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Many will feel as I did that he went overboard, but it is understandable due to the magnitude and seriousness of the charges he is proving. Rose notes that the door to ideological and sexual abuse opened during the 1960's and 1970's with a shift from the priestly model of "self-sacrifice" to a model of "self-fulfillment" followed by the emergence of a corrupt sub-culture in the priesthood bent on infiltrating Catholic Seminaries to change the doctrines, disciplines, and mission of the Catholic Church from within. Rose also maintains that the priest shortage is artificial and contrived, and provides data showing there is no vocations crisis in those dioceses which support orthodox candidates. True candidates were perceived as a threat to the new agenda - a politically correct church complete with women priests, lay run parishes, secularized worship, and a `soft" approach to Church doctrine.
Author Michael Rose wrote "Goodbye, Good Men' for three reasons: to show the underlying causes of the "vocations crisis" in the U.S. Readers of "Goodbye, Good Men" will gain great insight into the Church's "man-made" crisis - "politically correct Bishops, priests, and nuns," the sex abuse scandals, the cover-ups, payoffs, and an artificial "vocations crisis." His objective to inform has been achieved; his objective to encourage seminary reform is underway; and his objective to rouse the laity depends on how many take the time to read this important work. "When dioceses and religious orders are unambiguous about the priesthood as the Church defines this calling, where there is strong support for vocations, then there are documented increases in the number of candidates who respond to the call."Rose provides plenty of documentation in making his case. (abuses in U.S.
Seminarians who supported the teachings of the church, especially the teachings on sexual morality, were dismissed for being "rigid and uncharitable homophobes," while those seminarians who rejected the Church's teachings or "came out" as gays were rewarded with preferential treatment and ordination. Rose with "Goodbye, Good Men" has played a key role in helping the Church say "Goodbye, Bad Men and Bad Women." Catholic seminaries over the past three decades); to encourage reform of many seminaries in dire need of reform; and to rouse the laity to demand greater accountability on the part of the institutions charged with educating and forming priests for future generations. This sub-culture, once in place, changed the vocational discernment procedure from one which winnows out false vocations to a one which frustrates genuine vocations.
I have to think this may have been a very isolated perspective and not a universal truth. One wonders at the accuracy of this portrayal.
So, contrary to the many reviewers who claim that the author has simply invented his material out of thin air, I happen to know first hand that at least one story is true in every word. It is important to know the truth about the modern Church. Purging, in this case, begins with a detective-like gathering of facts from witnesses. It means that persons and places must be identified, and events documented. It is important that future generations of Catholics have a bluntly honest account of the present crisis, so that courageous and vigilant men and women will never again allow God's Church to be reduced from a body of believers restless for the salvation of souls to an elitist club for progressives and gays. It required the faithful who, not out of vengeance, but in pure but wounded love for the Church that Jesus Christ founded, could provide first hand accounts of abuse and negligence. And it is shocking to see the degree to which they are willing and able to hold fast to their agenda of establishing a gay priesthood, or no priesthood at all. Church officals would not do this.
"Good Bye, Good Men" is not a book for faint-hearted Catholics. Celibacy the problem. Which is to say that the vocations shortage is not really a shortage. My story is briefly recounted in Michael Rose's book. I would say that "Good Bye, Good Men" is an exceptional start to this project. It is shocking in its information, even downright depressing. It is an appalling expose of an institution - the American Catholic Church - that is corrupt to its very core. It is not merely that this institution had some problems, needed an improvement or two.
Until these men are exposed and removed, it will be business as usual, with irreverent Masses and deplorable homiles, as we've endured already for forty long long years. Nope. Rather, it is a deliberate achievement, a crisis successfully attained by the deliberate policies of bishops, seminaries, and vocations directors. And that is my first-hand experience, having once pursued the religious life, only to find myself identified as an undesirable conservative. It is their way, or no way.
They form a united front against any meaningful reform of the Church by the magisterium. "Good Bye, Good Men, " and other books like it, are essential to this project. And I know as well that the religious orders and diocesan priesthood are just stacked with gays, who certainly will not be preaching Catholic sexual morality from the pulpit. No, the Amchurch was and is an elite establishment managed by heartless liberals that needed a rude and ruthless cutting open for all the world to see. The shortage is an attempt to force change upon the Church by leaving her either with too few priests, or with primarily radical and out of the closet gay priests who have every intention of promoting homosexualism from the pulpit and through the diocesan infrastructure.
Such is the modus operandi of the left. "Good Bye, Good Men" is one in a series of books written by various authors that undertakes this painful purging, which necessarily begins with exposing the facts that this corruption exists at the highest levels of the American Catholic establishment. But for many of us - myself included - it is justice at last, if not at a rather late date.In this book you will read story after story, told by those directly involved, of the gross mistreatment of the faithful - some lay people, others lay men pursuing the priesthood or religious life - by an impenetrable mass of strategically placed progressives and homosexuals.
I must say that I visited a seminary for a few days shortly after I read this book and I did not see any of the bad stuff described. One of the observations described in this book is the difference between conservative "orthodox" environments vs. I guess many of the people from the described seminaries flocked to amazon to give it a bad review, as this book goes against their agenda.I thank the author of this book for helping me understand what the evil in the Church is. I think it would seem logical that if I call myself a Catholic, it is because I believe in the official Catholic teachings. liberal in the church. I knew there were homosexuals in the seminaries (like in all places), but I didn't realize how much power and predominance they particularly have in the seminaries (at least in the ones they belong to).From my experience in discussing the church crisis with lay people (who are generally unaware of the filth described in this book), I find that they readily think that the solutions to the sex abuse scandal and priest shortage are to have married priests and female priests. Only a liberal in the church would write such a thing. It seems as if the people participating in these types of liturgical abuses are not Catholic at all, but of another different non-Christian religion.
Whereas liberal seminaries and their dioceses do not. I read this book back in 2002 and was indeed very shocked at the stuff it describes. And this is what the liberals in the Catholic Church are doing. I find it puzzling that they say they are Catholic, yet they don't really show to believe in the Church's teachings.Incidentally, I was browsing through the reviews that gave this book a "1 star". It made me pop this question into my head: If people like these who are running parishes and seminaries call themselves "Catholic", why do they shun the teachings of the Catechism and the magisterium.
(go to YouTube and look up "liturgical abuse dances" or just "liturgical abuse" and you'll get my point). One even criticized the author's views as going "against the progress made in the last 40 years". They try to discredit this book saying that what it says is not true. The seminary promoted orthodox teachings in line with the magisterium of the Church. Many of the reviewers showed names of cities which have some of these gay seminaries described in the book. This book will show the average lay person why this solution is wrong.
Otherwise I find it pointless to belong to an organization whose beliefs I don't believe in. Some parts of the book also describe various types of liturgical abuse going on during Mass at some of these liberal seminaries. Conservative seminaries show strong numbers of vocations. I also noticed that they had plenty of vocations.
Much of the material presented here is quite graphic and indeed "sex manuals" and textbooks are frequently given out to seminaries which run brazenly counter to the teachings of the church on human sexuality. This culture of militant homosexuality frequently makes even the most un-homophobic of heterosexual men uncomfortable. For example, in some seminaries those who regularly pray the rosary are referred to as "Pharisees" and targeted for abuse. Nevertheless, I feel this book is timely and important and should be discussed and examined by all practicing Catholics.The author begins by examining the claims that there is a shortage in candidates for the priesthood.
This account is highly disturbing and the book is often quite graphic and certain to anger and enrage. Nevertheless, if even some of what is presented here is indeed going on, that is a deeply disturbing thing. The author also shows how an inquisition exists in reverse to root out orthodox candidates. This claim is commonly made by many and various reasons are given for it, some blaming church policies regarding celibacy, etc. As such, there is always some reason for suspicion when such accounts are made.
Such attempts are greatly misguided and result from a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the Catholic church which has always been militantly opposed to the corruption of the outer world. Further, many of the more orthodox candidates who do not toe the line regarding these new sexual perversions are sexually harassed by brazenly homosexual candidates. One thing that needs to be said up front though is that the book is largely written in an historical vacuum. In many ways, the situation as presented in this book in the seminaries reminds me of the situation that exists in many universities everywhere following the influence of Sixties radicals who became entrenched in higher education. Such candidates are frequently sent to psychologists who attempt to "alter" them, eerily reminiscent of the Soviet use of psychology and "re-education" as one disgruntled candidate pointed out.
The author claims that in seminaries where a culture and atmosphere of conservative orthodoxy exists, there is not the predicted shortage but rather that the shortage exists among the more liberal seminaries and dioceses. The author also shows how heterodoxy, liberalism, modernism, and worse have entered the teaching at many Catholic seminaries. Much of this can be attributed to a generational conflict between older and younger priests who are often quite orthodox and the generation of Sixties radicals. The author ends by showing the possibility for a more orthodox priesthood with candidates often coming from "counter-cultural homeschooling type families". The book of course is not without its faults and it must be stated outright that I believe a great deal of what is written here must be taken with a grain of salt; nevertheless, I feel that what Rose says here is highly important and must be examined thoughtfully by any practicing Catholic.
What the book really attempts to address is the often made claim that there is a crisis in the priesthood and that there is a shortage of candidates for the priesthood which they believe requires a fundamental re-understanding of what it means to be a priest. and others blaming a culture of materialism and atheism (something which the author does not consider but which I believe should be thoroughly considered as well). The author then shows us the situation as it exists in the seminaries, beginning by maintaining that among young men the call to the priesthood is often stifled by precisely those who should be encouraging it. Curtiss that the alleged priest shortage was largely contrived and that those who expressed such claims frequently had a death wish for the all-male celibate priesthood. As such, this book is recommended to all thinking Catholics who want to honestly address the problems that the church faces.
The author also shows how piety is lambasted, and frequently those who are traditionally pious face drastic consequences. _Goodbye, Good Men: How Liberals Brought Corruption into the Catholic Church_, published in 2002 by the conservative Regnery Publishing, by Catholic writer Michael S. Professors frequently bash the church and maintain a theology which is frankly Protestant or modernist. Further, some of the accounts of some of the disgruntled ex-candidates presented in this book have been called into question. While the book is certainly relevant to such cases and may explain how such a situation comes to exist, it really does not focus so much on these situations other than to say that the public image of the priesthood has been corroded. The only difference being that professors at seminaries are supposed to be teaching orthodox Catholic doctrine and philosophy. Rose is a timely and disturbingly written account of the situation as it has existed inside the seminaries since the Second Vatican Council and the 1960s.
This confirms for me what I have thought for a long time, that many psychoanalysts have their own agendas and that those agendas frequently conflict with both common sense and with a traditional Christian understanding of things. To address these issues, the author will delve into the situation as it exists in the seminaries and provides a disturbing account of extreme heterodoxy (and we're talking things that go well beyond the modernist crisis here), homosexuality among candidates, sexual improprieties, and a culture of liberalism and dissent from the Roman pontiff. As such, it must be read very carefully. From this I have to conclude that the hierarchy and perhaps even as far up as the papacy itself is largely either helpless or will not address such issues. Finally, the author shows how any attempt by the Vatican to crack down on dissenters has largely failed and the desire to appear non-inquisitorial has led to the proliferation of all manner of abuses.
The book comes written at a time when many believe there is a crisis among the priesthood, with an increasing number of priest sex offender cases making national attention, as well as cover-ups by the hierarchy. The author of this book takes a controversial stance in that he supports Catholic orthodoxy and the teaching of the popes on such issues and further he maintains that the alleged shortage in candidates for the priesthood is largely contrived. Further, there is found to be a disgusting emphasis on sex with all manner of sexual improprieties abounding. Such orthodox candidates are frequently singled out as "rigid" or "inflexible" (words which may be genuine criticisms of a person's character but which here are used as codewords to describe those who are theologically orthodox). Many of the abuses occurred during the 70s and 80s and thus may not accurately reflect the situation as it currently exists. The author shows an environment in the seminaries that is plagued with liberalism and sexual immorality. The author maintains that there is a prominent gay subculture in many seminaries with openly gay candidates and seminary professors. The author also shows some orthodox seminaries and how they have prospered despite an outer culture that is increasingly hostile to the Catholic church.This book provides a timely and disturbing account of the situation in Roman Catholic seminaries; however, some of the stories presented must obviously be taken with a grain of salt.
As such, the author maintains that a process exists in seminaries to "weed out" orthodox candidates and that further to address this problem what is really needed is a return to orthodoxy and not a move further away from it. Ironically, some dioceses have chosen to address the "crisis" by appealing to the MTV culture, making billboards presenting the priesthood as cool and hip or even advertising on MTV. Issues such as priestly celibacy, marriage among priests, the ordination of women, and homosexuality are brought up and usually those making such a claim believe that the teachings of the church on such issues are at fault and must be addressed. Most disturbing however is the use of psychology and psychoanalysis against those who maintain an orthodox allegiance to the pope. The author also shows how a "weeding out" process occurs, in which an inquisition in reverse, allows for seminary directors to weed out those who are particularly conservative or orthodox. Accounts of improprieties among priests and monks are very old and slanders against the Catholic church date to at least the time of Celsus and other Roman pagan writers who often maintained that Christians were cannibals who ate babies. The author then turns to the controversial idea of Archbishop Eldin F.
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