Randy Engel
The League of Saint Peter Damian Letter #3
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By Randy Engel
June 11, 2019


May 23, 2019

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Welcome, once again, to the League of Saint Peter Damian.

Two-thousand nineteen anno Domini is the year of the League's formation.

Catholics who register with the League during 2019 are considered founding members.

This month's Study Guide #3 expounds on several key issues addressed, directly and indirectly, by Saint Peter Damian in his Book of Gomorrah regarding homosexual candidates for Holy Orders, homosexual priests and monks, and so-called "Homosexual, Pederast, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Leather 'Ministries'" (all perversions), which have become Trojan horses in the Vatican and in Catholic Churches around the world especially in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Western Europe.

Randy Engel


STUDY GUIDE #3

"It is truly great to die for Christ, but not less noble to live for Him"

Peter Damian on Homosexual Priests and "Gay Ministries"


Moral Chaos in the Church


The official and sorry state of affairs at the Vatican regarding the vice of sodomy is reflected in the following quotes written in the language of gayspeak:
    If a person is gay and seeks the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge him? The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this in such a beautiful way, it says, Wait a bit, as is said, and says: these persons must not be marginalized because of this; they must be integrated in society.

    – Pope Francis at Air flight Press Conference in July 28, 2013

    We are all human beings and have dignity. It does not matter who you are or how you live your life, you do not lose your dignity.

    There are people that prefer to select or discard people because of the adjective [gay] – these people don't have a human heart.

    Pope Francis to Sodomite Stephen Amos on BBC Two in 2019

    The history of homosexuals in our society is a very bad history because we have done a lot to marginalize them. It is not so long ago and so as church and as society we have to say sorry.

    – Cardinal Reinhardt Marx at Trinity College, Dublin on June 23, 2019

    ...In too many parts of our church LGBT people have been made to feel unwelcome, excluded, and even shamed. Father [James] Martin's brave, and inspiring new book [Building a Bridge] marks an essential step in inviting church leaders to minister with more compassion, and reminding LGBT Catholics that they are as much a part of our church as any other Catholic.

    That is, it's very unfortunate language [calling homosexual acts "intrinsically disordered" in the Catechism of the Catholic Church]. Let's hope that eventually that language is a little less hurtful.

    – Cardinal Joseph Tobin, NBC Interview of April 17, 2019

    ... neither heterosexual orientation nor homosexual orientation as such can be considered as the cause of sexual abuse, nor is there any inner connection between pedophilia and homosexuality. Therefore, it is also absurd for the bishop to exclude homosexual men from the priestly ordination: I wonder, is that not exactly the attitude which continued and even strengthened problematic repressions inside the Church.

    Homosexuality needed to be "depathologized" in the Catholic Church, for all people are capable of extremely respectful and loving interpersonal relationships.

    – Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck, Herder Correspondence

    No relationship, no intimate relationship, no sex with other people, not even yourself. Blood crawls where it cannot flow... the Church's forbidding stance is at the root of sexual abuse of minors.

    I [Valkering] am on a mission after Pope Francis told me to reach out to homosexuals.

    – Dutch sodomite Father Pierre Valkering in April 5, 2019 interview with NewsCatholic
Against the Integration of Vice into Parish Life

In the Book of Gomorrah, written in 1059 for Pope Leo IX, Saint Peter Damian addresses the issues raised in the above quotes including the use of "hurtful" language in describing sodomy and sodomites, the "necessity" of "integration" of unrepented lay and clerical sodomites and lesbians into the life of the Church and the introduction of homosexual "ministries" into Catholic parishes. Unless indicated, the following quotes are taken from Owen J. Blum's translation of the Book of Gomorrah by Saint Peter Damian.

On the Necessity of Strong Language Against Sodomy
    (7) ... In our region a certain abominable and most shameful vice has developed, and unless it be prevented as soon as possible by the severest punishment, it is certain that the sword of divine fury will be unsheathed, leading in its unchecked violence to the destruction of many. One is nauseated with shame and embarrassment to speak of things so disgracefully foul, or even to mention them within earshot of Your Holiness (bold added). But if a physician is appalled by the contagion of the plague, who is likely to wield the cautery? If he grows squeamish when he is about to apply the cure, who will restore health to stricken hearts?
Homosexual Priests Better Off as Laymen
    (7) ... The befouling cancer of sodomy, is, in fact, spreading so through the clergy or rather, like a savage beast, is raging with such shameless abandon though the flock of Christ, that for many of them it would be more salutary to be burdened with service in the world than, under the pretext of religion, to be enslaved so easily under the iron rule of satanic tyranny. It would be better for them to perish alone as laymen than, after having changed their attire but not their disposition, to drag others with them to destruction, as Truth itself testifies when it says, "But if anyone is a cause of stumbling to one of these little ones, it would be better for him to be drowned in the depths of the sea with a great millstone round his neck (bold added).
The Depravity of Homosexuals Seeking Ordination
    (10) ... It seems to me to be utterly preposterous for those who are habituated to the filth of this festering disease to dare present themselves for orders, or to remain in them if already ordained (bold added). It is clearly contrary to reason and to the canonical decrees of the Fathers.

    (12) ... It is perfectly clear that when a capital crime has degraded a man, no subsequent holy life will reform him to the point where he might receive orders and ecclesiastical status. No one may aspire to reach the heights of preferment who has surely fallen into the depths of mortal sin.

    (15) Who can turn a deaf ear, or more to the point, who does not tremble through and through at the words that Paul, like a mighty trumpet, blasts at such as these "God abandoned them to their heart's desire and to the practices with which they dishonor their own bodies." (Rom. 1.24.) And almost immediately following, he said, "That is why God has abandoned them to degrading passions. For their women have turned from natural intercourse to unnatural practices, and their menfolk likewise have given up natural intercourse with women to be consumed with passion for each other, men doing shameless things with men and getting an appropriate reward for their perversion. ..." Why is it that they are so eager to reach the top in ecclesiastical rank after such a grievous fall? What should we think, and what conclusion shall we draw but that God as abandoned them to their depravity?

    (16) Consequently, sodomites attempt violently to break in on angels when impure men attempt to approach God through holy orders. ... One who tries to reach God by the tortuous road of arrogance and conceit , rather than by the path of humility, will certainly fail to recognize the entrance that is obviously right before him, or even the door is Christ, as he himself says: "I am the door." (John 10.9.) Those who lose Christ because of their addiction to sin, never find the gate that leads to the heavenly dwelling of the saints.
Unworthy Priests Spells Ruin for the People
    (50) For God's sake, why do you damnable sodomites pursue the heights of ecclesiastical dignity with such fiery ambition? To what purpose are you so eager to ensnare the people of God in the meshes of your own perdition? Is it not enough that you yourselves are plunging headlong into the depths of sin? Must you also expose others to the danger of your fall? ...

    (51) Let him, therefore, who is still bound up in earthly desires, beware lest, reveling in his pride of position, he becomes the cause of destruction for his subjects for having more grievously inflamed the anger of a rigorous judge. Everyone, in fact, should discreetly judge himself and not dare to accept the office of the priesthood if accursed vice still has power over him. Nor should he who is the victim of his own depravity aspire to become an intercessor for the sins of others. Forbear, I beg you, and dread to inflame the inextinguishable fury of God against you, lest by your very prayers you more sharply provoke him whom your wicked life so obviously offends. If you are willing to accept your own destruction, beware of being responsible for the damnation of others. Remember this: The more circumspect you are about your present lapses into sin, the more readily will you rise in the future when God in his mercy extends his hand, inviting you to do penance
God Refuses Sacrifices from Unclean Hands
    (52) But if Almighty God himself refuses to accept sacrifice from your [unclean] hands, whom do you think you are in presuming to thrust them upon him against his will? "The sacrifice of the unclean is abhorrent to the Lord." (Prov. 15.8)

    (57) Now, therefore, he who despises the revered Councils of the holy fathers, who distains the commands of the apostles and of apostolic men, who is not afraid to reject the prescripts of the canons, and makes light of the solemn command of God himself, should at least be advised to conjure up before him the day of his death; and should have no doubt that the more gravely he sins, the more severely he will be judged. ...
Saint Peter on the Sin of Sodom and Gomorrah
    (62) Nor should those who are in sacred orders pride themselves if their lives are detestable; for the higher they stand in their eminence, the deeper they will lie when they fall. Just as now they are required to surpass others in holiness of life, so afterwards they will be compelled to bear more frightful punishments, as Peter says: "When angels sinned, God did not spare them; he sent them down to the underworld and consigned them to the pits of hell to be held for punishment until the day of Judgment... And he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and destroyed them completely, as a warning to those who should act wickedly in the future." Why is it, that after recalling the fall and damnation of the devils, the Blessed Apostle then turned his attention to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, unless it was his purpose to show that they who are now addicted to the vice of impurity will be condemned to eternal punishment together with the unclean spirits? He does this further to suggest that, along with the very author of all wickedness, the unquenchable flame will devour those who are tormented by the libidinous fires of sodomy. ...

    (63) Now, to bring all this to a brief conclusion, whoever shall have soiled himself with the filth of shameful sodomy by any of the methods we have enunciated above, unless he has purged himself through effective penance, he can never obtain the grace of God, will never be worthy of the Body of Christ, will never cross the threshold of the heavenly fatherland. This is what John the Apostle clearly states in Revelation, when speaking of the glory of the kingdom of heaven: "No one unclean may come into it, no one who does what is loathsome." (Rev. 21.27.)
Does Necessity Demand the Advancement of Homosexual Clerics?
    (13) But perhaps someone will say that necessity demands and that no one is present who can celebrate divine services in the Church; consequently, the decision, which, as justice required, was at first appropriately severe, is now softened in the face of practical necessity. I am going to reply to this in a summary way.... Shall we wipe out a rigorous judgment to benefit an individual, but retain it unchanged even to the deprivation of an entire people?

    ... Therefore, if an unclean man has no inheritance at all in heaven, how can he be so arrogant as to presume apposition of honor in the Church, which is surely the kingdom of God. Will he also fear to despise the Divine Law, which he disregarded by steeping himself in crime, when he assumes the dignity of ecclesiastical office? Indeed he saves nothing for himself, because at every turn he was not afraid to be in contempt of God.

    (To be continued with a special commentary.)

Saint Peter Damian on the Spiritual Life
On the Value of Clerical Celibacy


Introduction


Among Saint Peter Damian's many writings on the spiritual life are those addressed to popes and fellow cardinals on the subject of clerical celibacy – an issue as fundamental to the mission and welfare of the Catholic Church in the pre-Hildebrand era as it is today. The positive exaltation of clerical celibacy by Peter Damian provides a perfect complement to his utter condemnation of sodomy. Below are some important ideas for moral reform found in the holy monk's many letters and communications to high clergy and laity alike.

The following excerpts were taken from Owen J. Blum. O.F.M.'s masterpiece St. Peter Damian – His Teaching on the Spiritual Life.

A Timely Reminder: Harsh Punishment Does Have Value

"The spectacle of a married clergy living openly in concubinage was an abomination in Damian's eyes," comments his modern biographer, Father Blum who notes that Peter Damian spared no one in proclaiming this truth including the Holy Father in Rome.

According to Blum, during the early months of 1059, Peter Damian wrote to Pope Nicholas II (1058-61) urging the pontiff to wield the fullness of apostolic power in laying low the evil of clerical incontinence once and for all. The remedy, the holy monk told the pope, was the deposition for those who defiled the beauty of ecclesiastical chastity, so that others, seeing the punishment inflicted for this crime, would be deterred from following the same path.

Damian knew from experience that threats of eternal punishment or the promise of virtue's reward had failed to impress the clerics with whom he was dealing (bold added). Therefore, as a last resort, the radical cure of deposition was required. The punishment of deposition spoke the language that the offenders understood, for it deprived them of the office from which they received the livelihood that sustained them in their simulated wedlock.

As an added goad to the Pope, Damian reminded him of the wrath of God in store for superiors who failed to discipline their subjects. The man whom sloth deterred from inflicting the salutary wound of penance, Damian concluded, would be delivered into the hands of the devil, the devouring lion of which St. Peter spoke.

Virtuous Cardinals Are Key to Moral Reform

In 1057, shortly after Peter Damian was raised to the Cardinalate, he moved his one-man campaign for moral reform by sending a lengthy letter to his fellow cardinals in which he provided a sure remedy for the clerical ills of his day: the example of a virtuous life filtering down from the princes of the Church to all levels of the clergy and laity.

He reminded the cardinals that by the virtue of their office of teaching they bear the dignity of angels. Accordingly, they must announce to the people the truths of salvation, not only in word, but especially by their behavior; for, as Peter Damian remarked, the tongue indeed proclaims the sermon of the preacher, but his life renders it attractive. He also pointed out to his fellow-cardinals that a strict norm of living should be in evidence in the Lateran Palace (the residency of the papacy at the time).

Much to the point, even for our own day, Peter Damian made it perfectly clear that the princes of the Church were role models for priests. He warned them that the temporal goods which they enjoyed, most especially the wealth and property they possessed as a result of their ecclesiastical position were given to them as a means of acquiring the goods of eternity. "Let our wealth and our treasure be the riches of souls," Peter Damien wrote.

Peter Damian personally took a great interest in selecting worthy and holy men to fill the offices of the Italian episcopate to the same extent that he urged the deposition of those bishops who were unfit for ecclesiastical office. He also argued for a better education for diocesan priests and for the personal supervision of young priests by the cardinals and their aides.

SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE MONTH OF JUNE

Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus


It was during the 11th century, the century of Saint Peter Damian, that we find the first definitive movements of the development of special devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The great Benedictine nun Saint Gertrude (1256-1301) in one of her many visions, was reported to have asked Saint John the Evangelist if on the night of the Last Supper he had felt the beating of Jesus' Divine Heart, and is so, why he had never spoken of the fact. And Saint John replied that this revelation had been reserved foe subsequent ages when the world , having grown cold, would have need of this special devotion to rekindle that Love.

Catholics of the 21st century live in such an age.

But it was not until the 17th century that Jesus manifested His desire to the French Visitation nun, Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) at the convent of Paray-le MoniaL to propagate worldwide devotion under the figure of the Heart of Flesh. In 1675, Our Lord told Sister Margaret Mary:
    Behold this Heart, which so loved men. I receive nothing but ingratitude, contempt, outrage, sacrilege, and indifference. Behold, I ask that the first Friday after the octave of the Blessed Sacrament (Corpus Christi) be dedicated to a special feast to honor My Heart, communing on this day, and giving it due reparation through an act of reparation for the indignities he received during the time he was exposed on the altars. I promise you that My Heart will expand to pour out in abundance the influences of His Divine Love upon those who will tax you this divine honor and seek that it be lent to you.
With the help of Jesuit Father Claude de la Colombiere, her spiritual director, Sister Margaret Mary propagated the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus throughout France and England.

On January 26, 1765, the Congregation of Rites at the Vatican approved the worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Shortly after, on February 6, 1765, Pope Clement XIII approved the decree of the Congregation. On August 23, 1856, Pope Pius IX issued a decree inserting the Feast of the Sacred Heart into the Church Calendar and made the celebration of the feast obligatory by the universal Church.

Saint Margaret Mary was canonized by Pope Benedict XV in 1920. Her incorrupt body rests above the side altar in the Chapel of the Apparitions, located at the Visitation Monastery in Paray-le-Monial, and has been the site of many miracles over the centuries.

Father Claude de la Colombiere was canonized on May 31, 1992, by Pope John Paul II.

The Twelve Promises of the Sacred Heart

Our Lord made these twelve Promises to those who honor His Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary:

1st Promise: "My blessing will remain on the houses where the image of My Sacred Heart is exposed and venerated;"

2nd Promise: "I will give to the devotees of My Heart all the graces necessary to your state;"

3rd Promise: "I will establish and preserve peace in their families;"

4th Promise: "I will comfort you in all your afflictions;"

5th Promise: "I will be a safe refuge in your life and especially at the time of your death;"

6th Promise: "I will give abundant blessings on your labors and undertakings;"

7th Promise: "Sinners will find, in my Heart, an inexhaustible source of mercy;"

8th Promise: "The tibial souls will become fervent by the practice of this devotion;"

9th Promise: "Fervent souls will rise in a short time to a high perfection;"

10th Pledge: "I will give priests who practice this devotion especially the power to touch the most hardened hearts;"

11th Promise: "The people who propagate this devotion will have their name inscribed forever in My Heart;"

And the great Promise:

12th Promise: "To all those who communicate on the first Friday of nine consecutive months, I will give the grace of final perseverance and eternal salvation."

ACTION LINE FOR JUNE 2019


Each month, the League asks its members to carry out a specific request related to the future disposition of the League. For the coming month of June we are asking the following:
  • Please email or write to the League at rvte61@comcast.net or Box 315, Export, PA 15632 your thoughts on the League's promotion of the First Fridays as detailed in the above 12th Promise, as well as the First Saturdays dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as requested by Our Lady of Fatima.

  • Thus far the response to the League of Saint Peter Damian has been excellent on the part of both priests and laity. However, we have had only one bishop worldwide who has expressed an interest in the League. If you are in contact with any traditional bishop who you think might be interested in supporting the League, please send him a copy of this mailing and urge him to contact the League directly.

    © Randy Engel

 

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Randy Engel

Randy Engel, one of the nation's top investigative reporters, began her journalistic career shortly after her graduation from the University of New York at Cortland, in 1961. A specialist in Vietnamese history and folklore, in 1963, she became the editor of The Vietnam Journal, the official publication of the Vietnam Refugee and Information Services, a national relief program in South Vietnam for war refugees and orphans based in Dayton, Ohio... (more)

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