Posted on 06/25/2002 4:07:12 PM PDT by Lady In Blue
It has been extremely difficult and painful to confront the reality of the Church's abuse scandals.However, as with any scandal, now that it out in the open there is a real opportunity for healing to occur.
As a layperson, my greatest concern at this point is how the laity has been addressing this issue. Those who have been most vocal seem to put all the responsibility on priests and bishops. How self-righteous we are. Perhaps it's time address the plank in our own eye.After all we, the laity, have our scandals to address.
Though many of the lay groups that are forming to address this issue call theselves "faithful," the majority of the laity over the past several decades have been anything but.Indeed, I would suggest that a good place to start addressing our own scandals would our widespread unfaithfulness to the Church's teachings. And our collective disobedience has been most prominent in - of all areas - sexual morality!
Does anyone really believe it's just a coincidence that after 30 to 40 years of thumbing our collective nose at the teaching authority of the Church in this regard, we find the Church mired in a sex scandal? Where in the world do we think these priests and bishops came from,anyway?The Church didn't raise them.We did.They came out of our families. I believe that it's well past time that we put down our rocks,get on our knees and undertake our own purification in this regard.
The time has long since passed for the laity to put aside the cafeteria-Catholicism of the past several decades and truly partake of the banquet the Church has to offer.If we do, this can truly become the "springtime of hope" the Pope envisions.The only question is: Do we have the maturity,the integrity - and the faith - to face this scandal at its core? For our sake and that of our children and of the world, I pray that we do.
This speaks volumes about family values and how the left has intimidated the masses of people through the media and other means. (Planned Parenthood, etc.)
Back to basic Bible reading and basic Catholic beliefs as put forth in The Catholic Catechism.
BTW, does anyone know if the catechism is ONLINE yet. I have not searched so I may be asking a silly question. (Just exhibiting a little bit of laziness! Ha!)
For the Pope, the Bishops and the Cardinals: (Please pray with me.)
PRAYER TO ST. MICHAEL
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in the day of Battle; Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into Hell, Satan and all the other evil spirits, who prowl through the world, seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen
Resources Virtual Rosary Online Holy Bible from Latin Vulgate Rheims Bible(NT) - 1582 Douay Catechism of 1649 Baltimore Catechism 1 Baltimore Catechism 2 Baltimore Catechism 3 Baltimore Catechism 4 New Catechism Council of Trent Catechism Catechism of Pius X Catechism of Thomas Aquinas Code Of Canon Law - 1983 Council Of Trent First Vatican Council Second Vatican Council Papal Documents List of Popes Traditional Marriage Rite Traditional Baptism Rite
Sorry, Mr. Ryan. Neither my mother or my father taught me to shield lawbreakers and allow them to continue their lawbreaking.
This is NOT ABOUT SEX! It's about bishops who wouldn't rid the priesthood of abusers because the hierarchical Church taught them that protecting the institution was the first priority.
Which branch of the service inculcates in its members:
I will not lie, cheat or steal, nor will I tolerate those who do.?
It was the laity, and non-Catholic laity at that, who exposed the scandal in the first place. If it had been left to the clerics, the shielding and abuse would still be ongoing.
Let's not be too quick to shift the blame from the Catholic clergy to the Catholic laity. Good Catholic families did send good, young men to the seminaries (where else would one expect a future, good priest to come from?). Scores of these men, upon entering, either left the seminary out of disgust or were outright rejected by Catholic rectors, non-Catholic psychologists, etc. that deemed them "too orthodox" or "too rigid". I think many more potential priests never even contemplated a religious vocation, because of the experiences mentioned above.
Many of the Catholic clergy in charge of these seminaries either supported or ignored a concentrated effort to promote a homosexual infiltration of the highest offices of the Catholic Church.
I, for one, will not accept blame for their sins; and I will hold on to my stones 'till they drop from my cold dead fingers.
Sorry. I have a problem with this letter. It assumes that the problem started with the laity. From my perspective, it didn't.
From where I sit, I just take a look at my own parents. Children of immigrants, they were brought up in devout, strict households. They received the Catholic education given to immigrant children, which was short on theological sophistication, but long on pious devotion, love of Jesus, and love of Mary and veneration of the saints.
As they grew to adulthood, the world changed. After Vatican II, in the "spirit of Vatican II", they were taught by dissident priests that dissent from binding teaching was perfectly okay, as long as they were following their consciences. They didn't invent this garbage. They wouldn't have known how. Even to this day, when my mother babbles this dreck, it's like hearing a third grader trying to explain St. Thomas Aquinas' five demonstrations of the existence of God. It would be cute if it weren't so pathetic.
And my parents, in love, in ignorance, passed this junk to their children. The results? Two apostates, one very, very confused cultural Christian, and me, for whatever that's worth.
I went to Catholic schools. I wasn't taught Church teaching. I wasn't taught much at all about Catholicism. I went to a respected Catholic high school. Run by an order of monks. We were taught Freud, Marx, Camus, Sartre, Maslow, Jung. But don't think that we were asked to read St. Augustine or St. Thomas Aquinas, or any papal encyclicals. This school didn't even have a lay principal until 1968, and was still heavily populated with brothers and priests when I graduated in 1978.
No, sorry, the ordinary people in the pews didn't do this. We are all each individually responsible to God for our own souls, and will each answer for our lives. But the crisis in the Church today is not of the making of the laity. We haven't done much to date to stop it, but we didn't create this problem.
Neither does that mean that we ought to throw stones at the bishops, priests, and others who exercise authority in the Church. We have to identify what has been done, and by whom, and we must do what we can to effect the removal of as many guilty parties in the hierarchy as we can.
But this can't be about revenge or bloodlust or even just retribution. It's about identifying those who have failed, doing what we can to force them from high office, and praying that they will be replaced with men of high moral character, orthodox belief and practice, and uncommon common sense.
sitetest
And the good Lord knows, I've been no saint my entire life. I'm just glad the media isn't coming after sinners like me.
Some of the guys at work (policemen) kid me about the scandal in the Church. I tell them "hey, let's just hope the media doesnt start doing stories on cops who cheat on their wives."
Generally shuts them up pretty quick.
Today's Gospel? The narrow gate or the broad road?
I use this site.
Seems that the concept of 'justice' being a GOOD has totally escaped their little minds--got lost in the idea that 'love' means never having to say "KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY KID, YOU STINKING PERVERT!!" and never having to say, "BISHOP XXX, YOU ARE ACCESSORY TO A CRIME!!!"
I will worry about my sins, because I will pay for them.
Accessory Bishops and predator priests might pay for theirs here on Earth, too.
Remember the story of Mary Magdalene?
"Let the man who is without sin, cast the first stone."
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