Religion and Geopolitics Review: Saturday, June 30

By Dr. David Pence and A. Joseph Lynch

WEEKLY BRIEF

RECOGNIZING THE SIN THAT AUTOMATICALLY WITHDRAWS A MAN FROM THE PUBLIC PRIESTLY BOND AND RENDERS HIM INCAPABLE OF OFFERING THE SACRED MASS

In Chicago a popular priest who was a pioneer in restoring reverential liturgy in the TLM form was removed from office by Cardinal Blasé Cupich because there was credible evidence that he was engaged in consensual adult homosexual activity. The conservative blogosphere was inflamed with indignation that the progressive cardinal had targeted a favorite priest who treated the Mass with such reverence. The priest's order held a hearing and found that the priest had not violated any secular civil or criminal laws. Neither had he violated canon law. Multiple websites and commentators said the priest was now "exonerated." Cardinal Cupich said the culprit would still not function as a priest in the archdiocese. In fact the archdiocese said there was no accusation that a civil law had been broken nor was a canonical procedure initiated. The superiors of his order "accepted this decision." A group formed to restore the priest to the parish does not.

One reason Cardinal "Ted" McCarrick was never brought to justice for his serial abuse of seminarians over the age of 18 is that adult sodomy has not been deemed a specific canon law violation. Loose interpretation of the law is apparently not just a secular phenomenon. On the East Coast of the United States that act in secular culture has been portrayed as a mark of pride. The act of sodomy is a sin against fatherhood, sonship, and fraternity. Sodomy by a priest is a severe desacralization of the ontological male relationships at the heart of the Apostolic Church. The act desacralizes any Eucharist celebrated by such an offender. Pope Francis has alluded to Black Masses by abusers. Certainly this satanic misrepresentation by sodomites in the garb of priests is the most profound desecration of the Eucharist in our time. It is worse than the mobs of Mexico and Spain who one hundred years ago desecrated our tabernacles and convents.

Sodomy by a cleric should be clarified in canon law as behavior that causes automatic excommunication and permanent removal from the sacred priesthood. Any form of sodomy, like pedophilia and incest are the sins of Judas-the sins that expel one from the priesthood. They are NOT  the sin of Peter-serious sins which can be forgiven so the man returns a chastened and more vigorous priest. The sodomy act itself has a power to dissolve priestly faculties. If possible this should be shown to be a specific interpretation of a delict which falls under an already existing law that disqualifies one from offering the Eucharist and functioning as a priest. This is not making up something new if one looks at the Canon Law of 1917.  We are bringing the present written law in conformity with the natural and supernatural reality of the consecrated Apostolic male priesthood.

A woman is automatically excommunicated for procuring an abortion. The act itself fundamentally violates her maternal nature and causes her excommunication. The priesthood is the living embodiment of the masculine paternal and filial love between the Father and the Son. It creates a new ontological entity that orders the public life of the whole human race. Christ extended this love within the Apostolic fraternity in the priestly prayer at the Last Supper. The abomination of sodomy is as grave a delict as one can imagine against the male bond that Christ instituted for the human race in instituting Holy Orders. It is much more in the category of incest and violating Holy Orders and the Eucharist than an offense related to matrimony or adultery.

These revelatory scandals of a premier traditionalist and a premier progressive are occurring in the same time frame so we can see more clearly the deviant deception that has possessed our episcopacy and priesthood for decades. Forget progressive and traditional. See the Holy. See a Father's love for his Son. It is a great paradox but these juxtaposed events are casting just the right configuration of lights to help us find a way out of this peculiarly dark and twisted graveyard. It is not a dark day for the Church when an eroding deceiver is brought to light. When Christ washed the feet of the apostles, only Judas was darkened. As an old Eastern liturgy for that night says, that act of priestly purification "darkened the impious Judas" but "enlightened the glorious disciples". It is hardly a sad time for the Church when the Liars are exposed and stripped of the collars they have betrayed. The truth will set us free. Getting rid of liars helps us tell the truth about Jesus Christ with that credible voice of authority which the Gospel demands.
Cardinal Cupich has now removed two different priests from ministry for adult consensual homosexual activity. Every bishop and abbot should follow his example. No change is needed for this to happen in church law---only in episcopal testosterone levels.  These acts of authority in cleansing  the priesthood of the abomination that defiles fatherhood should be fortified by a clear depiction in canon law that excommunication,  removal from the priesthood and immediate cessation of faculties to say the Mass is the punishment for the clerical sin of sodomy.  This will be entirely consistent with the Catechism which forbids "unjust discrimination"against persons with homosexual proclivities.  
             "Certain false claimants to the title of brother were smuggled in; they wormed their way into the group to spy on the freedom we enjoy in Christ Jesus and thereby to make slaves of us, but we did not submit to them for a moment. We resisted so that the truth of the Gospel might survive intact for your benefit." St Paul to the Galatians  

I. POPE FRANCIS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

THE LEVADA LOOPHOLE - HOW CARDINAL LEVADA CHANGED THE AGE OF MINORS IN CHILD PORNOGRAPHY DEFINITION: In the Code of Canon Law of the Catholic Church, an offense is called a delict (pl: delicta). Some clerical offenses are considered so serious that they are referred to the CDF (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) in Rome to insure justice. Pope John Paul II wrote a special letter (a moto proprio) adding the abuse of minors by a cleric as an offense which would be referred to the CDF. He defined minor as a person under 18 and this caused some consternation for William Levada the former gay friendly Archbishop of San Francisco who became head of the CDF (in 2005) during the pontificate of Benedict XVI.

Nov 23, 2011. Levada on Grave Offenses and his appeal to ex post facto laws:

"b) The Code of Canon Law speaks in can. 1395, §2, of offences with a minor of “under the age of sixteen years.” However, the motu proprio speaks rather of “an offence with a minor under the age of eighteen years”. Between the ages of sixteen and eighteen years some “minors” are able to pass and be perceived as adults and sometimes as objects of either homosexual or heterosexual attraction. Some civil legislatures consider a sixteen year old capable of giving consent for sexual activity. The motu proprio, however, stigmatises as a more grave offence (deluctum gravius) every violation by a cleric of the sixth commandment with a minor under eighteen, whether it be of a paedophile, ephebophile, heterosexual or homosexual nature. This means that the law itself has changed in regard to the age of the victim: before 2001 (except where a special indult may have applied, such as in the United States), for a delictum gravius to have been committed, the minor had to be under 16; after 2001, under 18, since a new Church law cannot be applied retroactively.

c) Some cases of serial sexual abuse of minors between the ages of sixteen and eighteen years committed before 30th April 2001 have been processed according to the norm of can. 1399: “Besides, the cases prescribed in this or in other laws, the external violation of divine or canon law can be punished, and with a just penalty, only when the special gravity of the violation requires it and necessity demands that scandal be prevented or repaired.” Because this canon speaks only of “just penalty” according to can. 1349 the judge is not able, therefore, to threaten perpetual punishments."

Two years before Levada left his post he further clarified those grave delicta which would be referred to the CDF. He couldn't change the definition Pope John Paul II had specified at age 18 so he added a grave delict about pornography with a minor. Lo and behold, the age which once had been 16 and then was raised to 18 by John Paul II was then lowered for pornography involving a minor to 14. This was Levada's way of making the law "more useful".

Here is a report about this "reform" in 2010. Levada left the CDF in July 2012.

"The modified Normae de gravioribus delictis approved by Pope Benedict XVI on May 21, 2010 now state that "the acquisition, possession, or distribution by a cleric of pornographic images of minors under the age of fourteen, for purposes of sexual gratification, by whatever means or using whatever technology" is a grave delict against morals reserved to the CDF. A cleric who is guilty of this grave delict is subject to the same range of preceptive penalties as in SST, Art 4 §2, including dismissal from the clerical state. In a letter announcing the promulgation of these modifications, Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the CDF, observes that the text of SST has not been emended in its entirety, "but only in certain areas, in order to render the text more useful." This letter is accompanied by "a brief description of the changes and amendments of the normative text Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela." According to this brief description which was issued by the CDF, "the acquisition, possession, or distribution" of child pornography by a cleric "are also added as delicts." On the day that the modified norms were announced, the Director of the Vatican Press Office observed that the treatment of child pornography involved "the introduction of a new category." It can be said that what is not new about Art. 6 §1, 2º of the 2010 Normae de gravioribus delictis, is that the offense involving child pornography has already been understood according to the praxis of the CDF as an offense against the sixth commandment committed by a cleric with a minor. What is new about Art. 6 §1, 2º of the 2010 Normae de gravioribus delictis, are certain specifications that previously were not explicitly published. These are the age of a minor for purposes of this offense; that a minor refers to a pornographic image of a physical person; and the ways in which the offense is committed, i.e., acquisition, possession, and distribution. The promulgation of this norm will certainly contribute to the intended effect of the revised norms as stated by Cardinal Levada."

See: Child Pornography and the Grave Delict of an Offense Against the Sixth Commandment of the Decalogue Committed by a Cleric with a Minor.

FROM CANON LAW AS AMENDED 2012:
 Crimes against Catholic Morals (Art.6)
 1. The more grave delicts against morals which are reserved to the CDF are:
 1° the delict against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue committed by a cleric with a minor below the age of eighteen years; in this case, a person who habitually lacks the use of reason is to be considered equivalent to a minor.
2° the acquisition, possession, or distribution by a cleric of pornographic images of minors under the age of fourteen, for purposes of sexual gratification, by whatever means or using whatever technology.

Shall we thank Cardinal William Levada for this clarification?  Lets admit that is is "more useful" for that very large group of homosexual clerics who enjoy images of teen age boys 14-17. Pope John Paul II had wisely put these vulnerable young men under special protection. Cardinal Levada removed that protection in the area where the abusers are most likely to be exposed--the physical evidence of their laptops. The evidence is tangible, reliable and intact. The testimony of their victims is also tangible but it has proven less reliable because they appear so often deformed, confused, disoriented, and broken.   

 II. CULTURE OF LIFE, CULTURE OF PROTECTION

AMERICA MUST CHOOSE THE CULTURE OF LIFE OR CULT OF DEATH: Two pictures show Elijah was right that no nation can go limping on between Baal and God.

MEXICO, CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA AND MURDER: 30,000 people were murdered in Mexico last year. The Catholic countries south of the Rio Grande have not been able to perform the most fundamental duty of governance. This is a failure of political culture - of citizenship and governance. At 18.7 per 100,000 inhabitants, the 2017 Mexican murder rate is still lower than it was in 2011, when it reached almost 19.4 per 100,000. The rate has also held below levels reported in several other Latin American countries.

According to UN figures used in the World Bank’s online database, Brazil and Colombia both had a murder rate of 27 per 100,000, Venezuela 57, Honduras 64 and El Salvador 109 in 2015, the last year for which data is available. The US rate was five per 100,000. Providing protection is the first task of public authority. Latin American countries are overwhelmingly Catholic. Catholic political culture has been unable to unravel the knot between unbridled capitalism/individualism vs atheistic class hating communism. We await devout and strong Catholic masculine nationalists to lead their countries in a more profound reform than the rhetoric which will soon triumph in the election for President in Mexico.

AMERICAN VIOLENCE - THE MOB CIRCLES THE WOMAN: From the left as usual. They hate the male leader but it is the females who are attacked - not at their public offices but in the course of their daily family lives.