The Faith that I know teaches "love thy enemies, do good to them that hate you. Pray for them that speak evil against you..."
Our Lord, hanging on the cross, did not look down at the men who literally crucified him... not just lived bad lives and led others astray, but committed the singularly heinous act of DEICIDE. He did not shout down condemnations, or strike them dead. Rather His prayer was what I believe the prayer of every Catholic should be for every sinner, however grave, whatever the extent of their crimes: "Father forgive them."
It's easy to look at the men in the church over the last some decades and say, "these men MUST know they're destroying the faith of the people, they MUST be evil!" But were you with them in the seminary? Look at what the average Catholic knows of his or her faith today, and think of some priest those people trust teaching them errors... perhaps errors they themselves were taught without taking them up out of malice. If a priest in a SEMINARY, before modernism had it's day in the sun, taught someone something, it's relatively easy to see how a young man would have believed it. BEFORE Vatican II, why WOULDN'T they believe what a teacher in a Catholic seminary said? And likewise those who taught the teachers.
A wise man once pointed out that in order for the men of the Church to do the work of the bad guys who really do want to see the Church in ruins, they need not WANT to see it that way personally. They may have the best of intentions. All that matters is that they THINK like the bad guys. Well, for that to happen, all you need is to get the bad guys into positions ordinary Catholics normally would have trusted.
When you encounter young priests of the novus ordo sort, at least with some of them you get the strong impression of how they have no idea what the ideas they teach really are in the light of truth. Rather, you get the impression that these are men who were told certain things, and accepted them as truths. They are taught errors, and answers that they are taught support or prove the errors to be true. The men I speak of here show no malice for the Church, the Lord, or His flock (that they mean as malice, anyway). Yes, there are many who are different, but also some that really are like what I've just said.
It's much easier, of course, to just condemn them all, because we're offended by what they say and do. Certainly it feels better for our egos. "I give thee thanks that I am not like this heretic... I fast, do penance, attend a Latin Mass..." When every human being on the earth has only the right to be saying "have mercy on me, for I am a sinful man, o Lord."
But when it comes down to it, only God can say whether this or that man knew he was in error, or was destroying the Church. ALL human beings can be deceived by someone, especially if they trust anyone, which we all inevitably do. Mankind was never meant to have to live life like a paranoid schizophrenic, always looking out for a bad guy behind every bush. We naturally trust others. So have many of these men. Has their trust been misplaced? Certainly. Are they, ALL OF THEM evil? I very much doubt it. But perhaps I shouldn't be surprised at those who dare to judge popes and even saints as if they were God, condemning these men who were, like ourselves, sinners.
Still, throughout history those who have had, to the most perfect degree, the spirit of Christ living in them, they have prayed for, done penance for, sacrificed for and begged God to spare sinners. Even great sinners. And again, the Lord Himself prayed, even for those who murdered Him unjustly.
If the saints can pray for heretics and sinners and horrible criminals of every kind, because the love of God is in them to desire the salvation, not the damnation, of the souls God surely did not ever desire to see in hell, and if God Himself can pray for those who tore to pieces His physical body... I believe the example of the spirit of Christ in us is clear. If sinners, the blind, or even willfully malicious heretics and atheists, should spend their lives trying to tear to pieces the body of the Church, I believe what God would want (not what WE want, but what He would want) is for us to pray that they amend their lives and are converted, before it is too late for them to do so, even at the end. After all, think of all of the saints who started out as sinners, only to amend their lives and live them as blazing examples of holiness because they appreciated just how low they had sunk before.
Our Blessed Mother has come to earth multiple times with the message, "pray for sinners." Are we to believe that she only meant just the "pretty good people" out there who happen to commit some occasional venial sins out of weakness? Or shall we suppose rather, that she meant ALL sinners, regardless of the degree of their sins... or perhaps even because of their gravity?
Call me whatever names you will, but I am going to go with Our Lord, Our Lady and the example of the saints. I believe we ought to pray for sinners... for ALL sinners... and hope that they save their souls. Anyone who takes delight in the damnation of a soul, I would worry that such a person has lost sight of what should be most evident to us whenever we see a crucifix... How much God loved us, and desired the salvation of men, not their damnation. To love God is to love what God loves... and God loves souls. If we hate them, knowing that it was one of His torments to know how many of them would be lost, have we really the love of Him in us?
I know it's easy to get upset/frustrated at what these men have done to the Church of Our Lord, but still... when we loose sight of the law He died proclaiming... the law of charity... what good is anything else in us, or anything else we do?
"And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing."
Topic: Where is Pope John Paul II? (Read 10164 times)