The Church They Love To Hate

Consider the recent cover of Newsweek, headlined "Sex, Shame and the Catholic Church."

Clearly, this is designed to be a devastating cover, a dagger aimed at the hearts and hope of those faithful Catholics unsure of how to puzzle out the apparent failings of their leaders. I am referring, of course, to the current media storm over allegations of pedophilia.

This is not to say that the alleged handling of any case of pedophilia is above criticism, or that the Church is above criticism. Priests are supposed to be worthy of trust, and not predators. Priests are supposed to provide guidance for the salvation of souls, and not moral corruption. Moreover, if the Church mishandled any alleged incidents of pedophilia out of concern for dealing with an alleged shortage of priests, this too may be laid at the feet of the Church: for the past 30 years, the Catholic schools have taught that all religions are equally valid, thereby discouraging many young men from entering the challenging life of the priesthood. In summary, the allegations of pedophilia and of cover-ups are serious and greatly disturbing.

On the other hand, the American news media is not in any moral position to render judgment on the Church.

The cover of Newsweek mentioned above is hypocritical, to be blunt. Recall that Newsweek refused to run Michael Isikoff's investigative reports on Bill Clinton's extra-marital affairs until the stories were already quite old.

The reason for this journalistic double-standard is quite obvious. The men and women who decide what daily events shall qualify as "news" dearly wanted to be on Bill Clinton's good side. Being on the good side of a man of loose morals like Mr. Clinton allowed them to get scoops, to get invited to hot Washington parties, and to feel important. And that, after all, is what matters in life. All the "right people" adored Bill Clinton, and were ready and willing to cover up his infidelities and abuses.

Where the Roman Catholic Church is concerned, however, the media knows its enemy. Consider the pompous New York Times. During the Second World War, New York Times editorials praised the work of Pope Pius XII in protecting European Jews from the National Socialists. Fifty years later, the "paper of record" has a case of amnesia, as it routinely accuses the same Pope of nearly conspiring in the Holocaust.

Perhaps this should come as no surprise: the Times still has the Pulitzer won by Walter Duranty in the 1930s. Duranty was an eyewitness to Joseph Stalin's terror famine who dutifully filled the Times with glowing accounts of the glories of Communism.

Where the news media is concerned, the Catholic Church is a rival. To understand this rivalry, it is necessary to understand the nature of the press. There is nothing inherently anti-religious about a printing press, a typewriter, a computer, a modem, or a television. Indeed, the Church itself publishes newspapers, runs television stations, and is on the Internet. The conflict, then, is a human conflict, i.e., a conflict between men and women with different visions for the world. To summarize: there are those who despise the moral teachings of the Church, and who strive to destroy the credibility of the Church.

Consider the cartoonist Don Wright of the Palm Beach Post, whose recent cartoon depicted a woman complaining that the Church tells her what to do with her body, but does not similarly condemn pedophiles.

Wright's cartoon is sheer nonsense, at best a cheap attempt at humor. But his goal is serious: to undermine the notion that abortion is evil by claiming that the Church is hypocritical.

This is foolish for several reasons. First, whether or not abortion is evil is wholly unrelated to the moral goodness (or evil) of the one contending that abortion is evil, just as the truth of the fact that gasoline is not good for human consumption does not depend on the morality of the man who tells you not to drink gasoline. Wright's insulting humor is merely an attempt to distract the weak-minded (and willingly led) from the real issue.

Second, contrary to Wright's offensive cartoon, the Church does not advocate pedophilia. At most, Wright might argue that the Church has failed to adequately punish known pedophiles and prevent their doing further harm.

Here, Wright may have a point. It may be the case that certain men should have been dealt with differently than they were; this, however, is a factual question, and I do not claim to know sufficient facts to say much more than that. Even if this is the case, however, it cannot excuse or explain the cover of Newsweek or the silliness of Don Wright's cartoon.

What explains the rage directed at the Catholic Church? At the most basic level, human beings are emotional; their emotions short-circuit thought and thereby drive them to do silly things. If you doubt this, go to a political rally and watch alleged "adults" dress up as for a wrestling match and cheer for no-name stuffed suits running for office as if picking sides for Armageddon. People are prone to foolishness.

Moreover, our lives can tend to grow boring. We work, we go home, we whine and complain. And it's fun to go berserk condemning a public scandal because everyone is outraged. Individual intelligent thought is replaced by mindless group think and the herd mentality.

Finally, it is easy to hate the Church. Those who are not Catholics may easily distrust what they do not understand. Many who call themselves Catholic may also hate what they do not understand. And many who cannot tolerate any views but their own, or who regard moral instructions as condemnation, despise the Church precisely because they do understand.

The Church will endure all such criticism, scandals, and abuses. Those who hate the Church are the inheritors of the French revolutionaries whose mass executions of priests were designed to obliterate the Church. Priests were executed in the Mexican Revolution as well, and they are persecuted in China today. In England and Ireland, during the Penal Laws, priests had a bounty on their heads. The Church, however, has endured all these things, and will endure countless others until the end of time.

The French revolutionaries did not get their wish. Neither will Newsweek or the New York Times.

No matter how the Church may have mishandled any alleged incidents of pedophilia, the Church remains the Church. One hopes and prays that any necessary reforms will be made with due consideration and speed, and that those whose lives were affected may be healed, and that they may forgive those who wronged them. In the end, no matter how much the media may love a scandal, and the rising magazine sales it brings, the moral authority of the Church will endure.

The Catholic Church has tolerated and excused this behavior for decades. Is it your contention that the news media [who are a long way from being my favorite people] should ignore this matter --- as many apologists in the Catholic Church appear to be doing?

I don't think anybody's saying that the media should ignore this problem; however, demonizing the Church on the basis of a few individuals is like demonizing the entire federal government for what happened at Waco. It's a disconnect. And when you consider the agenda of the gay, left-wing socialists in the media who would like nothing more than a dissolution of organized religion and all opposition to their hedonism, you can make the case that the media is deliberately exaggerating the problem to score points with the addle-brained readers.

Which part isn't Christian? Quote that part, please. Is it un-Christian to think, or to ask questions? Some have caricatured that as being the RC position: don't think, don't ask questions. Do you agree?

Dan

I'm Catholic, and as much as I detest the lack of courage in the church for identifying and rooting out these homosexual priests, and instead moving them on to other parishes to continue their destruction, I will hold on to my faith and pray that better angels will look out for us. Great article!

The polemical bandying back and forth between Catholics and Protestants varies depending upon the cultural, social, and class contexts, as well as with the history of antagonisms in the region. Some Catholics do have a strong dislike of or distaste for certain kinds of Protestantism. But this also seems to have a lot to do with personality types and education. Where Catholics have been systematically marginalized (since the 1600s), the tensions tend to get higher. You will notice that for both Protestants and Catholics, some of them become more interested in defining their theological differences as they progress in studies. Anti-Catholicism tended to become more pronounced in the U.S.during the 19th century as the numbers of European immigrants who were Catholic increased and, hence, they were seen as a sort of political threat. Over 150 years later, with no papal monarchy having materialized here, one would think that things ought to have settled down. But, alas, along came abortion and the sexual revolution, so the secular humanist libs began the agitation once again when the Church was seen as a menacing adversary to their social engineering agenda.

Thanks for a substantive, if partial, answer. But where does the buck stop? If it is legitimate for an RC to point at "Protestantism" and say "See how divided they are?", why is it not at least equally legitimate for a non-RC to point at the RCC, which contains within itself anointed church officials who condone and enable such activity, and similarly say "See how divided they are?"

Dan

Yes, but nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition.

Unfortunately, we've had rather the opposite of the Spanish Inquisition. We've tolerated feminists, queers, new-agers, and other assorted malefactors for the past 30 years or so, and pederasts in Roman collars are the result. They, and the people in the diocesan bureaucracies who let them in, need to be ripped out root and branch. Protestants, athletic leagues, school teachers take note: your organisations are also tempting targets for pederasts. They go where the boys are. The Boy Scouts have exactly the right idea: no queers allowed.

I don't know that I can point to a specific "part". Rather the overall tone where one can hear the venom dripping off the words is what raised my eyebrows.

Question anything you like, I know I had some serious in-depth questions for my pastor. It just seems to me, a guy going by the name BibChr would either look at things more objectively, or make a more concerted effort to disguise his disdain for the Catholic church.

It seems your biggest problem is the Catholic belief that we are the "one, true Church" of Jesus Christ. If that's the cause of your bitterness, my advice to you is get over it.

See, here's what I think. When someone asks unarguably legitimate questions, and people can only find it in themselves to guess at and attack his emotional state, psychology, and motivation (rather than respond to the questions) —

— it really probably isn't his problem.

Dan

Where Catholics have been systematically marginalized (since the 1600s), the tensions tend to get higher.

That may be partially it, but I think it has to do with more with your contention that as the status quo of a particular religion is affected for the worse, tensions arise.

Anyway, I didn't mean to get into Catholic-bashing, I was just answering the issue that some Catholics, in some areas, are as guilty as some Protestants are.

Concerning the problems that the Catholic church is going through now, I express my sympathy and reserve my judgement. Most certainly bad judgements have been made, but from all I can see, it appears that most (if not all) leaders are trying to correct the situation. I don't think that some of the anti-Catholic diatribe from the media is helping. Don't get me wrong, I think the media should be looking at this, but I think that they should also take a look at themselves...

You are getting to something I am increasingly worried about. These revelations are beginning to remind me of the mass hysteria of the 1980s about child care centers and the separate craziness created by the "repressed memory" syndrome. There is no doubt that abuses occurred, but the whooped-up, out-of-control emotions being generated by this story are deeply frightening. Here we go again!

If it is legitimate for an RC to point at "Protestantism" and say "See how divided they are?"

No true Catholic ever rejoices over the division of Christians. In fact, there are days in the Catholic Liturgical Year assigned for the prayer of Christian Unity.

Our Lord's will was "that they may be one."

Mm. Do you suppose it could have anything to do with the fact that this church claims to be The Only One and True Real-Live Church of Jesus Christ On Earth, that it claims to speak with the voice of God independently of Scripture, that it demands such devotion of its adherents that when it says white is black they are forced to compel their minds to accept the absurd, and that it pretends that it is One Happy Seamless Garment, while other so-called Christians are just hopelessly-divided little Johnny-Come-Latelies?

Are you talking about the Roman Catholic Church or the LDS Church?

Shalom.

I hope the scandals will result in a purer, holier and wiser Church, with no perverts among her clergy.

That will happen when she clears out her lavender mafia.

Shalom.

You referred to my beliefs as "absurd."

I don't refer to your beliefs that way.

Just a little common courtesy, Dan, would be nice when talking about Catholicism.

God won't hold it against you. He really won't.

Sorry, Arrogant, but I can't agree with your assesment of the RC church. The RC church does not (and has not for many, many centuries) resemble the church founded by the humble son of a Jewish carpenter. The Son of God who was born in a humlbe stable and died on a cross for us never ever intended for his disciples to live in palaces, sit on golden thrones, amass vast quantities of wealth and treasure, and lord it over people.

The people who sit in the pews of the Catholic churches are not really the problem here (although they accept the problem), it is the leadership that so often throughout history have preached, no demanded, that their followers behave one way while they are exempt from the same requirements.

I know I will be acused of bigotry, Catholic bashing, etc., just as BibChr has been here, but I've just come to accept that most Catholic defenders on this forum resort to that rather than discuss actual specifics.

I agree. The media is hyping it because of the "Catholic" angle. I think they would do the same to Baptists. And they did have a field day with Swaggart and Jim and Tammy in the past. On the Catholic-Protestant issue, while I completely respect people who feel strongly (one way or the other) that there are theological or scriptural reasons for thinking the others have it all wrong, some of the more mean-spirited polemics, heckling, and bigotry seems to only spread bad feelings and little spiritual growth or improved theological understanding. Debating is fine. I do like that. And I think it is good to explore where people disagree. But our main goal is Christ and faith and love are a better way to get there. I think people will need to look at how the media has handled this particularly in comparison with the way they helped cover up the Clinton rape story (Juanita Broaddrick).

And when you consider the agenda of the gay, left-wing socialists in the media who would like nothing more than a dissolution of organized religion and all opposition to their hedonism, you can make the case that the media is deliberately exaggerating the problem to score points with the addle-brained readers.

In case you haven't been looking it's the gay left wing socialists that have infiltrated the churches that are providing the ammunition

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The Church They Love to Hate