Tuesday, June 7, 2022

CATHOLIC CONVENTS AND MONASTERIES: SANCTUARIES OR CESSPOOLS?

  • “Sanctuary” – A place of refuge or safety.
  • “Cesspool” – A disgusting or corrupt place.

It is normally admirable to see someone who is sold out to God, serving Him at all costs, and is willing to do anything to please our Lord.  This often appears to be the case with Catholic monks and nuns.  Most of the people within these two groups appear to have a very sincere dedication to God (or to the Church), since they have chosen “the consecrated life.”

Now, understand that there are different groups of nuns and monks and they don’t all have the same rules.  Some are stricter than others.  But all of them have a measure of asceticism built into their system.

Asceticism

The online dictionary.com describes asceticism as:

1) The manner of life, practices, or principles of an ascetic.

2) The doctrine that a person can attain a high spiritual and moral state by practicing self-denial, self-mortification, and the like.

3) Rigorous self-denial; extreme abstinence; austerity.

According to the Oxford Languages dictionary, it means:

"Severe self-discipline and avoidance of all forms of indulgence, typically for religious reasons."

So that is why when a would-be monk or nun enters these groups, they will then be isolated, at least to a certain extent, for a period of time to live very closely together in a monastery (monks with other monks or nuns with other nuns).  In extreme cases, they will be completely isolated from the outside world (cloistered), with almost no exceptions.  Sometimes, nuns will live in a convent, where there seems to be a little more freedom.   

Furthermore, Catholic nuns and monks generally will be forced to live a celibate life, meaning that they will not be allowed to marry and they must abstain from sex, in some cases, for the rest of their lives.

If that’s not hard enough, some of these “religious,” as they are sometimes called, are usually expected to discipline and punish themselves by eating very small and simple meals (e.g., bread and water), sometimes only once a day.  Depending on the type of monastery, they are expected to fast often for long periods of time, sleep on hard floors or boards, wear extremely uncomfortable clothing (sometimes made of itchy hair or sharp metal pieces) for long periods, whip themselves (self-flagellation), wear tight cords around the body, and/or sometimes taking vows of silence or vows of poverty, etc., etc. 

Obviously, this won’t make most people say, “Hey, sign me up for that!”  No, this lifestyle is unusually harsh and most Catholics will avoid it.

 Motive?

Again, it is indeed rare to see such dedication toward God or Church, but what is the reason for going to this extreme?  Why choose to live such a harsh lifestyle?

Perhaps it is because they are trying to follow what Jesus said:

“And he said to them all, ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.’” (Luke 9:23)

Or maybe they are thinking of what the apostle Paul said:

 “but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:27- NASB)

Do they intend to emulate the apostle Paul in his hardships and suffering (Galatians 5:24; 2 Corinthians 6:4-10) or are they even trying to outdo the apostle Paul? 

But what they do in the monastery is not what Jesus and Paul were talking about.  There is a balance in your spiritual life and its discipline.  In fact, Paul warned against legalistic asceticism.  Such a life of legalism will only keep you from serving God properly:

“If you have died with Christ to the spiritual forces of the world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its regulations: “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”? These will all perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such restrictions indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-prescribed worship, their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body; but they are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.” (Colossians 2:20-23 - BSB)

It is possible that their motives are well-intended, but we need to remain biblical if we really want to please God.  Much of convent/monastic life is unnecessary.  If you really want to please God, try spending more time at home in prayer, and in the Word of God. 

Thinking about a vow of silence?  How about keeping your mouth shut at the appropriate times, but use your freedom of speech to spread the true gospel! 

Instead of taking a vow of poverty, get a job and actually help others financially who live in poverty!

Instead of trying to live a life of isolation in a monastery (which you won’t find in the New Testament), do what Jesus said and interact with the lost by taking the gospel to the world! (Matthew 28:18-20)

Instead of making yourself miserable, pray for those who ARE ALREADY miserable! 

This life in the convent or monastery is closely tied in with a works-based salvation, that is, they believe that they get more “points” doing this and they have a “better chance” to get into Heaven.  It is an earning system.

 Bad Environment

Not only is there an issue with asceticism in convents and monasteries, but there is something that is recognized by most as a more sinister problem.  When there are so many celibate people of the same sex trapped together indefinitely, bad things tend to happen.  An environment like this invites trouble.  We’ve all heard of pedophile and sexual predator priests in the Catholic Church, but what about nuns and monks?  Can it be that the same things happen to them, as well?  Indeed it can.

Back in January 2019, CBS News did a video on nuns accused of sexual misconduct.  One of the former nuns that CBS interviewed, Trish Cahill, was sexually abused by an older nun.  Cahill, when speaking to the CBS News correspondent, used the phrase “pedophile nun.”  And the correspondent said that the phrase “‘Pedophile nun’ is a phrase I think most of our viewers will have never heard.”  The former nun replied, “Really?  Wow!  That’s really a shame because there’s a lot of them out there.  It’s the secret not yet told.”

The Catholic Church is very aware that it breeds such victims.  Cahill also later said, concerning a financial settlement she received from the Church for the abuse she suffered, “They had canon lawyers on retainer just for people like me!”  That is, the Church had lawyers ever ready to defend against the inevitable… those who would make accusations of a sexual nature against Catholic leaders.  Again, the Catholic Church knows very well the monster they have created with these convents and monasteries and their forced living conditions. 

But thank God, some are finally realizing what Protestants have been saying about the Catholic Church for a long time: In this same video, another former nun, Mary Dispenza, said, “The demands of chastity and celibacy are unrealistic demands for many of us.”

Exactly!  They may mean well in the beginning, but it often ends in disaster.

See the video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THoy6mLX9r4

Problems in the Church

Again, sexual abuse by priests (and others in the hierarchy) is well known and documented.  But there are many reports and stories of monks and nuns who have abused others, as well. This abuse has fallen under different categories.  Sometimes it is psychological, sometimes verbal, very often it is sexual, and many times it is strictly physical abuse. 

These stories and accusations have been around for a long, long time - for decades, or most likely, centuries.  Sexual deviancy in the Catholic Church was especially a problem during the time of the Borgia popes (in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries), but the Catholic Church, not surprisingly, not only tries to downplay these perverted activities, but the Vatican will also hide their modern predators from the public by not contacting law enforcement, but rather, shuffling off offenders to other areas of the country where they are unknown, starting the same cycle all over again.

The Cat is Out of the Bag

Interestingly, the popular website Catholic Answers wrote an article in March of 2008, titled “Convent Horror Stories.”  See here:

https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/convent-horror-stories

According to this article, when Catholics first came to America, Protestants viewed the Catholic Church as the “sworn enemy of freedom.”  The author tells us of (alleged) liars who came against the Church and spread horrible stories and “urban legends,” making it sound as though Catholic priests were perverts.  The author of the article mocked those Catholic haters who seemed to view the responsibilities of a nun to be “serving the perverse sexual needs of Catholic priests.”  Catholic Answers mocks these (allegedly) fabricated “convent horror stories,” and considers them all to be false.  They try to make it appear as though no such thing has happened among the priesthood.

But more interesting yet, is the fact that in August 2018, the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report came out nationwide and it revealed that some of those very types of things mentioned in the Catholic Answers article were actually true and still happening today.  The types of activities they brushed off as nonsense in 2008 were actually confirmed in 2018.  Not only those things that were mentioned in the Catholic Answers article, but far worse, including pedophilia.  See here:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4757021-Pennsylvania-Grand-Jury-Report-on-Catholic.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/08/14/pennsylvania-grand-jury-report-on-sex-abuse-in-catholic-church-will-list-hundreds-of-accused-predator-priests/

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/14/us/pennsylvania-catholic-church-grand-jury/index.html

Here is an article with some of my thoughts on this:

https://answeringcatholicclaims.blogspot.com/search?q=pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report also mentioned the involvement of at least one nun, who helped a priest in some of his assaults upon certain victims, and who also, herself, sexually assaulted a male victim (more than once).

The report also includes an incident of at least one monk who abused a male victim.

The focus of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report seems to have been mainly on priests, but one would be naïve to think that nuns and monks are exempt from such behavior.

If you think that nuns abusing others is something that doesn’t exist, see this link:

https://www.snapnetwork.org/nun_abuse

And these two by the New York Post:

https://nypost.com/2019/02/16/inside-the-horrifying-unspoken-world-of-sexually-abusive-nuns/

https://nypost.com/2020/12/22/nuns-were-pimps-for-sick-priests-says-sex-abuse-victim/

If you think that monks abusing others is something that does not exist, see these links:

https://www.snapnetwork.org/man_claims_monk_sexually_abused_him_more_than_100_times_as_a_kid

https://www.snapnetwork.org/west_abused_children_spent_time_philadelphia_aug19

This is some Jeffrey Epstein type of behavior!

And in case you’re thinking that this Grand Jury Report is not substantial, or even fake, the Vatican acknowledges the seriousness of those Pennsylvania findings:

“The Holy See treats with great seriousness the work of the investigating Grand Jury of Pennsylvania and the lengthy Interim Report it has produced.”

See here:

https://ucatholic.com/news/vatican-breaks-silence-on-pennsylvania-sex-abuse-scandal-criminal-and-morally-reprehensible/

Conclusion

So, the conclusion is that convents and monasteries are indeed not the sanctuaries they claim to be. 

Note that I am not saying that there has never been anything good to come out of those places.  For example, monks used to make copies of the Scriptures in monasteries.  But that doesn’t negate the problems within them.

There are several things I blame for the problems therein:

First, I blame the social structure of these monasteries and convents to a large extent.  These living conditions certainly provide an unnecessary “occasion of sin,” as Catholics call it (Baltimore Catechism #3, Lesson 18, Question 770-775).

Here, we have a bunch of unmarried men (or women) who are celibate, with no chance to relieve sexual tension, while living together in close quarters for long periods of time.  Concerning these living conditions, someone once so eloquently stated, “That just ain’t right!”

Secondly, they have a powerful Church which is willing to cover up their sins of perversion for them by keeping their crimes from the police, and then removing those offenders to another location for a fresh start.  Thus, they have an incentive to continue in this perverse lifestyle.  They know others around them in the same convent/monastery are doing it, as well, so they all have a dirty little secret, yet they are quietly protected by the Church.  This, alone, tells us that the leaders in the Catholic Church (including the pope) don’t care about the innocent lives that are being destroyed.

Thirdly, to make matters worse, false doctrine pervades not only monasteries and convents, but the Catholic Church as a whole.  No amount of magnificent architecture, or well-meaning occupants, can make up for false doctrine.  False doctrine is a curse that will destroy eternal souls.  If there is any doubt as to whether there is false doctrine in the Catholic Church, see the multitude of articles in this blog.

Are these Catholic convents and monasteries considered sanctuaries – are they bastions of truth with biblical principles – or are they cesspools of false doctrine and perversion?  The answer is clear for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear (Isaiah 6:10; Jeremiah 5:21; Matthew 13:15).