In February of 2019, thirteen years after my book The Rite of Sodomy – Homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church was published, this writer founded the League of St. Peter Damian, an international Catholic ministry, to honor this great 11th century Cardinal and Doctor of the Church best known for his lengthy exposition on the unnatural vice of sodomy, the Book of Gomorrah, written in 1049.
Saint Peter Damian of Ravenna, “Hammer of the Sodomites,” addressed his now famous Letter 31 to another future saint, Pope Leo IX, a German aristocrat, who had only been in office a few months and who was to become one of the most illustrious popes of the Middle Ages.
According to Owen J. Blum, O.F.M., Saint Peter Damian’s chief translator and biographer in modern times, the hermit-monk’s spiritual life was first and foremost a life of prayer, penance, and reparation. Peter Damian also promoted and practiced a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin.
The two hallmarks of the holy monk’s teachings on the spiritual life were his great hatred of sin and his fundamental and overriding interest in the spiritual advancement of the Catholic priesthood. Peter Damian thought of the priesthood as an order of the greatest dignity. Indeed, it was the exalted nobility of this office that caused him to speak in such dire terms to priests who forgot their position and tarnished their souls with incontinence.
Peter Damian showed remarkable insight into the importance of model episcopal leadership, stating that the example of a virtuous life filters down from the princes of the Church to all levels of the clergy and laity. The holy monk was equally insistent on the deposition of unworthy incumbents to the priesthood, the duty of which fell to the local bishop. (more...)
St. Peter Damian Slays the German Synodal Way
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