1-14-2024
I have noticed it is almost impossible for people to distinguish between these two: fighting the church or fighting for the church. I’d say maybe 10% of the people get it. Fighting corruption in the church is fighting for the church. Making the effort to hold guilty clerics accountable is fighting for the church.
One reason for this confusion is that the institutional church puts out press releases emphasizing its victimhood. For example: “We just want to continue the vital service of serving the poor.” This is pitting the well-being of victims against “the poor”. Never mind the victims are also part of this category. Never mind that it isn’t the victims that are impacting the mission of the church. What is destroying the ability of the church to fulfill its mission are the sins of the highly ranked clergymen.
I think the problem is this: for victims and people who understand the abuse and cover-up crisis in the church, doing nothing is untenable. You can’t stay and not address the problem in some way. If you just submissively and quietly continue on as a Catholic while staying silent, you feel complicit.
And here are the first line of attacks:
“But the church does so much good.” (So you are saying we should just tolerate the evil?)
“All institutions have some corruption.” (No. It is not true that this is just a low level of corruption that can be found in any institution. And other groups don’t claim to be representatives of Christ.)
This is my lament.
We have to take it in stride. We have to pray. We have to pick our battles and be clever. But we can’t simply ignore the problem. That would be the cruelest most cowardly course of action.