by Fr.Jerry Pokorsky ( Bio – Article – Email ) | August 29, 2022
Humility is a virtue that is often misunderstood. Humility does not deny legitimate talents and qualities. It is an honest evaluation of our relationship with God and others.
A humble person acknowledges God’s sovereignty. We are God’s creatures and servants. Adam and Eve violated his kingship and arrogantly committed original sin, persuading them to “become like God” (Genesis 3:5). Ancient temptations have appeared many times throughout history and take many forms.
Communism, National Socialism, and modern secularism are variants of post-Enlightenment atheism. More and more clergy, and even the highest clergy, are undermining the proper relationship between God’s sovereignty and the Church. They treat the Catholic Faith as an elaborate tax code.
US tax law is the most complex body of law the world has ever known. Very few people dare to prepare their own tax returns. Most of us turn to professionals for help. We never know when the law will change, and we rarely understand the motives. Changing regulations render even the most shrewd tax professionals obsolete without ongoing education. The idea of tax law is incompatible with the eternal truths of the Catholic Faith.
Jesus taught, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) But God never codified his commandments in writing. The Gospels were born in the Church and presented to us in the Eucharist liturgy throughout history. The complex Law of Moses gave way to the gospel of liberty and eternal truths accessible to the culturally-formed Catholic mind. Popes and bishops convened councils, summarized faith in creeds (apostles and Nicaea), ruled disputes, wrote catechisms, and promulgated relatively short codes of canon law. Our religious precepts never yielded to the equivalent of elaborate tax laws pandering to changing interests and the economic demands of voters.
In the 1950s, Dr. John Locke introduced the contraceptive pill innovation. He gained popularity during the proceedings of the Second Vatican Council. Pope Paul VI has postponed a verdict on the “pill” subject to research by a group that has become popularly known as the “Contraceptive Commission.”
before the release of Humae Vite, the confessional priest renounced Catholic sensibility and exhorted the penitent to “follow his own conscience” without direction. Many settled with birth control and later even had abortions. By 1968, the “Birth Control Board” voted to approve the pill. Pope Paul VI overturned that decision in the Humae Vitae. Opposition erupted. The authoritative decrees of papal documents could not substitute for a sound Catholic conscience formed in Catholic culture, nor could moral expediency heal a perverted conscience.
This crisis has accelerated the pattern of decay in churches. As the Vatican responds to a myriad of dissident priests, bishops, and theologians, moral theological precepts will take shape. Church leaders exposed Christian witnesses to legalism and distorted their relationship with the gospel. Until recently, the orthodoxy of these documents was irrefutable. But there is no doubt that legalistic patterns fostered subliminal thinking. Only official statements could decide right or wrong, right or wrong. The believer’s sense, the Catholic heart, has become a hostage of tax thinking.
People often ask priests whether it is morally justified to attend an annulled marriage “outside the church” in hopes of legal official guidance. People choose to celebrate their sins rather than inflame their grievances. (If I remember correctly, the Church never made an official statement on the matter, even though it canonized St. Thomas More as a heroic witness to the sanctity of marriage.) But the proclamation there is no need. The Catholic spirit accepts the Sixth Commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” and its putative derivative, “Thou shalt not condone adultery.” These words of Jesus shape the heart of Catholicism. (Matt. 5:28)
The demands of tax Catholic morality, cut off from the overall life of the Church, undermine the merits of the gospel of Christian liberty and the true Catholic spirit. The proliferation of church responses to moral difficulties (whether prostitutes are better off demanding condoms, for example) rapidly undermines the authority of clergy and bishops with unnecessary detail. The morality of tax law exaggerates the power of bishops and priests. Ominously, what they design to forbid can easily be allowed. Tax accountants give, tax accountants take away. The arrogance of the legislative and executive powers replaces the humility of the clergy and Christian witnesses.
In the coming months or years, gay lobbies within organized churches, including most German bishops, the Cardinal Archbishop of Luxembourg, and even the Pope himself, are threatening to endorse some variation of the “homosexual union.” Based on multiple compilations of the so-called Synod Process paper tracings, there will undoubtedly be an alleged demand for “changes” in the Church’s teaching on homosexuality. I would certainly approve of a serious violation of the 6th Commandment.
These deviations from Church teaching only violate and confuse the Catholic conscience. By separating the moral teachings of the church from the genuine Catholic sensibility, these officials open a Pandora’s box of moral horrors. Despicable examples come up all the time: Describe the detailed procedure for LGBTQ genital mutilation. When is fellatio and anal sex allowed? Before or after gay union? When will it be legal to use devices for sexual pleasure? A careful encyclical on animal rights will be needed. Arbitrary, chaotic, obscene? of course. they started it.
Genuine ecclesiastical authority requires a Catholic culture centered on humility and the Eucharist, not only on the side of the sheep, but especially on the side of the shepherds, popes and apostolic successors. Humae VitePope Paul VI reminds us that we are “not masters of the source of life, but servants of the design established by the Creator” (HV 13). Not masters of moral sources, but humble servants of the plan established by the Creator.
Father.Jerry Pokorsky Priest of Arlington Diocese and Finance Manager of Lincoln Diocese. He is trained in business and accounting and also holds a master’s degree in theology and a master’s degree in moral theology. Father Pokorsky co-founded both his two organizations, CREDO and Adoremus, which are deeply involved in full-scale liturgical renewal. He is a regular contributor to many Catholic websites and magazines. See full bio.
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