“Advice” on overcoming temptation!
‘Welcome Christ to watch Impure Thoughts with you!’ – Shocking Advice from Novus Ordo Priest invited to SSPX Family Conference
We weren’t going to write another post on this issue, but what we just discovered makes it necessary.
We return once more to “Fr.” Sean Kilcawley, a Novus Ordo priest and “Theology of the Body” guru in the diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska. He will be speaking this Friday, Oct. 4, at the Lefebvrist Society of St. Pius X’s Angelus Press Conference on the topic of “The Dangers Lurking Online: Pornography Addiction and how it destroys Hearts, Minds, and Souls.” As a teacher of “Pope” John Paul II’s Modernistic, unchaste, and blasphemous “Theology of the Body”, we had already published a post blasting the SSPX’s decision to invite him to speak at a conference dedicated to the theme of “Defense of the Family”:
As we show in the post linked above, even the SSPX opposes the wicked “Theology of the Body” — in theory at least. If there was any doubt whether Mr. Kilcawley’s theology might negatively influence what he will say about overcoming a porn addiction, that doubt has now been put to rest. As the semi-trad blog Catholic Truth has just made the public aware, the following video clip shows Kilcawley “giving advice” on combatting temptations against purity:
CAUTION!
CONTENT NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN
Alas, the following commentary is likewise not suitable for children, as we have to quote and discuss this horrendous “spiritual advice.”
In the video, Kilcawley suggests that men who are struggling with habitual sins against the Sixth Commandment or are otherwise afflicted with temptations to purity, especially in the form of pornography, should not ask Christ for strength to fight these temptations, nor should they ask Him to take them away. He does not say that they should fly from them, either. Rather, he explains:
…a better way of approaching our temptations, instead of asking our Lord to take them away, which gives us the impression that Jesus enters into our life to take away our temptations so that we can then fix ourselves and eventually be worthy of Him to come back and enter in, is to simply invite our Lord into our temptation and into our thoughts in the present moment; to say, “Jesus, I want to look at pornography right now”, or, “Jesus, I’m having an impure thought right now. You’re welcome into my imagination. You’re welcome to watch these thoughts with me.” Because as we do that, the light of Christ can enter into our imagination, and His light scatters the darkness. In that moment in which we’re feeling unlovable or we’re feeling a need for love, that need is responded to by He [sic] who is Love, the Person who is Love, our Lord Jesus Christ. And it’s with His help that we can put our lives back in order again and live and love as we should. It’s a reminder to us that we’re never alone, that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, and we can do nothing without Him.
(Source; 0:35-1:44 min)
What scandalous and blasphemous garbage!
To ask God to take away our temptations suggests that we think we can “fix ourselves” without His grace? Has this man lost his mind?
St. Alphonsus Liguori is the Church’s Doctor of Moral Theology. His Prayer to Our Lady contains these lines:
And since you are so powerful with God,
deliver me from all temptations,
or at least obtain for me the strength
to overcome them until death.
“There are three main things to be done”, Fr. Adolphe Tanquerey writes, “if we are to overcome temptations and make them redound to our profit: 1º we must forestall temptation; 2º fight it strenuously; 3º thank God after victory or rise up after a fall” (The Spiritual Life, 2nd ed. [Tournai: Desclee, 1930], p. 432; italics given).
With regard to fighting temptations against the virtue of holy purity, Fr. Tanquerey notes that it must be done “with determination and vigor.” He explains further that “we must turn away from them and take to flight by concentrating our attention on any other matter calculated to engage our faculties. Direct resistance in such instances generally increases the danger” (The Spiritual Life, n. 915, p. 434; underlining added).
St. Alphonsus teaches:
…as soon as a temptation against chastity presents itself, the remedy is to turn instantly to God for help, and to repeat several times the most holy names of Jesus and Mary, which have a special virtue to banish bad thoughts of that kind. I have said immediately, without listening to, or beginning to argue with the temptation. When a bad thought occurs in the mind, it is necessary to shake it off instantly, as you would a spark that flies from the fire, and instantly to invoke aid from Jesus and Mary.
Not surprisingly, neither St. Alphonsus nor Fr. Tanquerey mentions anything about “inviting Jesus into your temptation” and have His light outshine the impure thought, or any such nonsense. Kilcawley’s counsel will keep people lingering in their temptations and quite possibly increase them.
We’ll refrain from commenting on his blasphemous proposal that Christ should be welcomed to “watch these thoughts with me.” When a Catholic is tempted and cannot flee from a temptation, he should distract himself, look at a Crucifix, or repeat the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, but certainly not “share the temptation with Christ”, so to speak.
Earlier on in the video, Kilcawley tells the struggling sinner that he is “already worthy of our Lord’s love”, which is a plain lie. We are not worthy of God’s love — His love for us is gratuitous, a genuine gift. There are numerous Scripture passages teaching this rather obvious truth; for example:
And Jacob said: O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who saidst to me: Return to thy land and to the place of thy birth, and I will do well for thee, I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and of thy truth which thou hast fulfilled to thy servant. (Gen 32:9-10)
And king David came and sat before the Lord, and said: Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that thou shouldst give such things to me? (1 Para [1 Chron] 17:16)
What is a man that thou shouldst magnify him? or why dost thou set thy heart upon him? (Job 7:17)
And the centurion making answer, said: Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof: but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed. (Mt 8:8)
I will arise, and will go to my father, and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee: I am not worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. (Lk 15:18-19)
And St. Alphonsus wrote: “The man who has lived like a brute, does not deserve to sit with the angels” (Sermon “On the Vice of Impurity”).
That a Novus Ordo priest would offer blasphemous spiritual danger to souls is to be expected. The real question is why the Society of St. Pius X thinks this man is suitable for instructing their adherents on anything related to holy purity, or anything spiritual, for that matter.
Image source: youtube.com (screenshot)
License: fair use
;
No Comments
Be the first to start a conversation