San Diego has become the fifth Roman Catholic diocese to file for bankruptcy. The Roman Catholic Church in the United States is becoming the mirror image of my own Episcopal Church. They have no priests and are rapidly getting to the point where they will have no money. But they do have congregants.
We've got clergy (although perhaps not enough by our very different standards for how many we need) and money (most of it old), but a declining (and aging) membership.
The problem with the Episcopal Church is its ongoing retreat from orthodoxy. Although that is not entirely absent in the Roman Church, it has managed to continue to stand for something other than style and postmodern vapidity. There are those in the Espiscopal Church who are trying to resist the trend toward Christianity as metaphor and faith as politicial liberalism with a spiritual hue, but I fear that we are being routed.
So it is a pity that the Roman church is wracked by this kind of disfunction - a problem that I think is rooted in its attachment to the male celibate priesthood. (This is where Dad29 brings up Lincoln and Goodbye Good Men).
Having said all that, I do wonder whether my profession's attachment to compensating the uncompensable (how else might lawyers get paid?) shows its limitations here. Does it really make sense to bankrupt a charitable and religious organization - something that can do good today - for the sins of those who are, for the most part, no longer in authority? In what sense will this really make good the harm done in the past?
You have to explain your profession's aberrative compass--no help from Lincoln or Goodbye, Good Men
ReplyDeleteBut that male celibacy thing--that's founded on the status of priests as alter Christi (another Christ,) Who, after all, was both male and celibate.
The Greek Orthodox situation results from a tale of intrigue, not from the original blueprints.
Sections 1577-1580 of the Catholic Catechism don't make it sound like it was in the blueprints. The practice of the Eastern Churches which are part of the Catholic Church is generally the same as the Orthodox Churches which are not.
ReplyDelete"Having said all that, I do wonder whether my profession's attachment to compensating the uncompensable (how else might lawyers get paid?) shows its limitations here. Does it really make sense to bankrupt a charitable and religious organization - something that can do good today - for the sins of those who are, for the most part, no longer in authority?
ReplyDeleteOur profession's attachment to compensating the uncompensable shows its greatest strength here. In non-priest instances of sexual abuse, the source of the tort-feasor's madness isn't always clear and is often difficulr to remedy. With priests, it's pretty obvious what the root cause of their insanity and wickedness is--the church itself. We can deal with that. We can crush that and put an end to it and maybe save some kids in the future. Perhaps a church could do some good today. But all signs point to these churches continuing to do net bad.
Terry, Conchini's history of the celibacy requirement clearly states that it was re-iterated around 350-400AD, but somehow the runner/messenger became "lost," and the letter was never delivered.
ReplyDeleteMy use of the term "blueprint" was a bit infelicitous. It is certainly not a dogmatic item, albeit theologically-grounded. However, celibacy has been the practice (honored in the breach VERY often) in the Church since before 200 AD.
I assume that "lost in the mail" was a short way of saying lost in a resistant bureaucracy until the senders gave up or died.
ReplyDeleteIf "celibacy" is such a bedrock of your church, why didn't the higher-ups start defenestrating offenders after the first breach of the rule? If sex with a woman is a mortal sin, what about diddling an altar boy?
ReplyDeleteTerry, it was a polite way of saying that the messenger assumed room temperature WAY before his time, and the message was left in the pathway, or nearby, or maybe....over THERE!
ReplyDeleteAnony, that's a good question. Assuming you ask in good faith, here's the good-faith answer.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, let's clear the decks of sex with consenting adults which is simply not in the same league as doing altar-boys.
For whatever reason, the Bishops responsible for oversight of the cretins decided that "treatment" was viable. That's at least partly due to the Church's position that sinners can repent and straighten out (otherwise, why bother with all that Sacramental stuff?)
We know now that "treatment" does not work. Frankly, I'm not certain that such knowledge was crystal-clear back in the 1950's/'60's'70's.
But!!
There are plenty of people who will tell you that the cretins were UN-treatable, and that "treatment" would NOT have worked. I happen to agree with these folks; the common phrase is "pattern or practice," used mostly in discrimination cases, but applicable here.
So there's really no answer.
More on the topic of celibacy (and certainly more well-composed than what I placed here earlier) can be found here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2007/stickler_celibacy_mar07.asp
In short, the page referenced above states that the regulation was "celibacy OR continence (if married already," and that the regulation was orally transmitted long before being written down.
ReplyDeleteThe author maintains that laws were very often transmitted orally long before being committed to writing--so "dating" a celibacy/continence requirement based solely on written evidence is prima facie a methodological flaw.
Good day, sun shines!
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