The Catholic Church and 'JUDAS'

I am often asked about what can be done about the clerical abuses within the Catholic Church namely, excessive political involvement of the clergy, sexual sins among which a predominance of homosexuality, etc.

One way to answer the question is to look at what has already been done about it in the Catholic Church history. There is a segment in Steve WEIDENKOPF book, "The Real Story of Catholic History: Answering Twenty Centuries of Anti-Catholic Myths" which shows how Pope Leo IX went about to combat Priests sexual immoralities and clergy grasps for secular power. Let me share an excerpt of it. Here is how he describes it:
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Bruno of Alsace was noted for his piety. As bishop of Toul (in modern-day France), he cared deeply for his people. The abuses in the Church, especially among the clergy, pained him. When Pope Damasus II, the third German to sit on the Chair of Peter, died in 1048 after a short pontificate of only twenty-three days, Bruno of Alsace was the logical and saintly choice as his successor [and become Pope Leo IX]. By the time of Pope Leo IX in the mid-eleventh century, unchastity among the clergy was widespread. So many priests lived openly with mistresses or practiced the abhorrent vice of homosexuality that St. Peter Damian (1007–1072) wrote The Book of Gomorrah against the sexual sins of the clergy. The eleventh-century papal reform focused on ensuring the independence of the papacy from the interference of secular rulers, and was led mostly by popes who were former monks, free from the sins of secular (diocesan) clergy.

Pope St. Leo IX (r. 1049–1054) was faced with three major issues that shaped his pontificate: the protection of the Papal States from the encroaching Normans; resolution of disputes with the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantines); and the reform of the Church. And the Church was indeed in desperate need of reform in the eleventh century. The practice of simony (buying or selling Church offices) was rampant, as were violations of the discipline of celibacy among clergy (deacons, priests, and bishops).

To combat these abuses, Leo IX launched one of the most comprehensive reforms in the history of the Church. To ensure its effectiveness, he did not just issue decrees from Rome and demand obedience; he went on the most significant papal road trip in history, traveling throughout Italy, Germany, and France, and holding local synods along the way. Indeed, in the five and half years of his pontificate, Leo spent only six months in the city of Rome. Leo deposed immoral and corrupt bishops, and excommunicated clergy found guilty of simony or unchastity. These reform popes (St. Leo IX, St. Gregory VII, Bl. Urban II) recognized that reform in terms of the Church’s freedom from external secular control could be accomplished only if reform began in the Church, hence their focus on rooting out simony and unchastity among the clergy. Urban II captured the essence of the reform movement when he wrote, 

“The Church shall be Catholic, chaste and free: Catholic in the faith and fellowship of the saints, chaste from all contagion of evil, and free from secular power.”

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I think that Pope Francis could take a page from Pope Leo IX effectiveness in cleaning up the Church like the Lord Jesus cleaned up the temple in Jerusalem. Maybe our current Pope should have taken the name of Leo IX in order to signal to all that the Church was serious about doing a thorough reform and that he meant business.

In any case, the Lord Jesus has never abandoned his Church even when among its ranks many 'Judas' were appointed to eminent offices of the Catholic Church. 'Judas' was one of the 12 apostles of the Lord Jesus and now the famous traitor in History. His proximity to the Lord Jesus makes him quite a powerful figure that it is sometime difficult to distinguish him from the honorable disciples. ''Judas'' is:

The wolf among the sheep: “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves." - Matthew 7:15

The false brother that put the Church in danger: "[I have been] in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, inperils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren" - 2 Corinthians 11:26

We may be afraid of dragons and wolfs, but the Lord is not. Our Lord and Savior has always had the last word and this is not about to change anytime soon. All his enemies will be trampled under His feet in due time. What the faithful Christians must do is to stand their ground in holiness and courage as all Martyrs before them have done. We are not the exception to Martyrdom! Faithful Catholics will need every once of courage to resist evil which has infiltrated the Church in their generation as it does in every generation for that matter (nothing new here). And they should keep the light turned up, that is the only way that evil will flee. Here is the way to keep the light up, break the culture of silence which empowers evil and sin:

"and have nothing to do with the unfruitful actions that darkness produces. Instead, expose them for what they are." -Ephesians 5:11  

St. Paul the apostle, knowing the difficulties that the Holy Church will go through in History in pursuit of her perfection and maturity, gave us this prophecy to comfort us and encourage us not to give up in doing what is good and right even to the cost of our own lives:

"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it,  that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself as the glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such things, but that it should be holy and without blemish." - Ephesians 5:25-27