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The same might be answered about \u2018What\u2019s wrong with the Church?\u201d After rather a lot of discussion about liturgy and reverence and what\u2019s wrong with the Church a couple of commenters have asked me what to do about it. It seems to me that the first thing to do about it is to develop an attitude shift. Instead of blaming everybody else I should blame myself. Accepting the blame has the wonderful triple effect of confounding one\u2019s enemies, accepting what seems to be an outrageous absurdity (which is always a tonic for the mind and soul) and helping one to nurture that most elusive of virtues: humility.<\/p>\n

There seems to be an awful lot of sour grumbling about the Church from both liberal and conservative Catholics. Yes, I know there are liturgical abuses. I also lament the deplorable state of modern American Catholic architecture. I share your antipathy for Sister Sandals and Fr Folkmass. We a could go on and on and yawn and yawn. It\u2019s so easy to blame everybody else. If you\u2019re a grumbling conservative have you ever stopped to consider that the liberals grumble just about as much as you do? They go on and on about \u2018this conservative, reactionary papal regime and the misogynistic, corrupt hierarchy and the homophobic, medieval anti democratic bishops who cover up pedophilia etc. etc. etc. You think you\u2019re right and they\u2019re wrong. Guess what? From their point of view they\u2019re just as convinced that they\u2019re right and you\u2019re wrong.<\/p>\n

So maybe you are a conservative and you have the church teaching on your side and you really are right and they\u2019re wrong. So what are you going to do about it? The first thing we can do about it is stop complaining so much and be a bit more philosophical.<\/p>\n

You know, the church has always been troubled with corruption from within and persecution from without. In different ages the corruption from within has taken different forms. There has been sexual scandal, financial corruption, heterodoxy, complacency, worldliness, liturgical abuse, bad music etc. etc. etc. in just about every age in one way or another. You only have to read the New Testament the apostles criticizing the various churches for their inconsistency, false teaching, immorality etc. Guess what? It\u2019s all part of being Catholic. It\u2019s all part of being human.<\/p>\n

The most ordinary source of disappointment in life is having the wrong expectations to start with. If you thought it was going to be all marvelous and to your liking in the Catholic Church you had the wrong expectation in the first place. If you thought all the bishops and priests were going to be perfectly moral, upstanding, totally orthodox saints you were suffering from a major delusion. If you thought every parish would be straight down the line and have wonderful liturgy, saintly pastors, fine music, exemplary architecture and all the rest, you misunderstood. Correct your expectations and you won\u2019t be so disappointed.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019d say, \u201cStop whining and get on with it.\u201d Be positive. There\u2019s far more that\u2019s good in the modern Catholic Church than bad.\u00a0Continue Reading<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"