I became an official Catholic at the height of the Church's tragic child sex abuse scandal, and many have asked me why I would do such a thing and how I could remain a Catholic when so many seemingly new revelations come out about it. Well, first we have to understand the difference between the Catholic Church-the humans running it, and the Catholic Faith-the dogma, traditions, and history of it. I am not a Catholic because of any human, almost all of them will let you down at some point, for we are all sinners, we all "come short of the glory of god." This is not to excuse or justify them, of course, though I have been accused of trying to do such a thing, but this is only to attempt to make the reader understand how one can become or remain part of The Catholic Faith, despite the faithlessness and great sinfulness of its human leaders.
We must also understand that there could be two narratives here:The narrative being perpetrated by the media is that many if not most Bishops in the Catholic Church have "covered-up" cases of child sex abuse in their dioceses and have even "protected" the abusers, most of them being priests. And now, this narrative goes straight to the top, to Pope Benedict.
Of course, the "mainstream," or "lamestream" press, as some call it, doesn't always tell the truth. It either outright lies, twists the truth, tells half of the truth, takes quotes and events out of context, or interprets information in ways to suit its own purposes and agendas. In other words, don't believe everything you read. And remember that trial lawyers will use every and any tool at their disposal to extort money from their defendants, including releasing only the documents that makes it side look good to the public as well as interpreting those documents for us.
Of course, what happened to the victims was horrible and inexcusable. And yes, some Bishops have really dropped the ball, some may have even stepped over the line into what could be considered criminal actions. And I do believe that those Bishops should be held accountable. However, lets not forget the other narrative that could be playing: that of a Church that, I believe, did not understand human sexuality, (believing that simply praying could cure a pedophile and still blaming pop culture and modern society for sexual deviance), and one that followed the advice of all the experts and lawyers in the decades before the 1980s, a time when homosexual pedophilia and paedophilia was not widely understood by the scientific and medical community. A narrative about a Church whose whole mission is forgiveness and believes in restoritive justice, and one that truly believed was acting in the best interest of all involved. I don't believe the Bishops involved were acting out of malice, hatred, or non-empathy for the victims. In short, I don't believe the Bishops were "evil."
That said, I do still believe that there was a little corruption in there, a little protectionism amongst the Catholic hierarchy, but certainly not one as entrenched and as prevalent as the lamestream press would have you believe. And lets not forget, though most of the abusers named in the cases are known to have admitted their crimes in some way, many have not and have never been convicted, indeed, never even officially charged! I guess we threw out "innocent until proven guilty" a long time ago. Now it seems if anyone makes a claim of sexual abuse, especially if that abuse allegedly happened decades before, against a Catholic priest, it is almost immediately believed.
And in the last few decades, the Church has instituted many policies and entities to be more preventative, proactive, and co-operative if, God-forbid, any sexual abuse occurs in the future.
And yet despite all of that, I remain a devoted, loyal, and vocal Catholic because my faith is not based on the thoughts or actions of humans, even of the human leaders of my Church. My faith is based on God, on Jesus Christ, and on The Church He founded. Not on the individual humans in His Church who are fallen, sinful, and prone to mistakes and corruption, for as as St. Paul said, none are righteous; but the theology and institutional organization (Pope+Magisterium, College of Cardinals, Bishops, priests, deacons), of it. The humans that hold those offices will come and go, but the Church itself is forever. For what other Western church, denomination or sect believe in Scripture AND Tradition, in the intercession of the saints, the Queenship of Mary, Apostolic Succession and Tradition, religious art, the Real Presence in the Eucharist, a sacred Liturgy of the Mass, all seven Sacraments, and the possible forfeit of salvation by committing mortal sin?
Yes, the corruption and crimes we have seen committed by some in the Catholic hierarchy is disgusting and hard to reconcile, but as St. Peter said to Jesus, where else am I to go? The Catholic Church may not have the most sinless and righteous leaders on the planet, but it has the right dogma, "the words that give eternal life." No matter what news continues to pour out of the lamestream press that feeds on controversy, scandal, and deviance, I will remain Catholic. The Catholic Church is reforming itself and will pull out of this scandal even stronger and better. And I will remain true to Jesus who has the words to eternal life and remain Catholic.
_______________________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment