Should We Remain Catholics?

Jesus said to the crowds:
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world."

Someone asked me, “Michael, how can you stay in a church that is so corrupt that it hides things such as the molestation of children, youth, and young seminarians from around the world? The answer is in our reading today if you have the eyes to see. But, what about this crisis of trust that has arisen?

The Catholic Church is operating in crisis mode at the moment. The rug under which the dirt of the sex scandal has been taken away and we have learned that our bishops, the ones that have been appointed to watch over the Church, have instead chosen to use smoke and mirrors to tell us pew dwellers that they have everything under control. In our diocese, they have gone so far as to provide both education and background screening for those of us involved in ministry. Once or twice a year our parish combines either the youth choir or the teen choir with the adult choir and because of this, my wife and I have to provide our agreement to have our background checked to make sure that we are not sexual perverts or predators. I think this is a good thing to do for we need to protect our children against the weirdos that would love to do them harm. It appears, however, that while the church has protected the young ones from the likes of me, my wife, and the rest of the choir, for decades they protected priests and religious that did not have the best interests of our youth at heart and transferred offenders from parish to parish. They paid lip service to the protection of the young but worked very hard on the protection of the Church, its reputation, and its priests and religious.

What these prelates forgot is that the Church is not theirs. The Church belongs to and was founded by Jesus Christ. He is aware of everything that has happened in the Church. He knows the details of the scandals that not have gravitated to the top of the pile. He knows the names and titles of every perpetrator and everyone who has participated in a cover-up and all of these things will be revealed and all of the guilty will feel the shame that they need to feel. All of this will happen at a time and manner of Christ's choosing.

But Michael, why would you stay associated with an organization that appears to be so corrupt? Well, for every priest, deacon, or religious that gave into their lusts there are twenty priests that are innocent of breaking their vows. But even that might not be sufficient reason for a person to remain Catholic. The fact is that the Church does not get its holiness from its members but from Christ Himself. In spite of the temporary crisis and scandal, it is still the owner and protector of the treasury of the faith. It is here we receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ which we learn in today's reading is the source of eternal life. That is why we need to be faithful to the Church. The clean-up will begin and take many years and there will be further tests of our loyalty to come. But we must stay the course and not abandon the only Church that was founded by Christ.

Please remember the Poor Souls in Purgatory.