This problem goes all the way back to the Old Testament (back all the way to the fall of Adam and Eve, to be sure) — the influence of sinful society on the faithful. In the Old Testament, the Jewish people often fell into sin by adopting the ways of the pagan peoples living around them. Sometimes they made an idolatrous amalgam of pagan religions and the Jewish faith. Sometimes they fell into similar sin, such as sexual sins and unjust violence. The factors that may possibly influence a person toward sin are divided into three broad categories: the flesh (concupiscence), the world (other persons, or society), and the devil (fallen angels). The second strongest influence on us toward sin is other persons, as well as society at large.

The Catholic Church today, its members and many of its leaders, have fallen under the influence of modern culture. This is why some priests and parishes are adopting the secular position on LGBT issues. This is why priests refuse to speak out against contraception, and why so many Catholics are finding excuses to approve of contraception. This is why the latest political agenda in society quickly becomes the top priority of the USCCB and of Catholic bloggers.

I reader of mine recently wrote: “I asked the priest for a ‘divorce care’ group for some women I know. He was very excited, but they started an LGBT group instead.” This happens because fallen sinners are easily influenced by secular society — especially when they lack prayer, prefer their own reasoning over the teachings of faith, and shun the devotions of the Church and the examples of the Saints.

And the problem is not going away any time soon. I’m sure, at some point in the future, the Church will undergo the purification of the first part of the tribulation, reducing this problem greatly. But, subsequently, the influence of sin will gradually increase, making the problem, in the very end, much worse.

In the very distant future, at the second part of the tribulation, the Antichrist gains secular political control over almost the whole world (excluding the Church and some rebellious regions, here and there, now and again). He then incorporates his own false religion into every aspect of culture and formerly-secular society. So he takes advantage of this problem of sinful secular society influencing people’s behavior and their beliefs. The true Church remains unsullied during this time, though many of its members leave the Church to be led astray by the Antichrist. For they will have fallen into very grave unrepentant sins, and the Antichrist takes those sins, approves and promotes them, and even blends them into his false religion. So the religion of the Antichrist makes grave sin, especially sexual sins, an integral part of false worship.

And that is one reason why the falsified perverse version of theology of the body is so dangerous. It is an expression of the present-day “spirit of the antichrist”, meaning attitudes and behaviors that prepare the way for the actual Antichrist in the distant future. The theology of the body makes grave sexual sins and sexual idolatry an integral part of Christianity. This inevitably leads to acceptance of any religion that does the same, that offers to divinize and sacredize the most perverse sexual sin imaginable.

The Bishops

The annual meeting of the USCCB is this November. The “Silence Stops Now” organization is planning a protest. They are rightly upset that the Bishops have not done enough about priests and bishops who are sexual predators, and about the influence that gay priests and bishops have in the Church in the U.S. But I don’t see any hope, in the short term, for better behavior from Bishops. They are overly influenced by sinful secular society, and they do not accept correction from anyone, not even the Pope.

As for the alleged “lavender mafia”, my opinion is that there is no network of gay priests and bishops. Rather, bishops and priests are overly influenced by sinful secular society, and so many of the straight clergy members show favoritism toward gay priests and bishops. In the seminaries, liberal Catholic leaders approve and promote any gay seminarians, because they realize that gay seminarians are much more likely to favor liberal theological views. Seminaries have a gay problem because they are run by persons who are liberal, not because they are run by persons who are gay. So the problem is not a network of gay priests and bishops, but a network of liberal Catholics, who wish to accommodate the Church to the views of sinful secular society, including the approval of the LGBT agenda.

Seminaries

The solution to the seminary problem is nothing other than harsh rules with harsh enforcement. Any seminarians who commit any kind of sexual sins should be expelled permanently. The priests who run the seminary must not be given faculties to hear the confessions of seminarians; that way, the priests cannot refuse to take action based on the seal of the Confessional. Every person involved in leading and teaching the seminarians must be faithful to Church teaching; otherwise, they will favor liberal seminarians and expel the conservatives (just as is described in the book: Good-bye, Good Men).

The Holy See should develop and approve of an instruction manual for seminaries, which condemns every grave sin, refutes every popular error, and teaches these future priests how to remain faithful to Christ.

Faithful seminarians should use social media and the internet to expose corruption in seminaries and to name and condemn those seminarians who are unfit to be priests.

Bishops who fail to keep corruption out of their seminaries should be removed from office.

Priests who are discovered to be gay should be laicized. Priests who believe, teach, or promote any heresies should be laicized, excommunicated, and banned from every type of leadership role in the Church and in Catholic organizations.

When?

When will Jesus purify His Church and remove from power the reprobate, the incompetent, the malicious, the lustful, the proud, and those who teach grave error? The whole first part of the tribulation has the purpose of purifying the Church and the world, so as to achieve this goal.

See my article: The Word “Effeminate” in the Bible and Theology

by
Ronald L. Conte Jr.
Roman Catholic theologian and translator of the Catholic Public Domain Version of the Bible.

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