Weeds among the Wheat

I grew up in the Catholic Church when Father Knows Best and Ozzie and Harriet were the social norms. When Lassie was a superhero and Leave it to Beaver morals taught valuable lessons through the TV. It was a time when Sherriff Andy Taylor could disarm a con man or an occasional bad guy without the use of deadly force. It was also a time when Catholic priests were held in high esteem by their congregations, and when American Catholics actually revered the Pope and followed his encyclicals.

---

But the "yeast" in the church has grown more ominous. With the liberalization that came out of Vatican II, the seminaries that became infested with skeptics, pedophiles, and homosexuals, and the disenchantment of a whole generation raised on free sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll, Americans were on a collision course with what would become the post-modern world. So many things contributed to the quickening of the decay here and abroad, that to chronicle all of it would take volumes. Suffice it to say that many who lived through the societal changes and have seen the moral compass spin out of control, cannot point to a specific point in our history that hastened our decline. Some would say that with the 1973 Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade, we lost our hold on what was once the sanctity of life. Others blame the Beatles or Elvis. But no one event or trend can be solely to blame. No, when evil works hard it often comes not in Tsunami waves but in a slow rising tide of decadence and sinfulness. Such is what happened in the Catholic Church. Today's headlines scream of sexual abuse and pedophilia rampant within the priesthood. Pope Benedict himself is under intense scrutiny for allegedly overlooking known cases of abuse as thousands now come forward from all coroners of Europe to claim that they were victims of predatory priests. Somewhere Satan in smiling. The gates of hell have flexed their muscles and taken the image of Catholicism down a few notches. A recent story ( from the Times of the UK) quoted the Vatican's chief exorcist,Father Gabriele Amorth as saying that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican as well as "cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon". Sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church are proof that that "the Devil is at work inside the Vatican" Protestant denominations have dealt with their share of controversy and disruption. From such self anointed "saviors" as Jim Jones and David Koresh to an array of fallen TV evangelists, people have come to view the "church" with increasing distrust. Indeed the church of Jesus Christ is perhaps more compartmentalized, more distracted, and more under attack than at any time in its history. Over 3,000 cases of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse across several European countries has been acknowledged by the Catholic Church. But thousands more including some 15,000 complaints in Ireland alone have set the stage for a devastating showdown with the Vatican. Add to this a cover up that could reach the Papacy itself. When Pope Benedict was the Archbishop (Josef Ratzinger) of Munich, did he knowingly move pedophiles to new locations after complaints were lodged? A close friend of mine, Bishop John D'Arcy (formerly of the Ft. Wayne diocese) appears to have been farmed out of the Boston diocese and into the cornfields of Indiana because of his refusal to turn a blind eye to homosexual and predatory incidents within the church. The Catholic Church has already been severely damaged in both image and in financial holdings. But it is nothing compared to the countless victims who have suffered a crisis of trust and confidence in the church and from the horrors of abuse. There will indeed be very public lawsuits that bring those hidden sins of the church to light. It will be ugly. But perhaps in the long run the Catholic Church will be purged of the cancer it so long has neglected to treat. Apologies won't mean a thing. Huge financial restitution won't matter. Until the church of Jesus Christ under any denomination gets back to the essence of what Christianity is truly about-- the gospel and the two greatest commandments: "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."