Jl 1:13-15; 2:1-2 (circa 400 BC)
Gird yourselves and weep, O priests!
wail, O ministers of the altar!
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
O ministers of my God!
The house of your God is deprived
of offering and libation.
Proclaim a fast,
call an assembly;
Gather the elders,
all who dwell in the land,
Into the house of the LORD, your God,
and cry to the LORD!

Father, we thank you for sending your Son, Jesus, to be our Savior.

On the Cross, He offered Himself for us as the Priest, the Victim, and the Altar of Sacrifice. “Through His wounds we are healed.”

We pray that through Jesus' priestly ministry, you will heal all of the sins of your people, especially the sins of priests and parents. Rescue your children from the wrongdoing of their elders. Renew in our hearts the wonders of your love. Strengthen, chasten, confirm, and preserve our priests in their vocation and send more men and women to help bring in a bountiful harvest as members of religious life.

May you be pleased with the sacrifice that your priests offer you; may they serve you with humble and contrite hearts; may the Communion we receive with and through them wash away our sins, cleanse us of our iniquities, and make us white as snow.

We ask all these things with the help of the Holy Spirit in Jesus' Name. Amen.

St. John Vianney, pray for us!

The Judas Factor: Jesus has been betrayed in every generation by those who have been called and chosen to represent Him.

Judas was the first of many brothers.

In our day, the sins of priests and religious is a grave scandal that has injured multitudes.

• The victims of the priests.
• The priests themselves.
• Others whom the priests have scandalized:
  • The faithful.
  • Unbelievers whose hearts are hardened against the gospel message because of the infidelities of the evangelists. Why should anyone believe the gospel when some of those who are charged to carry it are themselves so notoriously unconverted?

Robert Degrandis.

Forgive:

• God
• Ourselves
• People familiar to us
• Strangers

How many times do we have to forgive the priests who serve us? “Not seven times. Seventy times seven times” (Mt 18:22; a favorite saying of David du Plessis).

• We do not condone the sins of priests. What they did was evil.
• The Church continues to suffer from their evildoing. We have to clean up the mess that they made.
• The same principles apply to the sins of the nation–tens of millions of abortions.
• Hindu idea of karma: evildoing produces evil consequences for evildoers. The evil done by priests brings evil to the Church; the evil done by our nation brings evil to the nation.
  • Christians can agree with the law of karma (doing good brings good consequences; doing evil brings evil consequences). We know God's answer to the problem of evil: the death and resurrection of Jesus provides what we need to make reparation for all sins and all evildoing. We need to join ourselves to Jesus' work on the Cross: “Father, forgive them' they know not what they do.

Original prayer and adapted version.

• "Crimen sollicitationis"--"The Crime of Solicitation."
• "Guide to Understanding Basic CDF Procedures concerning Sexual Abuse Allegations."

• Benedict “Has Done More than Any other Pope or Bishop” to Confront Sex Abuse
• “Associated Press” Disgraces Itself With Error-Ridden and Malicious Attack on Pope
• Let's Get the Story Straight: Defrocking and Divorce

• My favorite class handouts.
• "The Judas Factor."
• "The Sacraments and the Sins of Priests."
• "Themes for the Year of the Priest."
• e-mail interview about the priest scandals.