The Church Must Undergo A Necessary Purgation For The Sake Of The Souls Of All Concerned

Gary L. Morella

The problems in the Catholic Church are not going to be resolved by the rants of ignorant syndicated columnists and homosexual advocates calling themselves Catholic, who demonstrate only that they are anti-Catholic bigots, and not Catholic respectively. It requires a “gut-check” on the part of concerned Catholics who love their Church, realizing that it is being crucified as Christ was on Calvary. They must carry the cross with the Church and, most importantly, recognize that a problem does, in fact, exist, a necessary requirement before it can be properly addressed. What is happening now in regard to the exposure of those responsible for propagating heresy, leading to the direct identification of clerical apostates and their lay collaborators, is a necessary purgation that the Church much undergo to set things right. 

Many Catholics did not realize that things were so bad, and are only now learning of the extent of the reported problems in chanceries nationwide.   They had no idea of the corruption in many of their seminaries as reported in Michael Rose's book, Goodbye! Good men. How Catholic Seminaries Turned Away Two Generations of Vocations From the Priesthood.  This book is a "must-read" for anyone who is seriously concerned with what is happening in the Catholic Church, the reasons, the obvious consequences, and what needs to be done to purify the Church in terms of getting the best possible candidates, men whose orthodoxy is looked upon as plus, instead of a minus, into our seminaries.  Catholics should no longer have any patience with bishops who bemoan the state of the Church when a quick glance at the sad state of their seminaries shows that the buck stops with them. 

The problems are directly attributable to the unchecked dissent from Church teaching on faith and morals that has been allowed to propagate since Vatican II, in particular, the direct intentional ignorance of Church Teaching in documents from Rome that are dead-on-arrival before the ink is dry.  The dissenters have done their work well.

Axiom 1. Anyone who announces that the present crisis in the Church has nothing to do with homosexuality is lying to you, given the considerable well-documented evidence in Rose’s book, to the contrary.

We're talking about boys being abused by men, which first and foremost are homosexual acts.

Axiom 2.  Unchecked dissent since Vatican II allowed homosexual priests to abuse our children.

The Catholic Education Resource Center Website, citing current research, recently exposed a myth about priestly pedophilia in the following statement.

Myth: Homosexuality isn't connected to pedophilia.

This is plainly false. Homosexuals are three times as likely to be pedophiles as heterosexual men. Although exclusive pedophilia (adult attraction to prepubescent children) is an extreme and rare phenomenon, one third of homosexual men are attracted to teenage boys). The seduction of teenage boys by homosexual men is a well-documented phenomenon. This form of deviant behavior is the most common type of clerical abuse and is directly connected to homosexual behavior.

Despite protestations from dissident groups erroneously calling themselves Catholic such as Call to Action and Dignity there is widespread evidence of the direct correlation between homosexuality and pedophilia when the total cases of pedophilia are looked at.  A commonly skewed statistic is that there are more cases of pedophilia in the heterosexual population than in the homosexual.  This comes as no surprise since homosexuals make up only about 2% of the population.  There is an inordinate occurrence of pedophilia in the homosexual population relative to the heterosexual.  In fact, in a special 1990 double issue of the J. of Homosexuality, it is proudly trumpeted that “parents should welcome the loving pedophile into their homes,” and where “adult-child sex” is referred to euphemistically as nothing more than “intergenerational intimacy.” 

Homosexual advocates correctly state that most child molesters are heterosexual males. But this is a misleading statement. In proportion to their numbers (about 1 out of 36 men), homosexual males are more likely to engage in sex with minors: in fact, they appear to be three times more likely than straight men to engage in adult-child sexual relations [Freund, Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy 18 (Spring 1992)].

And this does not take into account the cases of homosexual child abuse that are unreported. The Executive Director of NARTH, National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, for example, says that about one-third of his 400 adult homosexual clients said they had experienced some form of homosexual abuse before the age of consent, but only two of those cases had been reported.

While no more than 2% of male adults are homosexual, some studies indicate that approximately 35% of pedophiles are homosexual [Freund, et al., Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy 10 (Fall 1984)].

Further, since homosexual pedophiles victimize far more children than do heterosexual pedophiles [Watson, Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy 18 (Spring 1992)], it is estimated that approximately 80% of pedophilic victims are boys who have been molested by adult males [Schmidt, Thomas (1995), Straight and Narrow? Compassion and Clarity in the Homosexuality Debate. Downers Grove, Ill., Intervarsity].

When you openly embrace homosexuality, such as some of our seminaries did, the results that we're seeing in the daily news can be expected, which brings us to the third and most important axiom.

Axiom 3.  Knowingly ordaining men inclined to homosexuality to the priesthood is sacrilegious blasphemy because these individuals openly flout the teachings of Christ, and as such, are not qualified to be acting as an "alter Christus, in persona Christi" (another Christ, in the person of Christ), which is what a consecrated Catholic priest is supposed to do. 

What kind of an example are we giving to the faithful by a violation of axiom 3?  Anyone needing to spend longer than a millisecond answering this question is NOT Catholic.

NARTH holds that “homosexuality is not a natural alternative lifestyle; rather 1) it is a developmental disorder, 2) its causes and predictors are very well documented, 3) it is treatable in adulthood, 4) it is highly associated with self-defeating and self-destructive behaviors, pathology, and maladaptation, and 5) the four previous points have been politically buried or denied.”

One might reasonably ask, “Why haven’t we seen such an extent of child abuse cases in organizations like the Boy Scouts, which do not allow membership to those suffering from sexual developmental disorders?” Anyone needing to spend longer than a millisecond answering this question is NOT sane.

What I as a Catholic find incredible is how this mindset was allowed to proliferate, as described by Rose, given the Church's clear teachings against the homosexual lifestyle, which the Church considers an intrinsic moral evil, with the inclination accordingly being objectively disordered. Rose is to be commended for hopefully waking up Catholics as to the attempted hijacking of their Church by militant homosexual advocates who would destroy it from within. He makes it very clear that good role models are needed for vocations with orthodoxy in the faith being the primary catalyst. Those dioceses that are loyal to the Magisterium of the Church, Rose shows, are where vocations are plentiful; those dioceses that could care less are dying. There needs to be a general housecleaning in the Catholic Church to remove the dissident rot that has infested it. Rose has made us aware of the problem. The solution will be up to the laity in support of orthodox clergy, particularly given the fact that many in the Church hierarchy have demonstrated that they can no longer be trusted.

We're not talking about a "three strikes and you out mentality.” You do not allow people guilty of child abuse anywhere near children.  You do not take that chance for the very good reasons that we're seeing reported daily. The Church is not in the business of rehabilitating those suffering from severe developmental disorders, but rather of saving souls.  The former is best left to whatever reputable psychiatrists and psychologists remain; the latter is the business of the Catholic priesthood.

And there exist reputable professional associations such as NARTH, which, unlike the American Psychiatric Association in its Diagnostic and Statistics Manual version IV, does NOT hold that homosexuality, sadism, masochism, and pedophilia are OK unless the agents suffer anxiety attacks.  NARTH also didn’t give a forum to homosexual authors in its most prestigious journal to proudly proclaim that "child sexual abuse is nothing more than intergenerational intimacy, and that parents should welcome the loving pedophile into their homes", which is what the American Psychological Association did in its Psychological Bulletin.

To show the pro-homosexual bias of the American Psychological Association, former president Robert Perloff, in an expression of public anger and frustration, condemned the APA’s one-sided political activism. Of reorientation theory with homosexuals, he said: “It is considered unethical…That’s all wrong. First, the data are not fully in yet. Second, if the client wants a change, listen to the client, Third, you’re barring research.” ["Same Office, Different Aspirations," APA Monitor on Psychology, December 2001, p. 20.]

Dr. Perloff added the following comment in an interview: "I believe that APA is flat out wrong, undemocratic, and shamefully unprofessional in denying NARTH the opportunity to express its views and programs in the APA Monitor and otherwise under APA's purview." [Dr. Robert Perloff, personal correspondence to NARTH, February 15, 2002.]

Robert Spitzer, M.D., the psychiatrist who is called the "architect of the 1973 diagnostic manual" that “normalized” homosexuality despite much opposition within the APA, expressed a similar concern two years ago about the movement within the mental-health professions to prevent sexual-reorientation therapy. Describing his own study, which he would later announce at a panel discussion at the 2000 Psychiatric Association convention, Dr. Spitzer said: "I'm convinced from people I have interviewed...many of them...have made substantial changes toward becoming heterosexual. I came to this study skeptical. I now claim that these changes can be sustained." About exclusive homosexuality, he conceded, "I think, implicitly, there is something not working" [Reported in "1999 NARTH Conference, Speech by Brent Scharman," the NARTH Bulletin, December 1999.]

Dr. Warren Throckmorton, immediate past president of the American Mental Health Counselors Association, studied a broad cross-section of research on sexual-orientation change. He says such treatment has been effective, can be conducted in an ethical manner, and should be available to those clients requesting such assistance. [Ibid.]

This brings us to a question concerning the “psychological” interview for prospective seminarians as addressed by Rose. How can you claim to be careful in your screening process if you feel that there is no problem at all with those who are inclined to what the Church officially refers to as "an intrinsic moral evil, the inclination itself being objectively disordered?" Being inclined to homosexuality is indicative of sexual immaturity, and it is not the charge of Church seminaries to wait until those suffering from this developmental disorder “mature sexually”. Rather, it is incumbent for bishops and their seminary rectors to insure that such “sexual maturation” is left outside the confines of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, where it belongs.

EWTN’s Fr. John Trigilio, Jr. comments,  “When will Catholics realize that BAD morality is linked with BAD theology which is supported by BAD liturgy? The crisis in American Seminaries (worldwide as well) is that the homosexual agenda and network have been revising orthodox theology for years. The sex scandal is only a third of the problem.  Our seminaries NEED chaste, manly men to lead them; orthodox men to teach them; and reverent, prayerful men to help them worship God properly. The heterodoxy in the seminary is only matched by the liturgical abuses and often the total lack of reverence combined with the underground immorality after dark.  All three issues need to be addressed. 

“Instead of watering down Catholic worship, we need to restore the reverence and mystery the Divine Liturgy was famous for and not construct 'gathering spaces' and raping our sanctuaries of transcendent altars, statues, communion rails and tabernacles.  The deification and worship of man has brought us nothing but misery.  When we reverently worship the one, true and holy God and when we believe the revealed truths He himself gave us without diluting or altering them, then it is easier to live good moral lives.”

We must clearly understand that "Begging for forgiveness" is not going to do it, in this case especially, because integral to contrition is a firm resolve to amend one's life. And to date, that amending, per Rose, has not manifested itself in many of our problematic seminaries where it is needed most. All the wringing of hands and renting of garments, rhetorically, on the part of the hierarchy of the Church in this country will be seen for what it's worth without a firm and expeditious commitment to the aforementioned resolve in order to clean up this mess that they primarily caused. And if they are hesitant in any way to do this, they should be summarily removed from their respective offices by Rome, and immediately replaced with individuals who will.

You do NOT ordain individuals who are suffering from severe developmental disorders, PERIOD!

Bishops in the Catholic Church are responsible before the Lord for the spiritual and eternal welfare of the faithful in their dioceses, especially the spirituality and behavior of their priests. Thus, it is their sacred responsibility to put a stop to all homosexual activity by any priests. Those bishops who knowingly allow their priests to practice behavior that is expressly condemned by the Church are equally culpable for the consequences that we’re seeing painfully reported daily. Accordingly, they should be subject to the same civil penalties, as they have demonstrated that they are not qualified to be the shepherd of those under their spiritual care.

Since a significant number proportionally of homosexual Catholic priests have been involved in sexual predation, and in the view of the scandal and ruinous lawsuits that are being inflicted on the church, it is lunacy for a bishop to accept candidates for seminary who are inclined to homosexual acts. A clear message must be sent by Rome, the hierarchy of the Church in America, and especially the laity, that no more nonsense of this type will be tolerated. This is not done out of malice or vengeance, but rather out of extreme love, which demands witnessing to the Truth, a Somebody, not a something per the Gospel of John, for the sake of the souls of all concerned.