I would like to take a moment to discuss a very important topic.
Our wonderful Priests Of Our Church.
Let me say this first, I am fully aware of what has happened in my church, the sex abuse scandal. It happened in all denominations of all faiths, all schools,orginazations whether they were secular or religious. Evil exists everywhere, The Devil takes great joy ripping down structures of our society. He does not care about children or us.
Evil got into my church through a small number of priests by comparison to the total number of priests that are giving their lives to the Lord in their ministry.
The pain these priests caused the children, their families and the church by their abuse is just unbelievable. The way the church as a whole answered the crisis was in my honest opinion slow and very lack luster. I believe that the church needed to answer , needed to pay reparations to aide those that were harmed. I feel the full weight of the legal system should be used to take care of these abusers. And it has been.
God is ultimately going to judge them and I do believe that they will be held to a higher standard before God than the lay people.
Personal story:
Back in the 70’s I was a alter boy at St. Agnes in Arlington. I was serving the 4:00 mass in the lower church. I went into the church a little early that day my dad dropped me off I was probably 10 years old at that time. I went into the sacristry door and sat on the chair. There is an inner sacristry . ( Nobody but the priests were allowed in )
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a room in a church where a priest prepares for a service, and where vestments and other things used in worship are kept.So, I was sitting there you could hear a pin drop and all of a sudden another alter boy came out of the inner sacristy and I said hello D. he did not make eye contact with me and scurried out the door. A minute later Fr. Eugene O’Sullivan came out and said hi Dan and left for a few minutes.That boy as it turned out 20 years later was one of the first cases settled in the Boston sex abuse scandal.So, I personally have a lot of deep rooted feelings on this matter.The other side, The bigger peace of the picture is !All of the wonderful priests that have served, are serving and may serve in the future. These men are good faithful men. My pastor is incredible! By the way he too had a Miracle while in Medjugorje. His healing allowed him to communicate with his congregation. God Will Make The Way !The Devil seemed to have won this little battle by trying to take down the Church that Jesus Christ built but, God will heal all of the childrens wounds and will heal his church as well. If I had left my church and its life giving sacraments then Evil would have totally won!The sad thing to me is that some people may have walked from their faith although I think they may have found perhaps another Christ based church which is fine also.Lastly, Some people who used to say to me, you still do not go to church do you? You see, the funny thing about these people back in that day was that they were not going to church even before the abuse scandal. But they were so offended! Why didn’t they want me to go to church either? Thats not God talking!I needed to go to heal myself and my family from the trama of this event, I was angry but you do not cut yourself off from what gives you life, your God !What the Devil did was to take a weakness in another human being (priest) and tempted them to a horrible offense against the people and their God that they were called to serve. They were punished and held accountable as was the church.And, the people alot of whom do not go to church any way began to say I don’t go because of the priests. Making an excuse like they too were victims. They were not active with any church but they were poised to open their foolish mouths.Well, guess what. God knows where you are and what your doing and knows why you are not in church too.So, from my point of view, I have met so many wonderful priests in my life from Monsignor J. Linnehan, Fr. Buckley, Fr. Barnes, Fr. Steele and Fr. Ron the list goes on and on. And, as I said before my Pastor Fr. Ron, is so wonderful he works tirelessly in his ministry to his parish and God. It is God in action to watch him. He is a Shepherd of a flock. So God Bless these men and their ministry work.
You are a priest forever
By The Way …Alot of innocent priests were also falsely accused of being abusive and after years were cleared of wrong doing ! The media was not so so quick to report their innocense either. Evil at work. For sure.Are priests or clergy from any religion perfect ? Of course not. They are human too.So, In closing on this subject what ever has happened to you, I am sorry and believe me you are all in my prayers. I also pray for those abusive priests as God calls me/ us to do.Most importantly is that those who are not in communion with God now, please pray on where you stand and get back to whatever church you feel will feed you. Just go where you feel you can be in relationship with God. Amen.God Bless You All, God Bless All of the Priests, Rabbi’s , Deacons , staff and volunteers of God’s churches Amen !
Why Become a Priest? Powerful Reasons, Great Answers!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnaLVE4ayDs
To Be A Priest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfnHAWKI7dE
Leaving Soccer for the Priesthood
God Bless You All, In Christs Love,
Danny
Just Danny Speaks 