Dave Griffey at Daffey Thoughts notes that the Catholic Left is not big on forgiveness:
Courtesy of the New Prolife Catholic movement. So apparently Rebecca Bratten Weiss posted this on her Twitter feed:
Wow. There was a time when I imagined such an image would have been celebrated as an example of redemption and God’s grace working in the worst of sinners, of which I am chief. Note how it is framed as disturbing, nothing at all about grace, mercy or redemption. Furthermore, such a misplaced focus (apparently on things like forgiveness, mercy, redemption, and God’s gracious healing of us sinners) is what makes the RCC look bad.
Wow. I mean, wow. Thank goodness it’s only her, and nobody else taking such a disturbing view of Church teaching. Correct? Oh, turns out here are some comments on this thread:
Exactly how this fits into the emerging notion on the left that judgmentalism is all the rage, but mercy and forgiveness are just stealth white supremacy and therefore to be rejected, their banter doesn’t make clear. It’s enough that they don’t see redemptive grace or reconciliation, but rather an individual who should not be allowed to move past his sins, and the idea that no saint should be venerated by … a sinner?
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Note the good Catholic film critic and deacon Steven Greydanus throws his two cents worth of contempt for such an image of redemption and reconciliation into the mix. Well done deacon. I notice how one trick of shifting Christian goalposts around rests on semantic nitpicking of the type the good deacon himself tried to condemn recently. God makes saints of course, the individual who wrote that in a likelihood understand this. But the important thing should be the story of redemption and unbelievable level of God’s grace, not ‘quibbling over semantics, which is the definition of what Deacon and company are doing’.
For what it’s worth, this is simply following a growing trend in which we learn almost anything and everything from the last thousand years of Christianity and the Christian West – and possibly before – can be assumed to be false, the result of bigotry, racism, colonialism, misogyny, or any one of a million different demographic defects.
For instance, maybe in heaven there can be forgiveness for a growing list of unpardonable sins such as rape, racism or slavery in America, but on this side of the eternal, depending on your group identity, your arse belongs to the Left and whatever privileged demographic group is holding the rope at the moment.
As God is my witness, I sincerely believe there is no heresy, blasphemy, intrinsic evil, or sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance that believers – Catholics included – who have thrown their lots in with the Left will either embrace, defend, or at best ignore. And if it means throwing core Christian doctrine and virtue under the bus, or interpreting such things as God’s grace or redemption only through the prism of leftwing dogma, apparently that’s just fine.
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| A “forced meeting with your attacker where you tell them you forgive them and then everyone acts like nothing happened” – A New Prolife Catholic perspective |
Go here to comment. Now forgiveness has personally been one of the Christian virtues that I find hardest to emulate. Alessandro Serenelli demonstrates why it is so necessary. Serenelli after his murder of Goretti was spared the death penalty due to him being a minor under Italian law and sentenced to 30 years in prison, later reduced to 27. Initially he was hate filled, a true lost soul. This all changed in a twinkling of an eye six years into his prison term when he had a vision of Saint Maria Goretti forgiving him from Heaven. He became a model prisoner, at peace with himself and God. He was released from prison in 1929. In 1934 he begged forgiveness on his knees and in tears from the mother of the saint. She forgave him, saying she had no choice since Maria had forgiven him on her death bed.
He became a gardener at a Capuchin friary and eventually a lay brother. He died nearly 88 in 1970. In 1961 he wrote this:
I’m nearly 80 years old. I’m about to die.
Looking back at my past, I can see that in my early youth, I chose a bad path which led me to ruin myself.
My behavior was influenced by print, mass-media and bad examples which are followed by the majority of young people without even thinking. And I did the same. I was not worried.
There were a lot of generous and devoted people who surrounded me, but I paid no attention to them because a violent force blinded me and pushed me toward a wrong way of life.
When I was 20 years-old, I committed a crime of passion. Now, that memory represents something horrible for me. Maria Goretti, now a Saint, was my good Angel, sent to me by Providence to guide and save me. I still have impressed upon my heart her words of rebuke and of pardon. She prayed for me, she interceded for her murderer. Thirty years of prison followed.
If I had been of age, I would have spent all my life in prison. I accepted to be condemned because it was my own fault.
Little Maria was really my light, my protectress; with her help, I behaved well during the 27 years of prison and tried to live honestly when I was again accepted among the members of society. The Brothers of St. Francis, Capuchins from the Marche, welcomed me with angelic charity into their monastery as a brother, not as a servant. I’ve been living with their community for 24 years, and now I am serenely waiting to witness the vision of God, to hug my loved ones again, and to be next to my Guardian Angel and her dear mother, Assunta.
I hope this letter that I have written can teach others the happy lesson of avoiding evil and of always following the right path, like little children. I feel that religion with its precepts is not something we can live without, but rather it is the real comfort, the real strength in life and the only safe way in every circumstance, even the most painful ones of life.
Alessandro Serenelli, May 5, 1961
That poster of Mercy is for the weak is really disturbing. Pope Francis, in my mind, has caused confusion regarding his mantra of mercy. He rarely speaks about remorse and penance in the same sentence with mercy. Serenelli was imprisoned for 6 years before he had remorse. He received 3 years off his sentence for his change of behavior.
PF by his meetings with same sex couples for instance seems to condone that behavior. His allowing Pachamama into a consecrated church is fostering dual religionism.
RCC – Roman Catholic Church?
The left doesn’t seem all that big on repentance either. If there’s one thing Serenelli was a model of, it’s repentance. In my experience, I find repentance far more daunting than forgiveness. Sadly, all too often today we demand the latter without the former. And that is a gross misunderstanding of what forgiveness is about in the first place.
“To believe in the forgiveness of sins is not so easy as I thought. Real belief in it is the sort of thing that easily slips away if we don’t keep on polishing it up.
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“Real forgiveness means looking steadily at the sin, the sin that is left over without any excuse, after all allowances have been made, and seeing it in all its horror, dirt, meanness, and malice, and nevertheless being wholly reconciled to the man who has done it.” -CS Lewis, ‘Essay on Forgiveness’
“Of course, the rush to nonjudgment is in part a reaction against the cruel or unthinking application of moral codes in the past. . . . Apologists for nonjudgmentalism point, above all, to its supposed quality of compassion. A man who judges others will sometimes condemn them and therefore deny them aid and assistance: whereas the man who refuses to judge excludes no one from his all-embracing compassion. He never asks where his fellowman’s suffering comes from, whether it be self-inflicted or no: for whatever its source, he sympathizes with it and succors the sufferer.” -Theodore Dalrymple, ‘The Rush from Judgement’
I suspect these two ideas explain the modern trend. To forgive, means necessarily to judge. To pass judgement, means to lack compassion. Therefore they arrive at the conclusion that those who forgive have no compassion and are condemnable.
Just ignore the judgement that was handed down…
Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight. The vengeful will suffer the LORD’s vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail. Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven. Could anyone nourish anger against another and expect healing from the LORD? Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself, can he seek pardon for his own sins? If one who is but flesh cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins? Remember your last days, set enmity aside; remember death and decay, and cease from sin! Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor; remember the Most High’s covenant, and overlook faults.
Sirach 27:30
The dangers of blending politics with faith are ever present in our times–when even knitting has become a battleground over wokeness, you know the powderkeg is bone dry and primed to explode.
But in the case of Catholic leftists, they imagine no dangers to themselves or their souls. God grant that they truly wake up.
I find it increasingly easy to see them turning into a form of Kapo Catholicism, 21st century traditores who will hand you over to Caesar for your “extremism” with howls of triumph.
As I am increasingly wont to say, this is going to end horribly for this once-great nation.
The left act like they have never sinned in their life. And they take it further by thinking they have the power to read souls.
In all fairness, Serenelli spent his entire life atoning for what he did to Maria Goretti, far beyond his prison sentence, by living a life dedicated to solitude and work. This is being overlooked by the left.
Yes we accept the earthly consequences of our sins whatever they may be. And yes we have a right to seek earthly justice through the law. But nobody can decide for us if we are truly repentant or if we are truly forgiven. This is for God alone. Repentance and forgiveness can only be understood through Faith and Trust in God.
The New Prolife Movement has a pride-filled, vibe about them, deciding that they can magically read souls. They must have never attended a lesson on CCC in their life. Making things up as they go along..
One reservation that I have with the talk about suffering, forgiveness, and mercy is when it ends up enabling more sin. The offending clergy in the abuse crisis got 70X7 forgiveness, and unlimited mercy through catch and release. The result was more abuse, more damaged victims. The suffering of the victims didn’t appear to be of much interest. During the 2020 “summer of love” looting and rioting wasn’t there a lot of catch and release done by the left, no different than the clerical abuse scandal, with no concern for the suffering of the people damaged by the looting and rioting? Compare this with the one day “summer of love” that took place in Washington D.C. in January. For the left it truly must be more blessed to give than to receive.
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From what I recall any virtue when not balanced by the other virtues can become a vice. When mercy and justice are divorced you can end up with a merciless justice that becomes unjust, and an unjust mercy that becomes merciless.
wasn’t there a lot of catch and release done by the left, no different than the clerical abuse scandal, with no concern for the suffering of the people damaged by the looting and rioting?
Very different Greg. Bishops and their chanceries were seldom dealing with timely accusations against priests, or well-corroborated ones. Ten or fifteen years later in time was the norm during the period running from 1983-2001. The accusations which came out of the woodwork in 2002-04 were commonly 30 years after the fact. (One of the splashier cases in Syracuse was a man who sued the quondam vocations promoter in 2003, contending said priest had used him as a catamite during the period running from 1963 to 1970).
I find it increasingly easy to see them turning into a form of Kapo Catholicism, 21st century traditores who will hand you over to Caesar for your “extremism” with howls of triumph.
Good point.
The Words that really should terrify us are:
“And Forgive us our trespasses… as we forgive those trespass against us.”
Absolutely 100%, David WS.
Total, unconditional Forgiveness not only is high in the prayer that Jesus Christ gave us. “Forgive all injuries” is one of the Spiritual Works of Mercy. N. B. all injuries. N.B. St. Stephen in Acts forgave his killers as he was being martyred.
Many of those people ignore the Spiritual Works of Mercy and subvert the Corporal Works. The Works are individual and voluntary, and not imposed, not collective, not coerced (government or otherwise) as they propose.
In my experience, the catholic Left subverts the Faith for its nefarious purposes, chief among them is imposition of communism.
IMO, hatred of your country and of citizens that don’t is a sin against Charity.
In conclusion, many among the catholic and secular left are not people of good will.
by desiring a utopia on earth by any means necessary….
-they end up omitting God, and committing great evil.
The 1961 letter written by Alessandro Serenelli was heart-warming and shows that God forgives the worst of us.
The left – I truly despise them.
Has anyone here seen Mark Shea’s latest bit of lunacy? In his 07/13/21 screed, he makes the outrageous claim the traditional pro-life movement is “a murder-suicide cult”! The hate of Mark and his friends toward real Christianity is really unhinged!
Stephen, I was sent that earlier. I found it interesting that he labels pro-life a ‘heresy’ before he says it became a ‘murder-suicide cult.’ Calling pro-life a heresy is an interesting spin, but hardly surprising from Mark.
Forgiveness is indeed a “hard” Christian virtue and I can, up to a point, see what makes the case of St. Maria Goretti kind of hard for many contemporary Catholics, particularly women and victims of sexual abuse, to accept. Maria certainly deserves to be honored for her heroic virtues; however, holding her up as a martyr for chastity CAN seem to imply that those who fail to successfully resist sexual aggression even to the point of death are being cowardly or less than virtuous. Plus the Church did have a problem with being, shall we say, too quick to “forgive” and “rehabilitate” clergy and Religious sexual abusers in the past, so now the pendulum seems to have swung in the opposite direction — to the notion that such persons can NEVER be rehabilitated or restored to normal life (unless they are prominent Democrat donors or Hollywood stars, but that’s another story). Cases of genuine repentance and conversion seem to be pretty rare, but they do exist, as evidenced in Serenelli’s case.
“Serenelli spent his entire life atoning for what he did to Maria Goretti, far beyond his prison sentence, by living a life dedicated to solitude and work. This is being overlooked by the left.”
That is also a critical point. You’ve probably heard that prisons are full of “innocent” people because nearly everyone in them claims to be innocent, or to have had some kind of justification for their crime. Serenelli, after his conversion, was not one of them and he willingly accepted a lifetime of restricted movement and activity after being freed from prison — in effect spending the rest of his life on home confinement.
“Has anyone here seen Mark Shea’s latest bit of lunacy?”
For your sake–and his–do not read his political commentary. It is not good for anyone’s soul, and such things do not need the clicks.
He does not need to write the worst caricatures of his fellow children of God and it does you no spiritual good to read them. So don’t.
@Dale – You’re not wrong, I just wonder at what point is he supposed to get better. Like if he was an alcoholic, we’re just staring at him, passed out in the gutter and walking on by. Yeah it’s bad for him to drink, but when is he going to realize that? Is an intervention ever going to be staged or is he just going to be left to rot?
Yeah it’s bad for him to drink, but when is he going to realize that? Is an intervention ever going to be staged or is he just going to be left to rot?
He has a wife, he has children, and then there’s Jimmy Akin and Sherry Weddell. Not your job.
Without revealing confidences or descending into gossip, (1) it has been tried, and (2) in my estimation, there are dynamics at play which make the heel to port quite understandable, even if the excesses are not excusable.
Commend him to God in prayer.
Art Deco my recollection of the abuse scandal was that priests were moved from parish to parish. For the offending clergy the long term solution was laicization to remove them from the source of temptation.
Fair enough then Dale, if the effort has at least been made.
Art Deco my recollection of the abuse scandal was that priests were moved from parish to parish.
John Geoghan was. There were a half-dozen complaints against him in real time. Maurice Grammond was another notorious case, though IIRC, his transfers weren’t as numerous as Geoghan’s and occurred 20 years earlier. Most accused priests had no accusations contemporanous with events.
there are dynamics at play which make the heel to port quite understandable,
My imagination I guess fails me in understanding why problems in living would generate a comprehensive change in your political views, most particularly to the point of repeatedly launching volleys against others whose viewpoint you hardly pretend to understand.
That’s understandable, Art.
But I’m not having a public discussion about it.
Dale, I agree for myself. The problem is, Mark is a paid Catholic apologist and is still referenced and recommended. I imagine me looking for information on the Catholic church all those years ago, and stumbling on Mark – like what happened. Then I imagine it today. As I’ve said, we Protestants had our Fred Phelps, but we made sure people knew where we stood relative to him so that nobody should confuse the two.
People like to remember Christ’s and St. Stephen’s pleas for forgiveness, but don’t remember the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in 70 AD in fulfillment of Christ’s woes. People should read the discourse of St. Stephen in Acts 7 that led to his stoning. The summation is very instructive, Acts 7:51-53:
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51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
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Too many people like to use unconditional love and forgiveness to rationalize sinful behavior. Unconditional love and forgiveness is what is behind the people who preach an empty hell. St. Faustina was shown a vision of hell in Diary 741. To be sure, God does allow U-turns where sinners can reform their lives. God loves us, but we need to respond to this love by living faithful lives. The reformed life of Alessandro Serenelli demonstrates this.