With the Clergy Abuse Scandal: SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO?
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.
