Adoration of the Mystic Lamb<\/em>\u00a0(Ghent Altarpiece) by Jan van Eyck, 1432 [St. Bavo\u2019s Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nCan it be that prelates and priests may take it upon themselves to decide and declare matters \u201cin the name of Christ,\u201d which, in fact, profane the sacred name? Can it be that there are, among those entrusted with the gravest duties, some who, like the priests Nedab and Abihu (in Leviticus 10), in one manner or another infringe the rules of worship, doing only what they want, as and when they want it? Nedab and Abihu, by the way, were promptly devoured by divine fire.<\/p>\n
To be clear, we should take this as not a threat but a warning, in the spirit of the first pope, that \u201cthere will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master.\u201d (2 Peter 2:1). This is not merely the stuff of the latest Dan Brown novel; it is, in a regrettable and even bizarre way in these times, the vital concern of all prelates, priests, and other faithful followers of Christ the King.<\/p>\n
Something is not true because the Church teaches it; rather, the Church teaches it because it is true.\u00a0The Church. Teaches. The Truth<\/em>. \u201cThe world,\u201d wrote Servant of God Bishop Fulton Sheen, \u201chas been attempting to preserve the fruits of Christianity after having surrendered the roots.\u201d Among the finest sons and daughters of the Church are noble bishops and priests who have preached Christ\u2019s truth in word and deed. But, as the proverb has it, \u201cThe corruption of the best is the worst.\u201d Those who can and should do great good may also do great evil.<\/p>\nWe the faithful are called to be obedient (see\u00a0CCC<\/em>\u00a0\u00b6144) to what\u00a0the Church truly teaches<\/em>. Here, as everywhere, biblical wisdom helps: \u201cTest everything; hold fast to what is good, [and] abstain from every form of evil.\u201d (1 Thess 5:21-22). And: \u201cDear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.\u201d (1 John 4:1)<\/p>\nAre there bishops and priests knowingly teaching what the Gospel rejects, deliberately leading us astray because of their egos or because of our hedonism, rooted in our desire, partial or plenary, for a secular, sybaritic message (cf. 2 Tim 4:3-4)?<\/p>\n
The core of the message of the good prelate and priest is always about trying and trying and trying again to be fully Catholic in thought, word, and deed, believing that full achievement of our greatest goal \u2013 the salvation of our souls \u2013 will not be realized without divine grace.<\/p>\n
Knowing that the moral permissiveness trumpeted by today\u2019s false prophets is mere sophistry concealed as wisdom and knowing, too, that \u201cthe necessary precondition for the development of true freedom is to let oneself be educated in the moral law\u201d (CCC<\/em>\u00b62526), we pray for, respect, and obey all those faithful prelates and priests who \u201clive in a manner worthy of the call [they] have received.\u201d (Eph 4:1)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Dear Bishops, Beware By\u00a0James H. Toner SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2016 The American bishops will be gathering in Baltimore this week for their annual Fall conference. [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumniforacatholicusd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumniforacatholicusd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumniforacatholicusd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumniforacatholicusd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumniforacatholicusd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2511"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alumniforacatholicusd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2512,"href":"https:\/\/alumniforacatholicusd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511\/revisions\/2512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumniforacatholicusd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumniforacatholicusd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumniforacatholicusd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Adoration](\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/faithandreasoninstitute\/thecatholicthing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Adoration_Lamb_Ghent.jpg\")
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