The Bad Priest

'Alas! what shall become of the scandalous priest on the day of judgment? I will, says the Lord, meet them as the bear that is robbed of her whelps. [Osee 13:8] With what rage does the bear rush on the sportsman that has killed or stolen her whelps! It is thus God has declared that he will meet on the day of judgment the priest that has destroyed instead of saving souls.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

'When Ephraim spoke, a horror seized Israel: and he sinned in Baal and died. And now they have added to sin: and they have made to themselves a molten thing of their silver as the likeness of idols: the whole is the work of craftsmen: to these that say: Sacrifice men, ye that adore calves. Therefore they shall be as a morning cloud, and as a morning dew passing away, as dust caught with a whirlwind out of the floor, and as smoke out of the chimney. But I the Lord thy God out of the Land of Ægypt: and God beside me thou shalt not know, and there is no Saviour beside me . . . I will meet them as a bear her young being violently taken away, and I will break in sunder the inner parts of their liver: and will consume them there as a lion, the beast of the field shall tear them. Perdition is thine o Israel: only in me thy help. Where is thy king? Now especially let him save thee . . . '

Osee 13:1-4,8-10