An Open Letter To Our Bishops
By GARY YARBROUGH, MD
(Editor’s Note: Dr. Gary Yarbrough wrote this October 3, 2022 open letter to the U.S. bishops and we are privileged to publish it here. In his letter, Dr. Yarbrough cites the words of the Prophet Ezekiel and the example of St. John Vianney to persuade the bishops to work to clear out the morass in which the local Church is mired.)
- + + There is in man a desire for being clean. As a doctor I have seen it in homeless people who come into the hospital and have their first shower in months. We all have that desire for cleanliness, not just physically but emotionally and spiritually as well.
In the Catholic faith we are fortunate to have a mechanism for achieving that spiritual cleanliness, also known as holiness — the Sacrament of Reconciliation, commonly known as Confession. Yet it seems the use of that sacrament is dying out. It is easy to see this when the lines for Confession are absolutely dwarfed by the lines for Holy Communion.
A large part of this problem is the loss of the sense of sin among the faithful. This is no surprise when the faithful are living in a culture so decadent that mortal sins are constantly being promoted and even lauded by the popular degenerate media. We are constantly bombarded by a pagan culture not only failing to call out sin but even vehemently rejecting those who do.
On the contrary, so many acts that our great grandparents knew to be mortal sins we are now being told aren’t sinful at all. This attitude was accelerated by the failure of the hierarchy in 1968 to champion Humanae Vitae. Things have only become worse in the decades since as the culture gradually embraced sins of all types, particularly sexual sins. A short list would include: - + + Artificial contraception of all types, many of which are abortifacient.
Fornication, or sexual acts performed outside of a sacramental marriage.
Promiscuity, especially among the fornicating unmarried in the “hookup” culture.
Adultery, dismissed with the euphemism of “affair.”
Abortion, both surgical and chemical, where killing is called “choice.”
Cohabitation as a false form of marriage.
Sexual perversions such as homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, and so-called transgenderism — all of which we are told to take pride in committing.
Detraction and calumny of the so-called “cancel culture” that destroys people’s lives.
Pornography and the addiction to it that tears marriages apart.
Divorce itself, a clear failure to keep one’s word, “till death do we part.” - + + We as Catholic laity are constantly being bombarded throughout every day with cultural messages promoting these and many more sinful acts. Yet sadly, we almost never hear contrary words in our parish churches. Instead, we hear about “social justice,” which even atheistic Communists loudly promote, yet rarely a single word about “divine justice” for these sins.
St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests, did not fail to preach against those mortal sins being promoted or at least overlooked in the rural French culture of his time, especially the sins of alcoholism and adultery.
Yet our parish priests almost never do so in our parishes today. We want to strive for holiness in our lives, but the homilies we hear do not help us to combat the onslaught of cultural moral depravity we are confronting in our daily lives.
I, for one, cannot recall that last time I heard a parish priest preach against any one of the sins listed above. It is as if diocesan priests fear loss of people in the pews or loss of tithing more than they fear the loss of souls entrusted to their care. Yet people do still desire holiness — spiritual cleanliness — and they are desperately in need of such homilies. We the laity need the support of our priests in promoting regular Confession and avoidance of these cultural evils which are thrust upon us almost as soon as we leave our churches on Sunday and turn on the radios in our cars.
In Ezek. 3:18-19 we read:
“If I say to the wicked, You shall surely die — and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade the wicked from their evil conduct in order to save their lives — then they shall die for their sin, but I will hold you responsible for their blood. If, however, you warn the wicked and they still do not turn from their wickedness and evil conduct, they shall die for their sin, but you shall save your life.”
In these corrupt, debauched, and degenerate times we desperately need the voices of a thousand Ezekiels proclaiming God’s truth and calling us out of sin and into the Light of Christ and His teaching. When are you, our bishops, going to step up to this responsibility?
How long before we laity hear preaching like that of Ezekiel to the Hebrews, calling his people out of their sins, back to God and to spiritual cleanliness? Today’s overemphasis on “social justice” has left us bereft of the moral guidance our forefathers received from the priests of their day, bereft of the kind of spiritual direction St. John Vianney poured out to his flock.
Bishops, there is a reason St. John Vianney was the most celebrated confessor of his era. Through his preaching on the sins prevalent in the culture of his day, he drew thousands to the confessional and to genuine rejection of sin and reform of their lives. Who is like him now? When are we going to be blessed to hear that kind of preaching in our parishes once more?
Do you not think the words of Ezekiel apply to you? Do you care so little for us? For failure to call the faithful away from the sins being extolled by the current zeitgeist is absolutely not being pastoral.
Gary Yarbrough, MD