Posted on 04/22/2002 5:36:05 PM PDT by Luis Gonzalez
My mother must be in the Roman Catholic Hall of Fame. For seven decades, she has been a loyal member of the Church. We are talking daily Mass, the rosary, the whole deal. My mom is a true believer, with a direct pipeline to God. If you need a favor, my mother is the one you should have praying for you.
So it is interesting to watch my mother following the priest scandal. Her group in the "Catholic Golden Age" club is generally appalled and confused. Their faith has not been shaken, but their confidence in the men running the church has been.
My mother is also in a difficult position because her only son has been leading the media charge in demanding that cardinals who allowed pedophile priests to roam be forced to resign.
The pastor of my mother's church stopped her after Mass and suggested that I should give equal time to "good" priests. My mother didn't quite know how to answer that, so she smiled and relayed the message to me. I then asked her, "Mom, does that mean when Republicans or Democrats do bad things, I have to have good ones on to balance?" She said she didn't know, and would I like another tuna sandwich?
According to a poll taken by Quinnipiac University, 70 percent of American Catholics want any high-ranking cleric that enabled child abuse to occur to resign. And get this: Only 46 percent of those polled have a favorable opinion of their parish priest, although 90 percent would trust him around children.
What this poll says is that American Catholic priests are failing in their jobs. And I know the reason why.
First, my credentials. Altar boy for 10 years. Sixteen years of Catholic education. Many, many sins and encounters with frowning priests in the confessional. I still go to Mass every Sunday.
My experience has taught me that many priests are extremely interested in themselves and their power -- a lot like most other human beings. The reason Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston will not resign in the face of overwhelming evidence that he aided and abetted gross crimes against children is that the man wants to keep his red hat. He likes the power and justifies his refusal to do penance by saying the best way to serve his church is to keep his power.
Of course, that's absurd. There's no way on this earth that Law can ever regain his moral authority. Perhaps in heaven.
I once taught at a Catholic high school in Florida, and the principal was a priest that ran around with teen-age boys all the time. Everybody knew something was strange, but the guy let it be known that he was shepherding troubled youths. Maybe he was. But this priest was so power mad and arrogant that he turned my stomach, and I left the teaching profession. He waved goodbye to me from the front seat of his brand new Lincoln Continental.
The thing is that many Catholics, including me, have had bad experiences with priests, but there is no higher court. The priest can pretty much do what he wants. As we now know, even criminal priests are sometimes protected because the bishops do not want public scandal in their dioceses.
My analysis of the priest situation has brought fear and loathing from some Catholics who don't like my tone. Some guy from Nevada sent me an email, saying, "Bill, you've gone berserk in your criticism of the Church." A man from Florida wrote: "Do you really think Cardinal Law knew what those priests were doing? You are just trying to get ratings, O'Reilly."
But most American Catholics understand what has happened and cannot defend it. My mother and her friends are watching closely to see if the pope, whom they love, will do anything. I told my mother not to get her hopes up.
There is a siege mentality in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. The elderly men who run things see an immoral world bent on destroying their institution. They see the forces of liberalism trying to tear down tradition. They see barbarians at the gate.
But the truth is that the true enemies of the church are already inside the fortress. They have damaged the walls of faith, hope and charity, and they are still operating.
If ever there were a time for an exorcism ...
God did not create man to be alone, but to have a female mate.
I shall notify Jesus of your disapproval of his life choices, forthwith.
He waved goodbye to me from the front seat of his brand new Lincoln Continental. That principal sure sounds demonic, but I'm not so bothered about the car. At least he probably didn't coerce people into tithing towards it. But there was a Catholic clergyman years ago who was soliciting for money to build some new church center. My husband's aunt, a Catholic, called him up and told him he had some nerve soliciting old people for money when he spends his free days out on his yacht.
You might want to read Matthew 19:12, 27-29 and 1 Corinthians 7:32-33. Read about Melchisedech, Elias, Paul, John the Baptist and Jesus, just to mention a few. They were all celibate and they are in the Bible. Also learn about fornication and the discussion of said topic in Scripture. Anyone who isn't married is called to be celibate. How convenient of you not to mention that.
As soon as they do away with this ridiculous requirement and the worship of Mary they will be miles ahead.
It's not ridiculous, it's Scriptural. Catholics don't worship Mary. We honor Her, just as Christ did and the fourth commandment instructs us to. Mary is after all, the Mother of all Christians. Luther, Calvin and Zwingli thought She was pretty special as well.
Catholics do not worship the Blessed Virgin Mary.
(tell the truth -- you copied all that out of a book, didn't you?) ;-)
In fact that statement is true. Worship of any creature would be idolatry. Like all Christians, the Catholic Church condemns in no uncertain terms the worship of creatures. Failure to acknowledge this, in 21st century America, amounts to either culpapble ignorance or libel.
AB
This is a very important point that I rarely see mentioned. So many think that the solution is to allow married priests so it would open up the pool of eligible candidates.
But the truth is, if God is not calling someone to be a priest, that person shouldn't be a priest. It's not a career choice, like so many think it is.
Wouldn't it be funny if they did open it up to married priests, and found not one of them really had a true vocation?
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