DR
JIDEOFO KENECHUKWU DANMBAEZUE ALONG WITH MEMBERS OF HIS ASSOCIATION HAD BEEN
CRUSADING FOR THE ABROGATION OF COMPULSORY CELIBACY IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCH.
HERE IS A SAMPLE OF THE
EVIDENCE ON THE ISSUE....
A
Picture of Past Members of Sex Abuse Commissions tell of Struggles with Their
Bishops was posted here
Jason Berry | Apr. 11, 2014
Commissions set up by
church officials to advise church officials on clergy sexual abuse have a
checkered history. No one knows this better than Catholics who answered their
bishops' call to serve but found themselves and their advice rejected or
ignored.
The U.S. bishops named
a 12-member blue-ribbon panel of lay advisers amid the firestorm of media
coverage in 2002.
"A lot of
American bishops would not want to see any of us of the original review board
named to this [pontifical] commission," said Nicholas Cafardi, who served
on the National Review Board from 2002 to 2004.
"The report we
wrote in 2004 was pretty rough on the bishops," said Cafardi, a Duquesne
University law professor, dean emeritus and canon lawyer. "If [the pope
and the Vatican] want a credible board, they should have at least one American
who has dealt with the realities. This is hardly something to claim credit for,
but we had the largest crisis in terms of victims and perpetrators -- more than
Ireland, Belgium and Australia -- because our country has the biggest
church."
Illinois Supreme Court
Justice Anne Burke, who also served on the original U.S. National Review Board,
said the bishops resisted the board on many points, such as whether there would
be audits of priest personnel files and who would do the audits. "I don't
think they realized that this was a time bomb and the magnitude of what was
left to come."
NCR
enlarges my soul! It nourishes the "Catholic" in me with its faithful
voice of truth, integrity and compassion.
-
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton
She also noted,
"The bishops didn't honestly deal with each other."
Cafardi, Burke and
several others were present in 2004 when Chicago Cardinal Francis George
celebrated Mass for the review board, and then afterward told them, according
to several review board members there, "You will be the downfall of the
church." The archdiocese's spokesman later denied the cardinal said this.
In 2005, George would
ignore the U.S. bishops' Charter for the Protection of Children and Young
People by failing to remove an accused priest, Daniel McCormack, who was
subsequently prosecuted and sent to prison. The archdiocese has settled
lawsuits with at least five of about a dozen plaintiffs for more than $7
million.
In 2012, when Cafardi
learned that the Vatican was planning a conference on clergy sex abuse, he
tried to get invited. He wrote to the organizer, German Jesuit Fr. Hans
Zollner. Vice rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, Zollner has been
named to the new Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
Cafardi sent Zollner a
copy of his 2008 book, Before Dallas: The U.S.
Bishops' Response to Clergy Sexual Abuse of Children, on the
bishops' failure to abide by voluntary guidelines prior to the 2002 conference
in Dallas, where they adopted the youth protection charter.
"I wrote to Fr.
Zollner ... offering to cover my own expenses. I pointed out I was a graduate
of Gregorian and had this experience. Zollner sent a nice letter but it was a
typical Roman kiss-off, saying the schedule has been set," Cafardi said.
Bishops spurning the
advice of their own oversight groups are sources of disillusionment for people
like Cafardi and Burke.
Sharing their frustration
is Lieve Halsberghe of Louvain, Belgium, a researcher forBishopAccountability.org,
an advocacy organization for victims of clergy sex abuse. 2010 saw the churches
in Belgium, Ireland, Austria, Germany and Italy engulfed in scandals as
revelations about the extent of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests
became public. In Belgium, this led to a civil investigation and even a police
raid on national church offices.
Lieve Halsberghe's
aunt, Godelieve Halsberghe, was a magistrate who served on a church commission
of inquiry into abuse cases. In 2010, the commission issued a report that
contained testimony given by hundreds of people who had been sexually abused by
priests.
On the commission from
2000 to 2008, Godelieve Halsberghe clashed with the hierarchy over their
concealing information about offenders.
Most notoriously,
Roger Vangheluwe resigned as bishop of Bruges in 2010 after admitting to
abusing a nephew over a 15-year period, beginning when the boy was 5.
Lieve Halsberghe, a
member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) in Belgium,
said that Cardinal Godfried Danneels, retired archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels,
and his successor, Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard, allowed Vangheluwe to
retire quietly and did not seek justice. They are still respected public
figures, often in the media, "as if nothing ever happened,"
Halsberghe said.
All these men have
caused so much harm to so many people -- and they are unpunished," she said.
For Burke, the
overriding question is: "What is the church going to do with bishops who
permit this behavior?" She cited the case of St. Paul-Minneapolis
Archbishop John Nienstedt. Last year, the archdiocese's canon lawyer, Jennifer
Haselberger, resigned and made public what she described as the archdiocese's
"disregard" for canon and civil law in its handling of sex abuse
allegations. In January, prosecutors announced they would not press criminal
charges against the archdiocese for failure to report two cases prominent in
documents Haselberger provided. One case involved a priest who was convicted of
molesting a minor, and the other a priest accused of possessing child
pornography.
"You can go
around the world and see bishops who knew these things," said Burke.
"If the state isn't going to charge these men with obstruction of justice,
the church can still do it. They can implement penalties."
Watching the larger
scandal unfold over a decade has hardened her opinions. "They are not
going to defrock bishops. I don't think they have the capacity or desire. ...
We live in a society of transparency; the church has lived for 2,000 years in
secrecy."
Marie Collins, the
Irish sex abuse survivor who is a member of Pope Francis' new commission, told
The Associated Press that her top priority was for the Vatican to punish
bishops who have covered up for priest abusers.
"There's no point
in my mind of having gold-plated child-protection programs in place if there's
no sanction for a bishop who decides to ignore them," Collins said.
"The reason everyone is so angry is not because they have abusers in their
ranks. Abusers are in every rank of society. It's because of the systemic
cover-up."
"Putting Marie
Collins on the commission was a brilliant decision," said Dominican Fr.
Thomas Doyle, the American priest and canon lawyer who has become one of the
church's harshest critics. "She is probably the only one with true
credibility among the victims, who are clearly the most important people in
this equation, not the bishops."
The highest-ranking
churchman on the commission is Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley. O'Malley, who has
a long history in Hispanic ministry, has known Pope Francis for years, having
stayed in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with then-Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio. One of
eight on Francis' Council of Cardinals, he is a confidante of the pope and
likely to wield influence on the new sex abuse commission.
His reputation is of a
problem-solver, having served successively at three dioceses battered by abuse
scandals -- Fall River, Mass., Palm Beach, Fla., and Boston. He has met
individually with victims and led penitential services, and he arranged for
Pope Benedict XVI to meet with abuse survivors on his 2008 trip to America.
However, O'Malley's
reputation isn't as sterling among advocates for abuse victims, who question
his transparency. They point out that he avoids the press and has refused to
publish full lists of priests who served in his dioceses who have been credibly
accused of abuse.
In Boston, O'Malley
has withheld names of 70 accused religious order priests, "including some
who have gone to prison," according BishopAccountability.org. In Fall
River, he withheld names of perpetrators for 10 years, until 2002, by which
time the priests could not be prosecuted because of statute of limitations law.
O'Malley's appointment
"does not bring instant credibility to the effort," Doyle wrote in an essay on
the NCR website.
"Probably the only bishop on the planet with the authentic qualifications
to serve, if the goal really is to help victims and help the church, is Bishop
Geoffrey Robinson, retired auxiliary bishop of Sydney."
Robinson led the
Australian bishops' committee that addressed sexual abuse by clergy. In 2008,
he was touring the U.S. to promote his book Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the
Spirit of Jesus, when his bishops' conference issued a statement
saying they found "doctrinal difficulties" with it.
Last June, Robinson
launched an online petition in conjunction with the release of his latest
book, For Christ's Sake: End Sexual
Abuse in the Catholic Church ... for Good. The book and the
petition called on the church hierarchy to confront the systemic causes of the
abuse crisis, like moral immaturity and the celibate culture.
Doyle also wondered
why Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin wasn't appointed. Martin "is one
of the very few bishops who really get it," Doyle told NCR. "The Irish church has been brought to its
knees by these scandals and Martin has done things that are meaningful. ... Why
was Martin excluded?"
For Halsberghe, a
policy to assist victims in countries where legal systems are weak and
principled journalism rare should be a priority for the papal commission.
She has been
researching a European missionary who was deported from an Africa country and
sent back to his home country. "He was laicized, after a mutual decision
of the hierarchy in the mission, his country and the Vatican," she said.
"The police were
not notified (until I did it) and the alleged perpetrator is on the loose in
his country of origin. The victims are being bluffed. Church officials tell
them there are no treatment possibilities for them, that they are free to go to
the police, in a country where everyone knows the corrupt police will run back
to the bishop instantly."
"The only
standard the pope should seek is justice," Halsberghe said.
Some question if
Francis truly understands the scope of the sexual abuse crisis in the church.
He rarely speaks about it, and when he does, abuse survivors don't like what
they hear.
"The cases of
abuse are awful because they leave profound wounds," Francis recently
told Corriere della Sera,
an Italian daily. He then said, "The Catholic church may be the only
institution to have moved with transparency and responsibility. No one else has
done more. Yet the church is the only one to be attacked."
That "was like a
kick in the gut," said Monica Barrett of Milwaukee. Now 53, she was raped
by a priest when she was in grade school.
"I don't think if
you create a problem, worsen it by lying and systematic cover-up, and are then
forced to respond to public outcry, that it means you should get credit for
being transparent and responsible."
Barrett is one of 500
victims who have been in court for years, seeking restitution from the
Milwaukee archdiocese, which is in the third year of grinding bankruptcy
litigation with the plaintiffs.
"I would like to
see some consistent, universal laws that apply to those within the church, to
the abusers, the people who covered it up and knew about it and did
nothing," Barrett wrote in an email to NCR.
The church's actions
today, she said, can either re-victimize or promote healing. That is why, she
said, the church must "treat survivors in a universally fair manner. Show
them compassion. Compensate them equally. Treat them with respect and dignity
rather than distrust and anger."
[Jason Berry was a
co-producer of the recent Frontline documentary "Secrets of the
Vatican" on PBS.]
This story appeared
in the April 11-24, 2014 print issue
under the headline: Advisers saw advice spurned .
BREAD
AND BUTTER CLERICS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Are
Parading As Indigenous Priests Whereas They Are Foreign Stooges
There has been a
retinue of charlatans in every profession in the world since the agricultural
perspectives that Cain, the farmer and Abel, the shepherd introduced to the
rest of humanity if the biblical legends and/or religious fables are worth
their whiles! What is indigenous in a half-baked cleric who does not realise
that he is only a pawn in the chessboard of Roman Sacredotal Nationals that
have dominated the scene in Christendom since the Constantinian misadventure of
bastardising the true ‘Good News of the Lord Jesus’ with the Mithranism era of
Roman idolatry? For 500 years the baton of Papacy had always been handed over
to only Roman citizens until lately, when Pope John Paul I was poisoned to
death by fellow cardinals contesting for the throne of the Roman Catholic
Papacy! Pope John Paul II surfaced as a belated consensus candidate. To date
the reconciliatory position of the late Pope has not been accepted by hardcore
Roman Theologians who see the throne as their birthright! When can other
nations produce Popes as in past centuries? Was Jesus a native of Rome? Why has
the Papacy continued to operate from Rome, whereas the birthplace of Jesus
was/is Nazareth or Bethlehem? Why Muslims go to Mecca and Medina is obvious!
When, therefore, shall Christians all over the world, especially Roman
Catholics, become as reasonable as Muslims?
Take a cue from the
Roman Catholic Priests of African descent who, to date , do not realise that
the elite members of their congregations see them merely as the ‘Matthews’ and
‘Zaccheaeus’ of our times. To date, without being conscious of their
neo-colonial roles in destroying our authentic cultural heritage; they are the
errand boys of Roman Christian Imperialism and gradually events they
stage-manage in the name of the Papacy reveals they are nothing but saboteurs
in the overall panoroma of genuine religiosity in the land of our birth!The
desecration of our ancient taboos (*nso ala*) and bastardisation of the
authentic norms and mores of our pristine holy ancestors is the remote cause of
religius apathy among the politicians and youths of today! Some of our
‘been-to’ clerics revel in the moral decadence they learnt at the various
European countries they are sent to study and only return to corrupt the few
upright clerics who they consider naive and inexperienced because they hold on
to the sacred vows they took at their ordinations! These nonchallant ‘tax
collectors’ or AMC for Roman Theologians and their Religious Imperialists
should be halted. It is better we have a few priests who can sanctify our
parishes than a long retinue of Satan’s disciples hiding under the cloak of
Roman Catholic Clergy while leading the whole congregation to hell. The time to
call a spade by its real name is now. I am only blowing the whistle early
enough so that our lovely children and generations yet unborn will not end up
in hellfire, if what we are brainwashed to believe as doctrines and dogmas
really exist!
This is an up-date
on the original diatribe entitled “ GRADUATES OF SATAN’S UNIVERSITY” that the
enthusiastic or avid reader can find at my other websites:
Where I was born, we have this local
saying; ‘He who does not know
where the rainfall starting beating him, will never know where it stopped’. Another warns; “A rat that joins a lizard in
playing in the rain, to remember that when the lizard is dry, it will still be
wet.”
In my culture, one does not
interpret proverbs. I dare do so for my readers who are non-indigenes of Igbo
land; both idioms imply that anyone who does not know who he is or where he is
coming from will definitely not know where he is going! The words of the elders
of my people of Biafra are definitely words of wisdom. They
can write a doctoral thesis with just an idiom or a statement of the fact with
a simple analogy!
Let’s look at these: The bat is totally blind and is neither
an animal of the sky nor of the land! The bat is neither a bird nor a rodent
for it hasn’t any feathers yet it flies! And though it has the anatomy of
mammals and a skin with furs it neither crawls nor runs on all fours, yet it
feeds like birds, amphibians and rodents! The bat says he knows how ugly it is,
so it has resolved to fly only at night! What a tragedy! These unreverend men
and women should emulate the bat!
A DIALOGUE OVERHEARD IN HELL
An armed robber who died on active service found himself
in front of Lucifer, the Prince of Hell. He was hailed as an exemplary
ambassador who had done very well while on earth. He had despatched hundreds of
souls who were not given time to repent and so was placed nearest the top
echelon of the executive class, as a Superintendent - Grade 1. While on a
guided tour of his area of command, he saw two of the mass servers in his
former parish. Surprised finding them here after their pious services at all
liturgical celebrations; he queried them with an air of authority.
“What are you two doing here?” “King Kong!” (For that was his popular nickname
on earth) “Paddy, Na-waoh! Na
so we see-a-moh- ooh! We stole and drank more altar wine than all the priests
and bishops did in five years during our six months service as altar boys. The
wine was not only sweet but also very intoxicating. We died on our way to
hospital because of a fatal accident we had after the Good Friday vigil mass.
It was our last bout of twenty litres of the red Italian brew!”
“Sorry, so you common thieves pretended that you were
good boys! Who said that armed robbers were worse? Yeah, the Catechist.”
They cut in, “Sh-sh
– that Parish Catechist you’re talking about is down here in a hotter part of
this inferno!”
As, if in doubt, he called out to the elderly man to
taunt him. “Baba-a how now?” To his greatest amazement, he was
informed that the Parish Priest that officiated at his wedding was still far
down below. He protested to his tour guide, “No,
this is injustice! How can my friend, ‘the man of God’ we all revered on earth
be condemned to hell after his twenty-five years meritorious service as a Rev.
Father on earth? No, something’s wrong here!”
He only sobered when the priest responded thus: “King Kong, my dear, the Archbishop
who ordained me is even farther down below and he arrived before all of us. He
was the Vice Chancellor of the University of Satan
I attended. We are graduates of
the seminaries where they taught the art of preaching, deception and
subterfuge! He holds three doctorate degrees! One of them, a post-doctoral, he
earned in sexual promiscuity.”
The Archbishop was in so much pain, he just kept mute!
Now, refresh your mind with what earned Phinehas, the
son of Aaron, the special favour of God that turned away his wrath from the
idolatrous and promiscuous life they turned into while he delivered them from Egypt:
Numbers 25:1-15
25:1 While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began
to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women,
2 who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods.
The people ate and bowed down before these gods.
3 So Israel joined in worshipping the Baal of
Peor. And the LORD's anger burned against them.
4 The LORD said to Moses, "Take all the leaders
of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the LORD,
so that the LORD's fierce anger may turn away from Israel."
5 So Moses said to Israel's
judges, "Each of you must put to death those of your men who have joined
in worshipping the Baal of Peor."
6 Then an Israelite man brought to his family a
Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the
entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
7 When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the
priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand
8 and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove
the spear through both of them-- through the Israelite and into the woman's
body. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped;
9 but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.
10 The LORD said to Moses,
11 "Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron,
the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites; for he was as zealous
as I am for my honour among them, so that in my zeal I did not put an end to
them.
12 Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace
with him.
13 He and his descendants will have a covenant of a
lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honour of his God and made
atonement for the Israelites."
14 The name of the Israelite who was killed with the
Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, the leader of a Simeonite family.
15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was put to
death was Cozbi daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of a Midianite family.
I have no commentary to add. If the
cap fits your head, then wear it!
This association is the Phinehas of this century and has a duty to
perform.
You can also replace ‘son of Eleazar’ with ‘the son of Kenez’ to get my
gist!
Today, the errand pseudo-clerics are bastardising our cultural
festivities, like ICHI OZO, NEW YAM FESTIVALS & IGBA OFALA, which the white
missionaries, in their ignorance labelled heathen rituals with
‘holier-than-thou’ missionary fiat!
FOREWORD
CLERICAL
CELIBACY HAS OUT-LIVED ITS USEFULNESS
There was a time when Catholic Reverend Fathers and
Reverend Sisters on missionary services in this country were really admired,
respected and idolised! That was in my teens when the Late Bishop Shanahan was
still an ordinary priest! Rev. Fr. Bindel was the Parish Priest of Ihiala, then
a very large area extending as far away as Emekuku, Orlu and Oguta! They rode
long distances on Hercules bicycles carrying out their evangelistic duties.
They trekked most of the time and made converts by using the very few
semi-literate natives as their interpreters!
These interpreters were later promoted to Catechists
and soon wielded much power! They taught pagans catechism classes in the
vernacular language and only those they certified as having passed their
examinations were baptised. They stood between every catechumen and the
sacraments of baptism, confession, confirmation, matrimony and even the
irregular reception of the Holy Eucharist! You could neither see any Rev. Fr.
nor receive any of these sacraments without greasing their palms! No girls or
women ever came close to the parish houses, not to mention having handshakes
with any priest!
The Rev. Sisters wore sparkling ankle-length white
gowns and their head-gear with a tall hood and overflowing veils covered every
part of their heads except for just the outline of their faces. I never saw
their ears! To us little urchins at the turn of the century, they were angels.
After all the pictures in our catechism classes were made of white skins. They
were all white women. We never dreamt that we would, in later years, have our
own black sisters and daughters qualified to become Rev. Sisters. No one ever
imagined that a black skinned woman could ever be dressed like these white
angels. These angels were our earliest teachers, nurses, midwives and doctors.
They ran the few mission schools and hospitals that were then in existence at
Ihiala and Emekuku. We adored and loved them for their motherly care but, at
the same time, we hated their injection needles!
We were told that both the priests and nuns were
virgins. It was even rumoured that they had no sexual parts to their bodies.
They were ‘castrated’ was the naïve belief that made the rumour rounds then! We
assumed that the nuns had neither breasts nor large buttocks like our mothers
and aunts! How were we to find out? The priests were covered all over with
their flowing white soutanes that they never put off in our presence. “Did they
ever urinate or defecate?” we wondered! I never saw any of them in short
knickers although I was a mass server for several years at St Martin’s Parish,
Odo-ata Ihiala, now in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State. In addition, we never saw the
ears, necks and feet of the nuns. During clinical attendance they wore gloves,
so we were partially denied seeing their hands and fingers. “Did these ladies
know how to cook?” we pondered!
That the priests were chaste and the nuns, virgins,
were assumed! We never saw the priests and nuns chat together, hug each other
or stroll along any road side by side. They were discreet and circumspect. They
were conscious of their vows of celibacy and public image knowing that they
were continuously being watched day and night. So, they never scandalised us
nor gave us the chance to suspect them! That was in the early 1930s and 1940s.
We gradually began to notice that many nuns went on leaves that were termed
“annual” and understood why some others that lasted beyond twelve months were
termed “sudden”, “casual” or “sick.” Soon, our own sons and daughters were
admitted into seminaries and convents. By the 1950s, some were ordained and
professed respectively. This first set never scandalised us! We never suspected
that they could lower the standards set by these missionary white angels! That
was before the Nigeria-Biafra civil war that lasted from 1967 to 1970. The wind blew hard and the hen’s
anus was clearly seen by all!
All that changed as the scales fell off our eyes. Our
religious blinkers were forcibly removed by what we saw during the civil war at
the few Caritas Feeding Centres that we naturally located within the parish
premises. We saw a lot. Some
printable, others not whisper-able! Promiscuity was the mildest term for
describing what the refugee women described as own contributions to the war
effort! Our clergymen and
women were the butt of their sexual exploits as relief items like stockfish,
egg-yolk and milk were exchanged for amorous relationships. Some wore the
glamorous foreign dresses donated by CARITAS & WCC that
were meant for homeless refugees that left their wardrobes behind!
“Have they also eaten the forbidden
fruit” was the mildest joke about what we knew was happening at our local
parishes. There was a conspiracy of silence by all the culprits!
The war unmasked everyone. Today, my ten-year-old
niece knows that priests are anything but celibate! Most mass servers can swear
that beside heterosexual indulgence involving widows, married and unmarried
women in our parishes, our self-professed celibates clandestinely practise
homosexualism and lesbianism! It is no longer news that paedophilia is the
scourge of the Catholic clergy in the United
States of America. Nor is it news here in Africa that our own brothers and
sisters, ‘self-proclaimed celibates’, have secret wives and husbands with their
illicit children tucked away in remote villages and the dark alleys of streets
in our urban areas!
Even among our Protestant communities, legally married
pastors indulge in adulterous relationships without any qualms of conscience.
Prominent television evangelists are now caught pants down at brothels. In the
Catholic hierarchy, most of our so-called celibates, males and females, are not
only promiscuous, but revel in homosexual and lesbian relationships. Some are
pathological Casanovas and Nymphomaniacs! Hell is let loose as most of the
demons there are now living in our parishes and convents. It is more of a rat
race than an epidemic! There seems to be gold, silver and bronze prizes
reserved for those who excel in this sexual revolution among our celibate
community!
In addition, no one wants to be left behind to pick up
a bronze medal! Some have secretly fathered children and are using church funds
to maintain them. The female celibates go on the pill or commit abortion
monthly, dilatation & curettage being their favourite option! Others build
houses and sponsor their concubines in tertiary educations. The ‘been-tos’
among them send their girlfriends overseas for summer holidays. Others receive
and entertain their white girlfriends, right here in Nigeria!
No one seems to be bothered by this anomaly. Recently,
however, some local ordinaries were forced to set up special diocesan tribunals
to investigate some of the reports they received from parishioners who were/are
the victims of this immoral revolution! Some married women have lost their
husbands to some pretty and sensuous Rev. Sisters! Equally, some members of the
C.M.O, whose wives have been snatched by vivacious and amorous Rev. Fathers,
are also complaining. Who can redeem us from these demonic onslaughts?
The association for the abrogation of celibacy in the
Catholic Church is the answer! Their Animator International, Dr Jideofo
Kenechukwu Danmbaezue, categorically states; “Celibacy is a legislation that
can be abrogated anytime.” It is a convenience that can be dispensed with as soon as it is grossly
abused and becomes counterproductive. That is what it is for now! Therefore, it
must be abrogated or, in the least optionalised!
In support of this assertion, I reprint here
unabridged, a letter downloaded from the Internet, which states in concise and
unequivocal terms that the Catholic Church does not, has never and will never
teach CELIBACY.
“CELIBACY AND CATHOLIC TEACHING
Father Mateo, August 28, 1982
GZ | Blessings in The Name of Our
Lord!
GZ | For centuries The Roman Rite
has been teaching the laity that celibacy is demanded of ALL Priests... Yet
since the beginning of The Catholic Church this has not been so... I.E.
St.Peter had a wife per St Paul’s
Writings... Anglican Priests are being accepted on a case by case basis into
The Roman Jurisdictions... Not to mention Other Rites that have always held
celibacy as an option rather than a mandate....
GZ | What source is generally
available to the laity that will clarify this
issue?
GZ | Shalom,
GZ | Gayle
Dear Gayle: May I humbly suggest
that the Roman Rite doesn't teach anybody anything!
The
official teachers of the Church are the Bishops in
union
with the Pope, and they can be and are of all the rites. For
example,
Pius XI belonged to the Ambrosian Rite, as did Paul VI. John Paul II recently
celebrated Mass in the Mozarabic Rite, although he comes from the Roman Rite.
Secondly,
the Church doesn't "teach the laity". The Church teaches
all
her members. The Church is not "us" vs. "them". We are all
the
Church
and members of one another, in need of the gospel of God.
Thirdly,
the Church does not "teach" anything whatever about
Celibacy.
The objects of Church teaching are (1) doctrine and (2) morals. Celibacy is
neither. Celibacy is a matter of Church legislation.
The law of celibacy, which has been
universal in the Latin rites since the Middle Ages, is of ecclesiastical origin
and may therefore be dispensed in individual cases. Conceivably, it could be
entirely abrogated. An easily available treatment of this matter (it is
scarcely an issue) is the article "Celibacy" in the New Catholic
Encyclopaedia.
Sincerely in Christ,
Signed on October 28,
1996……………………………………..Father Mateo
CIN <http://www.cin.org> St. Gabriel
<http://www.stgabriel.com> Visit the above or E-Mail mailto:webmaster@cin.org Copyright © 1996 Catholic
Information Network (CIN) -
This is coming from an authority on
the subject under scrutiny. He is an Israelite! He studied in Rome! He is an ordained priest of the
Roman Rite and has been in service for thirty-five years. You have no reason to
doubt what he says! “If clerical celibacy has out-lived its usefulness, what is
the need of clinging tenaciously to it? This is an absurdity on the part of the
Roman Catholic Church hierarchy”. In medical language, it is giving a wrong
diagnosis while a sick patient is in a comatose state! Alternatively, shall we
take it that the Church Fathers support the numerous sex scandals rocking the
boat? Or, has it become so insensitive to the evidence of cases of paedophilia
in USA, of lesbian and homosexual
relationships reported in the mass media and so many incidences of promiscuity
in other parts of the globe and that warrants our “separated brethren” laughing
us to scorn? Why has the Pope and the Cardinals turned their eyes the other
way? Are they neck deep in these scandals themselves? Probably it is a case of
those living in glass houses not throwing stones at each other? They are blind
pastors leading the faithful!
Our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, had prophesied
about them when he compared them to the religious leaders of his time. He
reiterated that they were hypocrites that devoured the homes of widows. He
labelled them, “white
sepulchres, which on the outside looked clean but were rotten and decaying on
the inside.” Anyone who
deceptively takes a vow of celibacy and deliberately violates it regularly
without any pricks of the conscience is a demon and definitely a disciple of
Satan! That is why we refer to them as ‘Postgraduates of Satan’s University.’
They are candidates for hellfire and they will lead as many of us as they can
to the same place. They are only working for their master, Lucifer! Listen to
what Jesus Christ said about such hypocrites who take false vows in the New
Testament account of Matthew’s
Gospel, Chapter 23, vv. 25 - 28:
“How terrible for you,
teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You clean the outside of
your cup and plate, while the inside is full of what you have obtained by
violence and selfishness. Blind Pharisee! Clean what is inside the cup
first, and then the outside will be clean too! “How terrible for you, teachers
of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which
look fine on the outside but are full of bones and decaying corpses on the
inside. In the same way, on the outside you appear good to everybody, but on
the inside, you are full of hypocrisy and sins.”
My dear false clerics; does anyone need an
interpretation for those simple statements of facts? What does a tomb covered
with tiles look like theses days? Sparkling White! Suppose you dig up the
contents after three months of burying a human corpse in it, what will you find
inside? Dry bones, the skull nails, hairs, the teeth and may be some decaying
flesh!
Today, that is what the Nigerian clergy is! Our
Protestant married priests are now preferred by rational Christians! Many of
these erring brothers and sisters of our Catholic community come to my clinic.
Others go to physicians and gynaecologists who are not Catholics to procure
abortion; and probably in mufti, and still accomplish their infanticide
missions. Nevertheless, that does not solve the matter! Our teaching hospitals
and private clinics are inundated with so many cases that I blush whenever I
meet with some of the irreverent ‘Rev. Fathers and Sisters!’ I may be forced to
document some of these aberrations if nothing tangible is done by the local
ordinaries of these erring sons and daughters of ours! This is definitely a
case of “abomination standing
in a holy place”!
During the civil war, I handled more than five hundred
cases, mostly out of paternal concern and humanitarian principles. I pitied the
refugee girls and women who were the commonest preys of these amorous parish
priests that used stockfish, egg-yolk and milk, donated by CARITAS as their
baits! Often, I had to turn some unrepentant ones back. To date, the story has
not changed much! Only their baits have changed and their methodologies have
greatly been improved on. Their new treacheries and cover-ups have undergone
metamorphosis, but they can never outwit old hands in our profession!
My colleagues, still in active service, report that
the upsurge is astronomical. The most current evidence to buttress the
incidence and frequency of these scandalous practices by our ‘celibate
children’ is that five hundred cases of HIV/AIDS involving Rev. Fathers and
Sisters have been recorded at all the teaching hospitals nation-wide. The story
is the same in other sister African countries; Ghana, Ivory Coast, Tanzania, Uganda, Gambia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Angola and South
Africa! The papacy must exempt Africans from this foolery of pretences at a
celibate culture! It is
‘Un-African’, to say the least. Moreover, the scandalous lessons this clerical
subterfuge passes on to our youth, most especially the young girls and women
who are the victims of these amorous relationships does more harm to their
spiritual development than whatever ablutions they get at their routine weekly
confessions. It is a blatant mockery of the Sacrament of Reconciliation!
By God’s grace, I am nearly an octogenarian. It is
‘Un-African’ for an elder to see evil, sit complacently and not warn the youth
about its impending and disastrous consequences. I have done my duty! If nothing is done, and fast too, we
shall be left with no option than to assert that celibacy is a canonical
camouflage designed by the Papacy to shelter all those who are incapable of
living the monogamous lifestyle demanded by the sacrament of Holy Matrimony! It
shall then be obvious that it is an institutionalised welcome haven for those
having socio-pathological inadequacies! For now, that is what it represents
among the Igbos of Biafra in West
Africa, who love children and cherish ethical family life dearly!
Current sex scandals in Catholic dioceses all over the
world and in many parishes of the African Church have necessitated the timely formation
of an association of deeply concerned parents, with the sole objective of
sanitising the congregation of what is regarded today as the greatest demonic
attack on decency, purity, holiness and social ethics! Many postgraduates of
Satan’s universities have invaded our churches. We urgently need to checkmate
them!
IT IS SEX SCANDALS GALORE AS AT NOW!
It is hoped that this association, as a child of
necessity, will save us the recurrent shame, stigmatisation and embarrassment
serious minded members of the clergy and our faithful laity suffer at the hands
of our separated brethren. They are fully aware of the deceit going on. Now
they deride us on the false claims we make on celibacy and so laugh us to
scorn! We have no excuses for the flagrant violations of the vows of chastity
and virginity by our sons and daughters! The words of Apostle Peter, in 2nd Peter 2: 17-22, Good News Bible
edition (GNB) is prophetic and says it all!
v.17: These men are like dried-up
springs, like clouds blown along by a storm; God has reserved a place for them
in the deepest darkness.
v.18: They make proud and stupid
statements, and use immoral bodily lusts to trap those who are just beginning
to escape from among people who live in error.
v.19: They promise them
freedom while they themselves are slaves of destructive habits—for a person is
a slave of anything that has conquered him.
v.20: If people have escaped
from the corrupting forces of the world through their knowledge of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, and then are again caught and conquered by them, such
people are in a worse state at the end than they were at the beginning.
v.21: It would have been much
better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than to know it
and then turn away from the sacred command that was given them.
v.22: What happened to them
shows that the proverbs are true:
“A dog goes back to what it has
vomited” and “A pig that has been washed goes back to roll in the mud.”
What else can be more appropriate in describing our
erring religious hypocrites than the last two verses? One takes a vow of
chastity or that of virginity after fifteen years of training at the seminary
or a minimum of seven years after a postulancy at a convent respectively.
Thereafter, such candidates flaunt the vow and unrepentantly indulge in
promiscuous sexual exploits shortly after a mission-sponsored tutelage and the
diocesan ceremonies of ordinations or solemn professions usually well
orchestrated and extensively financed by the laity! This cancerous sore deserves a
surgical excision!
Is this not a variant of the abominations of
desolation standing in holy places?
Has Satan taken over our seminaries and convents or
are the spiritual directors and formators to be held responsible for this turn
of events? Subterfuge, deceit
and pretence must have been so eulogised, practised and indulged in at some of
the religious training grounds, otherwise how can anyone explain how these
wolves in sheep’s clothing survived the rigorous classical conditioning and
role-modelling of their spiritual formators for so long. The sorrows of parents
of these wayward candidates are better imagined than experienced!
The situation has so got out of hand that the warnings
of Jesus Christ himself now apply to our clergy. The whole of chapter
twenty-three of the gospel according to Matthew is an apt description of the
depravity of most of our present day priests! Currently,
about fifty-five cases of reported HIV/AIDS patients in our teaching hospitals
are those of our young men and women in religious cassocks, gowns and veils of
all descriptions. However only one appellation truly fits them all, and that
is- HYPOCRITES!
CONCLUSION OF THE
MATTER
There are many clerics and nuns,
otherwise referred to as Rev. Fathers and Rev. Sisters, including those that
have been elevated to Monsignors, Mother Generals, Bishops, Archbishops and
Cardinals in the Roman Catholic hierarchy that should summon courage and leave
gracefully before the youths of our Global Village forcibly remove them fro
their pecuniary, parasitic, sycophantic and adulterous lifestyles. There are no
jobs in the labour market worldwide and so those who successfully pretended to
have had vocations all through their training periods till they are ordained
and then they continue to live false lives with impunity!
No one spits out sugar
when it has already entered the mouth! Free housing, free cars, free
televisions, free dresses, free toiletries as well as free food, free sex
e.t.c.
These crafty tortoises in our native stories!
They think they are smart!
WHY?
These crafty tortoises in our native stories!
They think they are smart!
WHY?
THEY ARE ALL AFRAID OF
LOSING THEIR FREE BREAD AND BUTTER! BUT, THEY ALL HEADING TO HELLFIRE IF WHAT WE ARE FORCED TO BELIEVE IN THEIR HEINOUS DOCTRINES AND DOGMAS ARE TRUE. ABOMINATIONS OF DESOLATIONS STANDING IN HOLY PLACES IS WHAT THE LORD AND MASTER JESUS CALLED ALL OF THEM... I CONCURR TOTALLY.
