Thanks for your kind question.
Simply separating myself from all lisping limp-wrists in Roman collars has me feeling much better already.
Simply separating myself from all lisping limp-wrists in Roman collars has me feeling much better already.A snippet from our parish's bulletin today about a priest who greatly affected our parish priest decades ago when they were both young men:
And then I heard Fr. Powell. As I listened to his tape that night I was thunderstruck, awestruck. I was like a bobby-soxer listening to Frank Sanatra. I had never heard any priest preach or teach like this before. He was human. He was funny. He was insightful... And that night he became my model on how I wanted to preach and teach...
As the years went by we lost contact. He got older, retired from teaching at Loyola and disappeared from the scene. Then one day several years ago, shortly before he died I read that he was accused of sexually abusing a number of co-eds at the university. Were I a young man I would have been crestfallen but having been around this terrible block of priestly abuse for the last 20 years, I was simply heartbroken and terribly saddened. But I am afraid, not surprised.
In Jesus's strongest terms he condemns those who scandalize the little ones. The Greek word skandalon means stumbling block. What a stumbling block and wounding agent he must have been to these young ones under his charge. Spiritual-sexual wounds are almost incurable. And my heart sank for his victims. And I prayed for their healing. But my heart also saddened for him, a clay pot, and earthen vessel, terribly flawed and yet a messenger from God... a fallen angel.
We're in the Holy Season of Lent. It is the time when we are called to do what is hard and what we would rather not do. What is most hard is to carry the cross, to bear the pain, to bear the pain of the victims, to bear the weakness and sinfulness of the perpetrators, to bear the suffering of humanity. Oh, how simple life would be if it was just black or white, good or bad. It's just not. And so we carry the treasure in an earthen vessel. And for now, on this side of eternity, that has to be enough.
In Jesus, Who Became and Bore Our Sin,
Fr. Tony