In the News

I want to address the ways the Catholic Church has been in the news recently. As more stories are published regarding Cardinal McCarrick and other members of the clergy, as well as the damning Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report, I know many of you are angry and hurting. Some of you have moved here from dioceses in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, and you personally know some of the accused priests. I want you to know that I stand with you; I stand hurting and outraged at the abuse that is being uncovered within the ranks of the clergy and hierarchy. I want reform. I want bishops and cardinals to be removed and investigated, those who were complicit in covering up decades of predators. These priests and bishops have defiled the name “priest” and the title “Father.” And in their wake, they have left victims that continue to suffer. Our suffering by being members of the Catholic Church in these days pales in comparison to the hurt they have caused.

God is in the Purge

When grotesque sins emerge in the life of the Church, many ask, “Where is God in all of this?” Well, I think God is in the purge. The Church’s holiness does not come from her priests and bishops. It comes from Christ. And sometimes the evil persons who pertain to the spotless Bride of Christ must be purged. The fact that purges keep happening is ample evidence of the fact that God wants the Church to return to holiness. If God didn’t care a bit about the Church he founded at Pentecost, he’d let it destroy itself, or simply grind it into the dust. But instead, as I speak, many forces in the world—even those that despise the Church and what she stands for—are conspiring to expose the wrongdoing of its members. For free. And, clearly, without any inside help. If that isn’t Divine Providence, then nothing is. Even hardened secular types want the Church to return to a truer self. We should be deeply grateful that these people are mysteriously doing our work for us, vicariously fulfilling our Christian duty to expose evil.

My Resolve

What can I do? I can stand firmly as a priest of God in the parish of Saint Mark and faithfully live out my vocation. I can strive daily to conform my life to the message of the Gospel. I can be resolved to be more united with Jesus through the Eucharistic sacrifice and carrying out my duties toward each of you with the love of Jesus. Through continuing in a life of celibate chastity and obedience, I am resolved to continue to deny myself for the sake of the kingdom of God which is made present here amidst the assembly of the faithful. I am resolved, along with the rest of the clergy here at the parish, to strive daily to be an example of the priesthood that Christ desires in his Church. Yes, this is a high bar, but with your prayers it is achievable.

The Response of the Faithful

What can you do? Stand firmly as a son or daughter of God, as a wife or husband, mother or father, all children of the Heavenly King, doing all things for his glory. Please pray within your homes for your priests, by name. Pray that we might minister God’s Word and Sacrament to you as faithfully as possible. Pray that the evil one may not have any sway over us. When asked about all of this by those outside of the Church, admit the loss of words and your disappointment or anger over these horrendous actions by those we should be able to respect and trust. But always remember, holiness is the Lord’s and comes from the Lord. I thank you personally in these days for still coming to be fed and seeking the Lord’s holiness despite the horrors that are being described of those who are supposed to channel and model that holiness. It is so easy today to just turn away and run somewhere else. And each of you is an inspiration to me: your faithfulness that you would return here amidst the shame, hurt, and anger to be nourished by our Eucharistic Lord. Continue to draw close to Him, who offers a peace that the world cannot give.

This Ship Will Not Go Down

The Church is the New Ark. As Noah led the animals and his family into the ark to save them from the flood, so we have been led into the ark of the Church for safekeeping until this boat reaches its final destination, Heaven. The flood is the world outside. Sometimes the waves lap, and sometimes they come crashing against the ark. But they have never overwhelmed her. They have never—even now—capsized her. She cannot be capsized.

Then there are the people in the boat. Each in their own way, they play their part to care for the boat and operate all of its parts. I am referring to you and me with our different vocations, talents, and gifts. We all play our proper part. But some of the sailors may not perform their duties as well as they could. Some will do their part with only half the effort. And this would slow down the operations of the boat. Some have harmed their fellow sailors, even to the point that those harmed have thrown themselves overboard and given up being part of the crew. And this is awful. Others remain part of the crew but suffer horrible wounds that keep them from being fully alive and 100% part of the crew operations. Even worse is when the other officers knew about these crew members and do nothing. Worse yet is when some of those causing injury are officers themselves, and the other officers do nothing.

A few things must be done to remedy this situation. First, the officers who perpetrated the criminal violence against a crewman must be dealt with severely. While he cannot be thrown overboard, he must be stripped of his rank and tied to the mast. His freedom to move about the ship and function as part of the crew must be limited as much as possible. This is for punishment and the good of the crew. The officers and crew should see him there as a warning to anyone who would dare to act contrary to the good of the ship. The other officers who knew about it must also be disciplined according to the level of their cooperation. And the captain must do this himself to make a demonstration that he cares for the whole crew.

What must the crew do? The crew is left to pick up the slack. With many unworthy officers reduced in rank, thrown in the brig, or tied to the mast, crew members who have proved themselves loyal to the ship’s captain and his crewmates must be raised in rank.

The crew will never be the same, though. Those who were injured still suffer and try to heal. Those who threw themselves overboard must be searched for. When they are found, no effort can be spared in pulling them back into the boat and resuscitating them. Those who have been half-hearted in their work must pick up the slack of those crew members who cannot work to their full potential because they are hurting and injured. All in all, those who are healthy must rededicate themselves in a new way to the ship and shipmates under the direction of the captain.

Penance, Penance, Penance

My dear brothers and sisters, we are the ones who must rededicate ourselves to the ship. Reparation is about turning undividedly toward the Lord and plead for mercy on behalf of the whole Church. Parce, Domine, parce populo tuo. “Spare, Lord, spare your people: Be not angry with us forever.” It is about making expiation with Jesus for the sins of our leaders. It is about making atonement and satisfaction for our countrymen who do not believe, do not love, and do not hope in God.

It is about our own hearts being moved to weep for our own sins and the sins of others in the Church. It is about a promise to our God that we will never consort with the Evil One. It is about being restored to grace through the merits of Christ’s death, which grace enables him to add his prayers, works, and trials to those of Our Lord “and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his body, which is the church” (Colossians 1:24). It is about satisfying God’s justice and anger by penance, prayer, and mortification.

St. Catherine of Sienna said of the evils of her own time: “We have been anointing everything with the ointment of mercy, when we have needed the knife of justice.” Everything today is acceptable. In our relativistic society, no one dares speak the truth about God creating man and woman for a purpose. Instead, we glorify perversion and the over sensualizing of our culture. Even the virtue of modesty is laughed at as being “out-of-touch.” Worst of all, the complementarity of man and woman written into creation is doubted, denied, and scorned. And all of these things anger our God and those who truly pertain to him. So, we call ourselves back to his purpose for creation: nothing but his glory made known on earth.

It is time for a spiritual renewal in the Church. It is time that we look at our own hearts and identify anything that keeps us from him, and we turn it over to his throne for him to dispose of. We must call ourselves back to a true interior life that integrates self-denial, penance, prayer, and mortification. All this for God’s glory and our sanctification.

We must willfully offer our sufferings for those victims who still hurt and are in need of healing. We must unite ourselves, for them, to the cross of our Lord. We must accept them and love them within our community. We must listen to their sorrows and pains, knowing that there is no way to truly understand the evil they have suffered. We must walk beside them and, many times, carry them on our shoulders.

We must allow Christ to renew our hearts, our families, our parish, our Church, and our nation. We can make no more excuse to choose anything other than the will of God and those things in creation that bring us to him. Because of our sins and the sins of our fellow Catholics, we deserve nothing from God. But may he have mercy on us. As he caused water to flow from the rock, may he bring forth from the hardness of our hearts tears for our sins, and merit to forgive us through his Son.