Vatican Cardinals Explain Reason Catholics Lose Faith

A Traditional Style Novus Ordo Mass

(Catholic Herald) - A weakening of faith in God, a rise in selfishness and a drop in the number of people going to Mass can be traced to liturgical abuse or Masses that are not reverent, two Vatican cardinals and a consultant have said.

US Cardinal Raymond Burke, head of the Vatican’s supreme court, said: “If we err by thinking we are the centre of the liturgy, the Mass will lead to a loss of faith.”

Cardinal Burke and Spanish Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, spoke yesterday at a book launch in Rome.

The book, published only in Italian, was written by Fr Nicola Bux, who serves as a consultant to the congregations for the doctrine of the faith and for saints’ causes and to the office in charge of papal liturgies.

The English translation of Fr Bux’s book title would be, How to Go to Mass and Not Lose Your Faith...

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THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Hate to say I told ya so, (well actually I love to say it), but I told ya so!!! Lex Orandi Lex Credendi, or "The Law of Prayer is the Law of Faith." A watered-down banal liturgy produces a watered-down boring faith which in the end results in a lack of faith entirely. Liturgical innovations (i.e. "abuses") only exacerbate the problem. If local Catholic parishes want to energize youth and revitalize parishioners than there is only one way to do it, and that is to bring back the old customs and start celebrating the liturgy with cheerful reverence. Seriously! Pastors listen up. I'm as serious as a heart attack here. If you want to breathe new life into your parish, this is how you do it...

1. Arrange the altar and liturgical furniture in the most reverent way possible, bringing attention to the altar as the center of attention, with the tabernacle in a central location (if physically possible).  
2. Place a crucifix at the center of the altar so that the priest is always facing Christ, and arrange the altar candles symmetrically on either side of the crucifix, so that the crucifix on the altar becomes the symmetrical center of attention in the chapel.  (Again, having the tabernacle centrally located aids in this process as well.)
3. Once the furniture is arranged properly, make provision for the people to kneel for communion using movable kneeler benches if no altar rail is available.  (Prepare your congregation for this in the homilies leading up to the transition.)
4. Consider the logistics of celebrating the mass ad orientem in your chapel.  Is it possible?  Is it practical?  If so, how could you make it happen?  It's not always necessary, but it certainly does help in adding a feeling of reverence to the mass.  The symbolism of the ad orientem posture is magnificent as well.  (If you decide to use it, be sure to prepare your congregation for this in the homilies leading up to the transition.)
5. The last preparation that is needed is for your altar servers.  First, change the rules in your parish to reflect the following.  Your altar servers are going to get a whole lot more involved, so make it a new rule that your altar servers must be males over the age of 16.  Younger children (male or female) may only serve as torch bearers and collectors for the offering.  All persons assisting should be coordinated with the same type and color of vestment.  If girls are assisting the vestment should be a white (or off white) alb.  If girls are not assisting the vestment may be a cassock (usually black) with a white surplice.   There is considerable controversy over the use of girls assisting in the mass.  Ideally, all person assisting should be male.  However, in those cases where it is too difficult to eliminate girls assisting because of a long standing parish tradition, changing the rules to only allow males over the age of 16 to directly assist at the altar should be a sufficient compromise for the time being.  These changes are absolutely necessary in order to make the necessary liturgical adjustments to follow.
6. Make your new altar servers study the rubrics of the old Latin mass for altar servers.  This will serve as a foundation for the changes to be made in your celebration of the new vernacular mass.  In everywhere permissible by the GIRM, implement these traditional elements into the altar servers' duties.  These will be done by the men over 16 years of age only.
7. Instruct your choir to learn traditional Catholic music from Gregorian chant to traditional hymns.  These will be integrated into the liturgy and most especially all psalms will be chanted during the liturgy.  Plainchant may be used for the responsorial psalm so that the congregation can more easily participate. 
8. In all things careful attention must be paid to the GIRM, and as a general rule, where the GIRM is silent, ancient tradition (rather than modern innovation) should prevail.
9. Use incense -- FREQUENTLY -- especially on Sundays.  If members of your congregation complain, it's because they're not used to it.  Smelling incense is part of being Catholic.  If it bothers their allergies, tell them to sit away from the altar and center isle.  (As a person with severe asthma and allergies, I can personally testify that incense is NOT a threat to my health.  I find that when taken in through the nose, as opposed to the mouth, it is not irritating to my airways at all.  In contrast, cigarette smoke puts me into a full blown bronchospasm that can be life threatening if not treated.  My point here is that I'm at far greater risk entering a common restaurant than a Catholic mass using incense.)  Be Catholic already, and help your parishioners experience the fullness of their Catholic faith.
   
10. When the time for communion comes, stand behind the mobile kneeler, or altar rail, and let your parishioners make the first move, keeping your altar server with paten ready.  Those that want to kneel will kneel, and you can administer on the tongue.  Those that want to stand will stand and will reach out with their hand.  Should they choose to stand, make sure they bow beforehand.  Of course you could simply require (as a parish rule) that all parishioners receive on the tongue while kneeling (if able) but that is your prerogative.  If you have sufficiently explained things ahead of time, and stand strategically behind the kneeler (or altar rail) you will find that most parishioners will voluntarily kneel and open their mouths.    

Now I'm going to make a bet with you pastors out there.  I'm willing to bet that within one year after making these above recommended changes, and celebrating this way with both cheer and reverence, you will see in increase in mass attendance.  To make good on my bet, I'm giving the comments section over to you.  If you are a priest, and you have implemented these changes above, tell us about your experience.  Did they increase your mass attendance over time (within a year)?  Do your parishioners show a greater level of reverence and devotion now?  Has the spiritual life of the parish improved?  If so, how?

Archbishop of Canterbury Finally Cracks!

(Creative Minority Report) - It is a sure sign of the degree of panic over the Pope's offer to Anglicans that the Archbishop of Canterbury is even considering such a thing, but at the end of the day its too little too late.

The head of the Anglican Communion, Rowan Williams, is reportedly considering new rules to protect Anglican traditionalists from women Bishops. The Anglican communion is slated, at their general synod, to put its stamp of approval on women Bishops. However, they are sufficiently worried that traditionalists would rightly bolt to the Catholic church that they are attempting to create a 'his/hers church...

read full story here

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: So the Church of England follows the inevitable path of Protestantism once all of Scripture becomes subject to human intellect. Of course Traditionalists have splintered away from the Church of England before, but only in small numbers. Now that the pope has extended an engraved invitation to all Anglo-Catholics, who take the "Catholic" part seriously, to come into the Church and bring their Anglican patrimony with them, the Church of England has countered by deciding to consecrate women as bishops. This has thrown the Archbishop of Canterbury into a panic. His solution to the scandal? Why a fig leaf of course! Basically what he's offering to the traditional Anglo-Catholics is something like this. "Hey guys, don't you worry a bit about that whole women bishops thing. A little twist of the rules, and you can all PRETEND it doesn't even exist."

In case you missed it, the operative word here is "pretend." The fact is, woman bishops WILL become a reality in the Church of England. It WILL happen - very soon. It's already been approved. Some Anglicans can PRETEND it didn't happen all they want, but the fact is it did, and no "special provision" in the rules for male episcopal oversight is going to change that fact. If Anglo-Catholics take their "Catholic" identity seriously, why would they want to continue to be associated with an organization that has completely denied it? They should remember that it isn't just the Roman Catholic Church that has a problem with a female episcopacy. ALL of the Eastern Orthodox churches are in solidarity with Rome on this one. To consecrate a woman as a bishop is to cease to be catholic, in every sense of the word. Now I know there are plenty of supposedly "educated" people out there who will contest this, and that's just fine and dandy, but their "enlightenment" is not the source of Catholicism. The word Catholic means "of the whole," "complete" or "unabridged" and it's about accepting ALL of the Christian faith, not just the parts you like.

As for the Archbishop of Canterbury, it's too little too late. Or to use an American euphemism, he's a day late and a dollar short. The time to do something was before the vote that approved women bishops. To offer this so-called "provision" now is no different than throwing a blanket over a mess and saying: "There! Now you don't have to look at it anymore." It didn't go anywhere, and nobody is doing anything to clean it up. Instead we're just going to cover it up and pretend it never happened. Can we say "panic?" Can we say "lunacy?" Can we say "not in your right mind anymore?" Not long ago, upon his visit to Rome, the Archbishop of Canterbury took the opportunity to lecture the pope on the value of women priests and bishops. It was more than a lecture really. In fact, it seemed more like criticism of the Catholic Church for refusing to ordain women. Now, the very same Archbishop of Canterbury has turned around and offered a fig leaf to his own flock, so they don't have to look at the mess of things created in the Church of England while under his watch. So which is it Rowan? Is it what you told the pope? Or is it what you're now telling the Traditionalists within your own flock? If the pope should be made to come out of the dark ages, and learn to appreciate the value of female clergy, why then shouldn't the Traditionalists within your own flock be made to do the same? Could it be that you're actually a little concerned that this whole "ordinariate" thing might actually do well in England? Could it be that you're terrified once presented with a choice, the average CofE member might eventually decide to attend an ordinariate parish? Could it be that the pope has finally called your bluff and come to find out you weren't playing with a full deck to begin with? Come on Rowan, which is it? Is it what you told the pope, or what you're saying to your own Traditionalists now? We gotta know, which is it?

Catholic Clerics Become Victims Of Smear Campaign

(Telegraph) - I write this with some urgency. For the last week, Catholic sources have been insisting that Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, will not take up his appointment as Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. Two reasons are given - one connected to his health, the other to utterly false sex abuse allegations he faced years ago.

I now have good reason to believe that Cardinal Pell - a man of towering presence and intellect, utterly faithful to Pope Benedict's vision for renewing the Church - is the victim of a smear campaign endorsed by certain bishops, especially Italian ones, who are desperate to stop Pell cleaning up what are in effect the "rotten boroughs" of their dioceses. We must pray that the Holy Father ignores the campaign....

read full story here

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: The first main salvo was fired earlier this year with the direct smear campaign against Pope Benedict XVI. All of it garbage - the skin of the truth stuffed with a great big lie. True, the future pope's fingerprints were all over sex-abuse cases during the 1980s and 1990s while he was Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Vatican CDF. What the media consistently and systematically (perhaps even intentionally) FAILED TO REPORT was that the reason why Ratzinger's fingerprints were all over them was because he was the one and only cardinal in the Vatican attempting to prosecute these perverts! He did have some pretty good success in most cases, but in a few cases, his efforts were blocked by higher ranking Vatican officials. This part of the story never made it to the mainstream press. It was publicized by the Vatican press office, but suspiciously censored by the national media corporations of various nations throughout the western world - particularly in Germany, Britain and the United States.

Was this intentional? Was this part of an elaborate media plot to destroy the credibility of this pope and the Catholic Church in general? We have every reason to believe so. When was the last time you saw a positive mainstream media report on Christianity in general, or Catholicism in particular? Can you remember a single one within a decade? If you can, than you'll have to admit it is the exception to the norm. The mainstream media is practically run by atheists, liberal non-Catholics and heretical cafeteria Catholics with an ax to grind against Rome. We have a motive for such a plot, and we also have the evidence in their overwhelming disproportionate negative reporting. There is no evidence, whatsoever, that sexual-abuse and cover-up is proportionally any higher in the Catholic Church than in any other religion or religious organization. Furthermore, we do have significant evidence that sexual-abuse and cover-up is significantly higher in non-religious institutions. Does this information EVER hit the mainstream press? I rest my case.

Now we're seeing critics of the Catholic Church from every corner using the sex-abuse scandal media overexposure as a tool to ruin any Catholic cleric they dislike or disagree with. These attacks come from even within the Church, as liberal Catholics use them against orthodox Catholics, and so on. Such is most likely the case with Cardinal Pell.

This is happening on a local level as well. I know of several priests in the United States who have been scandalized by false accusations and media smear. Their enemies originate from within the Church, and use the media as their weapon of personal destruction.

This has gone too far! It has to stop. It's time for the bishops of the Catholic Church to take up legal council and prepare for an aggressive response. I'm talking about deep-pocket libel lawsuits, against anyone who falsely accuses a cleric of abuse of any sort. Furthermore, media outlets need to be held to the same standard, and the Church should immediately begin organizing lawsuits against these as well. There is no reason for the Church to hemorrhage millions of dollars (pounds, euros, etc.) in justified settlements with abuse victims, without any kind of compensation for media libel and false accusations.

I'll take it one step further. SHAME on any bishop who would refuse to defend a priest falsely accused of wrongdoing. SHAME ON YOU! Not only is it your responsibility to defend your flock against those wolves (predatory priests) who would victimize your sheep, but it is equally your responsibility to defend innocent priests (also your sheep) against false accusations (a different kind of wolf). Why do you carry the shepherd's crosier when you won't use it? Would you not defend the Catholic faithful if they were being falsely accused of cannibalism? This is what the ancient Pagans accused Christians of while they sent the faithful to their deaths in the coliseum. Why then do you not defend your clerics who have been falsely accused of a different kind of cannibalism? WAKE UP FROM YOUR SLUMBER!!! Do you not see the identity of the author of these attacks? Do you not recognize him? He is your sworn enemy, the enemy of God and his Church. Why do you continue to let sleeping dogs lie, when they're not sleeping at all, and are about to bite you in the ass? Why?

Pope Tells Bishops To Discipline Wayward Priests

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: The happy-go-lucky care free days of the post-conciliar era are over. The fact is, they've been over for some time, but you would never know it by the way most Western bishops miserably FAIL to shepherd their flocks with the rod of correction. The pope has just condemned this, and insisted that bishops start doing their jobs again! The Western Church is now literally saturated with wolves in sheep's clothing. There are nearly as many wolves as there are sheep now. Is it any wonder why Western Catholics are losing their faith? The pope's message is a call to orthodoxy and traditional Catholic values....

(Rorate Caeli) - The Church too must use the shepherd’s rod, the rod with which he protects the faith against those who falsify it, against currents which lead the flock astray. The use of the rod can actually be a service of love. Today we can see that it has nothing to do with love when conduct unworthy of the priestly life is tolerated. Nor does it have to do with love if heresy is allowed to spread and the faith twisted and chipped away, as if it were something that we ourselves had invented....

read full story here

The bishops need our help in this. There are now so many wolves operating under the bishop's nose that it is difficult for any one bishop to keep track of them all. Therefore, sadly, it's up to us to make sure each and every local bishop knows of heresies, liturgical abuse and moral scandals unfolding around him. Here is how you can help. When you see, hear or read something that is an obvious heresy, liturgical abuse or moral scandal, write an email (or letter) to your local bishop and make sure you forward a copy to the Vatican CDF. Sometimes the bishop will provide his email address on the diocesan website. If not, you may have to go trough his secretary. If all else fails, get the P.O. Box (or mailing address) off the diocesan website and simply use snail mail. The letter should always be addressed directly to the bishop. Here is an example of the type of format you should use....

Your Excellency,

Make a short, concise and polite statement of your concern. Provide details in a short and concise way. Conclude by requesting his episcopal assistance in this matter.

Sincerely in Christ,

Your name
Your contact information

As I said, the contact information for your local bishop can usually be obtained from your diocesan website. The email address for the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) is: cdf@cfaith.va

Be sure to place the CDF email address into the "CC" header of your email, so your bishop knows the CDF was contacted about this. It will help solicit his immediate action. If you have to use snail mail for your local bishop, just email a copy of your letter to the CDF, then at the bottom of your snail mail letter to the bishop write: "cc: Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith". This will again let your bishop know the CDF has been contacted and thus solicit his swift response.

I'm afraid this is what it has come down to. The pope is calling on all of us to be his eyes and ears for him. Let's get these bishops doing their jobs again, and if they refuse to, then let's pray for their early retirement.

Church of England Bishops Accept Pope's Offer for Anglican Ordinariate

Bridge Over The Tiber River

(Telegraph) - In a move likely to raise tensions between the two Churches, a group of Church of England bishops met last week with advisers of Pope Benedict XVI to set in motion steps that would allow priests to convert to Catholicism en masse.

They are set to resign their orders in opposition to the introduction of women bishops and to lead an exodus of Anglican clerics to the Catholic Church despite Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, urging them not to leave.

It would be the first time for nearly 20 years that large numbers of priests have crossed from the Church of England to Rome, and comes only weeks ahead of a crucial General Synod debate on making women bishops.

The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that bishops travelled to the Holy See last week to hold face to face discussions with senior members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the most powerful of the Vatican's departments.

The Rt Rev John Broadhurst, the Rt Rev Keith Newton and the Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, the bishops of Fulham, Richborough and Ebbsfleet respectively, are understood to have informed senior Catholic officials that Church of England clergy are keen to defect to Rome....

read full story here

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: There are a few striking things about this story. The first of course is that a minimum of three Church of England bishops will be accepting the pope's offer for an Anglican Ordinariate. These are not bishops from the continuing Anglican bodies. These are actual C of E bishops. Of course more may be coming in the near future, but three are more than enough to establish an effective ordinariate presence on the British Isles. With them, so it would appear, will come a significant number of Anglican priests consisting of an unknown number at this time, not even counting the laity. This is nothing short of an exodus! Of course, in England this all comes on the heels of the C of E approving female bishops.

The second thing that strikes me is the elimination of the middleman. These C of E bishops went straight to the Vatican CDF for their negotiations and completely bypassed the English Conference of Catholic Bishops. Of course, it only makes logicial sense for them to do this, since the pope's Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans specifically outlines that ordinariates will be under the CDF and not the local bishops' conferences. However, failing to even consult with these conferences, which is within their right, demonstrates a profound concern on the part of Anglican clergy that the local Catholic bishops' conferences may actually work against the pope's ordinariate plan. So why bother going through them? Better to deal with these bishops' conferences after the ordinariate is already set up.

Third and finally, since any Roman Catholic will be able to meet their Sunday obligation by receiving Eucharist offered under the Anglican ordinariate, I'm beginning to wonder if Pope Benedict has effectively created another escape hatch for Roman Catholics sick and tired of the Novus Ordo liturgy as celebrated by the liberal loons in the general Roman Rite.

I have just one last thought to add to this. Not to be a killjoy, but as exciting as this news is, there is always the possibility the C of E bishops may simply be using the ordinariate as leverage to get what they want out of the upcoming C of E synod on women bishops. We shall see.

ATTENTION All Gay Catholics...

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Attention all Gay Catholics, please help get this message out. Forward it to everyone you know.

For those of you who struggle with homosexual temptations, 'The Catholic Knight' offers his sympathy. We do not choose our temptations in life, and it is well known that sexual temptations (of any kind) are some of the most difficult to resist. To those of you who have used the disciplines of Catholicism to resist and overcome your temptations, 'The Catholic Knight' congratulates you and admires your courage. To those of you who are still struggling, and find yourselves falling back into homosexual sin from time to time, 'The Catholic Knight' wishes to offer his encouragement to keep trying, reminding you that victory only belongs to those who refuse to quit, and that continued efforts to resist homosexual temptations will eventually be rewarded. (If you're experiencing homosexual temptations, you can find help here.)

'The Catholic Knight' also wishes to remind you that homosexual temptation, in and of itself, does not make you a "bad person" because temptation, in and of itself, is not a sin. If Jesus Christ (God incarnate) himself could be tempted by the devil, then none of us are above temptation. Our temptations do not define us. Our temptations do not determine who or what we are. Our temptations are nothing more than that - just temptations. Rather, we are defined by our choices in life. Sin is always the result of choice, not temptation, and it is our choices, not our temptations, that define who and what we are.

For decades it has been in vogue to make the Catholic seminaries a place for men with homosexual temptations. At first it was believed that this was just an American problem. However, recent revelations would seem to indicate the problem was universal. We do not know the reasons why, but perhaps some people mistakenly believed the priesthood would be best for such people because of the celibacy rule in the Roman rite. Perhaps it was mistakenly believed that men who struggle with homosexual temptations will never overcome them. Perhaps it was mistakenly believed that such men could never have a normal life - a wife and a family. Perhaps it was mistakenly believed that homosexual temptations were intrinsic to one's personality, that it defined who they were, and it could never be outgrown or corrected. So of course, these people mistakenly thought a normal life was impossible for them, and they should be put away in the priesthood, where they would be forced to live in celibacy.

Likewise, as this was going on, there were some men, also having homosexual temptations, who recognized in the seminaries a place of ample opportunity to act out their homosexual temptations with other men who may be struggling to overcome the same temptations. Such men became predators in the seminary, seeking to take advantage of those men who were attempting to use the celibacy discipline as a way to overcome. Many of these predators went on to become priests and were assigned parishes. Many of these same predators sought out young impressionable teenage boys (between 11 - 17) to act out their homosexual temptations. As a result 80% of all sexual abuse in the Catholic Church was the result of such predatory homosexual priests. This is a statistical fact. It cannot be denied. This is what happened. It is also true much of the cover-up that occurred in the Catholic Church was the result of homosexual blackmail, as some bishops, and their assistants, were threatened to be "outed" from their days in the seminaries should they report the abuse. These predators made victims not only out of those teenagers they abused, but also their fellow priests, who at one time or another struggled with homosexual temptations. Now this does not excuse their cover-up, by any stretch of the imagination, but it does help to explain some of the reasons why it happened.

That was then and this is now. Times have changed and so has the Catholic Church. The vast majority of abuse cases happened in the 1960s through 1980s. Since then the number of abuse cases has dropped rapidly, starting in 1981, and as of today that number is at a pre-1950's level. There is a reason for this. In 1981 Pope John Paul II appointed Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). Ratzinger promoted a zero tolerance policy toward homosexuality in the priesthood, consistent with the historic tradition of the ancient Church. The result of Ratzinger's efforts were so successful that in 2001, Pope John Paul II delegated the ecclesiastical appeals of all sex-abuse cases to the CDF of which Ratzinger was head. According to canon lawyers this was a breath of fresh air as such cases immediately thereafter were handled with speed and efficiency. Then in 2005, after Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI many of his reforms were written into Church law including zero tolerance of homosexuality in the seminaries - which includes faculty, students and other staff. Under Pope Benedict the seminaries have effectively become "no gay zones." The only way a homosexual can get into a seminary now is to LIE about his homosexuality, thus basing his entire priestly vocation on a falsehood. No, this is not ever going to change, certainly not after all that has happened. The statistical facts are undeniable and open for all the world to see. When homosexuality was tolerated in the priesthood, incidences of sexual-abuse and cover-up skyrocketed. Once the Church returned to it's ancient policy of zero tolerance, cases of sexual-abuse and cover-up plummeted even faster than they rose. The numbers don't lie, and they tell the whole story.

The message that needs to be understood in the homosexual community is that the Catholic Church has become a zero tolerance organization when it comes to homosexuals in their leadership. Of course that doesn't mean that gays can't be closeted, but it does mean if they ever come out of the closet, they're done! Their career in the Catholic Church is over and they can go find a job somewhere else. This is how it is now. The Catholic Church has been permanently wounded by it's unofficial experiment in homosexual leniency and it has learned a painful lesson. It will not change it's zero tolerance policy now, not after everything that has happened. If this seems wrong than blame the mainstream news media, for no other organization, religious or otherwise, has ever been so heavily criticized by the press for this problem than the Roman Catholic Church. Such heavy criticism has made any form of continued leniency impossible.

People who struggle with homosexual temptations will always be encouraged to resist and overcome them in the Catholic Church. Likewise the Catholic Church will always stand ready to assist them in their struggle to resist and overcome those temptations. This however does not include putting them in positions of leadership where they can be unfairly tempted and/or blackmailed.

There are those men who struggle with this problem who also have an overwhelming desire to become priests. Now that the Catholic Church has returned to it's ancient policy of zero tolerance, it will no longer be a hospitable career choice for such persons. Those who insist on becoming priests will have to look elsewhere, like The Episcopal Church for example, where homosexuality is not only tolerated but celebrated. Other mainline Protestant churches are following this trend as well, such as the Lutherans and Methodists, and we are even seeing the early signs of this trend developing in some of the Evangelical, Baptist and Pentecostal churches.

The message that needs to get out is as follows. Because of everything that has happened in the Catholic Church, particularly the sex-abuse cover-up scandal and all the unprecedented media attention, the Catholic priesthood is no longer a hospitable environment (nor has it ever been) for men struggling with homosexual temptations. In fact, if you happen to be one, and you seek Catholic holy orders, you may even run the risk of being labeled as a sexual predator, even if you aren't one. As sad and "unfair" as that may be, it is the present reality, and after everything that has happened, it is not likely to change anytime in the foreseeable future. The long and short of it is this. If you have homosexual temptations, and you feel like you MUST be a priest, then the Catholic Church is not for you. Please seek a priestly vocation elsewhere, somewhere where they will not only tolerate but celebrate your homosexuality.

Sex Abuse Scandal Revisited

(AP) - The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, issued a statement late Friday noting that the Munich vicar-general who approved the priest's transfer had taken "full responsibility" for the decision, seeking to remove any question about the pontiff's potential responsibility as archbishop at the time.

Victims advocates weren't persuaded.

"We find it extraordinarily hard to believe that Ratzinger didn't reassign the predator, or know about the reassignment," said Barbara Blaine, president and founder of SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

The pope, meanwhile, continues to be under fire for a 2001 Vatican letter he sent to all bishops advising them that all cases of sexual abuse of minors must be forwarded to his then-office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and that the cases were to be subject to pontifical secret.

Germany's justice minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, has cited the document as evidence that the Vatican created a "wall of silence" around abuse cases that prevented prosecution. Irish bishops have said the document had been "widely misunderstood" by the bishops themselves to mean they shouldn't go to police. And lawyers for abuse victims in the United States have cited the document in arguing that the Catholic Church tried to obstruct justice.

But canon lawyers insisted Friday that there was nothing in the document that would preclude bishops from fulfilling their moral and civic duties of going to police when confronted with a case of child abuse.

They stressed that the document merely concerned procedures for handling the church trial of an accused priest, and that the secrecy required by Rome for that hearing by no means extended to a ban on reporting such crimes to civil authorities.

"Canon law concerning grave crimes ... doesn't in any way interfere with or diminish the obligations of the faithful to civil laws," said Monsignor Davide Cito, a professor of canon law at Rome's Santa Croce University....

read full story here

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: The pope is innocent, plain and simple. That is the fact. If SNAP really cared about getting justice for the victims they claim to represent, they would go after the abuser and the man who has ALREADY ADMITTED to transferring the pervert priest without Archbishop Ratzinger's knowledge. The problem surrounding Archbishop Ratzinger was similar (but in this case much smaller) to the problem surrounding Cardinal Law and many others, wherein underlings made executive decisions without the bishop's knowledge in a misguided attempt to shield the bishop from scandal and perhaps even protect the abuser in the process.

As for the Vatican document requiring secrecy, any layman with a novice understanding of canon law knows these laws apply to activities WITHIN the CHURCH. They do not extend to civil law. It's not rocket science people. For any member of the clergy to claim that he thought Cardinal Ratzinger's letter extended to anything more than conduct WITHIN the Church is an insult and a lame excuse. It's lame because there is no way any member of the clergy could honestly believe that - unless he's an idiot. It's an insult because he dares to expect others to believe it.

As news unfolds about the growing sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church in Europe let us keep in mind the lessons learned from the Catholic sex-abuse scandal in the Anglophone world, particularly in the United States.

First, the media salivates over things like this, and frequently uses bad news for selfish reasons. They're notorious for hyping and pumping these stories to increase their ratings. Sex sells, as they say in the advertising world, and it's no different in the news media. Sexual scandals mean money - lots of money - for those who report them, and it is in their interest to make the scandal appear as large as possible, and as far-reaching as possible, because that's what sells newspapers and gets people to watch news broadcasts. It's a money thing and we should not forget that. This is why you will almost never hear or read about the actual statistics of those involved in sex-abuse scandals, because if the actual ratio were reported it would quickly be discovered that sex-abuse is actually much higher in non-religious institutions.

Second, once the dust settles, the media hype is over, and the damage to public image is done, the actual numerical statistics will start to come in. What they will find in Europe will probably be similar to what was found in the United States and the rest of the Anglophone world. The actual number of sex-abusing perverts (and those who protect them) is around 5% or less of all clerics in the Church. This means two things. The statistical number of perverts in the Church is almost half of the statistical number found in other public service sectors. For example, the statistical number of perverts in the United States public school systems is around 10%. The same goes for the daycare industry as well as public clubs such as boyscouts and various sports. So in actuality, while there is always room for improvement, the Church is actually doing a better job filtering out perverts than the secular world. Don't expect to hear this reported by the news media though. That wouldn't sell many papers. The second thing this means, and we must never forget this, if about 5% or less of the clergy are involved in this disgusting activity, then that simultaneously means 95% or more of the clergy are not involved in it. These are your good priests, bishops and clerics of all sorts who are doing their jobs correctly. They cannot be made to suffer for the crimes of the tiny minority. Statistically speaking there is at the very least a 95% chance that the average parish priest is a good priest. That's the story typically lost in these scandals.

Third, while it is true the Church needs to do a lot more to filter out the perverts and report them once they're known, the same could be said of any religious organization, and even more so for non-religious organizations.

Fourth and finally, these types of scandals tend to bring out the worst kinds of anti-Catholics. First you have the opportunists. These are those who see an opportunity to make some easy money. They may be alleged abuse victims, or lawyers working on their behalf, or organizations claiming to represent their interests. Then of course there are those who would like to use the government to persecute the Church by stripping her of her rights. Then finally there are those who already hate the Church, for one reason or another, and will endlessly use this latest scandal in their arsenal of negative propaganda to dish out against Catholics at every opportunity they get.

What's important to remember are the facts. Sexual abuse is a problem that effects all of western civilization, not just the Church. This includes cover-up. Both sex-abuse and cover-up are actually much higher in non-religious institutions, especially the public schools. Sorry that's just a statistical FACT. Look it up. People can try to scapegoat the Catholic Church all they want, and of course they will, because it's been going on ever since the Church's founder (Jesus Christ) was scapegoated for every social problem that plagued Judea two-thousand years ago. It's human nature to scapegoat, but it does nothing to solve the underlying problem. What's important for Catholics to remember is that sex-abuse and cover-up is a civilization wide social problem. It affects all social institutions of which the Church is no exception. Simultaneously the Church is NOT the source of the problem either. It's a problem that all institutions must look into, and while the Church does tend to do a better job filtering out the perverts than non-religious institutions, everyone needs to work harder.

Married Priests In The Catholic Church

A Married Priest With His Wife And Children

(Rorate Caeli) - Very interesting answers in this lengthy interview granted by the leader of the Traditional Anglican Communion, Primate John Hepworth, to The Australian Inquirer...

Married Priests:

Inquirer: How do the Pope's proposals mesh the Latin celibate discipline for all clergy with Anglicanism's longstanding acceptance of married priests and bishops?

JH: Bishops in the new Anglican structure will be unmarried. This is out of respect for the tradition of Eastern and Western Christianity. But priests who come from Anglicanism will be able to serve as priests in the new structure, whether married or not, after satisfying certain requirements. The truly radical element is that married men will be able to be ordained priests in the Anglican structure indefinitely into the future...

read full story here

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: The concept of married Catholic priests (under the Anglican Ordinariates) poses no threat to my Traditional Catholic sensibilities whatsoever, and here is the reason why. The Catholic Church has had married priests in the United States for literally DECADES! The first class come from former protestant ministers, usually Anglican, already married who seek to become Catholic priests. In most cases, the Church has granted this. The second class is this...

(PG News) - Saturday, October 02, 1999
By Ann Rodgers-Melnick, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The Vatican has cautiously opened the door to the ordination of married men as Byzantine Catholic priests in the United States.

The change comes as the Metropolitan Byzantine Archdiocese of Pittsburgh prepares to celebrate its 75th anniversary tomorrow at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown. But the new law is not a full return to the church's practice of 75 years ago, when Rome's permission was not needed.

A set of newly approved canon laws for the archdiocese permits bishops to submit the names of married candidates to Rome for approval on a case-by-case basis....

read full story here

Here we see that Rome has allowed married men in the United States to become Byzantine Catholic priests for exactly ten years now. All of this comes with no shock or disruption to the Catholic Church in North America. The key here is rites. By that I mean liturgical rites. In the western world we are most familiar with the Roman Rite, however the Catholic Church actually consists of many rites. There are four primary rites in the Catholic Church, all of them recognizing the Bishop of Rome as the sovereign pontiff. Each primary rite has other rites that may have sprang forth from it, but primary rites form the main groups. These four primaries are the Roman Rite, Antiochian Rite, Alexandrian Rite and Byzantine Rite. All of them are 100% Catholic. All of them are in full apostolic communion with the pope (who is head of the Roman Rite). All of them make up the Catholic Church. Yet only one of them has mandated celibacy of all it's clerics, and that is the Roman Rite.

Celibacy has always been practiced in Christianity by those who were able to practice it. Jesus Christ himself was celibate, as was the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Paul, the apostle who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament. St. Paul encouraged celibacy among all those clergy who were able to practice it. However, the first pope, St. Peter, was married, as were a number of bishops in the early Catholic Church. Christianity has always placed high value on both marriage and celibacy as two different ways of practicing chastity. Though celibacy was preferred among the clergy as a way of fostering total devotion to care of the Christian flock. As St. Paul put it, the married man strives to please God and his wife, while the celibate man strives only to please God. It wasn't until the early second millennium (1100's) that celibacy was mandated of all clerics exclusively in the Roman Rite. This mandate did not apply to other rites within the Catholic Church. Any charge that the Catholic Church banned marriage from all clergy is spurious to say the least, as married Catholic men have always been allowed to become priests in the other Catholic rites. However, it had been the custom within all rites for some time to restrict the office of bishop to celibate men alone. This is not to say that a married man couldn't be a bishop. It's just that it hasn't been the custom of any Catholic rite to allow this for some time, and that is not likely to change.

The crisis that erupted in the Protestant Anglican Communion during the late 1970s led some Anglican clergy to seek refuge in the Catholic Church, and among them were married Anglican priests. So in the early 1980s, Pope John Paul II created a "Pastoral Provision" in the Roman Rite that would allow married Anglican priests to be ordained as Roman Catholic priests and continue to practice their Anglican customs. This was essentially an experiment to see if married clergy (operating under an "Anglican Use" pastoral provision) would coexist well among a predominately celibate priesthood within the Roman Rite. The experiment proved to be a success, in that these married priests proved to be just as faithful and devoted as celibate priests within their limited capacity as married men. Ironically, they often proved to be more conservative, more orthodox, and more traditional than the average number of celibate priests throughout the United States. This is not to say that marriage makes one more conservative, orthodox or traditional, but rather demonstrates that marriage does not in any way detract from these things. In other words, married men make just as good priests as celibate men, thought admittedly, married men do not have as much time for their priestly duties. So if you're looking for quantity of ministry, celibacy is definitely the way to go, but if you're looking for quality of ministry, there really is no measurable difference between married and celibate.

As the Anglican Ordinariates are organized and grow, we can expect a larger number of married Catholic priests operating under this pastoral provision of the Roman Rite. What does that mean? Well in essence, it means the Catholic priesthood will be much more accessible to married men in the years ahead. Granted, it's always been available through the eastern rites, but this is the first time in a thousand years when it will be widely available to Catholic men in the Roman Rite (under Anglican Ordinariates). In practical application however, I wouldn't expect a flood of married men applying to the priesthood. There are still many strictures that make the priesthood difficult for married men even under an Anglican Ordinariate. For starters, probably the biggest obstacle is money. Married men tend to need a lot more of it then celebrate men, and the Church is not likely to provide a higher salary to married priests at risk of discrimination against celibate priests. So married priests will have to work on the side to bring home the bacon, now splitting his obligation three ways between ministry, family and job. Either that, or his wife is going to have to go out and work. However, a married priest would be just as obligated to obey the Church's teachings on contraception, so he is likely to have at least a few children and possibly more. That being the case, we're talking about more money and less time for ministry. All and all, the Church is getting less bang for it's buck with married priests, and I'm sure that played a role in the Church's initial decision to mandate celibacy in the Roman Rite nearly a thousand years ago.

I should point out that this is just one pastoral provision within the Roman Rite. It is not the entire Roman Rite itself. In many ways, the whole Anglophone world has just become a laboratory. It's a repeat of the experiment done with Anglican Use priests in the United States thirty years ago, but this time on a much grander scale. It doesn't apply to the Spanish-speaking world on the same level, nor the French-speaking world, etc. It mainly applies to the English-speaking (Anglophone) world and who knows where it will lead? One thing is certain. English speaking Catholics have been clamoring for married priests for decades. Now they're going to get it, though perhaps not the way they expected, and certainly with no hint of sacrificing traditional Catholic orthodoxy.  If anything, they should expect incoming married priests to be more traditional and conservative than many of their celibate counterparts.  At least that's what the trend has been so far.