Of Popes and Politicians

Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.” – Matthew 25-45

[Author’s Note:  I was raised in the Roman Catholic Church, complete with its stereotypical Irish priests and starchy nuns all too fond of rapping the knuckles with the metal edges of a 12 inch ruler.  I attended catechism faithfully, if somewhat unwillingly, until my late teens, and during that whole time I believed in what I was being told.  It wasn’t until much later that I came to question the teachings of the Church, in particular its stances on abortion and birth control, and began having serious doubts about its sense of direction.  While I was never the victim of molestation myself, I am deeply aggrieved for the victims of priestly abuse and their families.  This essay was spawned from a sense of shame and the nagging feeling that maybe, just maybe, there was something I could have done, or might yet be able to do.]

The recent revelations that Pope Benedict XVI may have been personally aware of the presence of an active child molester, and did nothing about it, have prompted a firestorm of debate about the actual piety of his leadership.  To many Catholics, the revelations have come as a serious blow to their faith, prompting questions of whether or not the Church has placed the needs of the institution over the needs of its flock.  While the Church has a long and colorful history straddling the line between the religious and secular, many now feel that the balance may have tipped too far toward the secular, or the political.  To many, the pope’s stance was eerily similar to recent utterances from government officials relating to the recent bank bailouts, which offered the questionable justification that what was “good for the economy” is apparently “good for all”.  Neither position was received very warmly by the general populace, and both were greeted with a chorus of questions dominated by the recurrent theme of “How could you have let things get to this point?”  Perhaps it’s time for the Church to change. Read the rest of this entry »