Blog

Andrew Comiskey

May 19, 2019
3 min

Fruit of Scandal

‘For you became sorrowful as God intended…Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done’ (2 Cor. 7: 9-11). Like you, I strain to see good come from Church-mishandling of abuse. And I’m not sure if mandates from the top do

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Andrew Comiskey

Apr 3, 2019
5 min

Humble King

I sent out a series of questions to my favorite priests and Rev. Msgr William J King who runs a Living Waters group in his parish responded. Excellent priests exist and deserve our prayers. “Dear Andrew, your email is a source of grace. Thank you. It is a blessing for me to be spiritual director for a few priests and to work with the accountability group that you have met. These inform my responses, below… 1. How has the ongoing exposure of your fellow priests impacted you?

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Radiance from the Ruins: Praying for Priests

Andrew Comiskey

Mar 31, 2019
4 min

Radiance from the Ruins: Praying for Priests

What had been alien to me—a black-coated mystery, heady and aloof, men in rectories, celibate yet suspect—became engaging and vital through actual priests who loved me well. Priests I know possess an attuned compassion that has deepened my trust in Jesus through His Church. No priest has enough time and resource, yet his faithful ‘yes’ to me has been the occasion more than once where I’ve seen the Father multiply his loaf and fish many times over. The priest brings a feast—he

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Andrew Comiskey

Mar 24, 2019
3 min

Grieving the Divides

In her face, I witnessed my sorrow and somehow could feel it. My friend conveyed simple pain over her (natural) father’s ongoing failures, a man she wanted to love but could not trust. All she could summon was pity. And now grief as she witnessed him unraveling before her eyes. Strange. Since this prayer/fast for a Church shackled by abuse, I have been overcome by grief, a loss I cannot shake. Outrage over cover-ups and talky inaction has given way to disappointment, an abidi

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Andrew Comiskey

Nov 18, 2018
3 min

Unflinching Mercy for the Abused

‘The beauty of the cathedral does not oppose the cross but is its fruit.’ – Cardinal Ratzinger The other morning in prayer I was startled by the image of a priest opening his vestments in a cathedral and abusing a boy. The act was as ugly as the building was beautiful. I felt rage: the boy was sacrificed on the altar of another’s perversion, and this, before the Lord! Ordained to protect, the priest destroyed. And the man over him—a bishop—protected the building, not the boy.

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Andrew Comiskey

Aug 19, 2018
2 min

Seeds and Weeds

I heard the news in Ubon Thailand, during our first Living Waters Training there: 70 years of clerical abuse in Pennsylvania involving 300 priests, over 1000 of God’s beloved kids, and the Church’s systematic attempt to cover her tracks. I knew the report was coming. Nothing prepped me for its magnitude. Jetlagged and restless at 2am, I read until I could not. In the gray light I recalled the night before when we as a delegation from 9 Asian nations renounced idolatry—our rel

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Andrew Comiskey

Aug 12, 2018
3 min

Betrayal

For the last month, I have been sickened by reports of ex-Cardinal McCarrick’s long history of sexual abusing male teens and adults; more deadening still is his denial of the allegations (how so when a diocese settled a couple of these cases years earlier?). Most crucifying are reports that some leaders around him knew of his atrocities and turned a blind eye. Each Christian bears the shame of this. Those aware of the devastating impact of sexual and spiritual abuse bear more

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Andrew Comiskey

Sep 14, 2015
2 min

Men with Chests, Part 1

‘We remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise.’ C.S. Lewis ‘And he will turn the hearts of their fathers to their children’ (LK 1:17). A man sexually violated John at 9-years-old. From then on, he hated ‘gay’ men (the unhealed do not distinguish between pedophiles and persons with SSA). John’s disdain grew as ‘gays’ waged and seemed to win the war on normalizing homosexuality in the culture. Until his churc

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Andrew Comiskey

Oct 22, 2014
2 min

October 26: Faithful Lovers

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…Love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Matt. 22:37, 39) Cultivating undivided devotion to God underlies faithful human relationships. Any adulterer knows this. Those persons whom God has graced with the courage to face the devastation of breaking both marital vows and the heart of one’s spouse become reduced to divine love. Both victim and perpetrator know that the only hope for authentic res

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Andrew Comiskey

Jul 3, 2012
3 min

True Justice

My wife Annette observed an 8-year-old boy in a waiting room trying to make sense of a photo in People magazine of two men in tuxes, probably a feature on some celeb ‘gay wedding.’ Wide-eyed, and too truthful to have anything but a visceral response to the madness, he said: ‘Are those guys… you know, together? That’s real scary.’ No scarier than the wedding photo in front of me of two men, 20-years apart yet mirror images of each other, with their adopted 4-year-old daughter

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Andrew Comiskey

May 31, 2012
2 min

Pentecost: Power to Live the Truth

Woodcut, published ca. 1880. I just read in the New York Times that Dr. Robert Spitzer, the man who documented the transformation of 200 former homosexuals like me, now claims (for no apparent reason) that we must have been lying. Who knew? Not my wife and kids… Bowing to the irrational drive of gay activists who insist that no homosexual can change (in spite of pretty good evidence to the contrary), Spitzer capitulated. Gratefully, God helps those who aspire to live the trut

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Risen with Christ, Our Wounds yet Visible

Andrew Comiskey

May 19, 2012
2 min

Risen with Christ, Our Wounds yet Visible

Jesus’ humiliation has been eclipsed with glory. So is ours, as we testify of how His mercy has washed us and solidified the new creation. Over lunch the other day, a friend recounted his healing story. To do so, he began with his shame, which was founded upon a history of early childhood sexual abuse. Staggering into young adulthood with same-sex attraction, he sought the help of two pastors who abused him sexually and spiritually. He vowed to trust no-one. Yet he knew Jesus

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Merciful Discipline 6: Humbled, We Shine

Andrew Comiskey

Apr 3, 2012
5 min

Merciful Discipline 6: Humbled, We Shine

Merciful Discipline 6: Humbled, We Shine ‘When You disciplined us, we could barely whisper a prayer.’ (IS 26:16) ‘Christ’s abiding presence in the midst of our suffering is gradually transforming our darkness into light.’ Pope Benedict The sexual abuse crisis in the Church brings us to our knees. We do not kneel politely but painfully, a sprawl rather than a pose. On behalf of those felled by the weight of a priest’s perversion, we too stumble and fall. Behold the scandal we

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Merciful Discipline 5: Hopeful, We Fight for the Dignity and Integrity of Our Priests

Andrew Comiskey

Mar 28, 2012
4 min

Merciful Discipline 5: Hopeful, We Fight for the Dignity and Integrity of Our Priests

Merciful Discipline 5: Hopeful, We Fight for the Dignity and Integrity of Our Priests The fine work and selfless dedication of the great majority of priests should not be obscured by the transgressions of some. – Pope Benedict I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who will do what is in My heart and mind, and his house will be firmly established. (1 Samuel 2:15) As a new Catholic, I have a fresh appreciation for the honorable, difficult office of the priest. I rely upo

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Merciful Discipline 4: Hopeful, We Rebuild Trust

Andrew Comiskey

Mar 21, 2012
4 min

Merciful Discipline 4: Hopeful, We Rebuild Trust

Merciful Discipline 4: Hopeful, We Rebuild Trust We do not want you to grieve…as those who have no hope. (1Thes. 4:13) Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. (1Cor. 4:2) Cursed is the man who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord…He will dwell in the parched places of the earth. (Jer. 17: 5, 6) One struggles to consider a more profound violation of trust than priestly abuse of chil

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Merciful Discipline 3: Broken, We Endure Shame

Andrew Comiskey

Mar 14, 2012
4 min

Merciful Discipline 3: Broken, We Endure Shame

Merciful Discipline 3: Broken, We Endure Shame In the Church, God has put Himself into hands that betray Him again and again. – Pope Benedict Do not hold against us the sins of the fathers; may Your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need. Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of Your Name; deliver us, and forgive us our sins for Your Name’s sake. Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” (PS 79:8-10a) We repent on behalf of the abuse-broken chu

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Merciful Discipline 2: Broken, We Repent for the Church’s Mishandling of Abuse

Andrew Comiskey

Mar 7, 2012
4 min

Merciful Discipline 2: Broken, We Repent for the Church’s Mishandling of Abuse

Merciful Discipline 2: Broken, We Repent for the Church’s Mishandling of Abuse ‘This crisis isn’t about sex abuse. It is about covering up sex abuse.’ Spokesperson for victims of priestly abuse ‘God’s justice summons us to give account of our actions and to conceal nothing.’ Pope Benedict to priests who abused children As the Church, we are united as members of one Body. When one is abused, all suffer. When abuse is covered up or mishandled by Church leaders, the abused are a

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Merciful Discipline 1: Broken, We Pray for the Abused

Andrew Comiskey

Feb 28, 2012
4 min

Merciful Discipline 1: Broken, We Pray for the Abused

— Merciful Discipline 1: Broken, We Pray for the Abused No wound runs deeper in the Church today than the sexual abuse of children by her priests. Over the last 30 years, the wound has become apparent as brave, broken souls throughout the world have dared to confess the perversion deposited in them by priests. We the Church bear this wound. We are the broken: bewildered, angry, more tempted to strike the Church than to heal her. And yet we are ‘her’, the wounded bride, as nee

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