News from the Vatican and around the world has slowed the spin of the earth on its axis as it watches, transfixed, the mudpot-like roiling in Rome and sniffs the noxious sulfide fumes of logrithmically multiplying stories of pedophilic priests.
There seems to be a high level, world wide plague of opacity in the affairs of State and Church; an obvious absence of openness, honesty (an almost obsolete word) and clarity.
As I see it, the problem is multifaceted; 1) church and priest self protectionism, 2) denial by transference (priests transferred to another diocese ), and 3) church leaders more engaged in recussitating Latin liturgy than helping to heal its wounded, innocent children. While attempting to protect the reputation of the church and its clergy, the church ignorantly lit a fuse, decades in the burning, which when the bomb finally exploded, scattered debris in every land the church has trod.
There is a certain terrible irony, that during one of the most holy weeks of the church, The Holy See has gone to ground, cashing in his capital as an infallible Head of State.
As New York Times Op-Ed Columnist writer Maureen Dowd has pointedly pointed out (NYT 28 March 2010; "A Nope for Pope"), "Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger...ignored repeated warnings and looked away in the case of a...priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys. The church has been tone deaf and dumb on the scandal for so long that it's shocking, but not surprising, to learn from The Times's Laurie Goodstein that a group of deaf former students spent 30 years trying to get church leaders to pay attention." (Perhaps Ratzinger prefered reading Karl Rahner [German Catholic theologian and intellectual] instead of troubling memos about little boys.) Doud concludes; "If the church could throw open its stained glass windows and let in some air...banish criminal priests and end the sordid culture of men protecting men who attack children, it might survive. It could be an encouraging sign of humility and repentance, a surrender of arrogance, both moving and meaningful."
Here are two concluding questions; and they are not anti-Catholic: Who among us is exercising SCHADENFREUDE? (joy in others' tribulations) and which of us does not worship in a crystal cathedral (a glass house). Put down the rocks and pray for the souls of those violated and those whose robes are "filthy garments" [See Zechariah chapter 3 vv. 1-4].
There is a Christ and He was resurrected. Thank You Lord!. e.c.
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