we all have our gifts in the Mystical Body of Christ, mine is contemplative prayer for our church....yours will be different....how things work in God's kingdom
Well I am not saying I have all the answers. But say a person has children and the behaviour of your Pastor causes concern when your own children are attending a Sunday School class he adminsters, what are you to do but try to judge things including the priest himself? What are you to do but make a Judgement call? I know this is an extreme example but you can widen this. Would you then be critical of priests if you reposted your concerns to the local police and Bishop? Would you be even more guilty if you reported your concerns to the newspapers if the Bishop appeared not to act or even collude in a cover up? Where does being Judgemental and being critical end and using your commonsense and hollering for change end? If the sheep dogs do not bark what is to stop the wolves?
For me it is a matter of knowing the truth that has always been taught. Truth cannot change, it is absolute and it is eternal. When truth is even the slightest tainted, it becomes something less. When Pilate asked Jesus, "what is truth" he was sincere in not allowing it to enter his heart and Truth stood right in front of him! We know from scripture, saints and prophecy that that the Antichrist will "deceive even the elect if it were possible". This is why it is so essential for our Pope, Cardinals, Bishops and Priest to speak with clarity the truths that have always been held. Ambiguity is half truth and it does not come from God. The sex sins of today have never been greater, even in the times of Noah, Sodom and Gomorrah. Yet, when is the last time anyone heard your pastor speak to this in the typical Catholic Church in the world (I am not speaking of the few holy priests in the very few parishes)? Now, when have you heard our current pope speak with clarity on these issues? It is not by forgetfulness that he does not speak to the truths that are so strongly prevalent in the world. "Who am I to judge" is a mockery to the truth. It is giving the body a rock when it seeks bread. At this stage of the world and church, I don't see how anyone can cling to fidelity to half truths. One will surely fall when the Antichrist and False Prophet come on to the scene, if one cannot recognize the absence of truth in our Church today coming from the Vatican all the way down to the local Church. It is appalling and if there is still fence sitters, then pray for right judgement. The battle of souls is on and if you are waiting for the period Pope Benedict (Father Ratzinger) prophecized in 1969, where the "church will become very small" then we have missed the opportunity at this time through silence to make a difference, starting with ones family and local Church. It is a Jonah moment, will it be a Nineveh response or a Sodom and Gomorrah result? I fear prophecy is right and it will be a Sodom and Gomorrah end, where fire will purify this world. "As it was in the day's of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of Man returns"!!
No, of course, I agree with the above solution to whistle blow....it's just that what I see is suspicion of all priests here in northeast since the Pittsburgh scandal....
It is very difficult. I heard one priest say as he was locking his Church one night a passerby said out loud. 'I see the child molestors are locking themselves in for the night', I just can't imagine how hurtful this must be.
I also want to know the Truth and I want the clergy to speak the Truth, the Orthodox teachings of the Church. Period, Amen. In general, I would rather know what is occurring than not know. If I can help in some way to implement positive change that would be wonderful, we have been told numerous times by Our Lady that prayer is the method for us to do this. I also feel that knowing what is occurring helps me pray intensely. I find that if I listen to the Church Militant or any other Catholic news source that is exposing what has occurred and what is occurring, I truly want to pray more and I do. I find that Father Heilman's site www.romancatholicman.com is wonderful and I am very thankful that BrianK taught me about the existence of this site. I am also thankful for the many members here who strongly continue to encourage that we pray. I am also just as thankful to those who continue to post Catholic news whether it is good or bad. Thank you again to Padraig for the Mother of God forum and thank you all on Thanksgiving Day!!! I hope that you all have a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving if you celebrate this holiday and if not have a happy and blessed day!!! *** I noticed that Father Mark Goring has two new videos in which he suggests something to help make a positive change in the Church. So many of us are doing all we can to help implement positive change for the Church. I hope that we will all continue to pray about this together, for positive change for the Church and for our society.
This is good advice...but...we have to remember what "judging" is in the Catholic sense of the word. We are not supposed to judge anyone. Judging is a sin. What that means morally though is different from what we often think it means. If a thief breaks into my house and I find out it is the man who lives down the street then it is not judging him to warn the neighbors and call the police. It would be judging him to say "I know this is an evil man who is rotten to the core. He is only robbing me because he is greedy." When in fact I have no idea what his interior intentions are. The man may be robbing people because he is addicted to drugs or maybe his daughter needs an operation. We can judge actions. Not inner intent. If the Pope says we can use birth control. He is wrong. Period. I not only can say that, but I may even have a moral obligation to tell others that what he is saying is not Catholic. The sin of judging here would be for me to say "The Pope is attempting to overturn Catholic teaching here because he hates it and he has been planning this all along." In reality, I have no idea what the Pope was thinking when he said this. I can guess. I may even have strong proofs and a series of different behaviors that support my supposition about what his thoughts are, but I cannot KNOW what his thoughts are. Unless he announces them of course. That is the sin of judging others. It means properly the judging of someone's interior motivations and thoughts. Something only God and that person truly know.
Well, we can all do as we wish .I was just trying to supply my thoughts on the subject. I don't have the answer to all of this. If one were to speak to the Pope's position on those sorts of subjects though I think it should be done with charity and not "slamming". There is a world of difference between saying "The Pope is speaking in an area where he has no guarantee of proper teaching and these are his personal opinions which are disputed by many." and saying "The Pope is a fool who is listening to NWO groups who he is probably in league with anyway." So I guess what we sometimes forget is that when we critique, even when correct, we must remember that we are talking about the Vicar of Christ. A person who the Church teaches officially that we are to treat with the highest respect.
Interior locutions or private meditations? That is for the Church to eventually and ultimately decide. We have to be careful about these things. Judgement must be the most misunderstood concept in Christendom. There is a wrong judgement but there is also a right judgement. We cannot judge souls. That is for God. But we can judge the fruit of their actions. It was Christ who told us so --- 'you shall know them by their fruits'. An abusive priest like Cardinal McCarrick is known to the world. Are we to bury our heads in the sand and ignore what he did? I find that impossible. He needs to be held account for his actions. Would any parent leave their son unaccompanied in his presence? Of course not because of his previous actions. They are therefore making the right prudential judgement that this man cannot be trusted even though he is a priest. And yes we pray for him and for his conversion and salvation so that he repents and is saved because his soul is in great danger.
I have great respect for Mark but may I offer Fr Gerald Murray's piece below as a counterpoint to his take on this subject. https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2018/11/19/what-should-we-do-2/
I watched Taylor Marshall's excellent video and if I remember right what they meant by "taking the red pill" is to keep informed of what is going on in Rome and elsewhere and to accept (we must say it now) that this pope is a "bad pope". At this point, it is beyond any reasonable doubt. We have had dozens of "bad popes" before and now we have another one. To "take the blue pill" would be to remain willfully ignorant or to not accept - through cowardice, fear, papolatry, etc. - the evidence that is right before your eyes, and to "go back to sleep", as it were. It is my opinion that the fact that Francis is a bad pope is beyond any reasonable doubt. The only question is what are his intentions. Is he evil, purposely wanting to cause harm to the Church? Is he actually doing what he thinks is best for the Church, even if he is sorely mistaken? Nobody at this point, and probably never, can know for sure, unless as someone said he tells us or his secret thoughts are in some way made public. The big difference between this pope and the other so-called "bad popes" is that the others were weak leaders, or bad administrators, or unwise, or personally morally reprehensible and possibly even corrupt. But, so far as I am aware, they never attacked dogmas of the faith and the solemn teachings of their predecessors. It's almost an insignificant point, his intentions. Whether he has good or bad intentions, he's doing what he is doing and is causing incalculable damage to the Faith and to souls. But God is with us. We must not panic or despair but have faith and confidence in God; the former is from the evil one, the latter is a gift from God we must make good use of. This will only go on as long as He wants and then he will be gone. But we must pray much for him and for all our clergy, most especially by the Rosary. By all means, if all this is too much for you and it is disturbing your interior peace, then unplug, partially or fully. Seek out the advice of a good spiritual director. I personally have been living with very serious misgivings about our pope for all of two or three (count em'!) years. The longest anybody could possibly have gone since taking their "red pill" is five years. Think of the millions of Catholics who went through much worse things for much longer - like, their entire lives - and kept the faith. What would it have been like to live with true persecution - like under the Romans or in Elizabethan England? Practically the entire hierarchy was Arian for more than a century. That would have been miserable to endure. Martyrs have endured the cruelest torments, but sang God's praises as they were being put to death. And we have lived a for a few years with a pope who does things we don't like (as bad as some of them are) and some of us are abandoning Christ and jumping ship? Please! Where is your faith?! To repeat something else Taylor and company said in the video: man up! It would have been better for such people to have long before "unplugged", as I said before, and focused on nothing but prayer, the sacraments, spiritual reading (i.e. their relationship with God) and their daily duties.
There is, of course, the other pill that no one likes to speak about. The Black Pill. That is for those who see what is going on, know it is against all that the Church teaches and willfully participate anyway.
