Fr. Thomas Euteneur Gives TMI (Or Not Enough)

by Michael Sean Winters

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I suppose there must have been rumors swirling, although I had not heard them, about the departure of Father Thomas Euteneur from Human Life International that he felt it necessary to issue this statement explaining that he engaged in some kind of inappropriate behavior with "an adult female." He assures us that he did not engage in the sexual act.

Mercifully, he did not indulge a discussion of what the definition of "is" is, but otherwise his statement sounds suspiciously like the statements Bill Clinton made during Monicagate, the frankness of his admission offset by endless assurances of what he did not do. He might have added that he did not perpatrate the Holocaust nor did he drop an atom bomb on anyone.

It is more than a little curious that his bad acts were evidently occasioned during his exorcism ministry. One of the requirements of an exorcist is that they be exemplary in holiness. This is because the Devil will try to weaken the exorcist by calling to mind their sins. More than anything, an exorcist must be fully and thoroughly convinced that his sins have been forgiven, which is what genuine holiness entails, and why the genuinely holy, so filled with the gratuitousness of God's mercy and so capable of warding off the despair the Devil brings to his human encounters.

I do not know Father Euteneur. But, his statement does not evidence that kind of holiness an exorcist requires.

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