WE DO NOT HAVE TO APOLOGIZE FOR BEING CATHOLIC!

WE DO NOT HAVE TO

APOLOGIZE

FOR BEING CATHOLIC!

When I was born many years ago I was a premature baby. I was shy of being full term by about two months. I was the fourth baby my mother carried and the first one that actually lived. November 3^rd was that date that I was born and it was the date of my emergency Baptism. On the day I first drew breath I became a member of the Church that was founded by Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I was taught about my faith by my mother, God rest her soul, and by the good sisters of St. Joseph. I learned about my religion in Catholic school, received my sacraments and found that it was a community that I will always belong to because of the Gift of the Eucharist. I could not leave the Church for any other denomination because they do not have the Blessed Sacrament. So call me a right-wing Catholic boy for that is what I was born and what I am now and what I will be when God calls me home.

I know some of us are ashamed of what some of our priests and their supervisors did. Their sins are forgivable but not excusable. But I do not have to explain to anyone why I am and choose to remain a Catholic. I also do not hot have to apologize to anyone that I did not personally hurt. The sins of the father are not carried to the son. We each are personally responsible for what we do and it is the same for the pirate priests and their buccaneer protectors. I do not have to and will not apologize for them. I will not apologize for what any deacon, priest, bishop, archbishop, cardinal, or even pope has done that falls outside of the vows they take. They will need to deal with it themselves, I need not stand droopy headed before any other human being because of their shame.

The future is bright for the Church because once these low lives are rooted out and defrocked, from the curia on down, the scandal will be over. Do not defend the Church, she does not need defending. Let the criminals defend their actions, actions for which there is no defense.   

Wake Up...It is Time To Go To Work!

We instruct you, brothers and sisters,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
to shun any brother
who walks in a disorderly way
and not according to the tradition they received from us.
For you know how one must imitate us.
For we did not act in a disorderly way among you,
nor did we eat food received free from anyone.
On the contrary, in toil and drudgery, night and day we worked,
so as not to burden any of you.
Not that we do not have the right.
Rather, we wanted to present ourselves as a model for you,
so that you might imitate us.
In fact, when we were with you, we instructed you that
if anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat.
May the Lord of peace himself
give you peace at all times and in every way.
The Lord be with all of you.
This greeting is in my own hand, Paul's.
This is the sign in every letter; this is how I write.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you.

Today is the memorial of the Passion of St. John the Baptist.  We all know that St. John was atypical in the way he lived his life. He lived in the desert, ate locusts and wild honey and adorned his body with hair shirts.  He did not fit in well with those that got their clothes from the silk traders and dye merchants.  The monied gentry, the leaders all viewed John with a respectful disdain.  They respected that he was a man of God and not afraid to call a king an adulterer but they knew that a close association with him would be bad for one's health.  John worked hard at preparing the kingdom for the arrival and work of the Messiah.  His labors went on without rest and without thought to his very survival.  He was following what Paul says in our reading today.  

Paul tells us that if we do not work, we should not eat.  He wrote this letter because he had heard of some of his converts who, believing that the time of Christ's return was imminent, they stopped working and once they did that they were apt to fall into sin.  

Vatican II gave us lay people a legacy that we need to claim. Our church is engaged in a monumental struggle right now. The sins of our collective past have come home to roost.  We can do one of two things.  We can say the heck with it all and abandon the Church and move to one of the fashionable "Church of What's Happening Now" churches and take up the cry against Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church or we can claim our legacy and step forward and help our deacons, priests, bishops, and cardinals by assisting them in the work of the Church.  Today the vision of the people has been turned to the darkness that occurred in past decades.  As bad as that all is. what would be worse is if we stopped the good works of the Church just because of the bad actions of a few renegades.  If we don't work at the mission of the Church then thousands of people who are touched directly or indirectly by our work will go unsaved with no hope at all to attaining union with God. 

Wake Up from your slumber.  Abandon but do not forget the past, learn from it and move on.  The Church is Holy because Christ is Holy and when we do the work of Christ our unworthiness is transformed into holiness.  Away with the gangster priests that allowed their lusts to sully children, men, and women.  Away with those that protected them from the consequences of their actions. Let them be anathema.  Let us pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and work day and night for the Kingdom of God.  Our selfless acts of mercy, our generosity, and our kindness will repair what is broken and we, The People of God shall be stronger still! 

People of the Pews Unite

Jesus said:
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.                              
You pay tithes of mint and dill and cumin,
and have neglected the weightier things of the law:
judgment and mercy and fidelity.
But these you should have done, without neglecting the others.
Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You cleanse the outside of cup and dish,
but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.
Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup,
so that the outside also may be clean."

Yesterday we celebrated the life of Monica, the mother of Saint Augustine.  For those of you that may have missed yesterdays reflection, let me help you to be better Catholics in one simple word.  His name is pronounced "Aug us tin" - drop the "e" at the end and you will be okay.  If you are speaking about a city in Florida or are a Protestant that is speaking about our hero you would say "Aug us teen."  Now when speaking to another Catholic about Augustine you will sound more learned! 

Augustine was a hellion in his youth, learning from the example of his father how to create and enjoy a good debauch!  He had several mistresses during his life, his mother found him two brides but he married neither of them.  He did father a son who eventually was baptized as was Augustine.  He was taken under the wing of Ambrose, another learned man highly respected in the Catholic Church and Augustine learned the beauty of the Church from Ambrose and allowed Ambrose to baptize him.  His seminal work, a book every Catholic should be aware of is "Confessions" which takes the reader through the life of Augustine and is an example of one of the first autobiographies ever written.  A few other fun facts about our hero.  He never really learned Greek.  His Greek teacher was a brutal man who used to beat students that made mistakes in grammar. (Can you imagine what Michael the Lesser would look like if this teacher read his works) Augustine rebelled at the violence and simply did not study.  He realized too late that he really needed Greek to be the best that he could be, but he never quite was able to master it.  But he did master Latin which was the language of the day and he had a brilliant mind.  He was a great apologist for Catholic teachings and ended his life as a man steeped in prayer, reverence, and love for Jesus and His people.  He wrote this memorable text in his book Confessions: 

Late have I loved Thee, O Lord; and behold,

Thou wast within and I without, and there I sought Thee.

Thou wast with me when I was not with Thee.

Thou didst call, and cry, and burst my deafness.

Thou didst gleam, and glow, and dispel my blindness.

Thou didst touch me, and I burned for Thy peace.

For Thyself Thou hast made us,

And restless our hearts until in Thee they find their ease.

Late have I loved Thee, Thou Beauty ever old and ever new. 

As we endure this time of trouble in the Church where our very leaders are accused of high crimes and misdemeanors, we can look back at the lives of the saints.  They went through periods of purgation where the Church was being ruled by those who had little love for anything but themselves and their own lusts.  Today it appears, and I have a hard time believing it, but the evidence is there, that there is a homosexual presence in the curia that is bent on doing harm to the Church. I do not think that it has infested the Papal office.  I believe that Francis is surrounded by the enemy and he will strike, and strike hard when the time comes.  The Church has been around for two-thousand years and has been run by some really raunchy popes and it has survived.  It will survive this crisis and come out stronger than ever.  

Gentle people of the pews, you are the backbone of the Church.  Your faith must remain a bright fire of love.  Please pray for our Pope that Jesus leads him through the darkness of this night and back into the brilliance of the day.  

Do not lose your faith, young ones.  Scandals will come, Jesus predicted it and the plan for His Church takes into account all of the bad will and traitorous behavior of sinful men.  For the Church is the Bride of Christ and she retains her holiness because of the holiness of the bridegroom.  

Monica, The Prayer Warrior

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters,

as is fitting, because your faith flourishes ever more, and the love of every one of you for one another grows ever greater. Accordingly, we ourselves boast of you in the churches of God regarding your endurance and faith in all your persecutions and the afflictions you endure.

This is evidence of the just judgment of God, so that you may be considered worthy of the Kingdom of God for which you are suffering. We always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, in accord with the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.

Today the Church celebrates the memorial of Saint Monica. Monica.  Monica was born to a Catholic family (there was only one choice back then) and was known to be pious and faithful to Christ and His Church. In spite of coming from a Catholic family, she was given in marriage to a pagan by the name of Patricius.  He was infamous for his temper and for being somewhat of a womanizer. Patricius loudly criticized Monica for her faith but on the other hand, he respected her piety. Monica for her part prayed for him as well as her three children the most famous of which was Augustine.  Drop the "e" when pronouncing his name (St. Aug us tin)  unless you are speaking about the city in Florida where, probably because it is infested with Protestants, it is known as St.  Aug us teen.   

Monica was a prayer warrior.  She prayed unceasingly for her family and her prayer paid off.  Her husband converted to the Catholic Church and her son Augustin, after a whole lot of prayer, also converted and became one of the Doctors of the Church.  Monica had her hands filled with Augustin, he had inherited the party gene from his father and liked nothing better than a good debauch.  He began to follow the teachings of a heretic and Monica demonstrated probably the first known example of tough love by throwing him out of the house.  More prayer followed and Augustin found his way back to the church and the rest of his story is history. 

Monica persevered in prayer even when things were seemingly going wrong in major ways.  She should be an example to us.  We may have children, brothers, sisters, friends, who have lost their way and have moved outside of the orbit of the Church.  For the most part, no amount of talking will bring them back until they have scratched the itch that made them leave. The cure for someone who has left the fold, therefore, is to remain in loving commune with them if you can, sometimes this is not possible, for example, if your loved one has been snared by a cult. But one thing is always proper and profitable is to lift your cause up to God in prayer.  Beg from Him that special graces be sent constantly to the one or ones who have walked away.  He will do this without question. Pray daily for them as Jesus told us to do, be persistent in prayer.  Then be patient.  The act of walking away took a long time to fester in your loved one. Coming home again will start with a single step.  Do not lecture, teach, preach, or cajole your loved one except through your example.  Accept their decision as something that they have to do and keep praying for them.  God will find a way to a heart that has built up the strongest defenses and He will use your example and your long-standing love to make the lost one find his or her home again. 

Remember the poor souls in Purgatory.  It pleases the Lord when you remember them in your prayers and it helps lessen the time they have to remain before attaining heaven. Today you pray for them, tomorrow someone will be praying for you! 

Nowhere To Go

As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?" Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.  We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."

Jesus was giving them Himself and they could not take it. Was the gift too great or perhaps too mystical?  No, the people heard what Jesus said, knew what He was giving them and they wanted no part of it.  He was speaking, of course, of His Body and Blood as food for the soul and they were unable to accept this gift for they thought with the minds of human beings in the normal state of life.  The gift of his Body and Blood was too much for them to accept. They turned away and walked with Him no more. 

Jesus at this point must have been saddened but He had to know how His closest followers felt about Him.  He asked them if they were going to leave.  Simon Peter. as the leader of the Twelve immediately responded that there was no place for them to go because they believed and were convinced that He was the Christ, the Holy One of God. 

Today, we are asked the same question.  Do we believe that Jesus is who He says He is?  Every time the world asks us to follow it we have to make a decision.  Do we follow the world with all of its empty promises or do we follow Jesus, the Son of God?  Do we walk away from the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity that He shares with us so that we do not miss the five plays of the football game?  Do we leave church early after receiving communion without thinking about who it is that we have received?  Is getting out of the parking lot first so very important?  Is a better place in line at the restaurant worth ignoring the Son of God? 

It goes further than this. While it is true that the scandal that has come to our attention out of Pennsylvania hurts and makes us feel shame for what was done and how it was covered up, some of us are walking away.  Those that are walking away are hurt and shamed and do not know what else that they could do.  Why should they remain in a church that allows these things to happen?  The truth is that Jesus knew there would be scandals and He told us that they would come and try our faith.  We forget that the Catholic Church is holy not because of its members but because of its founder and because of the Spirit that dwells within it.  If you are considering leaving the Church for some denomination, think very carefully before you do it and for heaven's sake talk with a trust priest or deacon before you do anything foolish. To give up the Eucharist because of the actions of a very small minority of renegade priests and their supervisors is a very serious thing. Think and pray about it  The Church is the Bride of Christ, she always will be, and He will be back to take His bride to heaven. 

Remember our brothers and sisters in Purgatory - they need your prayers and sacrifices. There are untold millions of souls that have no one to pray for them because they were Protestant and reject the existence of Purgatory.  But, the truth is the truth no matter if you believe it or not.  Pray for the poor souls today for tomorrow you may be one of them! 

The Secret of Service

Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying,
"The scribes and the Pharisees
have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.
Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you,
but do not follow their example.
For they preach but they do not practice.
They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry
and lay them on people's shoulders,
but they will not lift a finger to move them.
All their works are performed to be seen.
They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.
They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues,
greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation 'Rabbi.'
As for you, do not be called 'Rabbi.'
You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers.
Call no one on earth your father;
you have but one Father in heaven.
Do not be called 'Master';
you have but one master, the Christ.
The greatest among you must be your servant.
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled;
but whoever humbles himself will be exalted."

There is a lot of meat on the bones of today's reading.  The biggest issue that comes up because of these words of Jesus is that of "call no man father."  I could take the easy way out and discuss this because we did so not too long ago. So, no, we are not going to go into that subject but rather let's take this reading as a whole and see what we can harvest from it. 

The scribes and the Pharisees are taken to task for their failure to practice what they preach.  Back then, the learned would gather at the temple and all day long they would discuss The Law and how it should be observed by the people.  For example, there were dozens if not hundreds of rules that specified what you could or could not do on the Sabbath. There were so many rules that the average man in the field could not know them all but he could be assured that if he broke one of these laws and a Pharisee observed it, he would be in for a talking to. The laws multiplied and soon man was serving the Sabbath instead of the Sabbath being a day of rest for the man.  Jesus called them out on their ability to make laws and weigh people down.

He also pointed out how the Pharisees made a show of their faith. They would enlarge the things they wore around their neck that was supposed to keep the law next to their hearts.  Instead, this religious symbol shouted out, "Look at me peasant and behold who holy and devoted I am."  What they did they did for show and to collect human respect.  

They also would make sure that at any gathering they would occupy the places of honor and they would make sure people would know that they were present and seated properly amongst the dignitaries by loudly greeting their friends so that the friends would notice their high station.  Ego was everything to these men.

We can see that what was lacking in all of these practices was service. Everything they did was self-serving and meant to impress others. God had, at best, taken second place with these fellows.   Jesus calls us to be different.  He calls us to serve others.  We can achieve greatness by being willing to be the last and least of all.  That is one of the secrets to happiness.  We ourselves can make our selves happier when we let humility guide our actions.  We may have great talents.  People may be impressed with who you are and what you have done because you yourself are not impressed with yourself.  Do it not for reward or because you want to be noticed, do it for the love of Our Lord and serve Him with all you do. 

Make this Saturday special.  Say a Rosary for a poor soul in Purgatory.  They will appreciate it.

One Final Word About the Scandal and Then Back to Reflections

The word of the Lord came to me:                                                           
Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel,
in these words prophesy to them to the shepherds:
Thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the shepherds of Israel
who have been pasturing themselves!
Should not shepherds, rather, pasture sheep?
You have fed off their milk, worn their wool,
and slaughtered the fatlings,
but the sheep you have not pastured.
You did not strengthen the weak nor heal the sick
nor bind up the injured.
You did not bring back the strayed nor seek the lost,
but you lorded it over them harshly and brutally.
So they were scattered for the lack of a shepherd,
and became food for all the wild beasts.
My sheep were scattered
and wandered over all the mountains and high hills;
my sheep were scattered over the whole earth,
with no one to look after them or to search for them.


A lamb left out alone outside of the flock and away from the gaze of the shepherd is at great risk for falling prey to the dangers of the world.  God sent us the Good Shepherd and He hand-selected shepherds to help Him save the world and bring everyone into heaven.  

Today, some of our shepherds, the bishops, and cardinals who are the direct descendants of the apostles have taken leave of their sheep to take care of their needs, protecting each other while protecting members of their corps who have actually injured those they were sworn to protect. Even those who have not themselves been physically hurt by these unfaithful ones are spiritually devastated by the betrayal of those that they trusted.

The time for platitudes and strong letters of reproach has come and gone for words are just words. Action by those who are in power must make short work of the hoodlums that infest the curia.  Those that are guilty of abusing anyone of any age in direct violation of their vow of celibacy must be removed from office, be defrocked and then take their place amongst the lambs where they will have no power to do their despicable evil. 

There must be justice for those who have been abused by the wolves in sheep's clothing.  There must be jail time for those who hurt a child of any age by using their authority as a minister of the gospel as a cloak to breach the natural defenses of a child.  These men have no right to be called "father" for they did not act as a father, but acted as a marauder and bully.  They must practice penance for the rest of their days and humbly take the lowest stations in life. 

I will not address the scandal again.  I have used three entries to voice my opinion.  I want you to know that Michael the Lesser is hurt deeply by these renegades.  I love our Church for she is the Bride of Christ and these men have brought her reputation low.  The Catholic Church is the Church that was begun by Christ and He is the owner of it. It is he these heathens will answer to and I pray to the Lord to forgive us all for the sins we have committed against His beautiful bride.  

The Poor Souls are still waiting for your prayers and sacrifices. Do not disappoint them again today.  Say an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be for them, it is the least you can do.  Remember today you are here, tomorrow you may be amongst them and in need of prayer and sacrifice yourself.  

The SEX Scandal - Why It Happened

THE SEX SCANDAL AND WHY IT HAPPENED 

The revelations coming out of Pennsylvania, the apparent misbehavior of a highly placed Cardinal covered up for all of these years, revelations out of Ireland, South America, and Europe have brought once again the scandal of priestly abuse of boys and men by those that should have been there to guard and protect them. This was supposed to have been dealt with.  We were assured that protections were in place, that the guilty would be outed and cast out of their ministries so that safety once again reigns in the Church. 

First of all, why did this scandal occur? The sex scandal portion of the events we are dealing with is a self-limiting event.  You find a rotten apple, you remove it from the basket so it will not infect the rest of the apples with its corruption. Had the powers that were in charge handled this in this manner, the criminals would have sent to jail where they belong and would not be able to wear sheep clothing and prowl about looking for more victims.  Instead of what was right, our bishops did what was easy.  They quietly removed the offender from his current post, sent him away for some counseling and then put him right back amongst the sheep. The offender was back to ply his trade. Why did those in charge feel that this was the right thing to do?  I do not believe for a moment that their intentions were bad.  I believe that they believed that these predatory priests could be and were cured by counseling. We know today that pedophilia, specifically a preference for sex with prepubescent children and ephebophilia a preference for adolescent and teens are not curable conditions.  They can be controlled but those afflicted with these diseases cannot and should not be involved where those in their chosen target groups are available. 

Okay, we didn't know that these conditions were curable or not so once you gave an offender a second chance after he was pronounced "cured" by the white coats and he offended again, that should have told anyone that this man was not fit to be a priest and he needed to be laicised and removed from the target-rich environments our parishes provided.  Instead, our leaders gave them third, and fourth and fifth chances. Moving them from one place to another where they would offend and injure many people. 

What followed next was the cover-up of what was done. In 2000 a lay committee was formed that was supposed to be able to root out all of the bad priests and expose the lies and cover-ups.  This committee was all smoke and mirrors for they had no power to demand records.  Oh, they could demand, but the diocese could refuse and they did refuse.  The committee was populated by honest people, all good Catholics, and they saw they were not going to pierce the purple wall of shame that the bishops surrounded themselves with.

That is what happened, but why did it happen.  Here is my theory as to why we are in such a nasty place today.  First, the church lined up cassock to cassock to protect their own in a similar way to the way policeman form the blue line to protect other cops.  Our bishops and Cardinals lost the ability, to be honest.  They continued the charade "for the good of the Church."  The cover-up for the great minority of perverted priests makes it appear that the whole hierarchy of the Church was involved from the most minor deacon to perhaps even the Pope. They wanted to save the Church from getting a black-eye. Well, the eye was saved but the rest of the body is all beaten up to hell.  This happened simply because they lacked the faith that the Church could take it. Emptying the trash is needed in many organizations and it is done quickly when it is needed.  Instead, our curia has caused the Church to bleed like a man undergoing the torture of one-thousand cuts. 

For God's sake, open the files, let air into the Church again.  Realize that the Good O'le Boy network will not work for Christ and His Church. The Pope has come out and said that we need to keep homosexuals out of our seminaries. Even if that were possible, it would not change a thing. A homosexual is not attracted to children, they have their own problems to be sure but altar boy envy is not one of them.

We need to cast out the perpetrators, both the sexual perverts and the leadership that caused this scandal to develop and hurt so many people. Let us lead the way to openness and truth.  For no matter what our detractors say, there is more of this sinfulness going around and most of it is happening outside of the Catholic Church.  When we finally become transparent and regain the trust of the people in the pews, then the people will see that the horror of abuse inflicts not only the Church but lay organizations as well.   

My friends and fellow pew-dwellers. do not do anything you will regret later. The Church is like Ivory Soap, 99 and 44/100 percent pure. There are more good priests, bishops, and cardinals then there are bad ones. Jesus has promised us that the Church will last until He returns for us.  Believe and help our bishops believe by showing them a good example.  They need our support during this time of darkness.  Only you and other faithful Catholics can hold the Church up.  Pray, pray, pray without ceasing.  Have faith and believe and everything will turn out as God wants it to. 

The List of Things To Take With You When You Die

Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be perfect, go,
sell what you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me." When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Here is an interesting bit of trivia for you.  the standard casket size (within an inch or so) is

84 inches long, 28 inches wide and 23 inches tall.  This is not a whole lot of space.  Your standard grave is about 3 feet wide, six feet deep and about eight feet long. This too is not a whole lot of space to keep things in. You probably get slightly less space in a public or private mausoleum but we won't split hairs, there will be enough room for you and for your box and that's about it.  I think you can see where this is going. 

The man that Jesus was speaking to in today's gospel was a good man who was seeking the Kingdom of God. He obeyed all of the rules and regulations and he thought that enough.  I think he was asking this question of Jesus so that he could be assured that there was nothing else to be done.  He was very surprised when Jesus said there was more to be done and he was very upset when he found out that he had to give up everything, give to the poor, and then follow Jesus.  He had wanted to be justified and held up as a good example, but walked away shaking his head because the stuff he had accumulated was more valuable than heaven. 

The fact is, the property you think you own was owned by someone else a hundred years ago and will be owned by someone else after you are gone even if the other person is in your family, it is not you.  The trinkets of your life, your car, your closet full of clothes, your fishing poles, and hooks, everything is left behind when you die. You enter the world with nothing in your hands and you leave it the same way. 

Our love for Jesus and the Kingdom of God has to be greater than our love for the stuff of earth. We need to have a certain amount of things about us so as to live.  Even the poorest of the poor have a bucket to carry water.  To have things of utility will help us navigate through life.  A home and furniture are important to have.  We need money to buy the things we need and we work to attain that money and we have a right to enjoy the things that we have earned.  But some of us forget how temporary our time here on earth is and our god becomes the dollar and what it can bring us.  We strive and work and scheme to increase our wealth and do so at the cost of others.

Love the people in your life. Use the goods you earn to make the earth a better place.  Be generous as you can and remember how little space the grave provides to carry the goods of this earth.  You will carry with you only that which fits in your heart. 

Please remember the poor souls in Purgatory this day.  Ease their sufferings by offering prayers and sacrifices for them.  The will be forever grateful.  

Should We Remain Catholics?

Jesus said to the crowds:
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world."

Someone asked me, “Michael, how can you stay in a church that is so corrupt that it hides things such as the molestation of children, youth, and young seminarians from around the world? The answer is in our reading today if you have the eyes to see. But, what about this crisis of trust that has arisen?

The Catholic Church is operating in crisis mode at the moment. The rug under which the dirt of the sex scandal has been taken away and we have learned that our bishops, the ones that have been appointed to watch over the Church, have instead chosen to use smoke and mirrors to tell us pew dwellers that they have everything under control. In our diocese, they have gone so far as to provide both education and background screening for those of us involved in ministry. Once or twice a year our parish combines either the youth choir or the teen choir with the adult choir and because of this, my wife and I have to provide our agreement to have our background checked to make sure that we are not sexual perverts or predators. I think this is a good thing to do for we need to protect our children against the weirdos that would love to do them harm. It appears, however, that while the church has protected the young ones from the likes of me, my wife, and the rest of the choir, for decades they protected priests and religious that did not have the best interests of our youth at heart and transferred offenders from parish to parish. They paid lip service to the protection of the young but worked very hard on the protection of the Church, its reputation, and its priests and religious.

What these prelates forgot is that the Church is not theirs. The Church belongs to and was founded by Jesus Christ. He is aware of everything that has happened in the Church. He knows the details of the scandals that not have gravitated to the top of the pile. He knows the names and titles of every perpetrator and everyone who has participated in a cover-up and all of these things will be revealed and all of the guilty will feel the shame that they need to feel. All of this will happen at a time and manner of Christ's choosing.

But Michael, why would you stay associated with an organization that appears to be so corrupt? Well, for every priest, deacon, or religious that gave into their lusts there are twenty priests that are innocent of breaking their vows. But even that might not be sufficient reason for a person to remain Catholic. The fact is that the Church does not get its holiness from its members but from Christ Himself. In spite of the temporary crisis and scandal, it is still the owner and protector of the treasury of the faith. It is here we receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ which we learn in today's reading is the source of eternal life. That is why we need to be faithful to the Church. The clean-up will begin and take many years and there will be further tests of our loyalty to come. But we must stay the course and not abandon the only Church that was founded by Christ.

Please remember the Poor Souls in Purgatory.

The Sex Scandal

Children were brought to Jesus

that he might lay his hands on them and pray.

The disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said,

"Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them;

for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

After he placed his hands on them, he went away.

There is something about a child that we all recognize as different than their adult counterparts.  A child is an open book whose pages are bright white and ready to be written upon and what we write there will last their lifetime.  They look up to the adults in their life.  They instinctively know that information that will contribute to their survival will come from the people that have lived longer than they have.  

The parents are the source of much of the information that will get them started.  The mother and the father are the traditional fonts of life lessons.  We all learned from them that fire was hot, we don't touch the stove.  We learned how to tie our shoes, how to put on our clothes, how to speak in an indoor voice and when to keep silent.  We learn that we have our family to fall back on and ideally we learn that no matter what trouble we find ourselves in Mom and/or Dad will be there to help us figure out a solution. 

We learn that there are other adults that will help us learn. We enter school and there we meet the first adults that we are not related to and we learn the ways of the world from them.  They are experts in subjects that our mom and dad are not.  

If we are a Catholic family and our parents are in touch with their spiritual selves, we will have been introduced to the Church and to Jesus and will have been set upon the road that leads to the ultimate happiness of being with God in heaven for eternity.  Here we meet a man who has studied, who is spiritual, who has given his life to Christ in a very special way and has become an ordained priest.  There is nothing better than a pastoral priest.  He spends his life in service to his people.  Would that all priests be pastoral.  Some are not but they still fill the need of someone to administer the sacraments to us and they do help us understand the Word of God better, but for them, it is a nine to five job, nothing special.  

Jesus warned us of wolves in sheep's clothing.  It is this kind of priest that has done huge amounts of damage to children, young people, and even young men entering the seminary. These men, while ordained, are not even as good as the nine to five priest because they are dangerous.  They are filled with lusts that they give full reign to and they abuse those that they are supposed to protect.  They are truly the scum of the earth and a special place awaits them when they leave this world. 

There is worse.  What can be worse?  Over several decades the bishops would find out about a case of child abuse and the priest would be sent for a counseling session and sent back out into the filed.  No mention of his love of little boys would be provided to the new parish.  More often than not, the predator priest would offend again, and again, and again. Each time the story would be covered up by bishops and the offender would be transferred to another parish where he would have a fresh crop of children and young men to abuse. 

Some of these bishops that transferred the offender rose through the ranks and became cardinals.  They used their influence to keep the wraps on the situation until one day it the news broke and the Church was in turmoil.  In the meantime, knowing that the Church has deep pockets, "victims" came out of hiding and accused priests of these horrible acts and the Church paid out handsomely.  To be honest, many of the claims against the Church were most likely true but some were bogus.

In the year 2000, the magisterium came up with the idea of forming a committee to investigate the issue of predatory priests and the cover-up.  This committee would be made up of lay people, independent of the Church.  It was a good idea except that they had no power.  A diocese could provide the evidence requested by the group if they chose to.  Self-preservation was the name of the game and no documents that could be considered smoking guns were ever disclosed.

In the meantime, bishops who engaged in the cover-up were promoted and took seats of power in the Vatican.  There they controlled the "truth" and saw to it that as much as possible the grim details of pastoral abuse remained hidden underneath their cassocks.  

Praise God that He allowed the situation to mature and today we find out just how high this has gone.  A kingmaker, a cardinal with lots of power, Cardinal McCarrick was a mover and shaker.  Credible evidence has surfaced that he abused a fourteen-year-old altar boy when he was a priest serving in New York forty-seven years ago.  One has to believe where there is one, there must be others.  McCarrick has been stripped of his title of Cardinal, placed into seclusion by Pope Francis and will stand trial to see if he should be removed completely from ministry and laicized.  

The storm clouds are once again gathering because the Church did not do enough when this situation first reared its ugly head.  We will now pay the price for the prideful and sinful actions of men who should have known better.  

Will the Church survive?  Yes, a thousand times yes.  The plot of ground has many weeds right now.  They need to be rooted up and cast into the fire.  Forgiveness?  Of course, it is available to any Catholic who confesses their sin and makes an effort to change.  But, this forgiveness does not mean the restoration of their ministry as they cannot be trusted, their presence as representatives of the Church would be knowingly putting them back in harm's way.

It is time for Pope to deal with this situation firmly and with a view to exposing the muck that has been moldering in the darkness for all of these years.  The Pope needs to appoint a committee with plenipotentiary powers to go anywhere to examine any and all documents in the archive of any diocese in the world.  One committee, of course, would not be enough. This committee would be able to appoint others with the same powers that they have.  This committee would be overseen by no one except the Pope.  They would answer to no one and what they discover would be brought into the light for all to see.  This scandal must be brought to a head and it must be dealt with today.  Pope Francis, the ball is in your court.  Will we see action or will you sow the seeds of another cover-up?