Cry of the faithful.

Powerful stuff.

Fr. John Harvey wrote a great book, The Truth About Homosexuality, The Cry of the Faithful - the title comes to mind frequently as the McCarrick scandal unfolds - which is why I titled this post Cry of the faithful ...  The laity and select priests are all speaking out concerning the truth of homosexuality.  Many pundits online are stopping their ears and protesting that people are doing that, accusing those who do so as homophobic, and/or engaging in a witch hunt, and so on.  Most of us are only speaking out on the topic simply to help explain how and why a conspiracy of silence and complicity existed as long as it has among the bishops and select clergy.

Fr. Z has a very courageous post discussing why clergy, specifically priests, have often been blocked from reporting sexual abuse by fellow priests, and or sexual improprieties engaged in by homosexual clerics.  (This would also apply to heterosexual misconduct of course, but as I've tried to point out in my own posts, there is a different dynamic within homosexual culture.)

That said, Fr. Z offers just one tidbit I left out in my posts, especially as concerns secrecy in the Church and it is the dilemma of the seal of confession.  I thought of it while writing about secrecy in the Church earlier.  I recalled the time a confessor shared something about a religious brother in his community who engaged in sexual sins, saying he made frequent confessions, and probably would keep repeating the same sins until he died.  I don't allow myself to discuss any more details of that encounter, which happened decades ago, but I wasn't consoled - believe me.  Long story short, he would never have been able to say anything outside the confessional if the brother ever was arrested for indecency, nor would he ever be able to inform his superiors that he had some issues - since he was bound by the seal of the confessional. 

Fr. Z points out that sometimes malefactors deliberately use the confessional to buy silence and pretty much ensure protection. 

Also, as a priest, there are the truly sacrilegious ways that some of these agents of Hell will work to shut up priests who don’t and won’t putt from the ruff. They use the Seal of the confessional against the solid non-queer priest confessor. They go to confession to a good confessor to bind him by the Seal. Of course that is pretty underhanded, satanic even. It is a horrible sacrilege. A lot of good priests know that if they hear something in the confessional they must never ever talk about it. They don’t know what to do, and, in prudence, they clam up about their brethren. This is one reason why the Church’s law discourages a superior of hearing the confessions of those under his authority. - Fr. Z

So yeah, like I keep saying, it is a homosexual problem - but it is even more so a problem of corruption which festers and spreads easily in a homosexual culture of secrecy and deviancy.  Few are willing to admit that.

Fr. Z said it was the hardest post he has ever written.  It's more than helpful for many of us, I think.  It helps explain what he had to endure throughout seminary, and it also demonstrates how difficult this scandal is for good priests and good bishops to endure.  Fr. Z will remain in my prayers.  God bless him.

Sheep without a shepherd.

They keep smiling and laughing.

You know God has to act.

When it has gotten this bad.  He has to act - especially when faithful Catholics are dismissed as homophobes and blamed for getting the bishops they deserve.  Blaming the oppressed for the sins of the fathers.  These really and truly are sins that cry to heaven for vengeance.

Watch and pray.

Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Anselmo Lopez

St. Maximilian Kolbe

"St. Maximilian Kolbe, Martyr of Charity", Neilson Carlin

As a child, Maximilian had a vision of Our Lady, who offered him two crowns, one for chastity, the other for martyrdom.  He explained:

"... the Blessed Mother appeared to me holding in her hands two crowns: one white the other red. She looked at me with tenderness and asked me if I wanted these two crowns. The white one signified that I would preserve my purity and the red that I would be a martyr."
[...]
In 1973 Paul VI beatified him and in 1982 John Paul II canonized him as a Martyr of Charity. - Source

St. Maximilian offered his life in exchange for a prisoner who was to be executed.  he died by lethal injection, after many days of starvation.  Kolbe's death was truly a heroic act of the most perfect charity by which he won his martyr's crown.  Since his canonization, the Saint's intercession is often sought for people addicted to drugs because of the manner in which he died.  However, I see his death foreshadowing the growing practice of euthanasia we hear about in our times: withholding nutrition and hydration, as well as lethal injection.  That is exactly how Kolbe was put to death - although much more cruelly, no clinical pretensions to comfort.  On account of this, Kolbe must be considered a major patron of the pro-life movement, especially for the abolition of the death penalty and to stop the trend towards euthanasia.  

The Benedict Option of Ampleforth and Downside Abbeys ...

One monk, Fr Piers Grant-Ferris was convicted of 20 counts 

of indecent assault against 15 boys 

from Ampleforth’s junior school, in 2005.  

Source

"Appalling"

Two leading Roman Catholic schools "prioritised monks and their own reputations over the protection of children", a report says. 

"Appalling" abuse was inflicted on pupils at Ampleforth in North Yorkshire and Downside in Somerset over 40 years, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) said. - BBC

"Isaac from the Thebaid said to his brothers, 'Do not bring boys here. Boys are the reason why four monasteries in Scetis were deserted.'"

Thinking with St. Francis of Assisi

I think I will observe the Lent of St Michael again this year.

Information for the Lent of St. Michael here.