Shepherding Shepherds

 As Jonathan Coe has recently observed,

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.

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.”

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.”

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.