When I heard that Cardinal McCarrick was a serial abuser I thought it was horrible and disgusting and the fact that bishops knew and did nothing is unforgivable. But, I told myself, it is one case. This is an old man who somehow slipped through the reforms of 2002. He is a ghost of the Church’s dark past. The Church is OK. When allegations surfaced in my home Diocese of Lincoln I was hurt and angry. This was too close to home. These accusations were about priests that I know. It was my bishop this time who did not adequately disclose what was going on in our diocese. (Some before his time, some during). But still it was the first time something like this had happened in Lincoln and it did not appear to be part of any troubling pattern. The Church is OK. When a grand jury concluded that a pattern of abuse and cover up had been the norm in Pennsylvania for seventy years and more than 300 clergy are implicated in the abuse of over 1000 victims, it all came crashing down. The Church is not OK. In fact, the Church is gravely ill. It is a dark and scary time in the life of the American Church. Millions of people over the past few weeks, myself included, have been forced to question the very institution that promises truth itself. Priests of the Catholic Church, men vowed to a life in the service of Christ, his Church, and all children of God, have committed the most heinous of crimes. Bishops of the Catholic Church, the shepherds and leaders, have repeatedly and seemingly without a second-thought created an environment where these criminals can go undetected and unpunished. Children have been abused so that comfy bureaucrats could maintain their status and prestige. The Body of Christ is now seen to be bloody and broken at the hands of those who were supposed to be its greatest defenders. The response from the people of God, those who truly know the love of Christ on the cross, must be anger, disgust, overwhelming sorrow, and action. It is clear now that any solution that does not include mass resignations and the complete dismantling of the structures that allowed comfy bishops to cover-up pervasive child abuse is an incomplete and cowardly measure. There is no longer a place for policy-talk or “deep sadness”. We are past that. Now is the time for action and justice. We can no longer allow the Church, the very body of Christ, to be debased by cowards and perverts. Every priest guilty of abuse should be arrested. Every bishop guilty of cover-up should be arrested. Any priest or bishop guilty of blatant violation of Church teaching (such as consensual sexual activity or the promotion of such practices) should be forced to resign from ministry and live a life of seclusion, prayer, and penance. The truth is that priests and bishops are not the Church. The church that you go to each Sunday is not the Church. The Pope and the Vatican are not the Church. The Church is the Body of Christ. When we forget what the Church truly is, it becomes possible for the institutional power to turn into very real evil. When bishops and priests believe that their downfall is the Church’s downfall they justify cover-ups in the name of protecting the Church. What is accomplished, however, is not the protection of the Church but its destruction. The danger to the Church is not secular authorities taking legal action. The danger is members of the institutional church polluting those structures of Grace and Sacrament with their own evil under the dark cover of secrecy. The only way for the Church to be protected is for truth to root out and destroy that evil. Light and truth cannot be enemies to the Church for the Church, as the Body of Christ, is light and truth. So what can we do? It is easy to say that the lay faithful must stand up and demand justice, that we must do something since our bishops won’t. It is much more difficult to know what to do. Most of us have no power or influence in the course of action the Church takes. Most of us are not directly involved with any priest or bishop deserving of arrest or resignation. The first thing that we can all do is become more involved. This is counter to the expected reaction. The outside world and many Catholics will expect the faithful to leave. Stop going to mass if you don’t like what the Church is doing. Just go somewhere else. This again falls into the same misguided view of the Church that priests and bishops are the Church. Our Catholicism, however, bears a much higher allegiance. Only by true faith and participation will we be able to bring virtue and love back into the heart of the Church. If we leave the Church to the corrupt then it will continue to fall further into its mockery of Jesus Christ. Instead we must be informed and we must be involved. The bishops who have orchestrated this evil secrecy would like nothing more than for people to give up. No, we have felt the love of God and come to eat of the Body and drink of the Blood of His Son. There is no giving up. We must dive deep into the heart of all that is wrong in the institutional Church with the Holy Spirit and the Eucharist as our guiding light. The structures of the Church must come down because the Church is worth saving. The Church is not any of us. It is all of us. It is up to each one of us to make the Church holy by our own holiness. Immorality and cowardice caused this unspeakable evil. It will be faith and hope in Jesus and His Most Holy Body and Blood that will be the cure. Jesus died on a cross to save us from sin. We must, as a Church, be prepared to die on that same cross now and every day for the sake of His Sorrowful Passion. The second thing we can do is remain vocal. Those who are complicit in evil want this thing to blow over. They want us to get caught up in whatever sensational news story follows this one (and there will always be one). If we let it blow over, it will eventually blow up a decade from now when we learn how many more kids were abused. It may feel strange but it is vital that we share every article, post, tweet, etc. that sheds light on the evil that has infiltrated our church. It is vital that we speak with our friends and family about how much this has hurt us. It is vital that we let the Church and the world know that we will not stand for this and we will not rest until justice has been done and morality has been restored. In the coming weeks it will be so easy to forget. It will be so easy to thank God that “our priest” is one of the good ones and move on with our lives. We cannot move on. Every day that these same men remain in power is the day we renew the call for their removal. We will keep our disgrace and shame at the actions of our own leaders in the forefront of everyone’s minds until the institutional Church has been reclaimed by Christ. Finally, we must have hope. Remember that the Church belongs to Christ and is guided by the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to see now but the victory of Christ has already been won. The God that created the universe is the same God who dwells in our hearts now. He is the same God who died on a cross for our sins. All of our sins. He will not abandon us now. He will not abandon us ever. Go to Him in prayer and tell Him that you are hurting. Tell Him that you are confused. Take courage and pray for the grace to find peace in Him alone. Find time to sit in adoration or to say a rosary. It may not be easy but that is what we are being called to right now. We must pray for those who do not have the strength to pray and hope in the love of Jesus Christ. Wait for the Lord, take courage; be stouthearted, wait for the Lord! - Psalm 27 MORE: This week Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano released a statement accusing Pope Francis (among many others) of knowing about Cardinal McCarrick and moving to reinstate him after Pope Benedict XVI removed him from ministry. So far, one other prominent Catholic official, Monsignor Jean-Francois Lantheaume, has corroborated those claims and several others have vouched for Archbishop Vigano’s credibility. The Pope, when asked directly to refute the accusations, refused to comment. It is important that we are all aware of the grave nature of these accusations. Many people are calling for the Pope’s resignation. Hopefully those who are able to verify or refute these claims will do so soon. Every day this continues in confusion the greater the damage to the life of the Church. For the articles related to the Diocese of Lincoln scandals look for Rod Dreher’s reporting here: https://www.theamericanconservative.com For everything else I recommend reading the reports from Catholic News Agency: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/
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