You learn something new everyday. The Duggar Family.

Who are the Duggars?

I may have heard of them.  I may have run across the name online - but I never paid any attention.

Then I came across a blog post mentioning the Duggar family in connection to the Ashley Madison hack.  I did hear about the Ashley Madison deal on the news - but I never paid any attention.

What does that have to do with anything?  I guess it's about not putting people on pedestals?  Projecting perfection upon so-called role models?  Then being scandalized when they maybe don't measure up?

Who does that?

I never put anyone on a pedestal ... can't do it anymore.

So anyway Poodles, a few words of advice for when the going gets tough:

"Never take a man for your example in the tasks you have to perform, no matter how holy he may be, for the devil will set his imperfections before you." - John of the Cross

"Perfection does not lie in the perfections the soul knows it has, but in the virtues our Lord sees in it. This is a closed book, hence one has no reason for presumption, but must remain prostrate on the ground with respect to self." - John of the Cross

“To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda or even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery; it means to live in such a way that one’s life would not make sense if God did not exist.” -Cardinal Emmanuel Célestin Suhard, Archbishop of Paris 1940-1949

It gets better.

Bad girls?

Missouri lesbians getting smeared...

Before I go further, the priest involved is just fine - he was being a good pastor.  He's a good guy.  He did nothing wrong.

The fall out after the news broke is getting a little nasty however.  The way discussions online are going, the women involved are beginning to sound more like LCWR women and gay dissidents than ordinary parish volunteers and EMHC's.  Women of Grace blog offers a comment from another blog which suggests the women were 'not that innocent'.

“We are blessed to have Fr. Kneib as our pastor! Stand Strong Fr.!” said the commenter named Cws94family. ” . . . We have not lived here for a very long while, but these two have been seen off and on at Masses over the last several years. We have been told they go back and forth between our parish and the local Episcopal church. Now, while we didn’t really know what was going on, we suspected it, but still hoped for the best…that perhaps they were living as sisters. And as far as we know, only one of them is actually a Catholic.” - See more at: http://www.womenofgrace.com/blog/?p=27665#sthash.mHOarfXB.dpuf

Most of the comments like that one seem to be based on conjecture and hearsay.

It is always better to wait for the news to distill than to react without knowing the details of the story.

In my opinion, I believe the priest, Fr. Kneib acted charitably and humbly, respectfully and discreetly, contacting the women in advance of the funeral.  Naturally, the women would experience the phone call as a negative.  Afterwards they 'alerted the media' - what their motivation was is not clear.  Do they really want to "let’s-try-to-force-the-Church-to-change-her-teaching" by going public and seeking support from an LGBTQ rights group?  Perhaps they do now, after all the reaction to the story.

The fact remains that until Fr. Kneib came along the women either didn't know any better, or they were convinced everything about their private life was just fine.  Fr. Kneib helped them see things differently.   If they weren't able to correct the priest's impression, and since they indeed refrained from Holy Communion, the priest's pastoral guidance is more than validated.  No one knows if the women are in the state of mortal sin, although some commentators have said as much.  

I think Catholics need to be a bit more careful to avoid demonizing folks who may simply be confused about Catholic moral teaching, or who have received bad catechesis along the way.  The reaction of the two women is understandable in that light.  

The Women of Grace blog ends with the best advice:  Let us keep all involved in this incident in our prayers!

Smearing the priest...

As more of the details on this story come out, the poor priest is likewise being 'demonized' by those who oppose Catholic moral teaching and the discipline of the sacraments.

As I said, Fr. Kneib did nothing wrong - neither was he insensitive.  He must be given credit for his charity and discretion.  In the first place, he took the extraordinary measure of contacting the women privately, in advance to let them know there was a problem - he was clearly acting to avert a greater scandal.  What transpired after the fact - the press reports and criticism of the priest and the Church - has annoyed and angered ordinary, faithful Catholics.  That too is understandable.*  Unfortunately some of the remarks against the 'lesbian' women are angry, sarcastic, and mean spirited.  Yet that is what happens when a group attempts to discredit the Church and her ministers who uphold Catholic teaching.

Though a funeral is not the ideal emotional situation to offer pastoral correction, I'm grateful Fr. Kneib helped to make Catholic teaching more clear on this issue.

I too pray for all involved - and especially pray these two older women can be reconciled with the Church.





*It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the Church's pastors wherever it occurs. It reveals a kind of disregard for others which endangers the most fundamental principles of a healthy society. The intrinsic dignity of each person must always be respected in word, in action and in law.

But the proper reaction to crimes committed against homosexual persons should not be to claim that the homosexual condition is not disordered. When such a claim is made and when homosexual activity is consequently condoned, or when civil legislation is introduced to protect behavior to which no one has any conceivable right, neither the Church nor society at large should be surprised when other distorted notions and practices gain ground, and irrational and violent reactions increase. - CDF

Ouch! Cardinal Mahony... unprecedented...

"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil." - Archbishop Jose Gomez 

Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez on Thursday announced dramatic actions in response to the priest abuse scandal, saying that Cardinal Roger Mahony would be stripped of public duties in the church and that Santa Barbara Bishop Thomas J. Curry has stepped down.

Gomez said in a statement that Mahony -- who led the L.A. archdiocese from 1985 to 2011 -- "will no longer have any administrative or public duties."

Gomez also announced the church has released a trove of confidential church files detailing how the Los Angeles archdiocese dealt with priests accused of molestation.

Gomez wrote in a letter to parishioners that the files would be disturbing to read.

"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed," he wrote. "We need to acknowledge that terrible failure today."

Gomez's statement came a week after the release of internal Catholic church records. The records showed 15 years before the clergy sex abuse scandal came to light, Mahony and Curry discussed ways to conceal the molestation of children from law enforcement. Those records represent just a fraction of the files the church released Thursday. The Times is now reviewing those files. - Source




I think this must be unprecedented in modern Church history.

Months ago Los Angeles

Archbishop Roger M. Mahony reached

a settlement with

alleged victims of priestly misconduct,

thinking the issue was over.

But now it has been resurrected

by the Houdini-like tactics of...

ARCHBISHOP GOMEZ?!

WHAT?!

 

Shame... shameful and scandalous.