My Thoughts on Evangelium Gaudium

I have been reading the Holy Father's Apostolic Exhortation Evangelium Gaudium, which means, of course, "The Joy of the Gospel".

There are many, many commentaries on this document already, and the blogosphere and Face Book are both rife with gems quoted from the many, many, many, many words that flow from page to page to page to page. I highly recommend the one from Eye of the Tiber.

So let this video serve as my commentary. You may interpret it as you wish.

NFP and the Feminist Revolution

Following the many interesting comments on a couple of recent NFP posts (here and here), an anonymous friend offered these observations on a few of the comments. I think he makes some excellent points:

1. "The widespread, indiscriminate promotion of natural birth regulation will unavoidably contribute to the contraceptive mentality, precisely because of its emphasis on human control over conception."

Yes, the fact that NFP is part of the contraceptive mentality is very true, and is so obvious as to be tautological. The contraceptive mentality is all about the control of birth, not about the artificiality of the method used to accomplish that end.

2. "My parents were very keen on NFP and I attribute that fact to the fact that neither me nor my sister has ever seriously considered family life."

This is very true, but not unique to NFP in comparison to other methods of birth control. The contraceptive mentality leads to a loss of interest in sex. Men are no longer men and women are no longer women, and so it is just like a battery that no longer has a positive pole and a negative pole. There is no longer any charge, so you can't start your car. There is no electricity, no life.

A very interesting article that describes the long-term trend in this regard asks in its headliner questions:

Why have young people in Japan stopped having sex? What happens to a country when its young people stop having sex?  

Read the article here.

The statistics in the article are really startling, even if you’ve been following this issue for a long time. The gist of the article is that the Japanese hardly even need birth control any longer, because young men and women simply have no interest in each other. Perhaps the NFP advocates can tout this as the ultimate triumph of NFP: no babies being born in the country using the most natural method of all.

In reality, it is the triumph of Manicheism.  Periodic continence was the method of birth control used by  the Manicheans, which St. Augustine condemned so vigorously. St. Augustine worked to distinguish between a truly Catholic love of chastity and purity which leads in turn to fruitful generosity among those who are not called to the celibate religious life, in comparison to the Manichean hatred of life which leads to the deadly combination of impurity and sterility – the exact same combination we see in Japan today: a society awash in pornography which is incapable of having children.

One might reply, "Well Japan is a strange foreign country." No, the reality is that Japan is just the most modern country in the world. Wherever Japan is today, we will be there in 10 - 20 years. We have followed all their demographic trends, just a few years behind them. The situation in places like Germany and many other European countries is not much different from Japan.

3. "The NFP movement may be part of the feminization of the Church. An NFP marriage necessarily puts the woman in charge."

Yes, now we are getting to the heart of the matter. We are in the middle of a revolution, the Feminist Revolution. It is just as much of a revolution as the French Revolution or the Communist Revolution. And just as violent – in fact much more so since the number of casualties from this revolution is actually higher than all the wars of all of history put together. Like all revolutions, the purpose of the revolution is to overturn the natural order and to make the higher serve the lower.

This revolution has several battle fronts – divorce is one example – but the main battle is over birth control. This is where the revolution lives or dies. That is why feminists fight tooth and nail over every single smallest abortion restriction, even live birth abortion. This is the battle where they cannot concede any ground.

Catholics who do not use birth control are reactionaries, whether they like it or not. Catholics with large families are often surprised and hurt by the reactions they get in the supermarket, because they wonder, "Why can't they have their small family and be happy about me having a big family?" But the reality is that anyone having a large family is on the wrong side of the current revolution, and there is going to be hatred directed at you.

That is also the reason for the fury directed at Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae. We know from reading the document that it is very liberal, and in fact it overturns much of Catholic teaching on marriage, although it upholds the teaching on artificial contraception. But the opponents of HV don't care at all about Catholic doctrine per se, they only care that HV is an obstacle to the revolution. It was one thing if a small handful of Amish or Orthodox Jews were not signing up, but the revolution couldn't afford to have hundreds of millions of Catholics on the other side.

That's where NFP comes in – although strictly as a front, as the facade of the Potemkin village. The reality is that 98% of Catholics joined the revolution, but NFP allowed the Church to save face by allowing pastors to naively pretend that their parish full of small families got that way via periodic continence. Catholics can participate in the feminist revolution while pretending that they are still Catholic, just like the "Patriotic Church" in China allows Chinese Catholics to go along with the Communist government.

And so it becomes clear that we can never make any progress on the first "blessing" of marriage, the procreation and education of children, until we realize how intimately it is connected with the second "blessing" of marriage, the mutual fidelity of the spouses, which is based upon the "order of love":

Domestic society being confirmed, therefore, by this bond of love, there should flourish in it that "order of love," as St. Augustine calls it. This order includes both the primacy of the husband with regard to the wife and children, the ready subjection of the wife and her willing obedience, which the Apostle commends in these words: "Let women be subject to their husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife, and Christ is the head of the Church. (Casti Connubii, emphasis added)

Catholic promoters of NFP are trying to walk a delicate tight-rope in their claim of adherence to the first blessing of marriage. With regard to the second blessing of marriage, however, I've never encountered any NFP proponents who even bother to pay lip service to the “order of love”. Even traditional Catholic women with large families will argue tooth and nail against subjection and obedience.

NFP is the method by which women are put in control of the couple's sex life, even when the couple consider themselves sincere Catholics. They are brought to participate in the feminist revolution under the cover of pietistic talk about "respect" and so forth.

NFP is similar to what I say about EWTN. The devil tells himself, "I already have 99% of the people hooked up to my control box, but there are still that remaining 1% of pious Catholics who are not watching television. What can I do? I know, I will have a channel dedicated to pious Catholics. Then that last 1% will sign up for television, and although they might watch a few minutes of EWTN now and then, that will do no harm, and in the meantime they will join the rest of my brainwashed servants."

NFP is like that in the area of birth control. The devil already had 99% of Catholics signed up for artificial birth control, but he still wanted to get that last 1% to participate in the revolution. By getting them to sign up for NFP, he knows that they are now part of the contraceptive mentality, whether or not they have a few children more or less, and the women are now in control of their families.

This subject is too involved for a long disquisition right now, but it is important to realize that this subjection and obedience is not merely a question of who makes the final decision when the couple can't decide whether or not to buy a new car, but rather it is the very foundation of everything in the spiritual life. There is no grace, no interior reality, no true love without subjection and obedience.

Yes, “responsible parenthood” is simply a Catholic version of "Planned Parenthood" – no more, no less.  I own a book published in the early sixties in which Catholic theologians “reconsider” Church teaching on birth control. The book was sponsored and published by Planned Parenthood. Many of the theologians are Jesuits. The Introduction was written by Cardinal Cushing of Boston. So here we have evidence of an active collaboration between Planned Parenthood and Catholics who were working to redefine Catholic teaching at the time when “responsible parenthood” became the new rallying cry – of the Majority Report of the Papal Commission on Birth Control, for example. And so it remains today.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks be to God for our one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church!

Thanks be to God that we may enjoy the fullness of the Truth!

Thanks be to God that we live in a time such as this!

And I am thankful for all of you, 
the friends I have made through this blog!

Catholic Identity During Advent

I read the paragraphs below in a parish bulletin; and it doesn’t matter which parish, really, does it? I know this is not an isolated occurrence, because I googled a phrase from the first paragraph and found the same item in more than one parish bulletin across the country. Take a look:

On Sunday, December 1^st, we will begin the Season of Advent. Advent is a great time to focus on your home as a holy place that is called the domestic church. The domestic church refers to your home as the primary place where children first hear about and witness the Catholic faith. In your home, your children will learn to love, to pray, and to serve.

Honor this joyful season in a simple way in your home. Keep the focus on Jesus with prayer. Gather the family at least once a week to pray – it would be nice if your family could do this every day during Advent.

It doesn’t need to be more than a 5-minute moment during the day. You could have everyone join hands and form a circle. Then invite each person to praise God for the gift of his Son.

When I read this, my stomach knotted up, my heart sank, and I almost wept. Is this what we have become as a “Catholic community”? Are we reduced to observing Advent by spending one 5-minute period a week holding hands in a circle?

Whatever happened to praying the Rosary as a family? I’ve heard that people used to do that! What about a “Jesse tree”? What about an Advent wreath on the dining room table? What about an Advent calendar? People could even get really radical and think about the “O Antiphons” in the latter days of Advent…

Do you ever wonder why it seems that we have to form a circle and hold hands to “pray”?  It’s really okay to not be in a circle, and not to hold hands. It’s even okay to pray a “memorized” prayer like the Our Father, which is a prayer that certainly praises God and also reminds us of our own sins and our need for forgiveness. Isn’t that why Jesus came to earth in the first place?

I know that in most parishes – mine included – there will be an Advent wreath in a prime position at Sunday Mass throughout Advent (please, oh please, don't put it right in front of the altar!); and there will be special “chosen ones” of the congregation lighting the candles each week.  There will be a “reconciliation service” (I am not even going to say a word about how I feel about those). There will be the Advent readings and prayers at Mass, of course. At the weekly RE Classes, there will be… well… something, I’m sure, to help the children learn more about Advent.

But in the “domestic church”, the place where children should be immersed in the faith, have we really sunk to such a deplorable lack of Catholic identity as the bulletin blurb above seems to indicate? I’m afraid it is probably so.

How will we restore our Catholic identity? It’s going to be an uphill battle. Of course, it’s worth the fight.

Pray. Fast.

St. Clement I, Pray for Our Bishops

Today is the feast of St. Clement I, Pope and Martyr. Here’s an excerpt about him from the Divine Office readings for Matins:

His teaching and the holiness of his life brought many to believe in Christ, and he was therefore exiled by the Emperor Trajan to Kherson, in the Crimea, where he found two thousand Christians, who had been condemned by the same Trajan. There they all worked in the marble quarries. During their labor they suffered for want of water, and Clement prayed, and then went up an hill hard by, on the top whereof he saw a Lamb standing, touching with its right foot a flowing spring of sweet waters. Therewith they all quenched their thirst, and by this miracle many unbelievers were brought to believe in Christ, and began to honor the holiness of Clement.

 

These things moved Trajan to send a messenger to the Crimea, who tied an anchor about Clement's neck, and cast him into the deep of the sea. After it had been done, while the Christians were praying on the shore, the sea went back three miles, and when they followed it, they found a grotto of marble, in form like a temple, and therein a stone coffin wherein was laid the body of the Martyr, and, hard by, the anchor wherewith he had been sunk. Then were the country people moved to receive the faith of Christ…

Thinking about St. Clement and his martyrdom led me to think about our modern-day bishops, especially here in the US. Back in Clement’s time, one’s life was at stake when it came to defending belief in Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Church.

You could die for the faith. You could die a horrible excruciatingly painful death that was preceded by horrible excruciatingly painful torture.

Now, in some parts of the world today, this is going on right now, and we all need to be praying for those souls who undergo such trials, that they would stand fast in their faith and be welcomed directly into Heaven for their martyrdom.

But I was thinking about the US. Here, there seem to be so few bishops who would measure up to Clement’s steadfastness in teaching and preaching the truth of our faith. I can’t imagine Clement failing to teach about the sinfulness of his people if he knew sinful acts were being committed. I can’t imagine Clement being intimated by a government that said he couldn’t speak out against politicians and laws that were unjust and contrary to the faith!

Clement defended the faith and paid for that defense with his life. Who among our bishop would do that? We have seen so many times the strong start and the weak finish! A bishop stands up for the faith in the public square by saying “Homosexual acts are evil!”, and two days later he recants due to the pressures of the media and current societal thinking. A bishop demands that the faithful in his diocese who serve as extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, or who are teachers in Catholic schools, or who are catechists, profess their faith and even sign a statement to that effect; we applaud, and are disappointed a few days later to see him back down against the wave of popular opinion that says he is being “judgmental”. 

Would these bishops die for their faith? Would they even go to jail for it?! Or are they so concerned about being “pastoral” that they allow the faithful to persist in their sin? Are they so concerned about the bad press they might get that they are willing to endanger their own souls by failing to proclaim the truth? When our bishops start sacrificing for the faith, then we might see people begin to sit up and take notice that Catholicism is something worth fighting for, even to the point of death.

As Rod Pead pointed out in his talk and article entitled “Sword of Unity”:

… Episcopal salvation is, to say the very least, problematic. "Many priests are lost and few bishops are saved," said St. John Chrysostom, himself a bishop. After his mother congratulated him on his appointment as Bishop of Mantua, St. Pius X told her: "Mother, you do not realise what it means to be a bishop. I shall lose my soul if I neglect my duty."

So we have to stop pandering to duplicitous Shepherds and start fearing - for them, since they appear to have lost all fear of God themselves, and fearing for our complicity in their negligence.

Fear for our bishops, and out of that holy fear, pray that they start ministering in a way that merits Heaven, and not hell.

Vortex: Confronting "Catholics" with the Truth

I don't have the script for this Vortex yet, but it is well worth watching (have I ever found one that wasn't well worth watching!?!).  The "blurb" for this episode says, "Sometimes you DO need to smash someone over the head with the truth!"

MV describes a man who attended one of MV's recent talks. This man represents many, many of today's Catholics: he doesn't know the faith; he thinks that his opinions on moral issues are right and the position of the Church is wrong; and yet he still thinks of himself as Catholic.

The man is a casualty of the culture war and the failure of the Church's leaders to catechize effectively over the last several decades, says MV - he's one of the "walking wounded", a "refugee". And, in my experience, he really is a "typical Catholic". 

Here's the Vortex:

The Continuing Saga of Fr. Despard: Canon Law Perspective

Fr. Matthew Despard’s current plight continues to be of great interest to the world. A follow-up article here describes parishioners’ reactions to the suspension of Fr. Despard’s faculties: many walked out of the Mass being said by the acting bishop, and many signed a petition demanding that Fr. Despard be reinstated.

Dr. Ed Peters has an interesting look at the situation from the canonical point of view (of course!). He notes that:

A priest’s removal from ministry could be effected under Canon 1722, a norm that authorizes such action against persons under certain circumstances (who knows whether those circumstances were satisfied in this case), and there is canonical provision, even preference, that ecclesiastical penalties be imposed or declared in a judicial (instead of administrative) penal process per Canons 1314 and 1341-1342.

The question is: what canonical crime could have been committed (not was committed, but could have been committed) by publishing the kind of book described above? Remember—against the backdrop of Canon 212 and its protection of the qualified right of Catholics to publish their opinions on matters impacting the welfare of the Church—that a canonical crime is being alleged here, not just the canonical equivalent of a tort (Canons 128 and 1491); that is, the priest is being treated as suspected of having violated a canonical provision to which a sanction is attached. That’s a very serious matter.

Dr. Peters says that of the four penal canons that could be called into play in this sitatuion, the two most likely candidates are:

Canon 1369, for perhaps the priest’s book gravely injured good morals [nb: not morale], expressed insults, or excited hatred or contempt against religion or the Church.

Canon 1373, for perhaps the priest’s book excited animosity or hatred against ecclesiastical authority on account of its governance acts [or lack thereof?] or provoked the faithful to disobey ecclesiastical authority.

Dr. Peters does not mention the fact that the prelate who is taking this canonical action against Fr. Despard is an acting bishop. In my diocese, when we had an “acting bishop”, or Apostolic Administrator, some of us were under the impression that there were limits to what actions could be taken by such an administrator, according to Canon Law (you can begin reading some of the applicable canons here). There are some very specific limitation that don’t apply here, but I’m not sure whether or not canons fully address the general concept of not taking action that would have a lasting effect on the diocese and cause problems for the incoming bishop. In particular, I’m thinking of this canon (my emphases):

Can. 428 §1 While the see is vacant, no innovation is to be made.

§2 Those who have the interim governance of the diocese are forbidden to do anything which could in any way prejudice the rights of the diocese or of the Bishop…

 At any rate, the previous bishop of Fr. Despard’s diocese had stated that Fr. Despard would not be suspended, but the acting bishop has decided otherwise. Whether or not that action is within his rights as an acting bishop is probably a moot point, since he’s doing it regardless.

Still, here’s one other note from Dr. Peters, which I find quite an interesting thought:

I might mention, though, one other penal canon possibly relevant in this matter. Canon 1389 threatens with sanctions those who abuse office in the Church. Invoking, on frivolous grounds, a formal penal process against a priest might qualify as abuse of ecclesiastical office

Regardless of canon law, the double standard concerning the accusation of priestly crimes continues, as is noted by this blog post which tells us:

The Scottish homosexual crisis continues unabated as Fr. Matthew Despard is suspended, while admitted pervert priest Paul Milarvie is a priest in "good standing" and even in the local curia. 

Follow the link in the quote to learn more about Fr. Milarvie’s past shenanigans…and the fact that despite admissions of homosexual behavior, his faculties have never been suspended.

Personally, I’m glad that Fr. Despard wrote his book. He’s paying the price, and I seriously doubt he will find justice, but if he is telling the truth, and following his conscience in bringing the situation to light, then God will surely judge him favorably. That’s what counts.

Randy Engel, Fr. Despard, et al: Exposing the Homosexualist Agenda in the Church

Randy Engel

Randy Engel has done extensive research into the homosexualist agenda in the Church, which she catalogued in her 5-volume tome Rite of Sodomy. I have not read those volumes, but I have a feeling she recaps some of the important points in a recent “Open Letter to Pope Francis” which was published recently at RenewAmerica. In that letter, she outlines the myriad problems with the homosexualist agenda, and suggests the establishment of a a “Papal Commission of Inquiry into Homosexuality, Pederasty and La Lobby Gay in the Catholic Church”. You can read the whole letter here. 

[Randy Engel was also interviewed by Christine Niles on her Forward Boldly program earlier this year; you can listen to that interview here.]
 

Ms. Engel’s letter was published before the recent suspension of Fr. Matthew Despard which I noted here; Fr. Despard had the courage to make public his own experience with the “gay mafia” in Scotland in a book entitled Priesthood in Crisis, and he is paying a price for doing so. There are many who don’t believe what he says, and many who do; all I know is that, given what other reporters and researchers have found over the last few decades, it is difficult to justify a blatant dismissal of Fr. Despard’s claims.

Earlier this year, it was said that the Pope would appoint no new bishops in Scotland until a thorough investigation was made into the issue of homosexual behavior in the clergy, following Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s admission of his guilt concerning sexual abuse of seminarians. I don’t know whether such an investigation has taken place, but I’m sorry to say I have my doubts. And if the “gay lobby” in Rome is as powerful as we have been led to believe, how successful could such an investigation be? Is Cardinal O’Brien simply to serve as a scapegoat who will allow other guilty members of the clergy to stay “under the radar”?

At any rate, I hope Fr. Despard’s case can continue to sound the alarm, and provoke a real investigation into this problem.

Randy Engel’s letter – which is a long one – provides a broad-ranging view of the issues surrounding homosexual behavior in the Church, and the implications thereof; here are her subheadings:

Cardinal O'Brien

The Language of Gayspeak

“Homophobia” as Ideology

Homosexuality, Pederasty and Criminality

Homosexuality and Pederasty –  An Ancient and Universal Connection

Why the Etiological and Behavioral Differences Between Pederasty and Pedophilia Matter

Pederasts – A Different and More Dangerous Breed of Sexual Offender

The Post-Conciliar Church’s Dalliance With the Homosexual Collective          

The Plague of “Gay Parishes” and “Gay Ministries”

Organized Crime and the Homosexual Collective        

Homosexuality and the Drug Connection

Homosexuality and Male Prostitution

Homosexuality and Domestic Violence, In-house Murder, and Homicide

Suicide, Self-inflicted Violence, and Blackmail

Blasphemy and Sacrilege

A Papal Commission of Inquiry into Homosexuality and Pederasty in the Catholic Church

Benefits to be Accrued by the Catholic Laity From the Establishment of  

Such a Commission

Benefits to the Diocesan Priesthood and Religious Orders

In particular, Ms. Engel’s statements concerning “The Post-Conciliar Church’s Dalliance with the Homosexual Collective” are of interest in the context of Fr. Despard’s accusations. Ms. Engel writes 9my emphases throughout):

            Throughout her 2000 year history, Holy Mother Church has always viewed widespread sodomy in its clerical ranks and hierarchy as a clear and present danger to the Faith and the flock. Unfortunately, the post-Conciliar Church no longer upholds or teaches and preaches this Truth.     

…Persona Humana - Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) on December 29, 1975, under the reign of Paul VI, himself a casualty of the unnatural vice and a major player in the paradigm shift in the Church in favor of homosexuality, gave the Homosexual Collective its first major victory in the post-Conciliar Church.  By making a fictitious comparison between “transitory or at least not incurable homosexual tendencies” and homosexuality resulting from “some kind innate instinct or a pathological constitution judged to incurable,” Vatican authorities gave credence to the well-known agitprop slogan, “homosexuals are born that way.”

… The truth is that there is no such creature as a “homosexual person.” God did not create “homosexual persons,” any more than He created “theft persons” or “sadomasochist persons.”

God created man in His likeness and image with a rational mind and immortal soul. He gave man an Order of Being and a free will by which man chooses to live his life according to that Order or rejects that Order and in the fashion of the Gnostic attempts to create his own reality. The post-Conciliar Church took a wrong turn in the road when it adopted the concept of the “homosexual person” and this error needs to be corrected, the sooner the better…

            The effect of all this pandering by the Church to the forces of organized perversion is that the average Catholic boy and girl, man and woman, lay or religious, has been systematically stripped of the natural and supernatural revulsion that the normal person feels when confronted with sexual perversion.

            Coupled with 12 years of pro-homosexual sex instruction in Catholic schools and CCD classes, few adult Catholics have been able to withstand the onslaught of the enemies of the Faith and purveyors of perversion.

In her section entitled “Blasphemy and Sacrilege”, Ms. Engel notes:

            Since the early 1970s, outright blasphemies against Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, including references to Jesus as an active sodomite and a lover of Lazarus, have been increasing dramatically within the Homosexual Collective.

            Similarly, sacrilege, in the form of acts of sodomy and oral opulation committed on and about the sacred altar have been recorded in a number of criminal cases involving Catholic priests and religious here in the United States.

            In late July 2010, the Italian magazine Panorama ran an undercover story on the double life of three bona fide “gay” priests, two Italians and a Frenchman. One of the priests donned a cassock to have sex (secretly filmed) with the magazine reporter’s “gay” accomplice, and later said Mass for the reporter. There was no comment from either the Italian Bishops Conference or the Vatican.

            Ask yourself Holy Father how often are these grave sins committed by homosexual priests, religious and prelates on a daily basis throughout the world. Don’t you feel any sense of outrage? Have you ever made an act of public reparation to atone for these offenses against Almighty God? If not, why not?            

            It involves no stretch of the imagination to come to the sober and bitter conclusion, that if you, as the Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, do not take the lead in enforcing an absolute ban on candidates for religious life with homosexual and pederastic tendencies in seminaries, the priesthood and religious orders, and if you do not enforce the rule of chastity for priests, religious, and members of the hierarchy afflicted by this vice as well as philandering heterosexual priests who are also making a mockery of their vows, then the Catholic priesthood and religious life will continue to disintegrate and become dens of iniquity.

            But how can you undertake such an arduous task without first knowing all the facts concerning the extent to which the Homosexual Collective with its pederast contingent of clerics has already successfully colonized the Catholic priesthood, religious life, and hierarchy?

            It is strange that despite more than three decades of clerical sexual abuse scandals in the Church, most linked to pederasty, neither you nor any of your post-Conciliar predecessors have ever made any attempt to investigate the extent and consequences of the dual plague of homosexuality and pederasty on the Catholic diocesan priesthood and religious life, and on the life of the Catholic laity? With thousands of convicted clerical abusers, and hundreds of thousands of victims, and billions paid out in legal and reparation fees world-wide, isn’t it time that such an investigation were instituted?

In addressing the benefits that the Catholic laity might receive from the findings of a Papal Commission, Ms. Engel points out that

            … the Commission findings would provide the Catholic laity with a genuine understanding of the multitude of problems associated with the homosexualization of the diocesan priesthood, religious life, and hierarchy in the Church.    

            Such an understanding is virtually non-existent among Catholic adults today due largely to the Catholic hierarchy’s failure to provide them with honest answers as to the nature and consequences of a homosexualized clergy and hierarchy including an increase of pederastic crimes with all the disastrous physical, emotional and spiritual repercussions these crimes bring upon innocent victims and their families.

            …By its willingness to answer these hard questions based on actual case studies of clerical sex abuse, the Papal Commission could began the arduous task of helping to restore confidence in the Church, especially among those Catholics who have left the Church  in despair and disgust over clerical sex abuse crimes and their cover-up by the hierarchy and the Vatican.        

Randy Engel makes some good points, as you can see. Read the whole letter here.

And Ms. Engel is not the only one making these points. Here’s a list of books/articles that have been published over the years, each documenting the problems with active homosexuality in the clergy. It’s really quite sobering to think about.

1982: Fr. Enrique Rueda’s ground-breaking book, The Homosexual Network

2002: Michael Rose, Good-by, Good Men

2006: Randy Engel Rite of Sodomy (5 volumes)

2013: Fr. Dariusz Oko, Ph.D., With the Pope Against Homoheresy

2013: Fr. Matthew Despard, Priesthood in Crisis

Pray. Fast. Pray some more.

Related posts:

Homosexuality in the Church

Vortex: Scotland’s Gay Mafia