The
77-year-old Cardinal Ezzati had submitted his resignation two years
ago when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 but but pope
Francis kept him on. Cardinal Ezzati became the flash point of
survivors’ ire for mishandling several cases of abuse. Luis
Hidalgo/Associated Press (see reference below)
Today,
reply is on responses by the Pope and other church leaders to cases
of abuse and scandals within their congregations. The church as a
material and social reality will continue to be challenged by the
world, and troubled by the problems associated with the shared human
condition that include mortality, sexuality, and mankind being
vulnerable to sin. Many within the communities of faith are unable
to correctly separate all the multiple subtleties and streams of
truth now appearing in the public forums. In the same way that
questions about the administration and supervision of conduct and
practice for the clergy are very different than the issues of
doctrine, liturgy, and sacramental practice for the full body of
Christ, the questions for assigning eternal condemnation to
personhood as in divine final judgment must be continually
acknowledged as distinct from those to determine the fruitfulness,
spirit content, or the godliness and unselfishness of a person’s
ministry, service, and sacred works. One
of the fighters in the “Yahoo! Answers” public forum on Religion
and Spirituality who uses the ID “Anonymous” (no profile is
shown) posted the following:
Why
hasn't Pope Francis made some major changes in the Catholic church in
response to recent revelations?
THE
GOLDEN ARROW: When a righteous man turneth away from his
righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his
iniquity that he hath done shall he die. Again, when the wicked man
turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth
that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.
Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions
that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. Yet
saith the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not equal. O house
of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal?
Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to
his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn
yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not
be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye
have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for
why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the
death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD:
wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye. (Ezekiel 18: 26-32,
King James Version, KJV)
THE
DOUBLE DAGGER: Challenges To The Church? (03/01/2019); The Workings
of Divinity? (01/15/2019); Appetite and Human Sexuality?
(10/19/2018); Questions GOD Might Ask? (05/11/2018); Thoughts on
Sexual Relationships (03/07/2017); Temporal and Eternal Judgment
(02/15/2017); The Work of Forgiving (11/23/2016); Why Is Lust
Condemned? (07/20/2016); Flesh Against the Spirit? (06/19/2016)
“Anonymous”,
the course for things promised and prophesied from GOD is not
disturbed by what you call “recent revelations.” The present-day
issues of sexual abuse and misconduct within Christian assemblies and
congregations are not a new problem or crisis that will result in the
total destruction and elimination of the church. Human consciousness
is repeatedly separated from divinity through such elements as
appetite (e.g., hunger, thirst, sexual craving), sensation (e.g.,
hearing, seeing, tasting, touching) and emotion/mental process (e.g.,
anger, fear, imagination, recall, sadness). The church was founded
by Jesus Christ to reveal and make visible otherwise unseen sacred
operations and divine substance (we say, active presence;
divine fullness; the Godhead; the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit).
Sinners become joined to the church as developing Christian believers
when they (1) acknowledge divine judgment, mercy, forgiveness and
grace; (2) choose to experience permanent change through the
indwelling of GOD, and (3) receive fresh endowments through the
ministry of Jesus Christ of the life essence (we say, breath;
spirit; word) imparted from divinity to Adam and Eve.
The
existence, nature, and process of the church are not intended by GOD
to overturn or replace ceremonial, mechanical, and natural law; and
despite being an instrument of GOD for eternal change that now
provides a foretaste and visions of perfection from GOD, at this
time, the church can not eliminate the operations of sin that may
dominate awareness and self-will within created beings and living
creatures. Sin has not been created by GOD; and the operations of
sin oppose the continued existence of sacred law, the Lawgiver, and
divine order throughout the universe. Sin promotes return to the
conditions of chaos, confusion, and un-directed streaming that were
in place before the founding of heaven and earth.
Many
do not acknowledge the operations of sin as contrary or foreign to
their own makeup and substance. They may regard error, sin and
wickedness as ordinary and “normal” because their standards for
deciding what is “good”, quality, and truth become ongoing
aspects of their own inner workings (e.g., attitudes; goals;
intentions; pledges). The breadth and depth for change that must
occur within their life to release the grip of sin is so great,
Christians simply say, You must be born again. This means the spirit
processes and substances that generate consciousness, desire, and
willpower must be altered to continually display the image of GOD.
Included are balance, completeness, faith, holiness, longsuffering,
lovingkindness, righteousness, wisdom, and wrath against sin.
Consider again the following that uses language from the Bible:
1.
Ecclesiastes 1: 8-10, King James Version (KJV): 8 All things are
full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied
with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 9 The thing that hath
been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is
that which shall be done: and there is no new thing
under the sun. 10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said,
See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was
before us.
2.
Jude 1: 5-13, King James Version (KJV): 5 I will therefore put you
in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having
saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them
that believed not. 6 And the angels which kept not their first
estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in
everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like
manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after
strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance
of eternal fire. 8 Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile
the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. 9 Yet
Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed
about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing
accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. 10 But these speak evil
of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally,
as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. 11 Woe
unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily
after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying
of Core. 12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they
feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are
without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth,
without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; 13 Raging waves
of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is
reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
3.
Ezekiel 16: 49-50, KJV: 49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy
sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was
in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of
the poor and needy. 50 And they were haughty, and committed
abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.
4.
1st Corinthians 5: 1-5, KJV: 1 It is reported commonly
that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not
so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his
father’s wife. 2 And ye are
puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this
deed might be taken away from among you. 3 For I verily, as absent
in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were
present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, 4 In the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my
spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 To deliver such
an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit
may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
There
is far more that should be said, correctly examined, and spiritually
apprehended. (For example, 5. 2nd Corinthians 7:
9-11, KJV: 9 Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye
sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner,
that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. 10 For godly sorrow
worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the
sorrow of the world worketh death. 11 For behold this selfsame
thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it
wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what
indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire,
yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things
ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.)
Even so, I trust this fragment will be useful. Be it unto you
according to your faith.
Washington,
DC
