NZ's Catholic bishops are now chiming in with the Pope's letter to "the People of God" ... "asking forgiveness for the sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults perpetrated by clergy … Let us beg forgiveness for our own sins and the sins of others".
Pardon me if I say the Church must beg forgiveness firstly from the Lord our God, who is the One most offended by such betrayal of priestly vows. The Holy Spirit will not give anyone the grace of conversion which the Pope so poetically asks for, unless "these crimes" are confessed and absolved in the Sacrament of Confession and Reconciliation.
"These wounds", say the NZ bishops, "never go away". But the Church teaches that even the wounds of victims of such heinous crimes will "go away" - I suppose the good bishops mean healed - if they are brought to Christ in a true spirit of prayer.
And now to address my brother Karl du Fresne's column on the question of sex abuse in the Catholic Church, published in yesterday's Dominion Post.
First: it was a column begging to be written.
Second: The prosecution of Cardinal George Pell of Sydney for historical claims of sex abuse is, I'm convinced, a put-up job. I knew this intuitively before I was told that ABC journalist Louise Milligan 'basically went out and begged people to give evidence against Pell'. (I didn't have any such intuitions about the disgraced former cardinal McCarrick, and I don't have them about New York' s Cardinal Dolan or Washington's Cardinal Wuerl either. Just don't get me started on them.)
Third: Pope Francis' apology to all Catholics for this scandal is indeed 'too little, too late'. I only wish this was all Pope Francis has to apologise for.
Four: du Fresne is right also in saying the scale of offending 'beggars belief'. But only natural belief. It's certainly not beyond supernatural belief, because the power of Satan to pervert and corrupt is well known to the Church and in the Church. That's what Satan is here for: primarily, to attack the Eucharist which he hates more than anything. To achieve that he destroys the priests who consecrate the Host.
Fifth: In saying 'there seems to be two Churches. One is rotten and diseased and the other remains true to the faith', du Fresne hits the nail on the head. One has promoted Protestant beliefs - heresies - and has set out systematically to destroy all that stands in the way of a vision for a World Church - chiefly, the Sacraments. The other is typified perhaps by the Latin Mass communities and the SSPX, forced to celebrate the Eucharist in out of the way country churches and funeral parlours.
Sixth: the last thing the Church needs is another Martin Luther, a mentally unbalanced heretic whose 'Reformation' (in truth, Deformation) wreaked destruction for the Church and for Europe on a scale to rival the present crisis in the Church and in society.
Seventh: in joining the chorus of 'Let Priests Marry', I have to wonder if our sex-saturated and subverted society is prompting du Fresne to think that possibly priests could marry one another. Of course he's not - but given that it's homosexually active and predatory priests who are the problem, it would be logical to suggest only same-sex marriage would solve it.
Eighth: if, as it seems, that du Fresne is promoting women for the priesthood, it simply cannot happen. The priest's relationship with the Church is spousal. Like Christ, he takes the Mystical Body of Christ for his bride.
Female ordination, to quote Cardinal Walter Brandmuller, is "an ontological impossibility and gravely sinful" ... This is dogma as revealed by Jesus Christ Himself, about the Church of Jesus Christ whose sole Lord He is. A change of the teaching of the dogma is unthinkable. Whoever does it or insistently demands it is a heretic - even if he wears the Roman Purple."
Ninth: Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan quotes St Athanasius, speaking to faithful Catholics in the 4th century during the Arian heresy which was supported by the overwhelming majority of bishops: "The Arians (the public bishops) have the churches, the buildings, but we have the faith".
Tenth: Bishop Schneider adds that "today it is true: they have the administrative power, but we have the faith. And this faith is more powerful: this is what will last."
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