If one believes that Judaism is from God, then priests who are guilty of sexual exploitation being sheltered by superiors does not rule out the possibility that the Church is still from God, as precisely that situation arises in I Samuel 2:22-25, with Eli and the boys. They are not walking a godly path, but they are still the representatives of God—very flawed representatives, but representatives none the less.
If I were king of Wisconsin and could get the Church to strip Weakland of his clerical state, he would be facing a date with a millstone. If I were Pope, I would strip him of his clerical state. If I were God . . . but I am none of these, and trust that God in His providence will work things out for God’s greater glory.
That said, the horrible way in which the Church is run is actually a proof of divine grace. One Pope, I believe Pius VI, responded to Napoleon when Napoleon said that he would destroy the Church “You silly little man, if we and our priests haven’t managed to destroy the Church in 18 centuries, what makes you think that you can do it.”
I trust the authorities of the Church, when teaching authoritatively, to say things that ought to be listened to—and I trust providence to order things through them in such a way that God’s glory will eventually be manifest. I also suspect that words attributed to St. John Chrysostom (rightly or not I do not know) may be proven right: The walls of hell are lined with mitres. This is not to say that bishops are not ordained by Christ, but that much is expected from those to whom much is given, and so the path of salvation for a bishop is very hard and full of all sorts of temptations.
Trust God, and trust Him to act through those who He bestows authority upon—He writes straight with crooked lines.
If you use that example, your priests ought to be shaking in their boots.
You are aware, aren't you, of what fate awaited the sons of Eli because nobody dealt with them?
1 Samuel 2 27And there came a man of God to Eli and said to him, "Thus the LORD has said, 'Did I indeed reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh? 28 Did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel. 29Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?' 30Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: 'I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,' but now the LORD declares: 'Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. 31Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. 32Then in distress you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. 33The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep his eyes out to grieve his heart, and all the descendants of your house shall die by the sword of men. 34 And this that shall come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you: both of them shall die on the same day. 35 And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever. 36And everyone who is left in your house shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread and shall say, "Please put me in one of the priests’ places, that I may eat a morsel of bread."'"
It never ceases to amaze me how Catholics will justify and excuse any evil perpetrated or protected in and by the Catholic church.
I have rarely seen a people so willfully blind to the evil in their midst.
Catholics condemn corrupt and immoral behavior in non-Catholics, but excuse and justify and cover up corrupt and immoral behavior in Catholic priests.
The kind of evil and corruption that exists in the Catholic church and has for centuries certainly does rule out the possibility that the Catholic church is of God.
That said, the horrible way in which the Church is run is actually a proof of divine grace.
IOW, the more evil and immoral it gets, the more it's proof it's from God?
just.......
wow.......
Words fail me.
That said, the horrible way in which the Church is run is actually a proof of divine grace.
True authority is founded in credibility. Absent credibility there is no true authority. Moses, Elijah, Jesus, Peter, and more all had credibility and it was upon that credibility that their authority was founded.
To say that a child raping Archbishop can have authority “when teaching authoritatively, to say things that ought to be listened to” is foolishness. Were Bishop Weakland to utter the gilded dulcet words of the angels themselves those words word be lost to me because of who was saying them.
My father used to have a favorite saying: “Who you are speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”
If the appointed church leader is beneath contempt, I really don’t care what he has to say. What I’m wondering is why he’s still in his job? Why isn’t he in jail? Why are his colleagues protecting him by their inaction in standing against him? Why are, in some cases, church leaders protecting child rapists in order to protect their own reputations?
See, even the most perfect message gets lost in all of that.
In the sum, the messenger cannot distract from the message.
And a church that thinks this way is no church of my God.