Pointing The Finger of Blame In The Moral Scandals
The "Unknown" Victims
In the speaking of moral scandals, and that which pertains to sins against purity and modesty, we must remember who the victims are. God is the first "victim". These scandals against holy purity are horrendous primarily because God is grievously offended. This should be our prime concern. Not enough mention is made about how our Lord is offended. All other related concerns must be in reference to this. The Church teaches that the virtue of purity is delicate and especially prone to being violated because of our sinful, fallen human natures. In such matters we are obliged to speak very little, and only what is necessary to communicate the essential idea, otherwise we will harm ourselves. We don't need unnecessary details or descriptions, and we don't need unnecessary repetition. God continues to be offended by those who continue to participate in such conversation. We continue to make God and ourselves victims: God because he is offended, and ourselves because we offend God. Without very careful handling of the subject matter, we can corrupt our minds with thoughts and images against holy purity. And to make matters worse, we may unnecessarily expose others to these thoughts and images by speaking of these matters to friends, and even to children within hearing distance. We were given an example of how to handle such subject matters - by "Our Lady of the Rosary" when she was sent by God to Fatima in 1917. What we learned from this most public of private revelations was quite brief and to the point on the matter of holy purity. Among other things, we were told that: "Certain fashions will be introduced that will offend Our Lord very much." "More souls go to Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason" The Lord ordained that this should be the message. No more needed to be said. Everyone understood what it meant. Notice that the two facts go together. Fashions are evil because of the effect they have on those who view them. A document from the Apostolic See, under Pope Pius XI, several years after Fatima, shows the problem and it effects. Unnecessary details are avoided: "on many occasions, the same Supreme Pontiff has reproved and sharply condemned the immodesty in dress which today is everywhere in vogue, even among women and girls who are Catholics; a practice which does grave injury to the crowning virtue and glory of women, and moreover unfortunately leads not merely to their temporal disadvantage, but, what is worse, to their eternal ruin and that of other souls." In speaking of these matters briefly and without details, Catholics have always been told that even when actually speaking of sins against holy purity in the privacy of the confessional, they must limit their talk to the naming of the sin, and only as much detail as would give the priest evidence of its seriousness. For example, if someone killed his mother, he should not simply confess that he committed "murder", but he would need to mention who the victim was. Priests, also, are required to speak as little as possible in either asking questions to ascertain the facts, or in giving advice, concerning sins related to holy purity. It is quite a delicate matter. Now what do we have in society today? We have unnecessary repetition and details in the news of that which is even forbidden between a penitent and confessor in the privacy of the confessional! Participation in this, even listening passively out of curiosity, only continues to carry on the scandal, in that God continues to be offended by such gossip. The minds of people are being saturated with thoughts and images of perversity that they would otherwise not have. What more does the average person who is not directly involved really NEED to know from the news other than "so-and-so abused so-and-so"? Are any more details really necessary? Even on a purely natural level, what need is there to spend hours, reading, watching news media, and talking about the abuses with related details? That would lead to the subject of gossip and idle talk, etc. which is another subject that needs separate treatment. The Known "Victims": We have thus focused a little on the victims that the Mass Media does not talk about, namely, God and the people affected "after the fact" by curiosity and gossip. Now let us focus our attention to those directly involved in the abuses. Those who are abused are labeled by the Mass Media as being "victims" while leaving us with the thought that these are "innocent victims". Most people give little or no thought beyond that, as to what guilt the "victims" share. The Church teaches that we attain the age of reason approximately at the age of 6 or 7. It is then when we are capable of committing mortal sins. It is then when we are fully responsible for grievous sins against God. Natural reason alone tells us that being molested is wrong. It is one thing for a very young child of 7 to be surprised by a situation and be molested once, away from home. It is quite another matter for the same child of 7, not only to say nothing to parents, but to repeatedly go to a place away from home to participate in such unnatural acts, perhaps for months or even years. Church teaching says that these children are very much to blame for their part in these acts. More so for those who are 10, 13 or 15 years of age. The Mass Media's treatment of this matter leads you to believe that they are deserving of the terms "victim" or "innocent victims", as if they were kidnapped, or tied up and molested. This is so far from the truth that they can hardly be described as "victims" or even "innocent", except maybe those in their younger years who in the beginning were surprised by the circumstances due to their inexperience in life. Their silence alone is itself quite blameworthy, and they increase their guilt by later going public with private sins, and sometimes making much money in doing so. We see that the character of some of these so-called "victims" isn't quite the character of the repentant and converted sinner, which all the more makes their guilt in those past acts all the more believable. The Church teaches that we should not go public with the private sins of others. This is another aspect of the moral scandals that is little mentioned and not seriously addressed in the public forum. This shows how little people really are aware of the rights of God and the rights of others in fairly handling a situation, and to avoid scandal. Laying a Necessary Blame: To participate against reason, against nature, in such perverted acts in violation of natural decency, shame and modesty (if not simple privacy) is also very much the fault of the parents. Parents who neglected their children's upbringing in the most formative years of their lives by not giving them good example, not instructing them in morals, allowing them to associate with undisciplined companions and allowing them to be exposed to audio & video that perverts them. The blame can even extend to the parents of the parents, and to the associated clergy responsible for teaching all of them in the past. Error has far-reaching effects in one degree or another. Of course, the clergy directly accused are to blame (if in each case they are really guilty). This goes without saying. Those, also, are guilty who have a responsibility to speak out when they have some certain knowledge of bad characters seeking the priesthood. Clergy are responsible when they become aware of facts about morally undesirable fellow clergy, but keep silent. The Church teaches there are NINE ways of being accessory to another's sin: 1. By counsel 2. By command 3. By consent 4. By provocation 5. By praise or flattery 6. By concealment 7. By partaking 8. By silence 9. By defense of the ill done. How much people have lost sight of the seriousness of silence of wrong-doing! Causes & Solution: The Mass Media promotes the idea that a celibate clergy is the cause of the problem. Centuries have proven that is a lie. Others find blame by saying that there are not sufficient rules to weed out undesirables. Yet, the Church has had long-established policies to forbid any such perverts entrance. Age-old moral doctrine alone forbids it, just as murder itself is forbidden. It is common sense. The Mass Media's persistent coverage even gives the average person the impression that "the Church" is the cause of all this, when in fact it is individuals acting with their own ill-wills and negligences. As if Jesus Himself could be blamed for the treacherous, evil act of Judas! Some say that the abuse of children and adolescents is caused by the moral & psychological condition commonly referred to as being "gay". This morally sick and perverted condition is in fact a symptom of a deeper cause. Those who think they can overcome such a prevalent condition among those seeking the priesthood by implementing policies to weed them out, are indeed only cutting the stems of the weeds rather than getting to the root of the problem. Besides, the problem is not so much the existence of policies, but the implementation of them. If men are so disobedient as to violate the natural law with such perversion without a fear of hell, what hope is there to simply have a written policy in place in the face of such previous negligence and disobedience? There is obviously a much deeper cause to all this. St. Paul, in his first chapter to the Romans, explains the cause of perversion: 21 ....when they knew God, they have not glorified him as God, or given thanks; but became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. 23 And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of a corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things. 24 Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies among themselves. 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie; and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. 27 And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error. 28 And as they liked not to have God in their knowledge, God delivered them up to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are not proper;... Note well the root causes: "who changed the truth of God into a lie", "they liked not to have God in their knowledge" and "professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." All of which boils down to pride and heresy as the root cause. The perverted moral abuses are largely symptoms of heresy. Attacking the symptoms themselves will not solve the problems. In fact, these symptoms are relatively rare as compared to heresy. Perverted morals acts are done privately and by the handful. Heresy, on the other hand, cannot easily be hidden, as it is found in public teaching and affects thousands. Beliefs are meant to be professed. Its harm reaches right into the souls of the listeners corrupting their virtue of Faith, without which they cannot be Catholic nor please God. The necessary solution, then, is discipline, censures and excommunications by those who have the power and duty. To give some idea of the on-going problem, the Catholic Dispatch had corresponded in early 1997 with a young man who desired to enter the seminary in 1995 but had trouble doing so. Here are the words of his first-hand experience. Notice how the root problem of heresy shows itself so clearly: "What I really feel uneasy about is one of the vocation directors attitude toward orthodox catholics, he makes jokes about them. I also feel a bit shaken about advice I got from good priests who said that when I get to the seminary I should just nod my head and go along so I just get through, then in priesthood I can become a vocal orthodox priest. Why do we have to hide? Like I mentioned before, the interview I had during my application to the seminary was very disturbing as it was clear they wanted candidates who are out there to 'change' the church." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "He then began to ask me about how I would handle it if church teaching changed, would I be able to change also with such rigid views on things. What about social justice? I asked what he meant by this.... He then explained to me this was feeding the poor and things of the beatitudes. I was dumbfounded by this because I thought that this was all a part of being a priest anyhow." "That's about all I can remember from this interview. It was over two and a half years ago. Since then I have found out that this particular priest is a major player in the local anti-church movement, big on changing church teaching, plenty of homosexual lifestyle change stuff from what I have seen." "I have also talked to other holy priests about this interview and they said the same thing, it wasn't my past that kept me from the seminary, it was my firm stance for the truth" What can those people do who do not have the official power and duty to prevent abuses? They can pray; they can spread the truth of the root of the problem. Most of all, they must cease trying to mix the light with the darkness. To hide and mix with heresy is not only a lie, but also puts one's soul in danger of losing Faith, and that is a sin itself. They must recognize heresy for what it is and where it is, and separate themselves from it for their own salvation. Of course, there are so many truths of the Faith to learn, and so many heresies going around, that it is difficult for many to know where to begin in the confusion. A good start is to take a fundamental truth of the Faith and begin to make the test. Dogmas are something we should love to hear, love to profess, love to live by, and be willing even to die for. Here is a dogma expressed by two popes that hits hard against the heresies of today: "...the Catholic religion, which is alone the true religion." - Pope Leo XIII, 1890 [Sapientiae Christianae] "The Catholic Church is alone in keeping the true worship." - Pope Pius XI, 1928 [Mortalium Animos] Do we feel uncomfortable when we read this dogma? If we do, the time to act is now; this may give us some indication as to how much we have been affected already. Show it to members of the clergy. What do men in the clergy say when they are presented with this fundamental truth? Do they denigrate these truths, or somehow say that things have "changed"? Do they try to rephrase it in different and unclear terms apart from the plain meaning? How do they otherwise preach and act in accordance with this basic dogma? It would be well to scrutinize the doctrine of the clergy if we already recognize that it is clearly suspect. This is the root of all our problems today - heresy. Remember, the Church teaches that it takes only ONE heresy to cease being Catholic. She also teaches that heresy is far worse than murder in that murder only kills the body, while heresy kills souls for eternity. Heresy in the mouth of one person is like a spiritual "black plague" that doesn't have the outward manifestations of pain, suffering and death, but nevertheless kills souls subtly away from the eyes of men. Its manifestations are not always connected with the problem....such as we see with the moral perversions of today. People are looking elsewhere for the cause, when it is right in front of us. Attack the root, and all things will follow. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you." (Luke 12:31) Agenda of the Mass Media: The Mass Media is at the lead of reporting and exposing these moral scandals. This is the same liberal Media that has promoted "homosexuality" and the right of children and adolescents to choose unheard of things, especially to choose abortion without parental consent. To be consistent, shouldn't the liberal Media be calling for the rights of those "children" to choose to be "molested"? The right to repeatedly go back again? The right of the priests to be perverts? Their rights and freedom to think for themselves and not have to follow the strict rules of Catholic morals?! Why is the Mass Media, rather, inconsistently making the priests look bad and making the younger boys look like they had no responsibility to choose in the matter? Because they wish to make "Catholics" in general look bad. But, how can a violation OF the rules be blamed ON the rules? For example, how can we blame the sport of football because a player breaks the rules? We cannot. Inconsistency is one characteristic of evil. The Mass Media had pushed hard to force the Boy Scouts of America to accept perverts in the ranks of their leaders. Happily, the BSA won that battle. If the liberal pressure had succeeded and it turned out that the BSA had a similar moral scandal as with some of the clergy, who would the liberals blame then? Let us try to put our knowledge into action! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Catholic Dispatch Internet Apostolate Free articles delivered to your electronic doorstep! http://www.catholic-dispatch.com Original work and arrangements © 2002 CDIA mailto:cdia@catholic-dispatch.com Subscribe/Unsubscribe by e-mail or web site * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Reprint our original work freely with above information