The Toss Up

What? Robert Jeffress leading a cult? If we can define a cult as a place with an autocratic, unquestioned leader holding strange beliefs and practicing rituals that dictate who’s in and who’s out, then yes, Jeffress is a cult leader.

As for the sex scandal… .

Where’s the sense in heaping more condemnation on Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn? Perhaps it only appears that he continued to shield Shawn Ratigan,a priest with a predilection for child pornography. Such fondness for children surely goes way beyond what a priest, a supposedly godly person, should display.

But, the Bishop will get his day in court. The expensive lawyers that service the Roman Catholic Church will ensure that he escapes legal ramifications for such egregious immorality and obvious lies.

Perhaps instead I should be disgusted at the national pillorying of yet another unaccountable Bishop who has power over others, but neglects to use that power for good!  Maybe I should remember that he is supposed to be forgiven and, for the good of the order, we should avoid discouragement. I believe those are the words the Bishop used.

No sense in saying any more about this.

I’m calmer, more reasoned, better able to reach into my well of compassion for both Bishop and Priest. They too, stand in need of forgiveness, just as I do. But still, I ask with that compassionate spirit, “WHAT IN THE WORLD WERE THEY THINKING?”

Breathe, Christy. Beathe. Slowly. Relax those tense muscles. Visualize   ocean waves, the tide lapping gently at your feet, the soft winds blowing . . . there, the blood pressure is coming down nicely.  Feel better?

NO.  No, I don’t feel better. I’m so angry on the behalf of innocent children that I cannot contain myself.

If grown men and women want to engage in despicable acts with other grown men and women who are capable of making reasoned, independent decisions, then, no matter how distasteful I might find this, I’ll keep quiet (or quieter) about it.

But to use a child as a means for sexual gratification, and then to use a position of trust to destroy that child? And then to use that trust and position of authority to shield and effectively support that activity— and to do all this after promising that it would never happen again! Please, am I crazy for being so angry about this?

Time to breathe deeply again.

Honestly, I don’t mean to come down so hard on the Catholics. But they’ve set themselves up as the moral authority, as those who do hold the keys to the doors to heaven and hell. I remember so well a priest arrogantly reminding me that I, as a woman who has been divorced, could never be a communicant in a Roman Catholic church (without perhaps annulling my first marriage and turning my children into bastards–no thanks).

I understand that moral authority comes both from personal morality and institutional authority. So I ask how, again in the name of all that is holy, can any Roman Catholic priest who has either taken part in the sexual violation of children or protected those who did, dare serve as Celebrant at Mass?

I hear the cry, “we must forgive them!” Yes, we must. I must, for the sake of my own soul. And yet I  wonder, why, in the name of forgiveness, does the door of clerical leadership stay open to those to whom moral imperatives are nothing but padding to protect their privileged positions? Is this really holy? Does this really please God? If so, I need someone else to tell me how.