In this sermon, the speaker discusses the corruption and issues within American seminaries and the Catholic Church. They highlight the prevalence of doctrinal error, liturgical abuse, and misconduct among seminarians. The speaker emphasizes the importance of recognizing the glory of Christ's priesthood and the need to reach out to Catholic priests and believers. They also emphasize the significance of Christ's one sacrifice, which is mentioned multiple times in the Bible, to emphasize the perfection of his priesthood.

Tonight I call this presentation The Glory of the Priesthood of Christ Jesus and it is my prayer and great wish that you would see something of Christ's glory like the scripture says holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners higher than the heavens that is our High Priest and that in that glory and light we would see the parody and this is sadness we would see the parody of the Catholic priesthood so that it would move our hearts to reach out to Catholic priests and of course to Catholics in general so that's my hope and desire but before we get into the glory of Christ I just want to say a story that has some significance it is a true story when I was a priest way back in Trinidad, South Trinidad near the oil fields the famous town of Gasparillo a lady came to me as parish priest and said Father, I want to dedicate to God what remains of my virginity and I looked at her and it was as I guessed she was in her seventies and she said that she was had been married three times so I wondered what remained of her virginity that she wanted to dedicate to God now in a similar way when I tell that story we wonder what remains of the glory of the Catholic priesthood and why it is that young men even this year, 2002 are going into the priesthood very many are going into the seminaries and into the different orders what remains of the glory of the priesthood now those outside of Catholicism have no idea what the Catholic church says about the priesthood and I wanted to do some of that tonight to show something why the Catholic priesthood is still a significant draw on American youth and of course youth throughout the world particularly in the Asian countries where there are more vocations now than ever there was in the past why it is that there is this draw on the youth to go into a priesthood that seems utterly tarnished but let's start as I have said with the glory of Christ if you turn in your Bible please to Hebrews chapter 7 and we are beginning in verse 23 Hebrews 7 and 23 and there were many priests because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death but this man because he continues forever has an unchangeable priesthood the Old Testament priesthood there were many why were there many? because the priesthood had to be passed on from man to man there had to be many priests because they died and they couldn't continue for Christ's priesthood it continues forever and therefore it says it's an unchangeable priesthood now that word unchangeable means unchangeable but to be more distinct the Greek word aparabatos is untransferable which fits much better what it says in the verse it cannot be handed on because it's everlasting it continues forever because of the glory of the priesthood by nature of this priesthood it's unique to the one who holds in Christ Jesus and it's not transferable because it is His and His alone and that's verse 24 and what follows on it is absolutely wonderful verse 25 wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come to God by Him seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them He pleads and intercedes for His own and He is able to save utterly completely to the uttermost all those who come to God through Him through the one priest not many to this one whose priesthood is unchanging we have this this characteristic that He saves utterly He perfects them wonderfully He is able to perfect them forever as He is later going to say in chapter 10 verse 14 He perfects He brings into perfection that the Old Testament could not perfection in conscience and then in good living so this is wonderful good news and it's showing the glory of our great High Priest that He saves utterly to the uttermost and His characteristics are given in verse 26 for such a High Priest became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens these are His attributes this is the attribute of the priesthood holy, harmless, undefiled separate from sinners now look on earth and see is there anybody who matches this regularly there is nobody there is nobody who is holy even the first one utterly perfect and utterly separate from everything that is any way tainted there is nobody except the Lord Jesus harmless, not doing any harm to anyone we don't have anyone who is harmless undefiled, utterly without sin spotless and utterly free from any contamination and higher than the heavens and this is going to be explained as we begin chapter 8 that He is enthroned in the majesty and high it's not that He is physically higher He is higher than all the glory and majesty in the heavens because He is one with the Father He shares the divinity and this is who our High Priest is and His characteristics because it's one it doesn't change and these are the characteristics of the priesthood that is His and then we have 27 who needs not daily as those other High Priests to offer up sacrifice for his own sins and then for the people's for He did for this He did once when He offered up Himself He doesn't have to keep on offering daily or even a second time because His offering is like unto Him it's perfect and any repetition of what is perfect would signify imperfection so we have here a perfect priest offering a perfect sacrifice once and it was He offered Himself just as we were told in the very third verse of Hebrews chapter 1 when He had by Himself purged our sins there's nobody else capable of offering Him nobody has the qualifications only He, the perfect priest can offer the perfect sacrifice and so it's not like the mortal earthly priest this is utterly different signified by the priesthood of Melchizedek utterly different the eternal priest and it is just glorious this one sacrifice the one sacrifice is spoken of also at the end of chapter 10 not the end, in the middle of chapter 10 but it is spoken of quite clearly you needn't turn there but you probably remember the verses maybe by heart but this man, Aphrodite offered one sacrifice for sins forever sat down at the right hand of God one sacrifice now the scripture is absolutely clear it couldn't be clearer it's one sacrifice and then in 14 following this it said for by one sacrifice one offering He had perfected forever one sacrifice, one offering once offered seven times the Holy Spirit tells us that the one sacrifice, the one offering was once it could not be clearer is that the perfect number seven? seven times the Holy Spirit says once it's five times in the book of Hebrews in the apostle Peter and also in the apostle Paul in Romans once offered so to bring out clearly that this perfect high priest has a perfect sacrifice not repeatable just as his priesthood is not transferable and the summary is given and that's exactly what it says at the beginning of chapter 8 now these things which we have spoken this is the sum we have such a high priest who was set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven we have a high priest we have a high priest it's not as if we're going to have we have this is ours as believers the glory it's like it says in chapter 3 of 2nd Corinthians but we now would unveil faces, behold us in the mirror the glory of the Lord and so we're transformed by that from glory to glory we are transformed as we behold the glory of the high priesthood of Christ the wonder, the magnificence the perfection and this is where all worship is to take place in him and outside of this it is not worship in spirit and in truth so this is just a a touch of the glory of Christ Christ Jesus himself as it were put the final word on it his very words on the cross tetelestai in Greek which he spoke and knew as all learned people of his day did and possibly it was actually in Greek that he spoke we do not know it could have been Hebrew or Aramaic but tetelestai as it's given to us by the Holy Spirit his last word means absolutely complete and finished legally done his work is achieved for believers absolutely perfect and then the scripture says from top to bottom the veil was torn in the temple talk about drama magnificent drama signifying the end of the earthly priesthood it's done away with all the ceremonials are done away with because all that they typify and work to God that we had a whole day we could go through all what was signified in the Old Testament it was all complete in him and so the veil is torn from top to bottom showing it's God who's doing it it's from top to bottom ripped apart that thick veil that separated the holy of holies from the holy place because the priesthood of earthly men is done away with now we have we have a high priest who is enthroned in heaven and we look unto him and we draw from him and drink deeply of what is his so this is a touch then of the glory of what he did once and for all and of his one sacrifice that was once offered but we apply this to our own lives in that we realize that you and I must come to God through him he saves to the uttermost only those who come through him if you're going through an earthly priest there's no hope for you literally you're a hopeless case if you're going through an earthly priest or some other mediator that's not Christ Jesus the Lord you're a hopeless case this is where if you come to worship in a church or in your home or any place if you don't come in the one high priest and if he's not the one in whom you're interceding and worshiping God it's not in spirit and truth because it must be according to his regulation and his name that all worship is done that's how you come on to the high priest you come on to him and you worship in him and he is the one who takes our prayers and purifies them our very prayer needs to be washed even when we're praying with joy and intent and enthusiasm it needs to be washed in the blood of the Lamb and we need first of all to stand close washed in his righteousness and washed in his blood before we can stand before the Holy God because nobody can stand before God because he is the all-holy one unless we are clothed in the robes of righteousness we worship God in the glory of his holiness because we stand clothed like in the words of Isaiah one shall say in that day my righteousness is in him we can say like Isaiah my righteousness is in him the one high priest and clothed with the garments of salvation and therefore I can worship and therefore I can pray and know that God answers my prayer that is the glory of it answered prayer it delivers it is the wonder of this priesthood is that it delivers it does what it says it does and we are changed men and women this is the application and if you don't have this priest your life is destitute and you will be forever in your sins now and for eternity that's how serious it is to look onto the glory of our high priest now we come to the high priesthood of Rome what they call sharing in the high priesthood of Christ in their book which they have published on well their booklet is more like an article or booklet called the priesthood in the church's mission they say the following the meaning and the excellence of the priesthood is to be highlighted that is the Catholic priesthood and this is what they do in all their magazines you just have to go to the Vatican webpage that's VAT VA and you will find the glories of the priesthood seen, you will see it in the different letters and addresses of the Pope still he is glorifying the priesthood you will see it in the talks of the bishops and of priests going to different high schools to talk to the youth about the glory of the priesthood and what are they saying this is what people who are not Catholic do not understand for example if we go to Vatican II documents we get an example of what they are saying when we have a gathering at a Catholic high school or sometimes at a government high school where a priest goes in to address the youth what is he saying what is he telling the youth he is saying something like this exact quotation from Vatican II all priests share with bishops the one identical priesthood and ministry of Christ the priest offers the holy sacrifice in persona Christi in persona means in specific sacramental identification with the eternal high priest we are not talking about a carbon copy or simply like a pastor who would represent Christ in his preaching no we are talking about an identity they are saying there is an identity between the priest and Christ and that is the attraction that they hold up to the Catholic youth I remember my own days and the talks that I got in Jesuits high school about the identity that there was between the priest and Christ that was what was put before me the identity that you would have as a priest they say also in their new and this has become here in the United States a best seller this is the 2000 edition of the 1998 they say the following now the minister comes by reason of the sacerdotal consecration which he has received he is made like the high priest and possesses the authority to act in the power and place of Christ himself what youth is there that would not want to act with the power and the authority of Christ himself and this is what is put before the youth that you will have the power and the authority and identity with Christ and you will be able to work in his name and that the people need you and so they say in the same document that I quoted earlier on the priesthood in the church's mission they say exact quotation by baptisms priests introduce men into the people of God by the sacrament of penance that is confession they reconcile sinners with God and the church by the anointing of the sick they relieve those who are ill and especially in the celebration of the mass they offer Christ sacramentally they bring Christ down on the altar in the words of the famous John O'Brien a best seller among Catholics the book for many years the faith of millions it talks about Christ being taken from his throne in heaven by the priest and brought down to the altar so that the priest may offer him again to God what mighty power, John O'Brien says it's better power and more it is more significant than the power of angels or archangels and the same words are actually used in other documents official documents, O'Brien is not an official document but his mindset is in official documents I would read for example what the catechism says of the Catholic Church this is paragraph 1367 of this same new catechism the sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one sacrifice, the victim is one and the same the same now offers through the ministry of priests who then offered himself on the cross only the manner of offering is different the divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the mass the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in a non-bloody manner so today in Austin on the altars of the Catholic Church Christ was a victim offered by their priest here in Austin Christ was never a victim on the cross he willingly offered himself and he certainly is not a victim at any man's hands but this is what the Catholic Church says it's not simply that John O'Brien in the famous book Faith of Millions talks about the priest having power to take Christ off his throne in heaven and bring him down onto the altar, this is official Catholic teaching and this is what's put into the minds of youth that you can offer Christ as a victim you can get souls out of purgatory, you can bring men and women to God, you can baptize their babies, you can give them absolution and they go free from their sins and you can anoint the sick if everything else doesn't work and they can get to heaven that way by the extra-munctional final anointing so you have power and an identity and so even with the tarnish, the glory is still there and we have many going into the Catholic Church and as I said in Asia particularly and you'll find a lot of the Asian priests are now coming to the States and elsewhere in the world because the drama and the glory of the Catholic Church has not in any way been tarnished, they say even though there are still the same scandals worldwide but they're not as well known in that part of the world and so we have the Jesuits continuing over 20,000 men and the Carmelites the Dominicans that I was in and all the other different orders of priests still continuing and attracting youth and what do the youth come into what is the seminary like and what is the colleges what are the colleges like here in the States and worldwide what are they like where the seminary engulfs the man full of these ideals of the priesthood now it wasn't for books that are published by the Catholic Church we wouldn't dare to say what the Catholics themselves say according from a very recent book now Goodbye Good Men by Michael Rose it's a very very difficult book to read because page after page the horrors the immorality of the seminary is spelt out and it is really horrific reading to see just how the young men are snared into an abnormal lust in the seminary and how they become part of the gay subculture that is rampant here in the United States and of course is also documented overseas but particularly here in the United States the same for this book by Donald Cousins this is a leading Catholic book and it documents the the immorality that goes on in the Catholic seminaries I'm quoting from the second book The Changing Face of the Priesthood by Cousins that's C-O-Z-Z-E-N-S and he says quotation an NBC report on celibacy in the clergy found that anywhere from 23 to 58 percent of the Catholic clergy have a homosexual orientation other studies find that approximately half of American priests and seminarians are homosexually oriented it's sad as you read page after page of this book that it's never said that this is immoral, that these men should repent of their sin it is not put forward as sinful and as abhorrently against the word of God and Christ Jesus what he has said in actual fact as I will read on he puts a big question mark whether we should ask the question at all of this about the gay crisis which is a whole subsection later on in the book and I want to quote from that section of the book Cousins says quotation gay seminarians are likely to feel at home and at ease in a seminary with a significant gay population they feel they belong and their need for meaningful deep relationships with other gay men is easily met and because they instinctively recognize other gay seminarians circles of support and camaraderie are quickly formed not infrequently however the social contacts and romantic unions among gay seminarians creates intense and complicated webs of intrigue and jealousy leading to considerable inner conflict here the sexually ambiguous seminarian drawn into the gay subculture is particularly at risk the straight seminarian meanwhile feels out of place and may interpret his inner destabilization as a sign that he does not have a vocation to the priesthood and that's just a little bit of what is hard to stomach the last sentence there that the straight seminarian may feel out of place he may think he doesn't have a vocation if he's not gay because this presupposition is that they're all gay and if he's not gay maybe he's not called to the catholic priesthood this is what Cousins says but he has another quotation which I wish to read as well and that is where he talks about the quotation the percentage of gay men among religious congregations of priests is believed to be higher he says the orders that's like the order I was in the Dominican order, the Jesuit order, the Carmelite order, these are like trade unions or so inside the catholic church we have distinct orders where you come under your provincial instead of coming under the bishop, your immediate superior is not the bishop but you have your own superiors the orders so he says there's more gay men in the orders than in the ordinary diocesan priesthood and then he goes on to ask the question and this is really really really startling quotation at issue at the beginning of the 21st century is the growing perception one seldom contested by those who know the priesthood well that the priesthood is or is becoming a gay profession and to the point is the question does it matter does the question reveal still another form of homophobia that is how he addresses it is this hatred of mankind homophobia and so instead of saying there should be a repenting he says should this even be addressed now Cousins if you want to read at the back of this book you'll see he is the director of St. Mary's Cleveland Ohio a very large Catholic seminary he's written another book on the priesthood besides this one and he is a leading Catholic light and here he's saying should this even be addressed it's like this is normal life this is how sad this whole question is of the Catholic priesthood now we would wonder how it is and I'm sure the question is in your mind how is it then that we have young men filled with ideals of the priesthood then finding this abnormal sexual living that goes on in the seminaries and in the orders how do they stay in some do leave but very many stay on why is that so I think the reason is two fold first of all the first hook that is in them as it were is the Catholic tradition the Catholic documents and it's here many times in the New Catechism but it's also in many of the Vatican 2 documents talks about the higher form of life and talks about celibacy leading into the riches of Christ so the youth have had this drilled into them that the celibacy is a higher form now higher means it's better than marriage so you have a more stable form of life and so you've been drilled into this idea that you are in a form of life that is somehow going to communicate to you the riches of Christ and then the second thing and this is probably more potent is the power of Roman Catholic mothers we usually said even in the seminary when I was studying for the priesthood and afterwards when guys would talk about leaving we'd always say but what about your mother and we would say that we really all admitted that it was our mothers who had the vocation we were there because our mother felt guilty she should have been a nun or she should have done something different instead of getting married now she's offering her son and it was usually the first born when I was in the West Indies people would say to me are you the first born son and I'd say yes your mother wanted you to be a priest that was like it wasn't you and so it often was the case Catholic mothers put great pressure on their sons and it's a horror to leave and go back to a mother who is disappointed so they get held in by this drilling of the identity of Christ and sharing the riches of Christ and then the pressure of Catholic mothers who are the ones who really wanted their son to go in in the first place and then the fact that they get caught when they get into these abnormal states of life it's like drink, it's intoxicating when you get into homosexuality it's very hard to get out I remember I spent one year in San Leandro right across the bay from San Francisco and I went witnessing to some homosexuals and it's very difficult to get out of that lifestyle it's like nearly impossible and so when they get into the lifestyle of being a homosexual they get caught and you have it all made because there's all homosexuals around you and then you're going to go into a priesthood where you're going to have many victims and all the boys and the youth put into your care so it's a very difficult situation they get easily trapped and the Catholic Church denies the fact that they have taken away the realities of nature and race, that they've done anything wrong and I'd like to read from a council document official words of the Catholic Church where they say it's unthinkable that they have done wrong quotation in any case, the Catholic Church of the West cannot weaken her faithful observance of her own tradition it is unthinkable that for centuries she has followed a path which instead of favoring the spiritual richness of individual souls and the people of God, has some way compromised it or she has with arbitrary judicial prescriptions stifled the free expansion and most profound realities of nature and race it's unthinkable she says, that she could have done this and the unthinkable is what is daily reality in the American seminary and of course in the seminaries across the world in the book that I first showed you good morning, good bye good men, which is the end of the liberal because the subtitle is how liberals brought the corruption into the Catholic Church at the end at the top of page at the top of chapter ten, it says the following complaints about doctrinal error liturgical abuse and even conduct among US seminarians is now so common as to be routine and so why is it that it continues? it continues because of the draw and what I call the dual disease it's like young men are hit in their vital organs with a dual disease the disease the disease is first of all the lust for power if you notice in those documents that I read out, the earlier ones the identity of the priesthood and having the power and authority of Christ that is power when you think that you have power at your fingertips to give absolution to give people freedom from their sins and you have power by your words and action to bring Christ on the altar and you have power to take a baby and make it into a Christian by pouring water on its head this is a lust for power and men and youth even before they go into the seminary get caught with this lust for power and then they get caught with the other part of the disease the abnormal homosexual lust and so they are hit in their vital organs with a dual disease a lust for power and a lust for other men in homosexuality and that is the disease that hits these people in the words of Graham Greene the name of his novel written over 50 years ago which you can still get in libraries and I would urge you get the book it's a fascinating book I read it years ago and I can remember many of the details of it The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene he's talking about the priesthood and he's showing it in a Latino priest the Latino priest is mostly drunk his teeth are yellow with nicotine he's forever carousing with women and he's still held up in honor and glory before the people because he's the one who gives them forgiveness for sin, and he's the one who gives new life to their babies in baptism and so they honor him and he has the power and the glory in all his sinfulness and that's what's the name of the game, the power and the glory, and that's what the Catholic priesthood gets caught with and now this is not simply Graham Greene a Catholic and his perspective on the priesthood this is official Catholic teaching I'd like to read to you again from the official teaching of the Catholic Church quotation The presence of Christ in the minister that is in the priest, is not to be understood as if the latter that is the priest were preserved from all human weaknesses, the spirit of domination, error or even sin the power of the Holy Spirit does not guarantee all acts of the ministers in the same way so not all acts are guaranteed, but it goes on to tell you some acts are, and it's going to tell you this finishing the quotation while this guarantee extends to the sacraments so that the minister's sin cannot impede the fruit of grace the priest's sin, the minister's sin cannot impede the fruit of grace it doesn't matter if he's homosexual or an adulterer or a fornicator or a drunkard grace can still flow through him he can still bring Christ down on the altar and he can still give you freedom from your sin so this is not just the power and the glory explained by Graham Green this is in the official teaching of the Catholic Church back in the 70's when I was beginning to get into scripture and I was beginning to start wondering about my priesthood, because all of us who baptize babies, and I used to baptize 35 every first Sunday of the month and I'd done over a thousand maybe two thousand weddings and I had forgiven so many thousands of people, their sins and confession and seeing them come back and living in adultery and drugs and fornication just like before I gave them the, I was beginning to wonder what about my priesthood and I bought this book by a very famous Catholic biblical scholar Raymond S. Brown, he was probably one of the best Catholic scholars throughout the whole world and he was from the United States I talked to him actually one time personally when he was giving a seminar The Priest and the Bishop by Raymond Brown and he speaks about the priesthood of Christ I read this as a Catholic priest and I'd like to read it tonight to you because it was startling to me as a priest Quotation When we move from the Old Testament to the New, it is striking that while there are pagan priests and Jewish priests on the scene, no individual Christian is ever specifically identified as a priest The epistle to the Hebrew speaks of the high priesthood of Jesus by comparing his death and entry into heaven with the actions of the Jewish high priest who went into the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle once a year with a blood offering for himself and for the sins of his people But it is noteworthy that the author of Hebrews does not associate the priesthood of Jesus with the Eucharist or the Last Supper neither does he suggest that other Christians are priests in the likeness of Jesus In fact the once for all atmosphere that surrounds the priesthood of Jesus in Hebrews has been offered as the explanation why there are no Christian priests in the New Testament period Our best Catholic scholars say in the Christian era there are no Christian priests Imagine how I was shattered reading that. This is my livelihood. This is my glory. This is who I am. And now I find that the New Testament has no priest except the priesthood of Christ And this is a Catholic scholar So when I read this I did not go as I should have. I didn't go to the book of Hebrews. But as a priest over the next few years I started remembering I remember the immorality of the priests that I knew in Ireland. And that was the reason why I never wanted to work in Ireland Even the priest who came to her own house and drunk and played poker. I didn't want to be like them So I wanted to go outside Ireland And they thought that they would be pure and holy outside Ireland And I never did serve in Ireland But then overseas I saw the immorality even of our Irish priests And sometimes very obvious that they would boast about it And then I saw the immorality of the West Indian priests And because we were a little island off the coast of South America as the South American priests would come through and other Caribbean priests would come through I saw their immorality And I thought back to my year as a priest in Rome And I saw the immorality in Rome which shocked me. The prostitution and immorality of the Holy City shocked me in 1964 when I was in Rome I was utterly devastated And of the 300 men in my class, we were all priests. There was nobody looking for anything to do with Christ or what is really His and His message. They were looking for positions in the church and degrees. And so it was that I associated myself with one priest from Africa, one from England and one from the United States. And I kept away from most of those other priests because I was aghast at the immorality of priests in the Holy City, what we call the Holy City Rome itself And I remembered and many years later I did start studying the book of Hebrews In our book and I would urge you to read it if you have not read it yet Far From Rome, Near to God, The Testimonies of Fifty Converted Catholic Priests you will find that many of these testimonies that the Catholic priests began reading Hebrews and they began seeing the glory of who Christ is in His salvation So this book had an effect on me later in my life to begin going to the scripture and seeing the finished work of the one eternal High Priest I'd like to deal with marriage and ministry simply because that's what the Bible does, like in 1st Timothy and in Titus, it talks about the past being a man of one wife But I'd like to read first of all what the Catholic Church says about marriage and ministry I'm quoting from the official canon law quotation A cleric who attempts marriage even if only civilly occurs a laetiae sententiae suspension and if he does not repent after being warned and continues to give scandal can be punished with gradual probation even by dismissal from the clerical state. What the Bible calls honorable and undefiled in Hebrews marriage is honorable the Catholic Church calls a scandal and a man who gets married and is a priest is to repent of his scandal and the scripture says the exact opposite of course it doesn't talk about priests because there's no priest except the priesthood of Christ so it talks about the elder if a man desires the office of an elder he desires a good work in the letter to Timothy by the apostle Paul and then the qualifications are given, an elder then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach not given to wine, no striker, not greedy for filthy lucre but patient, not a brawler nor covetous, who rules well over his own house, having his own children in subjection and then it asks the question for if a man does not know how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the church of God if a man cannot look after his own household how can he be a pastor or an elder and that is the common sense of scripture it's not saying that the pastor must be married but he must be somebody who's able to manage his own have government over his own life and his own household so he is to be a man of one wife, preferably, as the scripture says so would to God that Catholic priests would study this text in their own Catholic Bible and see that the priesthood of Christ is supreme and the Catholic priesthood is a mockery of his true priesthood in these 50 testimonies, and of course there are far more than these 50, but these were the first 50 that I published you will find that these men renounced both the priesthood and the teaching of Rome and the Roman Church, and I think what they did is best summarized in the words of the apostle when he said having renounced hidden things of dishonesty and not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully but by the manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God I think it is that these men of this book renounced craftiness and putting the word of God equal to their tradition and they began handling the word correctly in the light of the word, and they saw that they were sinners before a holy God and that they then did repent of their sins there's been a remarkable classic on the marriage and ministry and I think it's a book that we all should know if you haven't read it, I think that it's a book that you should read it is this book by Henry Leah he's a very famous historian he has many volumes on the Inquisition which he's also famous for, but this book the history of sacerdotal celibacy in the Christian Church it's an eye opener way back then when Leah wrote his book and even then before the scandals of the present day he said very clearly at the end of the book that the Catholic Church was violating quotation the precept, thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God and he goes on in quotation, when it's reliance, that's the Catholic Church's reliance, on the gift of chastity will accompany ordination, it confers the priesthood at the age of 25 and then turns loose young men at the age when passions are strongest trained in a seminary and unused to female companionship, they occupy a position in which they are brought into the closest and most dangerous relations with women who regard them as being gifted with supernatural powers and hold the keys in their hands of heaven and hell Leah saw and exposed in his book the immorality of the priesthood with women and it's not only homosexual men, but it is the immorality of priests with nuns and with married women and with single women and we find this if you go to clerical abuse or on any search engine on the internet, you will find Catholic web pages devoted just to the priest problem with women, the priest problem is with nuns, the priest problem is with fornication it's not simply that they're into homosexuality, they're into all types of sexual sin and the Catholic priest has been told that his celibacy is a closer way of getting the riches of Christ and he's been deceived and so it's the church that Leah says is guilty of tempting God that thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God the Catholic church has flown in the face of God in holding up an immoral situation and calling it holy and calling it an identity with Christ this is totally immoral, why do they do it? why do they continue? even though it's paramount obvious that it doesn't work it's for control Ratzinger from Rome can call a priest in California and tell him directly what he is to do or not to do if that man were married and had a family and was responsible to his family and his property and especially to his own conscience he would not have to obey Cardinal Ratzinger or his own bishop it's all a question of control and the Vatican continues to have control and continues to hold up as lofty what is obnoxious even before man it was enigmatic even to the United States of America to think that we have many thousands of our youth who are being deceived and the cream of American youth taken and put into abnormal homosexual seminaries and then caught up on all types of lusts and the lust of power thrown in so this is how serious this situation is and this is where I really appeal to those listening on tape and those looking on for television I really appeal to you listener, I really appeal to you as a Catholic that you would hear the word of God it's like scripture says in Isaiah for all have sinned it's not just the Catholic it's all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God that's not Isaiah that's Paul and Isaiah said all we like sheep have gone astray we've turned each one to his own way and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all by his wounds by his stripes we are healed that he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him listen to the word of God we're all sinners all humankind is sinners and the only answer for the Catholic priests, the Catholic seminary and the Catholic and all of us is to look to Christ the author and finisher of our faith the one who begins it and the one who perfects it we look to him and we ask you to look unto Christ he who said it is finished really finished the work of redemption he prayed for his own and then he went and finished his work on the cross what did he finish? he finished your guilt your personal sin and your sin nature what did he bring in in that finishing? he brought in everlasting righteousness that you could be clothed and stand perfect in his holiness he gave you right standing before God how do you get it? simply by obeying the commandment of Christ Jesus himself said this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent it's God's commandment he commands you to believe on Christ, believe on him whom he has sent Christ finished the work it is for you to know that salvation that is in Christ the one eternal priest and to know that he saves you to the uttermost you're not totally saved you're completely saved and if there is a sin afterwards, you go to your father in heaven and you get reconciled immediately, directly because you're one priest and he's already interceding for you that you would regain your fellowship with the father even if you sin after your salvation so this is the wonder of who it is the catholic priesthood is dust debris and ashes it is a parody in the words of the famous parable you probably know the king's new suit it simply doesn't exist, there is no priesthood in the new testament their glory is something that doesn't exist and what does exist is an office that negates, denies contravenes the very grace of God and is an abomination even before the unsaved man or woman because the immorality goes further than usual sins in the world it is more sinful than the normal unsaved person it is obnoxious before God and man that is the message that I wish to give and I pray that God would put it on your heart and that you cry out to him and know salvation in him and in him alone amen and amen commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart. From his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to his commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying his word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words then are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind. As though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.