Reflecting on the Church Right Now…
I have not blogged for a while. My heart is not really in it. My mother’s death two weeks ago has something to do with it. But this is only part of the reason. As I watch the revelations that seem to come out each day about the Church with a mixture of horror and fascination, I find my pen runs dry. Frankly, I do not know what to write because I do not know what to think. I have rarely been more conflicted.
On one hand, I align myself with Michael Sean Winters and Austen Ivereigh. The media frenzy is partly driven by dark undertones of anti-Catholicism, a stream that runs especially deep in the American and British consciousness. Why is the Catholic Church being singled out while other entities have worse records on child abuse? Why is the pope singled out when he has done more than most clerics to face up to the horrors of child abuse by religious? I can no longer read the frantic denunciations of people like Andrew Sullivan, who have adopted the mob rhetoric of the tea-partiers. I am disgusted.
But this reaction is not satisfactory. It is not the answer. As archbishop Diarmiud Martin said during his easter vigil homily, we should not give into the temptation to simply lash out at the media. We are seeing too much of that, both in the United States and in Rome, and it has echoes of Bernard Law’s crusade against the Boston Globe. That worked out well, didn’t it? As Martin said: “The sins of the Church can well be exposed by the spotlight of the media; but the Church will be converted, renewed and reformed only when it allows the light of Christ to inspire it and guide it”.
I fear that too many Catholics today, including among the episcopacy, are not fulling letting the light of Christ guide them. Tempting as it might be, the Christian response is not to simply lash out at the media. It is to unite itself with the suffering Christ, taking the slings and arrows thrown at it. It is to unite itself with the victims of abuse, not the Church leaders who may or may not have behaved dishonorably in covering up the abuse in the past. It is the rediscover the truth from Lumen Gentium, that sees the Church not just as a hierarchical institution but as the people of God, a humble and pilgrim Church rather than a smug and triumphalist entity.
I fear the Church still has a long way to go to reach that vision. I did not always think so, and I took a far more optimistic view of our Church leaders until relatively recently. I feel a darkening cloud hovering over the Church. But, as always with the Church, we need to think long term. A wise man once said that it took centuries for the reforms of Trent to filter through, and it would take just as long before the vision of the Second Vatican Council came to fruition.
But we need to focus on these problems today. Just consider the recent expose about Maciel and his Legionnaires of Christ – for me, this is the real story, not what Ratzinger did or did not do a quarter century ago. If you have not done so already, read the two-part tale told by Jason Berry (here and here). I am still reeling from this revelation. You will feel nauseous. Maciel displays all the characteristics of an unrepentent sociopath. He was a corrupt liar, a morphine addict who ruled his cult in an atmosphere of fear, an abuser and a child rapist, a man who fathered children from numerous women and brazenly took them to meet John Paul II, a man who never showed any remorse for his actions.
People were on to him as early as the 1950s. But he was never stopped, and he was a favorite of the Vatican, especially under the last pope. Why? Because Maciel bribed everybody he could with wads of cash. To his great credit, Cardinal Ratzinger refused to touch any of this blood money, and was over-ruled in his attempts to investigate Maciel. Many other senior Vatican officials were not as scrupulous, including Cardinal Sodano, a leading defender of both Maciel and Pinochet (picks his friends well, doesn’t he?).
Of course, corruption in the Church is nothing new, and this is small scale compared with the past. But this is not really the point. The Maciel scandal shines the light on why the Church needs to be constantly renewed and reformed. The clericalism that fed the abuse crisis in the first place is alive and well, especially at the top of the Church. Remember, Maciel’s behavior was observed as far back as the 1950s, and much of the information was in the public domain by the mid-1990s. But the institutional Church turned a blind eye, and in doing so, betrayed the victims of Maciel, and (since we are one people), the victims of abuse everywhere.
I hope and pray that Pope Benedict has the fortitude needed to address these challenges. He has shown a greater sensitivity than many of his peers in the past, and I hope he does so again. But these are deep-rooted structural problems. I believe that these issues will weigh heavily on the minds of the electors during the next conclave. I believe the next pope will be tasked to fully implement the vision of Lumen Gentium. That vision includes a role for us – lay Catholics. The document notes that we are “permitted and sometimes even obliged to express their opinion on those things which concern the good of the Church.” I, for one, can think of no bigger issue concerning the good of the Church at this particular moment.
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Since this latest storm broke over us, I have read everything everywhere. This post may well be the best. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing MM.
Good, balanced, and rational post.
Dear MM,
Thank you for your post and, for that matter, your posts; you touch on many good points and I too struggle with where the church currently stands and where it needs to go in the future. I believe that if the next pontif truly embraces Lumen Gentium then the universal church will be better off.
Personally, we need your continued voice, your pen to paper,as it were and we need more of the laity to speak thier minds in an educated and resputful manner to challenge the anti-Catholicsim that is rampant in our society, but more so to challenge the (at times) “”little “t” traditions,” not doctrine, of the church, that have seemingly over run parts of the church and, at a micro level, parishes.
When Pope John XXIII cnvened the Second Vatican Council he did it with the intent to, “open the windows and…let in some fresh air,” sadly I don’t believe there has been enough “windows opened” or “fresh air” let in. In Lumen Gentium, 8, there is a striking part that states, “Nevertheless, many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside its (the church’s) visible confines.” Hopefully, the shepard is willing to let his flock lead…
“us – lay Catholics”? I thought you used a pen name because you were a Cardinal Archbishop somewhere?
In any case, well done. Thanks for this. And welcome back.
MM – A little advice from someone whose mother passed away three years ago: read up on the Five Stages of Grief. They’re real. They don’t go in any order, really, and they’re unpredictable, but I think it helps to understand them. Don’t expect to control them, though, because they’re something that you have to go through. Barring any kind of major depression, you will get through them.
Another thing to keep in mind is that we relate to God in a similar way as to our male parent, and to the Church as we relate to our female parent. I’m sure there’s some subtle explanation for that that I don’t know, but I’ve found it to be true. Some of the irrational anger and betrayal that we feel toward someone who has died may be transferred toward the Church in this case.
Anyway, hang in there.
MM
When things fall apart on several levels, I understand how difficult it is. For me, I rely upon Tolkien; it is those who are good within the Church, who show they have fallen the full guidance of the grace offered to them, who are the measure of the Church for me, and show me the grace in the Church. It is the saints, not the sinners, which prove the Church, and when I look at them, just like the prophets with Israel, I see many of them suffered greatly, not from the world, but from the Church itself. They didn’t want to leave the Church because of it, but to help it become what it should be — and their witness helped in reforming the Church as was needed. I don’t know how well that helps, but it is a part of what keeps me looking to the Church despite the failings of those within the hierarchy; the Church is more than the hierarchy and that is always important to remember.
Henry and MM, I agree with you both, but, to my way of thinking, the only way right now for the laity to be instrumental in cleansing the Church of this cancer is to stop feeding the hierarchy with the money that enables them to be so callously insouciant regarding the abuse of so many children: never stop going to church or receiving the sacraments, but let the institutional Church go without our money for as long as it takes to force them to begin the structural reforms that Vatican II adumbrated and which would have gone a long way to preventing these atrocities.
MM,
As often happens when I start to comment here, I realize that the most imnportant things have been pretty much said and said well, but a couple of things do bear repeating:
1. Keep the faith, buck up and all that;we are there with you; and
2. Keep posting, because it is always good to hear your vox.
David is right-it is ALWAYS good
to hear from you, MM. I am
truly sorry for your loss. May
the reality of The Resurrection
comfort and encourage you in your
time of mourning
Jesus chose:
Judas, who betrayed him;
Peter, who denied him;
Thomas, who doubted him;
James and John, who wanted his “glory”;
Philip, who failed to understand him…
etc.
What we find revealed in the press is not something new. We see something as ancient as we are: the failure of Jesus’ followers, at times, to be anything like Him, and yet to be loved by Him anyway.
Don’t get me wrong. I love my priesthood. But I’m not confused by it. I am a son, a servant and a sinner in the hands of a God who would die to make up for my inadequacy. Praised be He.
As I watch the revelations that seem to come out each day about the Church with a mixture of horror and fascination, I find my pen runs dry.
I feel the same way.