Pope Benedict XVI: Sexual abuse of children remains a mystery

In a recorded message to mark the end of the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, Ireland, Pope Benedict XVI said that some members of the religious orders in Ireland had "abused people and undermined the credibility of the Church's message."  Reflecting upon the sins committed by priests and consecrated religious, the Holy Father asked, "How are we to explain the fact that people who regularly received the Lord's Body and confessed their sins in the Sacrament of Penance have offended in this way?...It remains a mystery."  See here.

It is a mystery and at the same time it isn't.


The sexual abuse crisis which exploded throughout the Catholic Church in Ireland [and elsewhere] has its origin in a Culture of Dissent. For, as Father Vincent Miceli has reminded us, "falsity is the heart of immorality." Betrayal arises in man's heart and is soon manifested in his actions which often culminate in criminal violence. But, as Fr. Miceli lamented, "while we are all aware of the tremendous role of violence in the unfolding history of human events...what is not realized is that the apparent arbitrariness of and haphazardness of violence can be and ought to be seriously and precisely analyzed from the philosophical and theological point of view." (Essay entitled "The Taproot of Violence").

For far too long, many priests have been offering not the fine wheat of sound doctrine but the chaff of theological dissent from the teaching of the Church's Magisterium. As a result, we have experienced not renewal but a spiritual dry rot. Vatican II, in its' Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests (Presbyterorum Ordinis) No. 4, had this to say: "The People of God are joined together primarily by the word of the living God. And rightfully they expect this from their priests. Since no one can be saved who does not first believe, priests, as co-workers with their bishops, have the primary duty of proclaiming the Gospel of God to all. In this way they fulfill the command of the Lord: 'Going therefore into the whole world preach the Gospel to every creature' (Mk 16:15), and they establish and build up the People of God. Through the saving word the spark of faith is lit in the hearts of unbelievers, and fed in the hearts of the faithful. This is the way that the congregation of faithful is started and grows, just as the Apostle describes: 'Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ' (Rom 10:17).

To all men, therefore, priests are debtors that the truth of the Gospel which they have may be given to others. And so, whether by entering into profitable dialogue they bring people to the worship of God, whether by openly preaching they proclaim the mystery of Christ, or whether in the light of Christ they treat contemporary problems, they are relying not on their own wisdom for it is the word of Christ they teach, and it is to conversion and holiness that they exhort all men."

According to the Council, the task of priests is "not to teach their own wisdom but God's Word." And this task is of no less importance for the priest than his offering of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Both of these are inseperably linked to each other: "The ministerial priesthood has the task not only of representing Christ - Head of the Church - before the assembly of the faithful, but also of acting in the name of the whole Church when presenting to God the prayer of the Church, and above all when offering the Eucharistic sacrifice." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1552).

For this reason, priests have the very serious obligation to teach the faithful under their care that it is never licit to have sexual relations outside of marriage; that a Catholic cannot (having been validly married in the Church) after divorce, marry another or otherwise pretend that sexual relations with another individual are somehow "marital"; that "formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense" and that '"the Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life" (CCC, 2272); and that "every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible, is intrinsically evil.." (CCC, No. 2370, citing Humanae Vitae, No. 14).

The Church proposes these (and other teachings) as true and it does so in the name of Christ. The priest is not to question them. He is not to ignore them or neglect them out of a false sense of "compassion" or "charity." It was Pope Paul VI who said that, "To diminish in no way the saving teaching of Christ constitutes an eminent form of charity for souls." (Humanae Vitae, No. 29). Pope John Paul II reiterated these words in Familiaris Consortio, No. 33.

We are reminded in Lumen Gentium 14 of the Second Vatican Council that: "He is not saved, however, who, though part of the body of the Church, does not persevere in charity. He remains indeed in the bosom of the Church, but, as it were, only in a "bodily" manner and not "in his heart." All the Church's children should remember that their exalted status is to be attributed not to their own merits but to the special grace of Christ. If they fail moreover to respond to that grace in thought, word and deed, not only shall they not be saved but they will be the more severely judged."

When a priest ignores or neglects his duty, his task, of serving the Word of God with fidelity, he fails to persevere in that charity described by Popes Paul VI and John Paul II as a charity which diminishes in no way the saving teaching of Christ. And he will be the more severely judged (see Luke 12:48).

The Holy Father knows this. In fact, the Visitation Report into the Church in Ireland, which he ordered, the full text of which may be found here, says "It must be stressed that dissent from the fundamental teachings of the Church is not the authentic path towards renewal."

The Holy Father is, of course, absolutely correct in saying that such evil is still a mystery, what St. Paul referred to as the "mystery of iniquity."  But at the same time it may be said with absolute certainty that falsity is the heart of immorality.  That a culture of dissent - betrayal in man's heart - soon found its culmination in criminal violence.

Related reading here.

More questions over Barack Obama's place and date of birth

"No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States,...shall be eligible to the Office of President.." (Constitution of the United States, Article II, Section I).


Patrick Wood, a global prophecy expert, has said, "As previously noted in Pawns of the Global Elite, Barack Obama was groomed for the presidency by key members of the Trilateral Commission. Most notably, it was Zbigniew Brzezinski, co-founder of the Trilateral Commission with David Rockefeller in 1973, who was Obama’s principal foreign policy advisor. The pre-election attention is reminiscent of Brzezinski’s tutoring of Jimmy Carter prior to Carter’s landslide election in 1976. For anyone who doubts the Commission’s continuing influence on Obama, consider that he has already appointed no less than eleven members of the Commission to top-level and key positions in his Administration."




Related reading here.

The mystery deepens: 10,000 cows drop dead in Vietnam

"When the world will become impoverished of the grace of the Holy Spirit, then the world will be encircled by all types of calamities. Firstly the world will suffer from lack of love, peace and moderation. Secondly, every country will suffer and there will be great loss of capital from every country. The Church of Christ will also suffer due to lack of priests and spiritual shepherds.

After this calamity the unclean one will be born from the belly of filth and will bring forth signs and beasts with demonic fantasy, pretending to the world that he is meek and humble at heart but he will be foxy at heart and a wolf at mind. His sustenance will be the agitation of the people and when ever the people become agitated, he, the antichrist, will be filled. The agitation of the people due to condemnation, envy, vindictiveness, hatred, enmity, greed, homosexuality, adultery, fornication, loss of faith arrogance, will be the food of the antichrist, who will be the head of many countries and have authority over all the world. He will have power over the feelings of people and all will believe him because he will be the dictator and emperor and he will bring spiritual loss to the people. Those that are on the way to perdition will believe that they are being saved.

Then the Gospel will be ignored because the spiritual loss will bring great unhappiness in the world and signs and terrible events will occur. Man will hunger greatly and will not be able to be filled, for then he will be eating seven times more than he eats now but he would still not be satisfied and there will be great sorrows everywhere. Then, whoever was sealed with the seal of the antichrist, many will die in the streets and the heart of most will weaken, not being able to bear hunger and faintness, they will revert to eating the dead.

On the seal will be written, “you are mine, yes I am yours, voluntarily I come and not by force”. Woe to him who bears the seal, for there will be a great agitation in the world. God seeing the unsettling of the people, will order the sea to become exceedingly warm, so when the antichrist will sit on his cursed throne, the sea will boil like molten copper and the earth will be depleted of vegetation and trees from the warmth of the sea and the source tributaries will dry up and the animals and birds will die from the breath of the sea.

And then the day will be like an hour, the week like a day, the month like a week. Due to the wickedness of man, the elements will speed up, that the time will end soon, as proclaimed by God. Then will come the prophets Elijah and just Enoch to proclaim that whoever is patient and is not marked by the seal of the antichrist, will be saved and will be accepted by God in paradise eternally, only that he not be marked with the seal, but instead make the sign of the Cross, for the seal of the Cross frees man from the torments of hell while the seal of the antichrist delivers him to the torments of hell. And if they hunger, they should not ask for food but should have patience, for He will send help from above… The most wicked children of the antichrist are: fornication, adultery, homosexuality, murder, confiscation, stealing, injustice, lies, torture, the buying and the selling of man….. so evil will human nature become, that they will use wickedness worse than
the demons…. And the antichrist seeing that human nature became more evil than the demons, will rejoice greatly…." (Saint Nilus).

Related reading here

Fr. Livio Fanzaga on the Church's Passion...

"The Catechism of the Catholic Church sets out some convincing reflections on the other aspect of the Church's final trial - persecution. This has also accompanied the people of God for its entire earthly pilgrimage. Jesus holds out no prospects for a Christianity accommodated to the world. He warns: 'Men will seize you and persecute you; they will hand you over to the synagogues and to imprisonment, and bring you before kings and governors in my name.' (Lk 21: 12). Martyrdom, in its profound sense of witness to the point of laying down one's life, is part of normal Christian life.

In the last days, however, this possibility will become very real for the entire Church. Theories of millenarianism have spurred for the Church to reflect on the ultimate stages of her earthly journey. Rather than the triumphant march of millenarianism, it will be a carrying of the cross ending on Calvary. Thus the Church is called to relive, in herself, the paschal mystery of Christ. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is most striking in this respect: 'The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in His death and Resurrection' (n. 677).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church begins from an incontestable theological presupposition. The Church is a prolongation in history of the mystery of Christ and the members of the Mystical Body are called to relive in themselves the life of their Head. The public life of Jesus is marked by preaching, witness, temptation and persecution. It is the same for the Church on her journey through history. Jesus' life concludes with His entry into the mystery of cruel suffering even unto death on the cross, ignominy and abandonment. When everything seemed consummated and when the powers of evil seemed to taste decisive victory, divine omnipotence intervened to destroy the powers of darkness and to raise to the splendor of glory Him whom the world sought to destroy.

The Church in the final stages of her earthly pilgrimage will be called to re-live the same Passion of Christ, so as to enter into the glory of the Parousia. Like Christ, she will know the anguish of Gethsemane. She will be betrayed, abandoned by many of her children, mocked, derided, scourged, condemned to death and crucified. When the world will think that it has succeeded in erasing her from the face of the earth and begin to sing its victory, at that moment the true lord of the world will appear on the clouds and bring the Church into the divine glory of the Resurrection...

Contrary to certain forms of millenarianism and triumphalism, 'The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause His Bride to come down from heaven.' (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 677). The world in fact will follow the dragon and the two beasts and adore them: 'The whole world had marveled and fowed the beast. They prostrated themselves in front of the dragon because he had given the beast his authority; and they prostrated themselves in front of the beast....and all the people of the world will worship it, that is everybody whose name has not been written down since the foundation of the world in the book of life of the sacrificial lamb' (Apoc. 13: 3-8).