When we look at the contemporary ecclesial
landscape, we should never limit what the Holy Spirit can do, but any optimism
needs to be tempered by certain realities. For example, in looking at the
Catholic Church in America, (1) our de facto leader is the heterodox,
zeitgeist puppet Cardinal Blaise Cupich; (2) homosexualist priest Fr.
James Martin has been given almost carte blanche in peddling his
lavender gospel; and (3) the USCCB voted 137-83, with three abstaining,
to not encourage the Holy See to release all documents concerning
allegations of sexual misconduct by the recently defrocked ex-Cardinal McCarrick.
The list goes on and on.
In the face of these
disheartening developments, Coe highlights the shepherding of 3 prominent
churchmen; Archbishop Charles Chaput, Cardinal Robert Sarah, and Bishop
Athanasius Schneider.
Let’s sample the thinking of the first shepherd. In his talk at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Ohio, Archbishop Charles Chaput informed his audience he was acutely aware of the confusion, anger, and anxiety they were experiencing due to the sins of many priests and bishops in the Church, experiences he likewise was undergoing.
Let’s sample the thinking of the first shepherd. In his talk at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Ohio, Archbishop Charles Chaput informed his audience he was acutely aware of the confusion, anger, and anxiety they were experiencing due to the sins of many priests and bishops in the Church, experiences he likewise was undergoing.
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| Archbishop Chaput with The Pope |
As were many prelates, upset with Rome for its
denial of root causes of the scandal and crisis: homosexual predation. The
Archbishop of Philadelphia encouraged the laity: “God doesn’t lose.” He
remarked that the People of God were born to shine in these dark times: “Fear
can be toxic;” and must be abandoned, recalling the words of Pope St. John Paul
II the Great: “Be not Afraid.”
And now for a personal
favorite of mine, Cardinal Robert Sarah, the prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and
the Discipline of the Sacraments. His
Eminence has new book in which he writes that the Church “is wrapped and
blinded by the mystery of iniquity,” which can only be solved by the timeless
truths of prayer, fidelity to the Magisterium, fraternal charity, and the love
of Peter. He is a favorite of mine for selfish reasons, being convinced that “the
smoke of Satan” has entered the Church, and that the crisis is a spiritual crisis.
He says:
We have abandoned prayer. The evil of
efficient activism has infiltrated itself everywhere. We seek to imitate the organization
of large companies. We forget that only prayer is the blood that can irrigate
the heart of the church … He who does not pray has already betrayed. He is
already prepared for every compromise with the world. He walks in the steps of
Judas.
So many spiritual obituaries begin with
“Father stopped praying.”
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| Cardinal Sarah |
Intriguing is Sarah’s reflection
that many Church’s leaders are stricken with the “mystery of Judas”: “…little
by little, Judas’s heart was taken over by doubts. Imperceptibly, he started
judging Jesus’s teaching. He said to himself: ‘this Jesus is too demanding, and
not efficient enough.’ Judas wanted to make the kingdom of God come on earth
straightaway, through human means and according to his personal plans.” The
Prefect also takes to task those who depart from Magisterial teaching: “We
tolerate any calling into question. The Catholic doctrine is challenged, and in
the name of self-styled intellectual postures, theologians take pleasure in deconstructing
dogma and in emptying morals of their profound meaning. Relativism is the
mask of Judas disguised as an intellectual.”
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| Athanasius Schneider, O.R.C, |
Auxiliary bishop of
Astana, Kazakhstan Athanasius Schneider, O.R.C, one of the truly great shepherds
in our day, has gone on record corroborating the aforementioned root causes of
the scandals, naming the following:
One of the evident, observable and deepest
roots of the sexual abuse of minors is homosexuality among the clergy. Of
course, I will not say that all homosexuals are necessarily abusing children. This
would be unjust and untrue. But we are speaking about clerical abuse in the
Church, and so we have to focus on this illness.
It has been proven that more than 80 percent
of victims were post-pubescent males. It is therefore evident that the nature
of the majority of this abuse involved homosexual acts. We have to stress that
this is one of the main roots.
The other main root of the abuse crisis is the
relativism on moral teaching which began after the Second Vatican Council. Since
then, we have been living in a deep crisis of doctrinal relativism, not only of
dogmatics but also of morals—the moral law of God.
Morals were not taught clearly in seminaries
over the past 50 years; it was often not clearly taught in seminaries and theological
faculties that a sin against the sixth commandment is a grave sin. Subjectively
there may be mitigating circumstances, but objectively it is a grave sin. Every
sexual act outside a valid matrimony is against the will of God. It offends God
and is a serious sin, a mortal sin.
This teaching was so relativized… We have to
stress this … the relativism of moral teaching, specifically on the sixth
commandment.
Another deep cause is the lack of a true,
serious, and authentic formation of seminarians. There was a lack of ascesis in
the life and formation of seminarians.
It has been proven by two thousand years, and
by human nature, that without physical ascesis like fasting, praying, and even
other forms of corporal mortifications, it is impossible to live a constant
life in virtue without mortal sin. Due to the deep wound of original sin and
the concupiscence still at work in every human being, we need corporal
mortification.
St. Paul says: “Make no provision for the
flesh, to gratify its desires” (Rom. 13:14). We can paraphrase these words,
saying: do not nurture your flesh too much or concupiscence will dominate you.
And this is exactly what often happened in seminaries. Seminarians and priests
nurtured the flesh through a comfortable life without ascesis, without fasting
and other bodily and spiritual mortifications.
But to me, the deepest cause of the clerical
sex abuse crisis is the lack of a deep and personal relationship with Jesus
Christ. When a seminarian or a priest does not have a deep personal relationship
with Jesus Christ, in constant fidelity to a life of prayer and really enjoying
a personal love for Jesus, he is easy prey for the temptations of the flesh and
other vices.
Furthermore, when you have a deep and personal
love of Christ, you cannot deliberately commit a horrendous sin. Occasionally,
because of the weakness of human nature, a priest or seminarian could commit a
mortal sin against purity. But in the same moment, he is deeply repentant and
decides to avoid the next sin at any cost. This is a manifestation of a true
love of Christ. But it is for me completely excluded that a person who deeply
loves Christ can sexually abuse minors. It is for me impossible. In my opinion,
a deep love of Christ excludes this.
Oremus. Totus tuus.
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