Posted on 03/24/2002 6:32:42 PM PST by Longshanks
As I noted in last month’s issue of Christ or Chaos, the explosion of public revelations dealing with scandals involving priest pederasty and the cover-up of such scandals by ecclesiastical officials in this country and across the world is partly the result of the failure of bishops to understand that no man who demonstrates any homosexual tendencies whatsoever can be ordained to the priesthood. The Holy Father’s spokesman, Dr. Joaquin Navarro Valls, made this exact comment himself recently.
However, there needs to be some plain talk spoken in love about the Holy Father’s own responsibility in this matter. Pope John Paul II has abdicated his responsibility to personally supervise the appointment of bishops and he has failed quite utterly to discipline bishops who have let scandals fester and doctrinal impurity to go unchecked in their dioceses. The Holy Father’s abdication of his role as governor of the Church has done incalculable damage to the Holy Faith. Thousands of souls have been lost to the Church as a result of scandals which need never have occurred and by the failure of the Holy Father to use his disciplinary power to remove bishops responsible for knowingly ordaining homosexuals and for believing that such behavior after ordination is a disqualification for further pastoral assignments. And this is to say nothing of the Holy Father’s refusal to admit that his bishops are responsible for the promotion of doctrinal impurity, creating, instead, a climate of a siege-mentality in which some Catholics have come to believe that all bishops everywhere are beyond criticism for anything. Indeed, His Holiness has done much to help create such an environment by his praise of bishops–and his abject refusal to do anything to remove men who are harmful to the Faith (Roger Cardinal Mahony, Matthew Clark, Howard Hubbard, Rembert Weakland, Tod Brown, Joseph Imesch, Patrick McGrath–and to permit recently others to continue to preside over the destruction of the Faith until the point of their retirement, most notably the late John Raymond McGann, the long-time Bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre). Sadly, the Holy Father refused to take action against a French bishop who supported RU-486, the French abortion pill, until the laity in France kept pestering Rome for the man’s removal, which took place in January of 1995.
The Holy Father’s lack of governance of the Church undoes the claim of some of his great apologists, such as George Weigel, that history will record him as John Paul the Great. Pope John Paul II will go down in history as a man who traveled widely and wrote much. However, he will also go down in history as a man who let ecclesiastical bureaucrats beneath him determine the human fate of the Church at this point in salvation history. There is no escaping this conclusion. One can love the Holy Father while recognizing in all candor the weaknesses of his pontificate. No great holder of the Chair of Saint Peter would stand by idly as bishops, such as Reginald Cawcutt in South Africa, justify homosexual behavior and mock the pursuit of holiness which is supposed to be the universal vocation of every baptized Catholic. And no “great” pope would attempt to positivistically reaffirm bishops in their fidelity to the Deposit of Faith when the truth of the matter is that most of the world’s bishops help to undermine the Faith.
It is not difficult for any pope to know who his episcopal appointees are. There are only three thousand dioceses in the world. More important than any pilgrimage or World Youth Day is the duty a Pope has to know the men he appoints as ordinaries of dioceses. He should not rely upon the word of ecclesiastical functionaries in the Vatican, nor should he rely upon the foxes around the world in episcopal attire who want to replicate themselves by nominating men who will continue the theological and liturgical revolution begun in earnest in the 1960s at Vatican II. It is important for a pope to personally interview all possible candidates for episcopal appointments (even as auxiliary bishops) and to elicit information from well-placed sources in the laity in a particular diocese. A pope’s most lasting legacy is the quality (or lack thereof) of his episcopal appointments. Far from being an impossible task, the job of supervising the selection of bishops is eminently possible and morally mandated for the good of the salvation and sanctification of souls.
What the Catholics need to do is pray.
Just like St. Paul says in Ephesians: "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers in high places". Do good Catholics still trust the Pauline Epistles?
Most sane people would not follow this logic.
holy father...my foot!
And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
I think there are a high proportion of cowards among the so-called orthodox. The devil and heretics will always be with us but it’s the don't-rock-the-boat crowd that is really responsible for the present situation. However, a protracted campaign of street action might succeed in waking up sleepy Catholics.
One bishop, in particular, was suspected of having homosexual leanings and would have boat parties with young men. What did JPII do? Well, when this bishop was called to Rome, for his once-every-five-year-visit he entered the papal office and sitting behind the desk on his chair was the Pope. JP asked him about his diocese and the bishop began to paint a flowery picture of how well he was doing, this campaign and that campaign. The Pope waited for him to finish. "Is that all, isn't there anything else you'd like to tell me?" "Nope."
JPII got up from his desk and began to put stacks of paperwork on his desk. When he finished the desk was loaded. The Pope told him that these piles of paperwork are all the complaints "I've been recieving about you." Then, he listed the complaints verbally to him.
The bishop was shamed and stripped of his position.
The liberals are having a field day pointing their collective finger at Our Holy Father.
Popes are only infallible when officially defining church teaching. The present scandals are the result of the pope tolerating heresy, not teaching it.
John Paul certainly does not believe himself to be infallible. Rather, he includes himself to be in the category of sinners amongst the rest of us sinners.
Why you gotta bother stirring up trouble with provocative, thinly veiled Catholic hating gibberish?
I agree with most of what has been stated in the articles, and believe it is more an American problem than anything else. And it reflects the attitude and ideology of the activists on so many of the problems regarding morality that exist in this country today. The problem of dealing with the Church is the same as dealing with abortion, homosexuality, sex education, euthanasia, all of that kind of thought. How to organize in opposition to what is going on both inside and outside the Church.
What is required,IMHO, is a national movement with strong leadership, but within the Church,not outside it. I confess that I don't see where that would come from.
The Holy Father is a good and saintly man. He is leaving a comprehensive response to priestly pederasty to his successor.
Unfortunately, the American legal system grinds exceedingly fine, and there will be some significant financial exposure for the American Church in the short term.
Would these church teachings be something not revealed in the scriptures?
Is the pope getting new revelations from God?
All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness
I warn every one who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if any one adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book
I just have an issue with the RCC and it's....
I'll stop there, sorry again!
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