Frankly, the reason a person should stay  within any Christian community is that they have experienced God  within it, from it and beyond it! 

Yes, the infallible authority of the Church has seriously had it’s priorities wrong for a long time.  It, seemingly, desperately feels the need to hang on (i.e., guard) to an antiquated image of itself that it assumes the world..at least the Western World… still needs and perceives as validating its’ authority despite any concern for credibility. 

Yes, we Catholics can’t imagine a worse offense and scandal to rock an institutional image of purity and Christ-like-care than in having clergy abuse the vulnerable…children… and allow them to return to positions/office  of contact with kids as “Father”. Yes, we are all sinners seeking forgiveness (seeking to grow in Christ’s loving and being loving)  and we all can get sick with the hopes to get better.  It’s especially hard to understand, let alone to forgive, such a powerful Christian institution of whom  many (i.e., sexually inquisitive youth, married-divorced – remarried, women who’ve had abortions,  gays, the affectionate, women, non-Catholics etc.)  when they have been experienced  as unforgiving and as inflicting shame.  It’s inaccessibleness/unwillingness/over-concern with management will continue to portray Catholic leadership as not-in-touch with reality but only formulas.  The accusation of it being  unaware falls on deaf ears or “the devil made you do it”  when it is  confronted on being a rigid institution that assures us of what is sin and not as affectively points to what is God.  It can be experienced as an entity that says “sorry” to things of the way past though, in the present,  it doesn’t seem to have changed its ways.  It still feels the need to claim its authority based on “we were here first” (God WAS with us?) rather than on the poverty of spirit necessary to be an instrument that invites, empowers and wishes to sustain connection with the Spirit of God beyond the asserting of policy.

Yes, it’s hard to shrug off the reality that the clerical Church has claimed itself as the “end all that is all” for the past 1500 years (until the local surge of emphasizing the priestly dimension of baptism  because of the shortage of ordained priests).  But, I will never understand the whoopla given a local clergy/prelate’s permission, control and validation deemed as necessary to the quest of it’s “children” for closeness to the Holy Spirit within, among and beyond.  Why someone leaves any Christian-community because of personnel  policies (”I’m leaving my Faith because “they’re” allowing women and gays…those sinners… to be ordained)’ social justice policies ( sinners have no rights) and ecclesiological differences (though Christian leaderships don’t agree the “faithful” seem to enjoy each other) baffles me.  YOU GO WHERE YOU ARE FED…BUT…YOU ALSO GO WHERE YOU CAN FEED.

In fact, if one can claim an experience of God within their life of being within a Catholic community…springing from the centrality of the Spirit of Eucharist…why leave it because of the wrongs and mistakes of others (no matter who it is)?  If one feels welcome, celebrated, empowered, challenged to love, connected to God and therefore uses their Catholicity to welcome, celebrate others, empower the powerless and to continue to connect to an abundant love of the Father… why leave it? Now, if you’ve limited your Catholicity as simply “going to Mass” you  are probably totally disarmed by the scandal.   Yet, this is what is happening.  I’ve known many people overjoyed when finally discovering a parish that was surprisingly welcoming, accepting, challenging and empowering.  Sadly, though,  because “the Pope’s policies” (usually experienced in the incomplete summaries of media and hearsay) are contrary to the welcome they experience on the parish level… many have gone.  Again, why leave a connection that you experience as working?

When I was hungry… I was fed!   If we can’t claim to having a continuing experience of being fed and being invited to feed, we will leave.  When I was thirsty you gave me to drink…I was cared for.  If we can’t claim that we’ve been invited, empowered and anointed to care for the poor and experience God in the effort, we will leave.  When I was in prison you visited me….Though I was guilty I was forgiven.  If we can’t claim an experience of a forgiving God in our local forgiving community that will sacrifice itself for those who wrong as well as those who have been wronged, we will leave.  When I was alone you visited me…I was invited to believe that my presence was “Christ enough” thanks to the Holy Spirit.  If we can’t claim to experience God  by living, growing and breathing the Gospel and the Eucharist they will leave because they did not believe in the more of life, love and self that comes with our Faith.

I can claim to have had an experience of God because of, in this regard, my association with the Catholic Community. Because of the whole people of “church” I can claim, without being poetic, that when I was starving, I was fed. When I was arrested and guilty, I was visited. When I was set as a sinner, I was assured of my continuing connection with the Father.   Though I have had a positive experience of God among my own local Church leadership, especially Cardinal Mahony,   I can also say that I’ve experienced humiliation by other church leaders and people.  Though I entertained and actively investigated chucking it all, Christ’s hand of care “as Church” prevailed.

But I cannot let those unfortunate humiliations ever outweigh how those other wonderful people who call themselves “Church” have been a most salvific experience of Christ to me and have resurrected me to be a Christ-among-many  to the “hungry rich and the hungry poor”.   It’s an experience I cannot deny as greater than the shames.   I’d be a fool to unplug myself from it.  Yet, I also must challenge myself as to how I have caused hurt due to my own inadequacies.

Life would be so much fulfilling and affective for us all when we model  leadership/management  just as humbly, humanly, responsibly and vulnerably as our Jesus was, as many saints could and of whom all the people of God should believe they can experience.

“When people discover their own capacity to give life and hope to others, then they want to give more.. . the power of love rises  up” -JEAN VANIER

Have you ever wondered what religion really offers us in our busy, 24/7, twenty-first century world? Have you looked at our churches and wished that they would be magically brought up-to-date to deal with the lives and problems that we now face? And do you ever wonder what the church has to say about an Internet-driven world that leaves little time for reflection? Take this exciting, inspiring, and convention-smashing journey with Father Ken of Los Angeles’ St. Agatha’s Parish, and find out what God, faith and religion really mean to us now in a new, high-tech century.

Written in the no-nonsense, urban style of The Cross and the Switchblade, this tale still heaps up the comfort-food warmth of Chicken Soup for the Soul as it inspires each of us and helps us face our own struggles. Watch Father Ken become Father Confessor to a diverse group from Hollywood notables and power figures to the toughest gangbanger on the street-and at the same time readers will discover facets of their OWN inner faith, love and endurance. Father Ken confronts every conflict with hilarity and frankness as he puts to use the priceless wisdom dished out by a friend who admonished him to: “Get off the Cross- Someone else needs the wood!”

Get Off the Cross: Someone Else Needs the Wood is a fresh, vibrant, inspirational memoir/exposé penned by a baby-boomer-generation Catholic priest. The approach is honest and entertaining, the writing frank and glib, the audience clearly fellow Catholics. The text essentially provides a respectfully irreverent Gospel-According-to-Ken, putting a 21^st Century spin on Church doctrine and supporting judicious detours when that canon strays from such fundamental Catholic principals as love, charity and resurrection through Jesus.

Like an extended series of blogs, Get off the Cross is part sermon/homily, part confession, part apology, part rant, part narishkite. The voice alternates between formal, conversational and verbal, which, because it cannot include the author’s tone, expression or gestures, caused me to regularly stop to figure out if a given line was intended as sarcasm, sincerity or a non-sequitur aside.

FATHER KEN grew up in a working-class suburb of Los Angeles, California as he struggled in his younger life against hard-times and neglect and church convention to become a priest, social reformer and community leader of St. Agatha’s Parish in one of Los Angeles’ hardest neighborhoods. His friends include Hollywood luminaries and jailed gang members, and his faith and leadership have transformed many lives, and as a result, a whole city.

ISBN: 1-932407-28-6

After a lot of years, I finally believe that God has called me to be a priest. (Believe me, there’s been times that I’d wish that I wasn’t!)  Ironically, I have become a priest and person that isn’t exactly the status quo of typical priesthood.  I don’t fit, pure and simple, and I have finally accepted that.  Oftentimes, I’d rather drive a tourist bus in Hawaii! (Wait! I did!!) Since I was ordained in 1987 (finally! I began in 1972!) I have found great joy and fulfillment in bringing God’s Joy and Affection to others open to it. Since 1987, though, I have ended up living an “on the edge” and a “who let the dog out” priesthood in this seemingly uncreative and seemingly stagnant officious Catholic Church that I fell expects me to be a Stepford Priest (Stepford Wife?).