Proud to be... Catholic
Last week my son and his classmates were honored at the Baccalaureate Mass at St Henry. The Church brings out the big guns to honor the graduates, the big guns being the Knights in full regaila. I know Adam was looking at the beautiful capes and engraved swords thinking how do I get in this club?
During the moments when the miracle of transubstantiation occurs, the Knights raise their swords high in honor of the King. It was a beautiful moment, touching most because it is such an ancient tradition.
After the fact, I heard some of the family and friends of the graduates commenting on attending a Catholic Mass and how uncomfortable they were in that setting.
Strange. I've attended many different services at many different locations and have never been uncomfortable in an opportunity of prayer.
I think we have two issues that create discomfort. The first, of course, is the disaster that's been the pedophilia scandal in the Church. The second is overwhelming misconceptions about what and who the Church is.
Today the Catholic Church is under heavy fire for mistakes made over the last few decades involving exploits of some priests and young men. And she should be. The Church needs to go to war against pedophiles and anyone who would hurt our youngest and most defenseless.
My heart is broken for the young men - many now grown - and their families. The horror of discovering your small son has been wounded in such a way... well, I know I cannot imagine what the boys and their families experienced to any degree of accuracy.
Yet this isn't the first time the Church has been found wanting socially or politically or economically. Any entity with two thousand years of history and led by mere humans is bound to have hidden - and even very public - skeletons. Key skeletons for the Church include the Inquisition, the Crusades, and the recent sexual abuse crimes.
Christ certainly never intended His Bride to have such a history.
That said, I believe Christ did give us a prescription for how to build the Church and who should lead it. I believe Christ gave us the diagram for Mass in Revelation and elsewhere. I believe Christ told us to "do this in memory of me" when he said "this is my body.. blood... do this in memory of me." Says Pat Marrin in NCR today:
Yet there are some Christians who declare Catholics are not even Christian.
Ahem.
With each bible study I take or lead with students young or old, I am led to a greater and greater intimacy with not only the Word, but also the Catechism, and the teaching of the Magisterium. I believe in our one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, the Church that Jesus handed us. I become more and more capable and willing to defend the Church using the Word and our Tradition (and for those who scream "sola scriptora" at this moment, remember the Word began as an oral tradition).
Having been subject to the new policies the Church has implemented to keep pedophiles and other criminals away from our youth (already subject to background checks and training to keep my school bus license, I was annoyed by the requirement to attend the 3-hour training session so I could continue to teach religion, play the piano, and coordinate weddings at St Henry), I see how seriously the Church is taking the potential threat to our youngest members. It's a good thing and a marked improvement over past practices. Is it enough? I don't know. I hope that if we find out it's not, we take the next step and the next until we solve the problem.
Those interested in what the Church has done and intends to do can learn more at Church websites from the local to the international levels. And the Church IS doing something.
A good friend and fellow parishioner emailed the following to me, and I finished reading it with a deep sigh of relief. Someone gets it.
That's advice I can take.
During the moments when the miracle of transubstantiation occurs, the Knights raise their swords high in honor of the King. It was a beautiful moment, touching most because it is such an ancient tradition.
After the fact, I heard some of the family and friends of the graduates commenting on attending a Catholic Mass and how uncomfortable they were in that setting.
Strange. I've attended many different services at many different locations and have never been uncomfortable in an opportunity of prayer.
I think we have two issues that create discomfort. The first, of course, is the disaster that's been the pedophilia scandal in the Church. The second is overwhelming misconceptions about what and who the Church is.
Today the Catholic Church is under heavy fire for mistakes made over the last few decades involving exploits of some priests and young men. And she should be. The Church needs to go to war against pedophiles and anyone who would hurt our youngest and most defenseless.
My heart is broken for the young men - many now grown - and their families. The horror of discovering your small son has been wounded in such a way... well, I know I cannot imagine what the boys and their families experienced to any degree of accuracy.
Yet this isn't the first time the Church has been found wanting socially or politically or economically. Any entity with two thousand years of history and led by mere humans is bound to have hidden - and even very public - skeletons. Key skeletons for the Church include the Inquisition, the Crusades, and the recent sexual abuse crimes.
Christ certainly never intended His Bride to have such a history.
That said, I believe Christ did give us a prescription for how to build the Church and who should lead it. I believe Christ gave us the diagram for Mass in Revelation and elsewhere. I believe Christ told us to "do this in memory of me" when he said "this is my body.. blood... do this in memory of me." Says Pat Marrin in NCR today:
How we got ourselves from a Jewish Jesus who loved Torah and who washed feet and warned his apostles not to lord it over others to the Holy Roman Catholic church, ensconced in silk and gold brocade and embedded in the same Master Card and bullet-proof motorcade culture it shares with other multi-national corporations is one for the history books. Read it and weep, but don’t pretend the church has no issues.I too love the great things the Catholic Church is and does. I love the beauty of the Mass. I love that who and what I am becoming is who and what Christ wants me to be.
I love the church, have always defined my existence within the mystery of the church and will swear on my Irish Catholic father’s grave and my late mother’s prayer altar on her dressing table at home, that the body of Christ is inseparable from an often sinful institutional church that I will remain a part of until the day I die.
Yet there are some Christians who declare Catholics are not even Christian.
Ahem.
With each bible study I take or lead with students young or old, I am led to a greater and greater intimacy with not only the Word, but also the Catechism, and the teaching of the Magisterium. I believe in our one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, the Church that Jesus handed us. I become more and more capable and willing to defend the Church using the Word and our Tradition (and for those who scream "sola scriptora" at this moment, remember the Word began as an oral tradition).
Having been subject to the new policies the Church has implemented to keep pedophiles and other criminals away from our youth (already subject to background checks and training to keep my school bus license, I was annoyed by the requirement to attend the 3-hour training session so I could continue to teach religion, play the piano, and coordinate weddings at St Henry), I see how seriously the Church is taking the potential threat to our youngest members. It's a good thing and a marked improvement over past practices. Is it enough? I don't know. I hope that if we find out it's not, we take the next step and the next until we solve the problem.
Those interested in what the Church has done and intends to do can learn more at Church websites from the local to the international levels. And the Church IS doing something.
A good friend and fellow parishioner emailed the following to me, and I finished reading it with a deep sigh of relief. Someone gets it.
Why would newspapers carry on a vendetta on one of the most important institutions that we have today in the United States, namely the Catholic Church?Be proud that you're a Catholic.
Do you know - the Catholic Church educates 2.6 million students everyday at the cost to that Church of 10 billion dollars, and a savings on the other hand to the American taxpayer of 18 billion dollars. The graduates go on to graduate studies at the rate of 92%. The Church has 230 colleges and universities in the U.S. with an enrollment of 700,000 students.
The Catholic Church has a non-profit hospital system of 637 hospitals, which account for hospital treatment of 1 out of every 5 people - not just Catholics - in the United States today.
But the press is vindictive and trying to totally denigrate in every way the Catholic Church in this country. They have blamed the disease of pedophilia on the Catholic Church, which is as irresponsible as blaming adultery on the institution of marriage.
Let me give you some figures that Catholics should know and remember. For example, 12% of the 300 Protestant clergy surveyed admitted to sexual intercourse with a parishioner; 38% acknowledged other inappropriate sexual contact in a study by the United Methodist Church , 41.8% of clergy women reported unwanted sexual behavior; 17% of laywomen have been sexually harassed. Meanwhile, 1.7% of the Catholic clergy has been found guilty of pedophilia. 10% of the Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia. This is not a Catholic Problem.
A study of American priests showed that most are happy in the priesthood and find it even better than they had expected, and that most, if given the choice, would choose to be priests again in face of all this obnoxious PR the church has been receiving.
The Catholic Church is bleeding from self-inflicted wounds. The agony that Catholics have felt and suffered is not necessarily the fault of the Church. You have been hurt by a small number of wayward priests that have probably been totally weeded out by now.
Walk with your shoulders high and your head higher. Be a proud member of the most important non-governmental agency in the United States . Then remember what Jeremiah said: 'Stand by the roads, and look and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is and walk in it, and find rest for your souls'. Be proud to speak up for your faith with pride and reverence and learn what your Church does for all other religions.
Excerpts of an article written by non-Catholic Sam Miller - a prominent Cleveland Jewish businessman."Be proud that you're a Catholic."
That's advice I can take.
Comments
Post a Comment