Hi Sisters & Brothers, I would just like to share my two cents regarding the
Catholic response to scandals within the Church.

1) How did we feel when we first heard about the sex scandal?
My immediate reaction was to pray for the sinners, the victims, and the
Church as a whole for *proper* response.

2) How did the scandals impact on our faith personally?
I got bad news for Satan. The scandals only strengthened my faith more.

That comment is not necessary. But I do believe that this is the time for people to
really stand together and face the problem rather than run away from it or to avoid it. You see this in the movies from
time to time. Trying to disassociate with the group doesn't mean you are safe; on the contrary, you will sure meet your
doom. As they say, there's safety in numbers.

3) What can the Church do now?
What it is already doing - prayerfully contemplate the issues and allow the
Holy Spirit to do His Work.

4) What could we do as faithfuls?
Pray. Forgive. Reflect on our own sins and try to improve. Stand up straight
and tall and continue to move on with even greater faith in the Promises of
Christ. And did I mention pray?

5) What do we say to those attacking the Church in casual conversations?
Depends... but please see 1Pt3:15 (16) for the fundamental proper manner of
dialog.

Somebody told a priest that he was embarrassed by the recent news. The
priest told him, "You should be embarassed for your own sins."
---------------------------

CONVERTING TO A PROTESTANT DENOMINATION?

This action shows the lack of two very important things:

1) faith.
You even lost your faith in Christ. He promised that He will be with us to
the end of time, and that the Holy Spirit will guide us. That is, the Church
will always be under divine guidance. Some members may have gone off track
but the Church still exists as the Mystical Body of Christ. She will
continue to exist for the purpose of promulgating the Faith and carrying out
Her Mission as Christ established Her for that reason in the first place.
Furthermore, the Church is the Bride that will be ready to meet her Groom
when He comes. Her members will continue to serve according to his/her own
particular vocation. If you expect that the clergy are to be perfect, then
you got the wrong idea in the first place. In fact, the Church was not
"perfect" in the sense of being without sin in the first place. I will quote
from another article: "When the hour for which the Word became flesh finally
arrived, Judas betrayed Him, Peter, James, and John went to sleep, the lot
of them ran away in terror, and Peter lied through his teeth to save his
skin. In other words, infidelity, sloth, cowardice, and mendacity were part
of the apostolic office from the very beginning. Should we be surprised,
therefore, to find these qualities among bishops of every time and place?"

Think back to the days just before the Reformation. There was so much abuse
amongst the clergy and even the upper levels of the hierarchy. I think
probably some people back then also thought things were hopeless for the
Church and decided to leave it. For a number of important reasons, including
abuse by the clergy, the Protestant Reformation was borne. People thought
they were doing the right thing by taking the initiative to start a reform.
But what actually happened as a result? As soon as they left the Body of
Christ, they discovered disagreements amongst themselves and this separation
never closed up even to this day as I speak! They just couldn't last
together... because they don't have the Grace necessary. But decades later,
the Church was getting on its feet again. Thanks to the co-operation of the
hierarchy in receiving the Graces of God which has always been standing by,
the Church stands up again and is strengthened once more.

If everybody loses faith, think about how worse the situation would be.

2) understanding of what is more important.
The Episcopalian denomination teaches doctrines contrary to the historical
Faith. You mean you rather join a Church that condones homosexuality and
abortion just because you had difficulty coming to terms with scandals that
happens everywhere else anyway? Sex scandals have occurred in Episcopalian
churches as well, so are you going to convert to another denomination? After
having hopped around from one denomination to another, you will stop to
think. What am I really looking for? What is actually the most important in
my mission and spiritual journey? Not being able to come to grips with
scandals in the Church is a problem of your own. But do not let that tempt
you to overlook and forsake what is even more important. I would even go as
far as saying that most converts were not even orthodox in their beliefs in
the first place. It would have been better to convert to the Eastern
Orthodox Church because at least they have preserved the ministerial
priesthood through the apostolic succession of bishops. This is not to be
underestimated. At least the Eucharist would have been valid fully and most
doctrines of the Faith are preserved. The Eucharist, as every orthodox
(small "o") Catholic should know, is the climax of the Mass. It is here that
we experience an encounter with Christ that is most complete and is
necessary. For more information on the status of the Eucharist in Episcopal
& Lutheran Churches, please see the following:
<http://www.cin.org/users/james/questions/q049.htm>. To put it more dryly,
leaving the Church only leads to spiritual suicide.

Priests are humans as well. Instead of criticizing them, we should admire
them for their courage and faith to take up celibate vows in the first
place. It already takes a tremendous amount of dedication to sacrifice
everything for the Church. If God told you to become a priest or nun, would
you hesitate?
---------------------------

RESTRUCTURING THE HIERARCHY?

For the past number of decades, there has been more and more emphasis on the
involvment of the laity in furthering the Mission of the Church. But this
should not advance the idea that lay people will "take over". All members of
the Body are given individual calling to fulfill their particular
contribution to the Mission. "In the Church, there is diversity of service
but unity of purpose." Furthermore, for the sake of unity, there should
always be cooperation between the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the laity for
any apostolate activities. In the present age, the hierarchy should not have
to "do everything themselves". Neither can the laity. There may be a new
distribution of duties but there is to be no physical restructuring of the
hierarchy. There doesn't and never does need to be. The hierarchy had
existed since the early Church. We know this from the Scriptures alone. Even
with distribution of duties amongst the members of the Body of Christ, care
must be exercised as not to end up doing something wasteful as a result of
making hasty conclusions. Councils comprised of ecclesiastical members, lay
members and competent individuals have been and will be established to do
some expert analysis.

This is a learning experience for the "hierarchy". Let's not pride ourselves
of believing that we know how to handle this situation better, because
that's not necessarily true. Yes, our scientists have more knowledge (of
what God already knows about) than those five centuries ago, but are we more
civilized than people back then? As our knowledge goes up, so does our
pride. But as our pride went up, our morals went down. So what makes people
think that they "know what to do"?

Go back to my: Catholic Views | Apologetics Page.

Last Updated: 5:13 PM 15/12/2002