Catholics can choose: to remain or to leave

Many Catholics are hurting with the many sex scandals that have been happening in the Church. I’m no exception and I’ve been asking: Why? How could they? What’s wrong with these people? It’s never acceptable and there are no excuses for this behavior whatsoever. I can’t imagine what I would do to them if I’m in the judgment seat. But I’m not and it’s only God who can and will.

When I left my favorite sweater in one of our Church’s functions, I expected that someone will try to find me as the owner or at least leave it in the rectory. But no, someone got interested and kept it. That hurt me because I expected all Catholics to know right from wrong. But I’ve also forgotten that we are all humans and we are susceptible to errors. Although God challenges us to be perfect as He is perfect, He knows it’s going to be a process. But for the sex abuse victims, the pains must be unimaginable.

In the midst of these scandals that are going on in the church, here are excerpts from two heart-warming posts about one who will remain a Catholic and the other who have left.

Elizabeth Scalia writes:

The darkness within my church is real, and it has too often gone unaddressed. The light within my church is also real, and has too often gone unappreciated. A small minority has sinned, gravely, against too many. Another minority has assisted or saved the lives of millions.

But then, my country is the most generous and compassionate nation on Earth; it is also the only country that has ever deployed nuclear weapons of mass destruction.

My government is founded upon a singular appreciation of personal liberty; some of those founders owned slaves.

My family was known for its neighborliness and its work ethic; its patriarch was a serial child molester.

The child molester was also a brilliant, generous, talented man -- the only person who ever read me a bedtime story. I will love him forever, for that, even when I wake up gasping and afraid.

I am a woman with very generous instincts, and I try to love everyone, but I am capable of corrosive scorn. Have I been much sinned against? Yes. So have you. Have I sinned against others? Oh, yes. So have you.

Like a pebble cast into a pond, our every action ripples out toward the edges, reaching farther than we intended, touching what we do not even know, for good and for ill. It all either means nothing, or it means everything.

As a Catholic, I believe it means everything. [via Deacon Greg]

And from Julianna Baggott:

I am deeply Catholic and always will be, but I'm no longer a member of the church. I left in 2003 because of the sex abuse scandal.
One day at Mass, I couldn't put money into the offertory basket. Was I paying for lawyers of pedophiles? I wanted to protest, but that's easy. It's called being Protestant. I thought of it as a boycott.
But leaving was agonizing. The church made me who I am. I was taught by kind, feminist nuns; shaped as a writer by the beautiful and grotesque Catholic imagination in the long literary tradition of Catholic writers; guided by the power of prayer, a devotion to Mary and in love with the idea of the great big Catholic family.
And I knew that without the Catholic Church, my mother wouldn't have survived her childhood. The church saved her.
Seven years after I left the church, I can't tell my mother that leaving feels fine. I've lost something elemental.
What does it mean to be Catholic and not a Catholic? I feel adrift, homeless. My Catholic imagination allows me to see the soul as a lit breath, seeking the divine. It persists.
And, in the end, I remind my mother, it isn't the church that calls us home.
Our hearts are broken, but our souls aren't.

But for me, I won’t leave my church just because of some Judases. I would probably just join another Catholic church if the situation becomes too unbearable because I love the Catholic Church. I love it because I truly believe, trust, and adore its founder, Jesus Christ, without a trace of doubt. Jesus is my only reason I'm a Catholic and my loyalty is with Him. Will all these scandals around us, I know that He will do what is necessary, in His ways and in His time – and this is my consolation.

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Archbishop Donald Wuerl prays with Child abuse protesters

WASHINGTON - Archbishop Donald Wuerl took the unusual step of praying with protesters calling attention to the sex abuse scandal.

Wuerl has not been shy about discussing sex abuse in the Catholic Church. He has mentioned it several times since taking over the Archdiocese of Washington four years ago.

Just before leading Good Friday services at the Cathedral of St. Matthews on Friday, the Archbishop walked across the street where he joined a number of protesters in the stations of the cross.

The people protesting sex abuse in the Catholic Church were about halfway through the stations of the cross when Archbishop Wuerl crossed the street to join them.

Arriving just in time to hear the story of David Lorenz.

“It took me until I was 33 years old before I could tell anyone. I wanted to. I didn't know how. How do I tell you that I was abused?” said Lorenz.

Through the 14 stations or the last hours of Jesus before his crucifixion, the protest followed a theme. Asking for justice, praying for victims too ashamed to come forward.

As the stations came to a close, Archbishop Wuerl sought out David Lorenz, telling him that “I came just to show some solidarity.”

Sex abuse in the Catholic Church is again making headlines with allegations as a Cardinal, Pope Benedict XVI helped cover up abuse by pedophile priests.

“One of the things we have tried to do throughout this entire tragedy of abuse going all the way back to when we first became aware of it was to support victims, reach out and to heal victims. But also to see that any priest who did abuse someone was not in ministry and we continue to do that.”

Archbishop Wuerl went on to say the strength of the church is in its prayer and the church continues to pray for healing and reconciliation.

By PAUL WAGNER/myfoxdc

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People's birthday message to President Gloria Arroyo - Goodbye!

The country have sufferred enough under the  leadership of President Gloria Arroyo, but for her it's never enough because she will do whatever it takes to stay in power. But people, especially a large group of militants cries "enough is enough" and they plan to express this loudly on her coming birthday.

When President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo turns 63 next Monday, her last birthday as Malacanang's main tenant, militant groups in Metro Manila will bang on pots and pans and honk their car horns to bid her goodbye.

Militant groups Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) and Anakpawis have said they are planning a noise barrage around Metro Manila to mark Mrs. Arroyo’s birthday.

“Sa Abril 5, birthday ni Gloria, Babay Day ng masa para sa kanya. Sa pamamagitan ng ingay, sabihin natin kay Gloria: Ba-bye (On April 5, Gloria’s birthday, we will bid her goodbye)!" KMU vice president for women Nenita Gonzaga said in an article on the KMU website.

Gonzaga said the noise barrage, meant to prompt Mrs. Arroyo into stepping down from office on June 30, will be from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday.

“Hindi maligayang bati ang iparirinig ng mga mamamayan, kundi daing at galit. Hindi papuri, kundi paghiling ng pag-alis. Sa kahit anong paraan, iparinig natin ang ating mensahe sa Malakanyang: Huling birthday mo na dyan Gloria sa kaitaasan!" Gonzaga said.

(We will not wish her Happy Birthday, but we will air our grievances and rage; not praises but a call for her to step down on June 30. This should be her last birthday as president!)

The KMU said the noise barrages will be synchronized in Novaliches Bayan, Litex, Commonwealth-Luzon Avenue area, Kalentong in Mandaluyong, Marikina Sports Complex and Trabajo Market and Plaza Hernandez in Manila.

On the other hand, the KMU plans to bring a gift to Mrs. Arroyo from Trabajo Market to the Palace.

“Siguradong no-proclamation ang birthday wish ni Gng. Arroyo. Ang wish ng masa sa birthday niya, no more! Tama na ang mga pakana! Harapin mo ang mga kaso at parusa!" Gonzaga said.

(If Mrs. Arroyo’s birthday wish is a no-proclamation scenario, our wish is no more! Enough of her attempts to stay in power. She should face the charges against her and be punished accordingly.) — with a report by Nikka Corsino/LGB/RSJ, GMANews.TV

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A non-Catholic's reminder to all Catholics

Jewish Sam Miller on Catholics

Excerpts of an article written by non-Catholic Sam Miller - a prominent Cleveland Jewish businessman:

"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?

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 you 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.

Be proud that you're a Catholic."

Source: Via email.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY - by Peggy Noonan

There are three great groups of victims in this story. The first and most obvious, the children who were abused, who trusted, were preyed upon and bear the burden through life. The second group is the good priests and good nuns, the great leaders of the church in the day to day, who save the poor, teach the immigrant, and, literally, save lives. They have been stigmatized when they deserve to be lionized. And the third group is the Catholics in the pews—the heroic Catholics of America and now Europe, the hardy souls who in spite of what has been done to their church are still there, still making parish life possible, who hold high the flag, their faith unshaken. No one thanks those Catholics, sees their heroism, respects their patience and fidelity. The world thinks they're stupid. They are not stupid, and with their prayers they keep the world going, and the old church too.
-- Peggy Noonan, April 1, 2010
Via Deacon Bench

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A Protestant leader remembers the best of the Catholic Church

The New York Times have recently hit the Catholic Pope very harshly and they seem to be proud and happy about it - perhaps because these people are "perfect people". They acted more like they are in a competition with the Church and they perhaps feel they've just won. I don't remember them being this harsh to other groups whose scandals are even worst. [Read here] You would think that they are out there not out of compassion for the victims but for the high ratings. I’m very mad at any priests who are proven to be abusers but I also feel bad for the innocent members of the Church for the pains these scandals have brought them. The same was expressed by a Protestant leader who remembers the best of the Catholic Church.

As a Protestant, and as the President of a seminary known for its commitment to progressive theology, my reaction is deeply divided about the sexual abuse crisis that is currently shaking the Roman Catholic Church in Europe and the United States. Watching the disturbing details of cover-ups by clergy -- even those at the highest levels -- unfold during Holy Week, of all times, I can't decide whether to cry out in despair or be ever-so-slightly optimistic that real changes may result from this tragedy. Most days, I feel both.

Tears come easily when I think of the abuse and the horrifying realization that some within the church clearly believe that protecting priests is more important than safeguarding children. When I think of Jesus suffering during Holy Week, it is the broken bodies of children, betrayed by their own religious leaders, that come to mind. They bear the crosses of the church's abuses of power.

That said, I also weep because this latest sex scandal adds to our distrust of religious leadership in general and keeps us from remembering all the good work the Roman Catholic church does for the poor, hungry, and homeless, and has done for many decades. I am personally indebted to countless nuns and priests I've encountered over the years, who patiently taught me what it means to "stand with the least of these." In the twentieth century, especially, it was Roman Catholics rather than liberal, so-called "Main Line" Protestants who more often found spiritual grounds for social justice.

I think of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement that began during the depths of the Great Depression, and which continues today to give care and comfort to the forsaken. I think of Thomas Merton and his outspoken protest of the Vietnam War. I think of the Catholic bishops who stood side by side with César Chávez in his fight for justice among the farm workers of California's Central Valley. I think of Archbishop Óscar Romero and the struggles of San Salvador. And I think of blighted neighborhoods across America where all-but-ignored nuns, priests, and committed laypeople offer hope to the nearly hopeless through soup kitchens, schools, and community centers. For them, and for energetic Catholic women I work with and teach -- so unjustly banned from a priesthood that sorely needs them -- the importance of justice-making always exceeds the importance of collars and confessions.

Tragedies come and go; issues like labor and immigration burn bright in the public consciousness for a time and then are forgotten. Long after the rest of the world has moved on, however, often enough the Catholic Church alone continues to affirm economic justice, offer a moral critique of capitalism, and, most importantly, insist that a radical love of the powerless and marginalized is the truest form of faith.

All this makes these latest reports of priests molesting children -- and getting away with it -- that much more upsetting. Will the faithful work done by so many Catholics be overshadowed by a church hierarchy that goes on the defensive when questioned about cover-ups and complicity? I pray this will not be the case. I also pray that the church might change for the better as a result of these terrible discoveries. And I pray, too, for the deep, ongoing grief -- indeed, belly-wrenching lamentation -- suffered by so many everyday Catholics who feel betrayed by their own leadership.

Yes, I am shocked, angered, and saddened by these latest allegations. But I'm also slightly relieved to think that we may finally have come to the end of the line. How much higher up can a scandal go, after all, than implicating those standing at the very top? And, I breathe a bit easier in anticipation that a chastening bright light may be about to shine into previously impenetrable realms of the Roman Catholic hierarchy.

As a Protestant, I refuse to throw self-righteous stones against Catholics. Disregard for public accountability is dangerous, in any form. It is not only in politics that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. No church is immune. No person is.

The Catholicism I cherish -- and the Catholicism that the world so desperately needs -- is one that models an unguarded honesty about human failing, a gentleness of spirit that welcomes criticism, and a determination to hold all people, no matter their station, accountable for their actions.

This is the lesson of Holy Week, and it is one that Christians all -- bishops, popes, and pew-sitters alike -- would do well to consider carefully in the days ahead.

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Lead us, Lord

Lead us, Lord, to what is acceptable and pleasing in your eyes so that we will not fall into the trap of temptations. Renew our minds and soften my hearts and help us to realize that we cannot always have things our way but must seek your way instead for your way will surely lead us to our salvation. - Twosome Forever

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