We have been meaning to share some quotes with you from the wonderful and well-researched book, Goodbye, Good Men by Michael S. Rose. The book focuses largely on the true reasons for the supposed "priest shortage." Admittedly, the book is shocking even to those familiar with the darker sides of church politics, but it is very convincing and well-documented. Intermittently we will share quotes with you from this book since it is so relevant to the situation at hand in so many diocese around the country including, presumably, our own.

The fact is that many qualified candidates for the priesthood have been turned away for political reasons over the past three decades. Systematic, ideological discrimination has been practiced against seminarians who uphold Catholic teaching on sexuality and other issues; dissenters from Catholic teaching--including teaching on homosexuality--have been rewarded.

Goodbye, Good Men exposes this corruption: the deliberate infiltration of Catholic seminaries by what Andrew Greeley has dubbed the "Lavender Mafia," a clique of homosexual dilettantes with an underground of liberal faculty members determined to change the doctrines, disciplines, and mission of the Catholic Church from within. Through the seminaries, liberals have brought a moral meltdown into the Catholic priesthood. If the sex scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church are to end, the individuals responsible for this moral meltdown must be rooted out. (page xi)

To use the words of a friend's father with regard to the last sentence above, "If there's a rat in the corn crib, you get rid of the rat, you don't quit farming." He lamented the fact that instead of rooting out the rats, corrupt bishops elected instead to keep child abusing priests around to destroy the Church and the souls entrusted to Her. As a result of all the financial settlements, some church leaders have decided to deal with the likes of con-man Rafaello Follieri to sell off diocesan properties as quickly as possible and access cash for the settlements. So with the closure of churches and schools, they've effectively decided to "quit farming," so to speak: to get out of the business of saving souls and into the business of saving skin.

To drastically understate the case, some seriously poor decisions were made, but instead of repenting of these and making a serious attempt to turn things around and restore the trust of the laity and the Bride of Christ generally, another series of poor decisions was made--to close our churches and schools. Perhaps worst of all, the rationale for doing so has been covered with misinformation and false rationales (there's a priest shortage, there are demographic shifts, etc.) because the truth is simply too horrible to admit to. And now look where we are?! We, the faithful in the pews, are paying the price for one bad decision after the next. And now we must pay for these sins by sacrificing our very houses of God, our schools, and even our Faith? We must expose and reject the pretenses for closing our churches, which we know to be untrue. One such pretense is the availability of priests (or lack thereof). While particulars vary from diocese to diocese, on a broader national scale the decline has been traced to far-reaching and disturbing trends.

According to Michael Rose, the priest shortage, where it does in fact exist, is "artificial and contrived." He quotes Archbishop of Omaha Nebraska, Elden F. Curtiss, who says

It seems to me that the vocation "crisis" is precipitated by people who want to change the Church's agenda, by people who do not support orthodox candidates loyal to the magisterial teaching of the pope and bishops, and by people who actually discourage viable candidates from seeking priesthood and vowed religious life as the Church defines these ministries. I personally am aware of certain vocations directors, vocations teams and evaluation boards who turn away candidates who defend the Church's teaching about artificial birth control, or who exhibit a strong piety toward certain devotions, such as the rosary.

Rose goes on to mention unapologetically orthodox bishops whose diocese have experienced dramatic increases in vocations to the priesthood. Of course, most of us are familiar with religious orders that are experiencing vocations booms as well. After all, if one is going to sacrifice his or her life for the cause of Christ, whether one's vocation be lay or religious in nature, it must be worth it!

We will explore more of Goodbye, Good Men in the future. More to come...