What Do You Think?

This month's commentary comes from George Byrne of Lyons, Wisconsin. Mr. Byrne is responding to the question raised last month regarding the role of the Church in society. Please respond to these comments and/or offer your own commentary at leaderpub@voiceofthefaithful.org.

Ladies and Gentlemen:
As far as the public image of our Church is concerned, it will be severely damaged unless and until some of the members of the hierarchy do hard time in prison for covering up crimes, for moving sex abusing clergy from one parish to another, from one diocese to another, from one country to another, all without warning the laity, and for secretly diverting funds for hush money or to settle law suits.

The current hierarchical stands opposing homosexuality are puzzling if indeed from 23 to 58% of the clergy is homosexual, as has been reported. It is more puzzling not because of the homosexuality of the clergy, but the types of homosexuals that are attracted to the priesthood and the overall impact they are having on the laity and clergy alike. Why would the institution of marriage be threatened if homosexuals of the same sex were allowed to marry? Then again, why is the Roman Catholic Church in the marriage business at all? Marriage annulments are agonizing for those who go through them and a joke to the rest of the world.

During the recent election campaign several bishops carefully pointed out the abortion issue and proclaimed that abortion is contrary to teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Yet, nothing was said of executions by the state, pre-emptive war, the slaughter of over 100, 000 Iraqis, violation of the Geneva conventions, or the terrible costs in human life and treasure of the war. I find it astounding that if St. Thomas Aquinas were in the U.S. today, he could not receive Holy Communion in some dioceses.

The lack of clergy in the Roman Catholic Church is apparent to anyone. Yet, the hierarchy is using the same strategy that it has used for over fifty years - pray for vocations to the priesthood and cajole boys to become priests. In our archdiocese, each parish now has a quota of seminarians. Will we have a lottery for the sacrifice? We need to address such issues as:

• Who should be a priest? As it is now, neither Peter, nor most of the other Eleven or Junia, Paul's "fellow apostle" could be priests today in the Latin Rite. Must priests, with some exceptions of course, be celibate males?
• Why do parents not want their children to be priests?
• What should the role of a priest be?

Last year, Cardinal George of Chicago told me that he believed the reason so many Roman Catholics do not "practice their religion" is a lack of sound understanding of the teachings of the Church. I have thought about that and think young people understand the teachings of the Church (or rather some of the illogical, non-scientific, and non-theological positions of the hierarchy), reject them, and vote with their feet. An example of such a hierarchical position concerns the condemnation of artificial birth control and the advocacy of the rhythm method.

When these and similar issues are faced head on and addressed rationally, there is a possibility that the image of our Church can be restored. As it stands, the Church reminds me very much of laminar fluid flow: The hierarchy or bottom layer is headed South, the top layer or laity are headed North and many of the clergy are trapped in the boundary layer separating the two lamina. It is a pathetic image indeed for all the world to see, but to some it is unseen.

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