My friend Dan Cere at McGill University got a error message when he tried to post his comment, so here it is:
Comment on “The Priests We Deserve”
Clare McGrath-Merkle’s comment on Leon Podles’s insightful post on Berullian conceptions of the priest provides a few more examples of the persistence of dangerously inflated theological visions of the clerical state. According to McGrath-Merkle, Fr. Stephen Rossetti is a contemporary exponent of this majestic view of holy orders.
Curiously Fr. Rossetti (Catholic University of America) is also a well-respected commentator on the clerical abuse crisis. His publications include: Tragic Grace: The Catholic Church and Child Sexual Abuse, and Slayers of the Soul: Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church. He served as president of St. Luke’s Institute for many years and claims to have an amazing success rate in the treatment of clerical child molesters (treated 150 clerical child abusers with only 2.7% recidivism) and success in returning them to priestly ministry (with some restraints on contacts with minors).
While the priest may participate in the mysterious heights of the Christological mysteries, in Slayers of the Soul, Fr. Rossetti argues that the molester reveals the dark muddier depths of our ordinary humanity. According to Fr. Rossetti, the child molester reveals disturbing truths about the “inner darkness” that dwells within each one of us. He stresses our common humanity with the molester and the unsettling ways in which our “inner darkness” is reflected in spectre of the “dirty old man” stalking his prey. He writes:
“As a society, we would like to believe that child molesters are different, perhaps even evil, and that they should be treated with contempt and removed from our midst. Indeed, their crimes cannot be minimized, but neither can our common, broken humanity. We must not forget that our own inner darkness which makes us resemble the “dirty old man” that stalks his prey in the night. The existence of our private darkness frightens us just as much as the spectre of the active child molester. Perhaps if we are afraid of this “dirty old man,” concoct unreal myths about him, and wish to banish him from our midst, it is because we are afraid of what he shows us about ourselves. But the truth is he is in our midst, and he looks a lot like us.” (Slayers, 17)
Sexual abuse, he argues, is “merely…a symptom of an underlying problem in our society.” (Slayers, 186) It is not just the abuser, but “the entire system that is dysfunctional” and all “contribute, in some way, to the patient’s disorder…. pedophilia and ephebophilia might be seen as a symptom of an underlying disorder within our entire society.” (Slayers, 187) He argues that “the seeds” of this disorder are found in the family: “pedophilia and ephebophilia can be thought of as illnesses that spring from the context of our family. It is the entire family that is ill and is in need of healing.” (Slayers, 188-189)
Fr. Rossetti encourages us to come to terms with “an uncomfortable familiarity with the child molester…to identify with the child molester, because he or she is a member of our family” and “his or her struggles are much like ours” (Slayers, 198) In his concluding words Fr. Rossetti affirms the liberating message that the child molester offers us: “This may be the hardest yet potentially the most liberating challenge the child molester places before us: to see within ourselves the seeds of this tragedy, and to recognize in the face of the perpetrator the features of our own countenance.” (198-199)
In short, Fr. Rossetti might embrace a high inflated vision of the priesthood, but he seems to propose a deeply deflated view of our common humanity and the family. The child molester, it seems, is everyman. The molester reveals the ingrained slimy sinfulness of our ordinary common humanity.
Awareness of the brokenness of our common humanity is a central gospel message. But this did not prevent Jesus from reacting to those who would harm children with a severity (Matt 18) that Fr. Rossetti seems to repudiate. In Slayers of the Soul Fr. Rossetti suggests that a critical path forward in the abuse crisis seems to be one of mutual recognition, fellow-feeling with molesters, and “general confession” of our common sinful humanity. Jesus’ stern warnings about harm to children welcomed into the church, coupled with his threats of millstones and the severing of limbs, would appear to point in a somewhat different pastoral direction.
Is it an oversimplification to draw the conclusion that Fr. Rossetti believes in Original Sin and the total depravity of Man? Therefore, without the intervention of God, no of us can do anything to help ourselves?
Janice, I don’t believe Rossetti is talking about original sin. He is conflating the hideous evil of child rape with normal human weakness, and implying that the family is a causative nexus. I personally would bet that his moral beliefs are heterodox, to say the least. “Gee, we are all Charles Manson! we have created him by our inhibitions and authoritarianism, provoking this reaction!”. Or, as we heard in the sixties when cities burned and police were targeted: “It’s our fault! there is reason behind this rage! we ,ust ask ourselves ‘why’ they want to destroy and kill!” Or, as I heard on NPR, suicide bombing is an act of despair to which we drive the poor whoever.
You know, I have dark, inner thoughts as well. But I would never molest a child. Never. Ever.
And if I did, I trust that my best friend would put a gun to my head and end my miserable life. That is, if he beat me to it.
I think it’s absolutely despicable when people use this “we all have a dark side” nonsense to justify evil deeds.
Luther allegedly said that you can allow a bird to fly over your head, but you don’t have to let him nest in your hair. IOW, crazy thoughts can enter your mind, but you don’t have to let them take root, or act on them.
And people who choose to act on them can’t assuage their conscience by saying that we all have dark thoughts.
Thank you for those quotes. I would suggest that there is a serious problem illustrated here of the phenomenon of the priest-psychologist.
The frequency of this combination has deeply affected both professions, where blurring of professional boundaries and identities specific to each discipline has occurred, and where, in the case of the crisis, the greatest evils have resulted. To this day, priest abusers roam free to abuse again because of this.
A priest first is Monsignor Rossetti, who has been described by one sociologist as a “company man.” The over-identification of priest psychologists with abusive priests is not hard to observe as fundamental to the cover-up.
That anyone, much less a professional psychologist, would a) return a child abuser to ministry and b) expect that they can be kept from future victims by some restrictions and by “monitoring” clearly illustrates there is a serious forfeiture of discernment. This failure, itself symptomatic of a developmental atrophy, makes these company men criminally complicit, and with a culpable absence of malice.
These priest psychologists over identify with their patient-confreres because they have to, much like a wife who thinks her child-abuser husband is simply in need of a vacation and a closer eye. They are refusing to look at the Jungian shadow of their own exalted priesthood whilst saying to Dorothy and the rest of us to pay no attention to man behind the curtain but rather, to look at the shadow of our own humanity instead. They must justify in their own minds their support of a system that protects the priesthood instead of children. A 2% rate of recidivism is not a success for the 2 of 100 children who were raped.
Archbishop Dolan recently stated publicly, concerning a serial rapist priest he supported, that he was “protecting his priesthood.” The protection of the priesthood, even over and above the avoidance of scandal and protection of the Church, is at the heart of priest psychologists’ minimization of the threat to children these men pose.
What is stunning is that, over and over, one hears or reads that abuse victims and advocates who express anger at the abuse and the cover-up somehow are unforgiving and refusing to see these men as merely fallible humans. Monsignor Rossetti’s homage to the fallen and shared humanity of child rapists would be acceptable if it were not an excuse for allowing for, no, abetting, the future rape of children.
As one abuse victim said, anger is a natural reaction of men toward child abusers. That this natural reaction is missing in priest psychologists’ psyches is also emblematic of their own developmental and concomitant moral failures.
A common excuse (and one used by Monsignor Rossetti) for keeping abusers in collars is that these men, if laicized, would be free to abuse again.
Changes in statutes of limitations that would bring these men to justice and protect children are shamefully being fought against with great vigor and success by Catholic conferences in state cameras nationwide.
The cover-up, minimization, back-door political strong-arming, and child rapes by known but unstopped abusers are all going on right now. The crisis is far from over. And, as one abuse victim said, the authors of the abuse crisis are now in charge of the reform.
I am a broken person, just like everyone else. I am a sinner, just like everyone else.
But I absolutely abhor the idea of anally raping a child. Or torturing a child in any way. Or murdering a child. Or raping a mentally retarded person. Or mutilating an elderly woman’s face because it’s fun. Or tearing a tabernacle open and spitting on the Eucharist. Or taking a baby and bashing its head in. Or running over a cat with a lawn-mower just for kicks.
Good Lord, if there aren’t acts we consider absolutely abhorrent and that turns our stomachs, what is wrong with us as a society?? There are certain sins which I know I could only commit if I lost my mind competely (see above). Sociopaths are NOT the “everyman”. The day we start to believe that they are is a very sad and frightening day indeed.
I would not let the priest who teaches the sociopath is the “everyman” anywhere near my children.
First, I don’t belive that recidivism rate.
Second, that all sounds great from the standpoint of us all sharing a common humanity, and even inhumanity, as it were. But taken to an extreme, that can result in a laissez-faire attitude to child molestors.
I’m sorry but Rossetti is engaging in the kind of poetic moral equivalence that characterizes much of contemporary Catholic moral thinking. Besides, his claims of success with predators do not match his assertions about the common nature of their depravity.
Rossetti’s relatives would be doing the world a favor if they buried him in Antarctica upon
I remember reading Father Rossetti’s work in America Magazine in 02 after all hell was breaking loose in Boston. It was very much like the quotes above and I was deeply offended by his evident sympathy for offenders while leaving the victims of their attacks pretty much on their own. If these are the people the hierarchy puts out front to reflect on things, it tells us all we need to know about the men who claim to be our leaders. There is no goodness and no hope in the thinking of these men.
Below is taken from an interview of Monsignor Rossetti by Tim Russert. It illustrates well the kind of criminally complicit mentality that can parse legalisms to avoid reporting child rapists to authorities.
MR. RUSSERT: Your institute, the St. Luke Institute, is a center here near Washington where priests come. There was a suicide recently…
FR. ROSSETTI: Yes.
MR. RUSSERT: …a threat of losing accreditation. And one of the points that the state of Maryland pointed out–and I’ll show you and our viewers–“St. Luke Institute, the Catholic Church-sponsored psychiatric hospital for priests, has been cited by Maryland health officials for failing to report to police instances of suspected child abuse by its patients. In a report released [Wednesday], health inspectors said they found no records showing that St. Luke has given police the names of priests who said in the therapy that they had abused children.” Why was that your policy and have you now changed it?
FR. ROSSETTI: Tim, that was not our policy. That was–we have a letter from the attorney general, the state of Maryland, 1991, saying that out-of-state cases that occur out of the state of Maryland are not required to be reported by law. And, thus, the privilege–the privacy of our patients by law needs to be respected. So we are obligated by law not to report out-of-state cases, and we do report in-state cases, so, in fact, we were following the law.
MR. RUSSERT: But the deputy attorney general said your obligation is to report all cases.
FR. ROSSETTI: Yes, we have a statement from the attorney general, who was her supervisor, saying that’s not the case. And we’ve asked the state of Maryland to review that, because we have a contradiction. We are operating under the 1991 statement by the attorney general.
http://www.podles.org/dialogue/from-dane-cere-451.htm#comments
The correct link is:
http://www.jknirp.com/mtp2.htm
I concur with Thomas and Joseph. Fr Rosetti seems to have an inflated opinion concerning his own skill levels regarding his Practice and success rate . The stats just don’t equate with others of his Profession.
Is it possible that Narcissism is comunicable disease within the clergy?
If so, the antidote just may be Truth. I recommend to start the Treatment and test for symptom facts stat.
Catholic World Report reporter blames Vatican II for homosexual acceptance into seminaries citing reason for 80% of abuse against male teens.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ppvbJZzKgo&feature=related
Sick!! I could not believe what Fr Rossetti said.
Archbishop Dolan recently stated publicly, concerning a serial rapist priest he supported, that he was “protecting his priesthood.”
Clare, could you provide the link to this? If Dolan really said that, then the Catholic Church has learned nothing since St. Peter Damian, let alone during the past decade.
The recent public declarations of ex-Bishop Roger Vangheluwe of Brusges, Belgium, are perfect expositions of how pedophiles think.
Tony de NY – love your honest reaction.
St. Luke’s has been part of the problem for decades, not part of the solution.
As for Vat II being responsible, not even close: there was much molestation in the 50’s and early 60’s, and by older priests in the 70’s… many of the accusations of the 80’s and 90’s concerned priests who were in seminary in the 40’s and 50’s.
Catholic who criticize people who sue don’t realize that when the statute of limitations runs, and the crime is 10-30 years old, one has no recourse but to sue. Amazingly, priest child-rapists usually get a plea-down and probation, which makes one wonder about the after hours activities of some judges.
If the prelates wanted to “protect priesthood” they would treat misbehaving priests just as St. Peter Damian recommended: whipped, shaved, chained, imprisoned, on bread and water and hard labor.
Archbishop Dolan is quoted in NCR at bottom of this article. He refers to trying to help the offending priest keep his priesthood, rather than protect it.
http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/campaign-builds-rethinking-zero-tolerance-sex-abuse
St. Basil was noted for his compassion and awareness that all of have for God’s mercy. However, he put the good and safety of the young before any consideration for abusing clerics. His recommendation was that predatory priests be whipped, fed on bread and water while in prison for a certain time, and then be sent to spend the remainder of their lives with old monks in isolated religious communities. He certainly put the safety of the young first, whatever darkness he thought might lurk in his heart or that of others. He also left room for the anger of Church and society to be expressed.
Fr and Lee, The supposed charity towards all the sodomite clerical abusers stems from the moral relativism that captured the Vatican and Catholic culture post Vatican II.
Cardinal Ratzinger knew everything about Marcial’s proclivities and refused to take action as stated in a letter from him ,when he headed the CDF , to one of the original Legion priests.
His reasons were because the now Beatified Pope John Paul II was fond of Marcial and because of the good Marcial did for the Church.$$$.
So it is safe to say moral relativism includes keeping scandals that would discredit the quality of those in the the priesthood under wraps, despite the harm to the innocence of soul psyche and body caused by clerical abusers and can be balanced by the financial bottom line as to what they bring to the church by way of donations.
I disagree with Leon’s conclusion in an earlier article that JPII favored Marcial because of the numbers of priests the Legion attracted. My friends who were members of the RC and who had and have relative priests in the Legion have told me repeatedly that Marcial used already ordained priests in group pics of LC candidates for the priesthood. These pictures and statements inflated the numbers of priestly candidates. Rather, the financial interests of the Legion along with wealthy investors and donors has always been the bottom line for blocking the truth about Marcial for decades.
Is there any prayer in any Christian denomination which makes penitent people acknowledge the harm they have done to others?
This is something that I think is missing in most penitential prayers and/or acts of contrition. The people whom I have known who committed serious sins against others did not seem to care how much they hurt the other people. One response: “I don’t care anything about them.” Their main focus was to get out of hell fire.
Monsignor Rossetti’s today on NCR:
http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/priest-signs-grace-abuse-scandal
During the early centuries of our Church, people guilty of serious public sins were required to perform serious and public acts of penance before recieving absolution. These penances could last for years. It was only in the early middle ages that a gradual move towards handling all sin quietly “under the seal” began to take hold. The attitude of the ancient Church was “Serious sins have serious consequences”. Of course with perfect contrition (a gift of grace) the penitent could regain divine life before actually receiving absolution. But they were not received back into the fellowship of the Church until the penance was completed.
Fr, We have a long road backwards to become really Christian again in our general catholic thought.
The Catholic church must abandon politics and public relations in lieu of prayer and penance to really pick up where the first Apostles left off.
I think it will happen, but only after major devastation and loss of financing.
Janice, the “I don’t care anything about them” attitude is deliberately encouraged in some forms of Catholic spirituality. Dietrich von Hildebrand commented on this in the fourth chapter of his book “Trojan Horse in the City of God”:
“‘God and my soul alone matter; all other things are only means.’ This attitude was often found in ascetic books and it gained currency in the lives of many pious Catholics, especially among members of religious orders. … Another misinterpretation of the meaning of charity for one’s neighbor often put forward by pious, well-intentioned Catholics assumed that it is more perfect, more supernatural, more Christian, more pleasing to God, if all the good one does to one’s neighbor and all the sacrifices made in order to help him are accomplished with the exclusive intention of following Christ’s commands, but with a complete indifference toward the other person, as such. … One could hear such assurances as, ‘Believe me, I do it exclusively for Christ. This sick man, as such, in no way concerns me.'”
Needless to say, von Hildebrand condemned all this as completely inadequate to any genuinely Christian notion of charity; but it seems to have taken deep root in certain circles, and it may help explain some of the hard-heartedness shown by both the hierarchy and the faithful toward abuse victims (as well as many others).
When Father Rosetti goe on about all of us having dark spaces in the same way as the child molester, he has a hole in his head. Been hanging around twisted religious types for too long. No wonder all the pedophile priests had a heydey. The inmates have been running the asylum.
Aw
Janice & Sardath,
Excellent comments. I have been obsessed with this issue for many years. I am glad to know I am not the only one who thinks about it and is troubled by it.
Augusta, in may ways, they still are.
Out of touch with the healthy and moral the inmates have been running the institutions.
http://www.theinquiry.ca/Loftus.hide.php
“One must conclude that Loftus believes we are, one and all, paedophiles at heart, a thought echoed by yet another clerical sexologist, Father Stephen Rosetti, President of St. Luke’s Institute. According to Engel, in his book “The Myth of the Child Molester” Rosetti “asserts that most people have pedophiliac urges, including mothers, but are able to repress them.”
Off subject just slightly, but a very interesting article in light of comments concerning “inmates” and others who have been running things for the Church.
http://www.pagesofmary.com/
Mary, as someone who was baptized as a Catholic and raised in the Catholic Church, I’m coming to believe that most of the church’s leadership is an accomplice to the Great Deception that was promised at the End Times. Catholic leadership isn’t the only group deceived, of course; mainline Protestants long ago sold their spiritual birthright for the stale porridge of intellectual fashion and “political correctness.” But the Catholic Church has a unique responsibility becaue it claims to represent “the fullness of the Gospel.”
One more thing, gentle readers. I suggest you read Romans 1: 21-32. Then think about St. Peter Damian and “The Book of Gommorah.” Then consider all the headlines concerning the prelates, clergy and pederatsy. Then ask yourselves if God has given up the Catholic Church to its own appetites.
Dear Joseph, I am a cradle Catholic and love my Faith. It stood to reason in my mind that when the Baltimore Catechism asked ,’Why did God Make me”? The answer being,”To Know Love and serve Him in this world and be with him in the next” , meant I better KNOW him to progess to the rest. After spending a lifetime attempting to progess eventually it all came back to Theology 101, that the Catholic church is based on Tradition and Scripture. Then conflicts arose with the scandals and how the Successors of the Apostles were handling them. Not just the pederast scandals but those myriads of confused practices and teachings that crept in to replace Tradition, Bishops who allowed Mass to be downgraded to religious entertainment,i.e.clown Masses etc.Annulments for those who could afford them, and of course I could go on and on…….Looking at Scripture I wonder how it is that Christ repeatedly asserted that His “….Kingdom was not of this world and ,
” The Kingdom of God is within you.” How is it we turned the Catholic church into a political entity and when did that happen? My only conclusion was that this resulted in the split known as the Great Schism between the Orthodox (true) and the Catholic
( universal) Church ,and that it has spawned a growing disintegration of the Church Militant since. All flavors and types fo Christian denominations. Something for everyone.
Prior to His public ministry Christ was shown the riches of the earth by Satan, He rebuffed the Tempter. Judas opted for the silver coins. It is apparent that we have many Judas’ and others who are and have been in authority who have been tempted by the riches of the world.
Indeed they have been part of a Great Deception and also evident is that only God can repair the disintegration. I also believe that besides the Truth we have the rosary as our weapon during these times, and for that I personally am grateful.
Joseph, that can all be true without compromising the fact that it is Christ’s Church and Peter is the Rock. THAT is precisely why we Catholics suffer so much with these evils. To leave the Church is, ultimately, to join the other side, the side with no anchor for the ship, no rock to build on, no authority to say yay or nay to anything, even in morality. To leave the Church over evil is to lose the very ground you stand on to protest the evil.
I continue to be amazed at the mypopic analysis of the “current” crisis by fellow Catholics. The Secrets of LaSalette found in the Vatican Archives file of Pope Leo XIII in the year 1999 by the monk Fr Michael de Cortville, coupled with the Church approved apparition of Fatima really do explain it all. Lucia told us to read Scripture because we are living it.Specifically CH 12 in the Apocalypse.
Mary Ann, I disagree. The “rock” is not Peter, the Church, or any Christian leader or denomination. The Rock is Christ Himself. If any church builds upon Him, it will stand. If any fails to do so, it will fall. Unfortunately, many churches (including the Catholic Church) have failed to do so.
Christ once asked a very poignant question: “When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on the Earth?” Think about the impliciations of the answer to that hypothetical, Mary Ann. Think about what those implications mean to every leader who claims to derive his authority from God.
I’m not asking people to leave the Catholic Church, Mary Ann. I’m asking people to fight against the evil within it. Mary has the right idea. I just wish that more Catholics would.
Joseph and Mary Ann , The Book of Daniel speaks about the Church built upon the rock also and Jesus is that Rock. Church history has proven that many evil Popes reigned at one time or another. I stand by my statement that the split between the East and the West weakend the Church Christ founded. An open minded examination from both sides clarifies how it all came about . Politics. All based on power and wealth. So I ask again when did Christ’s Church decide to bow to Mammon instead of His Teachings? When did His Apostles throw off the cloak and sandals He directed them to even give away if need be, for the finery of lace , silk and jewels?
I want to clarify my statement above. The rock is Peter’s name in the klione Greek. But out of context is that repetitive phrase that Christ built his Church upon “Peter” the rock.
Peter was the Apostle who answered Christ when He asked,” Who do you think I am”? Peter replied that Christ was,”… the Son of the Living God” and in doing so Christ acknowledged that this was by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. It is upon the inspiration of the Holy Ghost that Christ has built His Church after He descended upon Our Lady and the Apostles, and the early Apostles did not give any indication that His Church was built on Peter.
Later on, the Early Church Fathers always acknowledged that when arguments arose concerning the Faith especially in the first councils ,the Bishop of Rome settled the question. Hence, the encyclicals have been always verified by scriptural quotes.
In the current crisis the Pope is repeatedly being named as complicit by lawyers for the accused , rebuttals from the Vatican use the defense that the Pope is the Bishop of Rome and the bishops whose See in which the abuse occurred are responsible. That is why all the Liturgical abuses etc letters that were sent to Rome by the Faithful here from laity and clergy alike, from the various Diocese’ are always returned to the Diocesecan Bishop. Catholics do not seem to get that, mainly because that ‘rock’ phrase has been pounded into their heads
.
Blessed Anna Katerina Emmerick herself refers to the Church that is not built on the inspiration of the Holy Ghost of present time, as being ripped down to it’s foundation and being rebuilt by God Himself.
The Church was founded by Christ and through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost which Peter acknowledged and since his name meant “rock’ Christ referenced this rock will withstand the gates of hell.
Looking at that phrase isn’t it erroneous to interpret the ‘Gates’ as attacking the Church? Gates do not attack. Rather they surrounded cities in ancient times so as to protect the city from invaders. Therefore, ‘The Gates of hell will not prevail against her” is better understood as the Church, while inspired by the power of the Holy Ghost will, as a huge rock, bash down the gates of hell and invade and conquer the city (world) that is under the dominion of Hell. In other words the Church which is the Faithful Militant will win out in the end in this world.
Rosetti is part of the system.
Mary, thank you for the clear and inspiring interpretation of the gates of Hell not prevailing against the Church. I get so tired of people indicating that this passages means 1) all Church misbehavior can be blamed on Satan or 2) despite the misbehavior of Christians, the Church will always exist.
Janice, take a look at Ezekiel 34 and 1 Samuel 2:12-36, for starters. In both cases, you will see a prophet of God denouncing those who misuse the authority He gave them for personal ambition and self-aggrandizement. Also, study those passages of the OT in which God is angry at His chosen people, Israel, for rejecting Him and engaging in Canaanite idolatry — and allows the Assyrians and Babylonians to destroy their independence and drive them into captivity.
Just because God has anointed certain people doesn’t mean they can disregard Him with impugnity. That’s something that Catholics fail or refuse to understand about the Petrine commission. Instead, they look at themselves as the “big dogs” of Christianity, and look at other Christians (especially Protestants) in a condescending, superior manner. They will be judged for that condescention.
Amen. Joseph, thanks for your reply.
Saturday morning I attended a breakfast sponsored by an Evangelical Reformed Church. The lady giving the meditation said that God loves each of us as His Own child, even if we sin against Him, others or ourselves, God is not angry with us, but compassionate. Sunday morning I attended my usual Traditional 1928 English Mass Church where we said a prayer describing God as being provoked justly with wrath and indignation against us because of our misdoings. Hmmm these teachings are different!
However, it seems to me that our culture has gone so far astray that people are really no longer able to discern that they are committing sins. Arnold Schwartzenagger, Rielle Hunter, etc. After all, when did you last hear a sermon encouraging people not to work on the Sabbath? If one of the Ten Commandments can be ignored, then why cannot all of them be ignored?
Sardath and St. Bavo, I have only once in my 66 years of church attendance heard a homily in which the priest said that sin was serious because sin hurts people.
As someone born into the Catholic Church and having observed many priests over the years,I would say that the problem is with the quality of the candidates.As a youngster we soon learned to stay away from them as much as we could.They seemed to be deeply flawed individuals who looked on the church as a place that accepted them when no one else was so inclined.This was the only team that picked them.The good ones were the exceptions.