Quite regularly, comments such as the one below appear on the blog.
Such comments, in my view, generally eminate from highly exploitative clerics, who try to confuse us on situations that call for “mercy” and situations that call for condemnation.
People on here often say that there are good priests out there.
I’m sure there are.
But since starting this blog, even I have been shocked at the number of evil priests that are out there – and indeed at the depth of their evilness.
A priest having sex upon an altar is an evil beyond evil – not just because of the act itself – but because of the evil affront it represents to God and the Blessed Eucharistic.
A bishop covering up such evil is also evil by association and as an accomplice after the act.
The proper reaction to such an act is not “mercy”. It is moral outrage and condemnation.
An individual seminarian or priest or a group of seminarians or priests, planning or executing the moral and sexual rampage of another is not an act that requires mercy. It is an act that demands moral outrage and condemnation.
The transformation of a seminary into a homosexual whore house – leading to the moral and personal destruction is not an act calling for mercy. It is an act calling for moral outrage and condemnation.
Do you really think that Ted Mc Carrick has been and is going around seeking mercy?
Absolutely not!
Do you really think that Richard Purcell is going around seeking mercy?
Absolutely, not !
People like these are the kind that Compline reminds us of – going around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.
Mercy is what the repentant seek.
Mercy us what the humble seek.
Mercy is what the sinner seeks.
The call to practice mercy is indeed a central call in the Christian life.
But as Jesus Himself reminds us; the merciful will have mercy shown to them.
We do not throw the pearls of mercy to the mercilessness, the exploitors, the abusers, the astronauts of evil.
Those? We call them out for what they are.
Even when they mock both us and God with their witch like whimpering of mercy, mercy, mercy…
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 