The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher offering pastoral counsel
A freethinker, William Jamieson, in 1871 had much to say about the dangers to the Republic that the Christian clergy represented. More convincing were his documented cases in which the clergy was a danger to young American womanhood. A series of scandals at the time led to various comments.
The Chicago Times editorialized:
The clergyman, like the physician, has extraordinary facilities for the commission of a certain class of crimes, and those facilities are such as to heap double damnation upon him if he is sufficiently diabolical to make use of them.
It also noted
…the extreme laxity which has commenced to govern certain denominations in accepting candidates for holy orders, and the mildness with which lesser offenses which invariably lead to greater ones.
and came out for a zero-tolerance policy.
Ecclesiastical commissions may attempt…to pronounce the charges false or exaggerated, but if there is the slightest proof of such indiscretion it should ever bar the accused from continuing in his sacred office.
The Pulpit admitted
There is no profession, class or avocation, so exposed to or tormented by the devil of sensuality as the ministry. The very sanctity of their office is an occasion of their stumbling. The office is confounded with its occupant the sanctity of the former is made the possession of the latter Now, the office is an invulnerable myth; its occupant is a man of like passions with other men.
Protestant ministers, who could marry, Catholic priests, who can’t; Protestant congregationalist polities, Catholic hierarchical polities – it seems to make no difference. Sociopaths exploit the lack of realism and the lack of courage in their churches to continue in their careers of crime
I remember learning about Henry Ward Beecher, brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, in American History Class. I also read that the late 19th pro life movement asked medical doctors to support the concept of sanctity of life in the womb because ministers of the Gospel were too corrupt to do so.
It is also well known that some women will entrap professional men by seducing them and then making a charge of harassment or duress. They usually get the money and it is all made confidential.
A few years ago in this county, a council member was accused of keeping a woman as a sex slave. He was finally exonerated by the testimony of a waitress from a resort to which the woman claimed he had forced her to go.
There are evil people on both sides of these situations.
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Christ taught that the priest was to be a servant and Shepherd of the flock willing to lay down his life for them.He also extended this teaching to the husband and wife relationship.
Somehow this notion has been turned on it’s head today and the cleric has become a moral demi god for the desperate flock caught in a tsunami of global monitary corruption, public scandals and sexual immorality.
“We” seem to be always looking for the professional experts to solve every problem.
Adulation and rock star status leads to pride and pride to every downfall. Clerics have become the Professional moral experts, yet each of us are really in charge of our own consciences. If “we” sought to morally improve ourselves “we” would not feel so dissapointed by the failures of our demi gods.
How sad for humanity. The Church needs good priests, good Bishops and good civil leaders and “we” search in vain in the public arena for them rather then tending to what “we” do have some control over.
It seems more logical to focus on our own small communities by correcting our own moral failures and weaknesses before branching out and looking for answers from the professional ‘expertise” .
It starts with the family .
Good parents can raise morally sound children and they will change both Church and society.
Rather than focusing on self esteem the “me’ generation needs to refocus on serving God and others with respect and love. This does not come from the advice of “professional” experts but from within each individual and family life is at the core.
I do not believe that the collective “we” are as stupid as ‘we’ have allowed ourselves to be made to think”we” are by all the professional experts.
I agree with you Mary.
Thank you Father,
But for the sake of clarity let me expound. Just as parents are responsible for the family, the priests ,Bishops and Cardinals and Pope are responsible for so much more.
To whom has been given authority also rests the weight of responsibility.
I know moral and Faithful couples who would NEVER consider encouraging their sons to become priests now for obvious reasons.
Every sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance has been muffled from the parish pulpits for decades.
While it has become more recently fashionable to be identified as adhereing to the Magisterial thought by supporting the Pro Life cause, the sin of sodomy is never condemned forcibly.
Indeed I have not heard the word “sodomy” spoken with solid condemnation from any prelate.
I have certainly seen the spectacle of Diocesan Appeals for donations from Bishops via wide screen televised homilies from within the sanctuary.I have witnessed hundreds of acquaintances homeschool because of demonstrably horrid Bishop approved catechetical materials. I have seen religious entertainment passed off as valid Liturgies.I have witnessed Movements approved by the late Pope divisively destroy families and the Faith. I have read the Vatican explanation of the alleged Third Secret and the assurance that the request made of the Pope and Bishops at Fatima was completed. I am supposed to have Crossed the Threshold of Hope and be living the New Springtime of the Church! So why does it feel like we have grown up in the times of the Chastisement?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OTxTIbUWfA&feature=related
hey,Mary, you must live in my diocese!
Mary Ann,
No i am sure I do not but it is epidemic ,yet only for those who have been paying attention, are trying to raise Catholic families and have been a practicing Catholic for their whole lives before,during and after Vatican II. Much of the rest are oblivious while some have a hint that something just aint right.
Most converts and reverts are copathetic or ,if in the media ,they are usually opportunistic.
So the rest of us limp along trying to dodge the bullets from both sides while walking the path of Truth Christ gave us in the Scripture and Tradition of what is really Orthodox Catholicism.It is hard to see through the smoke and mirrors coming from Rome.
Mary, I remember listening to a talk given by Father Malachi Martin (with whom I did not always agree, but who I always found interesting) addressing this very problem. He said that ultimately we can each only strive to be faithful in the little corner God gives us, attentive to our duties and keeping the Faith held “semper, ubique et ad omnibus”. I think in doing this we can do a lot, as well as keep our sanity.