{"id":2567,"date":"2018-07-31T15:17:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-31T19:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=2567"},"modified":"2018-07-31T15:17:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-31T19:17:00","slug":"dear-troubled-catholics-a-letter-from-ralph-martin-about-the-current-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.renewalministries.net\/dear-troubled-catholics-a-letter-from-ralph-martin-about-the-current-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear Troubled Catholics \u2013 A Letter From Ralph Martin About the Current Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dear Troubled Catholics,<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I have never seen so many \u201cordinary Catholics\u201d\u2014who usually never follow or hear about Church news\u2014as deeply troubled as I have seen them in response to the recent revelations about the retired archbishop of Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was asked by the pope to resign from his membership in the College of Cardinals and ordered to live in seclusion until a canonical trial can be held to verify the validity of charges of sexual abuse and harassment made against him.<\/strong> After the first brave person came forward (whose accusations were found credible by the Archdiocese of New York Review Board), more and more followed. The climate of fear among many of our clergy\u2014the fear of being punished or marginalized if they report sexual immorality among their fellow clergy or leaders\u2014is starting to break. Cardinal McCarrick is now known as Archbishop McCarrick.<\/p>\n

What has been so disturbing to so many people is the fact that there had been numerous warnings to various church officials that he was a homosexual predator, harassing many seminarians, priests, and young boys, for many years, but nothing had ever been done about it, and he was continually promoted. Even after a delegation of priests and lay people went to Rome to warn the Vatican about the situation, he was promoted. Even after a leading Dominican priest wrote a letter to Cardinal O\u2019Malley, nothing was done. Even after lawsuits accusing him of homosexual sexual harassment in two of his previous dioceses had been settled with financial awards, he was still promoted. And not only that, he became a key advisor to Pope Francis and offered advice on whom to appoint as bishops in the United States!<\/p>\n

\n

One young Catholic mother with two boys who was open to the priesthood for them said to me that she now has grave concerns about ever having one of her sons enter the seminary, given the corruption that has been revealed.<\/p>\n

Another said she could no longer see anyone joining the Catholic Church, due to such bad leadership. She lamented about the difficulty this presents for evangelization.<\/p>\n

Another said that seven people from her very small, rural parish had left the parish, because sexual sin is never spoken of and there is almost an exclusive emphasis on political issues. She now fears that even more will leave.<\/p>\n

Another said that the only way this is ever going to change is if we simply stop giving to the bishops\u2019 national collections and to our own dioceses and parishes\u2019 collections, unless they are led by bishops who are willing to call a spade a spade and govern accordingly. To this day, there are quite a number of \u201cgay friendly\u201d parishes in even \u201cgood dioceses,\u201d where those afflicted with homosexual temptation are not encouraged to live chaste lives or offered effective correction, but instead are confirmed in their sexual activity. It seems many bishops are afraid to tackle the local \u201chomosexual lobbies\u201d and choose to turn a blind eye.<\/p>\n

\n

This past weekend at Mass, the priest giving the sermon was more upset than I\u2019ve ever seen him about the unfolding scandal. The Gospel was about how the weeds and the wheat grow up together and will only finally be separated at the judgment. It was unclear what the priest was actually saying, but we are certainly not called to \u201cenable the weeds.\u201d And shepherds in particular have the obligation to admonish the sinner and remove from ministry those who refuse to preach the truth and who encourage others in wrong doing. Yes, we will always have sin, but as Jesus said,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cwhoever causes one of these little ones who believes in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea\u201d<\/strong><\/em> (Mt 18:6).<\/strong><\/p>\n

There have been a veritable deluge of articles that have appeared from highly respected lay Catholics and priests saying that \u201cenough is enough,\u201d and we need to stop the cover-ups and get to the bottom of who is implicated in promoting men like this and covering up for them. We do.<\/p>\n

In 2002, when the American bishops approved their \u201ccharter\u201d that attempted to respond to the many cases of priest pedophilia that had come to light by that time, they conspicuously exempted themselves from their \u201czero tolerance\u201d policy. Many priests have told me that they felt \u201cthrown under the bus\u201d by the bishops, who conveniently didn\u2019t adopt policies to deal with their own tolerance of immoral behavior, cover-ups that allowed the pedophilia to go on for many years, or in some cases, their own immoral behavior. Another disturbing thing about the 2002 Charter is that\u2014despite pleas to not ignore the fact that this is primarily a homosexual scandal, since most of the victims were adolescent boys rather than true children\u2014the bishops decided not to tackle \u201cthe elephant in the room.\u201d Could it be because they knew some of their brother bishops\/cardinals were implicated, and they didn\u2019t want to face the mess of cleaning it up? Now this refusal to acknowledge the \u201chomosexual lobby,\u201d as Pope Benedict termed it, is coming home to roost.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s not just a huge homosexual problem in the Church; unfortunately, heterosexual sin and financial malfeasance are common in many places as well. In some countries, a significant percentage of priests are living with concubines or fathering children by vulnerable women and giving scandal to the faithful, who often know about it. This is the case in Uganda, from which I have recently returned, and in many other countries as well. In these situations, the \u201cprotection\u201d of the priests and the frequent disregard for their victims\u2014the women and their children\u2014cries out for justice.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And so, once again because of the pressure of lawsuits and the press, the bishops are talking about \u201cdeveloping new policies\u201d that would apply to bishops. As a colleague at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit, Michigan, has said: \u201cIsn\u2019t it clear enough from the Gospel that covering up immoral behavior is itself wicked? Why do we need new policies when the teaching of Jesus and the apostles is so clear?\u201d Can the words of the Old Testament prophets and Jesus Himself against false shepherds be any clearer or more devastating? (See Jeremiah 23:1-6; Matthew 23, etc.)<\/p>\n

The Archbishop McCarrick case may prove to be the \u201cstraw that broke the camel\u2019s back.\u201d<\/strong> It may \u00a0make the bureaucratic, carefully worded, evasive statements that have come from our leaders finally address sin and repentance, instead of the mere policies and processes they typically focus on. Could it be\u2014finally\u2014that the revelation of the long-term sexual harassment of seminarians and priests that never stopped Archbishop McCarrick\u2019s rise in the hierarchy will be so totally repugnant that real repentance may actually start to happen? I have never prayed more for the pope and our leaders than I have in the last several years, and we all must continue to do so. More about that later.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the Archbishop McCarrick case is certainly only the \u201ctip of the iceberg.\u201d The cumulative effect of revelation after revelation of immorality in high places is devastating. First, a number of years ago, a cardinal from Austria was forced to resign over homosexual activity; then, more recently, a cardinal from Scotland resigned over sexual harassment of seminarians and priests; and then the archbishop of Guam underwent a canonical trial in Rome over the sexual abuse of minors; and now cardinals in Chile (one of whom is on the pope\u2019s Council of Cardinals that oversees reform) are under heavy suspicion for covering up homosexual abuse in their country. In fact, the whole bishops\u2019 conference of Chile, acknowledging complicity in not taking seriously reports of a bishop\u2019s cover up of sexual abuse, recently gave their resignations to the pope, and he has so far accepted several of them. The pope himself at first stubbornly backed the appointment of this bishop and dismissed the victims\u2019 pleas as \u201ccalumny\u201d and \u201cgossip.\u201d And before we could absorb this news, there was news of an archbishop in Australia getting a prison sentence for covering up abuse on the part of a priest. And just today, as I am writing this, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ordered the release of a grand jury report implicating more than 300 \u201cpredator priests\u201d in six of the eight Pennsylvania dioceses involved in the sexual abuse of minors over many years.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the rot is wide and deep and years of covering up abuse (and the concomitant reluctance to really preach the Gospel and call people to faith and repentance) and its ultimate exposure have injured the faith of millions.<\/strong> How shocking and tragic was it to see tens of thousands of Irish people in the streets of Dublin wildly celebrating that they could now legally kill babies!!!! Just when the Irish bishops needed to speak most strongly on fundamental moral issues, their credibility was destroyed when it was finally exposed that they had covered up abuse for decades. Satan is indeed like that wild boar Scripture talks about that rampages though the vineyard of the Lord because the hedges of protection have been destroyed (Ps 80:12-13). The corruption, ineptitude, and cowardice runs wide and deep, and its effects on the eternal salvation of millions, and the destiny of nations, is devastating.<\/p>\n

Most recently, Cardinal Maradiaga of Honduras has seen his auxiliary bishop resign over homosexual and financial impropriety, and forty seminarians in his diocese publish a letter asking him to please root out the homosexual network in his seminary. This cardinal is Pope Francis\u2019 chief advisor, the head of his \u201cCouncil of Nine\u201d that works closely with the pope in bringing about reform in Rome, and is mentioned as a possible successor to Pope Francis.<\/p>\n

But continual reports of ongoing financial and sexual scandals suggest reform doesn\u2019t seem to be happening. Recently, a male prostitute in Italy published the names and photos of sixty priests who frequent his services\u2014with scarcely any comment from the shepherds. And the homosexual orgy in the apartment of a Vatican cardinal, used by his secretary, was met with a \u201cno comment\u201d by the Vatican press office. And then we hear also of a monsignor in the papal nuncio\u2019s office in Washington, D.C., who suddenly leaves the country and is put on trial in the Vatican for trafficking in child pornography and is given a five year prison sentence.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t plan to discuss this whole situation, but it came up this summer when the thirty priests in my class at the seminary wanted to discuss Pope Francis\u2019 leadership and the McCarrick scandal. We all agreed that Pope Francis has said and done some wonderful things (I teach his Apostolic Exhortation The Joy of the Gospel<\/em> in one of my classes), but he also has said and done some things that are confusing and seem to have led to a growth of confusion and disunity in the Church. How can German and Polish bishops approach the question of whether divorced and remarried couples can receive Communion without getting an annulment in opposite ways, and the Church still retain an ability to speak to the contemporary culture with one voice? It can\u2019t. And how long can Church officials speak about the \u201cpositive values\u201d of \u201cirregular relationships\u201d until the average Catholic comes to believe that we no longer believe the words of Jesus that fornicators, adulterers, and those who actively practice homosexuality will not enter the kingdom of God unless they repent? How many still believe that there is really a hell and that, unless we repent from such serious sins before we die, we will go there? Have we ever heard from leading churchmen, even in Rome, in recent years, that adultery, fornication and homosexual relations are not only \u201cirregular,\u201d but gravely sinful? Has the creeping \u201cuniversalism\u201d (the belief that virtually everyone will be saved) so undermined the holy fear of God and belief in His clear word, which has been transmitted faithfully all these centuries and is found intact in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, that people have become \u201cunderstanding\u201d about persisting in grave sin with no fear of God or of hell?<\/p>\n

Has false compassion and presumption on God\u2019s mercy replaced true love, which is based on truth, and the only appropriate response to God\u2019s mercy\u2014faith and repentance?<\/strong><\/p>\n

And what are we to make of the fact that so many of those advising the pope have questionable fidelity to the truth? How can we have confidence in Cardinal Maradiaga as the head of his Council of Cardinals when he is accused of financial impropriety (which he denies); he chose an active homosexual as his auxiliary bishop; and he allowed a homosexual network to grow up in his seminary, dismissing attempts to appeal to him to clean up the mess as unsubstantiated gossip? How can we have confidence in the pope\u2019s main theological advisor, a theologian from Argentina who is most known for his book The Art of the Kiss<\/em>, or the pope\u2019s main Italian theological advisor, who is known for his subtle dissent from the Church\u2019s teaching in the area of sexuality and who tried to insert texts in the synods on the family that pushed the document in a permissive direction? And how can we have confidence in the recently appointed head of the John Paul II Institute on Marriage and the Family\u2014an archbishop who commissioned a mural in his former cathedral in an Italian diocese from a homosexual artist who included homo-erotic themes in the mural, including a portrait of the archbishop in an ambiguous pose?<\/p>\n

One godly woman just asked me last night if it was OK for her to be upset with what was happening. I sadly said yes, of course it is.<\/p>\n

How can we passively endure such corruption that runs so wide and deep? It is right to make our views known. It is right and necessary. But even more so, it is necessary to pray and offer sacrifices for the Church and her leaders at this time. It is necessary to pray that genuine reform, rooted in real repentance and an embrace of all the truths of the faith, would come out of this awful situation and that the Church, more deeply purified and humbled, may shine forth with the radiance of the face of Christ.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But it is going to be a long way from here to there. Grave damage has been done to the credibility of the Church, and more will leave. Grave damage has been done to many of the flock, and reparation must be made; public repentance is called for. As Pope Benedict XVI wrote when he was a young priest, the Church will have to become smaller and more purified before it can again be a light to the world.<\/strong> The Church is going through a radical purification under the chastising hand of God, but already we can see a remnant of fervent renewal appearing all over the world, which is a sign indeed of hope and the renewal to come.<\/p>\n

And so, what can we do as we continue to pray for the pope and our leaders that God may give them the wisdom and courage to deal with the root of the rot and bring about a real renewal of holiness and evangelization in the Church?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00bbWe need to go about our daily lives, trying to live each day in a way pleasing to God, loving Him and loving our neighbor, including the neighbor in our own families. We need to look to ourselves, lest we fall.<\/p>\n

\u00bbWe need to remember that even though we have this treasure in earthen vessels (or as some translations put it, \u201ccracked pots\u201d), the treasure is no less the treasure. Don\u2019t throw out the baby with the bathwater! Baby Jesus is the treasure, and He is still as present as ever and still as ready to receive all who come to Him. And the Mass! Every day, He is willing to come to us in such a special way. Let\u2019s attend daily Mass even more frequently, to offer the sacrifice of Jesus\u2019 death and resurrection to God the Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the salvation of souls and the purification of the Church.<\/p>\n

\u00bbWe need to remember that the Catholic Church is indeed founded by Christ and, despite all problems, has within it the fullness of the means of salvation. Where else can we go? Nowhere; this is indeed our Mother and Home, and she needs our love, our prayers, and our persevering in the way of holiness more than ever.<\/p>\n

\u00bbWe need to remember that there are many truly holy and dedicated bishops and priests, and we must pray for them and support them. They need and deserve our support.<\/p>\n

\u00bbWe need to remember that this isn\u2019t the first time such grave problems have beset the Church. In the fourteenth century, St. Catherine of Siena bemoaned the \u201cstench of sin\u201d coming from the papal court and prophesied that even the demons were disgusted by the homosexual activity he had tempted priests into and the cover up by their superiors! (See chapters 124-125 of Catherine of Siena\u2019s The Dialogue<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

That isn\u2019t to say that we don\u2019t need to take seriously and do all we can in response to the grave scandal we are facing in our time. And yet we need to remember that all this is happening under the providence of God, and He has a plan to bring good out of it. It was even prophesied strongly in Mary\u2019s apparitions in Akita, Japan. Jesus is still Lord and will use the current grave problems to bring about good.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And finally, I\u2019m beginning to see why the Lord has impressed on me so strongly in the past year the urgent need to heed the appeals of Our Lady of Fatima. Indeed, as Mary said,<\/p>\n

\u201cPray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and to pray for them.\u201d<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s continue to pray and offer sacrifices for the conversion of sinners and as reparation for sin, and let\u2019s pray the rosary daily as Mary requested, for peace in the world and true renewal in the Church.<\/p>\n

Your brother in Christ,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ralph<\/p>\n

P.S.<\/strong> Please feel free to share this letter with family, friends and fellow parishioners. No permission needed. If you are interested in receiving Renewal Ministries’ newsletter, please click here<\/a>\u00a0(www.www.renewalministries.net\/newsletter) and enter your mailing address on the right.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0   Dear Troubled Catholics, I have never seen so many \u201cordinary Catholics\u201d\u2014who usually never follow or hear about Church news\u2014as deeply troubled as I have seen them in response […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":2574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[551,552,553],"yoast_head":"\nDear Troubled Catholics \u2013 A Letter From Ralph Martin About the Current Crisis - Renewal Ministries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.renewalministries.net\/dear-troubled-catholics-a-letter-from-ralph-martin-about-the-current-crisis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dear Troubled Catholics \u2013 A Letter From Ralph Martin About the Current Crisis - 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He also hosts\u00a0The Choices We Face, a widely viewed weekly Catholic television and radio program distributed throughout the world. Ralph holds a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (Angelicum) in Rome and is a professor and the director of Graduate Theology Programs in the New Evangelization at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in the Archdiocese of Detroit. He was named by Pope Benedict XVI as a Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization and was also appointed as a \u201cperitus\u201d to the Synod on the New Evangelization. Ralph is the author of a number of books, the most recent of which are A Church in Crisis: Pathways Forward,\u00a0The Fulfillment of All Desire,\u00a0The Urgency of the New Evangelization, and\u00a0Will Many Be Saved? 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