Posted on 06/11/2004 12:52:03 PM PDT by AskStPhilomena
There is much discussion and criticism these days of the American Catholic bishops, especially their shadowy roles in the sexual abuse scandals which have recently shaken the Catholic Church. The secular media has confirmed what many Catholic leaders and some Catholic media have been saying for several years, namely, that there are grave abuses and a serious leadership crisis in today’s Church in the United States.
Unfortunately, the events we are now witnessing in the Church, provoke extensive public criticism of the Catholic bishops, a good part of it justified. Sadly, these attacks extend to the clergy and even to the laity. Often they are made by people who hate the Church and wish to undermine her credibility and weaken or eliminate her moral authority. By their inaction or their covert actions and their loss of respectability in their communities, our bishops have given succor to the enemy – intentional or not.
Catholics know that a wound suffered by any member of the Mystical Body of Christ is a wound suffered by all of its members. It is natural and proper for Catholics to look to their shepherds for answers and for guidance, especially in troubled times. All too often, their questions and concerns are answered with non-answers, weak excuses, contrived apologies, or even with resistance and hostility. As a layman, one doesn’t know whether to retire to the shelter of private prayer or to take to the streets in protest. One thing is clear: all Catholics have the duty to live, to defend and to propagate the Faith. That is done most effectively when all parts of the Mystical Body are working together in perfect harmony.
For their part, the bishops are obliged to teach the Faith in its fullness and with clarity; to govern wisely and with fraternal affection; and, to sanctify their flocks through their personal holiness and living example. They must be willing to lay down their very lives for the sheep, just as the apostles did.
A few years ago, Pope John Paul II wrote to Catholics throughout the world, urging them to "fight against a slavish conformity of cultures… to cultural models deriving from the Western world." To us today, these materialistic, life-despising cultural models are known as the Culture of Death. We do not speak just of the death of the body (abortion, sterilization, etc.) but also of the death of the soul (contraception, sex education in schools, false teachings and scandals). By referring to the "Western world," the Pope is speaking about us Americans and our political and moral leadership. What a sorry legacy we pass on to our children and to our fellow man!
Pope Pius XI wrote many years ago that authentic Catholic Action is "the participation of the laity in the apostolate of the hierarchy." By that definition, most Catholics in today’s Church in America would not know where to begin or exactly how to undertake their Catholic Action. They do know that, first, they would have to penetrate layers of bureaucracy even to talk to, much less work with, their bishops. In days past in a less complex structure, the hierarchy and the laity cooperated to produce such good fruits as the Catholic school system, vibrant parish life and many charitable and philanthropic programs. Today, that teamwork has virtually disappeared in the ruins of closed churches and schools and institutionalized charity with a Marxist twist, but most of all in the morass of self-serving bureaucrats who have usurped the office of the bishop, either by their design, or by the bishop’s default.
One of the most exciting and intriguing chapters in the history of our One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church is found in the Scriptures, specifically in the Acts of the Apostles. Christ told His Apostles and His disciples, "You shall receive power when the Holy Ghost comes upon you and you shall be witnesses for Me in Jerusalem and in all of Judea and Samaria and even to the ends of the Earth." In one after another breathtaking episodes of evangelization, the apostles reminded their listeners that they must "save yourselves from this present generation." Peter and the apostles told the Sanhedrin that "we must obey God rather than man" and they were beaten and imprisoned for their words, but never defeated. Would that our bishops today would literally shout these same words from the rooftops, fearing no man, but only God.
The apostles were fearless and through their Faith and the courage it gave them, they performed incredible feats, including the laying down of their lives, in bringing the world to the True Faith. The disciples, inspired by the zeal and example of the Apostles, likewise accomplished astonishing deeds in the name of Christ and for His Church in the very earliest examples of Catholic Action. And it was all done with a fraternal charity that caused those observing to marvel at these first Christians and "how they love one another."
If an account of The Acts of the Successors of the Apostles were to be written today, how might these Successors be described? Would they be known for their uncompromising faith and courage and fear of no man but only God? Would they be seen as men not concerned with wealth or power but rather as servants of their flock? Unfortunately, their recent behavior suggests that the opposite is true.
It is impossible to imagine the first apostles retaining a prestigious public relations firm to enhance their images or a high-fee legal office to protect them from the consequences of their own wrongdoings or mismanagement, their lack of full disclosure and the private deals they have made to protect themselves and other guilty parties. Nor can the financial aspects be minimized when one realizes that the widow’s mite and the financial sacrifices of trusting Catholics provide the bishops with the funds to do these things and to promote their often flawed liturgical and educational programs. Such dealings contradict the example of the apostles and the early disciples, who used all material gifts for the common good of the brethren in Faith. Nor can it be imagined that the apostles would tolerate today’s sad spectacle of polarization among the shepherds and their flocks that breaks the hearts of so many Catholics in matters of sex education, liturgical aberrations, requests for indult masses and a host of other difficulties.
In our country today, it is becoming more and more obvious that our bishops, with few exceptions, suffer from two great handicaps. First, they have an "identity crisis" and have forgotten or never did understand correctly their individual roles as the apostles’ successors; for if they did understand correctly, they would not be involved in the careerism, political ambition, and status seeking that consume so many of them, and they would see the wisdom in giving up their palaces and their perks for a simpler, holier life.
The second big handicap affecting most bishops today is that they suffer from a "communications gap" which they have created themselves, perhaps unwittingly. They have lost touch with the needs of the faithful, and, most tragically, with the faithful themselves. The grass roots Catholic, the Catholic in the pew, cannot penetrate the bureaucracy surrounding his bishop, nor is it easy for the bishop to break through this same stifling bureaucracy so that he can know the true mind and needs of his flock. The bishops have sold their birthright for this bureaucracy and they lack the courage to deal with the militant feminists, homosexuals and others with dissenting agendae who dominate it.
These handicaps are compounded by a nearly incurable malady, the forced membership of the bishops in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), a "good ol’ boys club" if ever there was one. This is a group choked with bureaucrats who have pre-empted the authority of the bishops and use the organization to further their own agenda. No bishops dare offend this Big Brother in any way, lest their careers be jeopardized and their collegiality (code word for comfortable accommodation and political correctness) be disturbed. The next St. Athanasius will possibly reveal himself by becoming the first bishop who resigns from the USCCB. This bureaucracy is tolerated by a Roman Curia which has more than its share of bureaucrats and, all too often, simply ignores the machinations of the USCCB. There is not a single project that the USCCB has undertaken that could not have been better handled by individual bishops using the grace of their office.
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development is one glaring example of bureaucratic involvement in so-called almsgiving which should be handled by individual bishops in their own diocese. The Campaign, a part of the USCCB bureaucracy, receives funds from an annual special collection taken nationwide in each diocese. These funds are then delivered through USCCB bureaucrats to various groups, including the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), founded by Marxist atheist Saul Alinsky, and its several subsidiaries. A few years ago researcher Stephanie Block prepared highly critical documentation on some questionable funding by the IAF and its many subsidiaries. A copy of her findings was sent to every bishop in the country – that act alone infuriating the Campaign bureaucrats. Scores of recommendations for cleaning up the USCCB-IAF entanglement were contained in the documentation, but the only apparent response by the USCCB was to add the word "Catholic" to the Campaign title. It would take a separate essay to analyze the deleterious aspects of the USCCB-IAF compact but the end result is that individual bishops are still bypassed for the most part in the ultimate use of their flock’s money.
Observe almost any chancery or parish today, including the USCCB behemoth, and you will find endless committees, task forces, ministries, secretariats and councils staffed by bureaucrats who are more than willing to exercise the judgments and implement the projects which should be reserved for the priests and, finally, the bishops. Assaulted by bureaucrats from all sides, the bishops have surrendered their teaching and governing roles and thus, their apostolic integrity, to those who should be following the bishop’s counsel and direction. We must pray that the bishops develop the courage to deal properly with these imposters and to drive them from the temple.
Lest we despair, it is appropriate to acknowledge the few bishops in the country who are leading their flocks by virtue of their personal holiness and with wise governing and orthodox teaching. We must pray for them, that they will stay the course and that their examples will help return their brother bishops to the faithful discharge of their God-given duties.
One can only speculate on how those first apostles would have dealt with one of the most devastating problems of any age, the sanctioned and deliberate taking of innocent human life through abortion. It is highly unlikely that they would have been paralyzed by tax-break considerations, political-posturing or personally compromising situations typical of so many present-day bishops. One can easily imagine St. Peter or St. Paul, preaching outside – maybe inside – the death chambers, calling all therein to put aside their false gods and embrace Christ’s forgiveness and love. Many Catholic pro-life leaders in this country have contended that if the bishops had made the ending of abortion a high priority in the Church in the 1970s, abortion and its many related evils would have been eliminated from the U.S. and in the process the Church would have shown the leadership required to retain its moral authority. But abortion prevails and it is a sad indictment of today’s shepherds. These evil results of the sexual revolution have at times been treated as just some political or moral stakes in a game of politics being played with human souls at risk. It is time for the shepherds to involve themselves personally and help eradicate these evils which cry to heaven for vengeance.
Space does not permit a more extensive scrutiny of this disturbing dilemma – the disconnect between the shepherds and their flocks and the failure of the shepherds to exercise their office properly and with urgency. This leadership vacuum is filled by those with an agenda not always in concurrence with the true teachings of the Church and often in opposition to that teaching. If we were not Catholic, it would be a hopeless situation.
If we were dealing with these problems in a strictly human manner, and with no mandate for a hierarchy, we would be operating as most Protestant "churches" do when in crisis. We could insist that certain bishops and cardinals resign, to enter a monastery or work outside the Church. We could entreat our bishops to chastise and to remove from office their fellow bishops who lead immoral lives, are dissenters, or in any way cause public scandal. We could ask for elimination or at least restructuring, of the USCCB and the countless other bureaucracies that denigrate the bishop’s position as the shepherd. And we would be about as successful as the Protestants – which would mean not successful at all.
As Catholics we know that Christ is the perfect Designer and it is He Who designed the hierarchical Church – notwithstanding some of the modifications introduced since by those who would serve their own ends. It is back to the drawing board we must go, not to design a new Church as many attempt to do, but rather to know the mind of Christ and His apostles. Hierarchy, clergy, religious and laity – we are all in this together as members of the Mystical Body.
The removal of certain of our unfaithful shepherds is not our decision as laity, however well-deserved such actions might be. For then, we would be doing what we counsel against, by assuming that we can solve this problem on a purely human level. Nor can we presume that we can do a better job than God himself in protecting His Church and its members. We must approach this problem prayerfully and humbly and with a charity that overcomes the pain and suffering that many in the Church have experienced because of the lack of leadership.
One certainty in this confusing and ever-changing world is that if we pray worthily, Christ will hear our petitions. The only way we can do so is to stay in the state of Grace, participate fully in the sacramental life and beg God for his forgiveness and his help. And only then, can we present the problem to the Divine Designer for His solution.
If we truly believe, as the apostles did, that all things are possible with God, we will be willing to sacrifice everything, even our lives, for the sake of the Church. We have been told that this is the age of the laity in the Church. If so, we must have a faith and accompanying hope that our prayers, penances and fastings will indeed have a telling effect on the restoration of the Church to its full Apostolic conviction and vigor.
We have it on the highest authority available, namely Christ and his Blessed Mother, that we can be successful. As laymen, we can do no better thing than restore the health of our hierarchy and our priests and religious, and all of the Mystical Body through our prayers and our sacrifices. It is the time for us to be about our Father’s business!
Unfortunately, the problem is not confined to the United States. There's a serious leadership crisis throughout the Church.
"One can only speculate on how those first apostles would have dealt with one of the most devastating problems of any age, the sanctioned and deliberate taking of innocent human life through abortion. It is highly unlikely that they would have been paralyzed by tax-break considerations, political-posturing or personally compromising situations typical of so many present-day bishops."
ping.
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