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“A world without God can
only be a world without

meaning. For where, then,

does everything that is come
from?... Then there are no

standards of good or evil.”

As the criteria for the selection and appointment
of bishops had also been changed after the Second
Vatican Council, the relationship of bishops to their A balanced canon law that corresponds to the
seminaries was very different, too. Above all, a cri-
terion for the appointment of new bishops was now whole of Jesus’ message must therefore not only
their “conciliarity,” which of course could be under- provide a guarantee for the accused, the respect for
stood to mean rather different things. whom is a legal good. It must also protect the Faith,
which is also an important legal asset. A properly
Indeed, in many parts of the Church, concil- formed canon law must therefore contain a double
iar attitudes were understood to mean having a guarantee — legal protection of the accused, legal
critical or negative attitude towards the hitherto protection of the good at stake. If today one puts
existing tradition, which was now to be replaced forward this inherently clear conception, one gen-
by a new, radically open relationship with the erally falls on deaf ears when it comes to the ques-
world. One bishop, who had previously been sem- tion of the protection of the Faith as a legal good.
inary rector, had arranged for the seminarians to be In the general awareness of the law, the Faith no
shown pornographic films, allegedly with the inten- longer appears to have the rank of a good requiring
tion of thus making them resistant to behavior con- protection. This is an alarming situation which must
trary to the faith. be considered and taken seriously by the pastors of
There were — not only in the United States of the Church. (…)
America — individual bishops who rejected the In fact, it is important to see that such miscon-
Catholic tradition as a whole and sought to bring duct by clerics ultimately damages the Faith. Only
about a kind of new, modern “Catholicity” in their where faith no longer determines the actions of
dioceses. Perhaps it is worth mentioning that in man are such offenses possible. (…)
not a few seminaries, students caught reading my
books were considered unsuitable for the priest- Part III
hood. My books were hidden away, like bad litera- What Must Be Done?
ture, and only read under the desk. (…) (1) What must be done? Perhaps we should
(2) In light of the scale of pedophilic misconduct, create another Church for things to work out?
a word of Jesus has again come to attention which Well, that experiment has already been under-
says: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who taken and has already failed. Only obedience and
believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a love for our Lord Jesus Christ can point the way.
great millstone were hung round his neck and he So let us first try to understand anew and from
were thrown into the sea” (Mark 9:42). within [ourselves] what the Lord wants, and has
The phrase “the little ones” in the language of wanted with us.
Jesus means the common believers who can be First, I would suggest the following: If we really
confounded in their faith by the intellectual arro- wanted to summarize very briefly the content of
gance of those who think they are clever. So here the Faith as laid down in the Bible, we might do so
Jesus protects the deposit of the faith with an em- by saying that the Lord has initiated a narrative of
phatic threat of punishment to those who do it harm. love with us and wants to subsume all creation in
The modern use of the sentence is not in itself it. The counterforce against evil, which threatens us
wrong, but it must not obscure the original mean- and the whole world, can ultimately only consist in
ing. In that meaning, it becomes clear, contrary to our entering into this love. It is the real counterforce
any guarantorism, that it is not only the right of the against evil. The power of evil arises from our refus-
accused that is important and requires a guarantee. al to love God. He who entrusts himself to the love
Great goods such as the Faith are equally important. of God is redeemed. Our being not redeemed is a u

www.michaeljournal.org MICHAEL May/June/July 2019 19