Treatise against homosexuality
The Book of Gomorrah, St. Peter Damian’s classic
treatise against a plague of homosexuality in the Catholic priesthood during
the eleventh century, has now been published with a new translation by
LifeSiteNews reporter Matthew Cullinan Hoffman and a foreword by Cardinal Juan Sandoval
Íñiguez.
The Book of Gomorrah and St. Peter Damian’s Struggle
Against Ecclesiastical Corruption includes a complete translation of Damian’s Book
of Gomorrah, as well
as an extensive account of the saint’s battle against the terrible corruption
in the Church of his day. Damian fearlessly rebuked popes and bishops in
his quest to restore the integrity of the Catholic priesthood and the morals of
the faithful. He also successfully confronted the German Emperor Henry IV
to protect the sacrament of marriage and prevent him from receiving an easy
annulment.
In the Book of Gomorrah, Damian warns Pope St. Leo IX
that “the cancer of sodomitic impurity is creeping through the clerical order,”
and decries the sexual abuse of “spiritual sons” by Catholic priests. He warns
that all those habituated to homosexual behavior should be removed from the
priesthood, and that the wrath of God is provoked against those who continue to
offer the sacrifice of the Mass.
“Beware of inextinguishably inflaming the fury of God against
you, lest by your prayers you more sharply provoke Him whom you patently offend
by your evil acts,” writes Damian.
The Book of Gomorrah provides a stark contrast to those in
today’s clergy who wish to treat the sin of sodomy as if it were a minor or
trivial matter.
According to Damian, the evil of homosexual behavior “surpasses
the savagery of all other vices,” and “is to be compared to no other. For this
vice is the death of bodies, the destruction of souls, pollutes the flesh,
extinguishes the light of the intellect, expels the Holy Spirit from the temple
of the human heart, introduces the diabolical inciter of lust, throws into
confusion, and removes the truth completely from the deceived mind.”
He notes that “whoever has soiled himself with the contamination
of sodomitic disgrace ... unless he is cleansed by the fulfillment of fruitful
penance, can never have the grace of God, will never be worthy of the body and
blood of Christ, and will never cross the threshold of the celestial homeland.”
Damian expresses profound sorrow for those who have fallen into
sexual perversion, promising them that they can be liberated from their
enslavement to sin by God, and restored spiritually if they repent and do
penance.
Hoffman’s edition also includes a letter by Pope St. Leo IX
praising the Book of Gomorrah in the highest terms. “Everything that
this little book contains has been pleasing to our judgment, being as opposed
to diabolical fire as is water,” writes Leo.
Cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez writes that the book “brings us
to the realization that a thousand years ago sexual vices were being practiced
by various sons of the Church that lamentably are present today and have been
the occasion of scandal, discredit, and apostasy.”
Oxford professor Joseph Shaw writes that “Hoffman has produced a
highly readable translation of St Peter Damian’s most famous work, with a
scholarly and helpful commentary placing it into its historical context. ...
Hoffman has done a great service to his readers in preparing this edition.”
