ON THE REVERENCE DUE ALL PRIESTS.....
DIALOGUES OF SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA
The reverence you pay to [priests] is not actually paid to them but to me, in virtue of the blood I have entrusted to their ministry. If this were not so, you should pay them as much reverence as to anyone else, and no more. It is this ministry of theirs that dictates that you should reverence them and come to them, not for what they are in themselves but for the power I have entrusted to them, if you would receive the sacraments of the Church….
So the reverence belongs not to the ministers, but to me and to this glorious blood made one thing with me because of the union of divinity with humanity. And just as the reverence is done to me, so also is the irreverence, for I have already told you that you must not reverence them for themselves, but for the authority I have entrusted to them. Therefore you must not sin against them, because if you do, you are really sinning not against them but against me. This I have forbidden, and I have said that it is my will that no one should touch them.
For this reason no one has excuse to say, “I am doing no harm, nor am I rebelling against holy Church. I am simply acting against the sins of evil pastors.” Such persons are deluded, blinded as they are by their own selfishness…. It is me they assault, just as it was me they reverenced. To me redounds every assault they make on my ministers: derision, slander, disgrace, abuse. Whatever is done to them I count as done to me….
By not paying me reverence in the persons of my ministers, they have lost respect for the latter and persecuted them because of the many sins and faults they saw in them. If in truth the reverence they had for them had been for my sake, they would not have cut it off on account of any sin in them. For no sin can lessen the power of this sacrament, and therefore their reverence should not lessen either. When it does, it is against me they sin. (116)
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I've posted this because Church Militant has made a living absolutely destroying the reputations of good Priests because of the failings of a few, condemning wide swaths of Tradition and the Traditional Priesthood who have preserved the treasures of the Church and given us the Traditional Sacraments when we would have been utterly deprived of them.
One cannot attack and publicly discredit good and faithful Priests in this way -- or even heap disgrace on those who fall into sin through weakness -- without committing a serious fault before God.
These attacks on Priests who adhere to Tradition risks God's great displeasure and punishment.....as differentiated from condemning public dissemination of doctrinal and moral error, which must always be addressed and resisted and condemned.
God Himself deems this of such importance that He made special mention of it in His revelations to Saint Catherine of Siena, a great Doctor of the Church....
The reverence you pay to [priests] is not actually paid to them but to me, in virtue of the blood I have entrusted to their ministry. If this were not so, you should pay them as much reverence as to anyone else, and no more. It is this ministry of theirs that dictates that you should reverence them and come to them, not for what they are in themselves but for the power I have entrusted to them, if you would receive the sacraments of the Church….
So the reverence belongs not to the ministers, but to me and to this glorious blood made one thing with me because of the union of divinity with humanity. And just as the reverence is done to me, so also is the irreverence, for I have already told you that you must not reverence them for themselves, but for the authority I have entrusted to them. Therefore you must not sin against them, because if you do, you are really sinning not against them but against me. This I have forbidden, and I have said that it is my will that no one should touch them.
For this reason no one has excuse to say, “I am doing no harm, nor am I rebelling against holy Church. I am simply acting against the sins of evil pastors.” Such persons are deluded, blinded as they are by their own selfishness…. It is me they assault, just as it was me they reverenced. To me redounds every assault they make on my ministers: derision, slander, disgrace, abuse. Whatever is done to them I count as done to me….
By not paying me reverence in the persons of my ministers, they have lost respect for the latter and persecuted them because of the many sins and faults they saw in them. If in truth the reverence they had for them had been for my sake, they would not have cut it off on account of any sin in them. For no sin can lessen the power of this sacrament, and therefore their reverence should not lessen either. When it does, it is against me they sin. (116)
___________________________________________________________________
I've posted this because Church Militant has made a living absolutely destroying the reputations of good Priests because of the failings of a few, condemning wide swaths of Tradition and the Traditional Priesthood who have preserved the treasures of the Church and given us the Traditional Sacraments when we would have been utterly deprived of them.
One cannot attack and publicly discredit good and faithful Priests in this way -- or even heap disgrace on those who fall into sin through weakness -- without committing a serious fault before God.
These attacks on Priests who adhere to Tradition risks God's great displeasure and punishment.....as differentiated from condemning public dissemination of doctrinal and moral error, which must always be addressed and resisted and condemned.
God Himself deems this of such importance that He made special mention of it in His revelations to Saint Catherine of Siena, a great Doctor of the Church....