The Christian Position

A reader writes:

Hi Brian,

I thought you might be interested in the story of one Father Sean Sheehey, who recently returned to his native Kerry from years spent in Louisiana. He made our national media for having a sermon this week where he fiercely attacked sodomy, transgenderism, and the manifold other evils of our age. For this, he was savagely attacked by our National Media, which isn’t surprising, but more disappointingly, by many in the Church hierarchy. The man’s own Bishop condemned him, publicly stating that Fr. Sheehey’s words did not represent “the Christian position”. My local media had a priest on who was from “The Association of Catholic Priests”, which to my knowledge is a Left-Wing heretics club, who publicly stated that Sheehey’s comments were antiquated and that “people on the ground had moved on” from such issues. He even had the gall to criticise Sheehey for talking about sex for so long without once acknowledging that “the Church’s teaching on sex needed to change”. My greatest fear, however, is that one of the priests at my Parish (the retired, somewhat-liberal one that I mentioned to you before) may speak up this weekend and join in the condemnation. If he does so, I don’t know what I’ll do. A close friend of mine who is very wise and has known said priest for years warned me against ever complaining to or arguing with him, as he would likely react extremely poorly to it and the last time I did something even vaguely resembling that, the Homily the week after was very pointed about criticising people who liked “the way things were done in the Old Days”, to the point where I felt like I was this close to being personally attacked. If he does publicly state his support for things that violate Church doctrine, what should I do? Should I walk out and refuse to attend any further Masses by him? Say something? Write to the Bishop? I genuinely don’t know.

God Bless

Oh, I forgot to add – thankfully, Fr. Sheehey has refused to apologise or back down and has maintained that he said nothing wrong (which he didn’t).

My reply:

Praise to Our Lord Jesus Christ for faithful and courageous priests like Fr. Sheehy! He will be in my prayers.

Other priests, and even prelates, accommodating the spirit of the world instead of the Spirit of God is a sad but all-too-common sight these days. In terms of what is required of faithful Catholics, we are to prayerfully and respectfully listen to our pastors’ and bishops’ words on matters of faith and morals, and to obey our bishops in all things except sin.

Now, the Holy Spirit guarantees that the Holy Father will never bind the faithful to erroneous doctrine regarding faith and/or morals. Respectfully, your pastor and bishop should give ear to what our current Holy Father has said on these matters. Despite the media’s distortions to the contrary, Pope Francis has repeatedly condemned the same evils Fr. Sheehey preached against:

What’s not guaranteed is that an individual hierarch, or ad hoc group of hierarchs, won’t voice erroneous theological opinions. Of course, Our Lord anticipated human weakness and gave His flock a means of sifting false from true teaching. If, after prayerful and respectful consideration, a bishop’s statements on a matter of faith and/or morals is found to be at odds with weightier magisterial teaching and/or the consistent, ancient teachings of the Magisterium and Scripture, a Catholic may disregard the novelty and submit to the weightier, more ancient, and more consistent doctrine.

Since pretty much all of the modern sexual heresies have already been condemned by infallible papal definitions – the weightiest Magisterium there is – it’s hard to see how you wouldn’t be justified in respectfully disregarding condemnations of Fr. Sheehy’s preaching on those subjects. And it almost goes without saying that anyone claiming that perennial Catholic doctrine on any matter of faith or morals needs to change is ipso facto in error.

On a practical level, a priest holding erroneous opinions doesn’t by itself invalidate sacraments he administers. So you’re still bound to fulfill your Sunday obligation to attend Mass. If that liberal priest’s homily would obstruct your full participation in the liturgy, you can attend a different Mass – either one at another time when he’s not presiding, or one at another parish. If another Mass isn’t available, feel free to take out your rosary and pray it to yourself during his homily. After all, the whole point of the homily is to remind you you’re at the holy sacrifice of the Mass!

I hope that my correspondent, and this blog’s readers, find the above exchange helpful and spiritually salutary.

In particular, I encourage our priests and bishops to pray that they may exercise their sacred office with courage and justice.

Because we have it on good authority that the floor of Hell is paved with the bones of bishops.

For the harrowing tale of a priest who descended to Hell and set about chastising the damned, read my award-worthy horror adventure novel: