Compassion IS Chastity

The best-kept secret of Pope Francis’ papacy? Robust chastity, blazing in sinner’s sick of filth and on fire for the One who forgave and freed them for original dignity.

For all the beautiful images we recall of Francis’ embrace of the poor, why haven’t we any of him weeping before the altar with repentant sexual sinners—that most potent juncture where mercy vanquishes the truth of our sin?

Perhaps he mistook mere kindness for conversion, a feel-good accompaniment minus the Cross; his message to the marginalized failed to set ablaze sin-weary hearts with a burning love for Jesus because he excluded Jesus’ message: ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand!’

Church, we must turn our heaviness into travailing prayer for the Church in this hour. May she not stumble but re-establish her compassion in a leader who embodies and declares radiant chastity. Only chaste love, sourced in Jesus, can heal the Bride divided by clerical sexual abuse scandals and LGBTQ+ bickering.

The answer to both? Jesus-lit chastity! Integration: the compassionate call to all who aspire to authentic happiness. Each is made to reach for the realization of whole man and womanhood. George Weigl says it best: ‘The moral life, as St. John Paul II understood it, is a drama, a drama lived in the gap between the person I am and the person I want to be. Each of us lives in that gap every day; growth in the virtues, supported by God’s grace, is the means by which we close that gap.’

Church, let us blow the trumpet, and repent before that altar. There we exchange the ravages of sophisticated idolatry for Divine Mercy, for solidarity with the saints, with power from Resurrected Jesus who frees us to take the next step toward heaven on earth.

Chastity is a foretaste of that heaven: an ordered, peaceful life in which personal dignity and broken trust with others are restored.

I witnessed this in two men ravaged by adultery (both traditional and same-sex) who checked in daily and gathered weekly with us for six months of Living Waters. They drank in rain from heaven and grew solid in Divine love. Dozens were impacted by their infidelity and hundreds (in time) will praise God for the wholeness each is realizing.

Church, let this be our shining hour. We have lost ground in robust chastity. Let us reclaim it. Heaven is full of its glory, opened for us by Jesus and extolled by the saints.

Last week, Marco and I attended  Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. The LA Diocese, largest in the USA, has been ravaged by clerical sexual abuse scandals and ‘gay’-affirming clergy to the degree that same-sex strugglers must gather underground to secure chastity. And all this in the Church of Jesus Christ!

Panel of saints from LA Cathedral: Sts. Paul, Peter, Charles Lwanga, Maria Goretti, Agatha

Not surprisingly, Marco and I received a blast of the Holy Spirit from the first panel of saints (see pic) poised strategically close to the altar. Saints Peter and Paul, who blazed a chaste trail for the Church at Jerusalem and throughout the Gentile world, were joined by Saints Charles Lwanga, Maria Goretti, and Agatha. All three were killed for refusing to yield their bodies to sexual assailants.

The message of this panel and its premier place in the Cathedral? Light shines in darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it. God is not mocked by His unchaste and unwise servants; He will raise up a healing army of grateful forgiven sinners from the blood of Jesus and His saints. Pray for the Church in this crucial hour. Let us become the Bride who is making herself ready.