Francis: The sin of a priest is as grievous as the sins of the whole people, stop giving scandal!

St. Alphonsus De Liguori, a Doctor of the Church and a moral theologian, explains that, "The Lord ordained in Leviticus that for the sin of a single priest a calf should be offered, as well as for the sins of the entire people. From this Innocent III concludes that the sin of a priest is as grievous as the sins of the whole people. The reason is, says the Pontiff, that by his sin the priest leads the entire people into sin ('Unde conjicitur quod peccatum Sacerdotis totius multitudinis peccato coaequatur, quia Sacerdos in suo peccato totam fecit delinquere multitudinem' - In Consecr. Pont. s. I.)


And, long before, the Lord himself said the same: 'If the priest that is anointed shall sin, he maketh the people to offend.' Hence, St. Augustine, addressing priests, says, 'Do not close heaven: but this you do if you give to others a bad example to lead a wicked life.' Our Lord said one day to St. Bridget, that when sinners see the bad example of the priest, they are encouraged to commit sin, and even begin to glory in the vices of which they were before ashamed. Hence our Lord added that worse maledictions shall fall on the priest than on others, because by his sinful life he brings himself and others to perdition.'...says St. John Chrysostom, the life of the priest is the root from which the people, who are the branches, receive nutriment.

St. Ambrose also says that priests are the head from which virtue flows to the members, that is, to seculars. The whole head is sick, says the Prophet Isaias;...from the sole of the foot unto the top of the head there is no soundness therein. St. Isidore explains this passage in the following words: 'This languishing head is the priest that commits sin, and that communicates his sin to the whole body.' St. Leo weeps over this evil, saying, 'How can health be found in the body if the head be not sound?' Who, says St. Bernard, shall seek in a sink the limpid water of the spring? Shall I, adds the saint, seek counsel from the man that knows not how to give counsel to himself? Speaking of the bad example of princes, Plutarch says, that it poisons not a single cup, but the public fountain; and thus, because all draw from the fountain, all are poisoned. This may be said with greater truth of the bad example of priests; hence Eugene III has said that bad Superiors are the principal causes of the sins of inferiors...St. Bernardine of Sienna writes that many, seeing the bad example of the scandalous ecclesiastic, begin even to waver in faith, and thus abandon themselves to vice, despising the sacraments, hell, and heaven." (St. Alphonsus De Liguori, Dignity and Duties of the Priest, pp. 142-144, 149).

The scandalous ecclesiastic.  How else to describe someone sitting on the See of Peter who says that the Church needs to apologize to "gays" (individuals who are committed to living in sin, as opposed to those who possess a homosexual inclination but live a chaste life)?

That Francis would choose such language is very revealing.   The Roman Catholic apostolate Courage, which assists those with a homosexual inclination to live authentically Catholic lives, embracing chastity, explains why it will not use the terms "gay" and "lesbian":

Q. Why doesn’t Courage use the terms “gay” and “lesbian”?



A. Courage discourages persons with same-sex attractions from labeling themselves “gay” and “lesbian” for the following reasons:


1) The secular world usually uses those terms to refer to someone who is either actively homosexual or intends to be. When a person decides to “come out” and say “I am gay” or “I am lesbian”, the person usually means “this is who I am – I was born this way and I intend to live this way. I have a right to find a same-sex partner with whom to have a romantic sexual relationship.” To “come out” as being “gay” or “lesbian” doesn’t usually mean “I have homosexual attractions and I have a deep commitment to living a chaste life..."

In other words, Francis wants the Church founded by Christ Jesus to apologize to individuals who self-identify as "gay" and who have no intention whatsoever to live an authentic Catholic life.  He cannot argue that he means by "gay" those who suffer from a homosexual inclination but remain committed to living a chaste life.  For the Church has already expressed, in her official teaching, solidarity with such people:


"The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2358).

Therefore there is nothing the Church needs to apologize for. In the words of Dr. Dietrich Von Hildebrand, "There were sinners in the Church yesterday and there are sinners in the Church today. But the Church Herself, in her divine teaching, emerges gloriously unspotted in a history stained by human weaknesses, errors, imperfections, and sins."

Cardinal Journet explains:

"All contradictions are eliminated as soon as we understand that the members of the Church do indeed sin, but they do so by their betraying the Church. The Church is thus not without sinners, but She is without sin. The Church as person is responsible for penance. She is not responsible for sins....The members of the Church themselves - laity, clerics, priests, Bishops, and Popes - who disobey the Church are responsible for their sins, but the Church as person is not responsible...It is forgotten that the Church as person is the Bride of Christ, 'Whom He has purchased with His own blood." (Acts 20:28).

If there are Catholics here and there who have engaged in unjust discrimination against homosexual persons, that is something for them to confess.  But the Church is not responsible for these sins.  And She certainly cannot apologize for her Teaching, which comes from the Lord Jesus.

Once again Francis has caused scandal.  And his words, which are not thought out, are leading people into sin.

German website calls Pope Benedict XVI "anti-human" and "anti-democratic."

Already, two weeks before his official visit to Germany, Pope Benedict XVI is being attacked by Christianophobic individuals and groups in Germany.  A new German website titled "Der Papst kommt" - The Pope is coming - has been created.  This website touts itself as the "Alliance against the inhumane gender and sexual politics of the Pope."

In its resolution, Der Papst kommt states: Besuch von Papst Benedikt XVI. In Deutschland Breites Bündnis protestiert gegen die menschenfeindliche Geschlechter- und Sexualpolitik des Papstes. Im September 2011 besucht Papst Benedikt XVI. Deutschland. Dabei spricht er auch vor dem Deutschen Bundestag in Berlin. Dagegen protestieren wir. Der Papst steht für eine menschenfeindliche Geschlechter- und Sexualpolitik. Sie grenzt Menschen aus und diskriminiert.

Wir wenden uns gegen den Papst als einen der Hauptverantwortlichen für die Unterdrückung von Lesben, Schwulen und Transgender auf der Welt. Auf internationaler Ebene kämpft der Vatikanstaat Seite an Seite selbst mit brutalen Diktaturen gegen die Menschenrechte von Lesben, Schwulen und Transgender. Die Entscheidungen demokratisch gewählter Parlamente zur rechtlichen Anerkennung gleichgeschlechtlicher Paare schmäht Joseph Ratzinger als „Legalisierung des Bösen” und ruft Katholiken zum Widerstand auf.

Wir kritisieren die Missachtung der Rechte von Frauen, die der Vatikan in seinem Kampf gegen Gleichberechtigung und Selbstbestimmung an den Tag legt. Gerade die sexuellen und reproduktiven Rechte von Frauen werden, z.B. durch das Verbot von Schwangerschaftsverhütung und -abbruch, deutlich negiert.

Wir verurteilen die Sexual- und Kondom-Politik des Papstes. Sie behindert in vielen Ländern massiv wirksame HIV-Prävention, stürzt Menschen in schwere Gewissenskonflikte, verdammt sie zu Krankheit und nimmt ihren Tod damit billigend in Kauf.

Wir protestieren gegen die demokratiefeindliche Politik von Papst Benedikt XVI., der die freiheitliche Gesellschaft eine „Diktatur des Relativismus” nennt. So hat er z.B. die Pius-Brüder wieder in die Kirche aufgenommen, obwohl sich in deren Reihen Holocaust-Leugner finden, sie die freiheitliche Demokratie ablehnen und die Strafbarkeit gleichgeschlechtlicher Beziehungen fordern.

Diese Kritik wird von vielen gläubigen Katholikinnen und Katholiken geteilt, die wir einladen, unseren Protest zu unterstützen.

Den Bestrebungen des Papstes, die eigenen Dogmen zur staatlichen Norm anderer Länder zu erheben, setzen wir unseren Widerstand entgegen.

Die menschenfeindliche Geschlechter- und Sexualpolitik von Papst Benedikt XVI. darf nicht unwidersprochen bleiben. Wir rufen alle Menschen zum friedlichen Protest in Berlin auf." (See here).

The main points of this resolution in English:

"The Pope is anti-human...We oppose the Pope as one of those most responsible for the oppression of lesbians, gay men and transgendered in the world.  At the international level, the Vatican is fighting side by side even with dictatorships against the human rights of lesbian, gay and transgendered people..We criticize the disregard for the rights of women..especially the sexual and reproductive rights of women, for example, by banning contraception and abortion..We protest against the anti-democratic policies of Pope Benedict XVI, who calls the liberal society a 'dictatorship of relativism.'"

 The irony here is astounding.  For as Pope John Paul II reminded us in Centesimus Annus, "Authentic democracy is possible only in a State ruled by law, and on the basis of a correct conception of the human person. It requires that the necessary conditions be present for the advancement both of the individual through education and formation in true ideals, and of the 'subjectivity' of society through the creation of structures of participation and shared responsibility. Nowadays there is a tendency to claim that agnosticism and sceptical relativism are the philosophy and the basic attitude which correspond to democratic forms of political life. Those who are convinced that they know the truth and firmly adhere to it are considered unreliable from a democratic point of view, since they do not accept that truth is determined by the majority, or that it is subject to variation according to different political trends. It must be observed in this regard that if there is no ultimate truth to guide and direct political activity, then ideas and convictions can easily be manipulated for reasons of power. As history demonstrates, a democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism."

Authentic Christians have always and everywhere accepted a "healthy pluralism." At the same time, such Christians have also understood that they have an obligation to acknowledge their beliefs and to preach the moral message given to them by the Lord Jesus. The follower of the Lord Jesus possesses a qualified certainty regarding the tenets of Natural Law and other truths which are revealed by God and help guide the conduct of man. Consequently, the authentic Christian understands that Christian ethical principles inform human society.  Secular Humanists and those committed toward advancing the radical homosexual agenda have their own agenda and will do everything in their power to censor the Christian view. 
The authentic Christian [or any person of good will] will reject the sophism of those who declare that anyone who does not buy into the Dictatorship of Relativism (a pluralism of opinions which rejects any and all absolute truth or even its possibility) is a "fanatic" or a "fundamentalist." On the contrary, such people will defend the truth in a positive manner. And while respecting persons and living out charity, they will proclaim the truth without fear.

This is the mind of Christ. As Pope John Paul II taught us in his Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, No. 95:

"The Church's teaching, and in particular her firmness in defending the universal and permanent validity of the precepts prohibiting intrinsically evil acts, is not infrequently seen as the sign of an intolerable intransigence, particularly with regard to the enormously complex and conflict-filled situations present in the moral life of individuals and of society today; this intransigence is said to be in contrast with the Church's motherhood. The Church, one hears, is lacking in understanding and compassion. But the Church's motherhood can never in fact be separated from her teaching mission, which she must always carry out as the faithful Bride of Christ, who is the Truth in person. As Teacher, she never tires of proclaiming the moral norm... The Church is in no way the author or the arbiter of this norm. In obedience to the truth which is Christ, whose image is reflected in the nature and dignity of the human person, the Church interprets the moral norm and proposes it to all people of good will, without concealing its demands of radicalness and perfection...

In fact, genuine understanding and compassion must mean love for the person, for his true good, for his authentic freedom. And this does not result, certainly, from concealing or weakening moral truth, but rather from proposing it in its most profound meaning as an outpouring of God's eternal Wisdom, which we have received in Christ, and as a service to man, to the growth of his freedom and to the attainment of his happiness."

Although I'm a Frenchman, I was born in Germany and I have a high regard for the German people.  They are in my prayers.  I believe they will see Der Papst kommt for what it is: an exercise in anti-Catholicism and intolerance.

The image above speaks volumes about Der Papst kommt. 

Father J. Bryan Hehir and Radical Feminist Mary E. Hunt: Marxist-Christian Agitators

Back in the 1980s, the Institute for Policy Studies’ Washington School offered a course entitled “Matthew, Marx, Luke and John: Theology of the Oppressed.” Guest-speakers for this course included Father Bryan Hehir and radical feminist Mary E. Hunt, the co-founder and co-director of the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER) which is located in Silver Spring, Maryland. Ms. Hunt also served as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies at Georgetown University for five years and has taught and lectured at numerous other institutions.

In her book “Ungodly Rage: The Hidden Face of Catholic Feminism,” Catholic author Donna Steichen describes Mary Hunt as “the compleat feminist theologian.” Steichen notes that “WATER is a member of Women-Church Convergence. Hunt is also an uncloseted lesbian who serves on the board of directors of New Ways Ministry and is active with the Conference for Catholic Lesbians, a member of a Washington Women-Church group called Sisters Against Sexism, a policy advisor to Women’s Ordination Conference and a member of CFFC’s board of directors.”

Steichen notes how Mary Hunt gave a talk entitled “Being Church in the Twenty-first Century” in which the disgruntled feminist with a penchant for Marxist ideology predicted that, “lesbian and gay people in church will become as common as candles” because “the choice will be welcoming diversity or dying on the vine as the people of God.” Steichen then notes that for Ms. Hunt, “Such ‘diversity’ will mean ‘a shift of power’ in decision-making authority from the hierarchy to ‘the people who are the Church’; a priesthood open to women, homosexuals male and female and the married; ‘celebration of the goodness’ of remarriage after divorce, and homosexual marriage. ‘The reality will come first; the theology will come next.’ Like others in Women-Church, she said, her own hope is for an end to the ordained priesthood and the emergence of a Church without hierarchy.” (Ungodly Rage, pp. 108-110).

Beginning on page 343 of Ungodly Rage, Steichen provides some background on WATER. She writes, “Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER) founded in 1983, is rarely called by its full name. Foundress Mary Hunt became a feminist at Harvard Divinity School, under Ruether [Rosemary Radford] and liberation theologian Juan Luis Segundo, S.J., before going on to Berkeley’s GTU for her double doctorate. There she met WATER’s co-foundress, co-director and chief ritualist, Diann Neu, then a nun. Neu holds a GTU master’s degree in sacred theology and an exaggerated view of her own qualifications. In October 1988, at a CFFC ‘reproductive options’ conference in Albuquerque, Neu said that she came to her ‘approach’ to ‘reproductive rights’ with ‘all the training and experience to be a bishop in my church.’..

Hunt is active in Conference for Catholic Lesbians (CCL), a homosexual ‘support group’ born of Women-Church in 1983. Her involvement, she says, ‘certainly emerges out of my own life, loving women, and living in a committed relationship with a woman.’ She airs her odd religious views in WATERwheel, WATER’s quarterly newsletter. In one edition, she says that a theological image of ‘divine child abuse’ – God the Father ‘carrying out’ the death of his own son – explains the prevalence of abuse in society. Oppression springs from ‘the notion of an all-powerful God’, which provides ‘a role model’ for the powerful while crushing the ‘disempowered.’ Violence is further encouraged, she says, by ‘the glorification of martyrs’ and of the crucified Christ.” (Ungodly Rage, pp. 343-344).

And so we have a better sense of who “the oppressed” are for Marxist-Christians such as Father Bryan Hehir and Mary Hunt. The institutional Church becomes the enemy of the masses, of the new “people of God” who have been oppressed by patriarchy and authoritarianism. The poor and the “oppressed” (and this includes women who desire ordination to the ministerial priesthood and homosexuals and lesbians who clamor for same-sex “marriage”) must liberate the Gospel and re-orient the Scriptures toward socio-political problems and reinterpret them to advance the Future-Church.

Fr. Vincent Miceli, S.J., referring to these Marxist-Christian agitators and propagators of a pseudo-Church, describes them as "infected..with the activist dialectics of the class struggle and violent revolution" and because of this "they go beyond dialogue to distortion and anathema against the faith, the Magisterium, the whole Church.  Such is their furor against the Church that, in opposing her teaching, they eviscerate the authentic Gospel revelation, demote Christ to the level of a mere man, the Church to the level of a mere natural institution and render Christianity meaningless." (Essay entitled Christian Marxism: Sacrilegious Demagoguery).


Related reading: Mary Hunt's reaction to Argentina's decision to legalize same-sex "marriage" in opposition to Catholic teaching and the Natural Law.

The latest at Bryan Hehir Exposed regarding Matthew, Marx, Luke and John.

La Salette Attleboro: The Spiritual Sickness Continues...

The La Salette Shrine in Attleboro, Massachusetts will be offering a Lenten Series led by Fr. John Sullivan, M.S. and members of the dissent group Pax Christi*. Pax Christi seems to have found a home at this La Salette Shrine. Even more disturbing, however, is that the shrine will be conducting a series of book discussions on "Open the Doors" by Joyce Rupp.

Why is this so disturbing? Because, as this Blog post explains so well, Joyce Rupp can hardly be described as Catholic. We read:

Although the names have changed , the old Gods are back. There existed in antiquity a temple, it was called the Pantheon of the Gods. It is being rebuilt, the false Gods are being reawakened just as the true God is being put to sleep. This Pantheon was like a great ecumenical super dome. In it were found not just the God's of the Romans but also the deities that the Empire had aquired through it's contact with the rest of the Pagan world. All were found acceptable, all were authentic as all were real. The reason that they could co-exist was because none of these Gods claimed he was the only God. The modern political system of 'Big Tent' inclusivity follows a similar pattern where all relative philosophies are on the inside while the objective ideas of men who actually believe in anything are today relegated to the cold outside.

Jesus Christ was not crucified for claiming to be any old God, indeed the Emperor himself along with Alexander the great before him claimed that title. It was because Christ claimed to be true God that he could not be accomodated into the Pantheon. Those same dark idols are being raised again, readily worshipped and sacrificed to by a re-paganised people who again like the pagans of old see Christ as their only obstacle. Indeed this is the same motivation of the masonic New order who encourage the worship of all Gods but the one true God as manifested by our lord and saviour Jesus Christ. In their own words 'Masonry while religious is not a religion, but within it's precepts and professions are contained the truths and universal morality of all recognised creeds and religions.' Although as previously mentioned some of the names have changed, their cults are visible and the same sacrifices are being demanded and freely offered from a new generation. Athena/Ishtar is being worshipped as Goddess by an evergrowing legion of predominantly young girls drawn into the booming Wiccan earth mother religion and New-Ageism. Unfortunately a concerted attempt is being made to co-opt our blessed lady into this abomination.

Knock shrine has chosen to stock material by the self proclaimed spiritual midwife and 'nun' Joyce Rupp. Author Rupp claims to have learnt a lot from Eagle Crux a native American spiritualist and feels that she resonates with mystical islamic sufism. She tells us that everything is made of stardust including ourselves and that stones have as much right to be here as we have, infact more so because they have been here longer. Her books include how to draw sacred mandela dancing circles and even have the rites for the blessing of the sexual organs! On Ireland she says that the Irish love of learning was first fostered by the wise druids and in the same article goes on to extoll New-Ageism as valuable and that some in the church are envious of it because it draws people toward spiritual growth. Here is an exerpt from 'Cosmic Dance' which so sadly had a big promotion by the management of the bookshop a while ago. 'Different from me , thousands of them. Holding hands, kissing, arms around each other, stretching me beyond the safe world of heterosexuality. A gathering of lesbians challenging me to enter a world I never visit'"

In a previous Blog post, I made mention of the fact that the La Salette Shrine in Attleboro had offered a retreat by "Sister" Karol Jackowski, a practicing witch.

This calls for prayer.

*As explained here, Pax Christi is both a leftist organization and nationally-recognized dissent group. Pax Christi has strong ties to another well-recognized dissent group - Call to Action. As explained here, Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska, has described the Call to Action movement [of which Pax Christi is part and parcel] as one which is, "..often disguised as a sincere effort to 'renew' the Catholic Church" but which masks "a hidden agenda and poison fruit which the noisier dissenters never tire of offering to their unsuspecting victims."

As Elizabeth Drennan notes in her excellent article:"The CTA [Call to Action]/lesbian pro-abortion Feminist's Prayer to the Four Great Spirits is also part of RENEW 2000 materials (Called to Lead, book 2). In this prayer/exercise, participants stand in a circle, arms outstretched, and pray to the "Great Spirits of the Four Directions, North, South, East, and West" and "to the Great Spirit of All That Is Below" — which is actually in the text of RENEW 2000, along with its author's name: Diann Neu, the lesbian-feminist CTA speaker. Alarmingly, the idea of prayer to the "four directions" which Neu teaches RENEW 2000 participants is also an intrinsic part of WICCA (witchcraft) worship of the goddess, Gaia, according to WICCA web sites."