Inertia
I saw a couple of stories in the news today. One was 200,000 Italian Catholics mobilise for mass show of support for Pope, and the other was Vatican sets out US abuse defence. Seeing these two stories made me feel like we're reaching the far end of the church sex-abuse/cover-up arc. Looking at my past posts for the last couple of months, I can see how the arc arced ...
It started with the furor over the abuse in Europe, the even greater furor over the cover-ups ... the defensiveness of the Vatican, which caused even more anger ... the raised hopes of those who would like to see changes made in the church.
Then the church starts to get it, but by that I don't mean they get how awful all this is, I mean that instead they get how to defuse the awfulness ..... there's talk of celibacy, of the curia, of penance, but don't worry it's just talk - celibacy will not become elective, the curia will not change, and the penance is actually ours to perform ..... and last but not least, a truly inspired twist - the pope himself gets it. What's so great about this last element is that the pope doesn't actually have to do a thing to achieve this enlightened state because we all do it for him - I defy anyone to show me the actual words spoken by the pope in which he accepts the church's responsibility for covering-up sex abuse or explains how he's going to change the church so such self-serving lying will in the future be considered outré (and no fair imparting meanings to statements that don't intrinsically contain them, like the plane-to-Portugal interview).
What I come away with from all this is that there is literally nothing the church can do that will disaffect a majority of Catholics. And there is literally nothing those who are disaffected can do to bring about any change in the church. This really makes me sad.
It started with the furor over the abuse in Europe, the even greater furor over the cover-ups ... the defensiveness of the Vatican, which caused even more anger ... the raised hopes of those who would like to see changes made in the church.
Then the church starts to get it, but by that I don't mean they get how awful all this is, I mean that instead they get how to defuse the awfulness ..... there's talk of celibacy, of the curia, of penance, but don't worry it's just talk - celibacy will not become elective, the curia will not change, and the penance is actually ours to perform ..... and last but not least, a truly inspired twist - the pope himself gets it. What's so great about this last element is that the pope doesn't actually have to do a thing to achieve this enlightened state because we all do it for him - I defy anyone to show me the actual words spoken by the pope in which he accepts the church's responsibility for covering-up sex abuse or explains how he's going to change the church so such self-serving lying will in the future be considered outré (and no fair imparting meanings to statements that don't intrinsically contain them, like the plane-to-Portugal interview).
What I come away with from all this is that there is literally nothing the church can do that will disaffect a majority of Catholics. And there is literally nothing those who are disaffected can do to bring about any change in the church. This really makes me sad.
posted by crystal | 6:27 PM
3 Comments:
Crystal,
What’s truly sad is that I see what you see but you don’t see - the superabundant beauty of Christ in His Church. Perhaps reality is trying to remind all of us that the Church belongs to Christ and that She will change in the way He wants it to change. Christ exists, He is in control, and no matter what we do to try to destroy His work it won’t happen. Isn’t that a reason for gratitude and joy my friend!
Pax,
Henry
Oops, typo - I see what you see but you don’t see what I see - the superabundant beauty of Christ in His Church.
Hi Henry,
Yes, I think the difference between us on this is the way we see the church. I would like the church to do a better job of revealing/reflecting the goodness of Jesus - I think it's gone off the rails in that respect :)
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