The Purification of the Catholic Church

In 2005 Pope Benedict XVI issued a resounding call for reform in the Catholic church, saying, “How much filth there is in the church, and even among those ... in the priesthood.” This was widely interpreted as a reference to the sex- abuse scandal affecting the church's standing in North America and other parts of the world. However, the Pope’s exhortation was, in reality, directed more widely to the phenomenon of modernism that is poisoning the church at its core.

Photo: The Purification of the Catholic Church

The sex abuse scandal involving priests is just the tip of the ice-burg - the visible part that has come to light. The real culprits of moral destruction are those in-house modernists who, since Vatican II, have encouraged sexual deviants to infiltrate the church and who, with the bishops’ approval, are still disseminating their modernist lies within various Catholic seminaries, schools and chancery offices.

While the bishops today lash out at the pedophiles - about 90% of which are actually homosexuals - they continue to harbor those in-name-only “Catholics” who are advancing a false spirit of Vatican II. Make no mistake - bishops would still be protecting pedaphiles had the sex abuse scandal not come to light through the pope’s hard determination and through world wide public scrutiny.

It is not the pope the bishops are listening to now when we see them cracking down on sexual deviants. Rather it is the threat of legal prosecution that is hanging over their heads. This is obvious from the fact that in many other matters where the Holy Father has called for reform such as the Holy Mass, the bishops continue to defy him and reject orthodoxy. For example, a few years ago Pope Benedict XVI began providing kneelers for his communicants while demanding that they all receive Holy Communion kneeling and on their tongues. This practice remains the universal norm throughout the church though it was widely rejected after Vatican II by bishops intent on implementing their own theology meant to blur the authentic church distinction between the priest and laity. To date, few if any of our bishops have followed Pope Benedict in providing kneelers for their communicants.

Other liturgical reforms suggested by Pope Benedict XVI, such as the greater use of Latin in the Mass and the possibility of the priest celebrating the Mass ad orientum (away from the people), have also gone unanswered by the bishops. So too, the pope’s call for a greater implementation of the traditional Tridentine Rite has fallen on deaf ears.

Catholic bishops also, and mysteriously, have no unified policy in dealing with wayward Catholic politicians who are allowed to openly promote and advance divorce, contraception, homosexuality, abortion and embryonic stem cell research. Instead of disciplining these moral criminals they are instead given places of honor at Mass and therein invited to receive unworthily the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ in the Eucharist. Common sense dictates that when gravely immoral policies find themselves into law, they begin to incrementally, surreptitiously, almost invisibly, impose themselves on society by both coercion and force - marginalizing in the process both religion and those of religious faith.

This is just a small myriad of examples in which Catholic bishops continue to defy Peter and the Church while appearing to support Pope Benedict XVI’s crusade against sex abuse. The bishops pay lip service to the Vicar of Christ but their hearts are far from him. They are what the Gospel calls “wolves in sheep’s clothing”. Pope Benedict XVI knew this many years ago when he wrote in The Salt of the Earth: “The words of the Bible and of the Church Fathers rang in my ears, those sharp condemnations of shepherds who are like mute dogs; in order to avoid conflict, they let the poison spread. Peace is not the first civic duty, and a bishop whose only concern is not to have any problems and to gloss over as many conflicts as possible is an image I find repulsive.”

Purifying the church of sex abusers alone will not bring the church out of its present crisis of faith. What is needed is a deeper and more complete overhaul of the filth that continues to infect the church via modernist priests, theologians and lay members who are militantly spreading their venom each and every day in Catholic parishes, chancery offices, and Catholic schools of learning. Bishops need to return to the true teaching of Christ and the Apostles without jeopardizing, diluting, or betraying the Tradition of the Catholic Church.

The pope has now closed the door on sex abusers. Let us hope that he continues this purification by sweeping out all those who have been responsible for bringing about this present crisis threatening the Church. It is better to have a small church of convinced believers who live their faith than a large church whose members pay homage to every wind of doctrine.

Indeed, the rains are here and the pope’s ship is already sailing. Those Bishops, priests and lay members who do not climb aboard the barque of Peter while there is still time will be left behind as in the days of Noah.

Paul Kokoski
Canada