THE MORAL CRISIS WITHIN THE CHURCH AND PRIESTHOOD

Every Priest offers sacrifice to the Father and in that sacred moment of worship acts in the person of the Lord Jesus Himself.

And while we must remember that the Priesthood is itself sacred and holy, the individual Priest remains always a sinner in need of the very Grace of Redemption that flows from the exercise of his Priestly ministry.

It’s the fallen humanity of the individual Priest that I wish to focus upon in this article.

Every time I don the liturgical vestments and stand at the altar (in my retirement a simple makeshift affair), every time I offer the Prayers of the Mass and utter the words of the Eucharistic Prayers, I am mindful of my unworthiness, my sinfulness.

I hope and pray all my brother-Priests feel the same sense of hypocrisy as we call those entrusted to our care to the Gospel values that we ourselves fail in so many ways to observe and treasure in our daily choices and attitudes.

Yet, this awareness of unworthiness is what keeps us Priests humble in our service, inhibiting us from adopting a judgmental attitude which is eager to condemn the failings of others while asking understanding and forgiveness for our own weaknesses and sins.

And while the People of God expect that their Priests will be examples of virtue, they should never forget that the Priest remains as sinner in need of the very salvation his Priesthood offers through the ministry of the Church.

But there are degrees of sinfulness which can be tolerated within the Priesthood.

That may sound shocking, but here’s what I mean.

Every sin wounds the entire Church.  My willful refusal to allow the Grace of Jesus to fully encompass and guide my life weakens the Church as one of its members remains weak.

But not every sin wounds the Church to the same degree.

Priests who use their sacred Office as Pastors to inflict suffering and pain upon those entrusted to their care sin in a way that damages the very fabric of the community of the Christian faithful.

Most of my peccadilloes harm myself primarily and the Church remotely:  my anger, my frustration, the impure or uncharitable thought, these keep me from a total conversion of my mind and heart to the Lord.

But there are those sins which destroy confidence and trust in the very Priesthood and the Church itself.

Such sins can never be tolerated because of their corrosive effect upon the community of the faithful.

Such sins must be condemned for their very natures as contradictions to the Gospel itself and the Church’s mission to proclaim that Gospel clearly and without apology.

And while the Priest who engages in such horrific sinfulness must always be allowed the possibility of redemption and conversion, he must be prevented from continuing in a pattern of sinfulness of this nature which brings derision and chaos to the Body of Christ.

 There is much talk today about scandal in the Church.

People should not expect that Priests are not sinners who need the Grace of Absolution which they themselves are called to administer to other sinners.   

Not every Priestly failing deserves removal from Office.

But the faithful are right to expect that those Priests who injure others, especially the most vulnerable and innocent, should be removed from Office and given the opportunity of a life dedicated to prayer and penance for the remission of those sins.

What I have consistently failed to  hear in all the Bishops remarks about the homosexual abuse of young males by Clergy is the depth of the sinfulness of these actions and the need for these men to repent publicly for the sake of the salvation of their souls.

Instead, I hear “corporate speak” of policies and programs.

The Church is suffering a moral crisis, not a corporate crisis of management or personnel issues.

Some Priests and Bishops have lost their supernatural faith and inflicted terrible sufferings upon those entrusted to their care.  Their very souls are in jeopardy of damnation.

Why isn’t the Church reminding them, all of us, of these realities?

The Church appears to have lost a sense of sin, and in the process, a sense of the Divine Redeemer Himself.