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Pope: While Church focused on goods of priesthood, Satan tried to tarnish priests
CNA ^ | 6/11/2010

Posted on 06/11/2010 10:31:15 AM PDT by markomalley

Vatican City, Jun 11, 2010 / 11:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- At the closing Mass of the Year for Priests on Thursday, Pope Benedict reviewed the purpose of the year, saying that he wanted the universal Church to appreciate and reflect on the priesthood, which shows the “audacity of God who entrusts himself to human beings.” Because the Church focused on the good of the priesthood, the Devil reacted by inspiring the timing of the recent revelations of clerical sex abuse within the Church, the Pope said.

“It was to be expected that this new radiance of the priesthood would not be pleasing to the 'enemy,'” the Pontiff explained, “he would have rather preferred to see it disappear, so that God would ultimately be driven out of the world.”

“And so it happened that, in this very year of joy for the sacrament of the priesthood, the sins of priests came to light – particularly the abuse of the little ones, in which the priesthood, whose task is to manifest God’s concern for our good, turns into its very opposite.”

During his homily the Pope noted how the Year for Priests was celebrated to ensure “a renewed appreciation of the grandeur and beauty of the priestly ministry.”

“The priest is not a mere office-holder,” he noted. “Rather, he does something which no human being can do of his own power: in Christ's name he speaks the words which absolve us of our sins and in this way he changes, starting with God, our entire life.”

“Over the offerings of bread and wine he speaks Christ's words of thanksgiving ... which open the world to God and unite it to Him. The priesthood, then, is not simply 'office' but Sacrament.”

The fact that God confers Holy Orders on men demonstrates His “audacity” in entrusting Himself to human beings,” the Pope observed. Moreover, “this audacity of God is the true grandeur concealed in the word 'priesthood'. ...This is what we wanted to reflect upon and appreciate anew over the course of the past year.”

Speaking on the desire for increased vocations, the Holy Father noted that we “wanted to reawaken our joy at how close God is to us ... we also wanted to demonstrate once again to young people that this vocation, this fellowship of service for God and with God, does exist.”

Reflecting on clerical sex abuse scandals and the failures of some within the priesthood to live according to the tenets of their ministry, Pope Benedict said that we “too insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again; and that in admitting men to priestly ministry and in their formation we will do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of their vocation and make every effort to accompany priests along their journey.”

“Had the Year for Priests been a glorification of our individual human performance, it would have been ruined by these events,” the Pontiff added. “But for us what happened was precisely the opposite: we grew in gratitude for God's gift, a gift concealed in 'earthen vessels' which ever anew, even amid human weakness, makes His love concretely present in this world.”

“So let us look upon all that happened as a summons to purification, as a task which we bring to the future and which makes us acknowledge and love all the more the great gift we have received from God. In this way, His gift becomes a commitment to respond to God's courage and humility by our own courage and our own humility,” the Holy Father urged.

The Pope continued his homily by commenting on Psalm 23, which was one of the readings during the closing Mass.

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,” the Holy Father quoted from the Psalm. “God personally looks after me, after us, after all mankind. I am not abandoned, adrift in the universe and in a society which leaves me ever more lost and bewildered.”

“God wants us, as priests, in one tiny moment of history, to share His concern about people. As priests, we want to be persons who share His concern for men and women, who take care of them and provide them with a concrete experience of God's concern,” he underscored.

Commenting on the end of the Psalm, which references the “table set,”  and “dwelling in the house of the Lord,” the Pope said, “we see a kind of prophetic foreshadowing of the mystery of the Eucharist, in which God Himself makes us His guests and offers Himself to us as food - as that bread and fine wine which alone can definitively sate man's hunger and thirst.”

“How can we not rejoice that one day we will be guests at the very table of God? ... How can we not rejoice that He has enabled us to set God's table for men and women, to give them His Body and His Blood, to offer them the precious gift of His very presence?” Benedict XVI asked the thousands of priests present.

The full text of the Pope's Homily is available here.


TOPICS: Catholic
KEYWORDS: catholic
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1 posted on 06/11/2010 10:31:15 AM PDT by markomalley
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To: markomalley

Satan doesn’t make you play with little boys!


2 posted on 06/11/2010 10:34:09 AM PDT by ForAmerica (Christian Conservative Black Man!)
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To: markomalley
“It was to be expected that this new radiance of the priesthood would not be pleasing to the 'enemy,'” the Pontiff explained, “he would have rather preferred to see it disappear, so that God would ultimately be driven out of the world.”

This is exactly what happened.

3 posted on 06/11/2010 10:35:29 AM PDT by livius
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To: ForAmerica

No? So what does Satan make you do?

Satan is precisely the one who was behind the sins of (a very tiny group) of the clergy, and Satan is behind this attack on the Church, which does vast amounts of good in the world, including educating American black children to a standard where the average black graduate of a Catholic school is better employed and earns more than the average white American.


4 posted on 06/11/2010 10:37:25 AM PDT by livius
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To: ForAmerica
Satan doesn’t make you play with little boys!

So I suppose the Holy Spirit does?

(Yes, I know...they did so of their own accord...but if Satan is not behind it, then I suppose God is?)

5 posted on 06/11/2010 10:37:56 AM PDT by markomalley (Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus)
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To: livius

“(a very tiny group) of the clergy”

Has anyone run the numbers if it’s an average number?


6 posted on 06/11/2010 10:41:10 AM PDT by chuck_the_tv_out ( <<< click my name: now featuring Freeper classifieds)
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To: livius

A little self control.


7 posted on 06/11/2010 10:41:38 AM PDT by ForAmerica (Christian Conservative Black Man!)
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To: markomalley

That’s blasphemous!

So basically you are saying that we don’t have free will?


8 posted on 06/11/2010 10:43:00 AM PDT by ForAmerica (Christian Conservative Black Man!)
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To: markomalley

The activity of Satan is very often cited as a cop-out so as to blame inexcusable activity on an outside force.

Though Satan no doubt delighted in their weakness and evil, I see no reason to deflect blame, and no reason to believe they were possessed or not acting on their free will. We are called to resist temptations presented by Satan — failure to do so is our problem, not Satan’s.

Give glory to God for the good you do, take the blame on yourself for the evil you perpetrate.

SnakeDoc


9 posted on 06/11/2010 10:44:23 AM PDT by SnakeDoctor ("Shut it down" ... 00:00:03 ... 00:00:02 ... 00:00:01 ... 00:00:00.)
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To: ForAmerica
So basically you are saying that we don’t have free will?

I'm no Calvinist.

Maybe you should re-read the entire post.

10 posted on 06/11/2010 10:47:11 AM PDT by markomalley (Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus)
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To: livius

ForAmerica
Since Apr 19, 2010


11 posted on 06/11/2010 10:47:37 AM PDT by netmilsmom (I am inyenzi on the Religion Forum)
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To: SnakeDoctor

Perhaps you could provide some quotes from the article upon which you base your comments.


12 posted on 06/11/2010 10:48:19 AM PDT by markomalley (Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus)
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To: markomalley
I was talking with my Priest yesterday because my wife is doing her confirmation and I asked him how often should a person do confession and he said once a year was generally good.

As a joke I said I could do better than that and he told me about a few people kept coming back the next day because they get home and think of more sins they forgot to confess and in these cases he had to get a written statement from the Bishop that their sins are forgiven and they can stop confessing.

That is the business the Church is in is seeking forgiveness. I think people forget that.

13 posted on 06/11/2010 10:48:23 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (11/03/2010 - What did Obama know and when did he know it?)
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To: markomalley

I’m no Calvinist.
________________

I am

It’s still a choice and it was a bad one!


14 posted on 06/11/2010 10:49:33 AM PDT by ForAmerica (Christian Conservative Black Man!)
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To: Berlin_Freeper
and he said once a year was generally good.

Wow. A person only committing a mortal sin once a year.

He must have nothing but canonizable saints in his parish.

15 posted on 06/11/2010 10:50:14 AM PDT by markomalley (Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus)
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To: netmilsmom

So being new here means that I can’t have an opinion or something?


16 posted on 06/11/2010 10:52:31 AM PDT by ForAmerica (Christian Conservative Black Man!)
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To: markomalley

It was a general response, and, honestly, my reaction every time I see Satan blamed for evils perpetrated by men.

SnakeDoc


17 posted on 06/11/2010 10:52:45 AM PDT by SnakeDoctor ("Shut it down" ... 00:00:03 ... 00:00:02 ... 00:00:01 ... 00:00:00.)
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To: markomalley

I could do better than that.


18 posted on 06/11/2010 10:52:51 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (11/03/2010 - What did Obama know and when did he know it?)
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To: ForAmerica; markomalley

By posting your anniversary date, it puts many people on alert to “ignore”. Many new posters are “seminar posters”.

Your posting history shows that you take delight in joining our Usual Suspects who are here to bash Catholics and LDS.

Lots of people will be praying for you.


19 posted on 06/11/2010 10:57:16 AM PDT by netmilsmom (I am inyenzi on the Religion Forum)
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To: markomalley

“God personally looks after me, after us, after all mankind. I am not abandoned, adrift in the universe and in a society which leaves me ever more lost and bewildered.”
..................

Words to remember


20 posted on 06/11/2010 11:12:23 AM PDT by Marty62 (marty60)
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