisis, but an ephebophilia crisis. A homosexual scourge on the Catholic youth.
December 30, 2010 at 10:04 pm
I'll answer the Holy Father's question as to what went wrong in our proclaimation, in our entire way of living the Christian life, that allowed such a thing to happen.
What went wrong is the fact that the great majority of bishops, priests, and theologians in Western lands have embraced every heresy of modernism, liberalism, socialism, multiculturalism, and sentimentality that they could find, in a pathetic attempt to be fashionable. Most of our shephards no longer know what the Gospel is, let alone possess the fitness to proclaim it. You need but look at the headlines of today to see that the smoke of Satan still lingers heavily in the Catholic Church. For instance, why were the American bishops (practically to a man) entirely onboard with the DREAM Act, which would have rewarded criminal intrusions into our country on a hitherto unprecedented scale? Why did the USCCB issue a statement that announced how willing the organization would have been to support Obama's health care reform tyranny, but for the fact that it "failed to sufficiently protect the unborn" and (horror of horrors!) didn't do enough to provide for "immigrants, independent of who they are or how they got here."? Why is the CCHD cutting checks to ACORN and other groups that support abortion and gay marriage? It's because the majority of Western Catholics, both clergy and laity, no longer love the faith. They've decided that, to the extent to which they wish to live the Gospel message at all, that message reduces to being a "nice person," as the degenerate, urbane, liberal intelligentsia of our suffocating cities define "nice."
But I ask them this: When did rewarding criminals, bankrupting the country, and supporting tyranny become articles of the Catholic faith? Answer: They never did. The men who support such measures are no longer Catholics but heretics, modernists, wolves in sheeps' clothing. If anyone should doubt this, just look at their fruits. Look at the cataclysmic decline in mass attendance, in vocations, in holiness of life. Look at their incestuous alliance with that murderous den of vipers, the Democratic Party. Look at corpulent blowhards like Archbishop Timothy Dolan, complacently smiling and waving at openly gay Catholic parishoners.
And I must say that Fr. Barron as well cuts the figure of a sunken priest, a veritable Tim Dolan mini-me. Everything from his personal appearance to his vocal inflection to his swimmingly sophistical explication of the Pope's message, announces to the world that he is no true Father, no protector of pilgrims. For crying out loud, child sex trafficking in the Third World has nothing to do with the clergy sex abuse scandal. That was brought about by the fact that homosexual men and their gay agenda have been infiltrating the seminaries for decades now, with the active assistence of many, even within the Vatican itself. And the demonic Fr. Maciel being appointed the synod of bishops for priestly formation certainly didn't help, either.
This is getting ridiculous. The Church needs to stand up and realize that it cannot compromise with the modern world, that liberalism is a sin, and that our enemies will gladly use our own stupidity and sentimentality against us. We need to preach the truth and only the truth. Until we do, Our Lady's garments will be torn to shreds by the feral dogs that this decadent civilization has become.
December 31, 2010 at 12:46 am
"For crying out loud, child sex trafficking in the Third World has nothing to do with the clergy sex abuse scandal."
I am glad others see how rediculous that claim was.
December 31, 2010 at 1:21 am
I am sorry to say that Matt is right about "everything." I like Father Barron but I believe that in this instance he is very much wrong. I don't know if he is wrong because he is overtly sophisticated at making his point, or simply because he has bought in to the line fed by the Episcopal conference or because he must say that to be PC about the whole thing.
Though I would simplify his response to the very heart of the problem and the rise of all those heresies and that is the Second Vatican Council.
Weather this is what the council intended I think is irrelevant at this point, since what it had intended has been supplanted what it has actually wrought.
To not accept that simple truth is to condemn the Church to more scandal and more darkness.
December 31, 2010 at 3:49 am
I think it was brilliant. As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and a first hand observer of it in children who were at a Christian school (non-Catholic) whose lives have been devastated by it while the perpetrator went free, thanks to a blind eye by someone too close to me, Pope Benedict is dead on.
One of the most chilling observations I have had over my life, which has included listening to the stories of many people who were victimized, vicitmizers, pornography abusers, etc., is that many of the people who find themselves in such a state would be considered the most moral, the most spiritual, the most godly, when, in fact, they are hiding the darkest secrets and wounds. To roundly write everyone off who struggles in the most intense and dark ways as people who do not care, are just liberals, etc., shows a vast lack of experience with that population.
Pope Benedict is in no way (nor is Fr. Barron) saying that the church has handled everything perfectly and that all priests are equal. Good grief. I have been abused and I can hear more clearly than people who seem untouched. There is great mercy, great hope, great forgiveness available for those who are absolutely destitute. If Christ didn't come to save them, too, what's the point? If there is no way back to God, why bother?
I know there are many who have been severely wounded by the Church's slowness to respond to their abuse. From what I can see, as a recent convert, there have been many efforts made to change that pattern.
The overarching dynamic of a perverse, highly sexualized, hedonistic and predatory culture has to have an impact on everyone.
I have great hope that God is purifying His Church and bringing repentance, forgiveness, mercy and grace. Should clergy be held responsible for their actions? That's a no-brainer. Should they be removed from the priesthood? I would say yes. Judging those who struggle with dark sexual sins as infidels, liberals, and other miscellaneous labels is unwise, uncharitable, and, well, just uninformed.
December 31, 2010 at 4:24 am
Dudes… Slow down a little. Say a few Hail Mary's and take a deep breath.
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:19-23)
Demonic? Sunken Priest? Insulting the guy's looks? Judging what is in another man's heart or another man's faith??? It's one thing to disagree, and I'm not saying that you are wrong, but posting a manifesto about the "Smoke of Satan hanging over the Church"? Seriously…
-Tim-
December 31, 2010 at 5:41 am
Tim,
I'm not even sure how to begin with somebody as patently misinformed as you are, but there are a few things you should be made aware of.
1) The "smoke of Satan in the Catholic Church" phrase is a direct quotation from Pope Paul VI, who was using it to describe the very same sociological currents which I lamented in my "manifesto." Anybody even vaguely familiar with the ecclesiological debates of the last 40 years would know that.
2) I never insulted Fr. Barron's appearance. I was appraising it (along with his vocalization patterns) in order to gain some insight into his character. It's called physiognomy, and it's something that criminologists, police detectives, psychologists, and artists do every day.
3) If you don't think that Fr. Maciel was demonic, you've either been living under a rock or you don't believe in demons. He was a sociopath who wielded vast amounts of power and influence within the Vatican bureaucracy, all the while leading a double life that included multiple cases of sexual abuse against children (you know, the very topic that Pope Benedict was addressing).
I'm sorry if this doesn't sit well with you, but facts are facts. The Church has been under attack from within for a long time now. It isn't hard to see if you know how to look, but unfortunately it seems like the blind guides have led you into a very dark valley. Please wake up and see what's going on.
December 31, 2010 at 2:04 pm
If you don't think that Fr. Maciel was demonic, you've either been living under a rock or you don't believe in demons
'm sorry if this doesn't sit well with you, but facts are facts.
I don't think the word "facts" means what you think it means.
December 31, 2010 at 6:02 pm
Well perhaps you'd like to tell me what "facts" means, Paul. With which of my claims do you disagree?
December 31, 2010 at 6:12 pm
I agree that Maciel was demonic. He exhibited many of the charactersistics….and of course, the crimes.
Listen to a Abp Sheen on the demonic…
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=clubsoda69#p/search/41/jtgCF5D8324
December 31, 2010 at 7:07 pm
What surprised me in Fr Barron's contemplation was what it did not include. In this Dec. 20 Advent address, BXVI offered two stunning sentences that have many people talking: "The very future of the world is at stake," and, "The sun was setting over the entire world." In the latter, he was referring to the fall of the Roman Empire, but in doing so was seeking to offer a distinct parallel between that era and ours.
A third section reads: "For all its new hopes and possibilities, our world is at the same time troubled by the sense that moral consensus is collapsing, consensus without which juridicial and political structures cannot function. Consequently, the forces mobilized for the defence of such structures seem doomed to failure."
Frankly, I and others, aware that popes have the world's most valuable listening post, can't help but wonder if BXVI is offering a serious sober warning – especially to the west.
His address needs to be read in its entirety. Here is the link: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2010/december/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20101220_curia-auguri_en.html
It prints out at six pages, just enough for a bedtime read – but not guaranteed to offer a peaceful rest.
December 31, 2010 at 11:05 pm
I was nodding my head as I read Matt's comments, but then I came to the second paragraph and was deeply disappointed. It seems to me that we have forgotten who we are. It is so easy to point out the fallacies in others and to condemn others. It is so easy to puff ourselves up, particularly as more traditional Catholics. But to actually imitate Christ and live a True Christian life (as Matt had alluded to in his preface) is the challenge. Have we forgotten Our Lord's sacrifice? He Who by His Crucifixion justifies even the unjust… He Who's total submission and obedience to His Eternal Father embraced the Holy Cross… Holy Mother Church as the bride of Christ must share in His most sorrowful Passion if She is to share in His glorious Resurrection. But rather than taking up our cross in humility, we spit on the Vicar of Peter, as the Romans had on our dear Lord. We don't seek to emulate Our Blessed Mother or the Saints. In our pride, we exclaim as Satan had, "I will not serve."
And it is this exact arrogant attitude that is destroying Our Beloved Church from the inside.
January 1, 2011 at 5:44 am
Pope Benedict and Fr. Barron are correct. Just compare the literature, film content, song lyrics, and clothing to what they were a few decades ago. The world has largely lost its innocence, and the sad and frightening thing is that it no longer knows what innocence is.
Catholics are supposed to be the salt of the earth. What does happen if the salt goes flat?
January 1, 2011 at 12:27 pm
Sue,
Your comment has more validity, hands down, than all the other bloviating on this thread. As an abuse victim who has obviously come to healing, you speak profoundly while others seem to use the Holy Father's words as simply a platform to launch into their favorite finger-pointing.
Bottom line: As Donna quoted, ""The very future of the world is at stake…The sun was setting over the entire world." The time for finger-pointing is long past. The ship's going down, we're ALL complicit in its taking on water, we're ALL responsible before God.
Bravo, Fr. Barron!
January 1, 2011 at 9:12 pm
Perhaps Sue and Terese would be interested in the "bloviating" and "finger-pointing" of Archbishop Fulton Sheen on the topic of false compassion.
http://marysaggies.blogspot.com/2010/12/bishop-fulton-sheen-on-false-compassion.html
I don't know…I doubt it.
January 3, 2011 at 4:53 am
Since you bring up the good archbishop… Fr. Mitch Pacwa, in an interview on EWTN Live, got a look of suprise and a shrugged shoulder from Fr. Barron when he brought up the importance of a priest's prayer life. In that instance Fr. Pacwa mentioned Archbishop Fulton Sheen's daily Holy Hour.
Fr. Barron is a great admirer of sophistication and subtlety and has a peculiar admiration for Jacques Maritain. Maritain, lest we forget, had an unaccountable friendship and admiration for Saul Alinsky.
Let's not forget that Fr. Barron comes from "Seamless Garment"/Bernardin tradition. We must pray that his admiration for Fr. John Hardon's orthodoxy wins out!
January 3, 2011 at 9:21 am
I agree that Fr. Barron misses the mark here.
The Church's sex scandal is not a broader a "child-sex-abuse" problem, but, emphasis added, a homosexual child abuse problem. As stated on p. 80 of the "Report on the Crisis in the Catholic Church in the United States," 27 Feb 2004, issued by the National Review Board (prominent lay Catholics like Bob Bennett, Leon Panetta, Anne Burke et al) "[W]e must call attention to the homosexual behavior that characterized the vast majority of the cases of abuse…[T]hat eighty-one percent of the reported victims of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy were boys shows that the crisis was characterized by homosexual behavior."
The National Review Board report was issued jointly with the John Jay study.
Per the Washingon Times, 27 Feb 2004, the issue of the homosexual priest abuse was made at a crowded news conference where Washington lawyer Bob Bennett gave a lengthy summary of the review board's report.
Mr. Bennett, a review board member, blamed seminary officials and bishops for not flagging at-risk homosexual seminarians.
There are "many outstanding priests of a homosexual orientation who live chaste, celibate lives," Mr. Bennett said, "but … more than 80 percent of the abuse at issue was of a homosexual nature."
"There's an incredibly incongruity of a man of the cloth engaging in this type of conduct. How did they get into the priesthood?"
Seminaries, he said, allowed in "many sexually dysfunctional and psychosexually immature men," and did not prepare clergy to survive "particularly in our oversexualized society."