A Special “Interview” With St. Peter Damian
Fortunately for todays’ Catholics, although more than a thousand years have passed since Peter Damian completed the Book of Gomorrah (Letter 31), it continues to be as pertinent and timeless as the year it was written.
Part II of this series on sodomy and the German Synodal Way draws upon the knowledge and wisdom of this street-smart and fearless Benedictine monk as made manifest in his response to the arguments once employed against him by his own clerical adversaries, the same being put forth by a majority of German cardinals and bishops intent on promoting sodomy under the ruse of “Synodality.”
It is not without a great sense of irony that, as this series goes to press, Fr. Joachim Wernersbach, a Benedictine priest at the Abbey of Tholey in Germany, has been publicly condemned by his superior, Abbot Mauritius Choriol, for giving a sermon critical of sodomy and the Synodal Way.[4]
In Part II of this series, I will conduct a modified interview with Saint Peter Damian, inviting his response to my questions and comments, all of which are taken from the Book of Gomorrah. [Some of His Eminence’s responses will be in abbreviated form, with emphasis occasionally added.]
Interview Opening
Engel: Your Eminence, welcome to the twenty-first century. Would you begin our interview by telling our readers what motivated you to write the Book of Gomorrah and to present it to the blessed Pope Leo IX?
Cardinal Peter Damian: Since we know from the mouth of Truth itself that the Apostolic See is the mother of all churches, it is proper that if any doubt should arise in matters pertaining to the welfare of souls, one should have recourse to her as to the teacher and, as one might say, to the source of heavenly wisdom, so that from this unique principle of ecclesiastical discipline a light may go forth by which the entire body of the Church is bathed in the utter brilliance that Truth imparts, once the darkness of uncertainty has been dispelled.
In our region a certain abominable and most shameful vice has developed, and unless it be prevented as soon as possible by the severest punishment, it is certain that the sword of divine fury will be unsheathed, leading in its unchecked violence to the destruction of many. One is nauseated with shame and embarrassment to speak of things so disgracefully foul, or even to mention them within earshot of Your Holiness. But if a physician is appalled by the contagion of the plague, who is likely to wield the cautery? If he grows squeamish when he is about to apply the cure, who will restore health to stricken hearts?
Engel: My Lord Cardinal, you wrote the Book of Gomorrah in 1049. Some of your critics say you were exaggerating the matter. How would you respond?
Peter Damian: The befouling cancer of sodomy is, in fact, spreading so through the clergy or rather, like a savage beast, is raging with such shameless abandon through the flock of Christ, that for many of them it would be more salutary to be burdened with service to the world than, under the pretext of religion, to be enslaved so easily under the iron rule of satanic tyranny.
It would be better for them to perish alone as laymen than, after having changed their attire but not their disposition, to drag others with them to destruction, as Truth itself testifies when it says, “But if anyone is a cause of stumbling to one of these little ones, it would be better for him to be drowned in the depths of the seas with a great millstone round his neck.” Unless immediate effort be exerted by the Apostolic See, there is little doubt that, even if one wished to curb this unbridled evil, he could not check the momentum of its progress.
Engel: Pardon me, but before we go any further, would you define the term sodomy as used in your treatise.
Peter Damian: … there appears to be four varieties of this criminal vice. There are some who pollute themselves; there are others who befoul one another by mutually handling their genitals. Others still who fornicate between the thighs; and others who do so from the rear. Of these, as we proceed through the various degrees, the two latter are to be judged more serious than the others.
The ingenious artifice of the devil contrived these states of corruption, so that the higher the unhappy soul rises in the scale of vice, the deeper it is likely to be buried in hell.
Engel: Obviously then, you are opposed to the ordination of sodomites?
Peter Damian: … it seems to me to be utterly preposterous for those who are habituated to this filth of this festering disease to dare to present themselves for orders, or to remain in them if they have been ordained. It is clearly contrary to reason and opposed to the canonical decrees of the Fathers. I state this, not to render a definitive opinion … but only to make my position clear. It is not without cause that this shameful deed is considered to be the worst of crimes, seeing that Almighty God is always read to have detested it, even when he had not yet curbed other vices, he already kept condemning this one with the precepts of the Law, under pain of the strictest penalty… In the Law it also says, “If a man lies with a man in the same way as with a woman, both have done a hateful thing; they must die, their blood shall be on their own heads.”
He, moreover, who has committed this crime for which the Old Testament prescribes the death penalty, should not be promoted to ecclesiastical orders.
It is perfectly clear that when a capital crime has degraded a man, no subsequent holy life will reform him to the point where he might receive orders and ecclesiastical status. No one may aspire to reach the heights of preferment who has surely fallen into the depths of mortal sin. Hence, it is as plain as day that anyone proven guilty of fornicating with a man between his thighs, which, without a doubt is a mortal sin, will be promoted to ecclesiastical orders in total opposition to the norms of Holy Scripture and in complete disregard of the regulations ordained by God.
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