In a story almost too shocking for words, we find that Vietnamese priests are aiding & abetting sacrilege because they think it's somehow "charitable".
According to one news account:
* Priests knowingly go against the Church's teaching to sacrilegiously give the Holy Eucharist to divorced and "remarried" persons
* Priests also knowingly violate Church teachings to sacrilegiously give the Blessed Sacrament to those who use contraceptives
* Priests apparently encourage parishioners to make sacrilegious confessions - their "remarried" and contracepting "penitents" have no intention of stopping their sins but go to confession for the very purpose of being allowed to make a blasphemous Communion. "Neither will that confession deliver you which is made without true repentance. For true repentance is a grief of heart and sorrow of soul because of the evils a man has committed. True repentance causes us to grieve over them with a firm intention of never committing them again." (St. Ambrose, Doctor of the Church)
* Priests apparently knowingly give absolution to "remarried" and contracepting "penitents" who have no intention of stopping their sin. They apparently ignore the fact that, when deciding whether or not to absolve, they are obligated to "be careful to observe if the penitent be truly contrite for his sins, and deliberately and firmly resolved to avoid sin for the future." (Catechism of the Council of Trent)
Not surprisingly, the misguided sinners think the actions of priest(s) who violate Church laws are a good thing because the "feel" better as a result of their actions.
According to the same story:
* One "remarried" parishioner (otherwise known as an adulterer - see Mt. 5:31-32, Mt. 19:3-9, Mk. 10:2-12, Lk. 16:18) who "felt miserable" because he and his "wife" were denied the Holy Eucharist for decades now says his "faith life revived rapidly since I received Holy Communion". But how could it really be true that a sacrilegious Communion "revived" his faith life? Scripture says that "whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord." (St. Paul, 1 Cor. 11:27)
He said he feels that "People like us need to feel God's closeness most through Holy Communion, which heals us spiritually" - obviously failing to realize that his blasphemous actions have not healed him (or his partner in adultery), but rather their actions have made both of them worse. The only way to really be healed spiritually would be to make a true Confession - including repenting of the adulterous union and putting an end to it.
Further, he apparently added a blasphemous confession to his list of sins in order to receive the Holy Eucharist (since he obviously intended to continue living as an adulterer even as he "repented" of his sins), thanks to help from his parish priest, an apparent conspirator in (or instigator of) the sin.
He is also - arguably - less likely to change his adulterous situation because he has found a priest willing to violate the laws of the Church in order to serve his desires, thereby risking his eternal soul. "Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor practicing homosexuals nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor. 6:9-10)
He has remained in his adulterous "marriage" for over 50 years and apparently thinks that the passage of time could somehow mitigate his sin - rather than aggravate it. Spending most of one's life in adultery would increase one's sins, not decrease them!
Sadly, but predictably, after making his blasphemous Communion he reports that he now feels "much happier"
* The complicit priest in the above case says he also does the same for 20 other people "in the same situation"
* The priest seems to be ignorant of the fact that going to confession without a resolve to stop sinning would invalidate the sacrament and make it sinful. Receiving the Holy Eucharist in such a state would, in fact, add another serious sin ["Can. 907 The precept of confessing sins is not satisfied by one who makes a sacrilegious confession or one that is intentionally null." (1917 Code of Canon Law)]
* Priests also apparently give absolution to persons they know are using contraceptives and do not plan to stop using them. Do these misguided priests actually think that if a government is oppressive, the citizens will get a pass to break God's laws? Hardly! Rather, confessions in which "penitents" do not have the intent to stop their grievous sins are sinful and invalid.
* One priest actually believes that enabling blasphemous Communions during Easter time is a "way to show them God's love and empathize with their suffering". Hello? Offending God - sin - is NOT a way to show love or empathy.
" The priest seems to think that "allowing them to receive Holy Communion is a way to welcome them back" to the Church. So adding a serious sin to one's existing serious sin is a way back into the Church? Hardly. Basic catechism teaches that re-entry necessitates true repentance for sin.
" Apparently, other priests admit that they also allow the above, but may do so in private to "avoid scandal". As if God doesn't see what they are doing!
These priests are derelict in their duties by not telling their sinful flock that they face grave eternal consequences for their sins. They are exposing the Eucharist to sacrilege, the sacrament of Penance to blasphemy, willfully disobeying the laws of the Church, and are making themselves complicit in the grave sins of others. The fact that some people may feel "happier" as a result of priests' misguided actions does not matter. What good does it really do for someone tottering on the edge of a cliff if to be made to feel "happy"? Isn't it better to try to snatch them from the edge of the cliff for their own good - even if it makes them feel less "happy"? No one is happy in hell. But Christ assures us that those who commit serious sin without true repentance will go there. And it's the priest's job to tell them that.
"Proper dispositions for Penance: "The right dispositions for Penance are: (1) To confess all our moral sins as we know them; (2) To be sorry for them, and (3) to have the determination never to commit them or others again." (Baltimore Catechism)
"It is a beautiful thought, my children, that we have a Sacrament which heals the wounds of our soul! But we must receive it with good dispositions. Otherwise we make new wounds upon the old ones. What would you say of a man covered with wounds who is advised to go to the hospital to show himself to the surgeon? The surgeon cures him by giving him remedies. But, behold! this man takes his knife, gives himself great blows with it and makes himself worse than he was before. Well, that is what you often do after leaving the confessional [after a bad confession]." (Catechism of St. John Vianney)
[8/20]
Posts
