"In our day and age, the greatest war we fight is the struggle to protect the sanctity of life, marriage and family. The attacks grow more relentless each day and the number of casualties is enormous. Will we fight with Him to defend the life of each and every unborn child? Advent is a time to ask ourselves that question and make sure that we are prepared for the battle and not playing into the hands of the Enemy through sloth or apathy. Will we defend marriage and the sanctity of the marital act from all immoral practices such as homosexuality, contraception, pornography and adultery? These are the main challenges of a slothful generation that has long ago given up fighting the most important battle – that is, the fight to save our immortal souls." - Fr. Euteneuer, Courageous Priest
Like a roaring lion... prowls the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Always be wary of those who talk the loudest.
ReplyDeleteI feel sucker punched - big time.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry buddy. It sucks. I've been there.
ReplyDeletePut not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
The words are still true. The call is authentic. And if the man who uttered the words and sounded the alarm has proven to have sinned and fallen, what he wrote stands on its own. As someone said somewhere, "Would you abandon Peter because of Judas?"
ReplyDeleteIf you don't live it, why say it?
ReplyDeleteI'm having a hard time with this whole situation. On my blog I write in a similar fashion, I write because I have fallen in the past and now know the light.
ReplyDeleteWe see this all the time - Fr. Corapi for example we hold him up because he has BEEN there... and can tell us why not to go "there"! Yet, when someone does the opposite, when they speak about such things and then fall... we destroy them?
I am not trying to defend any actions or make excuses, there is just something inside of me that say we shouldn't dismiss this person to the gutter.
Not only that but if we TRULY TRULY believe in the work this person did... and that Satan is the MASTER DECEIVER... why wouldnt we EXPECT something such as this?
I don't know... I am just struggling with all the animosity and hate... isn't that just feeding the Lion?
"...before setting to work for God and to fight against the devil, first calculate your forces; and if you consider yourself well enough equipped to begin, you are a fool, because the tower to be built costs an outrageous price, and the enemy coming out to meet you is an angel, before whom you are of no account. Get to know yourself so well that you cannot contemplate yourself without flinching. Then there will be room for hope. In the sure knowledge that you are obliged to do the impossible in Him who strengthens you, then you are ready for a task which can be performed only through the Cross."
ReplyDeleteThe proper Mass, Sacraments, real Holy Water and the Old Rite of Exorcism are what hard core Exorcists employ.
They don't 'fall'.
Satan outmaneuvering a Priest is a jewel he uses to make Faithful think He is more powerful than God.
God thinks so little of Satan he used a woman to crush his head.
*
"The violations of chastity happened due to human weakness but did not involve the sexual act"
ReplyDeleteA question: how does one violate chastity and not commit a sexual act? Are we parsing words here? Was it "the" sexual act, "any" or "a" sexual act that was not committed?
Bill Clinton, Lewinsky come to mind. "I did not have sexual relations with that woman..."
I don't always agree with Thom but on this issue I do.
I thought we were going to pray for Father and close the peanut gallery...
ReplyDelete"If you don't live it, why say it?"
Fr. Tom has been a priest for 22 years or so in my understanding. It's unfair, I think, to look upon his entire priesthood as hypocrisy. I'm sure he has 'lived' plenty of what he has professed.
Patrick, I'm addressing an issue that reaches beyond Fr. E. Of course I pray for him, as I do for all priests. This whole situation does ask us to contemplate bigger questions.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the issue or bigger questions?
ReplyDeletePeople who crow, loudly, about specific sins, instead of decrying sin both as a collective failure and state.
ReplyDeletePriest celebrity cult.
Personality cult.
et al.
I have a hard time with the decrying specific sins as a form of specialized ministry myself, but I don't see how that's relevant to a priest's fall. That kind of ministry/focus doesn't necessarily lead to a cult of personality following, does it?
ReplyDeleteDidn't it, though?
ReplyDeleteI re-opened comments - no sense pretending or trying to make excuses any longer.
ReplyDeleteDon't feel bad, Bishops have decades worth of experience in manipulating the emotions of Catholics in the pews.
ReplyDeleteWant to hit the rewind?
Rather than orchestrating a quiet resignation from HLI when Father admitted to sex acts during the exorcism with one woman, the public relations spin around this made him a martyr of orthodoxy. We all thought Fr. E was holed up under the Chancery, persecuted for his battle in hand to hand combat with the devil.
Consequently, as the women were experiencing all this public attention to Fr. E, the orthodox martyr, the subterfuge of their victimizations were further exploited and they started leaking the news.
As the news leaked, instead of honesty, the diocese made a donkey out of John Henry Weston at LifeSite to deliver the malicious crackpot routine.
Father states he was granted permission to make the statement, the Bishop is on the record saying he was aware of the statement and was glad about what he read it to be as a public act of contrition.
However, it turns out the statement was full of holes.
This put HLI into the position of having to cover up the lie or trump the Bishops PR song and dance and expose the truth that the people saying there was more than one allegation, that the abuse happened in the rite of exorcism and wasn't about Father falling in love with one adult woman and falling to temptation. (Further, there appears there may be other inconsistencies in Father's statement)
This malicious crackpot routine gets the faithful to turn the heat on the women or children, making them feel like any allegations of abuse will be met by the people in the pews presuming they are sluts who throw themselves at priests, women who enjoy gossip, persecuting holy martyr priests - etc. Thereby making it still a very unsafe place in the pews.
That's the purpose of people speaking out. For the record.
ps - gays are not any safer than women in children in this culture.
ReplyDeleteThe only people who seem to be safe are heterosexual men.
They'll keep it up though because there's a sucker born every minute in the Catholic Church.
"Didn't it, though?"
ReplyDeleteI don't think we can conclude that defintively. I think it's just as plausible that a combination of the stress of travel and/or the nature of the ministry (exorcism) could give rise to a greater risk of giving into temptations, particularly lust. Also, my first thought when I heard about this and had some knowledge of the details was that the element of him essentially practicing this ministry 'alone' was a factor. Priests need the support of other priests in a variety of ways. As much as I personally could see the appeal in living/working alone, and I can understand the reality which dictates why many priests live/work alone, it worries me that they don't have a support network or at least someone to live with consistently.
Further, in terms of the link between specialized ministry and cult of personality/celebrity, I think we can point to priests who do not fit that mold, such as Fr. Pavone, another Pro-Life 'warrior'.
I think we should be careful about jumping to conclusions that pride got the best of him. We don't know Fr. Tom's soul.
Just my two cents. I'm not going to write any more on this.
Yup. The latest statement from HLI was the game changer. There are big holes in Fr. E's story. And while everyone - including me rushed to his defense - no one was thinking about the 'vulnerable women'. I know a woman used by a priest - she's in therapy and last I talked to her - pretty screwed up.
ReplyDeleteTalk about the devil.
My 'yup' comment was to Carol BTW. Thanks Carol for commenting.
ReplyDeleteI'm working through the stages of grief I think - the first stage is denial, then making excuses, and I think I've worked up to the anger stage right now.
I hate it when religious people screw with my head.
I think my last 2c. will be... I'm tired of seeing headlines about priests "falling."
ReplyDeleteThey sinned. I sin all of the fracking time.
Their fall is no more grievous than anyone's.
Just sayin.
He sinned.
And like me, were I to crow on about eco-sins (as I would be wont to do were that my nature) and then I dumped a gallon of motor oil in a stream, it would be high hypocrisy, and worthy of discussion.
I'm so grateful that HLI had the decency to be honest - otherwise they would have sat back with the popcorn and let the suckers do the dirty work of demoralizing and bullying people speaking the truth.
ReplyDeleteThey Bishops PR machine must be wracking their brains for more talking points because the silence today is deafening.
Calling what happened here a 'sin' and saying everyone does it is a gross understatement.
ReplyDeleteThere's all kinds of sins. Sexual sins with mutual partners need to be dealt differently than priests sinning during the rite of exorcism.
Nobody in the pews wants lynch mobs to go after priests who sin. Every single one of them in perpetuity will sin in some way or somehow.
Women in the Catholic Church don't want priests who use the moments of rites or sacraments to be put in the same category because it is an abuse of power. If that makes sense.
I see your point with that very well.
ReplyDeletewe're all hypocrites. just pray for the man and anyone who may have been victimized. but he has a right to have this dealt with in private by proper authorities. no one has a 'right' to know the details. this priest has a right - still - to his good name. he says he has repented, turned the matter over to the proper juridical authorities, and that's it. no one here who has no immediate relationship/concern in the incident(s) in question needs to speculate about how guilty, unholy, how much of a sinner he is, etc. why should any of us be surprised or shocked by any of this. disappointment i understand but c'mon. enough of the gasping christian and woe-is-me routine.
ReplyDeleteWhatever.
ReplyDeleteAnyway.
So Thom: Whenever a high profile priest falls he takes a lot of people with him - big time. Just wait untill some uber-orthodox, TLM cappa magna gets exposed... who maybe approved a lot of clerics on the road to perdition. It could happen.
When a member of the clergy falls or defects from his vocation and/or the Church - whatever - the SOB takes souls to hell with him.
I'm sick of white-washing clerical deviants.
As am I, terry. and I see your point. I guess I'm just taking "fall" the wrong way; you're right. It's worse.
ReplyDeleteSorry Thom - I have no problem with what you are saying - I guess that sounded mean - wasn't my intention - to you.
ReplyDeleteTerry, we need to pray for all the priests; priests we love, priests we don't love, orthodox priests, leftover hippie priests, priests with good solid formation, priests with wishy-washy formation, priests we think are holy, priests we think are empty, priests we know, priests we don't know, priests who are healthy, priests who are ill, priests who are alive, priests who are deceased, especially those for whom nobody else is praying, priests who are at home, priests who are traveling Istanbul, priests who are happy and enthusiastic, priests who are jaded and cynical, priests who are bored, priests who are overworked, priests who are sinners, priests who are sinned against...
ReplyDeleteNan - I do.
ReplyDeleteFr Euteneuer's response restored my hope in holiness in the priesthood, God bless him. Any man can stumble, fall.
ReplyDeleteBut if I could say a few words to Fr, and to all good priests: get yourself a priest buddy. Jesus himself sent the disciples out in pairs. Why have we abandoned this important tradition? Never ever ever be alone with a woman--dang, or with a man, these days. If it seems to be an 'emergency' that cannot wait for your buddy to be with you, then fall on your knees in prayer for that person and resign the situation to Divine Providence, not your own 'power' or tendencies towards 'heroics'.
I am so thankful for our dear priests. It is a difficult time to be Catholic these days, and so much more so for priests. They are heros just by living their vocations. I pray for them daily.