The fallen church.

The email asking to remember a priest in prayer touched off more responses than all of my previous communications combined. There were a lot of encouraging emails and several that focused on the role of the priest vis--vis the church, some of them included a description of the sacraments. My email was not intended to focus solely on Catholic priests. It was intended for all churches of all denominations. Ive decided to share a discussion with a friend of mine in Virginia. He did an excellent job of explaining the role of the priest and my response follows. ______________

A Catholic priest has a unique role as a mediator of God's grace through the sacraments: Baptism, Holy Communion, Confirmation, Anointing of the Sick (Extreme Unction), Marriage, and Reconciliation (Confession) -- the seventh sacrament, Holy Orders, can only be administered by a Bishop. A priest can most effectively wage spiritual warfare by administering the sacraments. To further the analogy, you would not take your most skilled doctors or most brilliant tacticians and say "what we really need are more soldiers, so we're going to give you a rifle and send you to the front lines." - Bill Even if what you say is 100% accurate -- that wouldn't explain the absence of Protestant pastors. And it certainly wouldn't explain the absence of the parishioners. I'm not Catholic, but if the focus of the priest is his flock (which is their best defense)... where is the flock? If I spent all of my time feeding the flock and the flock refused to go into the world as Christ commanded, then at some point I either have to go there myself (double duty) or question my methods. On the flipside, were it not for Catholics I would be standing alone 99% of the time. The remnant that show up to the sidewalks are predominantly Catholic and I believe that is a result of Humanae Vitae and Pope Paul VI's refusal to embrace the sexual revolution. The pro life movement would be nearly nonexistent had the Pope followed the path of the Protestant denominations which embraced contraception that ultimately led to sex outside of wedlock, broken marriages, and abortion on demand. I agree that the battle is not abortion -- it's just a symptom. The disease is rebellion against God. And that's the core of the problem: priests, pastors, politicians, and parishioners that are in open rebellion with God. How many times did the tribe of Israel turn away from God? God's chosen people repeatedly rebelled. And today the church is in rebellion. The church has insisted that the priests exclusively serve them rather than God and they appeal to the scriptures to justify their tyranny over the laity. I've described it as a child demanding that their Father help them with their homework rather than rescue the screaming children that are dying in a burning

house next door. If that Father ignores the screams of dying children eventually the children will lose all respect for their Father, because they will know that deep down he doesn't practice what he preaches. The sinful parishioners know the truth about their priests and act accordingly. It's becomes a sinful feedback loop. The fallen parishioners demand their priests' worship and devotion, the priests worship them, and then the darkness takes full advantage in the world. The church has tested the leadership -- and the leadership has failed. The church has failed. I have personally failed. There is plenty of blame to go around. However, our focus needs to be on the next right decision. And I believe that is repentance. The church must repent for embracing the most basic sin, "self worship". Satan used that in the garden, "You shall be as gods." People who I respect get bent out of shape at the very thought of their pastor ending their worship of them. The very idea that their pastor would treat them as a responsible Father and discipline them sends them into a childish tantrum. The Bible says, "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." - Hebrews 12:6 I haven't heard a single priest say, "What I need to do is chastise my flock and punish them." What I've heard is, "Let's talk about God's unending love". If the flock is not being chastised then that's not love according to the Bible. If the priest doesn't fear God, why would his children respect him? The Bible says, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." Proverbs 9:10 So what is the power of the sacraments when the flock doesn't respect their shepherd and the shepherd doesn't fear God? When they're both in open rebellion with God will the sacraments by themselves (absent reconciliation with God) solve the problem? I don't think so. It would be like the children of Israel worshipping a golden calf and then offering up a sheep to God just to be on the safe side. God is not mocked, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." - Galatians 6:7-8 When the church sows rebellion to God... what does it reap? -Steve Steven Lopez Spiritus Films Cell: 832.882.3825 www.spiritusfilms.com