Pope Francis: “The least serious sins are the sins of the flesh”

Granted, the sins of the flesh may not be as serious as, say, turning on your air conditioner or denying the existence of global warming but still...

Pope Francis: “The least serious sins are the sins of the flesh”
paulsimeon2014August 14, 2019Uncategorized



Pope Francis has said that sins of the flesh – that is, sins of lust or impurity – are “the least serious” of all sins. The controversial statement can be found in Chapter 5 of the book entitled “Pope Francis, the Path of Change in Politics and Society: A Future of Faith”. The book, released last August 2018, contains an interview of Pope Francis by the French sociologist and acknowledged agnostic, Dominique Wolton.

Below is the relevant excerpt from Chapter 5 (page 173-174) showing the full context of his remarks:

***

DOMINIQUE WOLTON: The paradox is that the Catholic Church condemns capitalism, money, inequalities, but those criticisms go rather unheard. On the other hand, on morals, it knows how to make its critiques and condemnations heard …

POPE FRANCIS: The least serious sins are the sins of the flesh.

DOMINIQUE WOLTON: All right, but that needs to be said more forcefully, because the message isn’t getting across.

POPE FRANCIS: The sins of the flesh are not necessarily (always) the gravest. Because the flesh is weak. The most dangerous sins are those of the mind. I have talked about angelism: pride and vanity are sins of angelism. I understood your question. The Church is the Church. Priests have been tempted — not all of them, but many of them — to focus on the sins of sexuality. That’s what I’ve already talked to you about: what I call “below-the-waist” morality. The more serious sins are elsewhere.

DOMINIQUE WOLTON: What you say is not being heard.

POPE FRANCIS: No, but there are good priests … I know a cardinal here who is a good example. He admitted to me, talking about these subjects, that when people come to see him to talk to him about these below-the-belt sins, he says, straight away, “I’ve got it; let’s talk about something else.” He stops them, as if to say, “I’ve understood, but let’s see if you have something more important.” “I don’t know.” “But do you pray? Do you seek the Lord? Do you read the Gospel?”

He makes them understand that there are more important failings. Yes, it is a sin, but … he lets them know, “I’ve understood,” then moves on to something else.

Conversely, some priests, when they receive confession of a sin of this kind, ask, “How did you do it, and when did you do it, and for how long?…” And they have a “film” playing in their head. But those priests need a psychiatrist.

DOMINIQUE WOLTON: That’s true, there are much more serious “sins” than the sins of the flesh, but what you say is not in the cultural tradition…

***

Sacred Scripture is clear that unrepented sins of impurity make the sinner worthy of eternal punishment. St. Paul wrote to the Hebrews: “Let Marriage be honourable in all, and the bed undefiled. For fornicators and adulterers God will judge” (Heb 13:4). St. Jude wrote in his epistle: “As Sodom and Gomorrha, and the neighbouring cities, in like manner, having given themselves to fornication, and going after other flesh, were made an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 7). And St. Paul warned the Corinthians: “Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6:9-10). Examples could be multiplied exponentially, but this is not necessary.


St. Alphonsus Liguori, doctor of the Church, wrote:

My brother, do not say, as many do, that sins against chastity are light sins, and that God bears with them.

What! Do you say that is a light sin? But it is a mortal sin: and if it is a mortal sin, one act of it, though it be only the consent to a wicked thought, is sufficient to send you to hell. No fornicator … hath inheritance in the kingdom of Jesus Christ and of God [Eph 5:5]. Is it a light sin? Even the pagans held impurity to be the worst of vices on account of the miserable effects that it produces. Seneca says: “Immodesty is the greatest evil of the world;” and Cicero writes: “There is no plague so fatal as bodily pleasure;” and (to come to the saints) St. Isidore says: “Run through all sins, you will find none equal to this crime.”

Finally, it will be helpful to remember what Sister Lucia of Fatima said regarding sins of the flesh, as relayed to her by Our Lady: “The sins which cause most souls to go to hell are the sins of the flesh.”

By Paul Simeon, Veritas

https://veritas-vincit-international.org/2019/08/14/sins-of-the-flesh/

 

I'm sticking with our Blessed Mother on this one. She is crystal clear and I suppose Pope Francis would say we don't have to follow private prophecy. But, I wonder if PF considered that two of the 10 commandments deal with sins of the flesh. Then again, I suppose that would be legalism, which PF spoke out against so often early in his papacy.

 

Sodomy sin of the flesh.

Abortion sin of the flesh.

Both cry to heaven for vengeance.

 

I was so interested int this remark by the Holy Father because a young priest startled me in confession a few years back by saying the exact same thing a few years back. Startled me because in all my years going to confession before. Including my Spiritual Director of many years. I didn't reject or accept it out of hand but because it was kind of like a bolt out of the blue I thought I'd about it and see if I could find the truth. Because it was new it made me uneasy. If this was the Truth why had I never heard this before?

My first thought was of course,as others have mentioned the words of Our Lady of Fatima, that more people Fall into Hell through sins of impurity than any other Sin.

Going on in looking into it I found that other priests in Modern times say the exact same thing as the Holy Father and say that the saints have said the exact same thing. The immediate question then is what saints said this and when?

Well you know I looked and looked for quotes from saints who had said the exact same things and could not find a single one anywhere. I stand to be corrected on this but if anyone can find such a quote I would be very interested in finding it. On the contray the quotes I could find were warning very,very strongly against such sins. Why? Because such sins are a down spiral. THey tend to grow.

https://www.tfpstudentaction.org/blog/24-quotes-about-purity-for-every-catholic

“Holy Purity, the queen of virtues, the angelic virtue, is a jewel so precious that those who possess it become like the angels of God in heaven, even though clothed in mortal flesh.”
-- Saint John Bosco


“We must practice modesty, not only in our looks, but also in our whole deportment, and particularly in our dress, our walk, our conversation, and all similar actions.”
-- Saint Alphonsus Liguori


“In the realm of evil thoughts none induces to sin as much as do thoughts that concern the pleasure of the flesh.”
-- Saint Thomas Aquinas

“Lust indulged became habit, and habit unresisted became necessity.”
-- Saint Augustine

“Chastity is the lily of virtues, and makes men almost equal to Angels. Everything is beautiful in accordance with its purity. Now the purity of man is chastity, which is called honesty, and the observance of it, honor and also integrity; and its contrary is called corruption; in short, it has this peculiar excellence above the other virtues, that it preserves both soul and body fair and unspotted.”
-- Saint Francis de Sales

"Let your modesty be a sufficient incitement, yea, an exhortation to everyone to be at peace on their merely looking at you."
-- Saint Ignatius of Loyola

 

I became very uneasy about this statement which is now a commonplace and which the Holy Father recently repeated and after praying and thinking about it quite a lot here is why.

Imagine you are driving along a High Way and right out of the blue another car drives right into you. You realise very quickly it is not your fault, it is the fault of the other driver and that although there is a very great deal of damage to your vehicle no one has been hurt.

Now imagine the other driver gets out of his car. But instead of saying he is sorry for his mistake tells you how lucky you both our that no one is injured or killed and how blessed you both are that the damage was not much worse.

How would that make you feel?

Of course it would make you very,very angry indeed.

But why would it make you so angry? Well t would make you furious because instead of simply saying he was sorry he was trivialising his own sin. He makes it seem smaller be relativising what he had just done.

The same goes with sins of impurity. It is not for us to say to God or to ourselves, 'Well it could have been much worse' . No. All we should be saying to God is a simple, 'Lord I am very sorry' and leaving it at that.

Anything else is simply trying to get off the hook.

But what particularly concerns me about a Pope saying this at the present time is this. We are in the biggest traffic accident in our Churches history. The main cause of the wreck was sins of impurity.

For a Pope to say sins of impurity are not so bad as others is heart stoppingly inane and besides any point whatsoever.

Doesn't he know what has just happened and is happening in the Church?

Does he have no idea at all?

 

The saddest thing Padraig is, he knows exactly what he is doing.

 

Yes he does. There can be no doubt about it.

He does. I know we cannot read the secrets of Men's Heart's ( unless God give us the Power to do so) nevertheless I hope someone out there, perhaps some researcher or journalist) does some serious looking into the Holy Father's past life and Teachings. There is something not right here. Even when I just look at him I have the strongest feeling there is something not right there. The strongest feeling of unease about the man. He is the kind of person , who, if he tried to talk to me in the street I would try to get away from as quickly as possible. The kind of person who would make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

But, anyway I hope someone , somewhere goes looking. If they do they will find it and find it big time. I'd say there's a Pultizer out there for whoever does.

 

In the book 'Fatima in Lucia's Own Words', the author asked Lucia about Our Lady's assertion regarding the loss of many souls through sins of impurity. Lucia said that, although such sins were not generally the most serious, they tend to be habitual and un-repented and so have such tragic and eternal results for many.

 

Yes. I think they are what we could call"gateway" sins. They lead to other yet more serious sins but ALL mortal sins are serious and unrepented they will destroy us.

 

I think this is a grave mischaracterization of priestly duty in the confessional. A priest needs to know the habit of the sinner to assign the correct type of penance. For Pope Francis to mock the Confessor in this way is very wrong.

 

My reaction is a little different. Perhaps Pope Francis wants us, in our sex-saturated culture, to not simply be fixated on sins of the flesh. They are the most visible and easiest to point out. But in an attempt to redirect our gaze, I believe his minimization of these sins is very wrong. Masturbation, pornography, sex outside the context of marriage, and sex between members of the same gender, are reprehensible and very much in our faces. Simply put, they separate us from the love of God and mock His plan since the dawn of creation.

But certainly the jealousy of Cain (Gen 3), and the pride of Lamech (Gen 4), are horrendous sins whose awful fruits cry out to God for justice. Still, to throw up our hands because the sexual revolution is overflowing its banks and appears almost irreversible, is very bad policy. That being said, the more comprehensive approach to sin is provided us by 1John 2:

15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

In the spiritual guidance I received in Regnum Christi, there are three foundational sins from which all others proceed: 1) pride, 2) vanity, and 3) lust. What I was taught was to understand these thoroughly and then look into my own life to see which of these are primary. I was surprised to discover that vanity is the prime culprit in my own life and my spiritual disciplines should focus on uprooting the weeds of vanity.

So let us grow in self-understanding. I say Pope Francis' either/or synopsis is faulty. All sin and their roots should be uprooted systematically in our lives. And that takes a lifetime. I pray for the grace of diligence!

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

 

That could be.

But say a priest sexually abuses an altar boy. Suppose he does it frequently, on a regular basis. That qualifies as a "sin of the flesh", does it not?

Is the current pope actually saying that this is a very minor sin? That this is among the least serious sins?

The mind boggles.

The implications are tremendous.

 

Yes, the mind boggles!

Safe in the Refuge of the Immaculate Heart!

 

And take the story below, read it, if you can stomach it.

Sexually abusing poor deaf boys and girls for decades qualifies as "sins of the flesh" or am I missing something?

And these are among the least serious sins?

"Corradi had been accused of committing serious crimes of sexual abuse at the headquarters of Instituto Provolo in Verona, Italy about 10 years before he arrived in Argentina. Victims of abuse in the South American republic have claimed that Pope Francis, while he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, knew about the accusations of crimes committed in Italy but did nothing."

Deaf victims at trial of ‘demonic’ Argentine priests recount decades of sexual abuse
argentina, catholic, homosexuality, instituto próvolo, italy, nicola corradi, pope francis, sex abuse crisis

Editor’s warning: This article contains explicit and disturbing content.

MENDOZA, Argentina, August 14, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — The trial of two priests and a layman accused of serial sexual abuse of impoverished deaf boys and girls in their care began in a courtroom in Argentina, where dozens of survivors and their supporters are demanding transparency and justice for “abominable crimes” committed at the Instituto Próvolo for deaf-mute children.

In Mendoza, the capital city of the Argentine province of the same name, the trial of ex-priests Nicola Corradi (83) and Horacio Corbacho (61), and former gardener Armando Gómez (49), begun on August 5, is being closely watched. They are being tried on more than two dozen charges of sexual abuse and corruption of minors who were students at Instituto Provolo in the town of Luján de Cuyo, about 800 miles west of Buenos Aires, the national capital.

In a written statement provided to the media, survivors of the sexual abuse meted out at the institution for the deaf described the accused clerics: “They’re monsters in cassocks who committed abominable crimes against minors.” The statement said, “We note that the Catholic Church has given financial support to the defense of the accused. That the results of the canonical probe by Vatican representatives Dante Simon and Alberto Bochatey have not been released is clear evidence of a cover-up and is a mockery of the judiciary and society as a whole.”

The frail Corradi is currently under house arrest.

Victims and their supporters are asking the court to allow the use of one-way mirrors during the trial so as to prevent further trauma to the victims. They are also asking for additional psychological counseling for the victims, as well as having sign language interpreters during all of the proceedings so the victims can effectively communicate.

In an interview with an Italian jouranlist, Corradi laughed and recounted unapologetically the sodomitic rape of children. A video recorded at a hospital in Italy in 2017 showed the elderly priest boasting about his crimes.

Carlos Lombardi, an attorney for Argentina’s Network of Survivors of Church Abuse, said it is “impossible that [the Church in Mendoza] would not know the names of the priests, especially Corradi, and least about the events that occurred in Italy, because its own canonical norms require it.” Lombardi said the victims’ network believes that the archdiocese should face canonical sanctions because of its lack of control. He added that “Church authorities should reveal the priests who remain in the diocese.” Lombardi alleged that Corradi was introduced to the bishop, José María Arancibia, who presided over the diocese at the time. “The Vatican knew the story because it was Pope Francis who named him to a commission in 2013 to look into the claims. “But it never got anywhere because the system of cover-ups within the Catholic Church continue intact.”

In sum, there are 14 persons accused of various crimes in three different cases involving more than 20 victims ever since the most notorious case of clerical abuse known in Mendoza became known in November 2016. All of the victims were minors at the time of the abuse. One boy was aged 4 years when he was first abused. In one case, Jorge Bordón (50) has already pleaded guilty to charges. The other two cases involve nuns Kumiko Kosaka and Asunción Martínez, as well as several administrative staff members. The trial is expected to go to the end of August. However, because there are approximately 200 witnesses who wish to prove that systematic abuse occurred not only in Argentina, but in Italy as well, it may go into September.

Corradi had been accused of committing serious crimes of sexual abuse at the headquarters of Instituto Provolo in Verona, Italy about 10 years before he arrived in Argentina. Victims of abuse in the South American republic have claimed that Pope Francis, while he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, knew about the accusations of crimes committed in Italy but did nothing. Argentine law enforcement ordered the closing of the Instituto Próvolo in Mendoza in 2016, arresting the two priests and twelve other suspects, including the two nuns. Another Instituto Próvolo installation, located in the city of La Plata near Buenos Aires, is also being investigated. Corradi managed that facility between 1970 and 1997.

Argentine and Italian victims of sexual abuse allege that Church authorities were aware of Corradi’s pedophilic crimes but chose to put him in charge of deaf children, both girls and boys. In 2017, Bishop Giuseppe Zenti denied responsibility, explaining that he had no authority in the matter because Instituto Próvolo is the work of a self-regulating religious congregation. The Instituto Próvolo centers are the work of the Company of Mary for the Education of Deaf-Mutes, which was founded in 1840 by the Italian priest Antonio Próvolo. According to Bishop Zenti, the congregation depends directly on the Vatican. So far, the Vatican authorities have not commented publicly on the Próvolo case.

Accusations against Corradi and other religious of Instituto Próvolo were first aired in a report by Italian newspaper L'Espresso in 2009. The paper reported that 67 former students alleged that they had been abused in the years between 1950 and 1980, while they accused the Vatican of a cover-up. Twenty priests were accused of abusing minors in Italy. Among them were Corradi and the priests Eliseo Primati and Luigi Spinelli. The three subsequently left, going to Argentina to continue their crimes. Primati is being charged with abusing children at the Instituto Próvolo installation at La Plata. Corradi returned to Italy in 2017, a year after the revelations of abuse he allegedly committed.

L’Espresso interviewed a cleric under the condition of anonymity in 2009, who admitted to prosecutors in Italy that he had abused children at Instituto Próvolo in Verona. He told the newspaper, “Yes, I was a pedophile. I was also a student at the Próvolo Institute in Verona[.]” Admitting to what he committed and witnessed, he said: "I can't take it all in anymore and I'm ashamed of the priests who are silent or deny, there is hypocrisy and omertà [a code of silence].” The priest provided testimony to Italian prosecutors, admitting to having begun assaulting children in the 1960s.

In 2013, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio became Pope Francis upon his election. In 2014, a group of Italian victims in Verona released a video that named the alleged abusers at that institution, including the three priests then in Argentina. Months later, Giuseppe Consiglio, a member of the Verona group, personally gave a letter to Pope Francis that listed the names of the accused. However, it was not until 2017, one year after the priests were arrested in Argentina, that the pontiff ordered an internal investigation into the accusations.

A court in La Plata heard from victims of the horror of sexual abuse committed at night at Instituto Próvolo in Argentina. The abuse happened on weekends, when most of the students were away at home. The abusers focused on children who had no family members. The children at Instituto Próvolo were prohibited from using sign language and could not communicate their horror to their parents. Also, they were told to turn off their hearing aids so they would not hear the screams of abused children. One victim recounted that the older children were forced to abuse younger children while the abusers watched. Some victims alleged that the abusers threatened to kill their mothers if the crimes were revealed.

continue here: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/d...ntine-priests-recount-decades-of-sexual-abuse

 

The recently deceased Germain Grisez, a great and orthodox moral theologian, was very clear that unlike many other sins, those of a sexual nature did not 'admit of parvity of matter'. In other words, sexual sins are of grave or mortal matter in all circumstances. This is in contrast with, for example, stealing whereby if one only steals a small amount, the sin is venial. However, all acts of fornication, adultery or sodomy are mortal sins. Grisez' theology was based on the traditions of the Church as expounded by the Fathers and the saints and many predecessor theologians throughout Her history.

Grisez' work, 'The Way of the Lord Jesus' is freely available to be read by all at twotlj.org. I would particularly refer to Vol. 2, Chapter 9.

I'd say sins of a sexual nature are the prime force behind the demoralisation of the present world. What are the primary political issues? Abortion; homosexuality; transexuality; child and adolescent abuse; sex trafficing; divorce; pornography and so on. All sexual issues. Sex is everywhere. Television, magazine covers, radio chat-shows, newspaper articles and headlines; and most ubiquitous of all, everyone with access to the internet is potentially connected to a 24-hour porn hub. Goodness knows the actual usage of this atrocious poison for the mind, but it is unquestionably colossal and that from an early age in very many cases. This incredible increase in a very short time of sexual antinomianism is evidence enough of the seriousness of this type of sin.

To contradict the clear and concise message of Our Lady, not to mention the very great bulk of orthodox moral theology throughout the entire history of the Church (and no, these great moralists were not prudes, not by a long shot), is just mind-boggling.

 

Excellent points, DeGaulle. The moral theology author in our diaconate training, William May, was a fan of Grisez.

Safe in the Barque of Peter!

 

Well said Terry.

 

Our Lady of Good Success described it as rivers of filth and that is exactly what it is.

 

I cannot stomach it Blizzard. It is beyond despicable. It is hellish from the depths of hell. There must be a reckoning. It will be a terrible reckoning but it must come.

 

Makes me consider my own reckoning. From Luke 12: Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required.

Praise the Lord of Mercy!