The Church of Christ no matter the assault against her by denomic, satanic, and forces of evil will ultimately stand. It shall withstand these wittingly intentional assaults against her mission and integrity. The promise of Christ that "the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail it" (Matthew 16:18. The Holy Father with the power of the Key (Matthew 16:18), together with the solidarity and prayers of the entire universal Church, would surmount these oddious attack. The media beguiling cleverly masking its attack at the moral authority of the Church would be exposed for what it is, just some fumbled onslaughts against any institution that stand opposed to the moral laissez a faire, relativism that holds sway today.
The Vicar of Christ will not fail, or fall to his face. Jesus, our Lord and saviour fell three times on the cross. He was accused falsely, and the powers and authorities of the pejorative majority attested against him, lashing against the ideal of truth that He exposed, and was brutally killed through the stampeding of human mob justice. The media mob and the crowds that they draw today is not different from the atmosphere of Jesus' time. Even forces of power- Pilate and Herod- previously antagonistic toward one another would settle their score based upon falsehood and scuttle Jesus to ill-fated scurried death, that he did not deserve. These uncanny mob would even permeate his ranks, using caustic and cajoling strategies to helm and ensure Jesus's demise, because he greatly disturbed their evil conscience. He made them felt bad. He punched right on their hypocrisy and evil deeds- their work, which Jesus and the Church continues to testify against, is evil (John 7;7)
. The logic of Jesus steer this powerful elites in the face, and stirs their conscience so badly, that using their evil works was natural, in deploying mobbing tactics to dust him, and mop his innocent blood, using their audacity to use power to daze the vulnerable and those who confront their evil deed, using their natural recourse to abuse power to decimate and ground the weak and less powerful. Violence, a surely evil act, become all too obvious a convenient tool in the hands of the power estate; hateful, spiteful, and gullible in their manifest manipulations.
Yet, it seem that the truth paved way to nefarious evil. It seemed God allowed evil to triumph and trump over good. For once, even the truth seemed to have been eclipsed, as it seemed that they had succeeded in killing an innocent one; with falsehood accented as "political correctness", and lies massed and masqueraded as into creating mass or crowd hysteria, hyping the crecendo of popular culture.
Jesus' opponents seemed to have had their field day; relishing the success of their brutal extermination of an assumed opponent. But it was joys on bloodied conscience, tormented eternally even by the sane judgement of history as brutal and despicable icons of humanity. The pavement of false joys seemed all too smooth; yet their problems inevitably began evidently as their moments of piloted lynching submerged their emotions blinding and erasing their memories from the sphere of the justifiable moral good.
Jesus outlives them all. Jesus is known all throughout the earth, but who remembers the faces and name of evil? It has all sunk into oblivion. The acts against Jesus are remembered and a face given to his person and realities, but where today are these faceless voices and forces of evil? Herod, Pilate, just these two existing in sentiments of humanity as callous personalities, eternally repressed and aligned with the most crude of personalities? Jesus lives on forever, after 2,000 years, meaningfully, and on the lips of all- "children and babes!"
But Jesus knew all of this. He had forwarned: "If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, the world hates you...If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me... Whoever hates me also hates my Father" (John 15: 18-21, 23).
In deed, the reason is simple, as Jesus himself states, "it hates me, because I testify to it that its works are evil" (John 7:7).
Also, he says, "...in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God. They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me. I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you" (John 16: 1-4).
"I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth" (John 17: 14-19).
Even Jesus tells us too that the world cannot accept the Holy Spirit- "the spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept because it neither sees nor knows it (John 14:17). But he offers us great hope, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me" (John 14:1).Further, he states, "Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid" (John 14: 27).
Dear Brothers and sisters, be strong in your faith. Be resilient. Pray, pray, pray!!! Pray for the Pope, the Vicar of Christ. Pray ceaselessly for your priests and religious leaders, religious nuns and brothers, and for one another as Christ's faithful. You are the church. It is on your minds, bodies, and soul that the Church takes shape and relevance. Our bodies mirrors the body of Christ, who bore all indignities, injustices, maligning, and abuses, but assured of God's eternal presence, God's neon protrusion through the spaces of darkness and the ambience of distrust, falsehood, and attempts to fragment, scatter, and torment the flock of Christ, our saviour.
May the Holy Father following in the footstep of the promise of Peter to the Lord Jesus, continue to be empowered to seek to feed, tend, and feed the flock that belongs to Christ. In this mission of tending, may the popular opinion of easy "labeling" and "pejorative coloration" not hinder him from pursuing the lost sheep and bring them to the graces of renewal both for priests, religious, and all the faithful. Even the sinful priest is redeemable through the inestimable gift of God's renewing grace, and trust in the word of Christ our saviour, our master, and our redeemer.
Some priests may have failed, faltered, or deviated, but bringing them before the grace of Christ for their renewal and sanctifcation, regardless of their sins, crimes, or deviances, is the mission of the Church. The Church in every situation may not restore them to the public arena of public worship and positions of trust, but it cannot afford to use the barometer of the media and the parameter of an unjust or self-arrogant society, to steer these sons and daughters of the church from the fountain of grace and redemption. A sinful or wayward priest is a child of God no less.
Many of these men, including women, did immense God in the name of Christ and the Church, in public liturgy and other ecclesial arena, even when faltering in their personal lives. Acting in the public name of the church, they were agents of sanctification and redemption for many, even when wayward in their most personal and intimate lives, or even criminal dispositions. We must continue to hear the voice of Christ and his assumed action in seeking the lost sheep- of course probably with the intent to first save and then apportion blame afterwards.
The church constituted as a divine and human institution, would be tainted and stained with the imperfection that is natural within its human aspect, though not an excuse to act improperly. The Church in its human dimensions would be gullible, fail, and even make mistakes at times. However, the divine reality of the church would ever be eternal, and when the church within its core mission, liturgy, and public life, attests to the things of God and moral, these would remain forever untainted. Even, when the church is conscious of sin, she cannot yield or surrender to its overpowering influence, and must confront its effects and sources, as they morally and mortally damage the image and stain the effective mission of the Church.
However, name calling, targetting, arrogances are not the veritable stripes by which these trends can be effectively surmounted and appropriately redressed.
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Cardinals defend pope on church sex abuse scandal
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Facebook Twitter Delicious Digg Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print AP – Pope Benedict XVI holds up the Holy Gospel as he celebrates a Chrism Mass, in St. Peter's Basilica, at … By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer Victor L. Simpson, Associated Press Writer – 21 mins ago
VATICAN CITY – Cardinals across Europe used their Holy Thursday sermons to defend Pope Benedict XVI from accusations he played a role in covering up sex abuse scandals, and an increasingly angry Vatican sought to deflect any criticism in the Western media.
The relationship between the church and the media has become increasingly bitter as the scandal buffeting the 1 billion-member church has touched the pontiff himself. On Wednesday, the church singled out The New York Times for criticism in an unusually harsh attack.
Western news organizations, including The Associated Press, have reported extensively on the burgeoning scandal, and new details have emerged on an almost daily basis.
On Holy Thursday, Benedict first celebrated a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica dedicated to the union between the pope and the world's priests. In the late afternoon, he washed the feet of 12 priests in a ceremony symbolizing humility and commemorating Christ's Last Supper with his 12 apostles on the evening before his Good Friday crucifixion.
Although there were expectations by some that the pope would address the crisis, Benedict made no reference to the scandal at either ceremony.
Venice's Cardinal Angelo Scola expressed solidarity with Benedict in his Holy Thursday homily in the lagoon city, describing him as a victim of "deceitful accusations." He praised the pope as seeking to remove all "dirt" from the priesthood.
Warsaw Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz said the church should take notice of individual tragedies and treat sex abuse cases very seriously, but at the same time, he criticized the media for "targeting the whole church, targeting the pope, and to that we must say `no' in the name of truth and in the name of justice."
And Vienna's Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, speaking of Benedict's long years as head of a Vatican office that investigates abuse, said the future pope "had a very clear line of not covering up but clearing up."
He had also reflected on the issue at a Wednesday evening service:
"I admit that I often feel a sense of injustice these days. Why is the church being excoriated? Isn't there also abuse elsewhere? ... And then I'm tempted to say: 'Yes, the media just don't like the church! Maybe there's even a conspiracy against the church?' But then I feel in my heart that no, that's not it."
The church on Wednesday presented its highest-level official response yet to one of the most explosive recent revelations regarding sex abuse — a story in the Times on the church's decision in the 1990s not to defrock a Wisconsin priest accused of molesting deaf boys.
It was the latest in a series of attacks on the press. Last week, L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's daily newspaperdenounced what it said was a "clear and despicable intention" by the media to strike at Benedict "at any cost."
On Thursday, the newspaper carried a story on its front page on German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcoming efforts to stem sex abuse, headlining "German chancellor praises the Catholic church."
In the article posted Wednesday on the Vatican's Web site, Cardinal William Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote: "I am not proud of America's newspaper of record, The New York Times, as a paragon of fairness."
Levada, an American, said the newspaper wrongly used the case of the Rev. Lawrence Murphy to find fault in Benedict's handling of abuse cases.
A Times spokeswoman defended the articles and said no one has cast doubt on the reported facts.
"The allegations of abuse within the Catholic church are a serious subject, as the Vatican has acknowledged on many occasions," said Diane McNulty. "Any role the current pope may have played in responding to those allegations over the years is a significant aspect of this story."
The Vatican newspaper also carried a front-page commentary to mark the fifth anniversary of the death of Benedict's predecessor, the much beloved Pope John Paul II.
The article said John Paul wanted Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to work by his side from the early years of his papacy. John Paul brought the archbishop of Munich to Rome to head the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the powerful office that among other things investigates clerical sex abuse.
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