Posted on 02/21/2019 7:50:20 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o
...I must begin with a crucial terminological caveat:
Typical of the spiritual, intellectual, moral, and social leveling–or “dumbing down“–of our age, we are inclined to invoke or reject buzzwords which smear out a great deal of historical and conceptual complexity and depth. Specifically, in our day the word “sodomy” has a very narrow meaning, while in contrast, in Damian’s discussion, “sodomy” refers to “various forms of sexual perversion…, including contraception, masturbation, same-sex pederasty, and adult homosexual acts” (p. 18). So, while Damian argues that canonical penalties for “sodomy” should be “even stronger for members of clergy, … [and that the] strongest punishments in the Church’s historic legislation are reserved for those who abuse children and adolescents,” it must be kept in mind that St. Peter is denouncing all carnal disobedience to Our Lord, whether “private,” “public,” “straight,” or “gay”.
With that in mind, there are three main reasons to buy this book.
First, St. Peter’s treatise on ecclesiastical reform and sexual sin is as relevant today, if not more so, as when he penned it around 1049 A.D.
Second, Hoffman’s introductory and critical commentary both dispels a tenacious myth about this work and St. Peter, and aims to provide a “scrupulously accurate version that conveys the majestic beauty of Damian’s original Latin,” in contrast to prior editions which were either too loose or marred by textual errors (p. 70).
Third, in addition to providing a rich but brief biography of St. Peter, the book is a short but essential springboard to deeper research on the larger topic of the sodomitical subversion of the Church and the Gospel at different times and places.
Concerning the first point, consider:
The Liber Gomorrhianus … is undoubtedly the most stirringly eloquent and impassioned denunciation of sexual perversion ever penned by a Catholic saint, and carries a soaring and unreserved endorsement by a saint-pope who virtually canonizes him while still alive. Although it was written almost a thousand years ago, the Book of Gomorrah in many ways seems addressed to our own times, associating the phenomena of clerical homosexual behavior and pederasty, and endorsing the imprisonment of clergy who are a danger to youth. It expresses an unremitting hatred for the sin of sodomy and simultaneously a deep compassion for its perpetrators, seeking their reconciliation with God and assuring them of hope for salvation. It also acknowledges the threat of an ecclesiastical establishment seeking to turn a blind eye to the problem of clerical corruption and to conceal its sins, rather than rooting out the problem. (p. 45)
Therefore, Hoffman notes, Damian’s work “is not a criticism of those who merely suffer from homosexual urges or temptations, but rather those who act upon them”–as well those in authority who enable and “coddle” their sinful lifestyles (p. 53).
As in our time, St. Peter Damian was addressing the problems of an increasingly effeminate priesthood and a lax or indifferent view of sodomy and sexual immorality … [in] the Catholic hierarchy. It was precisely such attitudes that Peter Damian was seeking to combat in the eleventh century by urging the restoration of the Church’s strong penitential canons relating to sodomy and the permanent suspension of clergymen who were habitually inclined to such behavior. (p. 47)
Just as aptly, after enumerating the grades of sodomy in chapter two, Damian “proceeds in chapter three to address the problem as a crisis of authority in the Church, noting that many prelates are permitting practicing homosexuals to continue functioning as priests, despite having knowledge of their misdeeds,” which he regards as an “impious” or “excessive” form of mercy–false mercy, as we might say today–that leads to even worse corruption (pp. 49-50).1
Significantly, Hoffman notes, positions taken by St. Peter in “several important controversies would eventually become Catholic doctrine and Catholic law.” For instance, his counsel “to prohibit the entry into the priesthood of those with sodomitic tendencies was confirmed by the Sacred Congregation for Religious under Pope John XXIII in 1961, and reaffirmed (after much painful experience following the lack of compliance with the directive) by the Congregation of Catholic Education with the express approval of Pope Benedict XVI in 2005” (p. 27).
Concerning the second merit of this new edition of St. Peter’s treatise, a persistent myth about the Liber Gomorrhianus is that it was ultimately deemed too extreme (or “exaggerated”) by the same Pope Leo IX who had initially endorsed it, and therefore it did not merit attention in his day, much less in our own. Hoffman ably dismantles this myth, noting, that, in fact, “Leo’s system of penalties … is somewhat more severe than that which Damian has recommended” (p. 56). Indeed, although Damian “does imply that the letter of the traditional penal canons of the Church would not permit anyone guilty of any act of sodomy to return to the clerical state, he repeatedly implies that his own approach would not be as strict” (p. 63). Contrary to the prevailing academic myth that Pope Leo IX turned on or deflected Damian, we have not only the “effusively positive reception on the part of Leo in his letter to Damian”, but also “the fact that in the same year of the publication of the Liber Gomorrhianus … [ca. 1049], Leo presided over a French reform council that decreed that sodomy be punished with the most severe ecclesiastical penalties” (p. 66)...
To close on a personal note, seeing as St. Peter Damian lived almost precisely one millennium ago, I propose the formation of a Sodality of St. Peter Damian, in order to offer reparations for, and raise awareness of, clerical corruption and lay apathy concerning sexual disobedience to Christ, social opposition to matrimonial purity, and fiscal corruption in the Church.
The Holy Spirit to be exact as He told the church to purge the evil from among them.
Still waiting to see the Vatican purge anything besides conservative Catholics.
and who was it who fixed Sodom and Gomorrha?
Sodom and Gomorrah were not the NT church to whom God gave instructions to on how to live holy lives.
But it is interesting that you chose those two cities to compare to Catholicism......
Is it not a fact that we Catholic laypersons are very vocal about the rot in our Church and publicly demanding the hierarchy address it?
Some are.
So you're vocal. How's the purging going?
Oh, the *hey they're just sinners like the rest of us, there's sin everywhere, yada, yada, yada, continue excuse making sure sounds like a lackadaisical attitude to me.
Catholics are the ones claiming that God promised he would never leave the church and he would protect it.
That is not Scriptural as evidenced by the letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation.
Total and reprehensible abdication of responsibility by the church hierarchy.
That is an absolutely disgusting display of blame shifting.
It is NOT the responsibility of the laity to keep the church leadership in line any more than the sheep are required to keep the shepherd in line and making sure he does his job right.
That's horse-hockey. God has been giving instructions since Adam and Eve. He even gave Sodom and Gomorrah ample warning. And what do you think the Ten Commandments were, if not instructions?
Oh really? Chapter and verse???
And what do you think the Ten Commandments were, if not instructions?
Sodom and Gomorrah pre-date the Ten Commandments.
In simpler words, that happened BEFORE God gave the Ten Commandments.
So who is your "leadership"? Who is your "shepherd"?
Both were in the Old Testament. And the Old Testament pre-dates the New Testament.
So what's you point? That God changes his mind?
"And the Lord said: The cry of Sodom and Gomorrha is multiplied, and their sin is become exceedingly grievous."
[Genesis 18:20]
"And the Lord said to him: If I find in Sodom fifty just within the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake."
[Genesis 18:26]
Any more questions?
Jesus Christ.
In no way is that an answer to the question to show where God warned Sodom and Gomorrah “ample warning” before He toasted them.
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