I am an usher, and taking up a collection for these people makes me feel like an unindicted co-conspirator.
I am thinking of getting out. I am not hopeful for change as there is really no mechanism in our Church for lay people to force it. Fixing this would involve purging gay priests, and in this culture where saying “boo” about gays is deemed “hate speech” I just don’t see it happening.
A bad Pope does not make the entire Church, the people of God — you and me — bad.
You lay people then can make a mechanism to force change...the church can’t function without it’s people and without their volunteerism and their money donations. A sit down strike as it were. Forget about threats from the deluded bishops....God will hold each person responsible separately for their actions on Earth. You can’t sin even if some Church Hierarchy says you can. The Holy Spirit resides in the whole body not just the hierarchy of the church...if the upper rulers have become blinded then the responsibility of the laity is not to be blinded with them but rather to act as seeing eye dogs to guide the rulers out of their blindness. There are many smart biblically minded Catholics all over the world....they will know how to restructure what needs to be restructured...God will guide them. The current ruling structures have lost their way....