Thus far it has not been released in English. What PopeWatch has gleaned online thus far:
The Pope writes of homosexual clubs operating in seminaries, some more or less openly. He says this is a particular problem in the US. Well, nothing we haven’t heard from other sources. Only four of the essays in the book have been unpublished before. Some sensational accounts online are claiming that Pope Benedict blasted the policies of Pope Francis, but no quotes are given which makes PopeWatch suspicious. The reaction to the book may be more important than what it actually says. There has been talk of schism for years, and now there is talk of open civil war in the Church. Stay tuned.
It’s becoming apparent that the homosexual problem in the seminary and the Church is more widespread than we think.
The homosexual problem in the seminaries has been a well known problem for decades. Read the book “Goodbye Good Men”, written by a former seminarian, who had first hand knowledge of how the system operated to drive out orthodox, believing Catholic men. I’ve known several ex-seminarians who confirm the same experiences. One ex-seminarian I knew told me his classmates would watch gay porn on Friday nights in the tv room, and he worked out right next to that room and made sure to clang the weights and generally make noise just to be disruptive to their viewing “experience”. Our past popes certainly knew of the extant of this problem and failed to fix it. JPII was truly derelict in this regard. Things definitely got better under Pope Benedict, but then he fled “for fear of the (homosexual) wolves”.
I’m not sure the problem of our decadent seminaries should be laid at the feet of Popes— what are bishops for? It’s like blaming the President of the US because your local school board isn’t doing its job and your high school is terrible.
Our bishops have direct oversight over their diocesan seminaries. If a bishop allows his seminary to devolve into a cesspit, then the lion’s share of the blame is his.
No Pope has the hours nor the manpower to micromanage every seminary on earth.
That said, I wouldn’t mind seeing a Pope take a bishop who allowed his seminary to go lavender and reassign that man to an obscure diocese with no seminary of its own. Pour encourager les autres.
Here’s what I found online: the book is entitled “What is Christianity?”. It is a collection of essays, all but four of which have been previously published (one of those was revised for this book). The book has six sections:
The Christian Religion and Faith
Fundamental Elements of the Christian Religion
Judaism and Christianity in Dialogue
Themes of Dogmatic Theology
Themes of Moral Theology
Occasional Contributions
The section “Themes of Moral Theology” contains one essay, “The Church and the Sexual Abuse Scandal”. The four new essays are:
What is Religion? (historical development from paganism to eastern mysticism or Abrahamic faith)
Monotheism and Tolerance (against the accusation of Christian intolerance)
The Islamic-Christian Dialogue (what each religion means by “religion of the book”)
The Meaning of Communion (the impossibility of intercommunion with Protestants)
The revised essay is “The Catholic Priesthood”, which was originally published in Cardinal Sarah’s “From the Depth of Our Hearts” in 2020.
No Pope has the hours nor the manpower to micromanage every seminary on earth.
I totally agree Clinton. The access to modern technology and media in the Seminaries opens up avenues to sin. Also, a priestly vocation is a calling from God, but the discernment process is assisted by the seminary. This should involve a rigid screening processes and background checks of all potential seminarians. Even then you’ll still get those who would know how to dodge the system, but that way you can filter out the homosexuals and deviants who use the priesthood for their own perverted reasons. The clean-up can only be remedied at the local level with directive from the Bishop. You won’t get a solution blaming the Pope.
I have always maintained that a restoration of the married priesthood, similar to the Eastern Churches, would help alleviate the priest shortage and provide an avenue to “squeeze out” the lavender candidates. We have tried the celibate route for centuries and are now aware of its impracticalities.
I have always maintained that a restoration of the married priesthood, similar to the Eastern Churches, would help alleviate the priest shortage and provide an avenue to “squeeze out” the lavender candidates. We have tried the celibate route for centuries and are now aware of its impracticalities.
The world’s biomedical engineers have contrived a device that can directly measure sexual arousal. Stick your candidate in a small room, hook him up to the jumper cables, and flash pictures of naked athletes on a screen, and see if he gets a failing score.
One of my former priests was talking about his seminary days, and then mentioned a mentor who said to him “There’s only one thing that’s keeping you from being a really successful priest: you actually believe all this stuff.”
The trouble with allowing married priests is that in today’s environment it will be seen by the laity as an attack on celibacy itself. It’s impossible for it not to be seen in this way, with the culture at large attacking chastity in general and protestants largely holding up married priests as superior to celibate ones. But Paul makes clear that while God does not call everyone to celibacy, it is the better way, especially for religious.
I have always maintained that a restoration of the married priesthood, similar to the Eastern Churches, would help alleviate the priest shortage and provide an avenue to “squeeze out” the lavender candidates.
You’ll squeeze out the lavender ilk but you gain a while new set of problems. I knew of an Eastern Orthodox priest in Lebanese parishes (not Catholic) who brought scandal to their role through their kids and wife. The daughter was having an affair whilst married and the mother was enabling her. There is also the task of financially supporting the married priest and his family. With that comes the issue of preventing greedy clergy who use the priesthood to financially benefit themselves and their families.
Re:married priests— The incidence of sexual abuse is not demonstrably lower among Protestant clergy than in the Church. The incidence of media sensationalism is, however, nearly non-existent where Protestant ministers are concerned. As for filtering out the lavenders, maybe, maybe not. But I like Art’s suggestion a lot better than abandoning the charism of celibacy from the priesthood on a wholesale basis. In addition, several prominent and married former Anglican/Episcopal priests who are now Catholic priests do not favor removing the rule of celibacy. One such is Fr. Dwight Longenecker, who has written fairly often on the subject, as I recall.
“Idle hands are the devils workshop.” This has never been more true especially for seminarians who are in the firing line for the devils attacks.