Posted on 04/23/2002 7:18:12 AM PDT by history_matters
Dear Brothers,
1. Let me assure you first of all that I greatly appreciate the effort you are making to keep the Holy See, and me personally, informed regarding the complex and difficult situation which has arisen in your country in recent months. I am confident that your discussions here will bear much fruit for the good of the Catholic people of the United States. You have come to the house of the Successor of Peter, whose task it is to confirm his brother Bishops in faith and love, and to unite them around Christ in the service of God’s People. The door of this house is always open to you. All the more so when your communities are in distress.
Like you, I too have been deeply grieved by the fact that priests and religious, whose vocation it is to help people live holy lives in the sight of God, have themselves caused such suffering and scandal to the young. Because of the great harm done by some priests and religious, the Church herself is viewed with distrust, and many are offended at the way in which the Church’s leaders are perceived to have acted in this matter. The abuse which has caused this crisis is by every standard wrong and rightly considered a crime by society; it is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God. To the victims and their families, wherever they may be, I express my profound sense of solidarity and concern.
2. It is true that a generalized lack of knowledge of the nature of the problem and also at times the advice of clinical experts led Bishops to make decisions which subsequent events showed to be wrong. You are now working to establish more reliable criteria to ensure that such mistakes are not repeated. At the same time, even while recognizing how indispensable these criteria are, we cannot forget the power of Christian conversion, that radical decision to turn away from sin and back to God, which reaches to the depths of a person’s soul and can work extraordinary change.
Neither should we forget the immense spiritual, human and social good that the vast majority of priests and religious in the United States have done and are still doing. The Catholic Church in your country has always promoted human and Christian values with great vigor and generosity, in a way that has helped to consolidate all that is noble in the American people.
A great work of art may be blemished, but its beauty remains; and this is a truth which any intellectually honest critic will recognize. To the Catholic communities in the United States, to their Pastors and members, to the men and women religious, to teachers in Catholic universities and schools, to American missionaries in all parts of the world, go the wholehearted thanks of the entire Catholic Church and the personal thanks of the Bishop of Rome.
3. The abuse of the young is a grave symptom of a crisis affecting not only the Church but society as a whole. It is a deep-seated crisis of sexual morality, even of human relationships, and its prime victims are the family and the young. In addressing the problem of abuse with clarity and determination, the Church will help society to understand and deal with the crisis in its midst.
It must be absolutely clear to the Catholic faithful, and to the wider community, that Bishops and superiors are concerned, above all else, with the spiritual good of souls. People need to know that there is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young. They must know that Bishops and priests are totally committed to the fullness of Catholic truth on matters of sexual morality, a truth as essential to the renewal of the priesthood and the episcopate as it is to the renewal of marriage and family life.
4. We must be confident that this time of trial will bring a purification of the entire Catholic community, a purification that is urgently needed if the Church is to preach more effectively the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all its liberating force. Now you must ensure that where sin increased, grace will all the more abound (cf. Rom 5:20). So much pain, so much sorrow must lead to a holier priesthood, a holier episcopate, and a holier Church.
God alone is the source of holiness, and it is to him above all that we must turn for forgiveness, for healing and for the grace to meet this challenge with uncompromising courage and harmony of purpose. Like the Good Shepherd of last Sunday’s Gospel, Pastors must go among their priests and people as men who inspire deep trust and lead them to restful waters (cf. Ps 22:2).
I beg the Lord to give the Bishops of the United States the strength to build their response to the present crisis upon the solid foundations of faith and upon genuine pastoral charity for the victims, as well as for the priests and the entire Catholic community in your country. And I ask Catholics to stay close to their priests and Bishops, and to support them with their prayers at this difficult time.
The peace of the Risen Christ be with you!
They haven't. That's the top and bottom of it. Not only have they mishandled sexual abuse, but also doctrinal and liturgical abuse, which has affected proportionately more souls than the sexual scandal.
They've shrugegd their shoulders while a generation has been taught that the Mass is a meal, articial contraception is fine, penance is no longer necessary and Jesus didn't know he was God, to name just a few of the modernist heresies.
In all of this, it has been human respect that has been the overriding consideration and not fear of the Lord who called them, and whose Mystical Body the Church is. The mission of the Church is very simply, to signpost the road to salvation. A road which Jesus himself said is narrow.
The shepherds have let wolves into the fold and the sheep have been ravaged.
No, but is stench is here.
Has it occured to anyone yet to look into the actions of the organizations like Dignity and such that have tried really hard to change the morality in the Church in a detrimental way? I can name a few bishops right now who have bent over backwards (yes!) to accomadate the every whim of the perverts in our midst. Where is Father Nuegent and his trusty, lusty nun sidekick?
I'm sure that Jesus would unleash lightening fire bolts that would turn these Godless Hypocrites to ashes instantly.
If John Paul II was the Man of God that many on this News Group say, than where is his total outrage at/toward all who are involved.
A Spiritual type of Ethnic Cleansing in the Catholic Church seems to be inorder here!?
Remember, two weeks ago the statement from the "Vatican" was, "The Americans will deal with this themselves. The HF will not get involved."
But JP II summoned them.
I say give it a few more days.
The statement is benign, but it is also designed for public consumption.
In this day and age, everything has to be mealy-mouthed and PC, or the whole world condemns you, regardless of the message.
JP II is just reacting to a media-run world.
My hunch is that he will fire a few or more Bishops.
I've been transcribing tapes of and on of a group called "Faithful Catholics of NE Florida". They have some amazing folks come in ... all of whom tell the same story.
Regardless the paltry research effort needed to scratch the candy-coating surface to reveal the most revolutionary of intent, Dioceseses not only CONSISTENTLY let the wolf in the henhouse and appoint radicals to head up the Education office, the "Peace and Justice" office, the CHD pursestrings and committees on liturgy, they almost uniformly DENY the traditional the opportunity to speak and are careful to distance themselves from whatever actions are taken by publicly announcing they've no blessing from the Bishop.
It's the same tack only worse as used by the GOP who'll bend over backwards to listen to, curry the favor of and appoint those with agendas diametrically opposed to the so-called "personal convictions" for which we elected these bozos in the first place.
Just another reason -- besides the fact that the Church is not a democracy -- that I cringe when folks suggest that elections would be the answer.
You need to learn to read Vaticaneese. It's right there in front of you.
They must know that Bishops and priests are totally committed to the fullness of Catholic truth on matters of sexual morality, a truth as essential to the renewal of the priesthood and the episcopate as it is to the renewal of marriage and family life.
"Totally committed to the fullness of Catholic truth on matters of sexual morality" doesn't say anything about homosexuality to you? The Pope identifies a priesthood committed to this as the key to renewal.
SD
A number of bishops have let their chancery offices be run by the liberals. They let Sister Femi-Nazi run the show. She makes decisions about priest placement, about liturgies, about sex ed, about the structure of new churches insuring that Our Lord gets a closet all His own miles away from the altar front and center. These bishops need to reclaim their manhood. Pronto.
I don't know what poisoned them so. When you think about the way Maritain, even, took a shine to the likes of Saul Alinsky once upon a time (favorably reviewing his "Reveille for Radicals") it's possible to give a few the benefit of the doubt.
With all the strange fruit that's been festering for a generation now, I see no reason still to cut them ANY slack.
One thing I'd love to see the most is the axing at the root of the annual shake-down they call the Campaign for Human Development.
There's a gentleman who (for other reasons entirely) is interested in having me interview Archbishop Hannan at length. With any luck, I'll get the opportunity to find out what was his thinking behind the funding scheme he set up and why it was he and others felt the "United Way" model was appropriate for AmChurch.
Excellent point. I understood it to mean the same thing.
God bless.
The other men responsible for the Norvus Ordo were Protestant ministers. If you are familiar with Anne Catherine Emmerich, she was given to believe that even though "they" would try to destroy the Mass, they would be unable to destroy the essense of the Mass, essentially, the Eucharist. So, it is still valid, though it is not as beautiful and inspiring. One of the things JPII tried to do when he first became Pope was to return the old Latin Mass to us, which he did.
Then why does he not come right out and say it?
What is he afraid of? The powerfull Bishops and Cardinals who may be homosexual?
Boy, are we ever in trouble.
I don't want to be around the Catholic Church when God pours out His wrath upon it!!
Then why does he not come right out and say it?
He did come right out and say it. Why can't you hear it?
By requiring the upholding of the "fullness of Catholic tuth on matters of sexual morality" he comes right out against not only homosexuality, but all manners of perversion. It is a stonger statement than the one you wish he had made.
SD
Or did your version of the Bible edit that one out too?
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