The Book of Gomorrah - Homosexual Priests destroying the moral authority of the church
LifeSiteNews: Do you see
movements or stirrings happening within the Church today that are similar to
what St. Peter Damian was fighting against a thousand years ago? What are some
examples?
Hoffman: The
situation of the Catholic Church in the 11th century, when Damian lived,
resembles our own time in some disturbing ways. The priesthood back then had
been infiltrated by a large number of morally lax men who had little respect
for sexual morality, including homosexuals who made “prostitutes” out of their
“spiritual sons,” in the words of Damian. Unlike today, however, many priests
were openly living in immoral unions with concubines or illicit wives, and did
little to hide other scandalous personal behavior. This behavior even included
some popes, who set a bad example for the rest of the Church.
Damian reminded Pope Leo IX of the traditional law that was to
be applied to priests who were caught in any kind of lascivious behavior with
minors: they were to be publicly humiliated, their heads shorn of their
tonsure, spittle rubbed in their faces, imprisoned in a monastic cell for six
months and forced to fast on barley bread while they engaged in penance, and
then to be held under the guard of two other monks for the rest of their lives.
This very rigorous punishment reflected an understanding of the gravity of such
evil that was diminished dramatically in recent decades.
The tough penances imposed by the Church for sodomy helped to
maintain a sense of the gravity of the deed. Such penances could last for
decades. Even clerics who might be readmitted to the clerical state would have
to do those penances and would in fact be subject to harsher ones than those
imposed on the laity.
Although the Church continues to teach that any sexual act
outside of marriage is gravely sinful, its system of punishment for clerics who
commit acts of sodomy and child sex abuse was relaxed very substantially
following the Second Vatican Council. We reaped the fruit of that laxity in the
form of a very large number of tragic sexual abuse cases that could easily have
been prevented if the Church’s clerical leadership had adhered to traditional
doctrine.
LifeSiteNews: Does
Damian say anything about the spiritual consequences of active homosexuality?
What are his warnings?
Hoffman: Damian
regards homosexual behavior as extremely destructive to the human person, both
spiritually and psychologically. He writes that “this vice is 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.” These interior torments are seen
as a prelude to the eternal sufferings of hell, if the perpetrator does not
repent before death.
Damian writes that those who are given over to sodomy are
provoked to fight “impious wars against God,” and are consumed by guilt and
shame. This analysis might be seen as explaining much about the modern
homosexual movement, which seems obsessed with attacking Christians and forcing
them to cooperate in the recognition of homosexual unions. “His flesh burns
with the fury of lust, his frigid mind trembles with the rancor of suspicion,
and chaos now rages hellishly in the heart of the unhappy man,” Damian adds
regarding sodomites.
He also anticipates modern critiques of homosexual attraction by
noting that no authentic complementarity exists between people of the same sex.
“What do you seek in a man, that you are unable to find in yourself—what
difference of sexes, what diverse features of members ...?” he asks.
However, his message is not merely one of condemnation, but also
of hope for those who have fallen into sexual immorality, that God may liberate
them and restore them to himself. He expresses profound grief over those who
have fallen into sexual perversion, and urges them to “Arise ... Wake up O man
who sinks in the sleep of wretched pleasure! Revive at last, you who have
fallen by the lethal sword before the face of your enemies!” He assures those
who have fallen into the sin of sodomy that they can rise to even greater
spiritual heights than those from which they fell, although he is also clear in
his view that those guilty of the worst kinds of sodomy cannot be permitted to
return to the clerical state.
LifeSiteNews: What is
Damian's most important message to the Catholic Church today in which we find
influential Catholic leaders seemingly trying to open a door to an acceptance
of homosexuality?
Hoffman: Saint
Peter Damian, who has the title of Doctor of the Catholic Church because his
teaching is regarded as so authoritative, is a powerful voice from our past
reminding us of the terrible gravity of homosexual behavior, and indeed any
perversion of the sexual act. His definition of “sodomy” includes contraception
and masturbation as well, reminding us that all forms of sexual perversion are
condemned by the Church, and that they all exist on the same continuum of evil.
Damian does not regard the condemnation of sodomy as a mere
technical matter of Church doctrine, as many prelates in the Church appear to
do today. He sees it as “the worst of sins,” and even evidence of demonic
possession. This is in keeping with the Scriptures that regard sodomy as one of
the four sins that cries out for the revenge of God. His perspective on this
matter is also clearly affirmed by Pope St. Leo IX, who wrote to Damian that
“everything that this little book contains has been pleasing to our judgment,
being as opposed to diabolical fire as is water.” It is also consistent with
the Holy Office’s 1962 decree on priest sex abusers that called sodomy and
child sex abuse “the worst crime.”
LifeSiteNews: Does
Damian preach hatred of homosexuals?
Hoffman: Quite the
contrary; his work is all about mercy and love of the sinner, and therefore the
hatred of the sin that harms the sinner. He never expresses hatred of the
sinner at all but, seeks to have the sinner reconciled with God.
LifeSiteNews: According
to Damian, what are the principal dangers the Church faces in not preaching the
full truth about homosexuality?
Hoffman: Damian
warns that sodomy, particularly in the priesthood, is like a terrible plague
that threatens to bring down the wrath of God. He warns that priests who are
engaged in such evils are not proper intercessors for the people and in fact
will tend to provoke divine vengeance rather than reconciliation. “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, and
while your ruin is certain, beware of being made guilty of the ruin of
another,” he writes.
He also warns prelates, such as bishops and superiors of
religious orders, that if they fail to correct those who are under their
authority, they will be held accountable for their sin. He denounces their
“cruel mercy” and “impious piety,” in refusing to punish evildoers, which
causes the wounds of their sin to fester rather than curing them.
Unfortunately our own prelates seem to have adopted the opposite idea
regarding sexual sin in recent years, claiming to be “merciful” by refusing to
recognize the gravity of the evil and its destructiveness.
LifeSiteNews: Some
scholars have claimed that Pope St. Leo IX “rejected” Damian’s recommendations
for rigorous punishment of sodomy and even “rebuked” Damian. Is there any truth
to that claim?
Hoffman: No, and in
fact the preface I wrote at the beginning of the book examines the issue and
finally puts this myth to rest. As I noted above, Pope Leo IX praised the Book
of Gomorrah in the highest terms, and moreover Leo responded with a stronger
system of punishment than Damian had requested.
Some scholars have taken a single phrase in which the pope
recognizes the ancient laws of the Church regarding sodomy but then says “we,
acting more humanely,” and then lays down his judgment in how to deal with the
matter. This phrase “we, acting more humanely” is not a rebuke of Damian, as I
show, but is in fact a citation of an ancient council of the Church which used
the same phrase to justify a less rigorous form of punishment. The punishment
decreed by Leo, however, exceeds what Damian himself requests at the end of the
Book of Gomorrah, so there is no rebuke at all nor rejection of anything Damian
wrote.
