Musings about Catholic clergy, malfeasance, cowardice, peace, luv – and blogging

Blogs like mine – and countless others – are the result of the genuine suffering and righteous anger of many sincere Catholics who feel that the post V II clergy are culpable of dereliction of duty in the gravest of ways, and possibly in an unprecedented manner in the history of Christianity.

Our elementary religious feeling simply rebels at seeing so much – I must say the word, because I find it appropriate – brown-nosing to the world, going on at all ecclesiastical levels since the beginning of the Sixties.

This, and nothing else, is what leads us to blog. I for myself would not even dream of being here at 11pm writing this angry blog post, rather than sitting with a good book, a glass of Porto and Schubert in the background, if I knew the clergy are doing their job.

If they did, blogs like ours would be of no interest for the reader even provided we were – which would not be my case – willing to write them. People would, very simply, follow the events in the Catholic world through the interviews, the homilies, the books, the blogs, the calls to battle of the good clergy themselves.

If we had a halfway decent clergy, every church would resound of their rage against the abominations and godlessness of our times, and the parish magazines would contain long lists of locally, nationally and internationally excommunicated politicians. Instead, the pulpits – if they are still used – are generally used for convenient waffling about peace, luv, social justice, & Co.

Read more from Mundabor

A woman is trapped in the wreckage of a horrific car crash. Then a Catholic priest who had anointing oil with him, arrived.

“He came up and approached the patient, and offered a prayer,” New London Fire Chief Raymond Reed told KHQA-TV. “It was a Catholic priest who had anointing oil with him. A sense of calmness came over her, and it did us as well.”

Considering how many people were at the scene and interacting with the mystery faith leader, the story is a fascinating one.

“I can’t be for certain how it was said, but myself and another firefighter, we very plainly heard that we should remain calm, that our tools would now work and that we would get her out of that vehicle,” the firefighter added.

Now here’s where things get weird.

Read more

Editor’s note: These things happen way more often than most people think. Here’s another short, illustrated, real-life, personal story.

God loves you. God will provide – and that often means answering frantic prayers with just the right person, for the job. All we can do in the mean time, is try not to mess things up too badly – and/or too often – since God’s ways are not our ways – and it’s never wise to act recklessly or presumptuously.

It’s also always a good idea to say a quick prayer for anyone who you might notice, happens to be in distress, may have been injured, may be very near death, or has recently died.

One more thing … thank God for priests. The vast majority of priests are nice guys who are just trying to do God’s work, under what usually turns out to be very difficult circumstances. Priests are at their best – and are most appreciated  – when they are attending to the souls of those who are literally, staring death in the face. Those who have been there will, I am sure, agree.

James 5:14-15 Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. (15) And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man. And the Lord shall raise him up: and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Additional related links:

A last chance for lost souls

Anointing of the Sick, Last Sacraments, and the Apostolic Pardon

What Are “Last Rites”?

Priest’s Heroic Battle Action

Priests Prevented From Anointing Boston Marathon Bombing Victims

Three kinds of holy oil/chrism

Saint Padre Pio and the Angels

The written decrees of the various Church Councils provide us with some of the most reliable Magisterial guidance and truth(s).

by Doug Lawrence

Pope’s sometimes act or teach in error.

Bishops sometimes act or teach in error.

Priests and Deacons sometimes act or teach in error.

Lay persons sometimes act or teach in error.

But duly called and properly constituted Church Councils rarely act or teach in error … even the Council infamously known as Vatican II.

Beginning with the 1st century Council of Jerusalem, with the original Apostles in attendance and St. Peter officiating … a pattern (probably borrowed from the practices of the old Levitical Priesthood/Temple Worship System) emerged that would serve the Church well for (at least) the next 21 Councils, and 2000 years.

All the Bishops, along with the Pope, get together.

All the Bishops, along with the Pope, deliberate on the question(s) of the day.

All the Bishops, along with the Pope, agree.
(Unanimous agreement among the Bishops is desired,
but not absolutely necessary.)

The official decree/constitution is set down in writing.

The Pope “signs off” on everything.

Everybody goes home to properly disseminate information on all the latest development(s).

The Church preserves the document(s) in perpetuity.

Because the sacred deposit of faith is “built” much like a brick wall … with interlocking divine truths stacked one on top of another, from the ground, up … with Tradition acting as the mortar … it’s no easy matter for anyone to “slip in” any abject heresy. (Tradition may be defined as the method by which the Holy Spirit infallibly guides the Church, from age to age.)

Heresy and the adoption of illicit practices usually result from later, false interpretations and other types of unfortunate human biases and sin … but because such things fail to fit the established pattern of Catholic truth … they usually stick out like the proverbial “sore thumb” … at least, to those “in the know”.

That’s why it’s important for every Catholic to know the authentic teachings of the Church, along with the genuine Catholic philosophy of life that springs from them.

The Pope, along with the Bishops, received the teaching authority (Magisterium) of their holy offices directly from Jesus Christ:

And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. (Matthew 28:18-20)

You’ll notice that Jesus never specified any particular list of written documents, and he never mentioned the Bible or the Catechism, probably because neither existed at the time. But today, we have the written decrees of 21 Church Councils, the infallible (Ex Cathedra) declarations of at least two Popes, and scores of Papal Bulls, Encyclicals, Catechisms, and other official written works … along with the Bible.

Surprisingly, not all of the Bishops (or even the Pope) agree with all that is contained in the above sources, so many of them seem to think they have the authority to preach a slightly altered Gospel, and practice a slightly altered Divine Liturgy.  And that’s typically where all the trouble begins!

Since the members of the Church’s Magisterium (the Pope and the Bishops) have a sacred duty to practice, preach and teach the authentic Catholic faith, just as they received it from Jesus, the Apostles, the Holy Spirit and the Church, introducing personal novelties and abuses is no small matter.

It’s also worth mentioning that priests, deacons, consecrated religious and catechists operate under the authority of the Pope and the Bishops, so they all have similar obligations and responsibilities.

So what is a faithful Catholic to do when something begins to smell “fishy”?

You could ask your diocesan priest or bishop, but if corruption truly exists there (and when it does, it usually exists on a wide scale) the chances of receiving a proper answer … or any answer at all … may be slim to none. Instead, you simply go back and study/research the applicable Magisterial/Conciliar documents, along with earlier versions of the Catholic Catechism, etc. Once you find what you need, seek out a trustworthy source to help verify what you think you have.

What was true way back then is still true today, and if what is currently being promoted and taught in your diocese fails to match up, there is a problem, indeed!  (Do I have your attention, Rochester, NY and Los Angeles, CA?)

Here’s some links to dependable
Catholic source documents and teachings:

All 21 Church Councils

5 – Catholic Catechisms

Major Papal Encyclicals

The Holy Bible

Other excellent source documents

My response to a reader comment shocked me.

Remembering simpler times. Were they really better?

by Doug Lawrence

Responding to a recent comment about the teachings of the pre-Vatican II Catholic Church, I wrote:

I lived during the era of the pre-Vatican II Church, so I’m an eye-witness.

Way back then, 75% of Catholics attended Mass every Sunday.

Urban renewal projects had yet to break up and disperse faithful Catholic communities.

Contraception and abortion were not yet central issues of the day.

The clarity of Catholic teaching was superb.

The quality of Catholic schools was excellent and the tuition was easily affordable, even for families with many children.

Catholic churches were beautiful.

Men and women religious were numerous, orthodox, and wholly dedicated to their work.

The liturgy was traditional, Latin, and quite adequate.

The seminaries had yet to be liberalized and feminized, so there was an abundance of good priests available to serve the needs of most parishes.

In those days, the Catholic Church was respected, all around the world.

We had a strong Pope in the Vatican, no nonsense bishops running most of the dioceses, and Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen proclaiming Catholic truth to the world, every week, in “prime time”, on network television.

Of course, there were a few “bad apples” and scandals, even then. But the pre-Vatican II church knew how to properly handle them.

Then came Vatican II. Somebody put the radicals in charge.

The church tore itself apart, lost its focus, along with much of its good sense, and with a few exceptions, things have been going downhill ever since. 

Were things really that good, back then? Comments, anyone?

Three “classes” of priests: “The shepherd is to be loved, the hireling is to be tolerated, of the robber must we beware.”

Saint Augustine

A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them.

Preaching on this verse, St. Augustine once said, “The shepherd is to be loved, the hireling is to be tolerated, of the robber must we beware.” He refers these three characters to three classes of priests.

On Good Shepherd Sunday, we do well to consider the qualities of these characters and, even more, how the faithful ought to relate to their priests and bishops. Why is it that the people should tolerate the hireling?

Read more

How come I am allowed to go to the supermarket during a lockdown, but I am not allowed to go to Church?

Church leadership: cowardly, effeminate, faithless, ineffective, A.W.O.L. 

Mind well: it is not that civil authorities have decided that buying groceries endangers your health, but it has to be done, therefore it is allowed. No. Civil authorities in many Countries have decided that buying groceries can be done in a safe way, and should be therefore be done in that safe way alone. 

It follows that Bishops all over Catholicism should have made a huge mess, demanding that churches are left open, and Mass be allowed to be celebrated, pretty much in the same way as the relevant Government allows the purchase of food.  

Have they done this? Largely, no.

Why not? Because to them – irrespective of what they may say – the Mass is a social gathering, and nothing more. Our “hagan lio” Pope was, as befits his atheist mindset, the first to lead the charge, even going beyond what the Italian government had ordered. Boy, Satan is strong with this one.

Read more at Mundabor’s Catholic Blog

Editor’s note: Medical personnel, first responders, fast food workers and grocery store clerks have proved to be much more heroic than Catholic priests, bishops and even the Pope, during this world wide pandemic. They deserve our respect and our gratitude.

What do the cowardly priests, bishops and the Pope deserve?  

How about modernist, loose-lipped popes?

Pope warns of fallout from poorly trained priests

Priest reports: Liturgical abuse in Germany “horrible”. Mass is no longer Catholic. And there’s more…

My colleague said it:
“. I remember, you were pale then and came to my room and hammered your fists against the wall.”
And all this happens even though the bishops, after having been admonished by Rome, sent their priests clear instructions.

You have never let me celebrate, because they have understood that I am a priest who faithfully followed the Roman Missal and fearing perhaps that the faithful could make a comparison. […]

“Not Only Contemptuous Disobedience, but Devilishly”

All this is not only contemptuous disobedience and contempt for the authority of the Church. All this is demonic, because it is non-Catholic thinking and a non-Catholic style in the Catholic Church which is enforced with violence. It not only it thus intended to take away the people of God’s faith, one goes even further: it wants to take away their faith in the Church.

In Rome you know these things exactly. “Perhaps we will soon do something concrete?”

“What?” laughed my colleague. “They will give the Archbishop a cardinal’s hat at the next consistory, because certain Archbishop seats are connected to the dignity of Cardinal. But the owners of this right are obviously not obliged to ensure that their priests obey Church law.”

Read more

Musings about Catholic clergy, malfeasance, cowardice, peace, luv – and blogging

Blogs like mine – and countless others – are the result of the genuine suffering and righteous anger of many sincere Catholics who feel that the post V II clergy are culpable of dereliction of duty in the gravest of ways, and possibly in an unprecedented manner in the history of Christianity.

Our elementary religious feeling simply rebels at seeing so much – I must say the word, because I find it appropriate – brown-nosing to the world, going on at all ecclesiastical levels since the beginning of the Sixties.

This, and nothing else, is what leads us to blog. I for myself would not even dream of being here at 11pm writing this angry blog post, rather than sitting with a good book, a glass of Porto and Schubert in the background, if I knew the clergy are doing their job.

If they did, blogs like ours would be of no interest for the reader even provided we were – which would not be my case – willing to write them. People would, very simply, follow the events in the Catholic world through the interviews, the homilies, the books, the blogs, the calls to battle of the good clergy themselves.

If we had a halfway decent clergy, every church would resound of their rage against the abominations and godlessness of our times, and the parish magazines would contain long lists of locally, nationally and internationally excommunicated politicians. Instead, the pulpits – if they are still used – are generally used for convenient waffling about peace, luv, social justice, & Co.

Read more

A woman is trapped in the wreckage of a horrific car crash. Then a Catholic priest who had anointing oil with him, arrived.

“He came up and approached the patient, and offered a prayer,” New London Fire Chief Raymond Reed told KHQA-TV. “It was a Catholic priest who had anointing oil with him. A sense of calmness came over her, and it did us as well.”

Considering how many people were at the scene and interacting with the mystery faith leader, the story is a fascinating one.

“I can’t be for certain how it was said, but myself and another firefighter, we very plainly heard that we should remain calm, that our tools would now work and that we would get her out of that vehicle,” the firefighter added.

Now here’s where things get weird.

Read more

Editor’s note: These things happen way more often than most people think. Here’s another short, illustrated, real-life, personal story.

God loves you. God will provide – and that often means answering frantic prayers with just the right person, for the job. All we can do in the mean time, is try not to mess things up too badly – and/or too often – since God’s ways are not our ways – and it’s never wise to act recklessly or presumptuously.

It’s also always a good idea to say a quick prayer for anyone who you might notice, happens to be in distress, may have been injured, may be very near death, or has recently died.

One more thing … thank God for priests. The vast majority of priests are nice guys who are just trying to do God’s work, under what usually turns out to be very difficult circumstances. Priests are at their best – and are most appreciated  – when they are attending to the souls of those who are literally, staring death in the face. Those who have been there will, I am sure, agree.

James 5:14-15 Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. (15) And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man. And the Lord shall raise him up: and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Additional related links:

A last chance for lost souls

Anointing of the Sick, Last Sacraments, and the Apostolic Pardon

What Are “Last Rites”?

Priest’s Heroic Battle Action

Priests Prevented From Anointing Boston Marathon Bombing Victims

Three kinds of holy oil/chrism

Saint Padre Pio and the Angels

The answers to three key Catholic questions speak volumes

Once again let me stress that I developed this set of questions in the mid-1980s as a journalistic tool. The goal, when asking these questions, is to listen carefully to the answers.

It is especially interesting, of course, to note when people remain silence or try to find a way to maneuver around the questions without answering.

Different types of believers, of course, have different answers. The goal is to listen carefully and then respond with follow-up questions that yield nuggets of on-the-record doctrinal, as opposed to political, information. The goal is to transcend mere labels.

Here are those questions, once again:

(1) Are the biblical accounts of the resurrection of Jesus accurate? Did this event really happen?

(2) Is salvation found through Jesus Christ, alone? Was Jesus being literal when he said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6)?

(3) Is sex outside of the Sacrament of Marriage a sin?

Link to story

Catechist: VIRTUS training, something born out of the sins of a few priests and the bishops who sheltered them, has become a millstone around the neck of the laity.

Was there a single person in that room that was unclear about the horrific nature of the acts committed by a specific set of priests and the bishops who covered up for them?  Why were we, the laity, being required to watch what was quickly boiling down to an indoctrination film as a solution to crimes that were not ours?

Read more

Pope’s message to priests: A shepherd who doesn’t have the whiff of sheep about him probably needs to get better acquainted with the sheep.

Priests, the Holy Father insisted, must “go out and give ourselves and the Gospel to others, giving what little ointment we have to those who have nothing, nothing at all.” When he shepherds his flock, the priest brings with him the fragrance of his anointing—“the fragrance of the Anointed One, of Christ.”

But that’s not all. A good priest, like a good shepherd, knows his flock. He spends time with them; he lives among them; he shares in their cares and concerns, no matter how trivial they seem. In return, he receives the love and prayers of the people. He receives the gratitude of those he enriches through his ministry. He receives the joy and peace that come from doing the work of the Lord. But there is something else he receives—the telltale sign of a man who lives among his flock, who knows “the realities of their everyday lives, their troubles, their joys, their burdens and their hopes.”

“I call you to this,” said Pope Francis to his priests, “Be shepherds with the odor of sheep!”

Link

The written decrees of the various Church Councils provide us with some of the most reliable Magisterial guidance.

by Doug Lawrence

Pope’s sometimes act or teach in error.

Bishops sometimes act or teach in error.

Priests and Deacons sometimes act or teach in error.

Lay persons sometimes act or teach in error.

But duly called and properly constituted Church Councils rarely act or teach in error … even the Council infamously known as Vatican II.

Beginning with the 1st century Council of Jerusalem, with the original Apostles in attendance and St. Peter officiating … a pattern (probably borrowed from the practices of the old Levitical Priesthood/Temple Worship System) emerged that would serve the Church well for (at least) the next 21 Councils, and 2000 years.

All the Bishops, along with the Pope, get together.

All the Bishops, along with the Pope, deliberate on the question(s) of the day.

All the Bishops, along with the Pope, agree.
(Unanimous agreement among the Bishops is desired,
but not absolutely necessary.)

The official decree/constitution is set down in writing.

The Pope “signs off” on everything.

Everybody goes home to properly disseminate information on all the latest development(s).

The Church preserves the document(s) in perpetuity.

Because the sacred deposit of faith is “built” much like a brick wall … with interlocking divine truths stacked one on top of another, from the ground, up … with Tradition acting as the mortar … it’s no easy matter for anyone to “slip in” any abject heresy. (Tradition may be defined as the method by which the Holy Spirit infallibly guides the Church, from age to age.)

Heresy and the adoption of illicit practices usually result from later, false interpretations and other types of unfortunate human biases and sin … but because such things fail to fit the established pattern of Catholic truth … they usually stick out like the proverbial “sore thumb” … at least, to those “in the know”.

That’s why it’s important for every Catholic to know the authentic teachings of the Church, along with the genuine Catholic philosophy of life that springs from them.

The Pope, along with the Bishops, received the teaching authority (Magisterium) of their holy offices directly from Jesus Christ:

And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. (Matthew 28:18-20)

You’ll notice that Jesus never specified any particular list of written documents, and he never mentioned the Bible or the Catechism, probably because neither existed at the time. But today, we have the written decrees of 21 Church Councils, the infallible (Ex Cathedra) declarations of at least two Popes, and scores of Papal Bulls, Encyclicals, Catechisms, and other official written works … along with the Bible.

Surprisingly, not all of the Bishops (or even the Pope) agree with all that is contained in the above sources, so many of them seem to think they have the authority to preach a slightly altered Gospel, and practice a slightly altered Divine Liturgy.  And that’s typically where all the trouble begins!

Since the members of the Church’s Magisterium (the Pope and the Bishops) have a sacred duty to practice, preach and teach the authentic Catholic faith, just as they received it from Jesus, the Apostles, the Holy Spirit and the Church, introducing personal novelties and abuses is no small matter. It’s also worth mentioning that priests, deacons, consecrated religious and catechists operate under the authority of the Pope and the Bishops, so they all have similar obligations and responsibilities.

So what is a faithful Catholic to do when something begins to smell “fishy”?

You could ask your diocesan priest or bishop, but if corruption truly exists there (and when it does, it usually exists on a wide scale) the chances of receiving a proper answer … or any answer at all … may be slim to none. Instead, you simply go back and study/research the applicable Magisterial/Conciliar documents, along with earlier versions of the Catholic Catechism, etc. Once you find what you need, seek out a trustworthy source to help verify what you think you have.

What was true way back then is still true today, and if what is currently being promoted and taught in your diocese fails to match up, there is a problem, indeed!  (Do I have your attention, Rochester, NY and Los Angeles, CA?)

Here’s some links to dependable Catholic source documents and teachings:

All 21 Church Councils

Catholic Catechisms

Major Papal Encyclicals

The Holy Bible

Other excellent source documents

What to do about the problem of homosexual priests and bishops

In terms of action, Fr. Oko suggests:

• The homosexual mafia in the Church must be dealt with in a very professional way . We must act like a prosecutor or an officer in the battlefield;
• It is important that we find a large group of people of goodwill to protect us and support what we do. That group should include clergymen, as high in the hierarchy as possible, experts in various fields, archive records specialists, lawyers, policemen, journalists, and as many believers as possible;
• It is good to exchange information, documents, and evidence. The global network of homolobbies and homomafias must be counterbalanced by a network of honest people;
• The Internet is an excellent tool, which makes it possible to create a global community of people concerned about the fate of the Church;
• The more we know, the more we can do. We need to remember that in these matters we are like “sheep sent among wolves,” and so we must be “as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (St. Matthew 10:16). We must have the courage to stand up against evildoers, as Christ had the courage to stand up against the Pharisees of his times;
• We cannot build our lives on sweet illusions, for only “the truth will set you free” (St. John 8:32), and that is why “God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7); and
• All interventions should be made with utmost respect and love for every person, including the abuser.

He concludes that, remembering to “recognize them by their fruit” (cf. St. Matthew 7:16) – and with the publicly known events of the last quarter-century, the reaction of the Holy See, and the documents it issued – we must clearly and explicitly admit: yes, there is a strong homosexual underground in the Church.

More

Engel: The Homosexual Collective recruits like the Army. Individual homosexuals proselytize and seduce new recruits.

For the homosexual, every male is a potential homosexual, either overt, latent, or suppressed.

In the words of psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Nigro, “homosexuals colonize and recruit as if by ‘binary fission’ both in and out of the workplace to produce a state of ‘homotoxicity.'” At the collective level, he says, “Homosexuals infiltrate and metastasize, taking over any and every group possible by a compounding of their cognitive defects.”

Link

The Dallas Morning News documented that year the fact that two-thirds of U.S. bishops were involved in cover-ups of sex abuse.

There were several factors at work in the sex abuse crisis—including misguided compassion for abusive priests, a “magical” attitude toward the effects of repentance and confession, and a misguided faith in the power of pop psychology to treat incurable diseases like pedophilia and deadly sins like Lust.

But the main driver of the scandal, as the fearless Catholic journalist Philip Lawler explained in his authoritative book on the abuse crisis, The Faithful Departed, was simple worldliness: A vast and powerful Church infrastructure was built up by heroic missionaries and fiercely faithful, impoverished Catholic migrants—who came here legally when the U.S. needed an almost infinite supply of strong Sicilian ditch-diggers and chaste Irish nannies. The kind of men who founded the American church were a lot like the men who founded the U.S. government—heroes willing to risk life and limb, to face ridicule and thankless toil in a cause most people thought hopeless. (Imagine George Washington in a mitre.)

The Church continued to grow as faithful men sternly schooled in Jesuit spirituality and Thomist theology faced down hostility and anti-Catholic mobs, to build a massive network of Catholic parochial schools, and resist evil laws imposing Prohibition and eugenics. (You might think of these men as the Andrew Jacksons and Abraham Lincolns of the episcopate.)

As time went on, and Americans began to accept that Catholics really weren’t filling their church basements with dynamite and scheming to make the pope our king, life for bishops became a lot more comfortable. It started to attract a different kind of man, with another set of priorities—glad-handing, ward-heeling power brokers, more in the mold of Lyndon Johnson.

When a crisis of faith erupted over birth control, it turned out that the upper ranks of the clergy were largely composed of men like Richard Nixon or William Jefferson Clinton. Those were the kind of men who were faced with the tough choice of turning an abusive priest over to the police—and facing the public scandal and possible lawsuit—or covering up for him and either bribing or intimidating the victims into silence. The scandal was the love-child born of the world and the flesh, but the Devil did play his part. He served as matchmaker.

Read more

My response to a reader comment shocked me.

Remembering simpler times. Were they really better?

by Doug Lawrence

Responding to a recent comment about the teachings of the pre-Vatican II Catholic Church, I wrote:

I lived during the era of the pre-Vatican II Church, so I’m an eye-witness.

Way back then, 75% of Catholics attended Mass every Sunday. Urban renewal projects had yet to break up and disperse faithful Catholic communities. Contraception and abortion were not yet central issues of the day. The clarity of Catholic teaching was superb.

The quality of Catholic schools was excellent and the tuition was easily affordable, even for families with many children. Catholic churches were beautiful. Men and women religious were numerous, orthodox, and wholly dedicated to their work.

The liturgy was traditional, Latin, and quite adequate. The seminaries had yet to be liberalized and feminized, so there was an abundance of good priests available to serve the needs of most parishes.

In those days, the Catholic Church was respected, all around the world. We had a strong Pope in the Vatican, no nonsense bishops running most of the dioceses, and Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen proclaiming Catholic truth to the masses every week, on network TV.

Of course, there were a few “bad apples” and scandals, even then. But the pre-Vatican II church knew how to properly handle them.

Then there was Vatican II … somebody put the radicals in charge … the church tore itself apart, lost its focus, along with much of its good sense, and with a few exceptions, things have been going downhill ever since. 

Were things really that good, back then? Comments, anyone?

Thanks to Cathy for the original comment!

Study: Homosexual priests and clueless bishops were the primary cause of the abuse scandal.

Abstract: Due to clergy sex abuse scandals centered primarily in the Northern hemisphere, the moral authority of the Roman Catholic Church has been subjected to an opportunistic siege by prominent individuals and organizations who see the chance to advance their goals, including the ordination of women and the suspension of the requirement for priestly celibacy.

There is also a strongly defensive element to this strategy. Opponents of the Church know that there is a well-documented and strong correlation between male homosexuality and child sexual abuse, but claim that there is no evidence supporting this connection.

And, of course, those who are currently attacking the Church hope that they can undermine its moral authority to preach on the sinfulness of homosexual behavior and weaken its opposition to ersatz homosexual “marriage.”

This paper demonstrates that there is indeed a very strong link between male homosexuality and child sexual abuse. It also shows that there is a similar rate of child sexual abuse among other very large groups of adult males (e.g., Protestant clergy, who are usually married), thus proving that celibacy is not the root of the problem — homosexuality is.

Link

Queer German Church Math: 75% of males abuse other males – 37% homosexual, 9% bisexual.

A wave of revelations of clerical sexual abuse, with many cases dating from previous decades, shook the German Catholic Church in 2010 and prompted it to order an overall study of diocesan reports to spot any trends.

Link

Editor’s note: Most of this was also classified as “normal” behavior.