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.
Archbishop Michael Sheehan of Santa Fe, whom I have known for 25 years and is, without doubt, one of the finest priests and shepherds in the American Church today, has been slimed by the RCF.
I take everything the RCF says with a grain of salt.
But my Holy Father, there is only one and he is in Heaven.
For whatever reason, the American bishops have tended to be a weak-kneed bunch, and their bureaucracies are full of liberal dissenters who undermine them whenever THEY try to clamp down. The Pope has replaced most of the worst bishops with better ones, but too many of them still lack the will to do what needs to be done. The Church in America was badly hit in the great countercultural revolution of the 1960s and thereafter, like all our other institutions. On the whole, it has done pretty well, considering the grave damage that liberals have done from within. Many of the Protestant denominations were similarly affected, and many of them have had more trouble recovering from the damage than the Catholic Church has shown. They also have homosexual problems, but the media ignores it, or applauds it, because they consider these churches to be too weak to be a threat to their desire for "sexual and reproductive freedom."
Of course, he could have excommunicated a bunch of people, but I'm not sure whether that would have been more productive than the course he has taken. You can't run a Church without the willing cooperation of the hierarchy, the priests, and the laity.
It would shake things up. How could it make things worse? How long should we tolerate active homosexuals in the clergy?
Learn what Ex Cathedra actually means.
Our chancery is way back on private property. Church property. You couldn't demonstrate in front of our chancery. The only thing they understand is money and lots of people showing up. It's a solidarity and pr thing.
Yes. You really should take the time to read all of Scripture.
From amongst many examples:
John 21:25 "But there are also many other things which Jesus did; which, if they were written every one, the world itself, I think would not be able to contain the books that should be written."
2 Thessalonians 2:14 "Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle."
Matthew 14:26 "But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you."
JPII has to walk a tightrope. How does he do his job of reprimanding needed individuals and not stir up events that might lead to an even deeper apostacy? And not scandalize the faithful in the process? I believe he is the very Pope who Bosco saw in his dream guiding the huge ship of state through the tremendous storm to a safe harbor.
Our Lord set the example when he expelled money-changers profaning the temple. Let us KICK THE FAGS OUT!!!
Also remember that St. Paul corrected St. Peter after he backslid from the petrine doctrine on dietary laws defined at the Council of Jerusalem.
On the other hand, Catholics are sort of hamstrung when it comes to dealing with this problem and others involving the Church. The flawed ( and recent) doctrine of "Papal Infallability" is the reason. Even the Medievil Popes didn't claim that virtue.
Literally "from the chair", a theological term which signifies authoritative teaching and is more particularly applied to the definitions given by the Roman pontiff. Originally the name of the seat occupied by a professor or a bishop, cathedra was used later on to denote the magisterium, or teaching authority. The phrase ex cathedra occurs in the writings of the medieval theologians, and more frequently in the discussions which arose after the Reformation in regard to the papal prerogatives. But its present meaning was formally determined by the Vatican Council, Sess. IV, Const. de Ecclesiâ Christi, c. iv: "We teach and define that it is a dogma Divinely revealed that the Roman pontiff when he speaks ex cathedra, that is when in discharge of the office of pastor and doctor of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme Apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the universal Church, by the Divine assistance promised to him in Blessed Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer willed that his Church should be endowed in defining doctrine regarding faith or morals, and that therefore such definitions of the Roman pontiff are of themselves and not from the consent of the Church irreformable." (See INFALLIBILITY; POPE.)
I read that the pope is getting divine revelation and is infallible in matters regarding faith and morals.
And what was your point again?
The demise of JPII has been expected for several years. He could be around for another decade. Meanwhile, our Catholic boys are being buggared as we speak. How long before laymen should begin to take action on there own? If history is any guide, homo-heretics will attempt increase their power in this latest crisis just as they have using AIDS.
Maybe he has something to hide . . .
I can't dispute that, but what should laymen in America do right now in response to the homo-abuse of our Catholic boys? Pay and pray only?
Again, papal infallability is not an issue here because JPII has not refined any church doctine (that I know about). However, perhaps because of the post-Vatican II collapse in catechesis, most Catholics don't understand the doctrine of church, and therefore papal, infallability.
The pope is NOT and was NEVER proclaimed to be infallable in matters of governance, only in his definition of doctrine acting as supreme leader of the church.
Since Vatican II the Catholic Church has been crumbling. It has joined the decaying hulks of the Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Methodist Churches. Christianity in general is in bad shape. Its unfortunate at this time as it is facing a serious threat from both secular humanism on one hand and Islam on the other.
That you obviously cannot comprehend a simple paragraph.
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