Looks great! Thanks for doing this!

And I echo the others on this posting: from personal experience over her tenure at McNair, I found Mrs. McCabe to be intelligent, committed, kind, empathetic, flexible, creative, and dogged in her work. She is both an intellectual and an educator. At the same time, in an environment that can be draining, she sought to encourage balance and perspective among the students.
I have had kids in the school since 2008. I have personally observed the deterioration of the school in the following ways:
1. Loss of talented, intelligent and committed faculty members;
2. Increase in faculty members and staff who have no intellectual ability or even interests and are even proud to boast about how they do nothing but get high salaries and benefits.
3. Increase in politicized faculty members-both for local and union issues as well as national and global issues.
4. An increase in outrageous and unprofessional behavior of staff and teachers who enlist students in their insubordination and disregard for standards.
McNair Academic will be history unless this is all reversed. The Board of Ed simply will not be satisfied with running failing schools at every level until it destroys McNair which has always stuck in its craw (notwithstanding the occasional plaudit). What a shame. I feel terrible for all the families with young children in the city- but especially the poor and first generation college bound. One can accomplish great things after graduating from St. Peter’s College or NJCU. But it is a lot easier to get on the road to greatness when one goes to MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Penn, Cornell, Stanford, Berkeley.

If this is true, it seems further evidence of the serious erosion of McNair's identity. My impression is that Mrs. McCabe took over at a critical time when the founding lights of McNair were retirning. Excellent teachers like Mr. Delo, Mr. Selby, Mr. Royster have left and been replaced by typical mediocrities. The departure of the old administration with the retirement of Slatery who had found a way to resist the constant gravitational pull of the JCBOE who resented it as elitist and constantly undermined it (except when basking it is amazing achievements). McNair may never have lived up to the hype, but it had managed to launch who have done amazingly well. My impression is that the negatives- disregard for the substance of education and over emphasis on test scores and Aps has increased while the faculty become increasingly self-absorbed, seeing themselves primarily as a bargaining unit for life time employment. Mrs. McCabe is bright, articulate, and kind woman who threw herself in to the job. Reign of terror- if anything , she lacked the necessary resolve to punish and retaliate against insolent and insubordinate employees.

Dear User1111

Maybe you are younger than most here. Don't waste your youth.

But if you are young, I am surprised that you had not heard that Walt Whitman has been #canceled because of his racism.

Mao

Drip drip drop drop in the destruciton of education. I have three kids- two out of McNair to Ivies and the low-information quotient of their minds coming out is emblematic of generation. The progressive mantra starting with Dewey that Rouseau like, society has nothing to hand on to children and we just need to give them space to make their universes continues. Yet not completely- programtic left leaning requirements keep being added. I first discovered this when my oldest son went on a "Holocaust Tour of Europe" courtesy of the Board of Ed. It seemed like a good think until I read the curriculum which adopted hook line and sinker the highly controversial thesis of Daniel Goldenhaagen (unlike the established scholars (all of whom are also Jewish) of the Holocaust who saw National Socialism as post Christian or anti Christian resurgent paganism, Goldenhaagen saw Nazism as the inevitable and natural culimination of Chrstianity. While a balanced curriculum might include the Goldenhaagen thesis alongside of the others, the NJ curriculum presents it is dogma.

As for private education, it mostly just follows track. My little one is at OLC where the curriculum is just common core mediotcrity. You need a very independent and vigourous private school to swim against this current.

How absurd! Let's look to the kleptocracy that is Newark to justify raising council salaries.

Rent control is theft and POTUS should address this by requiring just compensation for those whose property is seized through these approaches.

Moreover, rent control only exacerbates the problem.https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/RentControl.html

Local government used to be the practical government, almost nonpartisan. Why is it so insane now?

How sensitive Murphy is! So sensitive that, after prayer, it is now legal in NJ to off one's eldelry parent. And funding "Planned Parenthood" [sic] was his first bill. And he has spent what seems like most of his energy trying to overcome resistance by the Black Caucus to pot legalization.

I think the "slum clearance" that took down the south part of the Village which is where Ferris High School and the other school is and then the mudhuts and the projects accross from St. Bridgets also impacted the neighborhood in a very negative manner.

But that's the thing. Some of these SUVs are huge. The little lady virtually needs a step ladder to get in to it. Yet, often enough it only seats two in the front and three in the back- the same as a two door compact. I tried a jury case for a bicylist who was hit by an SUV turning off of 440. She was rushing to make the light and slammed into my client. My jury was all female and they all seemed to think that SUVs rule and that no bikes or pedestrians should be on the road.

No, it exists, but often does nothing other than run dummy candidates in cahoots with the Dems. Half of all judgeships go to Repubilcans and some boards are also split upon partisan lines. There are often these mysterious temporary conversions to the GOP right before a judicial nomination!

The Middlesex Prosecutor did not even interview her husband and best friend whom she had called immediately after the rape?

Jersey, especialy Dems and the GOP in bed with them, are so corrupt. The open secret is that Hudson County is probably one of the cleaner Counties. Middlesex County is so corrupt.

She sounds ridiculous, though, when she invokes anger at Kavanaugh and Tump.

Thanks Sutherland. And a very Merry Christmas to you!

The Annual Free Christmas Eve Concert will be again offered by Cantantes In Cordibus at St. Anthony of Padua Church on Monmouth and Sixth. The Concert starts at 8:30 PM. Here's the program for the concert.

5) Christmas Eve PROGRAM
Prelude before Mass (8:30pm)
Organ solo (6 - 7 minutes)
En Natus Est Emmanuel (Praetorius)
A Great and Mighty Wonder
Verbum Caro Factum Est
In the Bleak Midwinter
Lully, Lulla, Lullay (Stopford)
Pastorale (Corelli)
Puer Natus in Bethlehem (Bach)
Tollite Hostias (Saint-Saens)

Immediately after the concert, the First Mass of Christmas will be offered. The Mass Ordinary is Christi Munera Aeterna, by Palestrina. The Propers of the Mass will be sung by the Men's schola from the Liber Usualis. Here's the program for the Mass.

Adeste Fideles Processional.
Kyrie (Palestrina, )
Organ + Trumpet: Fanfare before Gloria
Gloria (Palestrina)
Credo (Palestrina)
Pueri Concinite (Herbeck) Nick's solo
Sanctus (Palestrina)
Benedictus (Palestrina)
Agnus Dei (Palestrina)
Gloria (Vivaldi)
Ave Verum (Mozart)
Pifa (Haendel) Instrumental
O Magnum Mysterium (Victoria)
Hodie Christus Natus Est Chant.
Silent Night (Version in C major)
Tu scendi dalle stelle Traditional.
Angels We Have Heard on High
Postlude (Instrumental)

We're looking for a horn to play on Christmas Eve at the Concert and Mass at St. Anthony's. The horn would play the florish from Monteverdi Vespers, a duet with the organ from Handle etc, and play descants in the carols. Volunteering of a true amatuer is best but we can muster up a stipend for a professional.

The director, Simone Ferraresi, is an amazing musician. http://home.simoneferraresi.com/ The Gregorian Chant schola and the choir of women and men is also without parallel on this side of the Hudson River.

Give me a call at 201 406 9960 .

Well, I have not followed the Shepard thing too closely but I know that the gay reporter who did an in depth book that challenged the hagiography faced lots of retaliation. Here's an interview transcript on NPR.

https://www.npr.org/2013/10/06/2264381 ... behind-an-infamous-murder

Though Rod Dreher has some trenchant criticism of Dr. FitzGibbons. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/

Dear Mr. Sutherland and friends:

Since I gather that you would see your younger self as previously self-loathing and therefore closeted homosexual, I know you mean me only the best by posing your question!
Freud may have some usefulness and I know that there is some validity in the concept of denial and negative transference, but I think it’s rarely helpful when discussing issues. It would not be helpful, for example, if I were to dismiss your opinions as a mere defense mechanism etc.

Hatred of Christianity is co-extensive with Christianity. But if anything is self-loathing, it is the current liberal/progressive “Christianity,” represented in this thread by you, ESP, and others, and which has been regnant in the Western church since Vatican II and which accomplishes the sort of trans valuation of values- a concept described by Nietzsche and summed up, he says, in the figure of the Antichrist. That seems to be what I hear from you, ESP, K-Lo and others.
When it comes to Catholicism, calling something medieval, or pre Vatican II is to vouch for its authenticity and Christian truth. Revelation ended with the death of the last apostle and the job of the bishop, with Pope at the head, is to preserve this- not change it. This gets people all agitated and they try to draw up a list of showing all the changes. What is certain is that the Catholic sexual ethic has always held virginity as the highest value, an eschatological sign, while simultaneously raising the marriage bed to the level of a sacrament which shows the love of God in the children that issue forth while being very wary of sexuality in the fallen world.

Dr. FitzGibbons has assisted accused priests. More to his credit! Isn’t everyone entitled to assistance? Also, I personally know of innocent priests who are scapegoated while the real wrongdoers merely keep rising in power. In the hysteria that gets whipped up, many innocent priests are thrown under the bus. Fr. McRae in NH is probably the most famous of these. http://thesestonewalls.com/gordon-mac ... ongly-imprisoned-america/

That brings me to another point: as bad as all this is, the majority of Catholic priests are faithful to their vows and vocations. Unlike in the 1970s and thereabouts, those priests who are unfaithful are not victimizing the faithful but are carrying on with other consenting adults. Most abuse of minors occurs in the home, by relatives or friends, and public schools, sport teams, etc are all experiencing much higher levels of abuse than the Catholic church.

Someone sneered earlier on that I was predicting the end of civilization. Yes, the end of this civilization which was formed by Jerusalem and Athens through Rome. If , contrary to the promise of scripture, the church were to be extinguished, the civilization that follows would be, to the progressives, some sort of utopia. I think, that in fact, it would be some sort of nightmare for all of us that has been described in the dystopic literature that has been warning us of what such a future would be since the end of the 19th century.

Yours,

Mao

Esp-

All you ever do is ad homimens. Alt right ahhhh. Latin Mass runn. (And all of this I am very proud of and grateful for btw).

Insult me by saying that its unbelievable that anyone would pay me to make an argument in court.

Can you engage in a substantive argument.

Also, you are preoccupied with attacking me personally- my beliefs, my occupation, my faith, the practice of my faith. I honestly am bewildered by it. I asked some questions about you to help me understand. Are you a Catholic? A nun? An exCatholic? Etc.

You have not been disclosing. WHy not? It would help the conversation- except all you want to do is shut me down.

Yours,

Mao

Mr. Sutherland:

The plenty of gay men in many resposible positions who are not engaging in sexual abuse whom you cite may not suffer from any disorder (personality disorder such as narcisism) that explains this abusive behaviour which FitzGibbons is addressing. Nor do the gay men you cite serve as guardians of doctrine that prescribes homosexuality so they are not in the bind that Sipe describes.

Full disclosure, I suspect that FitzGibbon probably subsribes to the clinical perspective that homosexuality is a disorder or a maladaption. I understand that this is considered hate speech. I don't think that is fair. I can understand how a gay man would, however, percieve it as condemning.

Richard Sipe on the other hand is post Christian and pro gay.

Yours,

Mao

Dear Sutherland and Frankn M:

Why do you, Mr. Sutherland, reject this article and why do you Frank M., resort to expletives?

Dr. Fitzgibbons describes narcissim as a personality trait associated with sexual assault and he seems to bring a psychodynamic approach to how this unfolds. He also is unequivocal in his support of Christian sexual morality. This does, of course, go against the majority of mental health professionals who have an antagonistic relationship with traditionial Christianity. Freud may be largely discredited but some of this antagonism started with him (even though he is actually much more nuanced on this).,

Richard W. Sipe, an ex monk, progressive psycoanalayst, also did some really good work in this area. He rejects Christian sexual morality and sees the problem as the dynamic of the guardians of the Faith who privately don't believe in the faith creating a web of deceit. http://www.awrsipe.com/

Sexual predation of minors or of subordinates is so heinous that I think the Sipe thesis alone is inadquate. Personality disorder, or demons, seems about right.

Yours,

Mao

Dr. FitzGibbons is a very well respected psychiatrist with lots of experience with this abuse. His article, I think, is interesting. I know ESP will rail that LifeSite News is a alt right, blah blah blah. Try to read the article before rejecting it.



Anyone who blames abuse crisis on ‘clericalism’ is part of the abuse crisis cover-up: Psychiatrist
Catholic, Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal, Clericalism, Homosexuality, Pope Francis, Sex Abuse Crisis In Catholic Church

September 12, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The present severe crisis of sexual abuse by bishops and priests in the Church worldwide has resulted in a number of opinions regarding its origins.

The recent Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report identified the homosexual predation of males; the Holy Father and Cardinal Cupich blame “clericalism”; the John Jay Causes and Context study (2011) postulated "availability."

My professional opinion as a psychiatrist with forty years of clinical experience is that the cause of the abuse crisis is rooted in psychological and spiritual conflicts in bishops and in priests, specifically a narcissism and a profound weakness in male confidence which inclines them to homosexual predation.

Homosexual predation
The recent Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report helps to clarify the origins of the sexual harassment of youth. It identifies 73% of the victims as being subjected to homosexual predation.

This finding is also consistent with the reports of the sexual harassment by Archbishop McCarrick of children, teenagers, young adults and adults.

Again, this finding is consistent with my clinical experience as a psychiatrist over the past forty years in treating priest abusers. In every case I knew of sexual involvement with children or adolescents, the perpetrator had previously been involved in adult homosexual relationships.

Summary of Pennsylvania Predator Priest Activity

Heterosexual Predation – 23%

child - 6%
female teenage victims- 16%
female adult victims -1 %
Homosexual Predation – 73%

child victims 11%
male teenage victims – 60%
male adult victims -2%
Child Porn

Gender Non-Specific - 4%
(Source: 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury REPORT 1 / Interim – Redacted. 2018.)

The Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report notably identifies the sexual harassment of children, teenagers and adults as “homosexual predation of children, teenagers and adults by an adult male.” It specifically did not use the terms of the John Jay report of pedophilia for child abuse or of ephebophilia for adolescent-abusive acts. Instead, the Pennsylvania Report clarified that a male’s engaging in sexually abusive behaviors toward another male is homosexual predation regardless of the age of the victim.

Clericalism
Pope Francis on August 20, 2018, stated that “clericalism” was the root cause of the sex abuse crisis in Pennsylvania. He stated:

“Clericalism, whether fostered by priests themselves or by lay persons, leads to an excision in the ecclesial body that supports and helps to perpetuate many of the evils that we are condemning today. To say ‘no’ to abuse is to say an emphatic ‘no’ to all forms of clericalism.”

Clericalism has been described elsewhere as a “disordered attitude” toward clergy which often results in an “excessive deference and an assumption of their moral superiority.” Pope Francis has noted that such an attitude can be “fostered by priests themselves or by lay persons.”

Clericalism, however, does not result in a psychological need in a priest for a sexual encounter with another male, especially an adolescent.

The Holy Father did not acknowledge the role of homosexual predation among clergy in the Pennsylvania crisis.

Cardinal Cupich also identified clericalism, not homosexual priests, as the cause of the sexual abuse crisis. Recently, the arrest of two priests of the Archdiocese of Chicago for public lewdness erodes the tag of clericalism.

In my professional opinion, in an effort to deny the role of homosexuality in the sexual abuse crisis, clericalism and availability (the John Jay Report) have been incorrectly identified as major causes. There is no psychological relationship between clericalism, availability and the sexual abuse of youth.

Both these terms manifest an attempt to cover-up the true origins of the abuse crisis.

Availability - John Jay Report
In the John Jay first report of The Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors (2004), 4,392 clerics were accused of childhood sexual abuse, which represented about 4 percent of clerics in active ministry during the study period.

It found that incidents of clergy sexual abuse of youth increased in the 1960s, peaked around 1980, and have been declining since then. This time period coincided with a major rebellion by bishops, priests, Catholic universities and educators, and the laity against the Church’s teaching on sexual morality, which was reasserted by Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae.

Table 1 Alleged victims of sexual abuse incidents, grouped by gender and age

Age in years 1–7 8–10 11–14 15–17

Male
Number 203 992 4,282 2,892

Female
Number 284 398 734 502

(Source: John Jay College, The Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors, 53, table 3.54.)

The John Jay Report found that 81% of the alleged victims were males.

The Causes and Context study (2011) by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice concluded that the childhood and adolescent sexual abuse committed by clergy was unrelated to homosexuality. Instead, they identified the predation and abuse of adolescent males, the primary victims in the crisis, as a crime of opportunity or availability. While criminologists may describe homosexual predation in imprisoned men as arising from availability, this theory is not applicable to the general public or to priests.

The John Jay second study ignored the severe psychological conflicts and grooming behaviors in priests and bishops, such as Archbishop McCarrick who sexually abused minors, seminarians and adults.

Psychological and spiritual conflicts
The major psychological conflicts that contribute to the homosexual predation of children, adolescents and seminarians in my clinical experience over the past 40 years are narcissism and a profound weakness in male confidence.

I have described the role of narcissism in the epidemic of sexually aggressive behaviors in the media, as well as in singles and adolescents of both sexes.

Narcissism can lead a man to act against his natural role as protector of youth and to think and feel that he is entitled to use others as sexual objects.

If a priest fails to teach and live the Church’s truth about sexual morality and chastity as contained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Humanae Vitae, he does not configure himself to Jesus Christ and fails to surrender his sexuality to the Lord. This weakness in sacrificial self-giving weakens his confidence and makes him vulnerable to situational ethics and to act-out sexually.

Also, Archbishop Joseph Naumann has written an excellent letter in response to the sexual abuse crisis in which he challenges priests to preach on the Church’s truth about sexual morality and chastity.

“The priest needs to be able to articulate, in a convincing and compelling way, why heterosexual intimacy outside of the marital covenant is gravely immoral, as well as why homosexual activity is also always seriously sinful,” he wrote.

Responses to the causes of the crisis
The trust in the hierarchy and in the Holy Father himself has been profoundly damaged by the sexual abuse crisis, the response to it and the accusations by Archbishop Viganò of a cover-up of Archbishop McCarrick’s predatory homosexual behavior by top leaders in the Church.

Robert George has identified the documents that are essential to review in response to the allegations of a cover-up of Archbishop McCarrick’s evil behaviors by the Vatican authorities. He suggested that the only way to arrive at the truth would be for the Pope to order church officials to release all pertinent documents in any and all Vatican and Washington offices.

Archbishop Chaput’s recommendation to the Holy Father that he cancel the Synod on Youth seems prudent. He said, “Right now, the bishops would have absolutely no credibility in addressing this topic.” Instead, he recommends that a Synod of Bishops be held to address the sexual abuse crisis in the Church.

In my professional opinion, Archbishop Chaput is correct. The mistrust in the laity is so severe at this time, because of the predatory homosexual abuse of youth and seminarians and its continued cover-up by bishops, that they would not trust the views of bishops in the proceedings or conclusions of a Synod on Youth.

The Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report that identifies homosexual predation in 73% of the cases victims of alleged abuse cannot be ignored, denied or rationalized.

A commitment should be made to follow the 2002 recommendation of Pope John Paul II in response to the crisis in the United States, which was to teach the fullness of the Church’s truth on sexual morality. It would also mean ending the inexplicable and culpable silence on sexual morality and marriage as found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Humanae Vitae. This also would mean learning or relearning moral theology that already proved itself capable of converting an over-sexualized pagan world.

Cardinal Francis George, the late Archbishop of Chicago, spoke of this truth at the annual meeting of the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries in Chicago in 1999. He said:

“It is possible, with God's grace, for everyone to live a chaste life, including persons experiencing same-sex attraction. To deny that the power of God's grace enables those with homosexual attractions to live chastely is to deny, effectively, that Jesus has risen from the dead.”

Once authentic Catholic moral theology has been learned and communicated, then mandatory conferences on homosexuality should be required for priests and bishops in every diocese and seminary given by Courage, the only international program in the Church for those with same-sex attraction that is loyal to the Church’s teaching. Such conferences should also be required of the cardinals, bishops and priests serving in the Vatican.

Since the John Jay Report failed to identify the psychological and spiritual causes of the sexual abuse crisis, the programs developed to protect youth and priests from further abuse are seriously deficient and must be corrected.

The USCCB should consult with mental health professionals who support the Church’s teaching on sexual morality, such as in the Catholic Medical Association, and who understand the role of narcissism and psychological conflicts in the origins of same-sex attraction and homosexual predation of males of all ages. These professionals should then develop their aspect of a comprehensive program to protect priests from sexual acting-out with youth, primarily adolescent males, and with their own peers.

The laity also has a responsibility to be active in protecting the truths in the Church as it did in the Arian heresy. They must demand that bishops and priests be spiritual fathers who are loyal to the Church by preaching the truth.

It is time to face the truth about the origins of the sexual abuse crisis so that the Church remains faithful to Jesus Christ and does not participate in the de-Christianization of the culture.

Editor's note: Rick Fitzgibbons, M.D. coedited an August 2011 issue of the Catholic Medical Association’s Linacre Quarterly on the crisis in the Church in which he co-authored several articles, is a member of the John Paul II Academy for Human Life and Family, has taught at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at Catholic University of America and has served as a consultant to the Congregation for Clergy at the Vatican. His forthcoming book on strengthening Catholic marriages will be published in 2019 by Ignatius Press.

Well, the gates of Hell shall not prevail....Hard to believe these days but then there are green shoots. https://www.conceptionabbey.org/monastery/live/
Sorry Esp!

Dear Esp:

I do not believe that I am promiting a "a bigoted world view with fallacious reasoning [with] and intellectual dishonesty.

Civilization is not falling because of the normalization of abortion, contraception, extra marital sex and homosexual sex. However, it is transitioning to something radically different than Christian Civilization which is now in its twiglight.

You did not refute Wilker's assertion that the taboo against sex with children is the product of Christianity. You seem to be very strongly oppossed to pederasty so you at least have that in common with historic Christianity.

I guess that in the new paradigm, everything might be permitted except for sex with children. However, someone sent me this alarming clip.
Someone sent me this- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy4AUzsGbfE#action=share It's a TED talk in favor of normalizing pedophilia.

Cheers,

Mao

Dear Esp123:

Ad hominems are really not a way of advancing a conversation.

I was aware the Wilker critiques Darwinism. Natural Selection is a very helpful and productive hypothesis. But is one a loon to point out that it has limitations and that it is erroneous to make it a religion? There are issues about whether random natural selection could account for the existing bio diversity given the known existence of earth. More worrisome still, recall that Social Darwinism had some very evil spawn that supported racism, eugenics, and helped support Nazi ideology.

But anyway, you deflect from the topic at hand.

You are correct that I am a lawyer, but my undergrad degree is in Latin and Ancient Greek and teach Latin as an adjunct in college now. . I also did some work towards a Masters Degree in Classics.

I do think that Wilker overstates the acceptance of homosexuality in the ancient world. But so did most classics professors at Columbia University where I studied. The Classics department was rabidly anti Christian, seeing it as the force that had destroyed the ancient world. Several of the professors were openly homosexual. But even the heterosexuals liked to play up homosexuality in the ancient world as a model for ours.

In fact, the actual reality was more complex. While it was only the Jews (and later the Christians) who abhorred homosexuality, many others sort of merely found it distasteful or unpleasant. I think Marcus Aurelius might have tried to outlaw it. Aristophanes ridiculed all homosexual relationships including pederasty in manner that today would be termed homophobic. But it was a gentle homophobia compared to the raging of Leviticus or St. Paul.

I googled and got this paper by a college student which shows some of the complexity of the ancient world. https://kb.osu.edu/bitstream/handle/18 ... 1/James_Gentry_thesis.pdf

Anyway, there are two current trends that make it all complicated. On the one hand, there is a trend to sexualize childhood and to assume that children have a right to sex lives. That is the premise of most sex education in schools. It is brutal and anti Christian and treats any reservation about your little one' orgiastic life as being- how would you term it- loony. A normally far left coworker was having a meltdown yesterday because her 11 year old daughter's best friend had announced she was a Lesbian. My coworker is behind the times.

The other trend is to emphasis a rigid type of consent to sexual activity e g the Antioch code. How this will end up and where the age of consent will land will be a thing to watch.

I think there are psychological bases apart from Jewish or Christian teachings that could keep age of consent laws in place. Let's hope so!

Yours,

Mao

From a Moral-Historical Perspective, This Crisis is Worse Than You Realize. There is nothing, nothing, that undermines the authority of the Church more quickly and thoroughly than this devilish marriage of scandal and hypocrisy.


by
Benjamin Wiker

Contrary to Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s early and oft-quoted assessment, the Catholic Church is in fact facing a “massive, massive crisis.” Greater clarity about the nature of this crisis can be had by looking at the larger moral-historical perspective.

There is only one reason why pedophilia is even a moral issue today: historically, the Catholic Church made it one. Sex with boys and girls, but especially boys, was an accepted part of ancient Greek and Roman culture, the culture into which Christ Himself, and hence the Church, was born. Christianity rejected this common pagan sexual practice as a distortion of sexuality, and evangelized accordingly. If it were not for the success of Christianity’s evangelical efforts, the laws against pedophilia still on the books today would never have been there at all.

To give this historical sketch some important details, the most desirable age of men seeking sex with boys in ancient Greece and Rome was the 12-18 year old range, when the boys were blossoming into sexual maturity on their way to becoming men. In short, homosexual activity was defined primarily by pedophilia. There were no artificial distinctions between homosexuality, pedophilia, ephebophilia (sex with someone between 12-14) and hebephilia (sex with someone 15-18). There was simply the culturally commonplace desire of men to have sex with boys from ages 12-18.

Moreover, pedophilia with boys was not confined to a few perverted individuals with exclusively homosexual orientation. The great majority of men engaged in it as an accepted part of Greco-Roman culture, whether they were (as we would designate them) homosexual or heterosexual. Thus, pedophilia was not a moral issue, but a cultural practice engaged in by most men. (This is an important point that I’ll take up in a future article, because it means that our current attempt to fix a definite homosexual “percentage” in the population, say 2 percent or 10 percent, doesn’t take into account that homosexuality and pedophilia can spread to the majority through a deformed culture.)

That was precisely the situation in ancient pagan Greece and Rome. Then came Christ. Christianity made pedophilia a moral issue. As Christianity slowly evangelized the pagan Roman Empire, the widespread acceptance of men having sex with boys was replaced by widespread moral revulsion (and the appearance of anti-pedophilia laws that followed upon it). The same is true as well for homosexuality, sexual slavery, abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. They became moral issues, rather than accepted pagan social practices, only because of Christian evangelization.

Here are the lessons we must learn from this history.

The sole reason that there are still secular laws on the books that prohibit and punish pedophilia is that Christianity came to dominate culture in the West through evangelization. The only reason that we have accepted homosexuality in culture and in law is the increasing de-Christianization of the culture in the West. As we become even more secularized (i.e., repaganized), pedophilia will soon be accepted, just as homosexuality, abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia have already been embraced.

This is a massive, massive crisis in and for the Church because a deeply-embedded worldwide homosexual network among our priests, bishops, and cardinals is actively engaged in bringing about the full de-Christianization of the world by preying on boys between 12-18, literally recreating Greco-Roman sexual culture in our seminaries and dioceses. If you want to know what it was like in the sordid sexual days of ancient Greece and Rome, just read the Pennsylvania Report.


That’s a rather horrible irony, isn’t it? The very men most authoritatively charged with the evangelization of all the nations are full-steam ahead bringing about the devangelization of the nations. In doing so, these priests, bishops, and cardinals at the very heart of the Catholic Church are acting as willing agents of repaganization, undoing 2,000 years of Church History.

To be even more pointed, these priests, bishops, and cardinals are the chief agents of devangelization, de-Christianization, repaganization. There is nothing, nothing, that undermines the moral and theological authority of the magisterium more quickly and thoroughly than the devilish marriage of scandal and hypocrisy. It destroys the ability to evangelize.

And note that I say both moral and theological. Why should anyone now take anything the magisterium has to say seriously, whether it’s the Church’s teachings about pedophilia and homosexuality, or its teachings on the Most Holy Trinity?

Is that massive, massive enough of a crisis for you, Cardinal Wuerl? Could you imagine it being any more massive?

View Comments

Thanks for keeping us updated!

Dear Esp-

In comparison to JP II and Francis, Benedict moved decisively against priest abusers . Again, this comparative. Benedict was not a raging St. Damian which is what the church seems to need.

Btw, I don't undrstand your animus against Catholic liturgy and dogma, nor your strongly felt feelings about inter mural conversations in Catholicism concerning the nature of dogma and worship.

Are you a contemporary nun, perhaps? Or a lay person in charge of some "renewal." Or a recovering Catholic?

Anyone looking at Catholicism knows that, even more than in most religions, tradition is a crucial concept. It is fundamental that Catholics believe that Divine Revelation came to an end in the Apostolic Age, and that the job of the Church is to preserve this revelation and explicate it- but never to change it. (See, for example, Newman, The Development of Doctrine). In fact, most Christians, including Protestants and Orthodox, probably agree with this statement.

Anyway, anyone coming from your perspective with a kind of hysterical hatred of Christianity, should be overjoyed at the incredible auto demolition of the Catholic church. However, I fear that the world will find that it is not better off without the Church. See for example, Stark, Rodney, Bearing False Witness. http://www.baylorisr.org/2016/10/28/i ... -against-catholic-church/

Yours,

Mao

Well I think that Papdage overstates it a little.

However, why the outrage against Benedict but not Francis? Francis has been identified credibly as having been hoisted on the universal church by a self proclaimed mafia, the leader of whom is McCarrick, an admitted pedarast and homosexual predator. There is also a very credible charge that Francis reversed Benedict's sentence on McCarrick and instead gave McCarrick tremendous power- a kingmaker who chose Tobin, Cupich etc.

One needs to be able to see distinctions. Benedict was not heroic or anything. But he did better than anyone else. Certainly, better than JP II who, for this reason, cannot be considered a saint. Here's a NYer article. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-de ... se-in-the-catholic-church

Or if you want to wade in forter, this a fairly reliable stude. //www.amazon.com/Pope-Benedict-Sexual-Abuse-Crisis-ebook/dp/B007QXIYRK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1536095750&sr=1-1&keywords=Pope+Benedict+and+the+sexual+abusence? Bunson did a book on it.

Why do you think there is a lack of outrage and concern about Francis? Perhaps just fatigue from Catholic scandal?

Thanks for posting that Jersey Mom. As incriminating and unacceptable as the respones of Bergoglio has been (To demand silence, to refuse to answer, to denounce whistleblowers), the media and cultural elite are, for the most part, going along with it! It seems like it might work.

At lease we'll never have to endure another visit by him on US soil since he would expose himself to arrest for having been an accessory to McCarrick's crimes.

To ESP213 and others, while there is a traditionalist vs progressive aspect to the scandal, there have been sexual misconduct on both sides. Fr. Maciel and the Legionaires were noted for their staunch orthodoxy and discpline. It turned out to be a massive platform for Maciel's sexual and hallucinogenic adventures. John Paul II loved Maciel and lauded him. Benedict on day I, sent him packing. In every respect, Benedict was working toward purifiying the CHurch which is probably why he was forced to abdicate.