Open Season on the Catholic Church

The Catholic Church is under fire in the American press unlike any time I can ever remember. To be sure, much of it is self-inflicted; what is being reported as "news" is, sadly, news that demands coverage. That is something Catholics must accept. But Catholics do not have to accept what follows, the what-this-story-means analysis. Many in the press are using recent Church scandals as fodder for attacks on Catholicism in general, Pope John Paul II in particular, and that is also scandalous.

Newsweek's Eleanor Clift has penned a piece on the magazine's Web site that demonstrates just how impossibly incoherent some can be when they choose to comment on a subject about which they know so little. She is positively breathless in her denunciation of the Roman Catholic faith.

Unable to go deeper than the superficial, Ms. Clift reduces the Church's problems to the political. "Like the church, Congress makes laws but doesn't always follow them," she explains. "The analogy extends to the Appropriations committees in the House and Senate, each of which is known as the College of Cardinals, because that's where the power is. They hold the purse strings."

Uh-huh. And why would this be so important? Here we go: "Pope John Paul II (has) named virtually every bishop in America. All of this pope's appointees are ideologically conservative. What has happened mirrors a U.S. president stacking the courts. With John Paul loyalists at every level" -- and here it comes -- "social change will be wrenching, if not impossible."

But the Catholic bishops aren't just out of step with the Enlightened; they're downright evil. Oh, Ms. Clift won't say that, of course. Instead she uses the old journalistic trick of having someone else say it for her. She finds the perfect gutless wonder to do her bidding, an anonymous diocesan priest. "As a group, they're like the Taliban," he proclaims, in his Christian kind of way, of his superiors. "If you want to succeed in this system, you never talk about the ordination of women -- and abortion and birth control are like the third rail."

This system. The Catholic Church with her 2,000-year-old tradition is thus reduced to some kind of Richard Daley good-old-boy political machine. Or Enron. The statement is preposterous, to be sure, but its inclusion in the article is calculated: Because this nameless source is a man of the cloth (we presume), he must by necessity be taken seriously. One wonders if it ever dawned on Ms. Clift that the reason he chose anonymity is not because his words are controversial, but because the "social change" he implicitly supports as a Catholic priest -- say, support of abortion -- is heresy in the eyes of the Church. One can be pretty certain that Ms. Clift never has figured out that what he told her is pretty stupid, too. But it doesn't matter. It's color he brings to her story, and that's really all that counts.

Ms. Clift now takes over and puts things in her own words. I wish she hadn't. "The papacy as we know it" -- she is now an authority on the matter -- "is a 19th-century convention. The idea that in an age of e-mail and fax, and the ability to whisk around the globe in jets, everybody kowtows to a central figure seems quaint."

Attention, Catholics: We had it all wrong. What Jesus Christ meant was, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church -- until the Internet comes along, at which point never mind."

Clift saves her best for last, returning to the scandals with as ugly a statement as she can muster. "The priesthood attracts sexually conflicted men," she states categorically, thus insulting every man who ever dedicated his life to Christ, every mother who ever bore a son who joined the priesthood, every Catholic who ever felt a certain reverence for those touched by God as his shepherds -- in short, every Catholic who calls himself a Catholic -- "and the church will have to face up to that as a potentially criminal matter, not as a way to perpetuate an outdated custom of celibacy."

She is called the Suffering Church for a reason. The Catholic Church survived the Romans, the Reformation, Hitler's Nazis and Lenin's communists. She will survive the poison quill of Newsweek's Eleanor Clift, too.

With all due respect. The Church through it's agents (Managers) has conspired to suppress information and obstruct justice.

This is more like Enron that you might think.

There have indeed been some shameful and sinful coverups. But the media, as is their wont, pile on and indict Catholicism for every media-determined "sin": e.g., not being sufficiently "broad-minded" about abortion.

See the link in post 19 for a more evenhanded, biblical look at the larger problem in Christendom itself.

Of course, it's ridiculous to criticize any church because it is not structured like the US government. The latter taxes us against our will -- hence must be set up to allow us to (very nominally) manage it. Churches in this country are organizations that people contribute to voluntarily, so they can organize their hierarchy as they please.

That doesn't give them permission to break laws, though. The level of not only abuse, but failure by church leaders to disclose abuse to the authorities, has been appalling.

Eleanor Clift may rant and rave all she wants, as can mainstream media and the rest of the bolsheviks. The Church, the bride of Christ, is ETERNAL. (You would think they might have realized this since it has been around now for almost 2,000 years and has survived every political system, every war, and every dictator in that brief time.) Let them rant - when they get done they'll find their target is stronger than it was before.

That doesn't give them permission to break laws, though. The level of not only abuse, but failure by church leaders to disclose abuse to the authorities, has been appalling.

Amen to that. Check the WORLD magazine link in #19 for another forthright look at the problem in other churches.

The problem with non-Catholics (and non-practicing Catholics) is the theological disconnect they frequently share. The Church is defined by what makes it unique -- the Sacraments, the unbroken line of popes (from St. Peter onward), and its infallibility in matters of faith and morals. Regardless of what Eleanor Clift and her ilk feverishly hurl at their elitest constituency, I can guarantee you it matters not to Rome. And it matters even less to God, who has seen all from time immortal, and knows the outcome of this scandal -- the answer which He entrusted to His only Son when He promised the Church would not fall before the gates of Hell.

I think that most of the Catholics know what is going on in the media. I have known from day 1. It is total anti-Catholic bigotry.

The thing that gives them away is the fact that they do not discuss any other religion or organization.

For example, last week all the networks were headlining their news with "two Catholic priests involved in internet child pornography ring."

Well, it ends up that there were eight clergymen arrested, including two Catholic priests. Do non-Catholic clergy get a free pass on child pornography?

The real problem with the current scandals of the Catholic Church is that it undermines the authority of the Church to speak out on issues that are most important.

The next big move in sexual deviancy will be the legitimization of adult-child sex. The standard patterns have already emerged, such as psychologists writing papers saying it's not that bad, etc. Soon, there will be articles appearing about how Greek philosophers used to take young boys under their wing and raise and educate them. Following that, expect more movies like "Manhattan", with an adult/high school/child romance involved.

While the scandals in the Church are deplorable on their own, the media making hay with them is part of a calculated ploy to blunt the ability of the Church to address this issue. I fear it will work.

There is a story on www.theamericanprowler.org website by George Neumayr and the title is "Let us Prey".

The Catholic Church doesn't need many more stories like this to create irreparable harm to itself.

Most of the criticism is deserved and most catholics are in deep denial and I can't blame them.

You are on target but we all know that the "media" goes into feeding frenzys over just about any subject at times. This is one reason that I have held the postion that we need to stick together no matter who's ox is being gored this week.

"When they came for me no one was left....."

Pray for GW and the Truth

Substitute "The Catholic Church" for "Bill Clinton" and you will plainly see just how hypocritical some of us here are. Remember how the Clinton defenders used to accuse us of being on a vendetta against him?

Bill Clinton had scandal after scandal but he would never address them directly. Instead, he and his media pit pulls would dissemble and prevaricate and create the impression that we nasty conservatives were just out to get him. "It's Open Season on Bill Clinton," these flacks and lackeys would proclaim on all those news shows, "It's a vast right wing conspiracy to unseat the president."

Well here we are with the Catholic Church who have a huge problem with homosexual priests abusing and sexually molesting children. Instead of taking responsibility, assigning blame and booting out the bad apples, including the cardinals who not only allowed it to happen but shuffled the priests off to other parishes, the apologists for the Catholic Church have decided to circle the wagons, stonewall and accuse those who would have a problem with what the Church has done of being "on a vendetta to destroy the church."

Sounds like the Catholic Church has inherited Bill Clinton's playbook. And many of us here are just playing along.

"Pope John Paul II (has) named virtually every bishop in America. All of this pope's appointees are ideologically conservative.

Oh geez. That's like saying "all of this pope's appointees are religiously Catholic." What a moron!

I can't believe she actually thought that was a worthwhile point to make.

I have run into so many of those kinds... it's tragic. That is a great line btw!

Sounds like the Catholic Church has inherited Bill Clinton's playbook. And many of us here are just playing along.

Not exactly. If people had been using the Clinton scandals to codemn the office of the President and declare that the US Government should no longer be allowed to operate, and that the constitution should be abolished, then it would be the same.

Who's saying all of that? I just want to church to clean up its act and I want all the homosexual priests who molested children to be thrown into jail. Instead, the church is stonewalling and still trying to protect the priests who have broken our laws and abused our children.

Amazing how the Catholics always stand quietly as us fundamentalist protestants get gored by the press?? This is exactly why they should stand for their fellow Christians rather than playing pile on. Someday they may realize that Christian bashing is Christian bashing!

EXACTLY

It ain't just Catholics. It is any religion that goes against their left wing bent
And add the movies to the mix
Fundalmentalists are always portrayed as Bible Thumping WACK JOBS .
And Nuns are used as comedy subjects etc etc

BOTH groups have no one to blame but themselves .
Catholics have sat back and taken it for years as have the Fundamentalists

That was one of the first clues I had that the hierarchy in the USA was worthless. They were afraid to defend their own faith from attack
The second was their failure to castigate Catholic legislators who pushed abortion and the homosexual agenda. Then their favoring the socialist drift of the country and that was it.
Current scandals are only the symptom of the basic problem

I'd like to see these guys in jail, too. But many in the media are using this scandal to condemn Catholic moral teaching, the papacy, the priesthood and just Catholicism in general. As Bozell pointed out.

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