By Modesto P. Sa-onoy
The situation in Germany we presented yesterday is the best example of the most critical stage of the problems circling around the Catholic Church. The Philippines is far from that point, because we, our bishops and priests and those in the religious life have kept close to Catholic morals and traditions. There are exemptions but they are, well exemptions.
We have never have the scandals that have bedevilled the Church in the United States or Europe. Even a powerful cardinal long to be retired was defrocked and some bishops in the United States are accused of covering up the scandals of their priests and paid millions of dollars to keep a lid on these scandals.
However, in the Philippines we have priests and lay leaders who supported the imposition of contraception in the Philippines. The legal acceptance of contraception opens the doors to abortion and later more assaults on human life.
Many bishops also kept silent though we can be proud that our bishops here have remained true fighters for the faith.
There are voices, strong in fact, from Catholics in Name Only (CINO) who come to receive Holy Communion but support such anti-Catholic doctrines as divorce, abortion, same-sex unions, homosexuality, transgenderism and other moral deviant behaviour. Thank God, they have not succeeded that this country had been prevented from falling into the pit of sexual depravity.
This is probably the reason that our Catholic faithful have kept faith in the Church. There are undeniably many who had left the Church or live as CINOs but we held firm. For how long?
On October 13, 1973, Our Lady of Akita spoke to Sister Agnes Sasagawa. She said, “The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops… The Church will be full of those who accept compromise and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.”
We have not seen this outflow of priests here but in the US there is a growing number of parishes closing for lack of priests and seminaries with small enrolment. Some parishes are being consolidated for lack of priests and members, some dioceses are closing.
Catholic schools and universities even here are defying Catholic doctrine but their bishops tolerate them. At least, if they want to teach anti-Catholic teachings and practices they should have the decency to remove that tag as a Catholic institution.
No wonder the church of Satan has acquired some level of social acceptance and now even demanding the same privileges as Christian and Muslim churches.
How did this come about? As I quoted earlier the message of Our Lady of Akita, there are priests and bishops who would compromise the Church for whatever agenda they have.
Philip Lawler wrote a book, “The Smoke of Satan”, and tried to answer the question: how could the bishops have lost the confidence of the faithful and how can the profound damage be repaired?
These are difficult questions but we can go back to the long history of the Church to find them.
Lawler said that the history of the Catholic Church “is a history marked by successes and failures, by sanctity and by sin, by splendour and by corruption. This of course is the history of the visible Church, the hierarchical model; through it all, the Marian Church remains pure and loyal. In good times and bad, the sacraments are administered, the Eucharist is celebrated; Christ is with His Church, offering salvation. The invisible work of the Church is always the first priority. The fact that the Church has weathered all storms, regardless of the helmsman’s errors, is in itself evidence of the Spirit’s power.”
Simply said, the errors or questionable behaviour of the pastors of the Church do create scandals but their actions are theirs and not of the Church. Indeed, Christ has warned them, as well as us the faithful: woe to them by whom scandals arise.
Undeniably many Catholics left the faith because of the conduct of their priests, sometimes personal in nature. That however is a mistake because the priest is not the Church.
Continued tomorrow.
