Abbey-Roads2

“Is it a sin to rebuke a priest?”  from Roman Catholic Blog.

Pictured, San Pietro Damiani

Can one rebuke a cleric?

I would have commented at the post, but I thought I’d link to the piece instead, with a few comments here.  I would definitely answer, “No, it is not a sin to rebuke a priest - I’ve done so in the past, and for good reason.” 

What would be sinful is to insult a priest (or anyone for that matter) or to use abusive language, slander, or violence - anything that would unjustly demean the dignity of the person and his station.  (So avoid speaking out of anger - I’m here to tell you it is hard to do.)

For me, the interesting point in his post, were the examples of saints rebuking clergy.  He cites St. Peter Damian, St. Basil, and St. Catherine of Siena, among others.  I have long been acquainted with Catherine’s writing concerning the sin of sodomy amongst clerics, I was not aware of St. Peter Damian’s condemnations until today.

Very often, I think we believe the phenomenon of homosexual and pedophile priests is something new, a product of the corruption of morals and decadence so unique to modern man.  The writings of the saints altogether contradict this notion.  Perhaps the prevalence and tolerance of it today has been greater since whole communities may be deceived into thinking it is harmless, or as in the case of some religious superiors and bishops, they have been in collusion with the perpetrators.  Nevertheless, the sin has been around for centuries, always more obvious in an era of decadence.

Today, political correctness, along with sentimental piety, and other more sinister motives, prevents most from speaking out against the sin, preferring to cover it up, or denying it’s prevalence.  Groups such as “New Ways Ministry” who recently had a sort of convention here in Minneapolis, even attempt to justify and sanitize the evil.

Words from St. Peter Damian.

Here is the piece by St. Peter Damian from Roman Catholic Blog that opened my eyes a little bit more:

“The befouling cancer of sodomy is, in fact, spreading so through the clergy or rather, like a savage beast, is raging with such shameless abandon through the flock of Christ, that for many of them it would be more salutary to be burdened with service in the world than, under the pretext of religion, to be enslaved so easily under the iron rule of satanic tyranny. It would be better for them to perish alone as laymen that, after having changed their attire but not their disposition, to drag others with them to destruction, as Truth itself testifies when It says, “But if anyone is a cause of stumbling to one of these little ones, it would be better for him to be drowned in the depths of the sea with a great millstone round his neck.” Unless immediate effort be exerted by the Apostolic See, there is little that, even if one wished to curb this unbridled evil, he could not check the momentum of its progress.

Unquestionable, this vice, since it surpasses the enormity of all others, is impossible to compare with any other vice. Without fail it brings death of the body and destruction to the soul. It pollutes the flesh, extinguishes the light of the mind, expels the Holy Spirit from the temple of the human heart and gives entrance to the devil, the stimulator of lust…”  - St. Peter Damian

And yet we wonder why there have been and are so many other abuses in the Church and the liturgy.