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Dear Fran,
You said:
- How can he lead in his mission throughout the world to young men in the seminaries, throughout many countries of the world, with the reputation he has developed while leading priests in Pittsburgh and ignoring all the terrible sexual deviations by priests in Pittsburgh during his tenure?
- What does the Pittsburgh Faithful laity do at this time?
I just wanted to add my two cents to this topic in addition to Bob's very good answer.
As a Catholic, I am ashamed and embarrassed by the inactions of our bishops and the devastating effects their inactions have had on those in our Church. People who trusted in the Church for spiritual formation and a high standard of holiness have been let down . . . big time!
I am also saddened by well-known Catholics who can appear to mistakenly communicate an acceptance of this behavior by rebutting with the question:
- Why does the media pick on the Catholic Church when this problem can be found in other organizations?
This scandalous reply totality ignores that Jesus founded the Catholic Church, the first and only Christian Church He founded on St. Peter before His glorious Ascension into Heaven.
For short, the Church is the gold standard for holiness. Period!! We do not try to rationalize bad behavior in our Church; we should try to correct it so it never happens again!
It is time for action; not just apologies and mere words. The Church in the United States needs purifying.
I think it is time to have grand jury proceedings in every Catholic diocese to investigate any allegations of sexual abuse.
The end result would be:
- weeding out the false claimants against good, holy priests while
- bringing the guilty to justice in our court system, and
- laicizing any guilty clerical: whether they are a priest, bishop, or cardinal.
The hard part of this process would be in choosing those who can objectively base their decisions on Church and Biblical teachings without bias. As a Catholic, the last thing I want is an anti-Catholic on this jury.
In the same way, the Church initially had its share of Judas', who were replaced with more faithful Apostles and disciples, today we should pray for more faithful Apostles and disciples to replace the bad ones.
I would also create a sensitive means in which responsible, faithful Catholic CCD teachers could explain to Catholic youth what actions, by any priest, would be considered inappropriate along with the appropriate ways to report such problems.
Again, what is needed are actions; not words of sorrow and forgiveness.
I would also encourage a lay panel with a background in Catholic evangelization to study ways to reach out to those who have left the Church over priestly abuse. They may not return but we should least try to reach out to them.
Though I still stand by my articles:
. . . these repeated actions or inactions by priests, bishops, and cardinals have devastated Catholic evangelization around the world.
That said, it is also sad that some legal counsel, who represent abuse survivors, are asking for changes in the Church that have nothing to do with correcting this problem. One prominent legal counsel stated, now is the time to have the Church change its doctrine and allow women priests and have a married priesthood.
No matter how scandalous and sinful the members of our Church are, She will never change the doctrine of our Church because Jesus Himself said He would protect the teachings of His Church.
- The male priesthood will always be exclusive to men because the Incarnate God, Jesus, became The Man, for our salvation and a woman cannot stand in the place of a man to represent the Lord.
- Now while a married priesthood is a discipline (meaning it can change), and not a doctrine, it wouldn't make sense to do so in the Roman rite, though the Roman rite does allow for exceptions by converts who enter the Church.
To faithful Catholics, I say keep living a prayerful sacramental life and keep your eyes on the doctrines and official teachings of the Church as a proof that, despite the scandalous behavior of many of the clergy, the Church is keeping faithful to Jesus's Teachings.
The following posting gives other examples of how the Lord has protected his Church despite scandalous historical events:
If you find yourself in a bad situation with a priest, after reporting him, move to another parish. Again, having a daily prayer and sacramental life is key to discerning important decisions in your unique family situation.
Finally, besides praying for those who have been abused by clerics, please also pray for:
- faithful Catholic priests at the parish and diocesan level who truly knew nothing about this, and
- faithful lay Catholics.
Based on what I have read, the biggest problem has little to do with pedophilia but more with a homosexual culture within Catholic seminaries among post pubescent seminarians and probably tenured seminary professors or instructors. These tenured [or non-tenured] professors who are secretive gay instructors must be fired immediately along with those complicit in this problem!
Those who originally hired them should also be fired!
My humble (solution|suggestion) to this problem.
I have read Cardinal O'Malley's suggestions but none of them address annual reviews and, if necessary, immediate dismissal of militant seminary rectors and faculty members who are allowing or promoting a gay subculture and/or non-Catholic teachings within Catholic seminaries. You can't let those who have caused this problem stay in scandalous, heretical power; they will not stop willingly on their own.
I personally believe the solution to this problem consist of a two-step process.
The first step I heard outlined on the February 28, 2019 episode of the World Over with Raymond Arroyo. One of his guest visitors was an excellent priest:
Fr. Gerald Murray.
At the 17 minute marker of this video Fr. Gerry says:
A handbook is useful . . .
but what he is offering over the next three minutes is a proposal the Vatican must adopt to destroy this satanic problem:
Basically establishing a national tribunal empowered and impaneled by the Holy See in every country headed by the Apostolic Nuncio in each country who oversee a lay committee who would do the work of receiving reports, investigating, etc. No matter what the outcome of the committee work, the Apostolic Nuncio would periodically present committee findings to the Holy Father so he could take the appropriate action(s).
The second step is to have a new Church congregation that keeps track of former Catholic rectors and/or faculty that have been fired and laicized from Catholic seminaries on a changing Do Not Hire list.
This list would be accessible to all hiring staff at all Catholic seminaries worldwide with 24/7 immediate access anytime. This same Do Not Hire list should be implemented at all Catholic colleges and universities. In this case, all Catholic colleges and universities would be able to have 24/7 immediate access anytime.
If the process I am suggesting is put in place it should result in the inability for any of these fired faculty to be re-hired at other Catholic seminaries. It is extremely important that the priest who heads this new congregation be the holiest, most faithful priest the Church has, otherwise the purpose of this new congregation will fail.
If Fr. Gerald doesn't mind, we can call it the Murray/Humphrey solution to the clergy sex scandals in the Church. |
If those in Catholic seminaries who hire faculty (I'm assuming the rector does the hiring) make poor, unholy choices to the detriment of priestly vocations, this effect will greatly impact, not only the faithful who the new priests serve but world events as well, since the greatest threat to National Security is immorality and poorly trained priests will result in poor words and actions at the parish level.
The same can be said for administrators of universities, colleges, and public schools. These administrators, in a position to hire faculty, can destroy the United States or renew it with the age old Judeo-Christian values.
If you are interested, check the commentary I wrote back in 2002:
Prayer for Seminary Professors and others employed to work in Seminaries
Heavenly Father, raise up among the Catholic Faithful
abundant and holy seminary teachers and instructors who teach and train new priests
in your Catholic seminaries around the world.
May they truly be models of holiness for those called to the priesthood, led by their ultimate example of holiness, Jesus, whose holiness we pray is reflected in your seminary rectors.
Through our prayer, may you ensure all seminary professors and assistants teach and train our seminarians according to the Magisterium of the Church.
May your seminary professors be witnesses to their seminarians by the holy life they live, and
the time they spend in personal prayer, especially in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
May you bless our bishops and guide them to watch over their seminaries to ensure:
- a holy environment is sustained, and
- a faithful environment is sustained, especially in proper Catholic teachings, practices, and administration of the sacraments.
May personnel problems within all seminaries be quickly resolved to ensure the faithful are properly served by well-trained ministers of your altar, and may others who work in seminaries be solid Catholic witnesses to the seminarians in training.
St Charles Borromeo, pray for us.
Mary, Queen of Apostles, pray for us.
Amen. |
Phil C. said:
- How come it appears that the priest are trying to repeat history with the Henk Heithuis scandal?
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I can only provide my personal opinion. Seeing this happened in January of 1956, I can only conclude that the Church's criteria for vetting and choosing priests to be bishops and future cardinals has to be improved big time!
Just my two cents,
Mike
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