A scandal in the Church (Palm Sunday-3/24/2002-A)

Many people who have long disliked the Church because of one or other of her moral or doctrinal teachings are using the scandal of today as an issue to attack the Church as a whole, trying to imply that they were right all along.    Many people have refrained to talk to me out of respect, not wanting to bring up what they thought might be bad news, but it was rather obvious that it was on their mind. And so today I would like to tackle the issue head-on. You have a right to it. We cannot pretend that it did not exist. 

We priests at Saint Augustine's ( I am speaking also on behalf of Father Dunn) are simply outraged for the abuse committed by some of our colleagues. Their conduct is to be reprimanded and condemned in the strongest terms.

It had happened before!  When He chose his first disciples, Jesus went up the mountain all night to pray. He had at the time many followers and yet he chose those twelve. He talked to his Father in prayer about whom he would choose to be His Twelve.

He had given them power to cast out demons. He had given them power to cure the sick. They had watched him work countless miracles. They themselves in his name had worked countless prodigies. 

Yet, despite all of that, one of them was a traitor, another one denied him three times, the others abandoned him. They had followed the Lord, they had had their feet washed by the Lord, they had seen him walk on water, raise people from the dead, forgive sinners…and yet, they betrayed, denied, abandoned Him!  The others repented; Judas did not. The Gospel tells us that Judas allowed Satan to enter into him and then he sold the Lord for 30 pieces of silver, handing him over by faking a gesture of love. "Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?".

Jesus did not choose Judas to betray him. He chose him to be like all the others. But Judas was always free, and he used his freedom to allow Satan to enter into him and he ended up betraying God and getting him crucified and executed.

So, out of the first Twelve that Jesus himself chose, one was a terrible traitor. Sometimes, God's chosen ones betray him. That's a fact that we have to confront. It's a fact that the early church confronted. If the scandal caused by Judas were all that the members of the early church focused on, t church would have been finished before it even started to grow.

Instead, the early Church recognized that you do not judge something by those who do not live it, but by those who do live it. Instead of focusing on the one who betrayed, they focused on the other Eleven, on account of whose work, preaching, miracles, love for Christ, we are here today…

The ratio is much less than one to one hundred. It would be nice if - once in a while - the media would give first page coverage to the good "Eleven", the ones whom Jesus has chosen and who remain faithful, those who live lives of quiet holiness. 

Scandal is unfortunately nothing new for the Church. . There have been many times in the history of the church when the church was much worse off than it is now. The history of the Church is like a cosine curve with ups and downs throughout the centuries. It is interesting however to note that at each of the times when the Church hit its low point, God raised up tremendous saints to bring the Church back to its real mission.

We should never forget that no matter how sinful a priest is, Christ himself acts through that unworthy minister in the sacraments.

Whether Pope John Paul II celebrates the Mass or whether a priest on death row for having perpetrated a crime celebrates Mass, it is Christ who Himself acts and gives us His own body and blood.

And so I ask: "What should the response of the Church be to these abominable deeds?". Does the Church have to do a better job in making sure no one with any predisposition towards pedophilia gets ordained? Absolutely. But that would not be enough.

Does the Church have to do a better job in handling cases when they are reported?  Today such cases are handled much better by the Church than they were in the 1980s, but they can always be perfected. But even that is not enough.

Do we have to do more to support the victims of such abuse? Yes, we do, both out of justice and out of love! But not even that is adequate.

The only adequate response to this terrible scandal is Holiness! ( with a capital H).

            Every crisis that the Church faces, every crisis that the world faces is a crisis of saints. Holiness is crucial because it is the real face of the Church.

There are always people who use excuses for their lack of practice of the faith.  It can be perhaps because a nun was mean to them when they were 9. Or because they don't understand or accept the teaching of the Church on a particular issue…(abortion, contraception, etc.).

There will be many people these days who will say "Why should I practice the faith, why should I go to Church, when  God's so called chosen ones can do the type of things we've been reading about?". With this, they believe they justify their not practicing the faith. Nothing can be farthest from the truth. When we will be called to face the Eternal Judge, He is not going to ask us about the failings of others, rather He will ask us to respond about our own shortcomings. That's why individual as well as church holiness is so important. The Beatitudes are a recipe for holiness. We all need to live them now more fully than ever.

And here comes the question:            Do priests have to become holier? They sure do. Do religious brothers and sisters have to become holier? Absolutely. But, by the same talking, all people in the Church should become holier, including lay people. 

This crisis is a wake-up call for all!

It's a tough time to be a priest today. It's a tough time to be a Catholic today. But it's also a great time to be a priest and a great time to be a Catholic. "Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of slander against you FALSELY because of me. Be glad and rejoice, for your reward in heaven is great".

In olden times in America the Church was respected. Priests were respected. It is not so anymore.

One of the greatest Catholic preachers in American history, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, a man I loved and worked with for several years, used to say that he preferred to live in times when the Church had suffered rather than thrived, when the Church had to struggle, when the Church had to go against the culture of the time. It was a time for real men and women to stand up and be counted.  He would frequently repeat: "Even dead bodies can float downstream, but it takes a real man, a real woman to swim against the current".

This is one of those times. It's a great time to be a Christian.  Jesus is with us, as he promised, until the end of time. He is still in the bark of Peter and will prevent its capsizing.

Just as out of Judas' betrayal He achieved the greatest victory in world history, our salvation through his passion, death and resurrection, so out of this, he may bring a new rebirth of holiness, a new Acts of the Apostles for the 21^st century, with each of us - and that includes you and me - playing a starring role.

This is the time for real men and women of the Church to stand up. This is a time for holiness. This is a time to be saints. How do we respond?