“Salus animarum suprema lex esto” — “The salvation of souls must be the supreme law in the Church.” (Canon Law 1752)
 

“Non est hic” — He is not here.

After the Last Judgment, when the bodies of all who ever lived arise and are reunited with their souls to stand before God in judgment to receive the just recompense for the way they had chosen to live, perhaps many of those who hear the pronouncement “Saved!” — and enter Heaven — will ask of others there also, “Where is he?”, “Where is she?” and they will be told these same words, but in a frightfully different context: “Non est hic” — “he is not here ... nor is she.” There is only one other place that they may possibly be — and it is a Hell of a place to be! Our Blessed Lord admonishes us not to judge and we must never take it upon ourselves to assume who is in Heaven and who is in Hell. Only God knows the heart of man. Most of us will be very surprised where we will find them ... and perhaps ourselves.

“Who am I to judge?”

This — by the way —  is quite different from Francis’s nototious “Who am I to judge?” or more precisely “If a person is gay and seeks the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge that person?”

To judge what? Whether he goes to Heaven or Hell? No! Of course not!

That was not at all the context of the question which concerned the suitability and wisdom of allowing homosexuals into the priesthood — ESPECIALLY in light of the widespread homosexual abuses in the priesthood and seminaries for the past 20 years!

You, Francis, are able to — and expected to — judge the suitability of candidates for the priesthood — not whether or not they will go to Hell.

It is a warranted and necessary judgment to protect the innocence of children and youth, and the trust of their parents — to say nothing of the now scandalized vocation of a Catholic priest in the community at large — a scandal which you refuse to seriously address — and correct — in any meaningful way discernible to Catholics.

Avoiding the Occasion of Sin

If criminals “have good will”  (which some may have) “and seek the Lord” (which some may do) what would your answer be to the question of allowing them into seminaries and upon graduation, foisting them onto parishes? It should be that by definition “criminals” are, for the most part, wicked men — and to allow them the opportunity to manage the finances and to “groom” the trust of a parish is — to say the least —  unwise — if not complicitous through criminal negligence of duty.  It is a temptation! A temptation into which you should not lead them  ... nor allow them the opportunity to submit to that temptation and violate trust. At one time (before Vatican II) Catholicism called it “avoiding the occasion of sin”!

The same goes for homosexuals — how dare you discriminate ... in their favor!

Geoffrey K. Mondello
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
 

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