Truthful Repentance

Our Lady of Sorrows is a fitting memorial at this time in the Church’s history which, to put things in rather banal terms, is interesting, during which times, as the Chinese proverb has it, one is fortunate to live. At the very least, it makes things, well, interesting.

One is not sure what to make of the Holy Father’s sermon the other day, on the ‘Accuser’ pointing out the ‘sins of bishops’, causing scandal and disturbance amongst the faithful. Hmm. I, along with many others, wonder to what, or to whom, the Pontiff is referring. ‘Satan’ in its Hebraic etymology simply means ‘the accuser’, but the Holy Father implies that the Evil One has human minions doing his bidding, namely, those who ‘accuse’ bishops.

One must ask: Is this always wrong? Presumably there are certain sins one is bound to point out, and others not. Publishing a prelate’s peccadiloes, tippling a bit too much at the parish corn roast, say, may well be scandalous and unfitting. No one wants to live under the gimlet eye of niggling ‘accusers’.

But what, as the cases before us imply, of a bishop’s more grievous violations of the moral law? Or his tolerance of such in his priests? Or his acquiescence in heresy in the catechetics, schools and universities in his diocese? Or his looking the other way, if not active participation in, grave liturgical abuse, which has led so many astray? How long can this go on? Who is going to accuse whom? As R.R. Reno painfully points out, we have lived through decades of complaisance, rife within the Church, even in the face of rather grave evil. All of us hoped that things would somehow, someway, get better. They may, but not after much suffering.

Jennifer Dewey, is a mother from out on the east coast of Canada, where the institutional Church is in rather rough shape, with plunging demographics, a dearth of priests and parishioners, the bitter fruit of the secularizing of culture and the many failed experiments in the heady post-Vatican II days. In her article, she points out the need for repentance, and that a large part of the solution is to pray and offer things up in solidarity, as members of the Mystical Body of Christ; for when one member suffers, we all do, and our merit can redound throughout the Church, as the vicarious suffering of Christ, Our Lady and all the saints well attests, the whole ‘triumph of the Cross’, Ave Crux, Spes Unica. She has her own way of doing this, amongst many others one may choose.

Yet more is needed, as Reno and many others make clear. We have to face not just the ‘abuse of minors and the vulnerable’, but plain old ‘immoral sex’ in all its vulgar varieties, especially amongst the clergy, and most of all the widespread tolerance of homosexuality amongst their now-circling ranks.

For this, we need to emphasize, and enforce, clearly and without compromise, the virtue of chastity, the ‘proper integration of sexuality within the person’, wherein the sexual appetite, powerful indeed, is ‘contained’ and directed towards its proper (and only) purpose: Either conjugal chastity, ordered to the unity of spouses and the procreation of children (never dissociated). Or, in those called to celibacy, to sublimate those sexual powers to other ends, prayer, study, works of charity, exercise, chaste friendships.

Are these paths difficult? Yes, in our current fallen state, and it is all-too-easy to give in to our passions, but this will eventually destroy us along with our society, and has already nearly done so.

But the path of chastity is also, in the longer term, the ‘easy yoke’ of which Christ speaks, for we are made to be chaste, united to one spouse, if one chooses marriage, or continent, if one remains single ‘for the Lord’ in whatever path.

Ultimately, human beings don’t need to ‘have sex’. As Christ says, we are all in the end destined to live as the ‘angels in heaven’, and it is always possible to begin living that life here and now, by the grace of God, along with a bit of human effort in taking up the cross that is given to us.

That is the message that needs to be proclaimed, here and now, and any prelates or clerics who deny this truth, who fail in a grievous way to live it out, who cause scandal and lead others astray, should be set straight, or removed forthwith if they prove contumacious in their error.

The soft, milquetoast complaisance has had its day and run its course. The institutional rot must be expunged, the truth made clear and lived out, with boldness and without compromise, as best we can in this vale of tears.

That, really, is the only solution.

Mater dolorosa, ora pro nobis!

Carney’s Amoral Majority

After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→

Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress

This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→

A Closed, Unsustainable, Descending Loop

As a follow-up to my thoughts on Payette’s payout, here be a stark image of where are here in Canada. As the graph shows in, well, graphic terms, since 2025, the public sector has contributed to 95.5% of economic growth. The private sector – which funds the public sector, or is supposed to – has[…]Continue reading→

Remembering Father Alphonse de Valk

(Today marks the sixth anniversary of the death of Father Alphonse de Valk, C.S.B., a faithful, courageous and indefatigable Basilian priest, pro-life-and-family apostle, and the founder of Catholic Insight magazine. Here is what we wrote those on his entering into eternity five years ago, as we continue to remember him in our prayers and thoughts)[…]Continue reading→

A Tale of Two Benedicts

A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→

My Name is Bernadette

April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→

Presidential Pardon of Weronika Krawczyk

As a good news, follow-up to our story from Poland, of the persecution of Weronika Krawczyk for her pro-life views, we heard that she has been granted a presidential pardon. One might still wonder why one needs a presidential pardon for simply holding the long-held belief that the child within the womb is a child,[…]Continue reading→

Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully

Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→

The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus

As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→

Divine Mercy Sunday – An Echo of Every Mass

Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe’…  ‘My Lord and my God!’ (Jn. 20:18)). Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, and as we celebrate the end of the Easter Octave, we contemplate the wounded side of our Saviour, the Church’s source of life. On Good Friday in the[…]Continue reading→