Prayers do get answered!
A good time to repeat Sock's excellent post the other day. I know it's still working on me.
The primary point in my post was to turn our focus from the scandals to ourselves. To turn the desire to change Cardinal Whoever to the desire to change and to bring ourselves closer to Christ.Of course, we all experience the normal human emotions of outrage for the perpetrators of these crimes against children, but I dont believe that to daily feed this rage serves any useful purpose. Certainly we, as faithful and informed Catholics, ought to be leaders in our small faith communities. We ought to inspire (and be inspired by) other faithful Catholics in areas in which we can make a difference.
Without saying too much, my personal interest is in pro life work. I am not a marcher nor do I confront women at the abortion mills. God has brought me to a different way and we actually counsel abortion-minded women in crisis pregnancy centers. My fellow volunteers are all Catholic and well informed. We dont dwell on these abominations within the Church; we pray for the Church in our Chapel (btw: 24 hour Eucharistic adoration)
Look, Im not trying to debate any of this. Yes we ought to stay informed, but I would just like to keep the focus on ourselves and what we can do as individuals for the Body of Christ. Our success depends not on our rhetoric, or our rage, or our daily debates. Our success depends on our interior life and personal love of God. Once we forget the real meaning of Catholic", which in essence is the result of union with Christ, then our failure to affect any worthwhile change has begun.
If we as Catholics have not had the influence on society that our numbers should have produced, the reason is to be found in our individual lack of the interior life. Any change whether it be individual, social, or secular, within or without the Church, must begin and end in interior union with Christ.
Peace