I Worry for the Catholic Church

The New York Times would be enough to give many of my forebears a stroke, and its credibility would at the very least be questioned. I'm a devotee, and have been since college. Living in Boston in the 70s it was a big deal for me on Fridays to walk to a pharmacy a mile away from my student digs to by the newspaper of record...for 25cents. Said pharmacy was the only store around carrying the Times and you'd better get there wicked early.

Today's paper had two mentions of the Catholic Church that got me thinking. The first tells us that Pope Francis now actively discourages clergy from driving flashy cars, using smartphones and being chained to today's expensive electronic paraphernalia. The second is Frank Bruni's column expanding on the news of Cardinal Dolan's (Archbishop of New York)  correspondence recommending hiding assets from creditors, specifically those winning lawsuits against the church.

It's a mess, isn't it? The 21st century Catholic church seems to have self -destructed. The sins of the fathers-literally-were rampant for decades,  perhaps longer. I believe its only that prosecution and lawsuits are now insisted upon the the Church remains in business. They are too busy in court and too committed against their will to litigation to shut the whole place down.

(And if you think I'm anti-Catholic, think again. I'm pro-choice, pro-children, anti-abuse and pro respecting everybody.)

Why would a church dating itself back two thousand years (chump change to many other faiths) self-destruct. People not raised Catholic would have a devil of a time understanding this. (Sorry)
Here's some context.

I'm 56 years old, just old enough to remember pre Vatican II Catholicism. Pope John XXIII desired reforms in the early 1960s to bring the church closer to the laity. Mass in the vernacular and a relaxation of rules (meatless Fridays.) Sisters left schools and nursing for more active social work. No more habits. Priests had more opportunities for education. What did not change was the status given to the clergy by the faithful. I was raised to stand up whenever a priest entered the room. My mother's cousin was a Dominican and even after she left the Church it was all I could do to call her Helen instead of Sister.

This 'regalization' of the clergy I believe has to do with the immigrants who came here with nothing and made lives for themselves. To see a young Catholic man or woman in a habit elevated them and their communities. It was a mark of a better life. It seems also to have robbed the process of true discernment. Vocations were all about quantity. IT wasn't done to closely ask young people why they wanted to be priests or nuns.  In fact, you didn't ever ask questions. Being too bright marked you as an intellectual and a probable troublemaker. It was fine to be adept at Latin and be a good scholar, but you were trained to follow orders blindly and do everything to grow the church and the collection plate.

Were there good clergy? You bet. Thousands of them. Schools and hospitals served many a neighborhood in good times and bad. The educational requirements were rigorous and rote but you by God could diagram a sentence and work through a math problem . Vatican II began a shift in the Church because for the first time questions were tolerated and encouraged. I was in college when I told a classmate-a middle aged nun-that I still thought it sinful to touch the host. She said, "You put it in your mouth don't you?" Bingo. I was plastered into the dogma very, very young and not able to use my common sense. I believe, I hope, I am the last generation to be so chained.

I love the liturgy. I love the mass. I even accept the Virgin birth, or at least haven't the nerve for rockery. What I abhor is the backlash against Vatican II which has given us horrible degrees of intolerance and a breathtaking arrogance.

It  was easier to be Catholic when everybody believed the same thing. Now,  accepting such beliefs is not a sign of piety but stupidity, and blind obedience is dangerous. We should think. We should be critical and questioning. No organization survives on blind obedience.

But people need to understated a few things. For the Catholic church to flourish the old model has to be stamped out once and for all.  Giving lip service to the laity and parish councils doesn't cut it. The Catholic Church has never been a democracy. An apostolic church takes its orders from the Pope channeled down through the College of Cardinals into the bishoprics all the way to the parish priest. You don't get a vote.  The old edicts kept the public ignorant and poor. It was no joke, those homes with ten kids and insufficient income to care for them. It was no joke, discouraging bright young people out of secular universities. I doubt that happens much today, but happen it did, in my day. Boston  College rather than Harvard (and BC is a superb school) Power is the name of the game. Its little different than Stalin and the North Koreans starving their people.

If the Church would be truly open to all, if gender, color, wallet size and sexuality were all irrelevant I'm guessing the churches would be packed. If children were truly cherished and loved, there would be an endorsement of birth control. What does forbidding condoms in Africa do but further condemn a continent to AIDS? You don't want a lot of clergy.  You want the best clergy: mature, unselfish, ready for long ours and not a lotta reward, married men, straight men, gay men, gay women, married women, straight women...What a tragic waste of resources for the current church to be so limiting.

And finally, the very idea of power should be reorganized. Power belongs to the individual who should have every ability needed to join the community and help others. The pope in Rome, the flashy cars, the arrogance,  the silence, the ignorance of reproduction rights, the demonization of gay people, all of that is designed to keep the power base compact. And its ruining the Church. Remember, in terms of the sex abuse scandals, the image of the Catholic church has always been far more important the putting pedophiles away and protecting kids. "I'm sorry" from Rome isn't enough. Making an all inclusive church with a transparent leadership would be a beginning.

But the Catholic church won't be here in 100 years. I think that's sad. The Church insists on its old models that may have worked in the pre-information age. And there's nothing to be said about an organization that allows children to be abused except GO AWAY.

Dear Pope Francis

Holiness:

By now hopefully you've had a night's sleep and have dealt with the Eva Peron jokes. You will remember that she too positioned herself as an advocate of the poor.

Last night on CNN I saw a man of humility on the Vatican balcony. You should be proud of that. It's difficult to appear humble amidst trappings that would have shamed the Borgias (a nasty pope among them). The digital age did not invent religion as theater. The Greek tragedies thousands of years before Christ combined worship with spectacle. What are the pyramids but pretty graveyards built to appease the gods? Yes, spectacle is import as symbols of power. Power you now have.

What will you do with such power? We read that you eschew the Cardinal's mansion in Buenos Aires for a simple apartment. You ride public transport. I'll bet you do take the opportunity to chat up with as many fellow straphangers as you can-be they Catholic or not. I believe too,  that in your heart you are a decent person rooted and sincere in your beliefs.

That said, you know what has to happen to the church in which I was raised, the liturgy of which I still love.

Let's start with women. The question of ordination of women is always greeted with a lecture on the esteem with which the church holds women. Martha, Mary Magdalene and above all the Virgin Mary. Insisting on the perpetual virginity of the mother of Jesus doesn't say much for women, in my opinion. But let's recognize such praise for what it is 2,000 years later. Weak. Admiring mythical women of thousands of years ago at the expense of human rights today is absurd. But that's the line. Cardinal Dolan was trumpeting away on the early a.m. news cycles today. How can you say the church debases woman, the Mother of God...yadda yadda yadda. It's lip service and you know it.

Women are the healers and the nurturers. So are men today-we've come a long way, baby. They belong in front of the congregation, dispensing the sacraments and preaching the gospel. Not ordaining women reinforces the white old man power structure that has brought the church to a new low. No, this won't be solved by acknowledging more men of color (that's not a bad thing) So many people have worked hard for years to insure an equal opportunity world, at least gender based. Get with it. You are dying for lack of clergy. A woman with a good mind and a full heart needn't emulate the Virgin Mary-rather she can insure the future of a dynamic and compassionate church.

But I'm not sure that's what the Curia wants. You'll find that out.

About the sexual scandals. How much more evidence do you need to see that the present recruitment of an all male celibate (HA!) clergy is wrong. The church's hatred of gay people (spare me "hate the sin love the sinner-" a sexual relationship between two consenting adults is not sinful, and even you aren't yet Jerry Falwell please God) is ironic. In my day the seminaries were seen as havens for men who were "a little funny." Better they embrace celibacy and give their lives to God. If you made a pitch to older, married men you'd have the seminaries overflowing. You and I both know why this isn't happening. A man in his forties is not going to buy the line. He's going to ask questions and posit new ideas. See previous note about the Curia.

I live two miles from the lovely campus of the Pontifical College Josephinum.   I needn't tell you this is the only seminary outside of Rome answering directly to the Vatican. To you. I used to go up there to walk the grounds, and occasionally visit St. Tiberius Chapel. Walk around up there and you are greeted by young seminarians out to enjoy the sunshine. What alarms me is how young they are, if not in years than emotionally. What do you expect when you admit 14 year olds to study and impress on them lives of chastity, poverty and obedience? Yes, there may be some especially blessed. You know they are in the right place. I've met a few. But c'mon. Most become sexually fearful and emotionally stunted. They stop maturing in any way at 14. Or 24. The young men I've chatted with were polite, kindly, respectable and in some ways immature. You can be very moved by their sincerity-I was and am-and alarmed by their lack of worldview. These boys need to get drunk, get beaten up a few times and these boys need to get laid.

Show me a priest guilty of child abuse and I'll show you a kid subjected to a life way, way beyond his years. I cry for these young men, because it will be hard to trust them. The church has tolerated too much horror and too much harm has been done. What new clergy there is will live amidst distrust. Their loneliness will be acute. Eager young people with a lot to offer will become cynical power graspers.The cycle towards abuse is guaranteed to continue.

Admit women to full participation. Get rid of celibacy. Encourage older vocations and go after married men. Encourage questions and constructive criticism. Read the gospels thoroughly and interpret them for the 21st century. Keep the beauty and holiness of the sacraments. The church just may have a chance.

Many people are counting on you.