Throwback Thursday: Catholicism and exorcisms

Welcome to this week’s “Throwback Thursday” installment. Today, we’re going to revisit a post that was originally published back on September 23, 2016 and has been revised.

The Roman Catholic church reported last week that its chief exorcist, priest Gabriel Amorth (photo above), had died at the age of 91 (see article below). Amorth was ordained as a priest in 1954 and became an official exorcist in 1986. By 2013, he claimed that he had performed 160,000 exorcisms (that number does not represent individuals; some people required multiple exorcisms).

I’ve never been personally acquainted with a person who was completely overtaken by demonic possession like the poor fellow in Mark 5:1-20, but the Bible also says demonic possession may be of a more subtler variety. See here.

But it seems to me that reports of full-blown demonic possession come mainly from Roman Catholic areas and I have my theories about that. Could it be that demonic possession seems to be prevalent among Catholics because:

1. Catholics are predisposed to the occult. Catholicism is notorious for syncretizing (mixing) pagan beliefs and practices with (c)hristianity.  Roman Catholic sacramentals, widely used by the faithful – candles, medals, holy water, scapulars, statues, crucifixes, rosaries, novenas, prayers to the dead – promote superstition and predispose the practitioners to occultic influences. From Catholicism, it’s not a long stretch to horoscopes, seances, palm reading, etc. My deceased mother-in-law was heavily into psychic practices prior to leaving Catholicism and accepting Christ. Throughout Central America and the Caribbean, Catholicism is tightly intertwined with voodoo paganism. So in these heavily-Catholic areas where quasi-occultic practices flourish, perhaps people are more susceptible to full-blown demonic possession?
2. Priests are exalted as deliverers. In these full-blown exorcism narratives, Catholic families are dependent upon their priest (proclaimed to be an “alter Christus” – another Christ) to rid the demon/s from their possessed loved ones. Consequently, priests are held in high esteem as saviors and redeemers. But priests do not bring the Good News! of salvation by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone to anyone. They are in bondage themselves to a false gospel of salvation by sacramental grace and merit. Demon spirits delight in false gospels of merited salvation and may intercede to assist the spiritually-blinded clerics in deluding their followers.

Those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior by faith alone and are born again by the blood of the Lamb and are sealed and indwelt by the Holy Spirit cannot not be possessed by a demon. See here. But demons can certainly tempt and influence believers. Just look at the current state of the evangelical church (e.g., TBN, the prosperity gospel, doctrine-lite seeker mega-churches). We must be constantly on guard and fighting the good fight of faith through the power of the Lord and His Word.

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.” – 1 Peter 5:8-9

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Rome’s exorcist, Father Gabriel Amorth, dies at age 91
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/romes-exorcist-father-gabriel-amorth-dies-at-age-91-29963/

“Invalid” baptisms? Another Catholic rabbit hole

This past week, news sources reported that a Roman Catholic priest, Andres Arango (photo above) of the diocese of Phoenix, had “invalidly” baptized people for decades. Huh? First a little background.

The Roman Catholic church teaches “baptismal regeneration” i.e., the belief that baptism washes away original sin and incorporates the baptised individual into the church and allows them to receive additional sacraments to help them merit their salvation. For 1500 years, the RCC taught baptism is essential for salvation. However, modernism crept into RC theology during the 20th century and at the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) the church dichotomously granted that all unbaptized religionists – Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc. – could also merit Heaven. How does that work? It was claimed the unbaptized would be covered under the tenet of baptismus flaminis (Latin: “baptism of desire”), i.e., the righteous unbaptised would desire baptism if they only knew how important it was.

Got all that? I know, I know. It’s impossibly incongruent, but let’s continue on to the crux of this post.

In order for baptism to be efficacious, the precise baptismal incantation – “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” – must be used by the priest. If the incantation is altered in any way, the baptism is invalid. The candidate still retains original sin, cannot receive the additional six sacraments, and is doomed to hell (unless they plead the baptismus flaminis clause at the gates of Heaven – I’m being facetious).

The Catholic and secular press recently reported (link below) that it was discovered that priest Arango has been using the incorrect baptismal incantation since he was ordained in 1995. Instead of saying, “I baptize you…,” Arango used the incorrect formula, “We baptize you…” It’s unknown exactly how many Catholics were affected, but the number is not insignificant. Arango held many positions in Brazil and in the United States and church authorities are attempting to contact as many of the individuals baptized by Arango as possible. They will all have to be re-baptized, and repeat the sacraments of confirmation and marriage (if applicable). They also won’t be able to receive the Jesus wafer or confess their sins to a priest until they are re-baptized.

Arango has resigned his position as a Phoenix parish priest and is currently assisting church authorities in the search for those affected.

Does the above strike you as absolute inanity? Religious legalism leads to all kinds ridiculous rabbit holes such as the case above. Baptism is an important ordinance as a public witness of our faith, but it is not salvific.

Roman Catholics need to hear the genuine Good News! Gospel of salvation by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. They’re hearing a false gospel of salvation by sacramental grace and merit in their churches. Shame on Rome-friendly evangelical pastors and para-church leaders who claim the Roman Catholic church teaches the genuine Gospel.

How one priest’s mistake led to over 20 years of invalid baptisms
https://aleteia.org/2022/02/10/how-one-priests-mistake-led-to-over-20-years-of-invalid-baptisms/

A couple of years ago, I reported on a similar dizzying rabbit hole, that of priest who had been “invalidly baptized” himself as an infant, making all of the sacraments he administered “invalid.” See here and here.

Throwback Thursday: “The Priest, the Woman, and the Confessional”

Welcome to this week’s “Throwback Thursday” installment. Today, we’re going to revisit a post that was originally published back on February 29, 2016 and has been revised.

The Priest, the Woman, and the Confessional
By Charles Chiniquy
Chick Publications, 1979, 144 pages

I don’t normally waste my time with material from Chick Publications because I don’t believe every calamity is attributable to a Jesuit global conspiracy, but I received this book as a gift. This Chick reprint of “The Priest, the Woman, and the Confessional” by ex-priest, Charles Chiniquy, preserves a valuable, nineteenth-century Protestant critique of Roman Catholicism’s sacrament of auricular confession. Chiniquy’s book was first published in 1875, followed by many subsequent re-prints.

With overwrought prose typical of his times, Chiniquy warns his readers of the dangers inherent in “auricular” (spoken into the ear of the confessor) confession. Catholics are obligated to confess their “mortal” sins to a priest at least once a year under penalty of incurring yet another “mortal” sin. Since most penitents are extremely reluctant to divulge any embarrassing sexual sins, whether they be thoughts or actions, priests are instructed to thoroughly question the person about such matters to ensure a candid “good” confession. Chiniquy gives many examples of the dangers of celibate confessors (priests) interrogating their female supplicants about such personal matters. The Catholic church acknowledges the pitfalls inherent in its process by defining the use of the confessional for immoral purposes by priests as “solicitation.”

Catholicism teaches that salvation comes by receiving its sacraments, all tightly controlled by the clergy, and by obeying the Ten Commandments (impossible!) and church rules. The sacrament of reconciliation, auricular confession, is just another opportunity for the Catholic clergy to exercise control over its members. Chiniquy demonstrates that confession of sins to a priest has no basis in New Testament Scripture and he urges the reader to turn from man-made Catholic legalism and traditions and accept Jesus Christ as Savior by faith alone. Once a person accepts Christ as Savior, they should confess all sin directly to God, not to a human mediator (Mark 2:7).

“The Priest, the Woman, and the Confessional” has been lumped together with similar evangelical Protestant books of the period as anti-Catholic “hate literature” of a bygone era. One could argue the title is a bit salacious and meant to appeal to prurient interests. Likewise, the illustrated cover provided by Chick Publications is mildly sensationalistic. Ex-priest Chiniquy definitely exaggerates his point by claiming the confessional was directly responsible for bringing many Catholic countries down to ruin. These minor objections aside, even the most sectarian Catholic apologist can’t deny the Roman confessional has led to abuse of scandalous proportions.

While Chiniquy was concerned with relationships between confessor priests and their adult, female penitents, news reports over the last thirty years have revealed shocking clerical sexual abuse of children, mainly boys, validating the ex-priest’s warnings regarding the confessional, but going far beyond the improprieties alluded to in this book. In many cases, the abusive relationships between priests and children began in the confessional box. The sacraments of the “eucharist” and confession had been reserved for adults prior to 1910, but that year pope “saint” Pius X issued his Quam Singulari decree, which mandated that Catholic children begin receiving communion and going to confession at age seven. In 2012, bishopaccountability.org reported the number of American priests credibly accused of molesting children since 1950 to be more than 6,100. Over 16,000 victims have been documented although many others surely never came forward. The Catholic church’s cover up of its pedophile priests scandal involved the highest offices of the hierarchy.

In contrast to Chiniquy’s time, Catholics now stay away from the confessional box in droves despite the threat of “mortal” sin. Who can blame them? Catholic sources state that only 26% of the membership participate in confession at least once a year. Evidently the other 74% would rather take their chances with eternity than share a “dark box” with a priest. Additionally, asking penitents to recall all of the times they disobeyed the Ten Commandments in the past year is beyond ludicrous. I couldn’t possibly recall all of my sins against God in either thought, word, deed, and omission for even a single day. Christ reveals in Matthew 5 the utter hopelessness of attempting to obey the law as a means to salvation. The entire business is a religious sham designed to keeps its members totally dependent on the Catholic clergy.

“Nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified” – Galatians 2:16

Accept Jesus Christ as your Savior by faith alone and ask the Lord to direct you to an evangelical church in your area that’s preaches God’s Word without compromise.

Afterthought: An “invalid” priest and the dizzying consequences

A couple of weeks ago, I published a post about a Roman Catholic priest, Matthew Hood (photo above), who recently discovered that his infant baptism was “invalid,” which, as a consequence, rendered his ordination invalid. That led to all kinds of ramifications and diocesan “remediations,” which I examined in the first post (see here).

Afterwards, another thought came to mind regarding priest Hood and the specific sacrament of the eucharist that I will focus on further below. But first, let’s lay some groundwork.

The Catholic church teaches that during the mass, the priest mystically changes bread wafers and wine into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ, which are then offered up to God the Father as a sacrifice for the sins of those assembled, and also for the pope, the local bishop, and anyone else who is specially mentioned. The congregants then line up to receive a consecrated Jesus wafer from the priest. They are taught that consuming the Jesus wafer provides graces to help them resist sin and do good in order to merit their salvation at the time of their death. Some Catholics testify that consuming the Jesus wafer is, for them, a very powerful, mystical experience. Some even report feeling an emotional closeness to Jesus that borders on the rapturous.

Let’s now return to the case of priest Matthew Hood. Hood was ordained as a priest on June 3, 2017, but discovered this past summer that he was invalidly baptized as an infant, which meant his ordination was also invalid. So, over the course of three years, Hood celebrated mass at two different parishes as an invalid priest. If Hood celebrated mass at least once per day over that span, that’s at least 1000 times he went through the motions of transubstantiation – the supposed changing of the bread wafers and wine into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ – without having done so because he had not actually been ordained and invested with priestly powers (I write these things strictly for hypothetical purposes).

So for three long years, not one congregant noticed that the bread wafers dispensed by Hood were not transubstantiated. Don’t miss it, my friends. This is very revealing! Not one parishioner spoke up and said, “Hey, there’s something wrong here! I’m not experiencing any wonderful feelings or behavior-changing results from these communion wafers like I normally do.” NOT ONE PERSON raised a concern about the faux Jesus wafers distributed by Hood during the three years he was an invalid priest.

All of the above is not surprising to me. As a Roman Catholic, I consumed the transubstantiated Jesus wafer at least weekly, beginning with my first communion at age seven up until my early-teen years (fourteen?), after which I began attending mass irregularly. I estimate that I received communion over 500 times in my 27 years as a Catholic, which included a four-year stint as an altar boy. Not once in those 500+ times did I ever undergo some type of mystical, empowering experience. I was exactly the same after consuming the Jesus wafer as I was before. I also observed there were no radical or even subtle changes in my parents, my sisters, or my Catholic grammar school and high school classmates after they had received the Jesus wafer.

The bottom line: those Catholics who claim a mystical and/or behavior-altering experience after consuming the allegedly transubstantiated Jesus wafer are self-delusional as this invalid priest saga proves. Religious sacraments, rituals, and ceremonies don’t save. The Good News is that salvation is by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. Accept Jesus Christ as your Savior by faith alone this day and then ask the Lord to lead you to an evangelical church in your area that preaches the Gospel without compromise.

“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.” – Matthew 24:23

An “invalid” priest and the dizzying consequences

Although the Roman Catholic church claims it is a Christian institution (it actually declares that it is the “one, true church”), its salvation system of sacramental grace and merit is antithetical to the genuine Good News Gospel of salvation by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.

Roman Catholicism appeals to the religious lost with its precise liturgical rituals and formal pomposity, but beneath the ornate facade is an impossible legalism that dooms the soul.

While searching for news items for a recent weekend roundup, I came across the article far below, which required a post all by itself. It’s an excellent example of a Roman Catholic legalistic religious rabbit hole that just gets deeper and deeper and deeper. Fasten your seat belt and let’s delve into this bizarre and sad circumstance.

Roman Catholic priest, Matthew Hood (photo above), was enjoying a family video of his 1990 infant baptism, but became very distraught when he observed the presiding deacon, Mark Springer, using an incorrect version of the baptismal formula. Instead of saying, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” as the church mandates, the deacon had incorrectly said, “We baptize you…” Hood immediately contacted his superior, the archbishop of Detroit, who in turn contacted the Vatican in Rome. The Vatican quickly ruled that Hood’s infant baptism was invalid because of the incorrect wording, which meant that his ordination as a priest in 2017 was likewise invalid. The bishop immediately had Hood rebaptized using the correct formula, and then reconfirmed, and reordained, but the problem doesn’t end there. Only validly ordained priests are supposedly empowered to administer the sacraments. As an invalidly ordained priest, Hood had illegitimately administered the sacraments of 1) the eucharist, 2) confession, 3) last rites, 4) marriage, and 5) confirmation (note: the RCC allows that anyone may administer the sacrament of baptism, even an atheist, as long as they follow the precise rubrics).

The archdiocese is now instructing all of the members of the two parishes where Hood was assigned to inquire if any remedial follow-up is needed as well as all those who were baptized by Springer from 1986 to 1999 when he was active.

Everyone who was married or confirmed by Hood will need to have those sacraments re-performed by a validly ordained priest. But what about the thousands of times Hood invalidly administered the sacraments of the eucharist, absolution, and last rites? What happens to those souls who relied on Hood for those sacraments during the three years he was an invalid priest? According to Catholic theology, the sacraments are essential to salvation, yet Hood’s parishioners were receiving bogus sacraments for three years. What about the members who had received illegitimate eucharist, absolution, and last rites during that time span and died? The archbishop of Detroit, Allen H. Vigneron, attempted to quell any panic by stating, “We can be assured that all those who approached Father Hood, in good faith, to receive the sacraments did not walk away empty-handed.” Hmm. That message presumes upon a laxness on the part of Catholicism’s god that is contradicted by all of the current, highly-prioritized, diocesan-dictated remediation.

My friends, this sad saga is an excellent illustration of how Catholicism’s salvation system of sacramental grace and merit is a legalistic rabbit hole that just gets deeper and deeper. One irregular contingency leads to another and another and another. At the same time that it deals in all of the legalistic scrupulosity detailed above, the Roman Catholic church dichotomously teaches that people of all religions (e.g., Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc.) and even atheists can merit Heaven if they are sincere and “follow the light they are given.” Turn from false (c)hristianity, repent of your sin, and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior by faith alone.

Detroit priest’s invalid baptism had ripple effect, archdiocese says
https://www.catholicnews.com/detroit-priests-invalid-baptism-had-ripple-effect-archdiocese-says/

A priest leaves Roman Catholicism for Jesus Christ

The Soul of a Priest: My Conversion to the Pauline Succession
By L.H. Lehmann
Agora Publishing Company, 1933, 145 pp.

Many decades ago, Protestant literature included testimonies from ex-Catholic priests who had accepted Jesus Christ as Savior by faith alone and came out of the Roman Catholic church, but in our current era of ecumenical compromise, publishers like Zondervan, Baker, and Thomas Nelson are certainly not interested in that kind of story.

In this autobiography from several generations ago that went through numerous reprints, ex-priest, Leo Herbert Lehmann, recounts his experiences in seminary and as a Catholic priest in Rome, South Africa, and the United States and his eventual conversion to Jesus Christ and Biblical Christianity.

Lehmann was born in 1895 on the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland. His parents both died when he was very young and he was subsequently raised by other family members. He endured a strict education at the hands of the cruel Irish Christian Brothers (the same religious order that taught at my high school) and resolved to become a priest, an extremely prestigious position in those days. He entered Catholic seminary at the age of seventeen at Mungret College near Limerick and then went on to Rome in 1918 to complete his training at the University de Propaganda Fideto to be a missionary priest. Lehmann excelled in his studies and was given some oversight responsibilities in connection with his fellow seminarians.

Lehmann was ordained a priest in 1921 and shortly thereafter was assigned to South Africa as a missionary priest. He recounts his challenging experiences in Rome and Capetown as a priest dealing with the superstitious laity and his corrupt fellow priests. Because of his ties to Mungret Seminary, he was called upon by that institution’s administrators to return to Rome and lend his support in their struggle with the Jesuit order, which sought to bring the seminary portion of Mungret College under its direct control. The squabble eventually reached up to the pope, Benedict XV, who ruled in favor of the seminary’s administrators, but the Jesuits were able to circumvent the papal decree through back door diplomacy and were ultimately able to wrest control of the seminary from the administrators. Lehmann’s eyes were opened for the first time to the corruptness of the Roman church through this internal power struggle. However, he also realized his role in the conflict made him a persona non grata in the eyes of the Jesuits. In 1928, he accepted an assignment to farflung, Gainesville, Florida, in the hopes that he might escape the Jesuits’ attention.

The 1928 U.S. presidential campaign of Catholic candidate, Al Smith, left a bitter taste in Lehmann’s mouth because he was often forced to equivocate publicly regarding the church’s view that American Catholic political office holders, just like Catholics in any country, were expected to place their allegiance to Rome over their obligation to any national constitution.* The suppression of that truth, along with the church’s sacramental system’s inability to actually change Catholics’ moral behavior, as well as the abject failure and hypocrisy of the celibacy rule, which was common knowledge among priests, led Lehmann into despair. His experience at the execution of a Catholic criminal was the final straw. Lehmann realized deep in his soul that he could not offer the condemned man any real spiritual solace.

Lehmann left the priesthood in 1929 and eventually repented of his sin and trusted in the Jesus Christ of the Bible as his Savior by faith alone. He subsequently became associated with Christ’s Mission in New York City, which began in 1883 as a Gospel outreach to Catholic priests and ex-priests. Lehmann was director of Christ’s Mission from 1948 until 1950.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Lehmann’s revelations about the corruption of the priesthood back in 1933 were amazingly prescient in light of the current priest abuse and cover-up scandal tsunami. I especially appreciated Lehmann’s remarks about several quasi-Protestants who famously converted to the Roman church, such as John Henry Newman and G.K. Chesterton. Today’s ecumenically-minded evangelicals are bewitched by Chesterton’s “verbal wizardry,” which Lehmann dismisses as tiresome “mental shuttlecock.”

A condensed version of “The Soul of a Priest” can be found here.

For a more recently published collection of testimonies from 50 priests who left Roman Catholicism and accepted Jesus Christ as Savior by faith alone, see my review of “Far From Rome, Near To God” here.

*Today’s reader will view Lehmann’s warnings of the dangers of Catholic political hegemony as quaintly paranoid, but, prior to Vatican II, the Vatican negotiated diplomatic treaties (aka concordats) with countries where it held a numerical majority that severely limited the freedoms of Protestants.

Above: A photo of young Leo Herbert Lehmann as a Catholic priest.

 

Shining a light on the dark secrets of the Catholic priesthood

“Gay Priests and the Self-Loathing of the Catholic Church”
By Andrew Sullivan
New York Magazine, January 21-February 3, 2019, pp. 18-25, 82-83

I was an altar boy from 5th through 8th grade and served at masses at our parish church on Saturdays, Sundays, and weekdays. In my capacity as an altar boy, I regularly interacted with the pastor priest and his revolving cadre of assistant priests. I was certainly not an expert on human behavior at that young age, but I observed that the priests conducted themselves strangely, quite unlike the other adult men in my life like my father, my uncles and the adult men in my neighborhood. Those priests seemed uncomfortable in their own skins. Looking back at the situation now, I believe I was interacting with some very troubled men and was in a dangerous situation.

I don’t have much use for secular magazines at this stage of my life, but as I was walking through the aisles of Wegman’s supermarket last week, I noticed this current issue of “New York” magazine in the magazine rack with its provocative article title and cover photo and bought it.

“Gay Priests and the Self-Loathing of the Catholic Church” turned out to be a very interesting and informative article on the topic of the very large percentage of gay men in the Catholic priesthood. The author puts the percentage of gay priests at around 30 to 40 percent for parish priests and as many as 60 percent for priests of religious orders.

The current pedophile priests and cover-up scandal tsunami has opened up a can of worms for the American Catholic church and is prodding the laity and outsiders to ask questions that have rarely been asked before, such as:

• Why is there such a high percentage of homosexual men in the ranks of the Catholic priesthood? (see next question)
• Is there a correlation between Catholicism’s rule of clerical celibacy and the high percentage of homosexuals in the ranks of priests? (obviously)
• What correlations can be drawn between the high percentage of homosexual priests and sexually abusive priests whose victims have mostly been boys? (definitely not a PC question)

Catholic sociologist, Richard Sipe, asked these very questions twenty-years ago, but his research was ignored.

The author of this article has done a good deal of research as well. The unofficial history of the Catholic priesthood is thick with accounts of relationships between fellow clerics (the author cites famous Catholics, John Henry Newman, Henri Nouwen, Francis Spellman, and pope Benedict XVI) and also with accounts of prelates and priests who preyed upon underlings and trusting members of the laity. Cover-ups were not only a matter of “protecting” the church’s reputation, but also, in recent times, an I-won’t-tell-on you-if-you don’t-tell-on-me grand conspiracy.

Given the magnitude of the abusive priests and cover-up scandal, we can anticipate many more fact-finding examinations of the connection between Roman Catholicism’s mandatory rule of clerical celibacy and homosexuality. Magazine articles such as this one are only the vanguard of what’s to come.

The piece isn’t without its biases. Author Sullivan is a gay Catholic layman, journalist, and LGBTQ activist and his goals with this article are to unmask the reality of the large percentage of homosexual men in the priesthood and to add his voice to those of other activists who are prodding the RCC to accept homosexuality as a natural orientation. It’s more than ironic that a religious institution that teaches merited salvation is run to a great degree by homosexual men.

Catholic friend, God’s Word proclaims there is no longer any need for priests or perpetual sacrifice for sin. Jesus is not on Catholic altars in the hands of sinful men. God the Son, Jesus Christ, came down and paid the penalty for sin on the cross and offers forgiveness of sin and eternal life to all those who repent of their sin and accept Him as their Savior by faith alone. Will you accept Jesus as your Savior? Pray to Him today! Then, come out of Roman Catholicism and ask the Lord to lead you to an evangelical church in your area that preaches God’s Word without compromise.

“And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” – Hebrews 10:11-14

Digging deep into the corruption that inspired Kazan’s “On the Waterfront”

On the Irish Waterfront: The Crusader, the Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York
By James T. Fisher
Cornell University Press, 2009, 370 pages

Director Elia Kazan’s “On the Waterfront,” is widely recognized as one of the top twenty American films ever made. It’s probably my favorite of Kazan’s nineteen films (see my review here). In this book, historian James Fisher documents the corruption on the docks of New York City and New Jersey that inspired the film. I’d been aware of this book for quite a long time and finally borrowed a copy from the library. I’ll always remember it as the book that kept me company during my wife’s recent 24-hour hospital Emergency Department visit.

In nineteenth-century New York City, Irish immigrants were consigned the very dangerous and strenuous work of physically loading and unloading ships. Over time, the Irish eventually usurped control of the docks. In the mid-twentieth-century, Joe Ryan and his corrupt union, the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA), ran the piers with an iron fist. Ryan ultimately reported to “Mr. Big,” Bill McCormack, who controlled a variety of industries in the New York City metropolitan area including all of the stevedore companies. McCormack, Ryan, and their lieutenants were in cahoots with local politicians and the Catholic prelates. Everyone benefited from the symbiosis except for the rank-and-file longshoreman, who were beholden to the union bosses each day for a chance to work a ship. Ryan and McCormack, devout Catholics, attended daily mass in the early morning and authorized intimidation, violence, and murder the rest of the day.

Jesuit priest, John “Pete” Corridan, was frustrated by the corruption on the docks and launched a one-man crusade against Ryan, the ILA, and McCormack. Investigative journalist, Mike Johnson, became aware of Corridan’s fight with the syndicate and wrote a series of exposés for one of the New York dailies. The articles came to the attention of novelist and screenwriter, Budd Schulberg, who acquainted himself with Corridan and the fight against corruption on the docks and eventually fashioned the script that became “On the Waterfront.”

Serious students of “Waterfront” and Kazan will definitely enjoy this book, but it’s not for the casual fan. Fisher’s history is extremely detailed and gets into quite a bit of minutiae. Jesuit priest Corridan’s work on the piers of New York was a precursor of the Jesuits’ propagation of “Liberation Theology” in Latin America and elsewhere. Corridan was the inspiration for priest, Pete Barry, in the film, played by Karl Malden, while the corrupt union boss character, Johnny Friendly, was somewhat based on Joe Ryan. For more on “Mr. Big,” Bill McCormack, see my previous post here. It’s interesting to note that shortly after “On the Waterfront” was released, the need for longshoreman would rapidly decline with the introduction of mammoth container ships.

Catholicism: Abuse by priests is horrible, but its false gospel is eternally fatal

Over the last five months, the Catholic church has been overwhelmed by this latest wave of its ongoing pedophile priest abuse and cover-up scandal. With all due empathy and compassion for the victims of pedophile priest abuse, we must keep in mind that the gravest danger presented by the Catholic church is the propagation of its false gospel of salvation via sacramental grace and merit. The very relevant passage below recently caught my eye:

“The focus on the child abuse scandals (within the Catholic church) has meant that the fundamental and deep doctrinal differences between Roman Catholicism and Biblical Protestantism have been pushed into the background. Perhaps they are regarded by many as of no great significance in this modern age, but, for us, they remain the key reasons for our continued opposition to the Pope and his church. As we seek to highlight these, it is vital that we do so in a spirit of humility and compassion. We have nothing to boast of in ourselves, for we are sinners saved by grace, and we must reach out to our Roman Catholic neighbors in love and proclaim to them the true Gospel message of salvation by faith alone in Christ alone.” – from “Reflections on the Papal Visit to Ireland,” The Ulster Bulwark, October-December 2018, p. 13.

 

Catholic priest slaps infant

 

Warning: Many will find this video very upsetting.

I’m not going to add a lot of words to this post. News sources report that the Catholic bishop of Meaux (France) suspended “father” Jacques Lacroix after the priest angrily slapped an infant at a baptism ceremony as caught on this video.

As a student at both Catholic grammar school and high school, I can vividly recall priests, sisters, and brothers treating children with cruelty.

The Lord Jesus Christ loves this priest and desires that he put aside his works religion and trusts in Him as Savior by faith alone, but if that priest had slapped that infant in front of the Lord Jesus Christ…

French priest filmed slapping baby during baptism retires amid condemnation