Reflection on April 7, 1982

https://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/jp2tb76.htm

There are so many that have been turned away from the Church because of the sex abuse cases. The entire situation is completely inexcusable, but if you look at when the worst cases or most significant numbers occurred, it was well before SJPII gave these talks. You wonder what the discernment of those abusers was, what hoops they went through to become priest, or worse bishops, and what questions came up about why they were vowing to remain celibate. Was something out there like this that talks about the reasoning behind celibacy, was there a questioning of a person’s motivation, were they involved in thorough evaluations to determine they had a “supernatural motivation” to be consonant for heaven. Granted, there is probably no way to eliminate 100% because we are human and imperfect, but with the significance of the issue, there had to be a failure in teaching or evaluating those that had this “supernatural motivation”. It is easy to see that if someone without a “supernatural motivation” enters a vocation in which that is required, their “natural” motivations will not keep them on the right track and cause issues and if this is allowed on a wide scale, well, we can see the repercussions. I must think, hope, and pray, that with SJPII and his Theology of the Body, this “supernatural motivation” is something that is more readily sought in those seeking the priesthood and the worst is behind us, though my thought is that it will be after my lifetime (if ever, we are still being accused of wrong doing over Galileo and the Inquisition) before we recover from the damage incurred.

Marriage is not disparaged by Christ in His speaking on continence for heaven. Those that chose continence are seen as extraordinary as opposed to the ordinary vocation of marriage, but just because something is extraordinary does not disparage the ordinary. I think if you look at all that we have read in regards to the importance of marriage, you will see how vital it is to the very foundation of society and understanding of being human. The fact that this is an extraordinary vocation some are called to does not take away anything we have already learned about the importance of marriage, only adds something to the call of continence for the kingdom. What I reflected on is not Christ disparaging marriage, but the idea that marriage, in the traditional sense, one man, one woman, for life, fully open to children, is the ordinary, makes you think how far we have moved past the ordinary, when we are destroying marriage. When you look at the opposite of extraordinary, you get ordinary. I don’t know if they are the opposites as much as a step beyond. I would think the opposite of extraordinary would be something like distorted or abnormal. That is what we are doing to our communions. People often complain about the celibacy of priest and feel we should move towards the world’s view of free love and cohabitation and gay marriage. Would they be so inclined if you told them they are wanting to move away from the extraordinary to the abnormal.