and with all the scandals within the catholic church, it seems
to give nourishment to their arguments.
They say: «well there you go, that is the result of this rule in the
catholic church,
celibacy does not work, it is not natural»
But: The catholic faith never claimed to be natural,
it claims to be supernatural.
The scandals of pedophelia and rape are more than sickening,
it beggars belief,
and the cover-ups: almost even more.
It reveals the grotesque side of humankind's perverted nature.
But contradictory to what one might be led to believe by the media,
these crimes do not represent the majority of priests, it represents
a tiny minority.
And a logical consequence of all these revelations ought to be the
disappearance of clericalism.
Because we need to be vigilant with people, all people, this is clearly
stated in the Bible too,
and most of us are not mindful enough.
Regarding clerical abuse, even one case is one too many, and
extremely disappointing and damaging.
We need to remember that the catholic doctrine emphasizes that
we are all sinners, all corrupt.
That is what the congregation confess together, including the
priest, at the start of every single Mass.
And celibacy was not invented by the Catholic Church,
it has always been a central element in spiritual life, even long
before Christianity.
Druid priests, for example, were thought to have been celibate and
Aztec temple priests were expected to remain sexually abstinent.
And please, quoting Luther on the subject is illogical, since he was
someone who was not willing to remain celibate, he chose to leave,
take a wife and «set up his own shop».
The Cross is central to catholicism
and is also central in the celibacy position of the Church.
The catholic doctrine is a program,
the goal is our divinization; salvation.
Too many people are focused on the political and social side of the the Church,
and forget the spiritual side.
Remember the seven deadly sins:
Pride, greed, wrath (anger), envy, lust, gluttony and sloth (laziness)
which are elements of our human, natural (=sinful) nature.
They are the main obstacles to life in God, that is why we need to concentrate
on eliminating them.
Out of each one of the capital sins grows other sins.
The glutton, for example, cannot control himself in regard to food; as a
consequence he will not be able to control other parts of himself either.
But in concentracing on curbing the inclinations of our earthly nature,
we are working on our relationship with God, which is also part of our
nature, the deepest part of it, the divine part.
The people that are still moaning about «priest's right to marry», do not understand that by taking control of the elements of our earthly nature,
by consciously practicing everyday
self restraint, self control, in regard to eating, emotional reactions, feelings,
sexual impulses, etc, we grow in divine life, because these spiritual practices
gives fruits.
The person does not deprive himself of these things for no good reason,
he knows what he is doing!
If we gain control of our earthly bodies and minds, we grow in God.
It is mathematical, the catholic doctrine is of a metaphysical order.
This is why that when a man voluntarily and freely renounces satisfaction
of his sexual impulses, when he is willing to suffer it,
when it is done in full conscience and with the full free will of
the man, it transforms itself gradually into holy power.
He needs that in his role as a priest, which is to instruct and teach us,
in order that we too can become holy: divinized.
That is the program, and that is the goal.
Here in France, where I am, I have had the sad experience of seeing a holy priest, a young priest with clearly and manifested spiritual powers, disintegrate, in front of everybody in the parish, to a confused, evasive, fumbling man, due to a woman who literally chased him, encircled him, until he could not escape. He was forced to leave the priesthood.
The saddest thing of all, is that his congregation did nothing to help him.
Instead of chasing the woman away, they encouraged her.
When I spoke up, I was bullied and abused by them, they told me I was
judgemental.
Yes, I was using my capacity to estimate what was going on.
That goes to show that because the catholics in question did not understand
the rule on celibacy, and many of them were against it, they were unable to help and support the priest, and therefore unable to help the catholic church.
Unawareness and miscomprehension regarding the catholic faith,
plays a large part in why catholics in France are now active in
transforming the catholic church into a protestant one.
It will not stop there, they are already talking about how we
«ought to all pray together with the muslims».
Their program is a different one, it is an effort to destroy the
catholic doctrine, from the inside.
Lots
of evidence points to the fact that focusing on making things easy,
more comfortable,
less challenging, does not make life more solid,
wholesome
and enduring.
But the acceptance of crosses can give a whole new dimension
to spiritual life.
And it
is precisely the radical character of the catholic doctrine that
makes
it attractive to the soul that seeks God.
We are asked to give our entire
selves.