"In The Book of Gomorrah, Peter Damian condemned clerical sodomy..."


Adapted from this source: George Weigel's book, The Courage to be Catholic, on page 60, we read:

"The eleventh century subservience of medieval bishops to their princes led to the reforms of Pope Gregory VII and the struggle between Church and Holy Roman Emperor over the appointment of bishops -- a struggle with immense implications for the next millennium of European history.

"In one of the fiercest tracts of that time, The Book of Gomorrah, Peter Damian, later canonized as a saint and honored for his theological accomplishments as a Doctor of the Church, condemned clerical sodomy, demanded that Pope Leo IX take action against the decadent churchmen of the eleventh century, and argued that some sins render a man unfit for any future exercise of the ministry.

"The corruptions of the priesthood and the episcopate in the immediate pre - Reformation Church led to the reforms of the Council of Trent and a seminary system that served the Church well for more than 350 years.

"In each of these instances, and in the many others that could be cited, reform of the priesthood and the episcopate required a clear analysis of the causes of corruption, which varied from age to age -- even as different forms of clerical perversity and episcopal malfeasance all sprang from inadequate conversion to Christ."