What to do about the
crisis in the
Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Roman Catholic Church is the largest religious
denomination in the world with over 1.5 billion members. Never in the history of the Church since the
time of Jesus over 2000 years ago has the plague of scandal from within
threatened the very existence of the Catholic Church.
Ever since the recent revelations regarding sexual abuse within
the Church the news media, many of whom have consistently demonstrated a bias
against God, Jesus, the Catholic Church, and Christianity in general, have been
feasting on the controversy.
In fact, after two years of incessant bashing of candidate
for president, then President Trump, the media have honed their skills at
fanning the fires of fear, hatred and bigotry.
Sad to say they have grown quite proficient at it.
The Pennsylvania Grand Jury report is a perfect
example. St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican
was rocked to the foundations with the revelations currently in the news. It only took a couple of days for former
Vatican officials and ambassadors to be discovered by the media who started
demanding the current Pope Francis resign.
Almost lost in the media feeding frenzy was the fact there
have been no instances of abuse since 2002, sixteen years by my count. Add to that many of the breaking news cases
were identified long ago, and some dated back from eighteen to seventy years ago.
Make no mistake, the nature of the abuse is sick, evil and
intolerable. Even Pope Francis says
those guilty of the deeds or guilty of covering up the deeds should be
prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and guilty parties must face the most
severe punishment possible.
What most news stories fail to mention is that the State of
Pennsylvania criminal code has a statute of limitations extending twelve years
and all recent cases discussed are way beyond the statute. In other words, nothing can be done in either
criminal or civil courts to punish the offenders who have ruined so many young
lives. The statute of limitations has
expired.
Simply stated, it was never the intent of the news blitz to
prosecute criminals, it was an attempt to discredit the institution of Christianity
in general, a nefarious movement that has been underway for decades.
So, what can the Catholics do who are absorbing the shame
and fear of the media campaign against all religions?
Well, perhaps they should listen to the words of the founder
of Christianity, Jesus. Whenever one has
a crisis of faith, they have already ignored the sacred teachings of Jesus. Faith, first and foremost, is the goodness of
the Father and the teaching of His Son Jesus.
Faith that the miraculous creation of Father Creator,
meaning our world, our Sun and Moon, our galaxy, our cosmos and even ourselves
and our souls reflect the perfect love of the Father for all his Creations, including
us, all of us.
As for organized or institutionalized religion, that was
never part of the world Jesus described.
There was no hierarchy of religious leaders, no pecking order as to who
was closest to God. There was never any
discussion of the church and the representatives of the church acquiring
property, wealth, power or status within the institutional religion.
Quite the contrary, Jesus encouraged everyone of any or no faith
to speak directly to the Father, to acknowledge the perfect love of the Father
in creating us, and to recognize Jesus came to give us a path to eternal
salvation.
That path would lead to the Holy Spirit coming to help us as
happened to the Apostles and Magdalene at the Ascension of Jesus. If we recognized the love of the Father, and
followed the path Jesus showed us in order to live the will of the Father, we
would once again become One with the Creator.
The “priests” Jesus recruited were married and single. His disciples were men and women. No massive cathedrals or monasteries were
needed to find God and no religious hierarchy stood between you and the Father.
Now, do you really think God would create all that is to us,
including you and me, then give us a free will and soul, and billions of years
later turn his back on us? I mean, he
even sacrificed His Son for us to help awaken us to remember the path to
redemption and salvation.
Maybe if we were not so busy trying to play God in our
everyday lives and cultures and even in our religions, things might be quite
different.
Maybe if we demonstrated our Faith in the Father and Son by
living a life of love, joy and compassion as Jesus advised, perhaps the Dark
Side might not have so easily confused us and been able to snatch control of
our souls and make humans carry out the sordid acts of the Dark Side.
Make no mistake, evil is running rampant because we are
losing the anchor of Faith in the “Father’s Will.” Our fear empowers the Dark Side. Only by taking back that power can we defeat
the Darkness we manifested in the first place.
That is through Faith.
Finally, do you think an all-powerful, all-loving God would
abandon you in your hour of need?
Jesus said to pray to the Father, or pray to the Father
through him. The Holy Mother Mary said
pray to God through the Rosary for the good of all God’s creation. The Magdalene and Apostles spread the same
message after receiving the Holy Spirit at the Ascension of Jesus.
To
find Grace you must have Faith.
When you regain the Faith you have lost, as the potential is
always within you, you will remember and know.
At any moment the Father can act through miracles or whatever else it might
take, Divine power and intervention, to fix the mistakes of mankind and our
misuse of free will.
Pray for divine intervention to heal the earth and the people. Pray that our world leaders will help fix the
problems of the world. Pray that those
who lost their souls to the Dark Side and spread hatred and fear can escape the
clutches of the Dark Side.
Pray thanks to the Father for the opportunity to live his
Will --- then live with joy, forgive with compassion, and always remember, this
lifetime is but another test and step toward eternal salvation.
