THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER
"Search the scriptures: for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. " (John 5:39)

VOLUME 3, NUMBER 35, SEPT. 28, 2003

THE CURRENT CRISIS – PART THREE

            Beginning with the development of the hermitic lifestyle in the 2^nd and 3^rd centuries, and the view of some that such a lifestyle produced the highest form of spiritual piety, we find that as people moved further away from the simple truths of God’s Word and the Roman Catholic denomination began to develop, there was a movement to impose this lifestyle on all members of its “clergy” – which is in itself a digression from God’s Word.  Various councils through the centuries issued decrees concerning it, some as early as 305 A.D.  The Council of Trent, in 1563, decreed, “Whoever shall affirm that the conjugal state is to be preferred to a life of virginity or celibacy, and that it is not better and more conducive to happiness to remain in virginity or celibacy, than to be married, let him be accursed.”

            Today, the Code of Canon Law, Latin-English Edition, 1983, Canon 277 states, “Clerics are obliged to observe perfect and perpetual continence for the sake of the kingdom of heaven and therefore are obliged to observe celibacy, which is a special gift of God, by which sacred ministers can adhere more easily to Christ with an undivided heart and can more freely dedicate themselves to the service of God and humankind.”

            It is obvious that this state of forced celibacy brought about by the Roman Catholic view of virginity as being holier and purer than the marriage bed, is having a tremendously detrimental and dangerous effect upon many living under it.  This, as well as a preoccupation with sexual sins and conduct in Roman Catholicism, contributes to a decidedly unhealthy view of sex and its righteous practice among many of the Roman Catholic clergy.

            The men who comprise the Roman Catholic priesthood, deprived of the God-given outlet for sexual feelings, as well as the wonderful blessings of the companionship in all other ways of a wife, are still supposed to act as spiritual counselors to those who have experienced marriage.  They are to be the confessors to whom their parishioners confess their deepest thoughts and sins of a sexual nature.  It is a major part of life that they have been denied.  How are they prepared to deal with such problems?

            Let’s move on to the second, and final, thing that I would like to discuss.  What takes this story from the realm of disturbing and tragic to scandalous is the fact that the Roman Catholic Church has been hiding such activity for years and has failed to abide by the laws of this country pertained to such criminal acts.  The priests who committed these acts are criminals and should have been treated as such by the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church—not sent for a few months of treatment and then reassigned to another parish.  The Roman Catholic hierarchy has failed in its responsibility to abide by the laws of this country.

            It is my conviction that the flaunting of the laws of this country by the hierarchy is a natural consequence of the Roman Catholic belief that their church is above all human government and answerable to no one on earth.  I recognize that in the lives of those who are truly Christians, the first obligation is to God.  If the government under which we live should seek to require us to violate a precept of God, then as Peter said in Acts 5:29, “We must obey God rather than men.”  At the same time I also recognize the Christian’s responsibility to be subject to the government under which we live.  Paul makes that abundantly clear in Romans 13:1-6.

            If ever there was a case of the laws of the government being designed to protect its people, it would be the laws against pedophilia.  There can be no justifiable explanation for the actions of the Roman Catholic hierarchy concerning sexual abuse of children by its priests.  However, the fact that there is no justifiable explanation does not mean that there is no explanation at all.

            Within Roman Catholicism there are what are called Ecclesiastical Privileges.  According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, these are “exceptions to the law made in favor of the clergy or in favor of consecrated and sacred objects or places.”  One of the these privileges is known as “Privigelium Fori.”  This is the way the Catholic Encyclopedia describes it:  “This secures the clergy a special tribunal in civil and criminal causes before an ecclesiastical judge.  The civil causes of clerics pertain by nature to the secular courts as much as those of the laity.  But the thought that it was unseemly that the fathers and teachers of the faithful should be brought before laymen as judges, and also the experience that many laymen were greatly inclined to oppress the clergy, led the Church to withdraw her servants even in civil matters from the secular courts, and to bring them entirely under her own jurisdiction…From early times, however, it met with great opposition from the State.  With the growing ascendancy of the State over the Church, the privilege was more and more limited, and was finally everywhere abrogated.”

            “Today according to secular law, the civil and criminal causes of clerics belong to the lay court.  Only with respect to the purely spiritual conditions of their station and office are clerics subject to their bishop, and then not without certain state limitations—especially with respect to certain practical punishments.  However, the church maintains in principle the privilegium fori.”

To be continued…..

                                                                        Greg Litmer