The Church has been a special challenge to us all, especially me. The priest sex cases are a terrible stumbling block for millions. And I struggled to find a parish which would sponsor -- give us a meeting room for -- un-programmed Bible study. If no priest or deacon is avaible to mentor the Bible study in a hands-on way, all the Church will tolerate anymore is watching television -- watching Bible study experts giving recorded speeches.
Respecting the priest sex cases, Father Judge High School -- my high school -- in the early 1970s was one of the first cases to hit the headlines with news of cases involving sexual abuses in our era. The football coach, Mr. Degnan, and a priest named Fr. Robert Hermley were arrested for sharing male students between themselves. I at first had trouble believing Philadelphia Bulletin and Inquirer descriptions of case after case in the Phildelphia area, but I finally became a "believer," when it dawned on me that no one is going to falsely volunteer that he dropped his pants and bent over for a priest, in the hope of winning money in a lawsuit. Such a life-changing admission just isn't worth it.
I've tried to talk to priests about the whole phenomenon, but there seems to be a general policy of silence on the subject in place, consistent with diocesan offices' dishonest denials and settlement payments in return for silence -- an overall policy of endless stonewalling with explosive, highly destructive results.
Damage to the Church from the phenomenon seems massive. I have been looked-at like I am crazy when I tell people, "I am Catholic."
During this time, I fell in love with the Bible and with Bible study. I ran Bible study for about 15 years at St. Gregory's Church in Magnolia. The pastor tried to derail our group a few times, but failed. (There were about 30 of us in the group, too many to disrupt easily.) Finally, he simply banned us from the church premises just before a new pastor took over, as though sorely embarrassed at our utterly orthodox program. (The pastor used to sit in on the sessions, waiting for doctrinal errors to crop up. Once, when I said that Mary "died" before her assumption, he thought he had me and he stood and accused me of "heresy" in public, to the Bible study group. I privately read to the pastor the verses from the assumption encyclical verifying that Pope Pius XII affirmatively taught that Mary "died," using that word in the official Vatican translation, and he privately acknowledged his error.) For several years I searched for a parish interested in Bible study, without success. Lying was the chief tool used to put me off while I paid my parish envelope -- "Pete, I'll meet with you next week ..." "Pete, I have to break my appointment ..." One pastor broke his appointment about 18 times.
So, why do I call myself "Catholic"?
Well, first, Christ foreshadowed a few times that the Church would generate evil. He said to Peter, 5 minutes after appointing him head of the Church ("You are Peter and upon this rock etc."), "GET BEHIND ME, YOU SATAN!" When Peter tried to walk on water he succeeded for a few seconds and then sank in. Sinking into water is a typological symbol of being sinful. (Remember the story of demonically possessed pigs drowning themselves.) And then Peter denies Christ 3 times shortly AFTER a clear warning to him that he would.
Also, in 2 Thessalonians 2 Paul warns of "the apostasy" to precede the end of time. Since Paul was surrounded by "apostasies" at the time, Bible commentators assume that Paul is referring to something enormous. In our current day and age, vocations have plummeted. Millions whose faith has been made cold by the media generally and the sex cases in particular are leaving the Church annually. Catholic schools -- the Church's biggest evangelizing tool -- and churches are shutting down everywhere. I believe that we are experiencing "the apostasy" -- what our Fundamentalist brethren refer to as "the great falling away" -- right now, as I write this.
Nonetheless, Christ's purpose, in giving us an imperfect Church, and in predicting its sins and through Paul its eclipse, was to prepare us for the future, not to de-commission the Church. It has to do with the nature of the sacraments. The sacraments can operate despite the imperfections of the Church, even in the process of collapse, despite our era's ignorant, mean-spirited priests. The sacraments are a generous gift, by God, of shortcuts to salvation, administered by His officially commissioned organization, the Church -- as easy as it can get. I have no interest in leaving the "salvation machine" established by Christ.
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