I was praying and thought of how some of the saints referred to sins of the flesh as the stench of sin. Pope Benedict called it the 'filth in the Church'. St. Catherine of Genoa called it a 'contagion'. In St. Catherine of Siena's Dialogue Our Lord referred to it as the stench. I returned to my archives and found the following post from 2006.
Still troubled by events in the Archdiocese and deceptive clergy, I returned in prayer to the Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena. She wrote about the troubles and scandals of her own day, not in order to spread scandal but to reassure the faithful that Our Lord was aware of what was going on and was going to remedy it. She spoke that her words might bring to repentence those who offend God and give scandal to the faithful. That we might listen to her discourse again, I will quote from the Dialogue concerning homosexual priests.
"I am telling you this to make you see what great purity I demand of you and them, and especially of them (priests), in this sacrament. But they do just the opposite to me, for they come to this mystery wholly impure - and not simply with the sort of impurity and weakness to which all of you are naturally inclined because of your weak nature (although reason can calm its rebellion if free choice so wills). No, these wretches not only do not restrain their weakness; they make it worse by committing that cursed unnatural sin. As if they were blind and stupid, with the light of their understanding extinguished, they do not recognize what miserable filth they are wallowing in. The stench even reaches up to me, supreme Purity, and is so hateful to me that for this sin alone five cities were struck down by my divine judgment. For my divine justice could no longer tolerate it, so despicable to me is this abominable sin. The stench displeases not only me, as I have said, but the devils as well, those very devils these wretches have made their masters. It is not its sinfulness that displeases them, for they like nothing that is good. But because their nature is angelic, that nature still loathes the sight of that horrendous sin actually being committed. It is true that it was they (the devils) who shot the poisoned arrows of concupiscence, but when it comes to the sinful act itself they flee..." - Dialogue
The evil of forming false friendships, inviting seminarians to sleep with you, to call you uncle Ted is so corrupt and disgusting. To corrupt a seminarian, a priest, and to elevate these men to positions of honor and respect - is wicked and vicious.
"Spiritual deception is the state of all men without exception, and it has been made possible by the fall of our original parents. All of us are subject to spiritual deception. Awareness of this fact is the greatest protection against it. Likewise, the greatest spiritual deception of all is to consider oneself free from it". - Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov
After reading this I pray for divine judgement in the finite life of earth against those vile priest of the Devil May they be stricken down or cursed so heavily by God they are disabled from doing Satan’s work in the Church
ReplyDeleteI was just reading about that kind of stuff - it is better to pray the St. Michael prayer and avoid curses - remember this way, "May God rebuke him, we humbly pray..." I want to go to confession for my own anger in response to these matters. God bless you Julian.
DeleteI fully agree, Terry. We in the laity are rightly taught to respect and believe the clergy and hierarchy. Anyone who uses his position in the Church to lead others into sin commits the greater sin - that of destroying faith and souls which rightly belong to God. Satan is using those in the clergy who are weak in their faith to destroy the Church, one soul at a time.
ReplyDeleteBut we are taught to be better and stronger than this. We worship God, not personalities. There is great evil done in the name of the Church by unfaithful individuals, which is dreadful and shameful. As horrid as this is, we should be clear that it is *not* of God, and that we must not abandon His Church.
We should cherish our faithful good shepherds, who sacrifice for us, pray daily for us, and bring us the sacraments. They, and we, who want with all our hearts to be faithful and serve God, are also victims when someone in a position of Church authority causes scandal. Satan wants nothing less than to separate us from our Faith, and will do all in his filthy power to keep us from the truth.
As St. Pio often said, when faced with doing battle with the devil, "bring me my weapon," as he reached for his Rosary. And we all know Who will ultimately reign in the end!
God bless and protect our faithful priests and brother and sister Catholics - Susan, ofs