"The Catholic hierarchy must say a forceful mea culpa..."

It was Pope Paul VI who said that, "The tail of the Devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic world." And this disintegration includes an inclination to deny the reality of Satan and demonic activity. As a result of secularization within the Church, many have come to believe that evil is simply a lack of human goodness and that the Devil is merely a personification of humanity's dark side. Which is why, "the practice of exorcism has largely disappeared except for extraordinary cases -- and only after approval of psychologists or psychiatrists who rarely believe in demonic phenomena to begin with. Though Jesus admonished His followers to cast out devils -- and did so Himself on numerous occasions -- in many cities this charism has been all but lost. 'I must point out that too many churchmen are totally disinterested in these problems, and so they leave the faithful defenseless,' writes Father Amorth. 'I believe that taking the exorcisms out of the baptismal ritual was a grave mistake (and it seems that Paul VI shared my opinion). I believe that it was a mistake to have eliminated, without a suitable replacement, the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel that we used to recite after each Mass. I am convinced that allowing the ministry of exorcism to die is an unforgivable deficiency to be laid squarely at the door of the bishops. Every diocese should have at least one exorcist at the cathedral, and every large parish and sanctuary should have one as well. Today the exorcist is seen as a rarity, almost impossible to find. His activity, on the other hand, has an indispensable pastoral value, as valuable as that of the preacher, the confessor, and those who administer the other sacraments....The Catholic hierarchy must say a forceful mea culpa..' continues Amorth. 'I am personally acquainted with many Italian bishops; I know of only a few who have ever practiced or who have assisted during an exorcism or who are adequately aware of this problem, I do not hesitate to repeat what I have written elsewhere; if a bishop, when faced with a valid request for an exorcism -- I am not talking about the request of some demented person -- does not address the problem, either personally or by delegating the task to a qualified priest, he is guilty of a most serious sin of omission..'" (See here for full article).

We are experiencing various signs of demonic activity throughout our troubled culture and our shepherds have not taken this seriously. Demonic abortion continues to be practiced even while our society rushes to embrace a culture of sodomy and same-sex "marriage." Many individuals, including Catholic priests, have abandoned themselves to sexual perversions, violence, and drug use.

In Boston, a pro-abortion politician who is also supportive of same-sex "marriage" was honored by the Boston Archdiocese. The same Archdiocese which has been plagued by dissent from Church teaching and priest-predators who sexually abused innocent children.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in its document entitled "Les formes de la superstition," helped the faithful better understand the Church's teaching regarding demonic spirits. The document said that, "It would be a fatal mistake to act as if history were already finished and redemption had achieved all its effects, so that it were no longer necessary to to engage in the struggle [against the Devil and demons] of which the New Testament and the masters of the spiritual life speak...To maintain today, therefore, that Jesus' words about Satan express only a teaching borrowed from his culture and are unimportant for the faith of other believers is evidently to show little understanding either of the Master's character or of his age. If Jesus used this kind of language and, above all, if he translated it into practice during his ministry, it was because it expressed a doctrine that was to some extent essential to the idea and reality of the salvation that he was bringing....Satan whom Jesus attacked with his exorcisms and confronted in the wilderness and in his passion, cannot simply be a product of the human ability to tell stories and personify ideas nor a stray survival of a primitive culture and its language...Satan's action on man is admittedly interior but it is impossible to regard him as therefore simply a personification of sin and temptation....It was for all these reasons that the Fathers of the Church were convinced from Scripture that Satan and the demons are the enemies of man's redemption, and they did not fail to remind the faithful of their existence and action..."

Pope Paul VI, in a general audience on November 15, 1972, said, "What are the Church's greatest needs at the present time? Don't be surprised at our answer and don't write it off as simplistic or even superstitious: one of the Church's greatest needs is to be defended against the evil which we call the Devil..."

Why then are so many in the Church's hierarchy not responding to this need? How many fail to answer this need because they have already lost their faith?

Jesus said that we would know a tree by its fruit. What then shall we say about an Archdiocese which honors a politician who approves of this?

Ignorance: Invincible and Vincible

Jimmy Akin, in an article entitled "Ignorance - Invincible and Vincible," which was published in This Rock magazine (July/August 1999 edition) got it right when he said that, "In moral theology, ignorance is defined as a lack of knowledge that a person ought to have. Ignorance is distinguished from mere nescience, which is a lack of knowledge that a person has no need of. For example, a person who did not know the square root of 1429 would be ignorant of it if he were taking a test that required him to know the answer, but he would be nescient of it if performing a task that didn't require the number.

Moral theology divides ignorance into a number of categories. The two I will consider here are invincible and vincible. Ignorance is invincible if a person could not remove it by applying reasonable diligence in determining the answer. Ignorance is vincible if a person could remove it by applying reasonable diligence. Reasonable diligence, in turn, is that diligence that a conscientious person would display in seeking the correct answer to a question given (a) the gravity of the question and (b) his particular resources.

The gravity of a question is determined by how great a need the person has to know the answer. The answers to fundamental questions (how to save one's soul, how to preserve one's life) have grave weight. The answers to minor questions (the solution to a crossword puzzle) typically have light weight.

The particular resources a person has include (a) the ease with which he can obtain the information necessary to determine the answer (e.g., a man with a good textbook on the subject may be able to find the information with greater ease than a man who lacks such a textbook) and (b) the ease with which he can make an accurate evaluation of the evidence once it is in his possession (e.g., a smart man may be able to evaluate the evidence with greater ease than an ordinary man). The graver the question and the greater the resources available, the more diligence is needed to qualify as reasonable..."

Now, bearing all of this in mind, especially the last sentence in bold, read this article from Joe Sacerdo regarding Father Bryan Hehir and his excuse for having honored Mayor Thomas Menino even though the Mayor's opposition toward Catholic moral teaching regarding homosexuality and abortion are well-known by virtually every citizen who lives and works in and around Boston.

Would such ignorance be vincible or invincible? Come on, you know the answer.

Although Akin doesn't go into it, there is a category of ignorance known as affected or studied ignorance. When a person deliberately avoids knowledge in order to plead ignorance as an excuse, for example, refusing to read material or avoiding those persons who might inform him, this form of pretense is called affected or studied ignorance.

Something to reflect on this holiday weekend.