It always bothered me that if the majority of priests are good and true to their vocations, why don't they speak out? This priest's (Fr. Palka) blog post has helped me understand their silence. It might help others too. How would any of us cope if there were a file somewhere containing details of our every weakness or misdeed (sin)? I wouldn't last five minutes. It certainly reinforces the need for us to step up our prayers for our priests who give up everything to serve God by serving us. I'm not sure that "Church Critique" is the appropriate place for the thread, but I'm sure the moderators will move it if it would be better placed elsewhere. He promises a follow-up post on this topic next week. https://epiphanytampa.weebly.com/pastors-bulletin-article/why-dont-the-priests-blow-the-whistle For those who prefer not to click on external links, here is the text of the priest's blog post: From the Pastor: Why Don’t the Priests Blow the Whistle? One question that was asked after last week’s homily was, “Why don’t ‘good’ priests and ‘good’ bishops blow the whistle on the abusive priests and bishops?” Many people still don’t (I believe most priests still don’t) understand just how evil the active homosexual or homosexual activist (AH/HA from here on out) priests and bishops are. Not understanding the extent of their depravity and wrongly thinking that they are simply “normal” men who just struggle with their sexual desires and sometimes might fail to remain chaste but are really, truly repentant when it happens and strive to “confess my sins, do penance and amend my life, amen”, they cannot possibly grasp the hellish depths to which the AH/HA clergy will go to persecute, lambaste, punish, humiliate and blackmail anyone who stands in their way or threatens their way of life. Let me be clear. The AH/HA priests and bishops treat their sexual mortal sin as if it is a “good” and a God-given good at that (if they even believe in God, something of which I am very doubtful, at least in the Catholic understanding of Who God is). Nay, more than “a” good, they are convinced that it is “the” good. They will go to any, repeat, any length to force others to engage in it, to accept it, or to, at the very least, ignore it and pretend that it doesn’t exist or that it is not harmful enough to mention or try to eradicate. They do not struggle with their disordered sexual desires as so many others do but rather revel in them. With that as my premise, let me explain why few “good” priests and bishops will openly challenge their brother priests and bishops when it comes to this particular sin. Next week, perhaps, I will take it a step further and write about why even priests who have left the active ministry (mostly to get married) cannot and will not come forward with what they know, with what quite often drove them out of ministry in the first place. As part of the application process to be accepted as a seminarian and throughout his entire formation process, a man is, and rightly so, asked to reveal an extensive amount of very personal information, including such things as his history of chastity or sexual activity, criminal activity (even if he was never caught or convicted), and his worst fears about where he might fail in living out his vows or promises (prayer, poverty, chastity, and obedience). His file grows thicker the longer he remains in the seminary and it continues to grow after ordination, and includes self-revealed and other-revealed (from formation directors, vocation directors, letters from parishioners, etc.) information regarding his struggles, mental issues, physical problems, and moral failings before, during and after formation, any perceived “hostility toward women” or “rigidity” or “uber Catholicism” or “hard preaching” and many more such things. That file never goes away, even when a man leaves “the system”, whether before or after ordination (this will be helpful to remember for next week’s column). This file is always meant to help him so that by working with his spiritual director he can improve in every aspect of his life, so that he can overcome fears and failings, so that he has a benchmark by which to gauge his improvements in holiness and competence. It is also meant to help his bishop and any of his future bishops understand the priest, to figure out where to place him on assignment or which assignment to keep him away from for his own good. But while a good seminary rector or bishop uses this intimate information wisely and well for the salvation of the soul of the man and those under his care, an AH/HA bishop uses it for evil purposes. How so? Let me give you a couple of completely made-up examples. Suppose a priest’s file reveals that as a teen he was sexually abused by an adult male. As a result of this formative abuse, he struggled with homosexual desires as an adolescent and into his early adulthood but always remained chaste. Once ordained as a priest he spoke out fervently against the acceptance and promotion and legalization of homosexual activity and other sexual sins. His AH/HA bishop, knowing his past, makes him the Boy Scout chaplain where he will be working closely with the bishop’s handpicked and openly active homosexual lay diocesan Scout leaders, hoping and even encouraging (vicariously, through his minions) him to finally fall to his boyhood abuse-induced homosexual desires and sexually abuse one or more of the Scouts. While a continual perpetuation of this sin is most greatly desired by the AH/HA bishop, even one “close call” is enough for a lifetime of blackmail. The AH/HA bishop will do the same with a formerly active (before his conversion to Catholicism, let us say) heterosexual priest who bucks the Lavender Mafia, though he would instead be assigned as chaplain of the girls’ High School or University for the same purposes, and “seducers” would be sent to tempt him. Think this is far fetched? Don’t be fooled. “So?” you might be thinking, ”What could the AH/HA bishop do with even a file full of blackmail information?” I will explain more about that next week and you will see why even the “ex” priests are not safe from such evil. With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka
Thanks for posting this Dolours, I, as many others, am searching and wanting to know an answer to this question. Sadly so far this priest has said nothing that to me would justify a clergyman staying silent. First off a priest should be willing to sacrifice self, reputation and all for his flock, not put preservation of his reputation first. Secondly the example he gives is of a priest with some truly horrible personal issues, even criminal. Are we to believe this is the "average" priest we have today? I would hope not. If it is then we are in a world of trouble. Personally I don't like when extreme examples are used to justify things. It smacks of the arguments used to justify abortion, etc.
The smoke of Satan indeed. Blackmail is a strong incentive. DC is rife with it, Hollywood and I have no doubt the Church as well. It is one thing to be held accountable for ones failings to ones superiors and peers and quite another to have the world judge you for them. Not to mention the potential anguish this will bring to ones family and friends. I look forward to next weeks column.
I think the example is fine. It is not just the reputation of the Priest at stake. Consider the people affected by the sins of one person being exposed. Not only his or her sins but the others involved, the family of the other party, his own family, and his brothers and sisters in Christ will be exposed and scrutinized. My wife and her family suffered this kind of humiliation and were ostracized due to the actions of another. It was a huge scandal in their parish and the entire town became aware of it. Also, Remember the testimony of Bella Dodd and Manning Johnson. The communists always use blackmail and leverage after joining an organization to propel themselves to positions of authority.
So we are to believe that priests like the one in the example given are pretty much the average? That is scarier that the fact that they won't talk...
No, I don't think he insinuated this. He said clearly that he was giving completely made up examples. He never said that this is the majority. I know this sounds like a Tom Clancy novel but the thing we have to remember is that there is no need to make up the majority of an organization to exercise control over it and to steer it toward a certain end. One must simply make their opponents believe that they have power and numbers. The fall of the Czar of Russia is a good example of this. The civil war in Syria is a more recent example. The example he gave is one that shows how someone in a key position with ill intent have climbed to a position of authority then used that authority to stack the deck under them and keep those who are not corrupt in check. Those who are not corrupt wish to never harm the Bride of Christ that they love and this is well known and used as leverage against them. They weave a web of deceit and use it to keep people from acting while a small number of people in key positions of authority and power steer the course. The smoke of Satan.
Completely mirrors what depraved elitists in Washington from do to conceal and protect their activities and maintain power.
An actual example of a priest blowing the whistle to stop this grave evil is Fr John OConnor once of the Dominicans. They tried to utterly destroy him including almost forcefully putting him in a mental ward for accusing his superiors of allowing pederasty and covering it up. He barely escaped. Rome did nothing—NOTHING. He was stripped of his Dominican membership and ended up living with his sister. This fine priest was a dry martyr who gave up everything. And JPII did nothing to help him. Perhaps he didn’t know. I have to believe he couldn’t have known. But this really happened in the 1980’s. And Malachi Martin makes reference to this in Windswept House . Many fine priests who went to their bishops and were marginalized or thrown out. This is what our good priests are up against.
I think, Praetorian, that there needs to be a two-pronged investigation of what has happened in the seminaries, in the priesthood, in the curia, and in the episcopacy. A proper investigation would include qualified lay Catholics. The trouble with that, of course, is whether the hierarchy can be trusted to choose orthodox Catholics who accept all the Church's teaching. A quick look at the types of people being appointed to Vatican and Diocesan committees suggests that appointees will be "Catholics" who dissent from many Church teachings, especially on sexual morality. That's if Catholics are chosen. Our hierarchy are just as likely to appoint Protestants, non -Christians or atheists carrying with them all sorts of bias against the Church, and giving us outcomes pleasing to the secular media but not conducive to building up the Body of Christ. I'll give my thoughts on the two-pronged approach later (for their penny's worth) but it's time now for me to say my prayers.
Exactly! This is what a priest should do. No matter what the cost. It doesn't matter if it might be "uncomfortable" for him. Even if it might be "uncomfortable" for his family (which is doubtful they would be extremely adversely affected anyway). Lives are being ruined!!! Children, seminarians, the entire Church are being destroyed. People are going to Hell because of this!!! I'm sorry, but staying quiet because of some personal ramifications is no excuse at all. If my neighbor's child was being serially raped by someone the family trusted and I knew about it, but the cost was my job and my reputation I wouldn't hesitate. In fact I think I would be hard pressed to keep my fists off him. How could I ever look that child in the eye and say "Well, sorry I didn't help, but your rapist had some dirt on me." Disgusting!
Just to throw this out there..... it must be absolutely terrifying. Praying and staying orthodox are pretty extraordinary these days. I have heard priests infer that the holiness of John the Baptist was imagined by his followers. I have heard similar garbage from liberal Protestants. My husband is a conservative Protestant with a background in preaching, and knows theological crud when he hears it.
So they need very orthodox Catholics who are not under the thumb of the episcopate to investigate? Maybe they should have the SSPX do it. I'd pay to see that...
AED, I have wanted to ask you about Windswept House or anyone on MOG who has read it. You obviously have read it. Is one of the main themes of the book related to sexual abuse by clergyman or is only a reference made to this in this book? I read a little bit about the theme of the book and that is not what I gathered from what I read. I think that the book is fictional but Malachi Martin stated that 80% of it is true. I read that the plot is about Satanists who want to take over the Vatican, is that true? If the sexual abuse scandal in the Church is not a main part of this book, did Malachi Martin write any books which included this in more detail? and if so, which ones? Thank you. Praetorian, Wow, that's a thought! Raymond Arroyo discussed this current crisis on his last show and Padraig posted the video on the "Vatican Has Fallen" thread. (I posted the full length episode on the "President Trump" thread). I thought of the same thing that Raymond stated on Thursday night, they need to do a complete financial audit in conjunction with this scandal. Would this help prove that various allegations that were made against certain priests were true idk but would the Church make settlements to accusers if their allegations held no water at all? I doubt it. So, this idea could be very helpful if the Church wanted to truly come clean about all of these accusations. In Italy they say, "Basto! - That's enough!" We say, "enough is enough!" This is quite a tangled knot right now, it is well past time to begin untangling it. I believe that Pope Francis has a very special devotion to Our Lady Untier of Knots. Maybe our prayers should be directed to Our Lady Untier of Knots. I am truly having a difficult time with this subject for the past few days. The whole thing makes me feel queasy and reading Steve Skojec's tweet, it is simply heart wrenching. All the innocents involved have been held over a barrel in a sense - the victims who went through hell and any clergy who may have wanted to speak up about it were all silenced in one way or another. I'm not referring to anyone that they might have had "dirt on" but good priests that the abusers sought out for their confessions.
We get the priests and Bishops and cardinals and Popes we deserve. If they fail us it is because we have failed them, simply by not praying or offering enough sacrifice.
Sadly this is the truth of the situation. Lax and faithless laity produce lax and faithless clergy. After all they come from us.
Carol—I have pulled the book off my shelves to read it again ( after many years) but haven’t yet. It is indirectly about the sexual abuse of children by priests focusing on satanic pedophilia within the priesthood and hierarchy. It is 80 % fact which makes even more interesting in today’s events than when it was written. It is NOT for someone sensitive or easily disturbed because he pulls no punches and it shows what faithful priests and hierarchy are up against. It also shows JPII’s passiveness about it exasperating his supporters in the Vatican. It delves into the NWO and the Masons and their malign influence in trying to bring down the Church.
Yes. You are right. We all hope we would step up and do the right thing but when push comes to shove and you are staring down a satanic cabal that could easily murder you ritualistically as they did that good priest in Wisconsin some years back who was working with police to stop it—maybe you might hesitate. As to blackmail— that is different and requires a different kind of courage and a healthy dose of humility. I would hope it would not stop a good priest to come forward. There are some courageous souls in Hollywood risking everything right now to “out” child molesters. Isaac cappy most recently. And some others whose names escape me. It won’t end well for them sash but they are stepping up. God bless them!
It is totally reciprocal. If the laity don't pray daily for our priests/bishops we get what we get. If priests are not praying and being holy the laity are dumbed down and and clueless. It has been many decades since I have had a holy priest and boy does it show in the average laity in the pew (those who are still left), as they are all happy clappy at anything they can during the liturgy. They will listen to the dumbest homily on some made up story on social justice with gooo gooo eye's, but if it is confession, Eucharistic adoration, Mercy Sunday they are awol. This is the result of never talking about Jesus in homilies, but stories around social justice. Clear signs of the times.
