We have been warned about false Messiahs. As ordinary laity we must to some extent rely on the judgment of those most responsible for the Church, that is, the clergy. They have the time to investigate matters.
When I first heard of Medjugorje, I relied upon the Rev. Rene Laurentin’s favorable judgment. He was a sane, balanced theologian and was favorable to Medjugorje. I followed the requests for prayer and fasting (good in themselves). But Laurentin ignored or misrepresented evidence that the whole phenomenon was tainted by fraud, and even pious fraud discredits religion.
I had no direct contact with the Legion of Christ, but I had a favorable impression of them, and made a substantial contribution to their school in Naples, Florida (which had its own problems with another con artist). After the initial accusations against Maciel came out, I relied upon Neuhaus’s judgment. He assured everyone that he had read all documents about the case and he was morally certain that Maciel was innocent. But the evidence began to pile up. I helped Jason Berry produce his documentary Vows of Silence. I at first asked him to give at least another side of the question. He, wisely, refused. Benedict XVI showed by his actions that he agreed with Jason that Maciel was corrupt.
I was tracked down by the Society of St. John; they claimed they liked my first book, The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity. They assured me they were trying to form masculine seminarians. I checked with the bishop of Scranton, who assured me that they were entirely on the up and up. It turned out not to be so. God knows what depravity my donation helped pay for.
When authorities in the Church fail to carry out their important role in discerning the spirits, they leave the laity in a quandary. Whom can we trust? If we encourage our children to go to confession, will they be seduced in the confessional? If we encourage a religious or priestly vocation will they be seduced in the monastery or seminary? If we give money to a parish will it be stolen by the pastor to finance his male or female lovers? Our shepherds seem to care little for protecting us from such wolves.
The divisions in the Church, although painful, can perhaps serve a useful purpose. No one would think that John Allen is conservative, and therefore his generally favorable evaluation of Opus Dei carries far more weight that papal approbation would. But reporters cannot replace bishops, the appointed overseers of the Church, and I wish more of them would spend less time on fund raising and career advancement and more on protecting the sheep.
Whom to trust?
Try God, seriously.
Leon: Perhaps its time to stop expecting consistency and excellence from the institutional/business side of Roman Catholicism and focus your resources on your own personal spiritual life. That includes your relationship with yourself, with others, and with God. As a married Roman Catholic priest, I walk with a number of older Catholics who are also disillusioned with the predominantly gay priesthood and episcopacy whose sexual politics in the church is self serving and driving straight priests and people away. Senior Catholics are also facing the inevitability of death and are seeking a practical religious understanding to help them in this transition. We married priests checked out of a corrupt institution and now we serve the 70% of Catholics who no longer can find a solid spiritual experience that matches the maturity that life has given them and the wisdom they have learned over the years. We are here to help.
No. Respectfully I must say no. We are supposed to have a personal, intimate and absolutely iron clad relationship with Yeshua ben Yosef, the healer of Nazareth, the Son of Man, the Annointed One of Israel. We are not supposed to rely on bishops, chrisms, sacraments, or any other hocus pocus. The Gospels make that clear. Catholicism is a string of behaviors much more than it is a so called belief system. Anyone can believe anything. I have lived long enough to see that. It means nothing.
No. I respect you greatly but you are wrong here. We have to get back to the Gospels relative to everything and most importantly, our relationship to the Son of Man. THAT is all the matters. Bishops are dust and some are even demons. They need to go away and die a quiet organizational death. They are not needed anymore. Their actions show that.
The cult of the personality infects the Catholic People of God. Ultimately, all Catholics are poor, miserable sinners (clergy and laity). Holiness comes from God alone and is merely reflected in the sinner in need of redemption. Faith and reason walk hand in hand. Blind faith in any human being or institution is corrupt. Perhaps the extraordinary form of the Mass emphasized this more–12 strikes of the breast in acknowledgment of our sinfulness, unworthiness and corruption; six times prayed, “Lord I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, speak but the word and my soul shall be healed.” And finally this form of the Mass acknowledgment of Satan and his prowling seeking the ruin of souls–totally omitted in the Ordinary Mass. Duh?
Although Mr. Podles is a very intelligent man, {a Phd from the university of Virginia,} he continues to be misled by “Holy mother church.” When you replace God’s word with mans word you let the devil in. At a Roman Catholic church you will find not much aligns with God’s word. According to the bible there are two sacrements. In the Roman Catholic church you have seven sacrements. Confession is not a sacrement according to the bible. In 2002 I went before the Maryland legislature to support Senate bill 037; “The timely reporting of sexual abuse and violence against children.” The only opposition? The archdiocese of Baltimore. Mr Richard Dowling argued that passage of such a bill would: “seriously compromise the sacrement of penance.” The bible says that we should confess to “one another.” If your Christian brother or sister knows the sin you are struggling with they can hold you to account. Secrecy is the enemy of a repentant heart. Secrecy has destroyed the Catholic church. Good riddance.When you replace God’s word with the word of man, can you expect anything less? God word declares; “There is not one among you who is righteous, not one. Get the picture Leon? The problem is not pedophilia, as this survivor of Roman Catholic clergy sex abuse has said at quite a few V.O.T.F. meetings. It is false teaching. I am no longer a “survivor” of sexual abuse. I am a victor in Christ Jesus. Kurt Gladsky, Founder: Greater Baltimore SNAP, Founder: Christian Brothers Sexual Abuse Survivors Network, Calvert Hall College, class of 1971
I think our shepherds have become celebrities and can no more lead the Church than they can send an astronaut to the moon. So we all have the responsibility to engage in serious discernment and grow as resources for each other as supernatural claims are faced and tested.