In celebrating the Ascension of Our Lord it became painfully obvious to me something I already knew but never really, “KNEW”!  I got a new clarity, an, “Ah ha”, moment. I do not know why I didn’t have this before and I will be the first to admit that sometimes I’m a little slow on the uptake. So here it is.

Unless Jesus ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father Then the Holy Spirit would not come.  Okay…I got it so far.  The Holy Spirit, a.k.a the Paraclete,  a.k.a. the Advocate, a.k.a. the Counselor, and the third Person of the Trinity…is God.  Okay…I’ve got that too.  Just as Jesus sometimes was not listened to sometimes the Holy Spirit is not listened to…is in fact ignored.  For the record I have preached that.

As Catholic Christians we do believe that it is truly the Holy Spirit, God, guiding our Church in spite of sinful man. So I have told the people not to worry about all the crazy things you are hearing from some priests and bishops which seems to or actually do contradict the Church’s teachings. The three persons of the one God can not contradict one another because in actuality they are ONE GOD.  Okay, got it.

Now lets see that in action. If you are praying, for arguments sake, about what you can do to personally aid the, “poor”, in some way  and the answer you get is found a religion by breaking away from the Catholic Church or become an abortion escort you can believe that it is not the Holy Spirit telling you to do those things. It’s a spirit alright but not the Holy Spirit. Those actions contradict God and the scripture, tradition and the dogma of the Catholic Church. Remember demons are fallen angels and they are spirit too. We are commanded by the New Testament to test the spirit. If it is contradictory to the Church and to what God has already revealed then you can know it is not God, not the Holy Spirit.

Now to the meat of the matter; What part of the clergy sexual abuse scandal would God approve of? Would God approve of the sex acts and molestation and rapes themselves?  No.  Would he approve of these men being shuffled around within their own dioceses? No. Would God be okay with then being lent to other dioceses? No. How about covering the whole thing up, would God be on board with that? NO, NO, and NO again. Do all of those things fly in the face of the teaching of God and our deposit of faith? Yes.  Does all of this mean that the Holy Spirit is not in charge of the Church? NO! It means that the Holy Spirit, God, has been ignored.

And there is the sum of the issue…God has been ignored.