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Do you think that, because of sin, the usual minister of the Sacrament of Confirmation (your bishop or his representative) can no longer do so validly?

I do have questions of this nature. Not only because of sin but also, possibly, sloppy or incorrect liturgical procedures.

Do you think the "Gates of Hell" have in fact prevailed, and thus Christ's mission has failed?

No. I think vestiges of the True Church remain. I'm positive they do.

Or do you no longer wish to receive the Holy Spirit because of faults and sinful mistakes of some in the household of the Faith?

No, nothing to do with the situation.

Thanks for the thought you put into the questions! I may resolve my on-going stalemate on this by traveling to an FSSP parish, where things are still as they should be, as far as I can tell.

There have always been disorders in Christ's Church. St. Paul writes of people getting drunk at the Agape Meal, and one of the "Christian" "brothers" being a man who's sleeping with his father's wife, "a kind of sexual immorality that does not occur even among pagans!"

These are terrible, and scandalous, and result in the eternal loss of souls --- but they do not constitue a reason to abandon the Church, to absent ourselves from the Sacraments, to neglect praying for the priests and Bishops (they are easy prey to Satan because we--- by the millions --- do not pray for them and correct them) --- nor may we forget that Christ said "the Gates of Hell shall not prevail" and that God's humble handmaid Mary, in view of her maternity and her Divine Son our Savior, said: "In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph."

As we are told in Hebrews 10:23-25

let us hold fast the confession of our hope
without wavering;
for he who promised is faithful.
And let us consider how to spur one another
to love and good deeds,
not forsaking our own assembling together,
as is the habit of some,
but encouraging one another;
and all the more as you see
the Day of the Lord drawing near.

(In "my" Bible, I see this footnote: THIS MEANS, YOU, STEVE86!)

(And right under that: YOU TOO, MRS. DON-O!)