What about the rest of what?
I haven't logged into my Tumblr yet so I couldn't leave a comment on a friend's site after he posted a Crisis article asking, "What about the rest of it?" Pretty much indicting the entire Catholic world for allowing McCarrick to slip by unnoticed. There's an element of truth to the article, which almost sounds like someone on his high horse blaming the victims - that is, the 'faithful' for being scandalized and betrayed by hypocrisy and cover-up by members of the hierarchy - each a 'vicar of Christ' in his own vocation to 'serve the servants of God'. Like it's our fault? I hate it when people make those claims, like, 'you get the priests/bishops you deserve.' Truth be told, we do not deserve anything or anyone.
Of course we are all guilty of sin, serious sins. We tolerate or even laugh at all sorts of sin in our daily lives. The culture feeds on it, as well as promotes it for profit. As John of the Cross tells us:
"Where does this poisonous harm fail to reach? And who fails to drink little or much from the golden chalice of the Babylonian woman of the Apocalypse? ...There is hardly anyone of high rank or low, saint or sinner, who does not drink of her wine, subjecting his heart somewhat. For as pointed out in Revelation 17:2-4, all the kings of the earth were inebriated with the wine of her prostitution. She reaches out to all states, even the supreme and illustrious state of the priesthood, by setting her abominable cup in the holy place, as Daniel asserts [Dn. 9:27], and she hardly leaves a strong man who has not drunk a small or large quantity of wine from her chalice..." - John of the Cross, Ascent III, 22:4
So yeah, we know that and we are reminding of it when we look at the corruption in the Church and the world - be it politics or entertainment. But don't blame Catholics for the crimes and double standards of Church leaders, priests and bishops, who take their money and support and live lavish lives of self indulgence while creating burdens for the rest of sinful humanity too heavy to carry. Don't shame the rest of sinful humanity because the white-wash has eroded from the facades of their whited sepulchers.
Perhaps the best thing about these scandals is that it brings us to our knees to examine our own conscience. However, when discussing the scandal, which has been festering below the collective conscience all along, one is not simply looking at or pointing out other people's sins. This is about corruption, false teaching, hypocrisy, and injustice. It is about evil and diabolic delusion. It's not about human weakness and other people's sins.
Get it through your head, get it into your heart. This is a great evil. Quit trying to silence or guilt others - let this all explode and make a mess. No one can feel self-righteous in exposing this type of wicked deception which leads souls astray. Bishops and priests like McCarrick go to the ends of the world to make one convert and make him twice as fit for hell as they are. God's mercy is so great, he can and will forgive their sin if they repent, but what about those they corrupted and whose faith they abused, to the point they left the Church? Will they be saved?
Stop trying to guilt Catholics for the sins of their fathers.
What is it about the priesthood that attracts these guys? The power structure? Having people look after you? The boys network? The thrill of not being caught (until now?)
ReplyDeleteI think all of the above as well as having a 'safe space' to be 'somebody' in.
DeleteSo true ... I mean who was it that said, "don't you know how important I am?" All of that self-importance stained now with ugliness, perversion, evil ... all of his own making too.
DeleteThat's the great risk "somebody" runs.
Well stated, brother.
ReplyDeleteWe in the laity are tired.
We are tired of our children, men, and women being preyed upon and having their lives and souls endangered by our own leadership, who preach to us every week telling us how to live our lives, but who seem to think they themselves do not have to live what they preach. Who knowingly condone and even richly reward deviant behavior amongst themselves.
We are tired of being bled white, donating millions, perhaps billions of dollars to cover the victim settlements because of the deviant actions of very bad men and sometimes women who represent our Church.
We are tired of seeing our beloved parishes and parochial schools shut down because of a lack of funding and vocations. And being told it is our fault because we do not give enough money and we do not do enough to encourage our sons and daughters to consider a religious vocation.
We are tired of trying to hold onto our Faith with both hands, while enduring the humiliation of attempting to explain why we remain Catholic, knowing of the horrifying evil committed in the name of the Catholic Church by its representatives. The hierarchy may live in some kind of cocoon, but we have to sit through the off-color jokes and stupid comments people make about us in the world.
We are tired of seeing our beloved, faithful, hard-working parish priests being treated with disrespect and bigotry by those who think all our clergy are on the same level of vile sinfulness as Archbishop McCarrick and others, and who think they are all members of the "Lavender Mafia", not real men with an active, proper Catholic conscience.
We are tired of watching our leadership being distracted, and distracting us, with debacles such as the recent "gala" in NY City, sponsored and promoted by the Vatican and the Archdiocese of NY, which denigrated, disrespected and made sacrilegious folly of Catholic imagery and sacramentals, all the while we are being taught to treat such things with reverence and respect.
We are tired of being treated like we are some kind of sub-Church, and that we do not matter. That our concerns are irrelevant and of no consequence.
Sorry to monopolize your comments, Terry. I love my Jesus, His Church, and my Order, and I will never leave. But this is too much. It must stop immediately, and never, ever happen again.
God bless you and all here - Susan, OFS
Susan, you summed it all up brilliantly. Thank you.
DeleteYes indeed! Thank you Susan. I wonder if you'd let me reprint that on my Facebook page?
DeleteWell said. Thank you!
DeleteThank you for your kind words, Angela, Terry, and Yaya. You have made me blush! It was really Terry who explained my feelings in a nutshell. Certainly, Terry, you are more than welcome to reprint if you do not think it sounds too uncharitable. Your sister - Susan, OFS
Delete"Bishops and priests like McCarrick go to the ends of the world to make one convert and make him twice as fit for hell as they are. God's mercy is so great, he can and will forgive their sin if they repent, but what about those they corrupted and whose faith they abused, to the point they left the Church? Will they be saved?"
ReplyDeleteSelf-importance, worldliness, unbelief ... wise and true are the eternal words of our Lord Jesus, "when the Son of man comes will he find faith on the earth?"
He will find many of us in love with ourselves, enamored of power, reputation, prestige, pleasure. Like in the days of Noah, we will be caught unawares unless we become small and vigilant, holding on, clinging to Christ. Let us pray for the strength and the faith to endure to the end. I know I need it not only for myself but for my family and friends.
The thought of the "millstone" comes to mind every time I think of McCarrick and his perversions. I cannot judge him but the word comes to mind every time. Foa all I know it serves as a reminder to me to be alert.
I just did 2 comments on Mark Shea's FB page about this subject:
DeleteTerry Nelson Esolen just did an essay on Crisis similar to your statement about complicity - but I think that's scapegoating - using Catholic guilt to blame ourselves for the sins of the fathers. When the corruption is this big, you have to look it in the eye. Ordinary Catholics weren't the enablers here. WTH? Catholic faithful sell off their churches and institutions to bail these bastards out, while they portrayed themselves as all holier than thou? Teaching error and corrupting an entire education system? Living in grand quarters, winning and dinning themselves among socialites and politicians? Ordinary Catholic faithful, ordinary Catholics have been taken advantage of and conned, and now we are supposed to feel guilty because these closet queens were finally exposed?
...
Terry Nelson Likewise, it doesn't harm the Church or the faith to expose this crap - they were the ones who created a culture of secrecy and cover up. I've been lied to by bishops covering up gay priests and pro-gay teaching since the '80's. I was always the bad guy for bringing it up. People have to knock it off and put the blame where it belongs. That's all.
...
I have to let it go now.
Great truth in what you posted Terry. I agree 100%. I don't feel guilt nor do I blame myself for their hidden perversions. The guilty in the Catholic hierarchy did this and I say let it all be laid bare so that the evil be exposed and their hypocrisy be revealed. If there be a courageous one among them, let him stand and speak up rather than continue to protect his place of "prestige and comfort."
DeleteIn the end, should many continue to hide and pretend ... won't matter one bit as it will all turn to dust of the most bitter kind and for all eternity too.
Maybe it's time to look at married priests like the Eastern churches
ReplyDeleteRespectfully, these were homosexual attacks. Being married to a woman would not have "cured" Archbishop McCarrick. Besides, Pope Francis and his predecessors have firmly shut the door on the idea of a married clergy. It is not happening.
DeleteI think it be more like looking at monastics only as bishops - like the Eastern churches.
DeleteAs a female victim of abuse at the hands of a priest, I agree. I'm tired of everyone ignoring the fact that girls were abused too in their rush to point to homosexuality as the culprit.
DeleteWe'd get better men answering the call to become priests if married men could become priests. We'd have men who had children of their own, wives and mothers with their notorious instincts around predatory creeps.
No situation will ever be 100% free of abusers, but normal, regular men with normal, regular wives would not have allowed this to go on and on and on and on the way it has.
Actually we already have married Catholic priests.
DeleteAmen Terry!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with you. And to those people who say that "we get the priests/bishops we deserve," I say, "We have no say." The Catholic faithful do not choose their associates, their pastors, or their bishops. These are assigned to us. They are sent to us, and if the cleric is corrupt or mentally ill, we have to suffer the consequences. But we have no say. We have no power.
ReplyDeleteWe do have power by virtue of our baptism in Christ Jesus. The Lord listens to the cries and sorrows of His Church through our prayers united with the prayers of Mary most holy, who is the Mother of the Church and with Saint Joseph, the Universal Patron of the Church.
DeleteAs he has done in the past, he will do again to raise up Saints who will bring about change, renewed hope and restoration.
We may not have power in a worldly sense to bring about change but I will hope against hope to pray, trust,believe that the Lord will and does hear His people in their hour of distress.
Ah, San Jose! I meant the Patron Saint of the Universal Church.
DeleteI went to bed thinking about all this stuff and replied half dormida.
Perdon! 😆😆
“That is the highest and most profitable lesson, when a man truly knows and judges lowly of himself. To account nothing of one's self, and to think always kindly and highly of others, this is great and perfect wisdom. Even should you see your neighbor sin openly and grievously, yet you ought not to reckon yourself better than he, for you know not how long you shalt keep thine integrity. All of us are weak and frail; hold you no man more frail than yourself.”. Imitation of Christ Book 1 Chapter 2
ReplyDeleteFeels as though the decline of Westerm Civializatiom has accelerated. We have been here before though in history and somehow emerge. Wonder how that happens this time?
ReplyDelete