SEPTEMBER 9, 2017

A note to those who disapprove of our ministry

A NOTE TO THOSE WHO DISLIKE US

http://www.rcf.org/Old_web/Press/AMDG/2000springsummer.htm

By Fr. “G”. (“Roman Catholic Faithful” is an organization made up of Catholic Priests, Sisters and Laity who are trying to protect, preserve, and promote the Faith in “this present evil age”.)

NOTE: VERY SLIGHTLY ADAPTED FOR USE ON www.ephesians-511.net

First of all I want to make an appeal for clarity and honesty. Do not read this with your emotions, but with your mind. Lack of emotional control is a major contributor to the state of the world and the Church today. No matter what you have been told, feelings are not as important as truth. Truth may make us joyful or sad, it may elicit all kinds of emotional reaction, but it remains truth and so it defines reality. When a person cannot deal with the truth, they cannot deal with reality and that is a pretty good working definition of insanity.

When that occurs on a grand scale in a society or a church then truth and reality are lost and emotions and appearances (political correctness) take their place and then the inmates are truly running the asylum! It would be instructive to look at a few common and well-worn ways in which people avoid the truth.

“Shoot the messenger”! The prophets were well acquainted with this one. The incredible absurdity of believing “If I don’t see it – it isn’t there! If I can get rid of those people who tell me what I don’t want to hear then what I don’t want to hear doesn’t exist and will have no power to harm me”! This approach to discerning reality may be tested rather easily.

Go to the roof of a very tall building. You may find a sign there which warns you about walking too close to the edge, but you don’t want to hear that so you tear the sign down. Then you step boldly off the roof and out into space because you have ignored the message and destroyed the messenger and so gravity is no longer a threat. This exercise will provide an experience of profound, if brief, enlightenment!

The next two techniques are clever because they allow you to take the moral high ground. They involve (mis)quoting the Bible and are much more impressive if delivered in stentorian tones with one’s finger pointing skyward. “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone!” Now remember Jesus said this to men who were about to commit MURDER! The problem

Jesus was addressing was not in the “judgment”, but in the “execution”. As this passage is foolishly interpreted, it would follow that Moses was wrong before Pharaoh, John the Baptist was wrong before Herod and Jonah should have stayed away from Nineveh. Since the Bible declares that “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God!” It would follow that no one could correct, confront, or call anyone to repentance.

So Jesus command to the young Church to “preach repentance from sin to the whole world beginning at Jerusalem.” must NOT be followed!

The other well-worn tool of the uselessly pious is; “Judge not, lest ye be so judged!” Again, the meaning here is “do not condemn”. Only God has the right to condemn, but it may certainly be necessary to reveal the sin as part of the call to repentance, and to make common-sense judgments for the conversion of the sinner and the protection of the innocent.

Does “Do not judge” mean you would let your son go to dinner at Jeffrey Dahmers or your daughter go out on a date with Ted Bundy or would you invite your family in to have a glass of Kool-Aid with Jim Jones? St. Thomas Aquinas wrote powerfully about occasions when Priests, and Bishops and even Popes must be confronted, (As St. Paul did to St. Peter) and that these confrontations were not just acceptable, but demanded by charity. In fact, to avoid them could be a grave sin of omission.

Now we have prepared ourselves to deal with the truth. Now we have to confront a deeper and more difficult question. Is it really necessary to make these awful things public? THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (2nd edition) says:

The right to the communication of the truth is not unconditional. Everyone must conform his life to the Gospel precept of fraternal love. This requires us in concrete situations to judge whether or not it is appropriate to reveal the truth to someone who asks for it. (Paragraph 2488)

So the possession of truth brings with it the responsibility of choosing what to do with it and love is the highest criteria for that choice. The Catechism continues:

Charity and respect for the truth should dictate the response to every request for information or communication. The good and safety of others, respect for privacy, and the common good are sufficient reasons for being silent about what ought not to be known or for making use of a discreet language. The duty to avoid scandal often commands strict discretion.

No one is bound to reveal the truth to someone who does not have the right to know it. (Paragraph 2489)

In other words, truth without love can be a brutal and terrible thing. Love and Truth must never be separated and so the only acceptable reason to reveal scandalous and painful realities is that it is an act of love.

First – love for the innocent! Stop for a moment and consider the many children who have been abused. Their bodies, souls, and faith destroyed by predators and perverts hiding behind collars and habits and protected by some bishops. Children are so vulnerable and they have had their innocence ripped away by those who are more concerned with protecting themselves and their “image” than anything else. There is a sickness and an evil here that none of us want to deal with. Only the love of the innocent will give us courage!

Second – love for the guilty! We are human and we are angry, but Jesus said “Hate the sin but love the sinner!” Those who are sick need help and those who have chosen evil need conversion because their souls also are of infinite value and it was their sins also that were nailed to the Cross. The first step in a conversion is the virtue of humility. That virtue can be painful to attain. Who truly loves the sinner? The one who enables them by action or omission to destroy themselves and others in eternal Hell or the one who loves them enough to call them to repentance? Remember the terrible things Jesus said about those who would harm His “little ones”. “Better that a millstone were tied around their neck and they were cast in the deepest part of the sea”, “Better had they never been born!” Is it not Christ-like love to call such people to conversion?

Third – love for the Church! Someone said once; “The first sign of a bankrupt spirituality is a disordered sexuality!” The Church is in Crisis and we don’t just need priests, we need priests after the mind and heart of Jesus Christ. Those who have chosen a path which is not in obedience and submission to the will of God and his Church will either have to teach falsely to justify themselves or commit grievous sins of omission by not teaching the truth that would bring self-condemnation. The sins of the shepherd always, by commission or omission, hurt the sheep!

Everything that this ministry has done, and will do, has been done out of love. Love for the innocent, the guilty and the Church. We have paid the price and will continue to do so. We believe that we speak the truth in love and that, with God’s Grace, will have an effect.

Embarrassment or even scandal is not the worst thing – HELL is the worst thing!

It may not be politically correct, but we see our task as very simple:

We want to help as many people go to heaven as we can! Sometimes, as we learn from the Cross, that cannot be done without pain. However, pain embraced with Christ-like love becomes transformed! It becomes redemptive and life-giving. When we become “enemies of the Cross” we will then become incapable of following Jesus!

So you may not like what is revealed, but please don’t “shoot the messenger”. The truth is being spoken in love and the result has already been that some conversions have taken place. At least those who prey instead of pray are aware that they are no longer free and protected, and that alone may save one child, and that will be enough!

RELATED FILES

THE FRANCIS EFFECT & WHO AM I TO JUDGE-THE SPIRIT OF VATICAN COUNCIL II

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/THE_FRANCIS_EFFECT_&_WHO_AM_I_TO_JUDGE-THE_SPIRIT_OF_VATICAN_COUNCIL_II.doc

DEFENDING OUR FAITH-CONSCIENCE AND OBEDIENCE-SPEAKING PROPHETICALLY OR JUDGING OTHERS?

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/DEFENDING_OUR_FAITH-CONSCIENCE_AND_OBEDIENCE-SPEAKING_PROPHETICALLY_OR_JUDGING_OTHERS.doc

WHO AM I NOT TO JUDGE?

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CLERICAL SEX-ABUSERS AND HOMOSEXUALS–IS IT WRONG FOR CATHOLICS TO BE JUDGEMENTAL?

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THE QUESTION OF PAPAL HERESY

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ON THE FORMAL CORRECTION OF POPE FRANCIS

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