Father Scott Murray has an article from the mind and heart of a young priest, newly appointed a pastor, and what motivates him in his vocation. God chose him, and he accepted, in freedom and in truth.
The vast majority of priests are good and well-intentioned, and we should, nay, we must, support them and the Church, the bride of Christ, for whom they labour. What we must not do is abandon ship when the seas are rough and the days dark. Not only is this an act of infidelity, but, hey, you’ll likely drown in the process.
As the Marine motto has it, semper fi, semper fidelis, always faithful…and if they can do it for an earthly crown, why not we for an eternal?
And, anyway, at the end of the day, as the disciples replied when faced with the ‘hard truth’ of the Real Presence, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go?’. We go to Christ, the Church, and, with Saint Francis and the rest of God’s company, help fix what is broken. Not only is this our duty, which every man must fulfil, but the reward will far exceed our expectations.
While we’re fighting our internal battles in the Church, give a glance at another blast of an article by William Kilpatrick in Crisis, on the real history of Islam. Whatever individual, modern Muslims (or even some of our own prelates) might believe or say about the ‘religion of peace’, the origins of the religion they purport to follow is steeped in conquest and warfare, difficult even to read, never mind live through. Islam is what it is, and Muhammad who he is, or was. History is herself a hard teacher, which we ignore to our own peril.
In the face of all sorts of rumours and dark motives attributed to him, Archbishop Vigano claims he is ‘serene and at peace’ after his revelations. The Church seems to be dividing along ideological lines, and the truth behind all of this, we may hope, will become clear in the days ahead.