----- Original Message ----- 
From: [..]
To: <mag26@fairchildtv.com>
Cc: [..]
Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2002 2:17 AM
Subject: RE: 2-Part Series on the Catholic Church

Hello there, I would like to say a few things about celibacy of priests and
all the news about it.

First of all, I was there on Dec. 06 (Friday) evening when Ada interviewed
those five young adults @ SFX school. While it is not possible to air the
entire interview, I will note that a greater portion of the program featured
interviews with people who are actually against the Church despite them
still calling themselves "Catholic". Furthermore, my five friends were asked
for their opinions on the scandals and the future of the Church and I was
surprised that these were not aired. Although none of them, to my knowledge,
are currently considering the religious life they nonetheless represent in
many important ways the future of the Church. They are concerned for
orthodoxy and faithfulness to God's calling in furthering the Mission which
Jesus Christ had entrusted to the Church when He established it 2000 years
ago.

The Dec23 ex-priest (sorry, didn't note any names; I only watched the show
once and did not tape it) claimed that church law allows priests to
privately administer sacraments like the Eucharist. This is true only if the
priest is in satisfactory standing in the Church (ie: full communion with
Rome) and the recipient is in proper disposition to receive the sacrament.
Exceptions may be made only in emergency situations or at the approval of
the bishop of the diocese or region. Especially with the Eucharist, the
celebrant (ie: the priest) must be validly ordained in order for the
Eucharist to be valid. Calling himself a priest or even being ordained (if
done invalidly) does not automatically unite him to the ministerial
priesthood in Christ. By openly denouncing authority of the Church, this
ex-priest and others like him place themselves in a schismatic state and
have effectively excommunicated themselves from the Church (ie: the Body of
Christ). If the misrepresentation was done deliberately with full knowledge,
this ex-priest and others like him will be held personally liable at the
end.

REFERENCE:
http://www.intratext.com/X/ENG0017.htm (Code of Canon Law)
http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/ccc_toc.htm (Catechism of the CC)

He also claimed that he wasn't taught anything about sexuality but was
simply expected to accept it. I cannot help but think that if he really did
have questions, why he did not go about researching for answers. There may
not have been much explanation and discussion on sexuality back then - I
don't know - but there certainly is a lot now. I am pretty sure he was not
the only one with questions and yet not every priest with those questions
end up doing what he did. Similarly, the Dec16 ex-nun should have been
pretty aware that her priest (supervisor or co-worker?) had ill thoughts and
could've refused to enter the room privately with him. Understandably, if
she was in Africa where the two may have been the only Caucasians there, she
may have had no one else to turn to for complaints. At the same time, all
missionaries are backed up in some way by organizations and she could've
done something to prevent herself from being taken advantage of. In short a
lot of details were missing and even given that she may have felt
uncomfortable sharing more information I remain cautious for her reasons for
rejecting the Church. One must keep in mind that there exist people who will
push agendas under disguise.

I would also like to talk briefly about the celibacy requirement. In
particular, two things must be noted:
1) celibacy is a disciplinary rule... it is NOT a doctrinal rule.
The idea is that both priesthood and marriage are calls to different
vocation - different vocations with the common purpose of furthering the
Mission of the Church. A person gets married for the purpose of living a
life with another person and the two give theirselves to each other fully
for the benefit (and ultimately, the salvation) of the other. The couple is
truly united in the eyes of God and noone shall separate what God has
united. The same idea applies to priests. Priests are married to the Church
and devote their whole lives to the Mission of the Church in that particular
context.

2) celibacy for priests is not required in the Eastern Rite (ie: Catholic
Church in eastern Europe which is in full communion with Rome).
Although not required, many priests do observe it as they find it practical
to live an unmarried life so as to be able to focus better and more
efficiently fulfill their pastoral duties. I know one Protestant pastor who
chose a celibate life and I'm sure he's not the only one in the world.

Finally, I would like to say something about marriage and sexuality which
ties in to the above discussion. The purpose of marriage is not to allow
people to have sex without being guilty of adultery or prostitution. The
purpose of marriage is already mentioned above. Yes, we do have hormones.
But hormones are not meant to be released wildly and uncontrollably and we
are not meant to loosen ourselves and give in to this hormone. Sexuality,
like children, is a gift from God. Yes, we are all capable of having sex but
it doesn't mean all of us must have sex.



Wishing you Blessings for the New Year!
[..]

PS: I just want to make a note that while people in the western world are
busy making all sorts of noise in criticizing the Church, there exists
priests and other religious missionaries in places like Africa where they
are faced with persecution every single day. They are not thinking about sex
and scandals; they are thinking about whether they will live to see the next
day.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "mag26" <mag26@fairchildtv.com>
To: [..]
Sent: Monday, January 20, 2003 1:51 PM
Subject: Re: 2-Part Series on the Catholic Church


Hi James,
thank you for your detailed feedback.
It is clear that you are very well read and well informed in this area.

There are a couple of things I think you would like answered.
First, the fact that your friends were interviewed and not aired. That is in
no way suggesting that your friends were being ignored. For a 30-min. show,
we really have much less than 30 minutes to tell our story.
So, often times, our reporters get more stuff than they can put on the air.
However, I must stress that the story, any stories that are aird on our show
try to be balnce and fair to the topic and to the subjects of the story.
In this case, we have tried to present the many different points of views on
Catholic Church and Cathlolic religion.The ultimate goal is to try and find
out what the future holds for the church and also the religion.

Second, on the situation of the nun. I think you are dead wrong to even
suggest that she could have prevented the sexual abuse. The last thing you
want is to try and blame the victim for being sexually assaulted. No one
walks around expecting to be raped, neither did this nun. What she had to
experience was wrong, and there is no question about it.
If people start blaming her for what she had to go through, that would be
one reason why the Cathloic Church had taken such a long time to rectify the
wrongs that had gone on for decades.

thanks for your feedback anyway.
take care.

Executive producer of M26.