I am agog at the ill-considered way the ex-clergyman retired judge Chris Geraghty has jumped on the present anti-papal bandwagon in the media with his piece in the Sydney Morning Herald of April 7, headlined
“Pope must grovel and beg for our forgiveness”.
Geraghty’s opinions are not untouched by his own longstanding disaffection and apparently unresolved issues with the Catholic hierarchy, but he should know perfectly well that this is not a “spiritual earthquake which promises to devastate” the Church, notwithstanding its gravity, and he should know perfectly well that the Church is not “the pope’s institution”, but Christ’s body.
That any priests have been represented in the ranks of paedophiles is an awful scandal. In that sense, such men are “stand-out performers” as Geraghty labels them, but not in any other way. Certainly the Church has to ask why some of its clergy have “descended into the sewer”, as must the whole of society ask why some lawyers, some policemen, some fathers, some teachers, some academics, some journalists have descended to the same level of filth - and be prepared to face the answers.
The Church has insisted that its priests and its leaders , and indeed all Christians live a chaste way of life. The Latin Church then selects her priests from among those who have been called by God to a celibate life. Sacrificing the particular comforts and challenges of a spouse and children, these priests are nonetheless part of their own family and part of the wider human community. They must surrender any aspiration to sexual intercourse. This is to be done freely and willingly, in imitation of Jesus himself, and is in perfect accordance with the prophetic nature of their calling, as recognized by the Church since apostolic times. It is a way of contextualising the beautiful flesh fashioned by God, which is destined for transfigured glory – a process which has, through baptism, already begun.
The Catholic Church selects its sacred ministers from among baptized men, in accordance with divine revelation, although it is obvious that ordinary people consider the Holy Spirit’s position on the ordination of women as silly.
For the most part the Catholic Church selects her priests from among those who discern they have been called by God to a celibate life and have tested this call. Exercising self-control, they are called upon to maintain perpetual continence, and to live fruitfully as chaste men. Like all Christian men, married or single, they strive daily to be faithful to their commitment, their responsibility, their love for God and his commandments. Daily, until death, they engage in this work, fulfilling their freely-made promises, struggling with their weakness but regularly overcoming temptations and, for many, growing in holiness in ways which surprise even themselves: such is the power of God’s grace.
Shamefully, a number of priests, failing to surrender fully to the invitation of Christ, have abused their position of trust and violated the little ones in their care.
I wonder if the offenders against divine and human law reflect upon the damage they have done to their victims, and what scandal they have caused. Of course, ordinary, honourable priests know that this is especially the time to humbly wear their clerical dress, not allowing the noisy sins of the few to overwhelm the constant witnessing to the Good News in season and out of season which the priest is called to give. While lamenting the sins of their brothers, the priests transform the barbs and slaps of the nasty anti-clerical jokes into opportunities for prayer and moments of communion with their Master who underwent death on the Cross to save – among other sinners - pedophiles.
I suppose any bitter ex-cleric could tell the pope to put the celebration of the sacraments “on hold” for a while, to deny the world the proclamation of the Gospel and the graces of the sacramental liturgy, to allow the sins of the members to overwhelm the transcendent holiness of the Body of Christ, and propose that that the pope should somehow, by some Pelagian effort, eradicate concupiscence from the souls of men. But it’s not that easy.
Our community has already witnessed expressions of genuine remorse and powerful acts of sorrow. Who knows what penances the pedophile cleric and his indulgent superiors have done in secret, in the presence of our Father, who sees all that is done in secret. Must those who have never sinned in the same way as the pedophile or the oath-breaker find comfort in the public humiliation of the very one who has the most burden of bringing healing to all? Are the virtues of faith, hope and love applicable in all situations but this? Should the grace-filled life of the Roman Church – the canonizations, the pilgrimages, the blessings, the papal Masses in St Peters - be withheld from the Christian faithful because of the unworthiness of the ordained and the desire in the hearts of some for vindication in the sight of men?
It is a scandal that priests have sinned. It is a scandal that some bishops have failed to act appropriately. Pope Benedict is not responsible for causing scandal. He is part of the solution, not the problem.
But what I’m looking for is not something from the pope.
What I need to see is heartache and sincerity, a genuine acceptance of evil done, of scandal spread, of pain and confusion and damage inflicted, demonstrated by those who have exploited the sex-abuse scandal for their own ends, and to undermine Christian faith and the Catholic Church, to attack the person and the office of the pope, to vindicate their own decisions, their own sins, their own infidelities, their own mistakes. I need to see that our society has even begun to deal honestly and openly with the dehumanizing influence of sexual promiscuity, of pornography, of contraception and the marginalization of religion and virtue. I need to see that our society has recognized the things that underlie problems like domestic violence, abortion, drug abuse, broken families, suicide - or even realized that these things have underlying treatable causes.
Among Catholics I expect to see a reluctance to judge, a love for the Church, and a willingness in all Catholics to lay open before Christ’s priests in the sacrament of penance the canker worm of their own sins.
"How disappointing!" says the confused Tony who, for an aCatholic, spends an awful lot of time here in The Cloister.
The logo for Domus Australia has been "meticulously designed to celebrate the close relationship between the Church in Australia and the Church in Rome as well as capturing the spiritual nature of pilgrimage.
So imagine our surprise when a pilgrim pointed out that this carefully crafted logo bore such a striking resemblence to that of The Catholic League of Australia... not to be confused with The Catholic League of America although we understand they admire their work!
“There are cases of sexual abuse that come to light every day against a large number of members of the Catholic clergy. Unfortunately it’s not a matter of individual cases, but a collective moral crisis that perhaps the cultural history of humanity has never before known with such a frightening and disconcerting dimension. Numerous priests and religious have confessed. There’s no doubt that the thousands of cases which have come to the attention of the justice system represent only a small fraction of the true total, given that many molesters have been covered and hidden by the hierarchy.”
A pilgrim wishing to remain very anonymous popped by this morning to alert us to the fact that Youth off the Streets was doing some heavy advertising on TV last night.
Yes, we in The Cloister do think that the Australian-Born Geoffry Robinson is mad, in the more diabolical sense of the word.
The ceremonies were, by all accounts, absolutely brilliant and we commend the parish for their efforts and congratulate all involved.
The photographer either had the wrong setting or he decided in his enthusiastic piety that colour photographs were not appropriate on Good Friday. They can all be seen here in good ol' black and white.
Perhaps they were trying to be catchy, but I doubt that they will find a group of nuns singing plainchant dressed up or acting like the blessed sisters pictured, nor does this clostered one think those pictured are singing plainchant.
So, Eminence, you're The Cloister's second ever recipient of the Botafumiero Award for the Smoking out of Bias Journalists.I also have grave reservations about the proliferation of "Communion services", in
which Communion is given to the faithful during a Liturgy of the Word or even Liturgy of the Hours whenever Mass cannot be celebrated.
Geraghty’s opinions are not untouched by his own longstanding disaffection and apparently unresolved issues with the Catholic hierarchy, but he should know perfectly well that this is not a “spiritual earthquake which promises to devastate” the Church, notwithstanding its gravity, and he should know perfectly well that the Church is not “the pope’s institution”, but Christ’s body.
The Archbeard, we suspect, has many a sip of tea with old ladies, who make up most of his congregations. Is seems he must use a black kettle for these tea-parties, as he has been calling the pot black of late.
Hundreds flocked to the Sydney Opera House before sunrise for the Wesley Mission's Uniting Church service that started at 6am.
Here in the Cloister we have always been very obvious in our disdain for the Fairfax press and their insatiable desire to promote the left and deride the Church and all that is true and good in her.
er, Greg Sheridan, et. al. seems to enable it to have a reasonable content and across the board its journalistic standards make Fairfax media look like a (whining, atheistic, secularist and socialist) 15 year old's Myspace page. For instance its vanguard reporting on the problems with the climate change zeitgeist has really made it stand out as a publication worth digesting.
However on the current media onslaught at Pope Benedict, The Australian had proved to be a dismal alternative to the left commentariate, much like Malcom Turnbull was to the Rudd government. It's decision to have Cardinal Pell write a piece was laudable but also an attempt to look unbiased while 'outsourcing' opinion. In reality is seems it has drunk the New York Times cool-ade and continues to (re)publish bad journalism and promote the hateful fantasies of the left.
