Courage in Christ

If all your trust is gone from the Shepherds of the Church, you are certainly not alone. It is a growing sentiment shared among the laity of the Church amid the recent abuse scandals that are coming to light. When the news first broke and the stories started coming out, I felt extremely passionate about the need to speak out. Not only is the abuse atrocious but the cover-up as well as the subsequent victim shaming that is coming from some higher-ups.

There are two very different extremes that I see as a result of this new scandal; people leaving the Church and those who say that it happened in the past, therefore it is not as significant. These are two very wrong ways of looking at this very serious problem. I want first to address those who lessen the severity by saying that it happened in the past. Many of these cases involved payouts to keep the victim's mouth shut, as well as the reassignment of known predator homosexual priests. So the issue lies in not when it happened but how it was handled by the Church officials.

We are (or should be taught) that there are consequences for our actions, both spiritual as well as physical. For example, Jane needs some extra money because she has very little in her bank account. So she goes to the local convenience store and robs it. As time goes by Jane essentially gets away with the crime but begins to feel remorse for what she did. First, she broke two laws – God’s Law as well as man's law. Jesus makes it very clear in Luke's Gospel, “then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” While on this earth we must obey God's Law without a doubt but we must obey man’s law as long as it is just. In order for Jane to ensure that full absolution is attained, she must confess her sins first to the priest who is acting in persona Christi but then also to the authorities.

I use that example because these priests and bishops should have gone through the proper channels to receive complete absolution for the crimes they committed. When they sexually molested the children, teenagers and young seminarians, they never once went to the authorities and neither did the ones who covered up the abuse. When someone sexually assaults a child, then they are breaking God's Law as well as man’s law, so they should face the consequences of both. This tells me one important thing, they didn’t truly feel sorry. I know this may seem like a bit on the judgmental side, but we are called by Jesus Christ Himself to admonish the sinner. Considering what Jesus said about children and sin in Matthew's Gospel, I think admonishing the sinner is needed:

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of things that cause sin! Such things must come, but woe to the one through whom they come! If your hand or foot causes you to sin,* cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into fiery Gehenna.”

I feel sorry for the children who are forever scarred and whose lives were ruined by the acts of these sly and devious men. A lot of victims of sexual abuse become addicted to drugs and alcohol, have a higher suicide rate, lead a more promiscuous lifestyle, suffer from depression, anxiety and have a higher chance of becoming homosexual. The destruction of these children’s lives is solely the blood on the hands of the abusers.

The next thing that bothers me most about this situation is those who are leaving the Church. I must say that I understand the anger, frustration, and fear but that is not an excuse to leave Christ's Church. When Jesus died for our sins, He opened up for us the chance of salvation. To fully attain salvation we are to use the sacraments that help us receive the grace necessary. When we receive the Eucharist, we are receiving the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. What other Church can say that? None. When we abandon the Church in times of crisis we are abandoning Jesus Christ.

When Jesus told us that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church, He wasn’t talking about the Vatican, the Bishops or even the Dioceses. He was talking about us because we are the Church. A well-known exorcist for the Vatican, Father Amorth, said that there was evil within the Vatican. Seeing the state of everything in light of what’s going he is completely right. Does that make the Church wrong? No! Within the Church, there are the teachings known as the Deposit of Faith which is how we should be living our life. These are things that were given to the Apostles by Jesus Christ Himself, then passed down to us; these are unchanging. We, the laity, need to demand that we get our Church back, we need to make our voices heard and be silent no more.

So to abandon that, to abandon the Eucharist and the sacraments that Jesus gave us, we are giving the devil what he wants. That is something that isn’t talked about a lot in our current “scientific modern” society; even some priests don’t believe in hell or the devil. But I can tell you that he is very real, and he is very happy right now. Not only with the devious actions of the priests, bishops, and cardinals but with those who are willing to abandon the faith as opposed to fighting for it. I leave you with this sentiment, who do you want to be? Saint Francis who was dealing with corrupt Church officials, but instead of turning his back on God, he fought for the Church that Christ died for. Or Martin Luther who was dealing with corruption within the Church but abandoned his faith because he thought differently than Christ. And instead of making a change for the better, he along with three other fathers of Protestantism, are the cause of division and over 30,000 different Christian denominations. So I ask you again, who do you want to be - Saint Francis or Martin Luther?