 Sex and the Roman Catholic Church John Reisinger
The unthinkable has not only become thinkable and discussable, it has become the front page story in our daily papers and the lead story on our TV newscasts. The Roman Catholic Church is being exposed as a hot bed of sexual immorality and its highest officials are being openly criticized for "cover up" in every media. Lawsuits against the Church and criminal charges against priests and bishops are mushrooming every day. The present open hostility against the Roman Catholic leaders would have indeed been both unthinkable and impossible until recently. This was not because the awful sins, especially pedophilia, were not known to be taking place, but because the Catholic Church and its leaders were so powerful that they could successfully cover up the sin and go on with "business as usual." The recent revelations concerning one particular priest's ongoing sexual abuse of children opened the flood gates for who knows how many young boys and girls to come forward and report how they had been sexually molested by a priest. It would appear that the horror stories are just beginning to surface. What was first adamantly denied and then passed off as an extreme exception has now been proven beyond doubt to be not only a very widespread practice by Roman Catholic priests, but a wicked practice that Church officials knew about and condoned. It is this last revelation that has angered even the most ardent Roman Catholics. "Sex, Shame, and the Catholic Church" was Newsweek's cover story for March 4, 2002. The subtitle was "New Soul-searching across America." This would be a perfect time for the Roman Catholic Church to carefully spell out the biblical teaching of Christ and the Apostles on the subject of sex, marriage and the ministry. No such thing has been done, nor will it be done, because the present teaching of Rome is diametrically opposed to the teaching of the New Testament Scriptures. Former Catholic Priest, Richard Bennett, in an article entitled ". Better to marry than to burn," has said it well. Because of outrages of Boston and similar scandals across the world, the Vatican has been asked for a response. Pope Paul II approved some new rules. Cardinal Joseph Ratsinger, through the Vatican's Con- gregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, published these rules, namely that "pedophile cases were subject to pontifical secrecy and that only priests should handle such cases, including those serving as judges, prosecutor, or defense advocate in church tribunals . . . ." (Associated Press, 1/9/2002 http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/geoghan/010902-vatican.htm). [Note: This article by Mr. Bennett is available on the internet at: www.bereanbeacon.org. Much of what I have said was taken from Mr. Bennett's excellent article. Mr. Bennett's ministry is worthy of your prayers and support.] If any other group in any kind of forum had tried to use such a principle of "pontifical secrecy" an outcry would be heard on every hand. Mr. Bennett said, "The temptations of priests judging their fellow priests - and that with 'pontifical secrecy'- would be similar to a decree of Enron's executives claiming the sole right to judge Enron's executives subject to executive secrecy." The idea is absolutely ludicrous. It would be really funny if it were not so serious. Several things are very obvious to any one with any knowledge of Scripture. First of all, the Bible is clear on the relationship of marriage and ministry. Paul specifically says that "marriage is honorable." In no sense does the Roman Catholic Church say it is not honorable in itself, but marriage, in the eyes of the Catholic Church, is definitely dishonorable for a priest. That is totally contrary to Scripture. Second, one of the requirements for a man to be a bishop in the New Testament is that he be "the husband of one wife." It is true that some men may choose, for a number of reasons, to remain single in order to effectively carry on certain ministries. However, it is just as true and clear that it is always an optional matter and never an absolute requirement to be a minister as Rome teaches. Jesus never called men to "leave father and mother and join himself to a group of other celibates in order to be a minister." No, he told them to leave father and mother and be joined to a woman as a wife. It is quite clear from Scripture that the Apostles, including the first supposed Pope, Peter himself, were married - "Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas (Peter). It is quite ironic that forbidding marriage is one of the marks of the latter day anti-Christian church. Paul is quite emphatic that it is "better to marry than to burn," and this is not burning in hell, but burning with desire. If indeed a desire for sex is part of God's creative purpose, then forbidding a person to marry and to legitimately fulfill that desire to the glory of God is to ask for serious trouble - trouble of the very kind we see on the front pages of our newspapers today. Rome's insistence on celibacy for ministry places the Church in the place of Christ. The priest and nun are literally married to the Church. It is pretty difficult to have a personal and truly emotional relationship with an institution. The Roman Catholic Church makes no claim that her teaching about priestly celibacy is biblical. She is fully aware of what the Bible teaches, but that makes no difference. Remember that Rome teaches that she, through the Church's apostles, wrote the Bible. She is the one true interpreter of the Bible, and most important of all, she can add to the Bible anytime she chooses to do so. She deliberately added celibacy as a condition for ministry to the Bible. The traditions of the Roman Catholic Church are just as authoritative as the Word of God itself. In responding to criticism and the suggestion that the celibacy doctrine may be partly to blame for her sexual problems, Rome denies the obvious. Again hear Richard Bennett's quotation of the Vatican's teaching: In any case the [Roman Catholic] church of the West cannot weaken her faithful observance of her own tradition. [emphasis, JGR] And it is unthinkable that for centuries she has followed a path which, instead of favoring the spiritual richness of individual souls and of the People of God, has in some way compromised it, [JGR: The person who wrote that must not read any newspapers or listen to any Newscasts on TV!] or that she has with arbitrary juridical prescriptions stifled the free expansion of the most profound realities of nature and grace. [JGR: But that is precisely what she has done and she is reaping the inevitable consequences!] From: Vatican Council II Documents No. 95, Sacerdotalis Caelibatus, 24 June 1967, Vatican Council II: More Post Cinciliar Documents, Austin P. Flannery, ed. First Edition (Northport, NY: Costello Publ. Co., 1982) Vol. II, See, 41, p. 297. This is not the time for evangelical Christians to gloat over Rome's problems. We have enough of our own problems to be lamenting over. What this should do for all of us, and above all for the Roman Catholic Church, is highlight the awful danger of consciously departing from the Word of God as the rule of our practice and faith. When we exalt any Church and its arbitrary authority above the clear message of Scriptures, then horror stories like we are reading about every day will continue to come. Sex and the Catholic Church The unthinkable has not only become thinkable and discussable, it has become the front page story in our daily papers and the lead story on our TV newscasts. The Roman Catholic Church is being exposed as a hot bed of sexual immorality and its highest officials are being openly criticized for "cover up" in every media. Lawsuits against the Church and criminal charges against priests and bishops are mushrooming every day. The present open hostility against the Roman Catholic leaders would have indeed been both unthinkable and impossible until recently. This was not because the awful sins, especially pedophilia, were not known to be taking place, but because the Catholic Church and its leaders were so powerful that they could successfully cover up the sin and go on with "business as usual." The recent revelations concerning one particular priest's ongoing sexual abuse of children opened the flood gates for who knows how many young boys and girls to come forward and report how they had been sexually molested by a priest. It would appear that the horror stories are just beginning to surface. What was first adamantly denied and then passed off as an extreme exception has now been proven beyond doubt to be not only a very widespread practice by Roman Catholic priests, but a wicked practice that Church officials knew about and condoned. It is this last revelation that has angered even the most ardent Roman Catholics. "Sex, Shame, and the Catholic Church" was Newsweek's cover story for March 4, 2002. The subtitle was "New Soul-searching across America." This would be a perfect time for the Roman Catholic Church to carefully spell out the biblical teaching of Christ and the Apostles on the subject of sex, marriage and the ministry. No such thing has been done, nor will it be done, because the present teaching of Rome is diametrically opposed to the teaching of the New Testament Scriptures. Former Catholic Priest, Richard Bennett, in an article entitled ". Better to marry than to burn," has said it well. Because of outrages of Boston and similar scandals across the world, the Vatican has been asked for a response. Pope Paul II approved some new rules. Cardinal Joseph Ratsinger, through the Vatican's Con- gregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, published these rules, namely that "pedophile cases were subject to pontifical secrecy and that only priests should handle such cases, including those serving as judges, prosecutor, or defense advocate in church tribunals . . . ." (Associated Press, 1/9/2002 http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/geoghan/010902-vatican.htm). [Note: This article by Mr. Bennett is available on the internet at: www.bereanbeacon.org. Much of what I have said was taken from Mr. Bennett's excellent article. Mr. Bennett's ministry is worthy of your prayers and support.] If any other group in any kind of forum had tried to use such a principle of "pontifical secrecy" an outcry would be heard on every hand. Mr. Bennett said, "The temptations of priests judging their fellow priests - and that with 'pontifical secrecy'- would be similar to a decree of Enron's executives claiming the sole right to judge Enron's executives subject to executive secrecy." The idea is absolutely ludicrous. It would be really funny if it were not so serious. Several things are very obvious to any one with any knowledge of Scripture. First of all, the Bible is clear on the relationship of marriage and ministry. Paul specifically says that "marriage is honorable." In no sense does the Roman Catholic Church say it is not honorable in itself, but marriage, in the eyes of the Catholic Church, is definitely dishonorable for a priest. That is totally contrary to Scripture. Second, one of the requirements for a man to be a bishop in the New Testament is that he be "the husband of one wife." It is true that some men may choose, for a number of reasons, to remain single in order to effectively carry on certain ministries. However, it is just as true and clear that it is always an optional matter and never an absolute requirement to be a minister as Rome teaches. Jesus never called men to "leave father and mother and join himself to a group of other celibates in order to be a minister." No, he told them to leave father and mother and be joined to a woman as a wife. It is quite clear from Scripture that the Apostles, including the first supposed Pope, Peter himself, were married - "Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas (Peter). It is quite ironic that forbidding marriage is one of the marks of the latter day anti-Christian church. Paul is quite emphatic that it is "better to marry than to burn," and this is not burning in hell, but burning with desire. If indeed a desire for sex is part of God's creative purpose, then forbidding a person to marry and to legitimately fulfill that desire to the glory of God is to ask for serious trouble - trouble of the very kind we see on the front pages of our newspapers today. Rome's insistence on celibacy for ministry places the Church in the place of Christ. The priest and nun are literally married to the Church. It is pretty difficult to have a personal and truly emotional relationship with an institution. The Roman Catholic Church makes no claim that her teaching about priestly celibacy is biblical. She is fully aware of what the Bible teaches, but that makes no difference. Remember that Rome teaches that she, through the Church's apostles, wrote the Bible. She is the one true interpreter of the Bible, and most important of all, she can add to the Bible anytime she chooses to do so. She deliberately added celibacy as a condition for ministry to the Bible. The traditions of the Roman Catholic Church are just as authoritative as the Word of God itself. In responding to criticism and the suggestion that the celibacy doctrine may be partly to blame for her sexual problems, Rome denies the obvious. Again hear Richard Bennett's quotation of the Vatican's teaching: In any case the [Roman Catholic] church of the West cannot weaken her faithful observance of her own tradition. [emphasis, JGR] And it is unthinkable that for centuries she has followed a path which, instead of favoring the spiritual richness of individual souls and of the People of God, has in some way compromised it, [JGR: The person who wrote that must not read any newspapers or listen to any Newscasts on TV!] or that she has with arbitrary juridical prescriptions stifled the free expansion of the most profound realities of nature and grace. [JGR: But that is precisely what she has done and she is reaping the inevitable consequences!] From: Vatican Council II Documents No. 95, Sacerdotalis Caelibatus, 24 June 1967, Vatican Council II: More Post Cinciliar Documents, Austin P. Flannery, ed. First Edition (Northport, NY: Costello Publ. Co., 1982) Vol. II, See, 41, p. 297. This is not the time for evangelical Christians to gloat over Rome's problems. We have enough of our own problems to be lamenting over. What this should do for all of us, and above all for the Roman Catholic Church, is highlight the awful danger of consciously departing from the Word of God as the rule of our practice and faith. When we exalt any Church and its arbitrary authority above the clear message of Scriptures, then horror stories like we are reading about every day will continue to come. |