FROM THE MAILBAG
VIA Reflection by Father Ted – April 25, 2010: For many many months now we have heard and read about the sexual abuse problems among the clergy. We have been offered diverse reasons for this situation. Many have been blamed for this situation. What has amazed me – and this for many years now – is that no one, to my knowledge – or very few – have mentioned who has been the cause of this situation, how he has caused this, and why he has caused this.
Of course, one of the reasons why he has not been mentioned is because it is not politically correct to mention him influencing us today.
For many years now, very very few people talk or even write about him and how he has been striving to destroy the Church – since the very beginning.
We have, almost deliberately ignored the fact that the devil, like a roaring lion, as saint Peter declares in his first letter, goes about seeking those whom he can destroy.
I remember many years ago, hearing about the mystical experience of Pope Leo XIII had after he had celebrated Holy Mass – overhearing the dialogue between Lucifer and Jesus; and how, as a result of this experience the Holy Father composed the powerful prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel – which prayer he exhorted us to pray at the end of each Mass, with the exception of the Solemn High Mass on Sunday.
No one has declared that Satan has been behind this scandal. No one has declared how he did this; nor why.
I became aware of how he was working nearly forty years ago. I realized what he was doing and how he was doing this activity – because I, like many of my brothers who were priests were duped by him.
What he was doing was simply attempting to destroy the Church of Jesus Christ.
How he began to do it was also quite simple.
For he is quite subtle and quite sneaky.
I was brought up by the Benedictines during my high school years – during the late 40s and the early 50s.
I was taught the motto of Saint Benedict – “To Pray and to work”. I learned that both work and prayer are important. But pray is more important.
When I looked back on my upbringing, I observed that in the late 1940s and in the early 1950s, this motto of Saint Benedict had been altered. What was being emphasized during that time was work – work being more important that prayer.
Shortly after I was ordained to the priesthood in June of 1961, while I was beginning my work as a priest who was assigned to teach in a Catholic High School, I was informed that “work was my prayer”.
I recall that I and many of my confreres were delighted to accept this new teaching that had filtered down to us within the Church. We thought “Wow – my work is my prayer.” Now my classroom preparations were my prayers.
When we bought this teaching, we dropped one of the mandatory prayers that we had promised to fulfill when we were ordained to Major Orders.
We believed that we were justified in doing so. But it was that justification that was part of the blindness that Lucifer had given us.
We did not abandon prayer. But we diminished our prayer life.
The result was imperceptible, and yet significant.
For in 1968, when the Holy Father, Pope Paul VI published his encyclical “Humanae Vitae” we rejected it – as many others had done. We believed that he was wrong.
But that was due to our blindness caused by Satan.
As I later learned, when one reduces his/her prayer life, one is not able to discern truth easily.
For me, it took several years, to recognize my blindness. This occurred because of the prayers of others for me.
Spiritual blindness was the first effect of my diminishing my prayer life.
What also happened was that I, and my other brothers, who had dropped praying the Divine Office, were not able to resist our temptations.
