Newsweek has a story today about allegations of homosexuality among top Roman Catholic officials working in the Vatican. Some conservative leaders who are working to purge the Catholic Church of hypocrisy and hidden sin, particularly in relation to pedophilia and homosexuality, are convinced that these revelations will actually be good for the church. They feel that openness and confrontation in regard to these issues may be just what the church needs, in order to be restored to greater spiritual health.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
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And do you agree?
Yes, in the sense that it's better to be open and forthright about whatever is happening than to hide the truth and practice hypocrisy.
Jesus said, "There is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops." It's a dangerous thing to say one thing publicly and do something else in private.
A bit tardy, bit I'll join on the affirmative side, as well. I think it will go a long ways toward reducing the long-standing illusion, well entrenched within that organisation, that the ordained clergy, particularly in the upper levels of their hierarchy, are almost of a different sort than the "rest of us"...that business of the "indelible mark on the soul" bestowed at ordination, the reserving of so many things to ordained clergy, holding them up to be heads of the faithful, even (in the case of the pope, the one at the top) the one in place of Christ on this earth. As the depth and breadth of yet another "hidden sin", endemic amongst the exalted high leadership, becomes known, it will help return the "clergy" to the same plane as the "laity" before God...sinners in desparate need of a Saviour, and whose lives are utter waste without the One who bled and died even for them, the high and exalted leaders. It may well bring about some move toward a return to authority as servant rather than priviledged class.
And one might also hope (though I won't be holding MY breath over this one)it will at least bring some pressure to bear on the issue of the farcical celibate priesthood. I believe it is VERY significant that the two most publicised scandals in that organisation, both near universal in scope, are sexual in nature. I wonder they don't "get it". Requiring a life of celibacy as a precondition to the role does two things....it eliminates many who are "normal" sexually, inviting those who are not--and it puts mere men with great intentions under pressures we were not designed to bear...making the finding of an "out" all the more likely. Thus we have these two scandals...and continual rumours (and occasional exposure) of more "normal" sexual behaviours amongst the ordained, both men and women. One more case of the traditions of men, though long standing, governing where they oughtn't. And this very thing is the root of ALL the troubles and failings in the Roman church.
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