I’m angry. I’m irate. I’m resentful. Let me explain.
The Catholic Church is the object of unusual attacks these days. The sexual abuse cases against priests — the most scandalous event in the history of the Catholic Church in our country — continue to occupy the attention of the media, especially the New York Times, and these cases are continued fodder for hate-mongering and anti-Catholic bias.
And now scandals are appearing in Europe and being exploited there also. I intensely dislike this. It is an attempt to smear with a wide brush the Catholic Church and the pope and all priests. Journalists certainly have the right to engage in investigative journalism — but not to use the information as part of a vilification and smear campaign.
But let me be clear. I dislike even more the immoral and criminal actions of the priests who engaged in sexual abuse (or in cover-ups).
Priests are ordained to be spiritual leaders not abusers. And there is no way that such sinful conduct can be condoned or justified. It is reprehensible; it is sinful; it is criminal. I pray for God’s mercy for those who engaged in abuse. And I pray for their victims.
But I am angry and I am ashamed. And many Catholics feel the same. I hear people saying that they are going to leave the church. But I will not allow my emotional reactions to cause me to lose my faith in the church as the Body of Christ and the means by which God wishes me to gain heaven. One of the worst aspects of the scandals is the confusion and doubt which they generate in the hearts of believers. So, it is the time to recall realities and truths contained in the Gospel message and to continue to base our conduct upon those truths, not upon our resentments.
Our Lord said that he would be with the church until the end of time. He guaranteed that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church. (Attacks will always come but the church will never disappear nor cease to be the way, the truth and the life for people.) Jesus warned us of evil times that might come — when enemies would hate us — but he also added that God is always with those who trust in him.
I remember one of the fathers of the early church saying: He who does not have the church as mother will not have God as father. The church as the Body of Christ is our home. Members of the church may fail us and they do at times. But that does not take away the promises made by the Lord. And it is upon those promises we must place our trust. It is through the church that we continue to receive the grace of God. It is through the church that Jesus comes and remains with us.
Only in the Catholic Church — this is the teaching of Vatican II — is the fullness of truth. We should not let the attacks against the church and the confusions caused by priests who were unfaithful to blind us to that reality.
History is a reminder that, unfortunately, there were other problem periods in church history. In the early church, millions of Catholics accepted Arianism, the teaching of a priest who said Jesus was not quite God. St. Jerome expressed in this way the rapidity with which the false teaching spread: One night the church went to bed Catholic and woke up Arian. But those who were wise retained the faith in Jesus’ divinity and Arianism was overcome.
There were times in the so-called Dark Ages when immorality was rampant in church members and when lay rulers controlled the papacy. But these people did not win out. The Protestant Reformation shook the church, but the church survived and spread.
I am not going to allow neither the New York Times nor German newspapers nor the bad example of abusers to undermine my Catholic faith. Never.
Father John A. Leies, SM, STD, is president emeritus of St. Mary’s University and was formerly head of the Theology Department there.