Zenit has an interview with Bishop Flynn on his recent pastoral letter on the scourge of pornography, Blessed Are The Pure In Heart.
The interview is available here: Pornography's Death Grip: Interview With Bishop Robert Finn
An earlier post on the pastoral letter can be viewed here: Bishop Finn's Pastoral Letter On Pornography: Blessed Are the Pure in Heart
Any thoughts?
Cardinal Francis George of Chicago had a surprise meeting with Pope Benedict XVI. Cardinal George reported that Pope Benedict XVI expressed some concerns about the state of the Church in the United States.
Here's a quote:
"He was very concerned about the seminary system and the morale of priests who have been ordained for some years, especially in the current crisis," he said.
Any thoughts?
A new Program of Priestly Formation has been issued for use in all U.S. Catholic seminaries. It is reportedly "stricter" and designed to address issues dealing with the "human" formation of seminarians. There will also be a greater emphasis on philosophy and theology, an emphasis on priestly celibacy, and guidelines that exclude men who have engaged in sexual misconduct with minors (if it was ever otherwise, I am baffled as to why) or who have same-sex attraction or had same-sex experiences.
All of these things are good, but unfortunately, it seems like too little, too late. Having two years of Theology is terrific if you are studying the right kind of Theology and have orthodox teachers. Weeding out candidates with homosexual tendencies is a wonderful idea, but why wasn't this done in the first place, and how can we be sure that these norms will be properly implemented?
Most importantly, what about cases where the fox is guarding the hen house? What if the very people in charge of implementing these guidelines (including bishops) are of dubious orthodoxy, homosexual, or both? Catholic seminaries throughout the country have been documented to have more than their fair share of agenda-driven, dissenting liberals and homosexuals. There are also a lot of well intentioned, well meaning, but poorly formed men in some formation programs; men with lots of degrees, but a poor understanding of sound, orthodox, Catholic Theology. There are also good men, who know the truth, but remain silent. They are afraid to make waves because they know they are outnumbered or that they will pay dearly for not towing the party line.
If you aren't aware of this, check out: Goodbye, Good Men: How Liberals Brought Corruption Into the Catholic Church, Amchurch Comes Out: The U.S. Bishops, Pedophile Scandals and the Homosexual Agenda, and The Rite of Sodomy.
In the past, many priests were poorly schooled in philosophy, theology, Sacred Scripture, traditional spirituality and the like, and instead trained as social workers with little sense of the supernatural. With such poor formation, the liberal ideas of society quickly invade and take root in the mind, which the often well-intentioned priest or seminarian re-interprets as the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Hence, rather than discussions of personal sin, eternal salvation or damnation, grace, original sin, etc., the priest is only able to talk about the standard social "sins" of the day: racism, sexism, "homophobia", pollution, etc.
True to the maxim that one cannot give what he does not have, these poorly trained priests may sincerely want to help their parishioners, but are ill equipped to do so. They deliver fluffy homilies devoid of content; offer appallingly bad advice in the confessional, particularly in the area of sexual morality; wonder, sometimes publicly, when the Church is going to give up Her medieval views and become more in touch with the needs of 21st century Catholics; spend countless hours watching television, going to movies and indulging in other entertainments without making an effort to grow in personal holiness, thus being little different than anyone else in society; and are reduced to little more than professional nice guys who have little or no impact on the lives of their parishioners.
Lacking a sense of purpose and mission, and never trained to maintain intense prayer lives, they can fall victim to a variety of personal sins and end up unhappy and disillusioned. While this is certainly not universally true among diocesan priests, for some are self-taught and provide excellent role models despite the corrupted system, it is a widespread problem among the priesthood.
Sadly, many of the people who decide who is admitted to ordination had the type of formation described above, and will therefore not be the best men to implement these guidelines.
Here is an article describing the guidelines: New, stricter Priestly Formation Program issued for U.S. Catholic seminaries
The entire document is available here: USCCB Home Page
Your thoughts?
Inside the Vatican explains how bishops are discouraging vocations. The article covers many issues with which most orthodox Catholics are familiar.
Here's the article: How Bishops Discourage Vocations
What are your thoughts? Have you seen evidence of the things discussed? What must be done? How can it be accomplished?
The buzzing of the MSM hive against Pope Benedict XVI's efforts to ensure the proper priestly formation is getting louder and louder. The Washington Post fires a broadside in this morning's edition with this outrageous headline:
"New Rules Affirm Pope Benedict's Stance Against Gays"
You see! The Holy Father is against gay people.
The new pontiff plans to issue guidelines that attempt to inhibit homosexuals from entering seminaries to train for the priesthood. Church inspectors have embarked on a tour of U.S. seminaries and, according to their working papers, are tasked to ask: "Is there evidence of homosexuality in the seminary? (This question must be answered.)"
Benedict also has energetically fought legal recognition of homosexual couples.
A-ha! More evidence the Pontiff hates gay people.
For the church and for Benedict, taking a public stance on homosexuality is not unusual. Church observers have noted that for the quarter-century before becoming pope, Benedict, then known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, served as the Vatican's chief enforcer of orthodoxy, drafting official positions regarding homosexuality.
"No doctrinal chief has ever written and spoken about homosexuality as extensively as Ratzinger has, because homosexuals have never had the freedom to organize and demand recognition they enjoy today," wrote author John L. Allen Jr. in a biography of Benedict, published before he became pope.
Not only is the Pope a homophobe, but he's an obsessed homophobe.
Critics, on the other hand, have said the pope is simply preoccupied with sex. "It's an obsession," said Alessio de Giorgi, who founded an Italian gay Web site and supports legal recognition of same-sex couples.
You see?
Now, why is it that people who really are are pre-occupied with sex always accuse those who celebrate modesty, fidelity and chastity of being pre-occupied with sex?
His papacy's early focus on homosexuality is a reaction to outside events, some analysts have said: the spread of so-called civil unions or marriage rights to same-sex couples, and the disclosure of sexual abuse by priests. Vatican officials have largely blamed the abuse on homosexuality.
Really? I don't recall hearing either Pope John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI proclaim, "Blame the gays! it's all their fault!"
This WaPo article is really a piece of work, replete with negative action words like "attack", condemn and "fought." Typically, it is not until the end of the article that the reporter admits, in contradiction to the article's premise, that the Pope is not against gays:
On questions of homosexuality generally, the words of Benedict himself are a major Catholic reference point. In 1975, he issued the "Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics" which distinguished between homosexuality that "is transitory" and homosexuality resulting from "some kind of innate instinct or a pathological constitution judged to be incurable."
The declaration went on to appeal for empathy: "Homosexuals must certainly be treated with understanding and sustained in the hope of overcoming their personal difficulties."
In 1986, Ratzinger expanded on his call for compassion. "It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech and action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the Church's pastors wherever it occurs," he wrote in "The Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons."
Unlike the Pope, the WaPo seems unable to distinguish between the sinner and the sin.
A certain Gilles Marchildon, self-described as "executive director of Egale Canada, a non-profit organization that advances equality for lesbian, gay and trans-identified people across Canada. A former Catholic, he is now a Unitarian Universalist", penned this predicatable, spiteful and ill-informed complaint about the Apostolic Visitation in Canada's Globe and Mail.
Not that I am surprised by it, but why does a major media outlet turn to a gay activist Unitarian Univeralist to comment on the Catholic Church decision to make sure all is well with its American seminaries? This is more Hive behavior by the MSM -- "the Visit is a witch hunt for gays" -- the queen bee of which is the New York Times.
The St. Louis Review Online also carries this report about the Apostolic Visitation's anticipated inspection early next year of the Diocese of St. Louis's orimary seminary, Kenrick-Glennon.
The main seminary within the St. Louis Archdiocese, Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in Shrewsbury, will host its apostolic visitors from Jan. 29 through Feb. 3, said Msgr Ted Wojcicki, the seminary’s president-rector.
Kenrick-Glennon, which trains priests for not only the St. Louis Archdiocese but also some other dioceses who no longer have their own seminaries, has already begun preparation by distributing copies of the guidelines the visitors will use in gathering information.
The five-person team of apostolic visitors has yet to be named, Msgr. Wojcicki said. Officials for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have said the five will all have had some experience with seminaries, either as teachers or directors.
Kenrick-Glennon this fall has 21 students in its undergraduate-level courses and 58 enrolled in graduate-level theology school, the four years directly preceding ordination. Four of those students are expected to be ordained for the St. Louis Archdiocese next spring.
“I think if you look at the instructions, it says that the things they’re looking at include the intellectual training for seminarians, where we think we have a strong program; whether we’re faithful to the Church’s magisterium, and we’re very faithful; and in the teaching (of) moral theology, where we have two professors who are very strong in that field,” Msgr. Wojcicki said.
While he believes the Kenrick-Glennon program will meet the Vatican’s standards, Msgr. Wojcicki said the seminary’s directors would be open to any proposals to improve the seminary.
The school’s directors have an “ongoing assessment of our own program already,” he said.
“If there’s anything they recommend that can be improved, we’re very open to that,” Msgr. Wojcicki said.
Msgr. Wojcicki noted that the instructions do ask about the seminary’s training programs in sexual morality. “We’re preparing any man who comes here to live a life of celibate chastity,” Msgr. Wojcicki said.
“We’re taking the visit in a very positive way; it gives us a chance to express to the visitors the things we believe we do in a very thorough manner,” Msgr. Wojcicki said.
“We want to assure the people of our diocese that at this seminary we’re teaching what the Church teaches and have a good, solid program which prepares men to live lives in imitation of Jesus Christ,” Msgr. Wojcicki said.
After the five-person apostolic visitation team completes its fact-finding, it will give the results to the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education. That agency will issue a report to Archbishop Raymond L. Burke as well as to Kenrick-Glennon’s leaders.
This is Archbishop Raymond Burke country, so I doubt the Visit will find much a seminary in need of emulation rather than correction.
An team Apostolic Visitation team inspected of the Aquinas Institue of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri, on Sept. 26-29, reports the St. Louis Review Online:
The president of Aquinas Institute of Theology is confident a five-member team of examiners will conclude that the school is "doing a good job" in preparing priests.
"I think our priestly formation came off well," Father Charles Bouchard, OP, said after the Sept. 26-29 apostolic visit by a group who will send its findings to a Vatican agency.
Aquinas, based at St. Louis University, volunteered to be among the first of some 229 U.S. seminaries and houses of priestly formation to be reviewed by teams of primarily clergymen. The visits stem from a request by American bishops to the Vatican in 2002 while the bishops were formulating the "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" during the clergy sex-abuse crisis that dominated news about the Church.
The article continues, but I'm not a subscriber so I can't access it.
So reports the Religious News Service (H/T to Belief.net):
Vatican City, Oct. 7 - A forthcoming Vatican document on homosexuality is expected to restrict gay men's entry into the priesthood but not ban them outright, providing they have been celibate for at least three years and have not publicly disclosed their homosexuality.
Candidates who participate in gay pride rallies or associate with other forms of "gay culture," including books, film and Internet sites, are also excluded from becoming priests, according to detailed reports published Friday.
Italy's leading daily newspaper, Corriere della Sera, which first reported on the new guidelines, said that candidates must "show an adequate capacity for self-control" and must "live in chastity" for three years. The report did not say how seminaries are to determine who fails to meet these criteria.
According to a Friday report on the Web site of the National Catholic Reporter (NCR), the application of these criteria will be left up to the individual discretion of seminary directors.
The document also stops short of defining homosexuality because the Vatican does not consider an "absolute policy" on gays possible, NCR quoted a senior Vatican official as saying. Vatican officials could not be reached for comment about the reports.
You can read the rest of the story here.
Archbishop Edwin O'Brien, head of the military archdiocese and the prelate running the Apostolic Visitation, yesterday unleashed a verbal counter-attack against the MSM's New York Times-led attemtp to discredit the Visit as nothing more than an withc hunt for gay priests and seminarians:
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Most Reverend Edwin F. O'Brien, Archbishop of Military Services, the Coordinator of the Apostolic Visitation of U.S. seminaries and houses of formation by the Congregation for Catholic Education of the Holy See, has issued the following statement:
"As the Apostolic Seminary Visitation gets underway, it has attracted a great deal of attention from the public and the media. As a result I want to emphasize several points with regard to the Visitation."
"First of all, the Visitation is an activity of the Congregation for Catholic Education of the Holy See, planned in consultation with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The role of the teams of Visitors, who were selected and appointed by the Congregation, is to gather information for the Congregation which will review the information and issue a report with regard to each institution. This report will be sent to the bishop or the religious superior with jurisdiction over that institution. An overall report will be given to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Conference of Major Superiors of Men. As Coordinator, I simply oversee the logistics. I do not see the reports sent by the teams of Visitors to the Congregation."
"The entire Visitation process is confidential to allow the Visitors to be as free of outside pressure as possible in preparing their reports to the Congregation which alone will write the final evaluations. Neither the names of the teams of Visitors nor the schedule of visits is being made public."
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