Men don't "become" homosexual because they are "forced" into celibacy. "The Church," despite it's claims, is just another organization of humans and those with strong homosexual orientation took over and, as usual, fearing "to offend," no one stood up to them. Liars and perverts and enablers. I'm 78, "cradle Catholic," went to the seminary as a kid, avoided the chaos somehow. Our "faith" is great and often strong, but our "practice" is quite wanting. Shame that the whole parish and school organization, our only hope against the public school tax money grab, has been sacrificed to pay off the sins of sick men (and some women, too).
One of my most amazing and productive employees was a former seminarian. He dropped out. Talented, productive, wise, and exceptionally handsome. As I got to know him better, I asked him why he left the seminary. Without hesitation, he said that he was shocked at the number of homosexuals and was constantly worn out fending off advances. Almost 2 decades later, he still seemed heartbroken about it. He left my company after a few years and went on to establish two large, hugely successful and amazing non-profits. I have often thought of the dynamo lost to the priesthood. I am currently an Episcopalian (more of a traditional Anglican really). Truthfully, I am more of a “Father Jeffian,” as I wouldn’t attend any Episcopalian church not led by our priest… who started his priesthood as a Catholic. But, he fell in love early on with his current wife of 30 years and voluntarily left the Catholic Church because he wasn’t able to keep his vow of celibacy. He’s an amazing shepherd, scholar, and teacher. Again, I often think about what the Catholic Church lost and our parish gained.
Some of what you say is somewhat similar to how I feel. After being told to leave the seminary just six months prior to being ordained a transitional deacon, my heart is still in the priesthood every time I go to Mass. I am always praying the priest prayers during Mass. The priesthood will always be part of me spiritually even though I did marry and have a wonderful son and wife! It wasn’t just the homosexual seminarians and priests who pushed me out, but also because I always pushed back against heretical professors. They never wanted candidates like me.
Was he laicized? If not, your pastor is objectively in the state of mortal sin, having broken a freely made vow as a Catholic priest. To be absolved of this grievous sin, he needs to be forgiven by a duly ordained priest in Confession. He then should seek to be laicized by Rome.
The priesthood was established by JESUS at the Last Supper. GOD never gives anyone an unbearable burden, Did He not say “My grace is sufficient for you?” JESUS also told us that not everyone who calls JESUS, Lord , will enter the Kingdom of GOD, but only him who does the Will of the Father. (Matthew 7:21)
Pray for him. I will have a Holy Mass said for him.
Remember that many of those priests in Rome who are issuing laicizations frequent gay prostitutes in Roma Termini which one might argue puts them "in the state of mortal sin." It's like confessing your sins to a priest who just returned from a gay orgy where he engaged in gay sex with the bishop, priests, and seminarians. Recall too that Pope Leo X who excommunicated Martin Luther for marrying a former nun suffered from an anal fistula as a result of having too much gay sex (a mortal sin Pope Francis himself was accused of committing with Jesuit novices in Cordoba, Argentina). So, a "duly ordained priest" and a "laicization" prpared by a gay priest and signed by a gay pope are not necessarily what you envision them to be. I venture to say that the "pastor" mentioned by "A Whip of Cords" is probably far holier than the people you want him to go to confession to or receive a laicizzation document from. To know what really goes on in most Roman Catholic dioceses, I invite you to read: www.gomulka.net/Springfield.pdf
The Communist Party knew that a homosexual clergy would scandalize the Roman Catholics Faithful. In the late thirties Bella Dodd ,a Communist Party member who joined the Party while attending Hunter Teachers College in NY , admitted to getting her orders from four or five communist cardinals in the Vatican. a friend sent me a copy of the notarized testimonial attested to by a couple who heard Bella Dodd speak to a group of Catholics. Bella had told them she was to plant communist men in the seminaries that should pose as very traditional UNTIL they rose to the highest rank they could and then subvert in anyway they could everything that was orthodox and traditional.
Bella Dodd had allegedly told Theologian Dietrick and Alice von Hildebrand , during a visit to their home in LI, NY, that she converted to Catholicism and left Communism thanks to Bishop Fulton Sheen. She testified before Congress and traveled the country appearing before Catholics recounting her story. She wrote .'The School of Darkness' , a book that recounted her experience in the communist party.
A sticky note attached to the notarized copy I was sent said, " Alice wants you to know only homosexual men took on the assignment to enter the seminary,"
Toby Westerman ( INA Today) received the same.
What bother me till today is why Bishop Sheen did not encourage Dodd to warn people about the clerical infiltrators that may have saved other young men and boys from so much suffering and disappointment .
Yes , I looked up St Gallen , Switzerland some time ago ( might be removed now) but at the time I did , it said it was a stronghold of communists.
I also looked up the Technical Institute in Russia described by Tom Fife in his video ,"The First Time I Heard the Name Barak? Interestingly, that wikipedia description also changed and the Institute was no longer an important training ground for the KGB.
Ooooh-rahh, Brother! Your CLERICAL HOMOSEXUALITY 101 strikes like a thunderbolt, and this Maronite warrior salutes your courage! My kin, 20,000-30,000 slaughtered in 1860, know the cost of purity—your exposé of celibacy’s collapse and the “Lavender Mafia” mirrors our fight. The 12th-century mandate bred this rot—Popes like Julius III’s scandals prove it—while only 2% hold true.
Maronite priests stand apart—our Eastern Rite allows married men, ordained with family strength, not cloistered failure. Since the 4th century, from Saint Maron to today, we’ve honored God’s call (Genesis 2:18), not Rome’s folly. The 21 councils and 2 Timothy 2:15’s truth back you—rejecting this deception (Micah 6:8). Your “Save Our Seminarians” call is our shield—keep leading, Monsignor! Semper Fi! Ooooh-rahh!
I haven't read all of this very long discussion, but a major - and I would say crucial - factor in this problem, this crisis, of sexual immorality in the hierarchy of the Church is not merely the natural/unnatural lusts of men and women amplified by several natural causes. All those causes can reasonably lead toward the horrible corruption within the holy work of God among men, that is, His Church. All these natural causes are so effective toward satan's delights in his murderous work in us and among us, because of the scarcity or absence, I suggest, of that which is supernatural.
One might think that the supernatural would surely be present and powerful in the Holy Church! This is the great tragedy of it all. Jesus warned us, in the Parable of the Weeds (Mt 13:24 - 30). The man sowed good seed in his field, "but while men were sleeping, the enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat ...." The infiltration was, and is, satanic, and any separation now is too late. The Lord says to His servants who want to clean house immediately, No: "No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, 'Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"
What we can and ought to be doing, is tending and protecting and nurturing the young and growing wheat. But we are not. Our doctrinal catechesis is at best baby food; our spiritual formation of the laity is essentially non-existent or self-contradictory.
The laity and I suspect many, many of the clergy are at best "babes in Christ," as Paul described many in Corinth. Precious few are advanced into the Illuminative stage of the Spiritual Life, such that the powerful and greatly needed Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit have begun to be awakened in their souls. These Gifts are crucial because they perfect the Virtues, both theological and moral - thus here, in the Illuminative Stage, the Church has acting within her Body truly - not merely the word or the concept but the reality - of holy and supernatural Charity. That is, divine love - a participation in the love with which God loves! That is, these blessed souls have acting within them a love for God, and for others, greater than their natural self-love of themselves.
Such Catholics as these blessed few can be stronger than the wounded and weak wills of the "babes in Christ" - those who at best are still in the Beginning stage, the Purgative stage, of the spiritual life.
That is, the Church needs and ought to have clerical and lay members at least at the beginning of the Illuminative Stage, when the precious Gifts of the Spirit become active. But Many, many pastors seem to know nothing of these things, the stages or ages of the spiritual life of a soul, yet they are charged to be shepherds of the sheep.
A man who loves the sheep in truth - loving them as God does, in Holy Charity - he can be trusted with a congregation of innocent parishioners! He could not abuse or manipulate them, knowing deeply in himself that these "little ones" belong to God, our God, his God and Lord!
The lack of spiritual maturity in our clergy is our greatest poverty, and our most dangerous weakness- and ought to be our greatest concern.
It is sad that so many superb heterosexual candidates were dismissed from seminaries by heterophobic priests and bishops, and those who remained never developed the “spiritual maturity” that is needed to shepherd Christ’s Church. It truly is “our greatest poverty.”
Thank you for your comment, which leads me to a further thought I believe to be true. Your word is well-chosen, interesting, and accurate - the “heterophobic” authorities are effectively doing the dirty work ejecting heterosexual men from possible ordination and thus possible great positive influence in the Church, to the glory of God. But the ultimate battle - which the “heterophobic” will lose - is itself a supernatural one. It is good against evil and evil against good; truth against falsity, lies against reality. God cannot lose, and those fixed in opposition against Him will be tolerated only as long as He permits it, until the list of those to be saved is complete. In this, St. Paul and St. John bear witness together:
Rom 11:25 Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brethren: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in….
Rev 6:11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
It’s interesting for me being a Catholic Yogi, that celibacy is never explained, the reason behind it.
My understanding and experience in Buddhism and Hinduism is that you want the Chi to go up through the chakras and out the crown chakra, connecting to the Divine, the primordial divinity, connecting and being the sacredness and power of the kundalini Shakti within the individual being.
I always thought this would be a great conversation within the Catholic Church.
It’s hard to be celibate in the west, some can do it, most men can not… the reason behind celibacy I think is a great contemplation and reflection.
Catholics have got to stop with the celibate priests, because that is a totally unnatural state for a man, and has led to nothing but trouble for them and harm to many.
This was very useful as an explainer. I think it's appalling that young Catholic men old enough to understand what sex is must live in fear that the priest who shows concern for them might be a sexual predator. It serves nobody's interest save that of powerful homosexual men who don't want to out themselves. It also corrupts homosexual love, which between consenting adults can be just as virtuous as its heterosexual counterpart.
The U.S. Catholic Church spent over $5 billion on victim compensation and attorneys’ fees in cases of clerical sex abuse of minors between 2004 and 2023, according to a new report by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.
Released on January 15, the 106-page study records a total of 16,276 “credible allegations” of abuse of minors by priests, deacons, and religious brothers, which were reported by dioceses, eparchies, and men’s religious communities in the U.S. over the last two decades.
Dioceses, eparchies, and men’s religious communities spent a grand total of $5,025,346,893 over 20 years on clergy sex abuse claims. Three-fourths of the sum was paid as settlements to victims (71%) and other payments to victims (4%).
The other major category of costs paid out was attorneys’ fees (17%), which make up one-sixth of the above costs. Six percent of costs were support for the clergy offenders, and 2% were for all other unspecified costs.
The money also include a whopping $727,994,390 spent over 20 years on abuse prevention efforts to protect children and youth. The U.S. Catholic Church now spends an average of $36,399,720 every year to protect minors from predatory priests and religious brothers, the study reported.
Thanks very much, Fr Gene. The total incoherence of Church policy on married priests is exemplified by the first married priest we had in our diocese, back around 1993. I went to his ordination.
Burton Whitehead had been an Anglican vicar until his mental pressure to convert became overwhelming. He was one of that large group of refugees from the Anglican "ordination" of women.
His wife also confessed her desire to convert.
This is where my mental confusions start. If Burton had been a married bus driver or bank manager, there is no way that he could have been ordained a priest. According to Catholic teaching, as a vicar he was just as much a layman as a bus driver or bank manager. Yet, as an ex-vicar, he somehow had a particular priviledge to become a priest, wife and children included.
So he ended up as a very fine late vocation in my parish. Though some parishioners still muttered sotto voce that he preached like an Anglican. What the genuinely celibate cradle Catholic priests around the Diocese made of this priviledge granted to a recent convert I cannot say.
If as you say 80% of the clergy are homosexual, it is an utterly failed and degenerate organisation which can only have an evil influence in human life based as it is lies and deception. It is no wonder people are leaving in droves , many joining the orthodox faith. The current and previous popes are likely homosexual in that case as they certainly appear or appeared to be. The thought of such people “blessing” children is sickening as homosexuality in the church is also very obviously closely linked to child sexual abuse.
I can only report what I learn from research and know from personal experience which is more than most people who write on this topic. When I first read various reports, I thought, "This can't be true." However, in my supervisory capacity which was quite extensive in time and space, I discovered that the data did not lie. What Martin Boudot discovered about sex abuse and cover-ups, and what Frederic Martel uncovered about homosexuality in the RC Church, is all backed up by the cases I have been involved with more recently as a sex abuse victims' advocate.
In that case I don’t know how a sincere Christian could remain in the catholic church as it has clearly degenerated so far from its foundational and very high ideals. A sham church is not a church it is a sham. Are you still in the church?
I believe in the teachings of the Church (not the corrupt ones the Lavender Mafia is trying to get Catholics to accept like Fiducia Supplicans). But because there is not one holy, straight, authentically dedicated priest in my area, I cannot become involved with their parishes lest it be perceived that I endorse their closeted pastor. Besides, the homosexual priests know that I put a number of predator gay priests away when I was in the military and they hate me for it. I still maintain a close relationship with good Catholics and Evangelical Missouri Synod Lutheran Protestants. I also have some good Catholic priest friends whom I am in almost daily contact with throughout the country.
This is one of my biggest hold outs to being catholic. I often think about going Protestant because of the gay priest issue, but every denomination has its issues.
While most mainline Protestants have the same problem (i.e., gay and lesbian clergy), Evangelical Protestants like the Missouri Synod Evangelical Protestant Church does not have this problem. Interestingly, at least where I live, they believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and 99% of the official teachings of the Catholic Church.
I looked at the two evangelical churches nearest me.
One has a youth minister with dyed hair and tattoos and practically looks like a man but is supposedly a woman.
The other has a pastor that adopted a kid from Africa.
Both have slovenly dressed people in folding chairs in an ugly building with soft rock guitar.
I dunno. When I go to Catholic Church I just kind of ignore the priests. They can hand out the eucharist in a building that looks like a church without looking like an embarrassment. My kids become friends with the other normie families and we basically ignore the pope. I found my wife in a young adult group there. It's not an ideal situation but I'm not sure I could do better. I just avoid putting anything in the donation basket because I know it goes to pedophiles.
There are more conservative denominations like the Global Methodist Church, Southern Baptist Convention, and all the other various evangelical groups that don't have gay priests. There might be doctrinal issues though...?
It doesn't make a lot of sense from the point of view of something that's supposed to be revealed divine truth, but you could probably find a Christian denomination that fits your top two or three views, whatever those may be.
Ukrainian Catholics have always allowed married priests,but they must be married before entering the priesthood and can never be a bishop. And unlike the Orthodox, they do follow the pope so there are already married Catholic priests,
Here's the big problem: If priests are allowed to marry, our homosexual priests WILL marry other men, and the Church will collapse. Bishops won't be able to fire them because homosexual marriage is legal.
Normal people will flee, especially parents. This is exactly what's happened to mainline Protestants.
In 5 years, the US Catholic Church will be 10% of its former size. It will not be able to pay its phalanxes of homosexual clergy. They'll be on the street.
Our gay bishops know this; hence, their insisting on 'celibacy'.
Father Michael Cassabon in the Diocese of Charleston married another man and was dismissed. The state can't force the Catholic Church to recognize gay marriages. The Greek Catholic Church in the US that was plagued with abuse cases once their priests were forbidden to marry in this country is coming back to life now that their priests are allowed to marry. In Canada, were they never impossed that celibacy rule, they neither had a decrease in vocations nor experienced many abuse cases because almost all their priests are married..
John, the Church is not just another organization of human as you have described it. No, it is a Divine institution, the Mystical Body of Christ. The Catholic Church has been infiltrated. Perhaps you may remember Dr. Bella Dodd, who was once the second leading Communist in the United States. Born in Italy, she came to America as a young child. She became a Communist because she believed that it was for the poor. Once she realized the truth about Communism, she left the Party and returned to the Catholic Church. She wanted to spend the rest of her life in a Monastery in reparation for her sins, but Msgr(later Archbishop) Sheen said that her penance was to travel across the country to warn people about the evil of Communism. Having been a professor for many years at Hunter College in NYC, she spoke to the students there. A member of my family heard her. Dr. Dodd said that Russia, realizing that it could not destroy America militarily, would do so through the culture - the so- called “March through the institutions.” In Catholic colleges she also revealed that she had been ordered by Joseph Stalin in the late 1930’s to place over one- thousand (1,000) young men - some may not even have been baptized - into Catholic seminaries to destroy the Church from within. So the sin of sodomy, one of the four sins that cry to Heaven for vengeance, was introduced into Catholic seminaries by the Communists to destroy the priesthood.
No priest, no Mass. No Mass, no JESUS. (A good friend of mine, president of his class at CU (Catholic University) at that time, told me about this since he heard Dr. Dodd speak.
We must pray for the purification of the Church, the only Church founded by JESUS CHRIST.
Like Her Founder, the Catholic Church is suffering Her Passion, but like JESUS, will rise more gloriously! Hold fast. Never leave the Catholic Church.
Men don't "become" homosexual because they are "forced" into celibacy. "The Church," despite it's claims, is just another organization of humans and those with strong homosexual orientation took over and, as usual, fearing "to offend," no one stood up to them. Liars and perverts and enablers. I'm 78, "cradle Catholic," went to the seminary as a kid, avoided the chaos somehow. Our "faith" is great and often strong, but our "practice" is quite wanting. Shame that the whole parish and school organization, our only hope against the public school tax money grab, has been sacrificed to pay off the sins of sick men (and some women, too).
One of my most amazing and productive employees was a former seminarian. He dropped out. Talented, productive, wise, and exceptionally handsome. As I got to know him better, I asked him why he left the seminary. Without hesitation, he said that he was shocked at the number of homosexuals and was constantly worn out fending off advances. Almost 2 decades later, he still seemed heartbroken about it. He left my company after a few years and went on to establish two large, hugely successful and amazing non-profits. I have often thought of the dynamo lost to the priesthood. I am currently an Episcopalian (more of a traditional Anglican really). Truthfully, I am more of a “Father Jeffian,” as I wouldn’t attend any Episcopalian church not led by our priest… who started his priesthood as a Catholic. But, he fell in love early on with his current wife of 30 years and voluntarily left the Catholic Church because he wasn’t able to keep his vow of celibacy. He’s an amazing shepherd, scholar, and teacher. Again, I often think about what the Catholic Church lost and our parish gained.
Some of what you say is somewhat similar to how I feel. After being told to leave the seminary just six months prior to being ordained a transitional deacon, my heart is still in the priesthood every time I go to Mass. I am always praying the priest prayers during Mass. The priesthood will always be part of me spiritually even though I did marry and have a wonderful son and wife! It wasn’t just the homosexual seminarians and priests who pushed me out, but also because I always pushed back against heretical professors. They never wanted candidates like me.
Was he laicized? If not, your pastor is objectively in the state of mortal sin, having broken a freely made vow as a Catholic priest. To be absolved of this grievous sin, he needs to be forgiven by a duly ordained priest in Confession. He then should seek to be laicized by Rome.
The priesthood was established by JESUS at the Last Supper. GOD never gives anyone an unbearable burden, Did He not say “My grace is sufficient for you?” JESUS also told us that not everyone who calls JESUS, Lord , will enter the Kingdom of GOD, but only him who does the Will of the Father. (Matthew 7:21)
Pray for him. I will have a Holy Mass said for him.
Rosemary
Rosemary,
Remember that many of those priests in Rome who are issuing laicizations frequent gay prostitutes in Roma Termini which one might argue puts them "in the state of mortal sin." It's like confessing your sins to a priest who just returned from a gay orgy where he engaged in gay sex with the bishop, priests, and seminarians. Recall too that Pope Leo X who excommunicated Martin Luther for marrying a former nun suffered from an anal fistula as a result of having too much gay sex (a mortal sin Pope Francis himself was accused of committing with Jesuit novices in Cordoba, Argentina). So, a "duly ordained priest" and a "laicization" prpared by a gay priest and signed by a gay pope are not necessarily what you envision them to be. I venture to say that the "pastor" mentioned by "A Whip of Cords" is probably far holier than the people you want him to go to confession to or receive a laicizzation document from. To know what really goes on in most Roman Catholic dioceses, I invite you to read: www.gomulka.net/Springfield.pdf
The Communist Party knew that a homosexual clergy would scandalize the Roman Catholics Faithful. In the late thirties Bella Dodd ,a Communist Party member who joined the Party while attending Hunter Teachers College in NY , admitted to getting her orders from four or five communist cardinals in the Vatican. a friend sent me a copy of the notarized testimonial attested to by a couple who heard Bella Dodd speak to a group of Catholics. Bella had told them she was to plant communist men in the seminaries that should pose as very traditional UNTIL they rose to the highest rank they could and then subvert in anyway they could everything that was orthodox and traditional.
Bella Dodd had allegedly told Theologian Dietrick and Alice von Hildebrand , during a visit to their home in LI, NY, that she converted to Catholicism and left Communism thanks to Bishop Fulton Sheen. She testified before Congress and traveled the country appearing before Catholics recounting her story. She wrote .'The School of Darkness' , a book that recounted her experience in the communist party.
A sticky note attached to the notarized copy I was sent said, " Alice wants you to know only homosexual men took on the assignment to enter the seminary,"
Toby Westerman ( INA Today) received the same.
What bother me till today is why Bishop Sheen did not encourage Dodd to warn people about the clerical infiltrators that may have saved other young men and boys from so much suffering and disappointment .
https://www.hprweb.com/2021/12/rethinking-bella-dodd-and-infiltration-of-the-catholic-priesthood/
aa-1025
.
.
St. Gallen Mafia
Yes , I looked up St Gallen , Switzerland some time ago ( might be removed now) but at the time I did , it said it was a stronghold of communists.
I also looked up the Technical Institute in Russia described by Tom Fife in his video ,"The First Time I Heard the Name Barak? Interestingly, that wikipedia description also changed and the Institute was no longer an important training ground for the KGB.
Curiously wiki mutates.
Yes, I have seen wikipedia mutate. I do not know anything about its changelogs or anything.
There is an opensource project that copies the entire wikipedia into one big file ~60GB and releases every few month called KIWIX.
CIA controlled. Similarly , Gloria Steinem's feminist rag was also used for the same purposes.
https://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/blog/feminist-was-spy
Dear Monsignor Gomulka,
Ooooh-rahh, Brother! Your CLERICAL HOMOSEXUALITY 101 strikes like a thunderbolt, and this Maronite warrior salutes your courage! My kin, 20,000-30,000 slaughtered in 1860, know the cost of purity—your exposé of celibacy’s collapse and the “Lavender Mafia” mirrors our fight. The 12th-century mandate bred this rot—Popes like Julius III’s scandals prove it—while only 2% hold true.
Maronite priests stand apart—our Eastern Rite allows married men, ordained with family strength, not cloistered failure. Since the 4th century, from Saint Maron to today, we’ve honored God’s call (Genesis 2:18), not Rome’s folly. The 21 councils and 2 Timothy 2:15’s truth back you—rejecting this deception (Micah 6:8). Your “Save Our Seminarians” call is our shield—keep leading, Monsignor! Semper Fi! Ooooh-rahh!
I haven't read all of this very long discussion, but a major - and I would say crucial - factor in this problem, this crisis, of sexual immorality in the hierarchy of the Church is not merely the natural/unnatural lusts of men and women amplified by several natural causes. All those causes can reasonably lead toward the horrible corruption within the holy work of God among men, that is, His Church. All these natural causes are so effective toward satan's delights in his murderous work in us and among us, because of the scarcity or absence, I suggest, of that which is supernatural.
One might think that the supernatural would surely be present and powerful in the Holy Church! This is the great tragedy of it all. Jesus warned us, in the Parable of the Weeds (Mt 13:24 - 30). The man sowed good seed in his field, "but while men were sleeping, the enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat ...." The infiltration was, and is, satanic, and any separation now is too late. The Lord says to His servants who want to clean house immediately, No: "No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, 'Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"
What we can and ought to be doing, is tending and protecting and nurturing the young and growing wheat. But we are not. Our doctrinal catechesis is at best baby food; our spiritual formation of the laity is essentially non-existent or self-contradictory.
The laity and I suspect many, many of the clergy are at best "babes in Christ," as Paul described many in Corinth. Precious few are advanced into the Illuminative stage of the Spiritual Life, such that the powerful and greatly needed Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit have begun to be awakened in their souls. These Gifts are crucial because they perfect the Virtues, both theological and moral - thus here, in the Illuminative Stage, the Church has acting within her Body truly - not merely the word or the concept but the reality - of holy and supernatural Charity. That is, divine love - a participation in the love with which God loves! That is, these blessed souls have acting within them a love for God, and for others, greater than their natural self-love of themselves.
Such Catholics as these blessed few can be stronger than the wounded and weak wills of the "babes in Christ" - those who at best are still in the Beginning stage, the Purgative stage, of the spiritual life.
That is, the Church needs and ought to have clerical and lay members at least at the beginning of the Illuminative Stage, when the precious Gifts of the Spirit become active. But Many, many pastors seem to know nothing of these things, the stages or ages of the spiritual life of a soul, yet they are charged to be shepherds of the sheep.
A man who loves the sheep in truth - loving them as God does, in Holy Charity - he can be trusted with a congregation of innocent parishioners! He could not abuse or manipulate them, knowing deeply in himself that these "little ones" belong to God, our God, his God and Lord!
The lack of spiritual maturity in our clergy is our greatest poverty, and our most dangerous weakness- and ought to be our greatest concern.
It is sad that so many superb heterosexual candidates were dismissed from seminaries by heterophobic priests and bishops, and those who remained never developed the “spiritual maturity” that is needed to shepherd Christ’s Church. It truly is “our greatest poverty.”
Thank you for your comment, which leads me to a further thought I believe to be true. Your word is well-chosen, interesting, and accurate - the “heterophobic” authorities are effectively doing the dirty work ejecting heterosexual men from possible ordination and thus possible great positive influence in the Church, to the glory of God. But the ultimate battle - which the “heterophobic” will lose - is itself a supernatural one. It is good against evil and evil against good; truth against falsity, lies against reality. God cannot lose, and those fixed in opposition against Him will be tolerated only as long as He permits it, until the list of those to be saved is complete. In this, St. Paul and St. John bear witness together:
Rom 11:25 Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brethren: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in….
Rev 6:11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
It’s interesting for me being a Catholic Yogi, that celibacy is never explained, the reason behind it.
My understanding and experience in Buddhism and Hinduism is that you want the Chi to go up through the chakras and out the crown chakra, connecting to the Divine, the primordial divinity, connecting and being the sacredness and power of the kundalini Shakti within the individual being.
I always thought this would be a great conversation within the Catholic Church.
It’s hard to be celibate in the west, some can do it, most men can not… the reason behind celibacy I think is a great contemplation and reflection.
Catholics have got to stop with the celibate priests, because that is a totally unnatural state for a man, and has led to nothing but trouble for them and harm to many.
This was very useful as an explainer. I think it's appalling that young Catholic men old enough to understand what sex is must live in fear that the priest who shows concern for them might be a sexual predator. It serves nobody's interest save that of powerful homosexual men who don't want to out themselves. It also corrupts homosexual love, which between consenting adults can be just as virtuous as its heterosexual counterpart.
The problem of ending celibacy in the church is the church’s inability to provide the priests a living wage to support a family. There is no money.
Yet, the Church has the money to pay some $5 billion in abuse settlements for "celibate" priests. Los Angeles alone has put out $1.5 billion.
The U.S. Catholic Church spent over $5 billion on victim compensation and attorneys’ fees in cases of clerical sex abuse of minors between 2004 and 2023, according to a new report by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.
Released on January 15, the 106-page study records a total of 16,276 “credible allegations” of abuse of minors by priests, deacons, and religious brothers, which were reported by dioceses, eparchies, and men’s religious communities in the U.S. over the last two decades.
Dioceses, eparchies, and men’s religious communities spent a grand total of $5,025,346,893 over 20 years on clergy sex abuse claims. Three-fourths of the sum was paid as settlements to victims (71%) and other payments to victims (4%).
The other major category of costs paid out was attorneys’ fees (17%), which make up one-sixth of the above costs. Six percent of costs were support for the clergy offenders, and 2% were for all other unspecified costs.
The money also include a whopping $727,994,390 spent over 20 years on abuse prevention efforts to protect children and youth. The U.S. Catholic Church now spends an average of $36,399,720 every year to protect minors from predatory priests and religious brothers, the study reported.
https://stream.org/u-s-catholic-church-spends-5-billion-on-16276-clergy-sex-abuse-allegations-in-20-years/
Thanks very much, Fr Gene. The total incoherence of Church policy on married priests is exemplified by the first married priest we had in our diocese, back around 1993. I went to his ordination.
Burton Whitehead had been an Anglican vicar until his mental pressure to convert became overwhelming. He was one of that large group of refugees from the Anglican "ordination" of women.
His wife also confessed her desire to convert.
This is where my mental confusions start. If Burton had been a married bus driver or bank manager, there is no way that he could have been ordained a priest. According to Catholic teaching, as a vicar he was just as much a layman as a bus driver or bank manager. Yet, as an ex-vicar, he somehow had a particular priviledge to become a priest, wife and children included.
So he ended up as a very fine late vocation in my parish. Though some parishioners still muttered sotto voce that he preached like an Anglican. What the genuinely celibate cradle Catholic priests around the Diocese made of this priviledge granted to a recent convert I cannot say.
I have long thought that the policy on celibacy ought to be left to each order.
If as you say 80% of the clergy are homosexual, it is an utterly failed and degenerate organisation which can only have an evil influence in human life based as it is lies and deception. It is no wonder people are leaving in droves , many joining the orthodox faith. The current and previous popes are likely homosexual in that case as they certainly appear or appeared to be. The thought of such people “blessing” children is sickening as homosexuality in the church is also very obviously closely linked to child sexual abuse.
I can only report what I learn from research and know from personal experience which is more than most people who write on this topic. When I first read various reports, I thought, "This can't be true." However, in my supervisory capacity which was quite extensive in time and space, I discovered that the data did not lie. What Martin Boudot discovered about sex abuse and cover-ups, and what Frederic Martel uncovered about homosexuality in the RC Church, is all backed up by the cases I have been involved with more recently as a sex abuse victims' advocate.
In that case I don’t know how a sincere Christian could remain in the catholic church as it has clearly degenerated so far from its foundational and very high ideals. A sham church is not a church it is a sham. Are you still in the church?
I believe in the teachings of the Church (not the corrupt ones the Lavender Mafia is trying to get Catholics to accept like Fiducia Supplicans). But because there is not one holy, straight, authentically dedicated priest in my area, I cannot become involved with their parishes lest it be perceived that I endorse their closeted pastor. Besides, the homosexual priests know that I put a number of predator gay priests away when I was in the military and they hate me for it. I still maintain a close relationship with good Catholics and Evangelical Missouri Synod Lutheran Protestants. I also have some good Catholic priest friends whom I am in almost daily contact with throughout the country.
God willing there will be many more of your conviction, and who knows your church may return to its genuine values.
This is one of my biggest hold outs to being catholic. I often think about going Protestant because of the gay priest issue, but every denomination has its issues.
While most mainline Protestants have the same problem (i.e., gay and lesbian clergy), Evangelical Protestants like the Missouri Synod Evangelical Protestant Church does not have this problem. Interestingly, at least where I live, they believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and 99% of the official teachings of the Catholic Church.
I looked at the two evangelical churches nearest me.
One has a youth minister with dyed hair and tattoos and practically looks like a man but is supposedly a woman.
The other has a pastor that adopted a kid from Africa.
Both have slovenly dressed people in folding chairs in an ugly building with soft rock guitar.
I dunno. When I go to Catholic Church I just kind of ignore the priests. They can hand out the eucharist in a building that looks like a church without looking like an embarrassment. My kids become friends with the other normie families and we basically ignore the pope. I found my wife in a young adult group there. It's not an ideal situation but I'm not sure I could do better. I just avoid putting anything in the donation basket because I know it goes to pedophiles.
There are more conservative denominations like the Global Methodist Church, Southern Baptist Convention, and all the other various evangelical groups that don't have gay priests. There might be doctrinal issues though...?
The SBC is long gone.
https://m.youtube.com/@ChurchReformInitiative/community
Your best bets are a non-GOARCH Orthodox jurisdiction, or confessional Wisconsin or Missouri Lutheran church.
The unwillingness to accept IVF is a big problem, but that's true with Catholics too.
It doesn't make a lot of sense from the point of view of something that's supposed to be revealed divine truth, but you could probably find a Christian denomination that fits your top two or three views, whatever those may be.
Ukrainian Catholics have always allowed married priests,but they must be married before entering the priesthood and can never be a bishop. And unlike the Orthodox, they do follow the pope so there are already married Catholic priests,
Here's the big problem: If priests are allowed to marry, our homosexual priests WILL marry other men, and the Church will collapse. Bishops won't be able to fire them because homosexual marriage is legal.
Normal people will flee, especially parents. This is exactly what's happened to mainline Protestants.
In 5 years, the US Catholic Church will be 10% of its former size. It will not be able to pay its phalanxes of homosexual clergy. They'll be on the street.
Our gay bishops know this; hence, their insisting on 'celibacy'.
Father Michael Cassabon in the Diocese of Charleston married another man and was dismissed. The state can't force the Catholic Church to recognize gay marriages. The Greek Catholic Church in the US that was plagued with abuse cases once their priests were forbidden to marry in this country is coming back to life now that their priests are allowed to marry. In Canada, were they never impossed that celibacy rule, they neither had a decrease in vocations nor experienced many abuse cases because almost all their priests are married..
That's really interesting about the Greek Catholic Church. It suggests the problem is actually reversible.
John, the Church is not just another organization of human as you have described it. No, it is a Divine institution, the Mystical Body of Christ. The Catholic Church has been infiltrated. Perhaps you may remember Dr. Bella Dodd, who was once the second leading Communist in the United States. Born in Italy, she came to America as a young child. She became a Communist because she believed that it was for the poor. Once she realized the truth about Communism, she left the Party and returned to the Catholic Church. She wanted to spend the rest of her life in a Monastery in reparation for her sins, but Msgr(later Archbishop) Sheen said that her penance was to travel across the country to warn people about the evil of Communism. Having been a professor for many years at Hunter College in NYC, she spoke to the students there. A member of my family heard her. Dr. Dodd said that Russia, realizing that it could not destroy America militarily, would do so through the culture - the so- called “March through the institutions.” In Catholic colleges she also revealed that she had been ordered by Joseph Stalin in the late 1930’s to place over one- thousand (1,000) young men - some may not even have been baptized - into Catholic seminaries to destroy the Church from within. So the sin of sodomy, one of the four sins that cry to Heaven for vengeance, was introduced into Catholic seminaries by the Communists to destroy the priesthood.
No priest, no Mass. No Mass, no JESUS. (A good friend of mine, president of his class at CU (Catholic University) at that time, told me about this since he heard Dr. Dodd speak.
We must pray for the purification of the Church, the only Church founded by JESUS CHRIST.
Like Her Founder, the Catholic Church is suffering Her Passion, but like JESUS, will rise more gloriously! Hold fast. Never leave the Catholic Church.