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St. Mary Roman Catholic Church
New Britain, Connecticut |
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Fr. Salvatore Rosa Every Holy Thursday, Pope John Paul II has written a letter to priests throughout the world. This year in his letter he writes about the priesthood, the sacraments of the Eucharist and Confession, and he mentions the issue of pedophilia that has been in the news so much lately. The Pope condemns pedophilia as a grevious sin, and a cause of grave scandal. He says it casts a shadow of suspicion on the many fine priests who perform their ministry with honesty and integrity. He calls upon the church to do all it can to help the victims of sexual abuse, and upon all of us to respond to this sin and scandal by committing ourselves to grow in holiness. I want to comment on all this tonight. What is pedophilia? Pedophilia refers to sexual desire for little children, pre-pubescent children. It is an extremely rare disorder. All these cases we have been hearing about in the media are really ephebophilia. Ephebophilia is an attraction for adolescent boys, boys who are under the age of consent, which is eighteen in civil law. Ephebophilia is a variety of homosexuality. Homosexuals are attracted to very young men because their boyish beauty and sexual maturity. If you listen to the media, you can easily get the impression that the Catholic priesthood attracts sick men who like little children, when in fact the problem is homosexuals who like teenage boys. But of course it is not politically correct to focus on the problems of homosexuality in society today. However, that is really the issue. That is what the church is paying for. It should also be obvious that calling for an end to celibacy, and letting priests get married is no solution to the problem. Homosexuals would not want to get married except, of course, to persons of the same sex. Both pedophilia and ephebophilia are sins, are crimes, and there has to be zero tolerance for both in the priesthood. In 1995 I was able to go to Rome for three months with a groups of forty priests from the States. We were from all different dioceses, and over the three months we get to know each other very well. Of course, we talked about the priesthood, what we liked, or didn’t like, our bishop, etc. We had Mass every day, and we would take turns being the celebrant and preaching to one another. When it was my turn, I talked about the prestige that priests enjoyed in society, their social status. Things had been changing thru the years, I said, but in general, people respected and admired us, they looked up to us. In fact, people tended to put us on a pedestal and think we were better than they were. But I wasn’t too sure why people admired us. If it was because we were good and holy men, fine. But, if the admiration was there because we were a celebrity, or a professional man of some sort, someone with a high social standing, then I thought the admiration could be dangerous. It could make us proud, it could fool us into thinking we were better than we were. I was happy being a priest. I enjoyed saying Mass, preaching, hearing Confessions, and helping people. But I didn’t feel proud of myself: Being a priest wasn’t some big accomplishment I had achieved on my own. It was a calling, a gift, a privilege, that I had received. Priesthood belonged to Christ. It was his, not mine. I could feel proud of him, and grateful to him for making me a priest, not proud of myself. I told them a story about St. Francis of Assisi. One day St. Francis was visiting a certain town. This was after he had gained quite a name for himself as a saint. The town wanted to make a big fuss over him and give him the red carpet treatment. Speeches by the mayor, town dignitaries, little girls with flowers, etc. St. Francis would have none of it. He interrupted the mayor, and told all the people “Stop praising me, for I may yet be the father of many of your children.” The people were stunned, but they got the message. Francis did not want them to put him on a pedestal, because he knew he was just as weak and sinful as they were. A good story to remember. Any person is capable of any sin. It doesn’t matter who we are, priest or layperson, man or woman. We kid ourselves if we say, “Oh I could never do such and such.” What we should say is “I do not feel any inclination or desire for such and such, so I don’t understand how someone else could.” But if we had had different parents, a different upbringing, we would be different people, and quite capable of sins we find unimaginable. We are all capable of great good and of great evil. We can, with God’s grace, rise to any height, but without that grace, we can fall to the lowest depth,” There but for the grace of God go I”, is not a cliché, but a true statement. Another St. Francis, St Francis de Sales lived in the Fifteenth Century when priests were notorious public sinners. They clergy of his time were so brazen and bold in the evil lives they led, that people stopped going to Church. St. Francis said that the way these priests were living was a great scandal, and that they were guilty of spiritual murder. By their sinful lives they were killing the faith of many people. However, he said to the people, if the priests’ sin is that they are giving scandal, your sin is that you’re taking it. If the priests’ sin is that they are committing spiritual murder, yours is that you are committing spiritual suicide. You use their sin to excuse yourself from living your religion. You stop going to church, you stop praying, you stop confession and communion. You say, “Well, if they can act like that, then why should I be good?” You use their sin to give yourself permission to sin. That’s spiritual suicide. Today it is important for us not to take scandal, not to get caught up in the hysteria or exaggerations of the media. The facts are bad enough, sad enough, without misinterpreting them or blowing them out of proportion. Part of not taking scandal is to refuse to let ourselves be intimidated We need to live our religion humbly, but boldly and unashamedly. The Church has many enemies, many people who are mightily opposed to her teachings on so many issues, and this scandal is their big chance to attack. They are making the most of the opportunity to heap scorn and ridicule on the church. They would love to reduce the church’s prestige and influence in society. No matter how much noise they make, there is no reason for us to be intimidated by them, to feel unsure of ourselves, or threatened. We need to live our religion humbly, but boldly and unashamedly. Ultimately the answer to sin and the scandal it causes is for us to grow in holiness. What other answer could there be? If I do not struggle to become holy, then I let sin take me over and I become part of the problem. To struggle for holiness is to be part of the solution. Our sinful culture today is like a river with a strong current that sweeps away everything it picks up in its flow. It would be easy to go with the flow, to let the current carry us along. It takes a courageous person, a heroic person, to swim against the current. None of us would have the strength to swim against the river of sin flowing in society today unless we make constant use of confession and communion. We need confession to wash us clean of sin’s filth, and communion to put iron in our character. Confession and Communion are the answer to sin and scandal. They will keep us humble and make us holy.
Mail to: franceswei@saintmarynb.org with questions and commands |
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