It's very easy to understand his looking about given the muck and mire.
Maybe Dreher needs to read church history again, especially those earlier centuries when there was a blatant need for a house cleaning, to understand how the domestica ecclesia has always been the structure that held it all together when times became confusing or dangerous. Rome wasn't built in a day and it won't be cleaned in a year....sometimes it took a century or so but there always were some amazing Saints who came broom in hand.
My impression is that Rod tends to be a bit hysterical and only sees the glass as half empty and has sort of a Donatist view of the Church. The Church is a school for sinners and not a society of saints. But if one really believes that Christ founded his Church on the rock of Peter and the apostles and their successors in union with him, one would not be so quick to flee to Orthodoxy. And one has to view the broader historical context. Obviously there was a lot of disruption and modernism that erupted in the Sixties and Seventies, and the child abuse problems I believe is fundamentally a result of the lack of defense of doctrine by Church leaders who should know better, especially moral doctrine, in the Church. And sure, the current leaders don't crack down as much as one might like, but things are slowly getting better. Dreher seems like he doesn't want to give any good faith or credit to the previous or current Pope, who are at heart decent and orthodox fellows who are doing the best they can according to their own judgments. I think we Catholics need to rally round the rock of Peter, the Pope, and sound doctrine.
Ephesians 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine............
Mr. Dreher never lost his Protestand outlook. If you are not entirely comfortabld with the church you attend, move to another one. One never has to realize that one's own outlook might be faulty, rather one finds a church in accord with one's preexisting views, or one's social preferences.
I am sorry for him...he has a real anger problem with the fact that the church has human members with feet of clay...but those of us with a deeper, perhaps, historical perspective knows sin happens, the church goes on. It's Christ's church, but made up of human people, and all branches of it have people who have besmirched Jesus' good name...We were even told this is the way it was going to be, tares in the wheat.
May God lead him to where he can find peace. May he learn to forgive so he can get beyond this hurt.
I am very sympathetic toward Mr. Dreher's desire to keep his children faithful Catholics (or Orthodox, apparently?).
However, he will not do much toward the accomplishment of that task principally by finding the ideal parish, church, faith, etc.
The task of rearing one's children in the faith falls first and principally to oneself. The more help one has from one's parish community, the better, but a mom and a dad who do their best to practice and teach the faith are the crucial element.
I'm Jewish and always will be but if I were to convert it would Eastern Orthodox. They seem more real and traditional. Much less concessions to modern life and frivolity. Their married priests make sense to me - I know not all are allowed to be married
I only have this to say to Mr. Dreher: the only person who can protect your children from abuse by priests (or anyone else) is YOU! The only thing you have to do to make sure that no priest ever gets his hands on one of your sons is to make sure that one of your sons is never alone with a priest. It is that simple. Every case of abuse I’ve ever read about occurred b/c the parents
trusted the priest and the child was therefore allowed to be in the company of the priest for extended periods of time with no one else present. And if he is so foolish as to assume that he can avoid having to deal with this problem by transferring his allegiance to the Orthodox (or any other Christian group for that matter),then he’s not nearly so bright as I had thought.
It also sounds to be like Dreher is angling for some increased attention from the Church. Perhaps the local priests are not “sucking up” enough.