EC1998 - Fr Steven Scheier - What is Lacking in the Church Today

good afternoon I would like to preface my remarks by saying to those for whom the following applies that I love you as my brother priests and as my brothers and sisters in Christ thank you what I will say does not mean that I was never guilty of such actions intentions or missions it rather points to errors that are still being made today in Jesus Christ Church by his ministers and by his followers I was asked yesterday by someone here if I still got messages from Blessed Mother I have and I have to say with regards to what I'm about to tell you that you're the well you are the first to hear the following the bus some mother told me the message that when I went out and missions to speak that I was not to entertain people that I should not expect consolation that I had to speak to you the words of her Holy Spirit with regards to why I was spared I see many areas we addressed the church today and I can truthfully say that only my expertise to the fact that I was judged by Almighty God and was spared His divine mercy today is a very special day to me our Lord the message to me some time ago said that I am a walking example of his mercy the following is the second part and the most important part of my experience that I have to address the Catholic Church worldwide and I would like to give preface my remarks by saying that not everyone that I am addressing is guilty so please keep that in mind the first area that needs attention all over the world is the matter of confessions one only has to go to a parish on a weekend to see the downfall and the collapse of this great sacrament which was instituted by Christ himself Jesus instituted the sacrament with his first appearance to his apostles after he rose the dead his first words to them after he entered the upper room through a bolted door was peace be with you and again he said peace be with you as the father has sent me so I send you and when he had said this he breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven and whose sins you shall retain they are retained we find that in John chapter 20 verses 21 to 23 this is why confession takes place the sacrament of reconciliation and why the priests are recipients of such power to forgive or to withhold forgiveness so what's the problem the problem is that there are fewer and fewer who feel any sense of guilt and consequently feel that they have sinned if one does not feel any guilt there is no need to go to confession one in his or her own mind has not sinned so where does society get this notion I blame like great deal on psychologists inside hydrous who have told people and sometimes publicly that they don't have to feel guilty about this or that they should put the blame on their parents in bringing up bringing them up the way that they did or blame the environment which contributed the problem facing the client the task or solution is to completely eradicate guilt in a person this is one of the greatest phenomena that is attributed to the decline in confessions today another reason for the decline is the fact that some priests well intentioned as they are advised penitence that he or she do not have to go to confession often and then when the penitent verbalizes a sin or number of sins the Confessor is quick to tell them that such-and-such is not sinful but rather a result of tension anxiety or over tiredness consequently the penitent is made to feel or to think that most of all of his sins or her sins are really not sinful at all but merely human weaknesses that are due to some physical abnormality or phenomena most Catholics do not have a choice professors some go to other parishes where there is a priest who is more traditional in his treatment of a penitent but some feel they cannot leave the parish boundaries to attain the peace of mind and salt they're so desperately looking for the results of these encounters are that people no longer feel a need to go to confession plus they feel the Confessor is not as compassionate and as understanding as priest used to be one of the biggest atrocities of the priest of the day and raging rampant all parts of the world especially United States as I've seen it today is the verbalization of opinions by priests to laity about matters of church doctrine priests sometimes forget that there are dangers entities of the church and therefore should preach what the Church teaches thank you thank you if a priest wishes to give his his opinion on a matter that has been strictly defined by the Magisterium of the church then he should take off his collar and tell those who he addresses that the following is his opinion regarding the matter this goes for confessional practice and for the pulpit as well priests are ordained ministers of the church one of the greatest missions in parish life in the past 25 or or 26 years is the fact that the priests have not mentioned or directed in their homily the subjects of hell eternal punishment and God's righteous judgment or his righteous and that righteousness is anger the righteousness opposite is love if that is the fact than the idea of a parishioner feeling or coming to terms with the fact that they had have to or signaled confession is totally missing we have not wanted to upset parishioners and we especially do not want to upset wealthy parishioners who write large checks to the parish and our good givers consequently what has been addressed in sermons has been peace love and joy these be sure will not upset anyone and consequently the priest will have given a good sermon that weekend and here again if there is no guilt then there's no sin so why should a parishioner go to confession the reality too is a father wants to be popular sometimes he wants people to go away from his parish feeling good and not guilty and he wants most of all for people to say on the way out of church father that was a fantastic sermon the second area that should be addressed in our discussion of the misfortunes of the church today is the area of prayer and non prayer the obviously with it parish is one that you can pay about document from which informs you of all the organizations of the parish that are there to facilitate healing processes and generally whatever area of interest or problem area that one is encountering organizations such as organizations the recently divorced or widowed for singles for parents etc and the fact is that most of these organizations are nothing more than social events thank you where a person is made to feel like he or she can be helped in their situation because there are people encountering the same situation whatever happened to prayer ever since Vatican 2 which was greatly disturbed and misunderstood a lot of parable churchville services have been unduly dismissed from parishes all over the world at discretion of priests and parishes prayer vigils such as novenas holy hours an addiction and even perpetual adoration of the bus's sacrament have been deleted from parish activities for quite some time now it seems as if we're proclaiming prayer is useless let's have a problem-solving situation or organization to remedy the situation prayer was needed in the past why not now and then too there might be another reason for the demise of prayer situations these services take time and that's one thing that some priests don't want their parishioners to think they have too much of and to a prayer service may take away from the priest TV Guide or going out to relax time with parishioners or friends or even other priests the sign that a lot of priests wear is a sign which tells their parishioners I'm exhausted please don't ask me to do anything else constantly the parish priest has more and more and more time to do absolutely nothing another area where we are seeing definitely Klein or traditional spirituality is seen what is it happening even happening what has happened to many of our churches on the inside in the name of acumen ISM a lot it's being done that strips us now of our Catholic faith and makes us something less than who we were and who are we were baptized to be many churches now do not have kneelers theater seats and some of these churches are sufficient there are no stations to cross no statues no visua lights no candles no pictures of Jesus Mary one of the Saints and no crucifix a crucifix across yes but a crucifix no the crucifix has the body of Christ on it that's offensive to our non Catholic brethren also the presidential chair has replaced the tabernacle at the center of the sanctuary Father Thank You father is now the focal point and not some descriptive alt that just has wafers of bread in it the tabernacle is now off to the side or unfortunately in another room in the church but definitely out of sight the actions of believers in quotation marks is concomitant with the atmosphere or lack thereof of the inside of these churches father or the parishioners do not Gini effect anymore in from the bus's argument they give a little bow the parishioners are encouraged or even forced to at some times remain standing for the consecration kneeling is so old-fashioned don't you know one too might look on how prisoners dress for mass these days a very casual if not slovenly way and one might mention also that the more mass fast city is parishes have lay ministers who have any commissioned to do almost everything in the parish accepts a mass hear confessions Marion Barry I know of a certain parish in Washington State in the United States where their pastor has a lay woman give the homily of masses during the weekend for three weekends out of four and some churches the priest will sit in the chair at communion time while the extraordinary ministers distribute Holy Communion under one or both species thank you this is forbidden and but it seems that the less father has to do the better in the 1950s one heard the comment that there was no greater fraternity the madethe priests at that time that was probably a true statement and where the priesthood was and what priests meant to each other but things have changed since then and it is a whole new ballgame now priests now are not supportive of fellow priests in one diocese the United States and I suspect that the same is true all over the world there are generally two ways of looking at one's fellow priests one is father is doing a bang nificent job and is really trying and as fellow priests are saying what's he trying to prove the other is the fact the father may not have both oars in the water so to speak he may have made some error rave written minut his fellow priests are saying see I told you so what else do you expect from someone like that this is sad to say the least and then where is the priest to turn for help if one goes to a fellow priest for help spiritually or otherwise the invitation will come automatically to have a drink or to discuss football or basketball a rugby or a cricket game the teams and the scores after all when please get together they shouldn't talk shop they should enjoy their golf game as dinner out and not turned the situation into some type of counseling situation or session but ironically enough we still have in our diocese priests who are referred to as a priests priests these men are seen by other priests as holy and as gifted priests one can go to if needed by any priest who is having difficulties with almost anything the final area of concern for the purposes is for our purposes out of CCD they turn to be of Christian doctrine classes the classes for students who are unable to attend Catholic schools for religion at least since the beginning of the 70s are ccd tips have been void of Catholic doctrine and dogma thank you I have seen CCD Tech's class tests that have a picture of a smiling Jesus on one page and then on the other page in bold type the sentence Jesus loves you that is what our children been learning all these past years they haven't not been they have been left out learning the commandments the laws of the church the mortal and venial sin and the difference between the two they have been denied learning how to make a good confession by examining their conscience 'as they have been denied learning what is possibly short of faith concerning the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament the ultra casual way of receiving Communion by the faithful has added to the dilemma parents do not go to confession and so their children don't go either and parents not make their children go to can to confession or CCD anymore parents after all want their children to love them consequently they don't make their children do anything they don't want to do the list of monstrosity x' could go on and on but this gives to the priests to the layperson some idea of the direction the church is now heading where with us all d - I'm not a prophet but I do know that this Moses surely is not what our Lord intended this church to do or to be is it too late to change again what Jesus is saying to us and has always said is that it is never too late to change thank you he states very categorically that we should take advantage of his mercy while we stuck him because when he comes as judge it'll be too late for his mercy he is patient he is merciful and he's loving god bless you that's a bit different isn't it oh-ho-ho shades of my late father there

Channel: John Porteous

Views: 71,194

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Keywords: Father Steven Scheier, Eucharist, Eucharistic Convention, Auckland, New Zealand, Catholic

Id: HjX1HfWtXzU

Length: 23min 29sec (1409 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 15 2013