Over my time involved in the Church, I have faced conflicts and wrongs with other members of the Church. Such is life. I have disappointed others, and I have been disappointed. Where I have disappointed others, I think I have been prompt in apologizing and build bridges that were once burnt. But though I myself am in need of much repentance, I seek to express being disappointed here. Such is life that we face conflicts and disappointments. But some wrongs committed by the Church hierarchy came to light, the ones that ought to be outside of the norms contained within the common phrasing "such is life."
When it comes to disappointments, I have gradually learned to turn the other cheek and be merciful toward those who are disloyal, those who seek to put me down with their secular power, those who are prejudicial, those who are jealous, those who tolerate heterodoxy, those who despise corrections, those who do not like to be criticized of their inadequacies. Countless times have I ignored gossips, countless times have I tolerated passive-aggressive statements by community members, countless times have I tolerated false accusations, countless times have I pretended to not know of the complaints said about me. Countless times have I simply greeted them with a smile as if I were oblivious to the wrongs they committed against me. Though I fail oftentimes, I have learned to quickly calm my anger and admit my wrongs where there were. I then seek to correct their paths either through example or through more subtle methods. But when it comes to betrayals, I must speak out and scold them. Subtlety has no place in correcting betrayals for it is among the gravest of wrongs. After all, Dante places traitors at the last circle of hell.
Theirs is a spiritual betrayal. They placed themselves in positions of power and placed themselves in our lives to be trusted. To become fathers for the fatherless, friends for the friendless, listening ears for the downtrodden, and physical reflections of Christ's virtue. Such are the duties of priests in Catholic communities. Yet they exploited the vulnerability of our youth, took advantage of the secrecy of confessions, made homosexuality into a currency to bargain over, and ridiculed those other faithful priests and laypeople who sought to restore reverence in the liturgy and correct heresies.
I have known betrayal. Such is life. But never have I felt so betrayed, so offended, so enraged. Perhaps it is because it is the words of these men who I feel betrayed by I turned toward to gain wisdom, to learn how to suffer through betrayals and other wrongs committed against me. It is in this sense of indignation I write this in criticism of these men I feel betrayed by... of these men millions feel betrayed by. I wonder... did they feel a sting in their hearts when they read the gospel reading for the 27th?
The aim here is to express my thoughts as to the root of the problem, on why and how the scandal has occurred. The root is spiritual decay. Modern paganism in its idiocy seeks to divorce spirituality from moral life. This is not so. When one is weak in spirit there will be falls in moral dispositions. This is why the Church hierarchy has failed in such a spectacular and wretched fashion.
..."The Bishops in the Unites States must not be ideologized, they must not be right-wing...and they must not be left-wing."
The quote above, on its face value, has much wisdom. When it comes to the teachings of the Church, there is no such thing as right-wing or left-wing, conservative or liberal. They are but misnomers extracted from petty secular politics to loosely characterize positions within the Church. Without these euphemisms, the two sides of the Church can be characterized in two terms: those who are orthodox in faith and those who are unorthodox in faith. The mere fact that the latter side exists brings about spiritual decay and thereby instigating moral decay.
"Many of the Jesus' disciples were listening and said, 'This saying is hard; who can accept it?' Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, 'Does this shock you?'" - John 6:60-61
For I know the prevalence of those priests, bishops, and cardinals who tolerate heterodoxy, I am not on some level surprised by how systematic the network of abusive priests was. We live in the most heretical age. We are being led by a generation of priests who care not for sound doctrine, who justify all sorts of liturgical and doctrinal deviancy through Vatican II. We are being led by a generation of priests and other lay leaders who ridicule and put down faithful priests and laypersons that seek to restore spiritual health of the Church as being "rigid" and "radical." Fools. It is they who refuse to aggressively restore spiritual health of the Church are the ones rigid in their prideful ways and radical in their inaction. Those with the gift of discernment have forflong been seeing legions surrounding the clergymen under fire now. It is foolish to think that those accused priests come primarily from unorthodox diocese by mere chance. Now we know them by their fruits, and the faithful must begin to see them by their fruits.
Those who are unorthodox in faith tolerate heterodoxy and heresy. In so doing they spawn sacrileges against the sacraments, a sure sign of spiritual decay. From defiling of the sacraments, they spawn moral failures. Christians like to repeat as if it were a mantra: sacraments are the pinnacle of Christian life. When these sacraments are defiled, then, the deviancy would naturally trickle down, corrupting one's moral life also. They do not know how to read the spiritual winds. They do not know how there are invisible forces moving against the Church and those who try to restore the Church. A tiny manipulative whisper from a mere fledgling of a demon worthy only of being depicted in cartoons is enough to send them spiraling down to moral lows.
"For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires." - 2 Timothy 4:3
The "deviant wing" of the Church only speaks of things people feel good about. Love others, they so boldly proclaim. As if they know what it means to love! All they do is indulge people, regardless of their moral states.Build bridges, they so boldly claim. As if they know what it means to understand others! They brush aside those who are orthodox in faith like vermin. I say of these men: They do not know true Christian love. If they did, they would have actively taken steps to correct heresies and moral failures committed by the faithful. If they did, they would have denied sacraments those those who give out their conscience to immoral things, not out of desire to discriminate, but out of desire to prevent others from committing sacrileges.
"Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this is your credit: you hate the works of Nicolaitans, which I also hate." - Revelations 2:5-6
They wonder why the Church is losing people. They seek to attract people by hiding true doctrine and removing reverence from the liturgy. They are fools. Those who seek religion are looking for the otherworldly, not the worldly. They care not for hard doctrines insofar as the spiritual reward is great.
The modern Church is like that of a lampstand that is flickering. Christ through His messenger in clearly tells us in Revelation that widespread heresy (Nicolaitans) will result in lessening of its members by having them removed among the lampstands at the altar of God.
Perhaps you are one among those who are not orthodox in faith. Perhaps you are one among those who tolerate heterodoxy and irreverence. Perhaps you feel offended by my words. If you do, I expect that it is not the first time. Perhaps you feel challenged in your authority. Perhaps you feel the tendency to ridicule and to complain. I have merely spoken the same things I have been saying for years. I only pray that you do not spiral down to unrighteous indignation.
Repent, then, you scribes and Pharisees, you who lead two out of three to be children of hell. Woe to them should you fail to do so. There is no shortage of other lampstands to replace them. It appears that it is necessary to make a complete clerical overhaul anyway.
"Ha! You who hide a plan too deep for the LORD, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, "Who sees us? Who knows us? You turn things upside down! shall the potter be regarded as the clay? Shall the thing made say of its maker, "He did not make me"; or the thing formed say of the one who formed it "He has no understanding?" Isaiah 9:15-16
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