Author: Odon De Castro

Pope Benedict had always viewed Fatima and everything he sees from the context of the theology of history as influenced by St. Bonaventure. Referring to the third secret of Fatima, he commented that it is all found in Scriptures. And indeed everything that Our Blessed Mother ever said in her approved apparitions confirm what is only in Scriptures. The Marian messages are ‘per se’ unnecessary; but due to the forgetfulness and laziness of men in studying Scriptures it has become a necessity. Since her messages are confirmations of what is already in Divine Revelation then it is part of Divine Providence prophesied and, therefore, will be fulfilled.

Like Christ, Mary often speaks only in parables to unbelievers and gives the deeper explanation in the form of secrets to believers. It is futile to give the deeper meanings to unbelievers. Like the early Jews they will just scoff at it and become guiltier in their unbelief. All parables are found in Scriptures. And Mary’s parable-messages like her call for Repentance from LaSalette to Fatima are found all over Scriptures. This is a message for sinners and unbelievers. But the deeper meaning of the parables which Christ shared only with his Disciples, because they were believers, is also found in Scriptures but impossible for unbelievers to understand. The deeper meaning of Mary’s messages are found, also, in Scriptures but difficult to understand that is why Mary usually instructs seers to tell the Pope to interpret the deeper messages as Christ interpreted the deeper meaning of His messages to His apostles. Sometimes even the seers, like St. Bridget, could not understand her own visions.

The messages of Our Lady in Fatima fell under the category of parables but withheld for a time because they fell under the species of prophesies that could only be better understood when they happened. When they happened they were easily understood by unbelievers, like the wars.
But there was a little problem with the third secret. As revealed it looked like a parable in the form of a story. As usual believers tried to find out what is the deeper meaning of the story as the disciples of Christ did every time they were faced with such a situation. There seems to be a deeper meaning that is why the Blessed Mother gave instruction that the Pope should interpret it. Pope Benedict in this trip to Fatima expressed that everything has not yet been revealed. The suspicion that there is a deeper meaning explains why all the Popes who read it did not divulged it being meant only for believers.

If I were a curious unbeliever who wish to cross over the realm of believers to find out this deeper meaning what would I do short of believing?

I know that Scriptures described the beginnings of the Church in the life of repentance, her growth is described in the life of Faith, Hope and Charity, and her perfection is described in the maturity of the three infused theological virtues aided by the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. But there is a split as the history of the Church approaches perfection. One part of the Church proceeds to ‘perfection’ as portrayed in the Apostles’ fishing trip in Lake Tiberias; while the other part loses its Faith in what St. Paul described as the ‘Great Apostasy’. That is why Christ asked the rhetorical question: shall the Son of Man find faith at his Second Coming. The insinuation here is that the image of the Church sometimes around this era would be exactly the way it look at the time of Pentecost…….a few people but all were infused with the virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity and perfected by the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is the perfect picture of the Catholic Church while surrounded by unbelievers. Because Catholic spirituality is eschatological the event of Pentecost is God’s way of showing how the Church should look like when she is prepared for the Second Coming of Christ for the grand wedding.

Pentecost is the beginning of the Catholic Church and at the same time the way she should look when finally she becomes perfect. After Pentecost she begun to get all kinds of souls and gradually did not look like the original Church of Pentecost. As she approaches the day of the grand wedding with Christ, she will be purified again and look exactly the way she looked at Pentecost.

There are two views of the Church. One from the outside, the other from the inside. From the outside it is like viewing the inside of the Church through a keyhole. You can see part of the altar, pews or the floor. From the inside the entire church is seen. Nothing is left to the imagination. From the outside we can see the marks of the Church, One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. But from the inside we can see the internal functioning of the Church, how it works that makes it produce the 4 visible signs. This latter is the view of a believer.

When the Church was just a small group of apostles the command of Christ was for them to preach repentance unto the remission of sins which is necessary for others to acquire Faith that makes them members of the Catholic Church. That command was given for a world that was completely devoid of Faith as an invitation for their conversion.

After many centuries of existence when the Faith, Hope and Charity of the Church should be matured and therefore, enhanced with knowledge, understanding and wisdom…. why does the Blessed Virgin Mary appear and begin to exhort the world again to ‘Repent,’ the same command when the world was devoid of Faith? And most of her apparitions seem to always contain this same exhortation. Even in Fatima the message was ‘repentance’ mentioned in three different ways: to repent, to have a conversion of heart and to be devoted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. If we analyze these three messages it is essentially a description of the life of repentance because repentance is a change of heart or as mystical theologians would describe it “the first conversion.”

Repentance was the same topic the apostles preached at a time there was no Faith in the world. This is a topic preached to unbelievers, pagans and sinners. And Pope Benedict XVI repeats the same message for unbelievers (as he spoke to the reporters) in Fatima.

Has the prophesied great split occurred in the Church; a small part leading towards perfection while the vast majority losing their Faith? The deeper positive message of Fatima is for us to see if we are of that small part leading towards perfection or that vast majority losing their Faith.

Mary, the mother of the Church, came to Fatima to prevent the split and keep the Church one, a visible sign of the Church.

The world is sustained by God because of the Oneness of the Catholic Church. Mary was trying to gather enough souls to maintain unity beginning with the seers. Pope John XXIII tried it when proposing the example of St. Maria Gabriellla Sagghedu on his encyclical on the unity of the Church. And Pope Paul VI wrote on the Woman clothed with the Sun. Both Pontiffs were trying to convey the deeper message of Fatima to an unbelieving world….to no avail.

In Fatima Mary said that she had tried many times to prevent the arms of her Son in bringing the judgment of wrath upon the earth. But men refused to repent and appease her Son. Our Lady in Fatima, after a few more attempts to convince an unbelieving world to repent had finally declared that the split had taken place. She could no longer hold on to her Sons arms. The world, because it was unable to repent cannot believe and therefore devoid of Faith.

The absence of Faith was the description of those outside the boat. Positively all those in the boat trip in Tiberias had perfect Faith, Hope and Charity….a very rare occurrence in the Church as a Church. Fatima decried the absence of Faith in the world due to the inability to repent. But it did not describe the true Church where Faith, Hope And Charity were perfect because of the great presence of the Holy Spirit. The negative picture was for unbelievers. The positive picture was for believers.

The curiosity of my unbelieving mind further investigated the thesis of the then Father Joseph Ratzinger on the Theology of History according to St. Bonaventure. And there we find in Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church the deeper meaning of the third secret of Fatima away from the eyes of unbelievers. Confirming the fact that everything Mary said is found in Divine Revelation.

The deeper meaning of the third secret of Fatima consists in the internal image of the Catholic Church in a very particular stage in her history. One can begin by looking at the very place where Mary appeared, Fatima, and look at its physical characteristic and then interpret it mystically. Everything has to be interpreted mystically. If we put all these together we get a picture of the Church as described in the Gospels, the Apocalypse and as interpreted by the Fathers and Doctors. And it is the picture painted by St. Bonaventure as studied by Pope Benedict in his thesis as a student. The picture painted by the Seraphic Doctor taken from ancient monastic writings and interpreted by the Fathers, specially St. Augustine’s commentary on the Gospel of St. John….and further confirmed by hard to find interpretations of the Apocalypse show that most Catholics do not conform to that image and, therefore are outside the Church. St. Grignon de Montfort, whom Pope John Paul loved, came close to the same idea. So if we put the two minds of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI together, they would certainly get the deeper message of Fatima.

When Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger spoke in Fatima disclosing the third secret, they gave the meaning meant for believers. That is why nobody understood it. But they gave it. They gave it the way Divine Revelation gave it to us but short of the way interpreted by the Fathers. It was a picture of the internal mechanism of the Catholic Church at a very specific time in her history.

That is very important because we have to look exactly like that to go to heaven. But how can this be shown to those who do not have the 4 visible signs of the Church.

On his trip to Fatima, the Holy Father, talking to reporters gave a message about repentance, faith, Hope and Charity. This is based on his thesis on St. Bonaventure. Mary spoke about repentance. Pope Benedict added Faith, Hope and Charity. Mary was speaking to an unbelieving world. The Pope was speaking to his church that has lost her faith. He is looking for the Church described by St. Bonaventure so that like Christ he can discuss with them in private the mystical meaning of the third secret of Fatima.

Man because he has a soul and a body grow both in soul and body. And while the body grows from childhood, adolescent and young adulthood the soul should grow into the beginners , illuminative and unitive stages of the spiritual life. Similarly the Catholic Church grows into three stages : infancy, adolescents and young adulthood. This is portrayed by the three Biblical descriptions of the fishing trips of the apostles. Though there are many types of the Church in Scriptures let us concentrate on the above 3 fishing trips.

The first stage of the Church is when the apostles were in the boat, they were not yet fishing because they were infant members of the Church and had to be trained before they went fishing for other souls. This was the boat scene where the apostles were caught in a storm. Weak or infant in their faith they feared. Nevertheless these apostles were described as having finished their life of repentance (thus having their past sins forgiven) and have entered into the theological virtue of Faith (though still weak) when they left all things (an act they could only do if they had Faith.) Faith is what enables us to enter the Church. So by this time the Apostles may be described as sinless and faithful but still with the relics of sin which they had to remove by perfecting their Faith, Hope and Charity.

By the very essence of Faith, the Apostles continued their life of Repentance though sinless and with Faith because that is the way Faith is preserved. And so, ‘Poor in Spirit,’ they continued to keep their remitted ‘sins always ever before their eyes.’ Those with Faith are continuously conscious of their once being sinful. Not because they still have sins but because of their humility as Sts. Peter and Paul were continuously aware of their sins against Christ up to the end of their lives.

Their repetitious consciousness of their forgiven sins (which Psalm 50 reminds us to do) gives us the impression that they are still sinners and that the Church is sinful. This is not the case. It is only an impression but not the fact. Having finished their repentance they had obtained the remission of their sins and regained the state of grace with the accompanying virtue of Faith that makes them members of the Church.

Christ commanded the Apostles before His Ascension, that they should go and preach repentance unto the remission of sin that will enable their listeners to receive Graces together with the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity that will make their souls members of the sinless Church, a sinless Church where each member has their former sins always before them. This must be clear before we can describe the Church in her second stage as portrayed in the fishing scene in Lake Genesareth.

The second image of the Church in her adolescent is portrayed by the apostles fishing in Lake Genesareth. This time they were mature enough in their faith to fish for other souls and bring them inside the Church. The catching of both good and bad fishes into the same net would give the impression that both good and bad fishes are part of the Church. In which case the danger of saying that the Church is made up of both good and evil. However, the parable of the Cockle and the Wheat should clarify the picture. Here we see Tares and Wheat together. But it was clear that the wheat was planted by the husbandman while the Tares was planted by some evil agent. We cannot say that Satan can plant souls inside the Catholic Church. He cannot do that. He does not have supernatural Faith. How can he bring anyone inside the Church? Obviously, this is only a physical presence and not a spiritual presence. The Tares were only physically inside the physical confines of the Church but not spiritually inside the Church through Faith.

Note also the fact that the apostles offered to remove the Tares. So they can be removed because they are not part of the Church. And when Christ said ‘no’ because of the danger of removing also the wheat Christ said that at the end times, the angels, themselves will remove the Tares which shows they can be removed because they are not part of the Church. No one can remove someone with Faith, Hope and Charity from the Church. They are the Church!

The Liturgy of the Lenten season precisely showed this. During the Last supper when Judas was still with the apostles they symbolized the Church in her second stage made up of saints and sinners. But there is a portion of the Last supper when Christ expelled Judas out of the Church without him knowing it. Suddenly we have the image of the Church in her third sinless stage.

When Pope John Paul apologized for the sins of the Church he was not apologizing for the true Church that is sinless but for those who are outside the Church but are perceived to be inside the Church. The true Church, the Mystical Body of Christ and of which Mary is a type cannot be sinful. The Pope is the head of the sinless Church. He has nothing to apologize for. But because of the confusion caused by the countless souls outside the Church who think they are Catholics, call themselves Catholics and are perceived by others as Catholics, Pope John Paul had to speak based on the false perception of others and apologize…. like a father apologizing for the mischief of his neighbor’s children, which is a charitable act. Pope Benedict is faced with the same universal ignorance of Catholic theology. And the ignorant are forcing him to apologize for the sins of children that are not of the Church. He could very well say: “Those are not my children.” But due to the defective ecclesiology among so-called Catholics and even worst theology of outsiders the Pope had to adjust his language to guide them slowly to the truth of even saying: ” these are caused by sins within the Church.” When he wants to say: the Church has no sin. These are the sins of those outside the Church. They do not know my voice and I do not know them.

This is the reason why Pope Benedict is treating those who think they are Catholics but who are not, as Gentiles and unbelievers. Note his address to the Irish Catholics. He was telling them to repent and forgive. This is an exhortation for Gentiles and unbelievers, not for Catholics.
Catholics have repented, have been forgiven and believe. They have regained the state of grace with its accompanying virtue of Faith that makes them Catholics. ‘Holy’ is the visible sign of the true Church. Not sin.

Since the beginning of Christianity, the Church had been trying to weed out the Tares from the wheat field of the Lord. That time Christ said ‘No.’ But he said one day, at the end times, He will command the angels to remove the Tares planted by the evil one. Keeping the pure wheat alone within the Church. And this is the third image of the Church as a young adult and portrayed in the last apostolic fishing trip in Lake Tiberias that occurred after the Resurrection.

The 7 apostles fishing caught 153 big and good fishes. The Fathers of the Church, specially St. Augustine, describes the ones running the Church (represented by the 7 apostles) as perfect fishers of men. And the 153 fishes representing the Catholics within the Church as perfect Catholics. What do we mean perfect? Those who have the three theological virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity which means they have repented, their sins had been remitted and now they have the infused theological virtues perfected by the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit. There is no blemish in them because they are on the way to wed the bridegroom.

In the Year of St. Paul, Pope Benedict is encouraging the lay people to see if they correspond to the description of the 153 fishes caught in the net of the Catholic Church. In the Year of the Priest, the Pope is asking the priests and bishops if they are as perfect as what the 7 apostles represent.

The Liturgy of the Mass teaches us that there are four steps we must take to go to heaven. We must live a life of Repentance according to the Old Testament (Advent), perfect our life of Repentance according to the New Testament (Lent), make an act of Faith (portrayed in the lives of the Apostles when they left all things and followed Christ), increase our faith (Passion Week), perfect our Faith (Easter) and finally perfect our Charity (Pentecost).

These steps are portrayed in the life of Christ thus: He spent 30 years of hidden life (showing us how to live a life of Repentance according to both the Old and New Testament), He was baptized in the river Jordan ( showing us the need for grace together with its accompanying virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity), He spent forty days of fasting in the desert (showing us how to activated the newly acquired theological virtues by obedience to the so-called commands of Jesus in the N.T.), He had His bout with the devil (showing us that we can be victorious if our Faith, Hope and Charity has matured), then he lived His public life saving souls (showing us that we can be instrumental in saving soul if we have matured theological virtues.) Of course Christ did these for our instruction. He did not have to do these because He was God.

The above two paragraphs describe exactly the same steps towards salvation. The former using the Liturgy of the Church, the latter from the life of Christ as commented by St. Thomas of Aquinas on the Lenten Liturgy.

In Scriptures Christ emphasized only the first two steps: to repent and believe. Because from there God takes over. Pope Benedict had been doing exactly the same thing. Specially this Lenten season he had been stressing the need for conversion (another word for repentance)… AND faith that comes with grace after one’s repentance. The more important word is “Faith” which Christ in instructing us received at His baptism and activated in his sojourn in the desert. This is the reason the first Christians were attracted to the desert. The desert or the monastic life was the place to repent and activate the virtues of Faith (Hope and Charity.) After Baptism most Catholics do not know how to activate the virtues they have received, therefore, easily loosing it.

Faith brings us into the Catholic Church but activating it is what makes us grow in maturity uniting us to the created soul of the Church (Jesus Christ) and to the uncreated soul of the Church (the Holy Spirit) that eventually makes us a good Catholic.

Let us see how repentance and faith can be applied to solve the current problem of the Church with her priests. When a priest commits that much publicized sin, he loses the virtue of charity which he received at Baptism ….. and his Faith and Hope becomes dead. He becomes a dead member of the Church. That’s like saying he is out of the Church. Repentance washes away his past sins. As a consequence of his repentance he regains the state of grace with its accompanying virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity. These virtues aside from helping remove the last traces of sin will immediately help him by imbuing in him the opposite virtue of chastity to enable him to overcome the vice of unchastity (or bestiality, incest or child abuse.) If the virtue of Penance is attained the past vice is removed and supplanted by its opposite virtue. That is how the virtue of Penance that should accompany the Sacrament of Penance works. So the priest sins only once and never sins again.

If that priest approaches me for confessions all I have to do is teach and guide him to repent and reach Faith. And see to it that he does what he is told. There is nothing else to be done. If the priest repents and reaches Faith, he would be a saint in no time. If he refuses to repent he won’t reach Faith and remains outside the Church (or remains a dead member of the Church) to the embarrassment of the Church.

There is no need to report them to the authorities or be judged by their peers or any other futile procedure that goes contrary to the nature of the virtue of Penance and of the seal of confession. The priest should be treated just like any sinner…with justice but with mercy. Everything else is vaudeville which the Pope refuses to dignify. This should bother neither the Pope nor anyone. We all know that all men have sinned. What should shock us is if priest don’t sin.

The so-called ‘victims’ should, on the other hand, be treated in exactly the same way: teach them repentance that leads to Faith. Though victims they also have their own personal sins (for all men have sinned). Their inability to forgive their seducers (thus unable to pray the “Our Father” devoutly) is due to their lack of Faith because they are unable to repent (usually due to ignorance just like the priests.) It is Repentance leading to Faith that enables the victims to forgive those priest. Their inability to do so shows the lack of repentance and the grace with its accompanying virtue of Faith.

We seem to have the victim and the priest in the same boat. But we have the same Catholic solution….repent and believe….taught to us every year in the Liturgy and in the vast treasures of the writings of the Fathers and the saints (like the Shepherd of Hermas, and the writings of St. Ambrose and Augustine on the same topic.) The existing deplorable ignorance is difficult to explain.

Occasionally I would read the right solution in ecclesiastical notices: ‘send them to a monastery.’ That worked well before. St. Benedict decreed that monastic life is a perpetual Lenten observance of a life of Repentance leading to the theological virtue of Faith. St. Peter Damian, a Benedictine, in cooperation with Pope Gregory VII, also a Benedictine, collaborated in combating this same sin prevalent among the clergy and among the monks in Benedictine monasteries in the 1000 A.D. simply by imposing the monastic life to rehabilitate them. And it worked but only as long as St. Peter Damian was alive. When St. Peter died the problem remained unresolved up to the present and no one seems to know the successful solution used that era.

Today, ‘sending them to a monastery’ no longer works shown by the prevalence of the same vice among the monks, even among the abbots and recently even among the Abbot Generals (notably one consecrated Bishop in the US). The reason is that they had watered down the repentance element of monastic life. As a pill that should be taken 4 times a day, today’s monastic repentance is only a once a day pill. It is under prescribed and it does not work. True Faith as defined in the Compendium of the Catholic Church by Pope Benedict is a rare commodity today.
If Christ came today He would not find Faith here on earth.

The priest, the Bishop and the Pope must be within the Church; with the Pope as the captain of the boat and the bishops and the priests as his lieutenants.

We all know that there are three stages in the growth of the Church in her history leading to the Second Coming. These three images had been mystically shown in the three boat incidents in the lives of the apostles. The first is during the storm wherein the apostles themselves were still being trained and they have not gone fishing. The second is the Genesareth fishing trip where this time they lowered the net and hauled in all kinds of fishes (both good and bad) and where the net was in danger of breaking and the boat was in danger of sinking. The third is the Tiberias fishing trip where this time they lowered the net specifically on the right side, where they caught 153 fishes and there was no danger of the net breaking nor the boat sinking.

Obviously, the first fishing trip was an image of the Church at her beginnings where the apostles were still being trained. The Genesareth trip was when the apostles had entered the Church through Faith and began to get new members into the Catholic Church, getting all kinds of people and experiencing heresies and schisms as shown by the breaking net and the near-sinking of the boat.

But I would like to focus our attention on the third fishing trip in Lake Tiberias which occurred after the Resurrection of Christ. The scene was a boat with seven apostles who had lowered the net on the right side (where the predestined are) and had caught 153 large fishes (symbol of those who have perfectly learned and obeyed the 10 commandments, have attained the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity and had perfected these virtues with the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit) and was now approaching the end of the sea, the beach (the end of the world) to deliver all to Christ who was standing on the shore. This is the image of the Catholic Church when approaching the end times, prelude to the Second Coming of Christ. Christ was on the shore (in heaven) waiting to receive the whole Church. There were seven apostles. Not to discredit the absent apostles, the mystical meaning is that the bishops and priests in the Boat were with faith, hope and Charity perfected by the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, i.e. they were all ‘perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect’ as symbolized by the number seven. They have reached the perfection of Charity and are all contemplatives. Those ruling the Church at this time are leaders who had undergone the 8 stages mentioned by St. Thomas of Aquinas as required before one can preach. They must have contemplated the truths of the Church and, therefore, have the gift of wisdom, an almost perfect knowledge of Christ’s teachings possible to man on earth. The Church have to be perfect at this time because there is no purgatory after the second coming.

Fr. Joseph Ratzinger, wrote a thesis on the ‘Theology of the History according to St. Bonaventure.’ This was a treatise on how the Church looks like from her beginning up to the end of the world corresponding to the 7 days of creation. The Church look different during each day of creation but is essentially the same like a child who grows up is essentially the same child but has some differences. St. Bonaventure thought that the Church was in the 6th day of Creation during his time, that is, just before the 7th day, the day of rest, which is the Second Coming. His description of the Church prior to the end times was perfect. And he thought that his times was the End times, as every good christian should think. But it was not yet.

Pope Benedict had studied this description and feels that the Church today is on the 6th day by analyzing the events of his early priesthood up to the present. He wants to be sure because he is supposed to head and guide this ship. And in announcing the ‘Year of the Priest’ he is in fact guiding the Church based on this assumption. The words he used in the ‘Year of the Priest’ is taken almost verbatim from his thesis. His actuation and movements shows him guiding the boat in Lake Tiberias, the Church, towards the shore where Christ is waiting in heaven. And he is clearly pushing the Church to be what the 153 fishes symbolized as clearly shown in his ‘Year of St. Paul’ but more so in his ‘Year of the Priest.’ In any classical treatise on Mystical theology, the 153 fishes (the members of the Church) caught by the apostles are clearly those who have reached the perfect life or the perfection of Charity, i.e. contemplation. This is the only boat that will enter heaven.

Like most of St. John’s writings his Gospel is difficult to understand, specially chapter 21 where the Tiberias fishing trip was discussed. Here he hinted that he is writing this at the end of his Gospel because after this there is nothing else that follows, sort of saying that after this chapter it is the end of the world. But the same John continues to write the Book of Revelation which describes the details of the end times. And both the book of Revelation and the Gospel of John are the readings in the Masses after Easter up to before Ascension where the Church of the end times is described.

After describing the Church prior to the Second coming as portrayed in the fishing trip in lake Tiberias, John further describes it in the Book of Revelation, which St. Bonaventure picked up having studied St. Augustine’s commentary of the Gospel of St. John and enriched by his knowledge of the original spirit of St. Francis. John writes about the image of the Woman of the Apocalypse who went to the desert. Now we have a confusing picture that we have to put together; a boat calmly sailing towards the shore packed with 153 sizable fishes and a Woman with two giant wings being flown to the desert to a place specially prepared by God. Bonaventure was able to integrate these two biblical figures and described how the Church and her members would look like. Fr. Ratzinger saw this, too, and noted it in his thesis. Now he wants to study further his thesis and actually put his finger on this Church where the members will have the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity perfected by the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and, therefore, would all be contemplatives in their knowledge of the Catholic religion. It is a picture of a boat of 7 sailors hauling 153 fishes being perfected in the desert (a little similar to the picture above.) In the Holy Father’s search I am afraid he might by-pass many Dioceses, parishes, religious congregations, seminaries and many so-called catholic organizations.

The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, encouraged the priests in this ‘Year of the Priest’ to contemplate the truths of the Catholic Church. The first time I heard those words were during my seminary days while taking up ‘Asceticism, Contemplation and Christian Perfection.’ It is the normal way to salvation for all souls. This is to go through the life of Repentance, Faith, Hope and Charity. And perfecting the theological virtues with the help of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. This means ‘being perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect.’

St. Thomas of Aquinas noted that before the apostles could go out and preach they had to undergo the following steps. First, they had to live a life of repentance as preached by the Old Testament (and specifically by St. John the Baptist.) Added to this they had to perfect their life of repentance as taught by Christ (during His 30 years of hidden life) in the New Testament. Secondly, they attained faith when they left all things (when Christ called them to follow Him.) Thirdly, their imperfect faith had to be tested during Christ’s passion when they doubted. Fourthly, their faith was strengthened after the Resurrection. Fifthly, they had to undergo the final instructions of Christ on how the perfect faith of the Church should look like at the Second Coming. Sixthly, they had to undergo the dark night of the senses when their senses would no longer sense Christ with His Ascension into heaven. Seventhly, they had to be united with one mind and heart in Bethany by a life showing the obedience of the Church (Bethany means ‘obedience’). And eightly, they had to be fortified by the presence of the Holy Spirit for their incoming work. This Catholic Doctrine is very much different from the many Charismatic movements that believe they can reach the 8th state without passing the seven previous stages.

To contemplate the truths of the Catholic Church one has to reach the perfection of Faith, Hope and Charity with the help of the gift of wisdom and while experiencing the peace of Christ. This is what ascetical and mystical theology taught us. And we were taught that this is the normal way of going to heaven. If our priests have not contemplated on the truths of the Church it means they do not know those truths. If they do not know the truths they cannot teach it to their parishioners. If both the parishioners and priests do not know the truths then ………who is Catholic? St. Thomas was clear in saying that no one should go out preaching and being instruments of salvation unless they had reached the eighth step, i.e. fortified by the abiding of the Holy Spirit.

The reason the Pope called the ‘ Year of the Priest ‘ is to remind all to contemplate the truths of the Church. But considering the steps one must take to reach that contemplative state, and considering that most priests have to start from step one, how promising is the possibility of accomplishing this goal during Pope Benedict’s reign.

Taking the cue from the words of Pope Benedict when he observed that the cause of the problems in the priesthood today is the ‘lack of conversion’ or as he said more exactly during his Lenten talks, ‘the inability to repent’ we are now talking of a more serious problem. St. Augustine described contemplation as the highest Beatitude with fear of the Lord as the first step towards it. Pope Benedict is hinting on the fact that many have not yet reached the first Beatitude due to inability to repent or undergo the so-called first conversion.

Why are souls unable to repent or have their first conversion? Because they do not know what it is and how to go about it. This is sad because these are taught in the Liturgy of the Mass during the whole year. This is briefly summarized during the Lenten Season, our knowledge of it is perfected up to the Ascension. And the 34 Sundays between Pentecost and Christ the King tells the steps on how to perfect our Faith, Hope and Charity that makes us able to contemplate the truths of the Catholic Church.

Meditation is an act of the intellect wherewith in a natural way the mind tosses a religious thought around, looking at it from all angles and getting the most out of it. Contemplation is an act of the free will by which it relishes the natural truth the mind had played around with. The free will is what moves the intellect to continue to seek the truth after the intellect had first perceived the truth. When the free will loves the truth which the intellect had previously perceived, the free will command the intellect to further investigate or pursue the truth which the free will had learned to begin to love. This way the intellect increases in the knowledge of the truth and the free will in loving the same truth. It is not the knowledge of truth that gives joy but the contemplation of truth. So even if there is much suffering a soul that contemplates the truth remains happy.

Since in the active life or the life of repentance a soul must give up many physical and worldly things unnecessary for salvation, he must be able to contemplate the truth to experience joy in denying himself. Without this contemplation of truth no amount of knowledge in the intellect can give joy to the soul. The giving up of many worldly things unnecessary for salvation becomes unbearable if the soul does not at the same time contemplate the truth. It is the contemplation of truth that enables the soul to possess the truth that results in joy or happiness.

Meditation and contemplation influence and interact with each other one causing the other continuously to rise up to the heights of the Beatitude.

The purpose of meditation is to discover the good. The object of the contemplation is to love and possess the good. The two together produces ‘devotion’ which is an act of the will by which a soul promptly gives himself to the service of God. Pope Benedict reminds us in the Year of the Priest that we priests must contemplate, not merely meditate, on the teachings of the Church. This is the only way we could be of service to the Church.

We see the insurmountable situation that impedes the diocesan priest from meditating and contemplating. The religious have less reasons for not being able to do so. But when their ignorance is the ‘hypocritical’ kind wherein they chose to remain ignorant so they do not have to be engaged in such seemingly useless activity that will lessen their life of indulgence, then we have a great crisis even a ‘Year of the Priest’ will not solve.

The word ‘asceticism’ conjures ugly images of skinny hermits, starving monks, bald nuns and dirty saints. Asceticism is none of the just mentioned. It is an activity of the soul and, therefore, invisible to the senses. It is an invisible spiritual activity of the soul. Only the ascetic and God can know anything about its on goings.

Most, if not all, seminarians were baptized, most come from Catholic families and some had studied in prestigious Catholic schools. Why would the Holy Father as Cardinal spoke about a crisis of Faith in the Church?

It is like this. Most Catholics were baptized as babies. With baptism they received sanctifying grace that made them children of God. And Catholic education is supposed to help them maintain and develop into maturity that state of grace. That is the life of Faith, Hope and Charity that merits for us eternal life.

The reason for baptism is to give the baby (still without actual sin) who naturally knows and loves God the grace necessary to maintain and rise up to a supernatural knowledge and love of God. The sacrament with its sacramental grace helps the child to grow into the maturity of Faith, Hope and Charity. With the baby in this innocent state and filled with the grace of baptism, we have a creature that is geared for great holiness.

But sadly, almost immediately after baptism, the baby learns evil, commits sin and losses his sanctifying grace. Unless he recovers he is in danger of going to hell.

Imagine this child struggling to recover the grace and innocence or in short ‘trying to be a child again’ or trying to be born again. Imagine his goal of reaching Faith and becoming a child of God again ….and the thousand other hurdles blocking his road to faith. How can you expect him to pass through that narrow road that is like going through the eye of a needle that leads to salvation?

The seminarian has to remove those obstacles and hurdles. Everybody has to do this. These obstacles are vices that prevent us from obtaining Faith, Hope and Charity. These are removed by means of asceticism or acts of repentance. Asceticism are acts by which we receive the moral virtues that will facilitate the reception of the theological virtue of Faith, the beginning of the contemplative life.

Essentially, asceticism is what Christ did while He was subject to Joseph and Mary. He did that to instruct us. His being subject were physical acts mainly consisting in acts of physical obedience. While contemplation is when Christ was spiritually subject to His Father in heaven, the message He gave us when He was lost in the temple at 12. The former subjection is called Asceticism. The latter subjection is called Faith or contemplation. When we first enter a monastery or religious house it is to live a life of physical obedience or an ascetic life.

Obedience is both physical and spiritual. The physical aspect is asceticism. The spiritual aspect makes up the virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity….or contemplation.

As Pope Benedict exhorts priest to be contemplatives he is in fact telling them to finish their life of repentance before doing anything else. Pope Benedict is well acquainted with repentance because of his exposure to the Benedictines in Bavaria. The Benedictine monastic spirituality is a life of repentance like all religious life. It is a life of asceticism where obedience to the superiors is similar to the life of Christ when He was obedient to Joseph and Mary. These way of life is a preparation for the life of Faith. People enter monasteries and convents to repent and then enter the Church through the door of Faith. And this is commonly referred to as the ascetic life which is necessary for the forgiveness of sins. It is sometimes referred to as the virtue of penance (different from the Sacrament of Penance) and is a preparation to receive the virtue of Faith (Hope and Charity).

A very common defect is to jump into Charity without passing through Faith; or jumping into Faith without passing the ascetic life or repentance. Note how common this mistake is in most lectures, retreats, spiritual talks and writings causing much frustration when a soul finds out he cannot reach Charity because he neglected the life of repentance, Faith and Hope.

Holy Mother the Church teaches her children the way of salvation through the Liturgy. The Liturgical calendar is the vehicle wherein the Catholic truths are spread out in the right order and in its completeness during the Sunday Masses. It is amazing to see the beauty of the arrangement of the truths and how the truths gradually developed from the first Sunday of Advent up to the feast of Christ the King. It is enough to study one cycle ‘to believe.’

On the third and fourth Sundays in ordinary time (cycle C) we begun the Gospel of St. Luke. Prior to these Sundays was Advent and Christmas season where we were taught how to live the life of Repentance according to the Old Testament. On the third and fourth Sundays in ordinary time we are given a preview on how to live the life of Repentance according to the New Testament. This is in preparation for the season of Lent where the Liturgy completes the teaching on Repentance (which Our Lady complained in Fatima that the world was no doing.) From Holy Week to Easter Holy Mother the Church begins teaching us how to live the life of Faith and Hope. And on Pentecost she describes to us the virtue of Charity. Faith, Hope and Charity make up the spirituality of the New Testament

I just mentioned the third Sunday in ordinary time because it is on this Sunday that before we seriously study Repentance in the New Testament we are taught how to study the Gospel messages of the next following Sundays leading to Lent. Studying how to live a life of Faith, Hope and Charity is no easy task and is very much different from studying nuclear physics. The Gospel is on how to study.

St. Luke, in fact, begins his Gospel by teaching us how to study, showing us how the Israelites in the synagogue had wrongly studied Scriptures and so ended up rejecting Christ. While Scriptures narrate several incidences wherein after an encounter with Christ they followed Him.

There are two ways of acquiring knowledge. One is when we study with the end of merely acquiring that knowledge, like studying astronomy. We just want to know what is going up there. The other kind of knowledge is when we learn something in order to be able to do a good work like when we study medicine. We study not just to know about medicine but to be able to do good by curing others. The latter is the way we study Scriptures.

In studying Theology, going on a retreat, listening to a Homily, reading a book or attending Congresses on the Year of the Priest – we don’t just want to get information but to be able to do some good like the salvation of our soul or the souls of other people which we often times think we are doing but closer examination shows we are not.

The first kind of knowledge is commonly referred to as “curiositas” and the second is called “studiositas.”

“Curiositas” is listed by Tomas a Kempis as the ‘forbidden knowledge’ that is an obstacle to the attainment of Faith and holiness. And it falls under the category of ‘vices.’ And vices are such that the longer you stay with it the faster you deteriorate in the spiritual life. If the seminarian studies his theology with ‘curiositas’ he deteriorates spiritually everyday. How bad can he deteriorate in a six year course staggers the mind.

On the other hand “studiositas” is a virtue and the longer you resort to it, not only do you develop knowledge, understanding and wisdom of Catholic truths, but you develop great self-control over the passions, emotions and concupiscence.

In “curiositas” the seminarian studies things unnecessary for salvation; like studying how to socialize or improve the economic condition of people, how to start a new business, holding retreats in beaches, psychological techniques, learning things from television, surfing the internet, wanting to pass the final exam, to learn the arts and to become a bishop or cardinal. To make these the end of one’s study is “curiositas.”

“Studiositas” is everything of the above plus a great emphasis on nature and how to find the God of nature (the way Bl. Louis Martin taught St. Therese to find God in a beach or sunset) and with greater emphasis on God and the things of God. The seminarian must ponder intellectually over all earthly things with the goal of knowing God whose image is reflected in all these things. This exercise will aid him in contemplating God and the things of God thus increasing his knowledge of Divine Love and increasing his ability to Love God. And this love for God will, in turn, increase his desire to know more about God, the inexhaustible source of knowledge.

This contemplation of divine truths helps develop the moral virtues leading to the possession of the Theological virtues. Life in the seminary becomes an active life wherein the seminarian becomes active in developing the moral virtues. This way of life helps him quell his passions making it conducive for him to live a contemplative life. Only in this way can we put into practice what Pope Benedict XVI said in his document on the Year of the Priest ” to contemplate the Heart of Jesus” when he declared the Year of the Priest on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In inspiring priests to be faithful to their mission the Holy Father mentions the basis for this quest: all is grace. And he mentions St. Paul, St. Augustine a saint close to his heart and he mentions St.Thomas of Aquinas a saint he was a little aloft before.

For the candidate to the priesthood to love God and neighbor, which is “Caritas” he needs grace. For him to have the virtue of Hope as explained in “Spes Salvi,” he needs grace. And for the seminarian to have Faith, the virtue that brings him inside the Catholic Church he needs grace with the accompanying “Veritate” enlightened by “Caritas.”

For the future candidate to the priesthood to have the Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity he must have the proper disposition in mind and free will to receive these Virtues from God. This proper disposition is also a work of grace from God. Yes, all is grace.

We live in a world that is ignorant of the theology of grace. First: our whole environment, a product of the blossoming of the philosophy of the French Revolution that is entirely Pelagian and Semi-pelagian has indoctrinated the minds of men to reject the concept of grace as unscientific and an obstacle to the progress of men. The candidates for the priesthood are children of three generations of parents who were bombarded with this spirit of secularism and materialism. We have candidates to the seminaries who have no concept whatsoever of what is Catholic Doctrine, Cardinal Baum once mentioned in a Vocation address. And this ignorance is on the theology of grace. This makes the seminarians ignorant of the role grace plays in the studying of Catholic truths. And as Cardinal Ratzinger mentioned in his “New Evengelization” this defect is found both in the content and method in teaching and studying theology.

Since the correct way of studying Theology leads the student towards happiness and the development of virtue, ignorance of the correct way of studying leads to unhappiness and vices. It is this unhappiness in the service of God (which is unthinkable) and the plunging into a life of vices, that had haunted the priesthood, is the natural consequence of this grave error.

This situation had been described by Cardinal Ratzinger in his “Ratzinger Report.” He said that the problem of the priesthood is ‘restlessness.’ Let us sit down and analyze that statement. Ascetical Theology enumerates 7 vices. Vices prevent us from reaching Faith, Hope and Charity. In short, vices prevent us from being Catholics.

The vices are the sources of sins. From one vice can come numerous sins. When a soul has the first vice, namely gluttony, it becomes easy for him to slide down to the second vice….. lust, etc. etc…If a soul has the fifth vice it means that he has all the other four previous vices. With 5 vices we cannot imagine how many sins can come from these sources. Let’s say 50 different sins could come out of those five vices.

‘Restlessness’ is enumerated among the last vice; 6th or 7th. That means some priest have all the vices and it is difficult to imagine how many sins he is exposed to or is committing already. This easily explains the problem of the priesthood that is even more recently exposed in Ireland. And sadly, the solution is easy. It is difficult to understand why the Church could not easily solve it. It seems the men of the Church are ignorant both of the reason for the crisis and the solution.

But when we say ignorance we simply mean that the mind or intellect does not know what it could easily learn. Everything could be learned from the Theology of Grace, the very foundation of Catholic Theology.

Ignorance of the Theology of grace and therefore the lack of these necessary graces placed the seminarian in the absurd situation where he finds himself in a graceless natural state and trying to learn divine supernatural truths which were too much over and above the capabilities of his natural mind.

But these seminarians frequent the Sacraments! Ignorance of the theology of grace would make them receive the sacraments sacrilegiously. How many times have Pope Benedict reminded us on how to receive Holy Communion worthily. That word “worthily” demands a knowledge of the workings of grace. How many times have the Holy Father mentioned the strange phenomenon of many receiving Holy Communion and few going to confession. This shows ignorance of the importance of grace.

Indeed, if we can restore the way seminarians are trained as they used to train them during the times of the Fathers of the Church we would not need a Year of the Priest.

The modern seminary is an awesome sight…..compared to my monastic seminary 60 years ago. One would get the impression that these seminaries are producing top of the line priests. The buildings are beautiful, surrounded by well-trimmed gardens of varied flowering plants. The refectories are veritable banquet halls. The libraries would put the library of Alexandria to shame. The classrooms are air-conditioned. The private rooms are spacious and equipped with radios and the line-up of their professors are impressive. What else can we ask? Well, we can ask where are the good priests?

Some seminaries seem to have everything except…..signs of the presence of Grace, the Theological virtues, the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and lots of humility… where every human act is motivated by the glory of God? That is if we based our musings on the chapters on Vices and Virtues according to the Summa of St. Thomas.

The Holy Father, Pope John Paul II once came to a bishop’s conference in Asia and exhorted them to improve the formation program in their seminaries. (This was after the post Vatican Bishop’s Synod held in Rome that framed a general outline of formation for all sectors.) The Bishop in-charge of the Commission on Seminaries (made up of three bishops) organized ‘practicums’ made up of seminary heads to make a program of formation for seminaries. They gave themselves 10 years to make one. A week before the dead line, there was still no proposal. So inquiries were made from other seminaries around the world and from the Congregation for Catholic Education and for the clergy. And the surprising response from a Cardinal was: ‘We are still making one.”

So what program was the Catholic Church using all these 2000 years? We certainly had a good program seeing the countless holy priests the Church had. St. Philip Neri, St. Vincent the Paul and the seminary of St. Sulpice (that has influenced St. John Vianney) had very good programs. What happened? We cannot blame Vatican II because this malaise had happened much earlier. Maybe around the beginnings of the 14th century and more noticeably in the 18oo. Heresy!!! Heresy entered into the curriculum of the seminaries.

Heresies are errors that has entered the mind. Since it is only an act of the mind it is easy to erase errors. So why isn’t it easily removed? What else is lacking? As St. Paul would answer: ‘a preacher sent by God’ who will teach the truth and expose the error. But the Pope is always such a preacher. So what else could be wrong? We can pin point what is wrong with the seminarians……..they do not listen to all the teachings of the Popes. And if they do, some do not obey. Orthodoxy means our beliefs must conform not only to the writings of the Old and New Testaments and the writings of the Fathers of the Church. It must conform to the Magisterium of which the Holy Father is the spokesman. In the definition of Faith in the Catholic Church the element of Papal authority is essential. Since the Apostles and Fathers of the Church are gone God will only explain the truths to those living today, year 2010, through the Pope. That is why each Pope have to explain the entire teaching of the Church during their reign for the people that exist during their reign. Pope Benedict has already explained the entire teaching of Christ for us today through his three encyclicals. He just have to go into details.

In the Year of the Priest, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI is hinting that we undergo our seminary training again. Maybe in a more humble manner, like studying in the secrecy of a quiet room or better still kneeling down in front of the Blessed Sacrament where we can ‘contemplate’ the truths rather than just study them in the classroom. He said: ‘more prayer’……he did not say ‘less lecture’ but if you pray more shouldn’t there be less lectures? I remember St. Francis of Assisi saying something like : sanctify souls and once in a while give lectures …or something to that effect.