Friday after Ash Wednesday

Lectionary: 221

Cry out full-throated and unsparingly,
lift up your voice like a trumpet blast;
Tell my people their wickedness,
and the house of Jacob their sins.

Now there's a sobering thought! That I should cry out full-throated and unsparingly, telling my people their wickedness.

Some of the Hebrew prophets, in this case Isaiah, had enough support from their coreligionists that they could preach against the sins of Jerusalem without losing their status or position. Isaiah apparently enjoyed so much respect that his words were recorded and preserved for all time.

His writings and those of the other prophets show that Jerusalem, the so-called "holy city", was rife with corruption, idolatry and general contempt for widows, orphans and aliens. The successful Jewish kings were astute enough to keep the prophets at bay and satisfy the demands of a restless population. Apparently, the Word of God was no more welcome in ancient Jerusalem than it is today in the whole world.

Recently the Holy Father summoned the world's bishops to Rome to share his concern about the Scandal in the Church, and especially to warn these prelates that they cannot maintain their former habits of hiding, denying and dissembling about the sexual abuse of children. If church law did not sufficiently punish the wicked, it will now provide a canonical way for criminals to be handed over to civil authorities.

The assembly was closely watched by journalists who wondered if blame would be placed on the powerful who take advantage of the powerless, or on homosexuals who create networks to support their lifestyle. Which narrative would prevail?

One camp says the Scandal has nothing to do with sexual orientation; it's all about the abuse of power. Clericalism is the "original sin" of the priesthood. The very thing we should never do is the sin we're most likely to commit. It comes in many forms but the most egregious is the sexual abuse of children. The pious are often willing to not see the sins of the clergy. They cannot even imagine that their favorite ministers have "a human side." Meanwhile the clergy eagerly dismiss, deny and hush any suggestion that some among them are unworthy of that profound respect. 

The other camp believes that the Church is being misled toward inclusion of alternate life styles which permit and sanctify homosexuality. They see a decadent, liberal movement to destroy the institution of marriage. They point to networks of homosexuals that first appeared in the seminaries in the 1960's. I remember that well enough. These characters seemed to enjoy a privilege of sexual liberty not accorded to heterosexuals. Most  of them left of their own accord or were expelled. 

Isaiah's Jerusalem is now the entire world and the Church is a voice crying not in the wilderness but in a hostile marketplace where "non-judgmental inclusiveness" and a false  "compassion" for deviance are the standards for civil discourse.

I don't know where this conversation is going but I can say with a certainty grounded in faith, the Roman Catholic Church will never recognize an oxymoron -- gay marriage -- as a sacrament. It will not condone adultery under any circumstances. 

But we must attend the real problem, the one Jesus addressed with his sermon about millstones. When I call clericalism the "original sin of the priesthood" I mean it's as intractable as sin itself. It's the cursed side of a blessing. There can be no Church without the priesthood, but the brilliant blessing will always have an ominous shadow. 
Yes, we must address the problem. We should find ways to avoid it, suspect it, detect it, and eradicate it, knowing all the while that it will not disappear. Even to think that it might go away is to invite trouble. 
Read Boccaccio's Decameron or Chaucer Canterbury Tales or any number of medieval writers and you'll see the "world" has always known there are corrupt clerics and women religious. Examine the grotesque paintings of Hieronymus Bosch and notice the tortured monks and friars. If anything the Reformers' attempt to purify the Church only drove the problem underground among both Catholic and Protestant leaders. 
Let the ubiquitous press with its newspapers, radio, television, Internet and social media ferret out the criminal element and expose them in the light of shame and infamy. Let them reveal the corruption and hypocrisy of every sect, denomination, and "non-denomination." 
Is it painful? Of course. Is it necessary? Absolutely. This Scandal is the temptation we pray about when we recite the Lord's Prayer. We should not be surprised that we are tempted. But if we pray in the Spirit of Lenten Penance we will be surprised with joy.