The most painful part in the life of the Christian community in the Philippines is the muted violation of the vow of chastity among certain priests hidden behind the eyes of the people of God under the fear that a scandal may bring the faithful to perdition. For Catholics who know their New Testament books, it is understandable for the Apostles to continue to stay married while performing the commission that Jesus commanded them to do. The Apostles, and Catholic clerics in extension, have the basic right to have a wife, as what Saint Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians (8: 5): "Do we not have the right to take along a Christian wife, as do the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Kephas?"
But the Roman Catholic Church having committed to follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostle to the Gentiles have chosen since the Early Church period, and instituted the vow of chastity that candidates to priesthood and consecrated life freely made in order to give his life fully to the Lord and in the service of the people of God. Saint Paul testified that those who were not married at the time of their call to discipleship have chosen to stay unmarried for the gospel of Christ. "Yet we have not used this right," he wrote to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 9: 12,14), "On the contrary, we endure everything so as not to place an obstacle to the gospel of Christ... the Lord ordered that those who preach the gospel should live by the gospel." The same demand from the clerics to live by what they preach remains, even if priesthood is a sacrament in the life of the Church.
And yet a few, if not many, priests violated this vow and the local bishop hid this fact from the eyes of the community for a fear of scandal. Have not the community as part of the body of Christ the right to know, they who still will share the burden and the pain of this truth? Does the community of Christians include both the lay faithful and the clerics? Or, do clerics have the special privilege of fathering children outside marriage, hiding the truth from the people, and getting away with it?
This same judgment of local bishops had been the source of the heavy burden that Pope Benedict XVI is carrying right now in relation to hidden offenses of certain psychologically-challenged priests against children many decades ago, and just recently came to the public's attention.
In the guise of misplaced compassion, the bishops have chosen to hide the truth in the darkness instead of letting it face the light. Instead of letting the priests who have chosen to break their vows move on into married life, and like loving fathers help them make a better transition into a different state of life, the bishops have chosen to hold on to "a vocation" that may no longer have been there. Many priests responsibly left priesthood and requested to be laicized for their respect of the office of pastor that they hold before the Christian community. And theirs were commendable and courageous decisions that respect both the sacraments of the holy orders and that of matrimony as the office of the pastor of the church of Christ.
The call to priesthood in the church that Jesus Christ left to Saint Peter, the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church, is the call towards a celebate and chaste life. And once those children came out of that priesthood, had vocation remained the same and the will of the Lord may have allowed the shift of the state of life? Does disrespect of the two sacraments the thing to go these days? There is a clear difference between a sin that happened in a peak of weakness and two separate lives being lived--maintaining a female partner and children while keeping the office of the pastor of the church of Christ.
The call to priesthood in the church that Jesus Christ left to Saint Peter, the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church, is the call towards a celebate and chaste life. And once those children came out of that priesthood, had vocation remained the same and the will of the Lord may have allowed the shift of the state of life? Does disrespect of the two sacraments the thing to go these days? There is a clear difference between a sin that happened in a peak of weakness and two separate lives being lived--maintaining a female partner and children while keeping the office of the pastor of the church of Christ.
While muted, this scandal of priests with women partners and children remained a scandal all the same to the faithful who had close relations with the people involved. And I personally knew men who felt the call to the vocation of priesthood who left the seminary, disillusioned that breaking of vows provides the reward of keeping the priesthood and the "wife" and the children at the same time, even among those who are involved in the formation of new priests in certain seminaries. A few even had their children and "wife" while they still studied in seminaries, and "miraculously" became priests with these family responsibilities in tow.
These muted scandals are more painful wounds to the side of Jesus hanging on the cross to pay for our sins. And human cowardice had brought the local clerical leadership into the deceptive tactics of Lucifer who proposed a choice between the painful truth and the comfort of fearful darkness, and the local regulars concerned have chosen the darkness with wise justifications. The Church of the Lord had been under attack since its early years, but how unnerving it is to see those pastors who supposed to lead the flock sided with the Lord's enemy.
How long should the clerics allow themselves to be the tool of purging for the lay faithful through their irresponsible decisions towards erring priests?
One of the major reason for the painful tragedies in the life of the universal Church, including that of the Church in the Philippines, is the fear of some bishops to clean up their ranks in the service of the truth in accordance to Jesus' exholtation on us to live our lives in truth for the rest of it. Controversial deaths of priests having liaisons with women or found in places not expected of a man of the cloth are just a tip of the iceberg in this muted scandal in the Lord's church in the 21st century. May the Lord nudge these pastors and regulars hard enough to wake them up from their stupor and numbing sleep. The Lord is watching, and should feel an extreme weight of the responsibility in leading the flock in the right road to salvation by following the same in their own lives and not under "special privileges" given to the man of the cloth.
While this call for renewal must be heard, the call for Christian holiness does not involve the fleeing of the early disciples when faced with the way of the Cross in this 21st century world. The fearful Apostles, except for Saint John, fled when Jesus took the way of the Cross in order to save mankind. Leaving the Church in any sight of pain is a cowardly action when the people of God must band together to help renew the Kingdom of God that Jesus left to his Apostles more than 20 centuries ago.
Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin, aptly said in his Palm Sunday homily this year: "I, as Archbishop of Dublin, am committed to working with all of you who wish to renew our Church, to purify our Church from all that has damaged the face of Christ. These have not been easy days for me personally. But with the many believers who wish to journey together on the path of renewal, I know that that path will inevitably be a way of the Cross... The challenge is not to follow the shortcuts of the disciples who found that fleeing was the quick and easy answer... Our challenge is to be like Jesus who, with all the anguish and fear it entails, does not flinch or waver in remaining faithful to the will of his Father, even at the price of enduring the ignominous death on a criminal's cross."
While this call for renewal must be heard, the call for Christian holiness does not involve the fleeing of the early disciples when faced with the way of the Cross in this 21st century world. The fearful Apostles, except for Saint John, fled when Jesus took the way of the Cross in order to save mankind. Leaving the Church in any sight of pain is a cowardly action when the people of God must band together to help renew the Kingdom of God that Jesus left to his Apostles more than 20 centuries ago.
Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin, aptly said in his Palm Sunday homily this year: "I, as Archbishop of Dublin, am committed to working with all of you who wish to renew our Church, to purify our Church from all that has damaged the face of Christ. These have not been easy days for me personally. But with the many believers who wish to journey together on the path of renewal, I know that that path will inevitably be a way of the Cross... The challenge is not to follow the shortcuts of the disciples who found that fleeing was the quick and easy answer... Our challenge is to be like Jesus who, with all the anguish and fear it entails, does not flinch or waver in remaining faithful to the will of his Father, even at the price of enduring the ignominous death on a criminal's cross."
