Broken Gears - The Catholic Church in 2018

Brothers and sisters:
As a body is one though it has many parts,
and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body,
so also Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.

Now the body is not a single part, but many.

Now you are Christ's Body and individually parts of it.
Some people God has designated in the Church
to be, first, Apostles; second, prophets; third, teachers;
then, mighty deeds;
then gifts of healing, assistance, administration,
and varieties of tongues.
Are all Apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers?
Do all work mighty deeds? Do all have gifts of healing?
Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?
Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.

David was sure proud of his clock. Eight hundred gears were powered by a sturdy spring and the clock accurately reported thirty-two separate functions.  The precision jeweled movement made almost so discernable sound and it was so finely made that a single winding would last thirty days.  The tolerances were so fine that the clock was predicted to gain or lose more that one second every five years.  It was a marvel of mechanical ingenuity.  Now, one day, a small gear, no larger than the end of David's little finger stopped moving because of a small bit of corrosion.  The clock stopped and all of the other gears were unable to do their job because one gear had stopped moving. 

This is how it can be in our spiritual life.  We are going along, fat and happy when something happens and our view of the Church changes. Today the Catholic Church is going through a terrible time when we pew dwellers feel upset and betrayed by our hierarchy who shielded criminally tainted deacons, priests, bishops, and even cardinals who violated either their vows if they themselves abused anyone or they violated their sacred roles if they made it possible for the renegades to ply their trade elsewhere because they transferred them to another unsuspecting parish.  

We had an opportunity beginning in 2002 to clean up, once and for all. the horrible mess created by a small cadre of renegade priests who practiced perverted lusts on children, teens, and adults. The UCCB in the United States formed an independent committee to investigate and to report to them what needed to be done.  The UCCB did a remarkable job on one hand.  I cannot participate in Choir unless I fill out an authorization for a background check just in case our adult choir has any contact with young people over the course of a year.  I would imagine this procedure has helped rid the church of people whose only interest in our youth is of a carnal nature.  

But the committee set up to investigate were given only what a diocese under investigation would deem safe to give them.  The effect of this was to negate what that committee was chartered to do.  They starved the committee and provided very little information that could help them to determine where the problems were entrenched in the church.  The effect of this was that it created and an adversarial situation in which the magisterium was on one side and the people were on the other.  The people were now not made to be served by the clerics but rather were made to be feared by them.  They then covered up for their cronies and quietly paid people off for silence.  In the meantime perverts whose predilections were well known to those in power were being promoted in spite of their sinful and notorious ways of life that changed forever the lives of those they preyed upon.  Our hierarchy squandered the opportunity to cleanse the church at that time.  It has been revealed that knowledge of some to the shenanigans filtered all the way up to the pope and still one man who made it his policy to abuse young seminarians at his "summer home" where he would bring one more seminarian than he had beds for and he would choose one to share the bed with him.  This manner of life was well known to those above him and yet he was promoted and even attained a job that brought him close to the holy father. 

The Church now has another opportunity to cleanse itself.  The time for covering up is over. Those that are guilty of breaking their vows should be removed from office and laicized without any unnecessary delay.  What do we need to do here in Pewland?  We need to pray for the Church and its leaders and we need to raise our voices and let those in charge know that we will NOT stand for this type of nonsense any longer.  The evil must be purged from our midst.  Forgiveness? Sure!  There is not a sin that cannot be forgiven in the confessional.   But you don't put a thief in charge of a bank vault and you do not expect a man who has broken his vows of celibacy to not break them again.  They can have a rich spiritual life outside of the ministry and can spend the rest of their lives in prayer asking for forgiveness for what they have done to the Church.  Scandals will come and go and this one has worn out its welcome.  We must purge our ranks of wolves in sheep's clothing and allow the vast majority of deacons, priests, bishops, and cardinals who have maintained their vows faithfully to rule the church and its people with a just love for God, His Church, and His People.