Back to the Basics

Harry Scherer
Class of 2022

(10/2018) For believers across the world, the Catholic Church is the Rock of Gibraltar. Since its very institution, the founder of the Church used identical symbolic language to emphasize the permanence of the Mystical Body of Christ on earth. "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). Christ promised an indefectible Church, not a constantly stable Church.

It is impossible not to notice the scandals that surround the Rock and those who join him in the Magisterium. Disappointment in the ordained men, found worthy by their predecessors to be members of the diaconate, priesthood and episcopate, strongly lingers in the pews of churches across the world.

The essential thing to remember about these men is that they are not the beginning and end of the Catholic Church. All of them were given the serious responsibility to lead the flock of Christ toward the heavenly banquet, and through the sins of lust and hypocrisy, some of them have failed. The failures of some, those in whom we put our trust, does not discount from the never-changing status of the Church being the bride of Christ.

With this complete confidence in Christ’s revealed love and His unending desire to transfigure our souls, it is time for the Church to go back to the basics. The Church will not be purified and transformed by slamming unflattering photos of Cardinal emeriti on the front of magazine covers. It will not be enveloped in the love of Christ through gossip and endless discussion of the "what" of those tragic events, but on the "why" of those tragic events.

Rather, the Church will be purified by a willing submission of all the faithful to the Church that was founded by Christ. It is our mission to submit ourselves to the Church whose leaders have failed the faithful because they failed to submit themselves to the will of Christ. They did not allow Christ’s grace to pervade every niche of their ministry. Instead, they let the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life to overcome the vocation for which they were sent to this Earth.

The laity does not respond to evil with evil. Instead, we "turn over and spill the coins of the money changers and overturn their tables" (John 2:15). We must express our disappointment in some members of the clergy by asking why these events occurred, not allowing a single table of abuse of power to be upright. These were not isolated incidents. There was a systemic abuse crisis, and there is currently a systemic cover-up crisis.

The first "back to the basics tenet" that the clergy and laity must recognize is that we, the Church and her members, are in a constant spiritual battle with the devil. If we don’t see that, we have already lost. The Church is in a state of "agony", a time of violent spiritual warfare, as was illustrated by Christ’s agony in the garden.

The second is to teach and reteach the history of the Church to young people. If the only exposure that young people have to the Church is the nightly news headline, then we should continue to see a steady decline in participation in the Sacraments and a growing disinterest and animosity for the Church. If the understanding is that the Church is merely a human institution, what beauty and transcendence lies in the Church’s message?

An integral part of the Church’s message can be better understood in the writings of the saints. We are not going to be told by the nightly news broadcast that our salvation lies in Christ and His Church; we will just be inundated with allegation after cover-up after abuse. The lives and writings of the saints broaden our view of the Church and the world. The more that we read of the fearlessness of St. Stephen, the intellect of St. Thomas Aquinas, the humility of St. Therese of Lisieux and the love of St. Theresa of Calcutta, the better the members of the Church will be able to comprehend and respond to the failings of our brothers in Christ.

Third, there should be a global mission in the Church to emphasize adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Mother Theresa said: "People ask me, ‘What will convert America and save the world?’ My answer is prayer." Internal conversion of Church leadership and total faith that the Holy Spirit will aid that conversion is what is going to turn the Church around. We should be supremely confident that this crisis will be turned into good by the grace of God alone and that the Church will be able to look back at this scandal with revulsion. In whom else should we put our total trust? The media and public relations committee of the Vatican and United States Conference of Catholic Bishops are not the Alpha and the Omega.

I do not have the qualifications to make judgements regarding how the Church should respond in the media, how priests should respond, and how the Vicar of Christ should respond. At the very least, acknowledgement and public and private practices of repentance are necessary. The "sackcloth and ash" era of the Church might have to be awoken from its medieval chamber, so that the clergy can most humbly express its sorrow for the victims and disappointment in the accused.

Our final hope is that "where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more" (Romans 5:20). We can be sure in the grace that Our Father will give to His Church and the world in purifying the minds and hearts of all those affected by the sin of his deacons, priests and bishops. It is the prayer of the laity that we might acknowledge our current state of agony and that the Church be eager to renew Her message as the Rock of Christ’s Word.

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