The Catholic Church Needs Purification, Renewal and Restoration to Rise to a New Missionary Moment

2/27/2013

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are human persons, created in the very image of God. Rather than being respected and honored, human persons are treated as commodities to be used and abused. Rather than being seen as an integral part of the human person, the human body is reduced to a sexual object to be used, abused or molested. This lies at the root of the sin of pornography as well as the sexual acting out of what is often begun in the heart - in acts that the sacred scripture calls the sins of the flesh.

The late Pope referred to abortion as the cutting edge of this culture of death. It is the most blatant example of the use of another person. We no longer protect our smallest members but rather encourage mothers to participate in destroying their own child in the former sanctuary of the womb, the first home of every person.

Trafficking in parts of aborted children hides under a false claim of progress. Every time a stem cell is extracted from an embryonic human person, he or she is killed. No matter how these techniques are dressed up as science and no matter how they promise to prolong our lives (a claim as of yet unproven) they are immoral.

Some choices are always and everywhere wrong and intrinsically immoral. They violate the natural law, even if they are legal under current positive law. It is always and everywhere wrong to use people and treat them as objects, no matter what the purported end or goal of the use or the age of the human person.

Faithful Catholics support adult stem cell research and fetal cord blood research because we support all scientifically legitimate and moral research that does not destroy life. We believe that good science must serve the person and the common good. However, we reject destroying life for the use of another. People should never be used as a means to an end.

This error lies at the root of the Catholic rejection of artificial contraception. Contracepted sexual activity - no matter how well the argument in favor of artificial contraception is dressed up in the finest sophistry by dissidents within our own Church - is never a complete gift of self. It is not open to life; therefore it is not unitive or pro-creative. It involves a use of the other.

Contraception is immoral because it impedes the sexual expression of authentic love as the full and complete gift of self in the marital embrace. The Catholic Church is not unenlightened. She is not against sex. Rather, she proclaims the full understanding of the beauty and the dignity of sexual relations as proper only in marriage. The Catholic Church is actually the guardian of the truth about the beauty of sexual love in an age given over to self centeredness and sexual libertinism.

The Church rejects artificial contraception and insists on the proper use of natural family planning within marriage. Again, not because she is opposed to sexual relations. That would be heresy. Rather, because she proclaims the dignity, beauty and splendor of conjugal love between spouses as a sign of the complete gift of self.

Sexual relations belong exclusively within the embrace of faithful, chaste marriage. They are a part of the sacramental nature of Christian marriage. Marital sexual relations, rooted in the love that is the gift of self to the beloved, should always be open to new life. They are a participation in the mystery of communion, sharing in the creative and redemptive nature of the Christian mission.

The problem we face in the Catholic Church is infidelity. The problem we face in the Church is sin. Many of the incidents reported among the minority of clergy who have sinned against their vowed celibacy involve homosexual acts. In many instances, the activities in which they engaged constitute pederasty, a term derived from an ancient Greek word that referred to sexual relationships between men and boys.

The teaching of the Catholic Church on homosexuality is clear, compassionate, and true. Homosexual orientation is disordered. Homosexual temptation, like every other sexual temptation, is not sin. However, homosexual acts are ALWAYS sin. Homosexual acts can never accomplish the ends (in the philosophical and theological sense of the word - goal) of authentic love.

The sexual expression of love is reserved for the marital conjugal act, the marital embrace. The Catholic Church rightly proclaims that every marital sexual act must be both unitive (fulfilling the divine mandate of marriage that the two shall be as one) and procreative, or open to life. Homosexual sexual acts are not procreative and cannot be unitive.

While the Church teaches that we must respect the dignity of every person, including homosexual persons, it clearly and unequivocally teaches that homosexual acts are always and everywhere intrinsically immoral and sinful. Homosexual sexual acts constitute a use of the body of another.

Such sexual activity, when ...
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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: purification, sexual abuse scandal, catholic church, clergy abuse, Cardinal Mahoney, Conclave, New pope, Pope Benedict XVI, purification, renewal, Catholic Church crisis, clergy sex abuse, Pope benedict XVI, Deacon Keith Fournier

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1 - 10 of 21 Comments

Rob
2 months ago
I still think we are missing the mark. Seems like we are still so focused on the rules...who's following them and who's not. This is a problem sure, but not the main problem. Our main problem is that the church has stopped calling people to become disciples. The American church is the worst. Day in and day out all we hear about is gay this or that, Obama and contraception etc. There is absolutely no call to follow Christ. There is no call to lay our lives down. Somehow Jesus seems to have become a lesser part of following the rules so I can be a "good catholic." Feels like a country club instead of a church sometimes.

Uncoverted people are never going to get it. Purification of the church is a good thing no doubt. But what the church really needs is to re-focus on it's primary mission. If we aren't evangelizing to our brothers and sisters in our immediate circles, then we are the problem, not the church. The church, like our society, will change when hearts and minds become more like Jesus.

It's really that simple and we just keep pointing at every problem under the sun as the reason why things are so bad. We keep pointing outward when perhaps we need to look in the mirror and do some pointing.
robert matzinger
2 months ago
We don't need "purification" as much as we simply need strong powerful leadership and guidance from our Priests, Bishops, Cardinals and our new Holy Father in restoring our beliefs in our traditional Catholic teachings in our church.
don cappy
2 months ago
Right on, the Pope must be more aggressive against these immoral acts, as well as the corruption of the sole by those who value freedom over their responsibility to the laws of God
Omar
2 months ago
I am truly considering leaving the Catholic Church. I do not have an issue with my Catholic faith the issue and disdain I have is with the Vatican, Cardinals, Archbishops, Priests and other groups(Political, lobbyist, etc) whom are corrupting the catholic faith. The new pope must clean house and that dossier must be made know to all catholics. If new pope does not do that and change the church to accept married priest, women priests, etc. I will leave my CATHOLIC FAITH in a heart beat. Saint Michael please come and protect our catholic faith just like you guard and protect heaven and Israel.
Emma
2 months ago
I can't argue that purification is not called for, however we should also be boldly speaking out for and supporting (both in word and prayer) the good, holy priests, deacons and bishops who have faithfully served God and who continue to serve Him today. How strong they must need to be to continue in servi to Christ, to not give up on His flock! We counter darkness with Light! From this day forward, whenever I'm confronted with a story of an abusive priest, I will stand ready with the names of ten who I know to be serving with humility, charity and great courage! Let's not forget how many there are! We all know scandal sells! We all know that the animal that is fed the most is the one that gains strength. True? Let's feed and nurture those who are true servants and stop feeding the beast!!

As for contraceptives, Catholic teaching becomes more clear when I examine it by turning my attention to male contraceptives. If it is wrong for a man to use a condom or have a vasectomy, which specifically are utilized to PREVENT fertiliizatiion, it follows that it is also wrong for a woman to use artificial means to prevent fertilization. On the other hand, there's nothing unnatural about a woman tellling her husband, " Not tonight, honey. " We do it all the time. Not only when ovulating.
Dr. John
2 months ago
Interesting and thoughtful responses to my comments.
First off, the contraception issue was actually intended to be a minor portion of my comment and got somewhat wordy. I did not meant to imply that Deacon Keith was spreading misinformation. He did not make that comment at all. It was an argument I have heard made.
It is so easy to get sidetracked into arguments over portions of our faith and miss the big picture.
I have a deep love for my faith and after returning to it from a long and lonely hiatus I am deeply protective of it and of my brothers and sisters. I have no doubt that all of you do as well and I pray every day for the cleansing and purification of our leadership.
There are no gray issues. We have an instruction manual and a living example to follow. When we fail to do that we damage the church and the message beyond repair. We might as well be following Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggert if we are not going to hold our leadership responsible to the world and to each one of us.
If Jesus returned today would he join us or shun us?
K C Thomas
2 months ago
Dr John, I understand your arguments. But may I tell you my interpretation. The natural family planning method is only a way to make the couple understand the value of abstinence on some days. The other so called safe days too may bring about pregnancy in rare cases, but the couple accepts it. Once contraception is considered not sinful, even many other types of sins of the flesh can be argued to be considered as not sinful. It will be a pandora's box. If we believe in our Church teachings, we have to suffer a bit, we have to abstain.... all these are crosses we have to carry. A sincere believer practicing his faith can guage the difference between lust and Love. There is tremendous difference. If we do not believe, there is no problem.
Gerald.ch21cpg
2 months ago
The writer's claim that "The victims must be helped with healing and restitution." This is a very mundane answer. I would rather that, "the victims must be helped in restoring their faith in God and the Church." This is a more God-centered choice of words.

The statement "That means that her clergy - Priests, Bishops and Deacons - must all be holy as the Lord Himself is holy." is also a misunderstanding of Jesus' work. Man will never be without sin, as stated by Jesus Himself. He continues to be with us, even now, and we can only strive for remission of sin and acceptance into heaven upon our death.

Further, the statement that "If the Church is going to lead this contemporary age out of the Culture of Death, she must become a Culture of Life and a civilization of love." implies that secularity must direct the Catholic Church's goals and this goes directly against why Jesus instituted it.
Jennifer
2 months ago
Dr. John, now I have to take issue with some of your remarks. There is a fundamental difference -- and it is the moral difference -- between abstaining during fertile periods and using chemicals or synthetic barriers to prevent conception from the act of sexual intercourse. The difference is, abstinence means there is no sex act to corrupt or abuse or attempt to render infertile. It is cooperation with, and not an effort to subvert, the natural biological process of fertility and conception. Every act of sexual union between husband and wife must remain open to the possibility of new life, or it is inherently selfish and seeking only pleasure. That doesn't mean the Church is saying there's anything wrong with pleasure, or that sexual intercourse isn't supposed to be bonding and mutually fulfilling for the spouses. Only that the physical love between spouses has a holy purpose, and we don't have the right to corrupt that purpose with our chemicals and such.

Finally, it is simply not true that artificial hormonal steroids, aka The Pill, do not prevent conception, but only ovulation. The Pill also alters the woman's cervical mucus, making it inhospitable for the survival of sperm, and it makes the lining of the womb also inhospitable for implantation. There's the key: it used to be that "conception" meant the act of sperm joining with ovum. Now, today's abortion-friendly medical lingo has falsely taken to using the term "conception" to mean implantation. Two very different events in the life of a new human being. The Pill can render the uterus hostile toward a newly conceived human being by altering the lining of the uterus. That doesn't mean a new human being wasn't conceived. Deacon Keith presented NO misinformation at all.
theresa rosen
2 months ago
Why is Cardinal Mahoney going to the Conclave? Why can't Pope Benedict stop him? Let a priest/bishop/cardinal who allowed the sexual abuse of children by priests under him - he should be in jail, defrocked. A woman/girl has an abortion after incest or rape, and she's immediately excommunicated.

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