U.S.: Let us prey!

Fr. Wolfgang Rothe, vice rector of the Sankt Poelten seminary, in two compromising poses with unidentified student (Profil)

The Catholic Church's Abu Ghraib

No, there was no torture or interrogation involved. No women either. They were all allegedly willing participants—and, to a man, they were men. One among their ranks also took photos that were published on Monday by the Austrian news magazine Profil.

The photos showed seminarians and priests from Austria’s Sankt Poelten seminary fondling and kissing one another and engaging in sex games. Profil also reported that some 40,000 pornographic images and films were downloaded to the seminary’s computers, including photographs depicting acts of pedophilia and bestiality.

Consequently, German-language media outlets have been saturated this week with reports of the Austrian seminary scandal chock o’block full of lurid details in what has become the Catholic Church’s Abu Ghraib. Headlines such as "Seminary orgy rocks Church in Austria" (Irish Examiner), "Church probes perverse pictures" (Toronto Star), and "Porn case could torpedo bishop" (The Guardian), made news from Britain to Australia to America.

The scandal immediately prompted the resignation of two seminary officials, an internal investigation by the Austrian bishops conference, and calls for a criminal investigation since the scandal involves a large cache of child pornography—illegal in Austria as in most other countries.

Okay, so I'm not sleeping yet; I'm just busy sweating.

Make sure and read the whole story.

The events related in this story bring the Cross into disrepute and drag the blood-stained banner of Christ in the mud. In the behavior is a disdain for the Church Visible and Invisible (I'm not talking about Rome, though the ones engaged in this abomination belong to Rome), and a contempt for Her Lord in whose Name and by whose Authority those in the Office of the Holy Ministry serve.

To think that hirelings, such as these who burn with strange fire, will have charge of God's flock.... Lord, protect your sheep against wolves in sheep's clothing.

There is yet hope on the horizon. The Christians of Africa and Asia have begun to sweep across Europe, and the Cross, so despised in post-Christian Europe, is lifted high before them. These African and Asian soldiers of the Cross make Christianity the fastest growing religion in the world today as they prevent the darkness from descending on Europe.