Tonight I call this presentation The Glory of
the Priesthood of Christ Jesus and it is
my prayer and great wish that you would
see something of Christ's glory like the scripture
says holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners higher
than the heavens that is our High Priest
and that in that glory and light we
would see the parody and this is sadness
we would see the parody of the Catholic
priesthood so that it would move our hearts
to reach out to Catholic priests and of
course to Catholics in general so that's my
hope and desire but before we get into
the glory of Christ I just want to
say a story that has some significance it
is a true story when I was a
priest way back in Trinidad, South Trinidad near
the oil fields the famous town of Gasparillo
a lady came to me as parish priest
and said Father, I want to dedicate to
God what remains of my virginity and I
looked at her and it was as I
guessed she was in her seventies and she
said that she was had been married three
times so I wondered what remained of her
virginity that she wanted to dedicate to God
now in a similar way when I tell
that story we wonder what remains of the
glory of the Catholic priesthood and why it
is that young men even this year, 2002
are going into the priesthood very many are
going into the seminaries and into the different
orders what remains of the glory of the
priesthood now those outside of Catholicism have no
idea what the Catholic church says about the
priesthood and I wanted to do some of
that tonight to show something why the Catholic
priesthood is still a significant draw on American
youth and of course youth throughout the world
particularly in the Asian countries where there are
more vocations now than ever there was in
the past why it is that there is
this draw on the youth to go into
a priesthood that seems utterly tarnished but let's
start as I have said with the glory
of Christ if you turn in your Bible
please to Hebrews chapter 7 and we are
beginning in verse 23 Hebrews 7 and 23
and there were many priests because they were
not suffered to continue by reason of death
but this man because he continues forever has
an unchangeable priesthood the Old Testament priesthood there
were many why were there many?
because the priesthood had to be passed on
from man to man there had to be
many priests because they died and they couldn't
continue for Christ's priesthood it continues forever and
therefore it says it's an unchangeable priesthood now
that word unchangeable means unchangeable but to be
more distinct the Greek word aparabatos is untransferable
which fits much better what it says in
the verse it cannot be handed on because
it's everlasting it continues forever because of the
glory of the priesthood by nature of this
priesthood it's unique to the one who holds
in Christ Jesus and it's not transferable because
it is His and His alone and that's
verse 24 and what follows on it is
absolutely wonderful verse 25 wherefore He is able
also to save them to the uttermost that
come to God by Him seeing He ever
lives to make intercession for them He pleads
and intercedes for His own and He is
able to save utterly completely to the uttermost
all those who come to God through Him
through the one priest not many to this
one whose priesthood is unchanging we have this
this characteristic that He saves utterly He perfects
them wonderfully He is able to perfect them
forever as He is later going to say
in chapter 10 verse 14 He perfects He
brings into perfection that the Old Testament could
not perfection in conscience and then in good
living so this is wonderful good news and
it's showing the glory of our great High
Priest that He saves utterly to the uttermost
and His characteristics are given in verse 26
for such a High Priest became us who
is holy, harmless, undefiled separate from sinners and
made higher than the heavens these are His
attributes this is the attribute of the priesthood
holy, harmless, undefiled separate from sinners now look
on earth and see is there anybody who
matches this regularly there is nobody there is
nobody who is holy even the first one
utterly perfect and utterly separate from everything that
is any way tainted there is nobody except
the Lord Jesus harmless, not doing any harm
to anyone we don't have anyone who is
harmless undefiled, utterly without sin spotless and
utterly free from any contamination and higher than
the heavens and this is going to be
explained as we begin chapter 8 that He
is enthroned in the majesty and high it's
not that He is physically higher He is
higher than all the glory and majesty in
the heavens because He is one with the
Father He shares the divinity and this is
who our High Priest is and His characteristics
because it's one it doesn't change and these
are the characteristics of the priesthood that is
His and then we have 27 who needs
not daily as those other High Priests to
offer up sacrifice for his own sins and
then for the people's for He did for
this He did once when He offered up
Himself He doesn't have to keep on offering
daily or even a second time because His
offering is like unto Him it's perfect and
any repetition of what is perfect would signify
imperfection so we have here a perfect priest
offering a perfect sacrifice once and it was
He offered Himself just as we were told
in the very third verse of Hebrews chapter
1 when He had by Himself purged our
sins there's nobody else capable of offering Him
nobody has the qualifications only He, the perfect
priest can offer the perfect sacrifice and so
it's not like the mortal earthly priest this
is utterly different signified by the priesthood of
Melchizedek utterly different the eternal priest and it
is just glorious this one sacrifice the one
sacrifice is spoken of also at the end
of chapter 10 not the end, in the
middle of chapter 10 but it is spoken
of quite clearly you needn't turn there but
you probably remember the verses maybe by heart
but this man, Aphrodite offered one sacrifice for
sins forever sat down at the right hand
of God one sacrifice now the scripture is
absolutely clear it couldn't be clearer it's one
sacrifice and then in 14 following this it
said for by one sacrifice one offering He
had perfected forever one sacrifice, one offering once
offered seven times the Holy Spirit tells us
that the one sacrifice, the one offering was
once it could not be clearer is that
the perfect number seven?
seven times the Holy Spirit says once it's
five times in the book of Hebrews in
the apostle Peter and also in the apostle
Paul in Romans once offered so to bring
out clearly that this perfect high priest has
a perfect sacrifice not repeatable just as his
priesthood is not transferable and the summary is
given and that's exactly what it says at
the beginning of chapter 8 now these things
which we have spoken this is the sum
we have such a high priest who was
set on the right hand of the throne
of the majesty in heaven we have a
high priest we have a high priest it's
not as if we're going to have we
have this is ours as believers the glory
it's like it says in chapter 3 of
2nd Corinthians but we now would unveil faces,
behold us in the mirror the glory of
the Lord and so we're transformed by that
from glory to glory we are transformed as
we behold the glory of the high priesthood
of Christ the wonder, the magnificence the perfection
and this is where all worship is to
take place in him and outside of this
it is not worship in spirit and in
truth so this is just a a touch
of the glory of Christ Christ Jesus himself
as it were put the final word on
it his very words on the cross tetelestai
in Greek which he spoke and knew as
all learned people of his day did and
possibly it was actually in Greek that he
spoke we do not know it could have
been Hebrew or Aramaic but tetelestai as it's
given to us by the Holy Spirit his
last word means absolutely complete and finished legally
done his work is achieved for believers absolutely
perfect and then the scripture says from top
to bottom the veil was torn in the
temple talk about drama magnificent drama signifying the
end of the earthly priesthood it's done away
with all the ceremonials are done away with
because all that they typify and work to
God that we had a whole day we
could go through all what was signified in
the Old Testament it was all complete in
him and so the veil is torn from
top to bottom showing it's God who's doing
it it's from top to bottom ripped apart
that thick veil that separated the holy of
holies from the holy place because the priesthood
of earthly men is done away with now
we have we have a high priest who
is enthroned in heaven and we look unto
him and we draw from him and drink
deeply of what is his so this is
a touch then of the glory of what
he did once and for all and of
his one sacrifice that was once offered but
we apply this to our own lives in
that we realize that you and I must
come to God through him he saves to
the uttermost only those who come through him
if you're going through an earthly priest there's
no hope for you literally you're a hopeless
case if you're going through an earthly priest
or some other mediator that's not Christ Jesus
the Lord you're a hopeless case this is
where if you come to worship in a
church or in your home or any place
if you don't come in the one high
priest and if he's not the one in
whom you're interceding and worshiping God it's not
in spirit and truth because it must be
according to his regulation and his name that
all worship is done that's how you come
on to the high priest you come on
to him and you worship in him and
he is the one who takes our prayers
and purifies them our very prayer needs to
be washed even when we're praying with joy
and intent and enthusiasm it needs to be
washed in the blood of the Lamb and
we need first of all to stand close
washed in his righteousness and washed in his
blood before we can stand before the Holy
God because nobody can stand before God because
he is the all-holy one unless we
are clothed in the robes of righteousness we
worship God in the glory of his holiness
because we stand clothed like in the words
of Isaiah one shall say in that day
my righteousness is in him we can say
like Isaiah my righteousness is in him the
one high priest and clothed with the garments
of salvation and therefore I can worship and
therefore I can pray and know that God
answers my prayer that is the glory of
it answered prayer it delivers it is the
wonder of this priesthood is that it delivers
it does what it says it does and
we are changed men and women this is
the application and if you don't have this
priest your life is destitute and you will
be forever in your sins now and for
eternity that's how serious it is to look
onto the glory of our high priest now
we come to the high priesthood of Rome
what they call sharing in the high priesthood
of Christ in their book which they have
published on well their booklet is more like
an article or booklet called the priesthood in
the church's mission they say the following the
meaning and the excellence of the priesthood is
to be highlighted that is the Catholic priesthood
and this is what they do in all
their magazines you just have to go to
the Vatican webpage that's VAT VA and you
will find the glories of the priesthood seen,
you will see it in the different letters
and addresses of the Pope still he is
glorifying the priesthood you will see it in
the talks of the bishops and of priests
going to different high schools to talk to
the youth about the glory of the priesthood
and what are they saying this is what
people who are not Catholic do not understand
for example if we go to Vatican II
documents we get an example of what they
are saying when we have a gathering at
a Catholic high school or sometimes at a
government high school where a priest goes in
to address the youth what is he saying
what is he telling the youth he is
saying something like this exact quotation from Vatican
II all priests share with bishops the one
identical priesthood and ministry of Christ the priest
offers the holy sacrifice in persona Christi in
persona means in specific sacramental identification with the
eternal high priest we are not talking about
a carbon copy or simply like a pastor
who would represent Christ in his preaching no
we are talking about an identity they are
saying there is an identity between the priest
and Christ and that is the attraction that
they hold up to the Catholic youth I
remember my own days and the talks that
I got in Jesuits high school about the
identity that there was between the priest and
Christ that was what was put before me
the identity that you would have as a
priest they say also in their new and
this has become here in the United States
a best seller this is the 2000 edition
of the 1998 they say the following now
the minister comes by reason of the sacerdotal
consecration which he has received he is made
like the high priest and possesses the authority
to act in the power and place of
Christ himself what youth is there that would
not want to act with the power and
the authority of Christ himself and this is
what is put before the youth that you
will have the power and the authority and
identity with Christ and you will be able
to work in his name and that the
people need you and so they say in
the same document that I quoted earlier on
the priesthood in the church's mission they say
exact quotation by baptisms priests introduce men into
the people of God by the sacrament of
penance that is confession they reconcile sinners with
God and the church by the anointing of
the sick they relieve those who are ill
and especially in the celebration of the mass
they offer Christ sacramentally they bring Christ down
on the altar in the words of the
famous John O'Brien a best seller among
Catholics the book for many years the faith
of millions it talks about Christ being taken
from his throne in heaven by the priest
and brought down to the altar so that
the priest may offer him again to God
what mighty power, John O'Brien says it's
better power and more it is more significant
than the power of angels or archangels and
the same words are actually used in other
documents official documents, O'Brien is not an
official document but his mindset is in official
documents I would read for example what the
catechism says of the Catholic Church this is
paragraph 1367 of this same new catechism the
sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the
Eucharist are one sacrifice, the victim is one
and the same the same now offers through
the ministry of priests who then offered himself
on the cross only the manner of offering
is different the divine sacrifice which is celebrated
in the mass the same Christ who offered
himself once in a bloody manner on the
altar of the cross is contained and is
offered in a non-bloody manner so today
in Austin on the altars of the Catholic
Church Christ was a victim offered by their
priest here in Austin Christ was never a
victim on the cross he willingly offered himself
and he certainly is not a victim at
any man's hands but this is what the
Catholic Church says it's not simply that John
O'Brien in the famous book Faith of
Millions talks about the priest having power to
take Christ off his throne in heaven and
bring him down onto the altar, this is
official Catholic teaching and this is what's put
into the minds of youth that you can
offer Christ as a victim you can get
souls out of purgatory, you can bring men
and women to God, you can baptize their
babies, you can give them absolution and they
go free from their sins and you can
anoint the sick if everything else doesn't work
and they can get to heaven that way
by the extra-munctional final anointing so you
have power and an identity and so even
with the tarnish, the glory is still there
and we have many going into the Catholic
Church and as I said in Asia particularly
and you'll find a lot of the Asian
priests are now coming to the States and
elsewhere in the world because the drama and
the glory of the Catholic Church has not
in any way been tarnished, they say even
though there are still the same scandals worldwide
but they're not as well known in that
part of the world and so we have
the Jesuits continuing over 20,000 men and
the Carmelites the Dominicans that I was in
and all the other different orders of priests
still continuing and attracting youth and what do
the youth come into what is the seminary
like and what is the colleges what are
the colleges like here in the States and
worldwide what are they like where the seminary
engulfs the man full of these ideals of
the priesthood now it wasn't for books that
are published by the Catholic Church we wouldn't
dare to say what the Catholics themselves say
according from a very recent book now Goodbye
Good Men by Michael Rose it's a very
very difficult book to read because page after
page the horrors the immorality of the seminary
is spelt out and it is really horrific
reading to see just how the young men
are snared into an abnormal lust in the
seminary and how they become part of the
gay subculture that is rampant here in the
United States and of course is also documented
overseas but particularly here in the United States
the same for this book by Donald Cousins
this is a leading Catholic book and it
documents the the immorality that goes on in
the Catholic seminaries I'm quoting from the second
book The Changing Face of the Priesthood by
Cousins that's C-O-Z-Z-E-N
-S and he says quotation an NBC report
on celibacy in the clergy found that anywhere
from 23 to 58 percent of the Catholic
clergy have a homosexual orientation other studies find
that approximately half of American priests and seminarians
are homosexually oriented it's sad as you read
page after page of this book that it's
never said that this is immoral, that these
men should repent of their sin it is
not put forward as sinful and as abhorrently
against the word of God and Christ Jesus
what he has said in actual fact as
I will read on he puts a big
question mark whether we should ask the question
at all of this about the gay crisis
which is a whole subsection later on in
the book and I want to quote from
that section of the book Cousins says quotation
gay seminarians are likely to feel at home
and at ease in a seminary with a
significant gay population they feel they belong and
their need for meaningful deep relationships with other
gay men is easily met and because they
instinctively recognize other gay seminarians circles of support
and camaraderie are quickly formed not infrequently however
the social contacts and romantic unions among gay
seminarians creates intense and complicated webs of intrigue
and jealousy leading to considerable inner conflict here
the sexually ambiguous seminarian drawn into the gay
subculture is particularly at risk the straight seminarian
meanwhile feels out of place and may interpret
his inner destabilization as a sign that he
does not have a vocation to the priesthood
and that's just a little bit of what
is hard to stomach the last sentence there
that the straight seminarian may feel out of
place he may think he doesn't have a
vocation if he's not gay because this presupposition
is that they're all gay and if he's
not gay maybe he's not called to the
catholic priesthood this is what Cousins says but
he has another quotation which I wish to
read as well and that is where he
talks about the quotation the percentage of gay
men among religious congregations of priests is believed
to be higher he says the orders that's
like the order I was in the Dominican
order, the Jesuit order, the Carmelite order, these
are like trade unions or so inside the
catholic church we have distinct orders where you
come under your provincial instead of coming under
the bishop, your immediate superior is not the
bishop but you have your own superiors the
orders so he says there's more gay men
in the orders than in the ordinary diocesan
priesthood and then he goes on to ask
the question and this is really really really
startling quotation at issue at the beginning of
the 21st century is the growing perception one
seldom contested by those who know the priesthood
well that the priesthood is or is becoming
a gay profession and to the point is
the question does it matter does the question
reveal still another form of homophobia that is
how he addresses it is this hatred of
mankind homophobia and so instead of saying there
should be a repenting he says should this
even be addressed now Cousins if you want
to read at the back of this book
you'll see he is the director of St.
Mary's Cleveland Ohio a very large Catholic seminary
he's written another book on the priesthood besides
this one and he is a leading Catholic
light and here he's saying should this even
be addressed it's like this is normal life
this is how sad this whole question is
of the Catholic priesthood now we would wonder
how it is and I'm sure the question
is in your mind how is it then
that we have young men filled with ideals
of the priesthood then finding this abnormal sexual
living that goes on in the seminaries and
in the orders how do they stay in
some do leave but very many stay on
why is that so I think the reason
is two fold first of all the first
hook that is in them as it were
is the Catholic tradition the Catholic documents and
it's here many times in the New Catechism
but it's also in many of the Vatican
2 documents talks about the higher form of
life and talks about celibacy leading into the
riches of Christ so the youth have had
this drilled into them that the celibacy is
a higher form now higher means it's better
than marriage so you have a more stable
form of life and so you've been drilled
into this idea that you are in a
form of life that is somehow going to
communicate to you the riches of Christ and
then the second thing and this is probably
more potent is the power of Roman Catholic
mothers we usually said even in the seminary
when I was studying for the priesthood and
afterwards when guys would talk about leaving we'd
always say but what about your mother and
we would say that we really all admitted
that it was our mothers who had the
vocation we were there because our mother felt
guilty she should have been a nun or
she should have done something different instead of
getting married now she's offering her son and
it was usually the first born when I
was in the West Indies people would say
to me are you the first born son
and I'd say yes your mother wanted you
to be a priest that was like it
wasn't you and so it often was the
case Catholic mothers put great pressure on their
sons and it's a horror to leave and
go back to a mother who is disappointed
so they get held in by this drilling
of the identity of Christ and sharing the
riches of Christ and then the pressure of
Catholic mothers who are the ones who really
wanted their son to go in in the
first place and then the fact that they
get caught when they get into these abnormal
states of life it's like drink, it's intoxicating
when you get into homosexuality it's very hard
to get out I remember I spent one
year in San Leandro right across the bay
from San Francisco and I went witnessing to
some homosexuals and it's very difficult to get
out of that lifestyle it's like nearly impossible
and so when they get into the lifestyle
of being a homosexual they get caught and
you have it all made because there's all
homosexuals around you and then you're going to
go into a priesthood where you're going to
have many victims and all the boys and
the youth put into your care so it's
a very difficult situation they get easily trapped
and the Catholic Church denies the fact that
they have taken away the realities of nature
and race, that they've done anything wrong and
I'd like to read from a council document
official words of the Catholic Church where they
say it's unthinkable that they have done wrong
quotation in any case, the Catholic Church of
the West cannot weaken her faithful observance of
her own tradition it is unthinkable that for
centuries she has followed a path which instead
of favoring the spiritual richness of individual souls
and the people of God, has some way
compromised it or she has with arbitrary judicial
prescriptions stifled the free expansion and most profound
realities of nature and race it's unthinkable she
says, that she could have done this and
the unthinkable is what is daily reality in
the American seminary and of course in the
seminaries across the world in the book that
I first showed you good morning, good bye
good men, which is the end of the
liberal because the subtitle is how liberals brought
the corruption into the Catholic Church at the
end at the top of page at the
top of chapter ten, it says the following
complaints about doctrinal error liturgical abuse and even
conduct among US seminarians is now so common
as to be routine and so why is
it that it continues?
it continues because of the draw and what
I call the dual disease it's like young
men are hit in their vital organs with
a dual disease the disease the disease is
first of all the lust for power if
you notice in those documents that I read
out, the earlier ones the identity of the
priesthood and having the power and authority of
Christ that is power when you think that
you have power at your fingertips to give
absolution to give people freedom from their sins
and you have power by your words and
action to bring Christ on the altar and
you have power to take a baby and
make it into a Christian by pouring water
on its head this is a lust for
power and men and youth even before they
go into the seminary get caught with this
lust for power and then they get caught
with the other part of the disease the
abnormal homosexual lust and so they are hit
in their vital organs with a dual disease
a lust for power and a lust for
other men in homosexuality and that is the
disease that hits these people in the words
of Graham Greene the name of his novel
written over 50 years ago which you can
still get in libraries and I would urge
you get the book it's a fascinating book
I read it years ago and I can
remember many of the details of it The
Power and the Glory by Graham Greene he's
talking about the priesthood and he's showing it
in a Latino priest the Latino priest is
mostly drunk his teeth are yellow with nicotine
he's forever carousing with women and he's still
held up in honor and glory before the
people because he's the one who gives them
forgiveness for sin, and he's the one who
gives new life to their babies in baptism
and so they honor him and he has
the power and the glory in all his
sinfulness and that's what's the name of the
game, the power and the glory, and that's
what the Catholic priesthood gets caught with and
now this is not simply Graham Greene a
Catholic and his perspective on the priesthood this
is official Catholic teaching I'd like to read
to you again from the official teaching of
the Catholic Church quotation The presence of Christ
in the minister that is in the priest,
is not to be understood as if the
latter that is the priest were preserved from
all human weaknesses, the spirit of domination, error
or even sin the power of the Holy
Spirit does not guarantee all acts of the
ministers in the same way so not all
acts are guaranteed, but it goes on to
tell you some acts are, and it's going
to tell you this finishing the quotation while
this guarantee extends to the sacraments so that
the minister's sin cannot impede the fruit of
grace the priest's sin, the minister's sin cannot
impede the fruit of grace it doesn't matter
if he's homosexual or an adulterer or a
fornicator or a drunkard grace can still flow
through him he can still bring Christ down
on the altar and he can still give
you freedom from your sin so this is
not just the power and the glory explained
by Graham Green this is in the official
teaching of the Catholic Church back in the
70's when I was beginning to get into
scripture and I was beginning to start wondering
about my priesthood, because all of us who
baptize babies, and I used to baptize 35
every first Sunday of the month and I'd
done over a thousand maybe two thousand weddings
and I had forgiven so many thousands of
people, their sins and confession and seeing them
come back and living in adultery and drugs
and fornication just like before I gave them
the, I was beginning to wonder what about
my priesthood and I bought this book by
a very famous Catholic biblical scholar Raymond S.
Brown, he was probably one of the best
Catholic scholars throughout the whole world and he
was from the United States I talked to
him actually one time personally when he was
giving a seminar The Priest and the Bishop
by Raymond Brown and he speaks about the
priesthood of Christ I read this as a
Catholic priest and I'd like to read it
tonight to you because it was startling to
me as a priest Quotation When we move
from the Old Testament to the New, it
is striking that while there are pagan priests
and Jewish priests on the scene, no individual
Christian is ever specifically identified as a priest
The epistle to the Hebrew speaks of the
high priesthood of Jesus by comparing his death
and entry into heaven with the actions of
the Jewish high priest who went into the
Holy of Holies in the tabernacle once a
year with a blood offering for himself and
for the sins of his people But it
is noteworthy that the author of Hebrews does
not associate the priesthood of Jesus with the
Eucharist or the Last Supper neither does he
suggest that other Christians are priests in the
likeness of Jesus In fact the once for
all atmosphere that surrounds the priesthood of Jesus
in Hebrews has been offered as the explanation
why there are no Christian priests in the
New Testament period Our best Catholic scholars say
in the Christian era there are no Christian
priests Imagine how I was shattered reading that.
This is my livelihood.
This is my glory.
This is who I am.
And now I find that the New Testament
has no priest except the priesthood of Christ
And this is a Catholic scholar So when
I read this I did not go as
I should have.
I didn't go to the book of Hebrews.
But as a priest over the next few
years I started remembering I remember the immorality
of the priests that I knew in Ireland.
And that was the reason why I never
wanted to work in Ireland Even the priest
who came to her own house and drunk
and played poker.
I didn't want to be like them So
I wanted to go outside Ireland And they
thought that they would be pure and holy
outside Ireland And I never did serve in
Ireland But then overseas I saw the immorality
even of our Irish priests And sometimes very
obvious that they would boast about it And
then I saw the immorality of the West
Indian priests And because we were a little
island off the coast of South America as
the South American priests would come through and
other Caribbean priests would come through I saw
their immorality And I thought back to my
year as a priest in Rome And I
saw the immorality in Rome which shocked me.
The prostitution and immorality of the Holy City
shocked me in 1964 when I was in
Rome I was utterly devastated And of the
300 men in my class, we were all
priests.
There was nobody looking for anything to do
with Christ or what is really His and
His message.
They were looking for positions in the church
and degrees.
And so it was that I associated myself
with one priest from Africa, one from England
and one from the United States.
And I kept away from most of those
other priests because I was aghast at the
immorality of priests in the Holy City, what
we call the Holy City Rome itself And
I remembered and many years later I did
start studying the book of Hebrews In our
book and I would urge you to read
it if you have not read it yet
Far From Rome, Near to God, The Testimonies
of Fifty Converted Catholic Priests you will find
that many of these testimonies that the Catholic
priests began reading Hebrews and they began seeing
the glory of who Christ is in His
salvation So this book had an effect on
me later in my life to begin going
to the scripture and seeing the finished work
of the one eternal High Priest I'd like
to deal with marriage and ministry simply because
that's what the Bible does, like in 1st
Timothy and in Titus, it talks about the
past being a man of one wife But
I'd like to read first of all what
the Catholic Church says about marriage and ministry
I'm quoting from the official canon law quotation
A cleric who attempts marriage even if only
civilly occurs a laetiae sententiae suspension and if
he does not repent after being warned and
continues to give scandal can be punished with
gradual probation even by dismissal from the clerical
state.
What the Bible calls honorable and undefiled in
Hebrews marriage is honorable the Catholic Church calls
a scandal and a man who gets married
and is a priest is to repent of
his scandal and the scripture says the exact
opposite of course it doesn't talk about priests
because there's no priest except the priesthood of
Christ so it talks about the elder if
a man desires the office of an elder
he desires a good work in the letter
to Timothy by the apostle Paul and then
the qualifications are given, an elder then must
be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant,
sober of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt
to teach not given to wine, no striker,
not greedy for filthy lucre but patient, not
a brawler nor covetous, who rules well over
his own house, having his own children in
subjection and then it asks the question for
if a man does not know how to
rule his own house how shall he take
care of the church of God if a
man cannot look after his own household how
can he be a pastor or an elder
and that is the common sense of scripture
it's not saying that the pastor must be
married but he must be somebody who's able
to manage his own have government over his
own life and his own household so he
is to be a man of one wife,
preferably, as the scripture says so would to
God that Catholic priests would study this text
in their own Catholic Bible and see that
the priesthood of Christ is supreme and the
Catholic priesthood is a mockery of his true
priesthood in these 50 testimonies, and of course
there are far more than these 50, but
these were the first 50 that I published
you will find that these men renounced both
the priesthood and the teaching of Rome and
the Roman Church, and I think what they
did is best summarized in the words of
the apostle when he said having renounced hidden
things of dishonesty and not walking in craftiness
nor handling the word of God deceitfully but
by the manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves
to every man's conscience in the sight of
God I think it is that these men
of this book renounced craftiness and putting the
word of God equal to their tradition and
they began handling the word correctly in the
light of the word, and they saw that
they were sinners before a holy God and
that they then did repent of their sins
there's been a remarkable classic on the marriage
and ministry and I think it's a book
that we all should know if you haven't
read it, I think that it's a book
that you should read it is this book
by Henry Leah he's a very famous historian
he has many volumes on the Inquisition which
he's also famous for, but this book the
history of sacerdotal celibacy in the Christian Church
it's an eye opener way back then when
Leah wrote his book and even then before
the scandals of the present day he said
very clearly at the end of the book
that the Catholic Church was violating quotation the
precept, thou shall not tempt the Lord thy
God and he goes on in quotation, when
it's reliance, that's the Catholic Church's reliance, on
the gift of chastity will accompany ordination, it
confers the priesthood at the age of 25
and then turns loose young men at the
age when passions are strongest trained in a
seminary and unused to female companionship, they occupy
a position in which they are brought into
the closest and most dangerous relations with women
who regard them as being gifted with supernatural
powers and hold the keys in their hands
of heaven and hell Leah saw and exposed
in his book the immorality of the priesthood
with women and it's not only homosexual men,
but it is the immorality of priests with
nuns and with married women and with single
women and we find this if you go
to clerical abuse or on any search engine
on the internet, you will find Catholic web
pages devoted just to the priest problem with
women, the priest problem is with nuns, the
priest problem is with fornication it's not simply
that they're into homosexuality, they're into all types
of sexual sin and the Catholic priest has
been told that his celibacy is a closer
way of getting the riches of Christ and
he's been deceived and so it's the church
that Leah says is guilty of tempting God
that thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy
God the Catholic church has flown in the
face of God in holding up an immoral
situation and calling it holy and calling it
an identity with Christ this is totally immoral,
why do they do it?
why do they continue?
even though it's paramount obvious that it doesn't
work it's for control Ratzinger from Rome can
call a priest in California and tell him
directly what he is to do or not
to do if that man were married and
had a family and was responsible to his
family and his property and especially to his
own conscience he would not have to obey
Cardinal Ratzinger or his own bishop it's all
a question of control and the Vatican continues
to have control and continues to hold up
as lofty what is obnoxious even before man
it was enigmatic even to the United States
of America to think that we have many
thousands of our youth who are being deceived
and the cream of American youth taken and
put into abnormal homosexual seminaries and then caught
up on all types of lusts and the
lust of power thrown in so this is
how serious this situation is and this is
where I really appeal to those listening on
tape and those looking on for television I
really appeal to you listener, I really appeal
to you as a Catholic that you would
hear the word of God it's like scripture
says in Isaiah for all have sinned it's
not just the Catholic it's all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God
that's not Isaiah that's Paul and Isaiah said
all we like sheep have gone astray we've
turned each one to his own way and
the Lord laid on him the iniquity of
us all by his wounds by his stripes
we are healed that he who knew no
sin became sin for us that we might
become the righteousness of God in him listen
to the word of God we're all sinners
all humankind is sinners and the only answer
for the Catholic priests, the Catholic seminary and
the Catholic and all of us is to
look to Christ the author and finisher of
our faith the one who begins it and
the one who perfects it we look to
him and we ask you to look unto
Christ he who said it is finished really
finished the work of redemption he prayed for
his own and then he went and finished
his work on the cross what did he
finish?
he finished your guilt your personal sin and
your sin nature what did he bring in
in that finishing?
he brought in everlasting righteousness that you could
be clothed and stand perfect in his holiness
he gave you right standing before God how
do you get it?
simply by obeying the commandment of Christ Jesus
himself said this is the work of God
that you believe on him whom he has
sent it's God's commandment he commands you to
believe on Christ, believe on him whom he
has sent Christ finished the work it is
for you to know that salvation that is
in Christ the one eternal priest and to
know that he saves you to the uttermost
you're not totally saved you're completely saved and
if there is a sin afterwards, you go
to your father in heaven and you get
reconciled immediately, directly because you're one priest and
he's already interceding for you that you would
regain your fellowship with the father even if
you sin after your salvation so this is
the wonder of who it is the catholic
priesthood is dust debris and ashes it is
a parody in the words of the famous
parable you probably know the king's new suit
it simply doesn't exist, there is no priesthood
in the new testament their glory is something
that doesn't exist and what does exist is
an office that negates, denies contravenes the very
grace of God and is an abomination even
before the unsaved man or woman because the
immorality goes further than usual sins in the
world it is more sinful than the normal
unsaved person it is obnoxious before God and
man that is the message that I wish
to give and I pray that God would
put it on your heart and that you
cry out to him and know salvation in
him and in him alone amen and amen
commenting on the words of God, which I
commanded them not, neither came into my heart.
From his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God
here cuts off from men every occasion for
making evasions, since he condemns by this one
phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the
Jews devised.
There is then no other argument needed to
condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded
by God.
For when men allow themselves to worship God
according to their own fancies, and attend not
to his commands, they pervert true religion.
And if this principle was adopted by the
Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in
which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to
the ground.
It is indeed a horrible thing for the
Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards
God by performing their own superstitions.
There is an immense number of them, as
it is well known, and as it manifestly
appears.
Were they to admit this principle, that we
cannot rightly worship God except by obeying his
word, they would be delivered from their deep
abyss of error.
The Prophet's words then are very important, when
he says that God had commanded no such
thing, and that it never came to his
mind.
As though he had said that men assume
too much wisdom when they devise what he
never required, nay, what he never knew.