The World According to Oatney

The smoke of satan

After Vatican II, Pope Paul VI declared that “the smoke of Satan has entered into the very heart of the Church.” It wasn’t so much the Council that the Pope had a problem with, especially since he was the pope who took it upon himself to finish Vatican II. Rather, it was the problem of internal dissent that had developed as a result of a whole lot of people in the Western world going around claiming to have “the spirit of Vatican II” and totally ignoring the letter of Vatican II, let alone the fact that Vatican II was merely the latest in a long line of ecumenical councils of the Catholic Church, nearly all of which have issued decrees or constitutions which are binding on the faithful. For some reason, many people believed that Vatican II gave them license to do as they please and still call themselves Catholic. This attitude extended to religious (that would be monks and nuns for those of you who aren’t Catholic) who discarded their habits, and refused to be distinctive witnesses to the Lord Jesus, to priests who believe it is their prerogative to believe in heterodox doctrines, or not wear their clericals in public and to act as the world acts and do as the world does. St. Paul’s call to “be ye separate” was no longer to be heeded, and many in the Church thought that the City of God could survive by compromising with the City of Man. No doubt these sorts of attitudes concerned Pope Paul; they certainly concern John Paul II, and since they seem to be all the more pervasive in today’s Church, they should concern those of us who are just lowly but faithful laymen and laywomen.

Just as the scripture says, though, you shall reap what you have sown, and last night that idea came home to roost locally. An unidentified local woman has accused Father Norman Heil, a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, of having sex with her and getting her pregnant in 1965, and she says the Church pressured her to give up the child. I will admit to being skeptical about all of this, primarily because since the clerical abuse scandal broke over two years ago, thousands of claims have been put forward all over the country, and as many, if not more, have been proven false as have been proven true. Many more claimants have been paid off without the matter even being fully investigated. However, we do know that many claims of priestly abuse are true, and the sort of lax attitude of the 60’s and 70’s that said “tolerate everyone and everything” may be to blame. When the Church tolerates dissent, she opens herself up to far greater problems. Allegations like this latest one are merely God’s way of reminding the Church to quit compromising with the world, and do things the Lord’s way.

One last note: If the information is to be believed, this wasn’t rape, it was consensual sex…there is a word in the English language for such occasions: No!

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 4:31 PM