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April 21, 2008
> 11:16 AM
pope > scandal > priesthood  "See ya later, byyye, byye" - Well, the Pope has left us. The big visit is over. Whheewww, I'z gettin' worried that he was 'gonna show up and start askin' me questions. I was spared! OK, I wasn't really worried about that, but it sounded funny anyway. I didn't wear myself watching every little bit of the coverage. I caught some here and there. Don't take that to mean anything except that I'm just not "star-struck" by His Holiness I guess. I do like this Pope. I've said that before, for the most part. I do believe he has surprised many people who thought he'd be a certain kind of Pope. I said this before - a gentle mystic at heart, I think so.I was duly impressed by his straight-on dealing with the sex-abuse scandal mess. Of course that doesn't quite finish the job, but he needed to do that, he knew that, and he did some important things. Meeting with victims was big I think. Again, lots more needs to happen, I'm not even sure what, but big things. And all that not just in the ranks of the hierarchy - if general population Catholics would just get how awful this was/is, that would be nice. There's still too much mental sweeping under the carpet. We don't want to get it, so we come up with ways to say that it wasn't as bad as the evil media makes it, etc., etc. Yeah, just stop, look at it square in the face, take upon your soul what some of these victims have gone through, be quiet and pray. I've heard wind of many people equating mandatory priestly celibacy with the cause for all that. If you know me, you know I'm not fan at all of the present discipline of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. I honestly think it's a bad thing for the Church in its present mandatory form. But I don't think you can pin this sex abuse business on that discipline. This is two different arenas. There are many very good reasons to lift that discipline tomorrow. I personally think the Holy Spirit is saddened by it. And again, should there be celibate clergy? Sure, but only for those to whom the celibacy charism is given, and guess what? that's doesn't equal all who are or who are called to be Priests. Enough of that. I think a deeper reason and at least partial "cause" that has lead us to this point over years and years and years is this: the development in the Catholic Church of a super-human, super-spiritual view of the Priesthood and Religious life, especially a Monastic vocation. There has been, and still is to a large extent, a view of that kind of vocational life as one that is on another level of existence. If one becomes a Priest or a Monk, one will be made so holy that pesky problems like, say a homosexual orientation or a a sexual attraction to children, will likely be melted away in the swirling mass of, well, whatever it is that one believes would sweep such a thing away and take care of such problems. Mind you, this is a very brief statement of a theory I have about this. It would be difficult to go into it fully here. And I'm not saying this is the sole reason for the problem. I'm saying I believe this kind of view has been a part of it. These men naively believe they will be "healed" and it doesn't happen and there you have a bigger problem. I really doubt many, if anyone, is trying to be sneaky and hide in the Priesthood in order to be a predator. Someone may have, I don't know, but I don't think that's enough people to talk about. I think there was/is a sincere, yet unfortunately mistaken, notion that their sickness will be "hidden," aka "swallowed up" in their vocation and they won't have to deal with it again - not so much. No one Sacrament is going to substitute for years of inner spiritual formation that must be done on many fronts and in many ways. It cannot, even Holy Orders, even the Eucharist alone. So, how we can foster a better, more human, less "super holy" view of these kinds of vocations (they're not the only vocations given by the Holy Spirit in the Church), I'm not sure. It'll take a lot, I'll tell you that, and probably a long time. I pray it happens though, in whatever varied ways it needs to happen. Just some thoughts on a Monday morning. Pax vobiscum. technorati tags > pope benedict xvi, catholic sex abuse scandal, catholic priesthood Labels: catholic, leadership, spiritual formation 0 Comments:| permalink | e-mail me | 
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