{"id":36879,"date":"2018-09-20T06:00:42","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T10:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=36879"},"modified":"2018-09-17T12:02:56","modified_gmt":"2018-09-17T16:02:56","slug":"the-catholic-sex-abuse-scandal-is-bigger-crisis-than-the-reformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/09\/the-catholic-sex-abuse-scandal-is-bigger-crisis-than-the-reformation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Catholic Sex-Abuse Scandal Is Bigger Crisis Than the Reformation?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The priest sex-abuse scandal is the biggest crisis to hit the Roman Catholic church since the Reformation.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard that thought expressed by a number of people.\u00a0 It contains a lot of truth, but it also has some misconceptions.\u00a0 Far from being bad for the Church, the Reformation was good for the Church, including the Catholic church.\u00a0 In fact, a \u201creformation\u201d is exactly what the Catholic church needs in order to deal with this scandal.<\/p>\n

First of all, I commend to you an article by two evangelicals, Willis L. Krumholz and Robert Delahunty in The Federalist.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>The title is Why Every Christian Should Be Very Worried About the Catholic Sex Scandal.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

The piece is thoughtful and sensitive, clearly condemning the sexual abuse that has been uncovered, expressing concern for the victims and insisting that the Vatican take strong action against the offending priests and bishops.\u00a0 But the authors are worried about the fallout of the scandal, which could endanger religious liberty and denigrate the Christian religion in general in the eyes of our increasingly secularist world.<\/p>\n

They too make the Reformation comparison.\u00a0 But they cite a crucial difference.\u00a0 During the Reformation 500 years ago, Europe was solidly Christian.\u00a0 But now Europe and the West in general is largely non-Christian and secularist.\u00a0 Their fear is that the scandal in the Church of Rome will turn the secularists against Christianity altogether.<\/p>\n

I would say that not only was Europe in the time of the Reformation solidly Christian, but that after the Reformation it was even more so.\u00a0 Not only because of evangelical Protestantism.\u00a0 The Catholic Church also became more Catholic.\u00a0 If it weren\u2019t for the Reformation, there would have been no Counter-Reformation.<\/p>\n

Much of what we think of today as Catholic piety, especially for the laypeople, as well as key institutions, goes back not to the Middle Ages, as is often assumed, but the Counter-Reformation of the 1600\u2019s:\u00a0 the use of the rosary; frequent communion; Catholic education; Catholic missions, the Jesuits, the teaching orders, etc.<\/p>\n

The Catholic church really had neglected the spiritual life of the laity and really had become corrupt.\u00a0 Not just financially and politically but in sexual scandal.\u00a0 Read Chaucer to see how laypeople saw the sexual corruption that was rampant in the religious orders.\u00a0 From the notorious brothels in Rome that were reserved for priests to the Popes packing the college of cardinals with their illegitimate sons, the sexual sin was on a shocking scale.\u00a0 Priests reasoned that although they were fornicating, at least they weren\u2019t violating their vows of celibacy by getting married.<\/p>\n

The Reformation was successful because virtually everyone\u2013even those who remained faithful Catholics\u2013knew it was needed.\u00a0 The Counter-Reformation did clean out much of the corruption that had spoiled Rome\u2019s credibility.\u00a0 As a Lutheran, I am not saying that the Counter-Reformation was a good thing\u2013the Council of Trent anathemized justification by faith and other Biblical truths and doubled down on Rome\u2019s theological errors\u2013but the Catholic church that came out on the other side of it was a much more effective institution.<\/p>\n

The Catholic church needs a Reformation if it wants to regain its credibility.<\/p>\n

All of Christendom does.\u00a0 Protestant churches are not immune from their own sex scandals and sexual abuse crimes.\u00a0 (See World Magazine\u2019s reporting on \u201cWe Too.<\/a>\u201c)<\/p>\n

The Catholic church, at least, has strong teachings about sexual morality, even though so many priests (though a small minority) violated them so shamefully.\u00a0 Mainline liberal Protestants have taken the additional step of changing their teachings about sexual morality.\u00a0 They exemplify what St. Paul was complaining about:\u00a0 \u201cThey not only do them [the catalogue of sins including sexual sins] but\u00a0give approval to those who practice them\u201d (Romans 1:32).\u00a0 It is bad enough to do these things, but to also approve<\/em> of them is beyond the pale.<\/p>\n

I am not saying liberal Protestants approve of pedophilia, but they do approve, with liberal Catholics, of homosexuality, which is a factor in the current scandals, and have been contributing to the permissive climate by minimizing traditional sexual morality.<\/p>\n

If this scandal is discrediting Catholicism and with it Christianity, it is also discrediting sexual license.\u00a0 And it is discrediting the Sexual Revolution, as the public is forced to acknowledge that sexual behavior needs to be restrained, controlled, and ordered by moral principles.<\/p>\n

Catholics and Protestants, including both liberals and conservatives, need a \u201creformation\u201d when it comes to sexual morality, and having one can only help to restore the credibility of their churches.<\/p>\n

One of the most\u00a0bracing pieces I\u2019ve read on the scandal is by Megan Fox,<\/a> a devout Catholic who is furious about the \u201cfilth\u201d that is being disclosed.\u00a0 After a searing attack on the perpetrators and the hierarchy that covered up their crimes, she concludes on a note of hope that now, finally, the Church is being purified:<\/p>\n

How many times have the laity in the Catholic Church prayed for such a day that the wicked among us would be cast out? That the wolves preying on the sheep would be put down? It\u2019s not like no one knew what was going on. There are thousands of families all over the world suffering the consequences of priest abuse and Church cover-up. It\u2019s just that until now, the deceivers were able to hide and obscure and strangle the voices of the aggrieved with promises of reform and new \u201cpolicies\u201d and punishments with no teeth. Not anymore. The crimes are too great and it\u2019s clear the hierarchy had no intention of stopping it. Change is coming. IT\u2019S HAPPENING!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe Lord\u2019s house needs to burn with holy fire and purge this wickedness from her leadership,\u201d she writes. \u201cYou are blessed to live in such a time as this when there is so much good work to do!\u201d<\/p>\n

This will be painful.\u00a0 Burning and purgation and reformation usually are.\u00a0 But they are necessary not only for the Catholic Church but for the Church as a whole to be strong again.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo:\u00a0 St. Michael\u2019s Church, Munich [a Counter-Reformation baroque church] via pxhere, CC, Public Domain<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The priest sex-abuse scandal is the biggest crisis to hit the Roman Catholic church since the Reformation.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard that thought expressed by a number of people.\u00a0 It contains a lot of truth, but it also has some misconceptions.\u00a0 Far from being bad for the Church, the Reformation was good for the Church, including the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":36963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,20,38,41],"tags":[7503,389,590,1290,7575,1819,4352,1984],"class_list":["post-36879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church","category-history","category-reformation","category-sex","tag-catholic-priest-sex-abuse-scandal","tag-catholicism","tag-counter-reformation","tag-liberal-theology","tag-protestant-sex-scandals","tag-protestantism","tag-reformation","tag-secularism"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Catholic Sex-Abuse Scandal Is Bigger Crisis Than the Reformation?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The priest sex-abuse scandal is being described as the biggest crisis for the Catholic Church since the Reformation. 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