… Is, In Short, A F#@&*$%! Mess!
“The floor of Hell is paved with the skulls of bishops.”
— Saint Athanasius, Council of Nicaea. 325 A.D. – Attributed
MercatorNet has a succinct summary of the Cardinal whose sins have loosed this latest scandal on Holy Mother Church.
One might think that such a scandal would dampen my faith and/or love of the Catholic Church, but they would be wrong. It would only be disheartening if I looked to the Church hierarchy for leadership. But I don’t. In fact, even as I was entering the Church in 2013, I knew that real men were few and far between in the hierarchy. I had the very real impression during my RCIA days that I was entering the ruins of the Church as it was described in the apologetics, histories and catechisms I had voraciously been reading through. It was obvious to me that the wreckage around me was the result of an epic failure of leadership. And so I don’t look to the hierarchy for leadership. I welcome the scandal, believing as Pope Saint Gregory the Great did, “It is better that scandals arise than truth be suppressed.”
I pray these dark and disturbing truths set us free from our present, feckless and faithless leadership. I pray this scandal topples every sodomite and their every enabler from whatever office they hold. I pray the whole United States Conference of Catholic Bishops finds the humility to offer up their resignations en masse as did their equally spineless brethren in Chile.
And I pray for their souls!