"Whitewashed Tombs"

A readworthy blog at cut on the bias.

From Susanna Cornett yesterday, in wake of the most recent revelations about abuse and coverup in the Boston Archdiocese:

.... The deepest pain for me is the total evil and godlessness of men who claim to serve God but either use their position of trust to violate others or hide the behavior for reasons having nothing to do with spirituality. It shows a heart more concerned with earthly position and wealth than with God's law or his children. The behavior is not exclusive to the Catholic church, but the hierarchical structure and pervasive nature of their priesthood leaves them at greater risk of this kind of abuse. I do admire the devotion and spirituality of many Catholics. I hope they persevere and bring about the changes that will foster even greater spirituality in the future.

Readworthy comments, too.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 12/05/02 07:39:31 PM
Categorized as Religious.

"Discipleship and Dissent"

At Bettnet.com.

Domenico Bettinelli blogged yesterday some reflections by Richard Blanchard on "Discipleship and dissent", which I am going to scarf entirely here:

What does it mean to be a CATHOLIC?

To arrive at the answer one has to be willing to use good reasoning, that is, good common sense with the ability to understand the logic that goes along with it.

One is a CATHOLIC if one can truly fit the definition of being a DISCIPLE.

Who is going to tell you what DISCIPLESHIP IS?

Certainly, one is not going to rely on another human being to determine this. After all, every human being is just as fallible as the other and not very reliable or trustworthy to do this.

So, who is to tell us?

The answer is none other than the Savior, Jesus Himself, providing of course that we do so with the virtue of faith.

And faith is the act we make in accepting the truths, as revealed by the infallible authority of the One revealing the truths, whether they are acceptable or not, to our liking.

Jesus is God, therefore He is the infallible One, revealing the truths we are to live.

This is what Jesus tells us what discipleship is. "If you live according to my teaching, you are truly my disciples; then you will know the truth and the truth will make you free."

If anyone rejects just one aspect of His teaching, that one loses discipleship, loses union with the Lord. The truth cannot any longer be discerned except that truth that one conjures up from ones one personal or subjective view point. And this truth is not from the Lord.

For example: No truth about what the Lord has revealed about Himself, and about the Church he founded, can be rejected. Hence anyone who holds that Our Lord did not know who he was from the Incarnation, but was only aware of His role until years later is rejecting Divine Revelation.

One who says the Lord did not found a Church is rejecting His teaching. Any one who says that the Holy Father is not the true successor to Peter is rejecting His teaching. Anyone who does not accept the teaching in Humanae Vitae on the question of birth control is rejecting His teaching.

Anyone who does not accept the teaching that the priesthood is only for men, and this is the will of the Lord, is rejecting His teaching. Anyone who says that my subjective conscience can override the teaching of the Church on birth control and therefore am not sinning is rejecting the teaching of Christ.

This kind of rejection is called DISSENT. One must not confuse discussion or questioning with dissent. Discussion or questioning is good when the goal is to understand better the truth or make things clearer.

But dissent is the stubborn rejection of a truth of the Lord or His Church after one has been baptized into His Church. So, remember we are talking about baptized Catholics here, be he bishop, priest, theologian, or a religious, or a member of the laity.

The Holy Father has made it very clear that dissent is a very serious offense. So much so that any Catholic cannot approach the Sacrament of Holy Communion in this condition.

Also in Canon Law the just penalty that can be imposed is exclusion from the Church. Likewise, it can lead to being a heretic.

Voice of the Faithful, under the present leadership falls under the category of DISSENTERS. Anyone who knowingly and freely aligns with VOTF is an accomplice in that dissent.

Discipleship is lost. One can no longer, therefore, call oneself CATHOLIC.

Is this so hard to understand?

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 12/05/02 08:55:38 AM
Categorized as Religious.

Some People Just Can't Read What's In Front of Them

More reasons why there ain't no "comments" feature on The Blog.

Cardinal Ratzinger's indisputably correct observation has stirred up a hornet's nest in the comments box over at In Between Naps.

Some of the folks over there seem to think Ratzinger is blaming MM for the Catholic clerical abuse scandal. He does not say that. He does not come close to saying that. Here is what he said:

.... Q[uestion]: This past year has been difficult for Catholics, given the space dedicated by the media to scandals attributed to priests. There is talk of a campaign against the Church. What do you think?

Cardinal Ratzinger: In the Church, priests also are sinners. But I am personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a planned campaign, as the percentage of these offenses among priests is not higher than in other categories, and perhaps it is even lower.

In the United States, there is constant news on this topic, but less than 1% of priests are guilty of acts of this type. The constant presence of these news items does not correspond to the objectivity of the information nor to the statistical objectivity of the facts. Therefore, one comes to the conclusion that it is intentional, manipulated, that there is a desire to discredit the Church. It is a logical and well-founded conclusion....

"Priests also are sinners." Yep, that's a denial alright. Geesh.

Some folks are questioning the Cardinal's claim that Catholic clergy commit these kinds of offenses less often than other categories of people. There's plenty of evidence to confirm that view. A lot of it is related in Philip Jenkins' book Pedophiles and Priests, and I addressed it in Wolves in Shepherd's Clothing, in the first part of which I asked, and answered, the following question:

How long, for instance, will we have to wait until the Boston Globe, or the New York Times, or the Los Angeles Times, or the Washington Post does some intensive investigative reporting into Jenkins’ account of the Church Mutual Insurance Company having receiving seven hundred claims in cases of sexual abuse involving non-Catholic clergy in one ten-year span — half of them involving children? Until hell freezes over, that’s how long.

Now, having said all this, it must also be important to say why I'm saying it, since so many people seem to be incapable of making necessary distinctions. I'm not excusing anybody in this mess. Priests have done horrible things, and they ought to be punished severely. I'm not shifting the blame from anybody to anybody else. Bishops have done inexcusable things, they are not being held accountable, and not much is going to change until they are held accountable.

Nonetheless, MM has focused on sexual abuse committed by Catholic clergy to the virtual exclusion of that committed by anybody else, including Protestant clergy among whom the problem is at least as great and among whom the supposed "solutions" to the "Catholic problem" — married clergy and female clergy — have existed for decades, if not for centuries.

Yes, they have focused on the problem among Catholic clergy despite the evidence that says the problem is at least as large, if not larger, among Protestant clergy. Why? Because you can't trash the Catholic Church when you're investigating and reporting the sins of Protestant clergy, or UN workers, or "U.S. aviation-security personnel".

That is what Ratzinger was asked about; that is what he commented on; and he is indisputably correct.

P.S. Before you fly off the handle and write me to remind me that, without MM, the problem would not have come to light, take some time to read what I have already written about it, including this:

I cannot help but imagine the glee with which the editors of newspapers like the Boston Globe and the New York Times find another juicy tidbit of Catholic scandal to set before their readers. I cannot imagine that they are motivated by concern for victims or by a passion for justice: they are motivated, mostly, by a concern to sell papers, but also by a deep long-held animus against the Catholic Church. No matter. They do us a favor by exposing the misdeeds of priests and their superiors.

[Follow-up: Back to Ratzinger.]

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 12/05/02 07:55:13 AM
Categorized as Religious.