Fr. Raymond J. de Souza, National Catholic Register
Thursday, October 9, 2025
Recently, The Chosen TV series highlighted how much opposition to Jesus came from the clerical establishment of the day. And every year in September, Catholic clerics get a two-week tongue-lashing in the Liturgy of the Hours (the Divine Office, or “breviary”), which all deacons, priests, and bishops are obligated to pray daily. The scriptural passages in the Office of Readings are taken from Ezekiel, an extended denunciation of those prototypical priests: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have been pasturing themselves … you did not bring back the strayed or the lost, but you lorded it over them harshly and brutally.” (34:2-4)
