Gabriele Kuby’s new book, Abuse of Sexuality in the Catholic Church (Divine Providence Press) includes an anecdote which shows up in pitiable relief the glory of the Catholic priesthood and its degradation in in some highly publicised instances today. Recalling a film made about Pope John XXIII in 1965 by Harry Salzmann she writes that the then Patriarch of Venice was walking along the Venetian canal paths wearing a raincoat on top of a black suit: “He sees a derelict priest in a dirty soutane, unshaved and obviously drunk, standing at the edge of a canal. The Cardinal walks up to him, puts his arm around his shoulder and takes him to the chapel of his palace. There he puts the violet stole around his neck, kneels down before him in order to confess. “You see” says the Cardinal to the priest, “to which sublime service we are called.”
It is good to bear this in mind in reading the author’s charges concerning scandals in the Catholic priesthood in our times. Relating that she is a convert in later life, Kuby’s book has the convert’s zeal and enthusiasm as she remembers “the mysterious power of the exposed Blessed Sacrament”, the “life-changing grace” of her first confession, her discovery of the Rosary and of Our Lady and becoming “acquainted with some of those incredible characters we call saints, who are the only true reformers of the Church.”
The author, whose book, The Sexual Revolution: Destruction of Freedom in the name of Freedom, I have blogged about a few years ago, reminds readers of what is at stake in this current crisis and laments that the sexual scandals in the priesthood do not appear to be taken seriously by those in a position to do so.
With a foreword by Gerhard Cardinal Muller who warns that “those responsible for this tragedy be mindful of Judgment Day” and citing authors such as Michael S Rose, whose book Goodbye Good Men (2002) revealed how candidates with a heterosexual identity were systematically sifted out from US seminaries before ordination, Kuby’s work is a mixture of strongly worded criticism, an appeal for honest acknowledgment of the problems within the hierarchy and a reminder that the task of the Church is not to reflect the ways of the world but “to allow the light of God to shine, to show the seeker the way to the good life on earth and to eternal life after death, and to give him the spiritual means to walk that path.”
The ultimate message of the book is twofold: a warning that the secular world wants to establish “a new anthropology” and to redefine words like “freedom, tolerance, human rights, diversity, sexual orientation and gender identity” – and a call to the Church to fulfil her ancient mission given to her by Christ, and provide proper leadership, clear teaching on moral questions, and courageous priests.
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