“The Catholic Church thinks this is okay? Paintings should be made of the scenarios of priests sexually molesting innocent children, showing precisely what they did. They point the finger away from themselves, and point it at women. They don’t really give a fig about women or children. They just like to sound self righteous, and I don’t buy it no matter how many times they repeat it, and repeat it and repeat it.”
Father Pavone committed a grave sacrilege when he placed a dead baby on the altar to shill for a Planned-Parenthood supporting candidate who had promised him a position of power on his advisory board; he desecrated the altar in doing so. He also seems to have placed the baby on a corporal, the purpose of which is to catch any spilled fragments of the precious gifts offered on the altar – NOT the exploitation and enshrinement of human remains in what looked like a mock Eucharist. And what was the fruit of his public, televised, gravely sinful acts? At least one person testifies that he was horrified by the Church before and is now completely, perhaps irrevocably convinced that we’re all a bunch of abusive liars. Pavone took a bruised reed and cracked it right in half.
And that’s not to mention the thousands of people who saw that video, saw Pavone in the priest’s collar and decided that that meant what he did was okay– that the end really does justify the means, that we can abuse people and sacred objects for the sake of politics and in honor of people who have promised us worldly power. Some came to hate the Church because of Pavone’s transgression, and many more came to misunderstand the Church, and may well commit public sins in her name now.
That’s scandal.
And that’s why we must speak out to condemn scandal– real scandal, not public displays of affection but public glorification of grave sin. We’re not gossiping when we condemn scandal. We’re addressing a public sin that will lead others to sin, condemning the sin, proclaiming that that sin is not okay and our Faith does not allow that. And we should. We should all condemn scandal.
Because condoning a truly scandalous act is, itself, a scandal.
(Image via Pixabay.)
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In