Posted on 09/12/2010 1:58:44 PM PDT by verdugo
These past four decades have been quite a ride. We went through a liturgical reform which was to have renewed the Church; a sixty percent decline in Mass attendance over thirty years resulted. There was a catechetical revolution, myriad new textbooks, methods, programs and approaches replacing the tried and true Catechism: forty years later religious ignorance abounds to such an extent that two-thirds of Mass-going Catholics cannot identify the Catholic doctrine on the Eucharist when it is presented to them. The Religious communities which were such a vibrant part of the Catholic scene before the Council underwent "renewal" and have been staggering towards the grave ever since. Even if one were willing to concede that the Catholic Church of the 1940s and 1950s could not possibly have been as solid as it had seemed given the turmoil which swept through it beginning in the 1960s, the turmoil and decline since the Council has been stunning, and there has been an unfathomable aspect to it as well: the aspect of the denial of reality. Why has it been that the leadership of the American Church has stubbornly continued to speak and act as though we were in an age of renewal even in the face of this disaster? Why is it that, even after forty years, there has not been an attempt at an honest, thorough re-assessment of the path we have trod?
And how to explain the fact that, although the details of the situation were so clear back in 1979 that Msgr Kelly’s book could be written, things have only deteriorated since? Why is it that every intervention and directive issued by the Holy Father or the Holy See for the correcting of the situation has been without effect? Can it be that, carefully as Msgr Kelly chronicled the problems, there is something far deeper wrong with the Church -- that as serious as were the irregularities and scandals he described, they were but the symptom of something far more serious?
…the abuses chronicled by Msgr Kelly in 1979 were indeed merely symptoms, not the disease. The disease is much deeper.
Paul contends that in the decade from the mid-1950s through the 1960s, there were promoted to the episcopate and other leadership positions within the Church a number of highly unsuitable candidates, unsuitable because of their perverse sexuality. From the mid-1960s on, the establishment of the bishops’ conference and the mushrooming growth of its bureaucracy offered all the more opportunity for such persons to move into administrative positions. Once entrenched, these men naturally sought to further the careers of others of like mind, and furthered as well a revolution in sexual attitudes which most Catholics never saw coming. In 1992, Paul Likoudis coined the phrase, "Amchurch," as a shorthand referring to a deeply entrenched, dissident faction within the American Church’s hierarchy and its bureaucracy. This book describes how Amchurch ‘came out.’
As I was writing the preface to "Amchurch Comes Out," a lay theologian offered a thought on this subject which I found so illuminating in its simplicity, I asked his permission to quote him. He said, "Years of watching the situation carefully have convinced me that it really IS all about sexual autonomy. People don’t turn institutions upside down because they’d rather hear the Mass in English. You can do that without destroying buildings and the structure of religious life, and catechesis. You turn institutions upside down to support a ‘complete change in teleological purpose’ in your life -- and eliminate unpleasant reminders that maybe your new purpose, sexual autonomy, isn’t such a great idea."
And the more I thought about it, the more sense that made. Perhaps you’d prefer to say simply, "personal autonomy," rather than "sexual autonomy" -- although you might revisit that after reading Paul’s book. But I think my theologian friend hit a bull’s-eye. If sexual autonomy is one’s goal, one will not want the traditional Mass as the central symbol of the Faith, for the very form it takes will always seem a reproach: one will want a pliable liturgy, something one can shape to one’s whims. One will obviously want to deconstruct Religious Life as well, that living image of the words of the Lord Jesus, "Seek first the Kingdom of God." And as for catechesis: well, why else would one promulgate religion textbooks that avoided subjects such as commandments, precepts of the Church, original sin; why else would one find situation ethics attractive -- unless one were anxious to usher in a new religion, one much more amenable to one’s whims.
The elimination of everything which reproaches our constant search for gratification goes a long way to explaining the postconciliar crises.
Paul’s book is the most comprehensive, compelling and plausible explanation for the battering of our Catholic Church over these forty years. It is a disturbing interpretation of disturbing facts, but those who love the Church need to consider these things. As copiously illustrated as it is with examples of the perverse Amchurch agenda -- incidents which grew ever more brazen as the years passed -- the book offers a still greater service by tracing the interconnected clerical careers of the architects of this ecclesiastical train wreck.
As troubling as the public finds the stories of priests accused of sexual abuse, many are unaware of the extent to which such incidents have directly touched the American hierarchy. In recent years, we have seen the Archbishops of Atlanta and Santa Fe resign their sees due to affairs with women; two bishops of Palm Beach in succession resign under accusation of having abused young men; a bishop in Santa Rosa CA resign after credible accusations of having sexually abused one of his priests, and having bankrupted his diocese; a bishop in Springfield IL resign under accusations of homosexual promiscuity; an auxiliary bishop of New York die of AIDS after years of intermittent drug rehab; another auxiliary bishop of New York resign after admitting to affairs with women; an Archbishop of Milwaukee resign suddenly after a $450,000 payoff to a younger man came to light; a bishop of St Petersburg concede that a $100,000 settlement was made to an employee who had accused him of sexual harassment (and that bishop is still in office). I typed these cases out from memory, without referring to notes; obviously, there are others.
If you stop for a few moments and quietly ponder the fact that the percentage of bishops whose names have been linked with sexual incidents is appreciably larger than the percentage of priests, it begins to seem less mysterious that so many sexual offenders in the priesthood were tolerated by their bishops.
And, with all of these things to worry about, there remains a fact about which I am convinced we cannot possibly pray, think, and speak too much: the clergy sexual abuse problem is not an isolated cross we bear. We don’t have ONE crisis: we have at least TWELVE of the damned things, and we have had them for FORTY YEARS, and no one seems to be doing a blessed thing about them. Our Liturgy is a risible shambles in most places; our catechesis woefully inadequate; religious life, seminary formation, family life, moral theology, scriptural studies... Crisis after crisis after crisis. Why is it that, over the years, the persistent cry of the Faithful about these things has gone unheeded?
The current state of the Catholic Church in the United States of America is rendered much less mysterious by a careful reading and pondering of this book, ….
- in the decade from the mid-1950s through the 1960s, there were promoted to the episcopate and other leadership positions within the Church a number of highly unsuitable candidates, unsuitable because of their perverse sexuality. From the mid-1960s on, the establishment of the bishops’ conference and the mushrooming growth of its bureaucracy offered all the more opportunity for such persons to move into administrative positions. Once entrenched, these men naturally sought to further the careers of others of like mind, and furthered as well a revolution in sexual attitudes which most Catholics never saw coming.
- People don’t turn institutions upside down because they’d rather hear the Mass in English. You can do that without destroying buildings and the structure of religious life, and catechesis. You turn institutions upside down to support a ‘complete change in teleological purpose’ in your life -- and eliminate unpleasant reminders that maybe your new purpose, sexual autonomy, isn’t such a great idea."
- Perhaps you’d prefer to say simply, "personal autonomy ," rather than "sexual autonomy". If sexual autonomy is one’s goal, one will not want the traditional Mass as the central symbol of the Faith, for the very form it takes will always seem a reproach: one will want a pliable liturgy, something one can shape to one’s whims. One will obviously want to deconstruct Religious Life as well, that living image of the words of the Lord Jesus, "Seek first the Kingdom of God." And as for catechesis: well, why else would one promulgate religion textbooks that avoided subjects such as commandments, precepts of the Church, original sin; why else would one find situation ethics attractive -- unless one were anxious to usher in a new religion, one much more amenable to one’s whims.
- The elimination of everything which reproaches our constant search for gratification goes a long way to explaining the postconciliar crises.
- If you stop for a few moments and quietly ponder the fact that the percentage of bishops whose names have been linked with sexual incidents is appreciably larger than the percentage of priests, it begins to seem less mysterious that so many sexual offenders in the priesthood were tolerated by their bishops.
- there remains a fact about which I am convinced we cannot possibly pray, think, and speak too much: the clergy sexual abuse problem is not an isolated cross we bear. We don’t have ONE crisis: we have at least TWELVE of the damned things, and we have had them for FORTY YEARS, and no one seems to be doing a blessed thing about them. Our Liturgy is a risible shambles in most places; our catechesis woefully inadequate; religious life, seminary formation, family life, moral theology, scriptural studies... Crisis after crisis after crisis. Why is it that, over the years, the persistent cry of the Faithful about these things has gone unheeded?
- There was a catechetical revolution, myriad new textbooks, methods, programs and approaches replacing the tried and true Catechism: forty years later religious ignorance abounds to such an extent that two-thirds of Mass-going Catholics cannot identify the Catholic doctrine on the Eucharist when it is presented to them.
- The Religious communities which were such a vibrant part of the Catholic scene before the Council underwent "renewal" and have been staggering towards the grave ever since.
I would note that every single one of the mainline Protestant confessional denominations saw the same thing happen during the same period. Revising theology, litergy and practice to rationalize and accomdate sin. And Paul predicted it all 2000 years ago.
I would wager this is all correct. I often try to explain to fallen Catholics who blame their lack of faithfulness to the Church on the priest sex-abuse scandal, that this is nothing more than a battle of good vs. evil. Satan has infected the church through these agents and now the time has come for Catholics to retake the Church. I was saddened the last time I was in California attending mass at my old parish. I looked around and the demographics were astounding, not a single child in the church. Of course it is now a more liberal parish than my current one in Nevada which has many children in attendance each Sunday.
We have living in the post Vatican II clerical & false laity revolution of self gratification. The clerics could not have succeeded had the faithful not gone along. God has allowed it, to purify The Church.
It’s easier to find the dead rat the more it stinks. Speaking for myself, I was out of the Church from the age of 15 till I was 40, having turned to the world to get my self gratification. One thing that brought me back was finally SMELLING the dead rat in me and the post Vatican II church (for lack of a better phrase).
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