Even as it remains preoccupied with its struggling economy, Ireland is in the midst of a profound transformation, as rapid as it is revolutionary: it is recalibrating its relationship to the Roman Catholic Church, an institution that has permeated almost every aspect of life here for generations.
This is still a country where abortion is against the law, where divorce became legal only in 1995, where the church runs more than 90 percent of the primary schools and where 87 percent of the population identifies itself as Catholic. But the awe, respect and fear the Vatican once commanded have given way to something new ”” rage, disgust and defiance ”” after a long series of horrific revelations about decades of abuse of children entrusted to the church’s care by a reverential populace.
While similar disclosures have tarnished the Vatican’s image in other countries, perhaps nowhere have they shaken a whole society so thoroughly or so intensely as in Ireland….
As an Anghlican I see myself as a member of the Church Catholic, including the Roman, Orthodox and Anglican Churches and a sympathetic suporter of ecumenicism between all of the churches of the Church Catholic.
The fact is, all of the member churches of the Church Catholic have much much more in common with one another than separates them. And each of them have their mortal-contrived current problems and historic blemishes.
Open and frank discussion of everything that ‘is on ther table’ is essential to any ecumenical endeavor. Not just brotherly fraternity across church divides.
And this is where I find the Roman Church at fault as stated in the following quote from the news article,
“The rape and torture of children were downplayed, or ‘managed,’ to uphold instead the primacy of the institution — its power, its standing and its reputation.†Instead of listening with humility…”
where a key obstacle to ecumenicism across a broad front has been the Roman Church’s history of having
“…downplayed, or ‘managed,’ to uphold instead the primacy of the institution — its power, its standing and its reputation. Instead of listening with humility….”
This is not to say that the Anglican Church has the right to “throw the first stone.” Our blemishes are many and ECUSA’s leadership and its actions constitute a major obstacle to ecumenicism so that “we all may be one.” And our leadership under Canterbury has been a dismal example of a tolerance of heresy and proto-heresy, wilful secular manpulation, a lack of episcopal order and accountability, and an almost total lack of discipline.
The Catholic Church throughout history has had no more faithful sons and daughters than the Irish. For the Irish, national identify and religious identify are (or have been) almost one and the same. If the Church can alienated the Irish then, I hate to say it, but they deserve it. When your faithful wife of 50 years tell you she’s had enough and she wants to move out, you really need to seriously re-think the relationship. If it isn’t already too late, which it probably is. I say this as one raised in and part of the culture of the incredibly close bond between Irish nationalism and Catholicism.
Although there are plenty of blemishes in the Anglican communion, I would make a bit that reasonable people would prefer the Anglican “lack of discipline” to the Roman Catholic one, where a “lack of discipline” meant the unchecked abuse of thousands of people.
Those who seek a relationship with the one true church when it is led by a deaf leadership unwilling to be held to account are welcome to seek it. They may declare that the beliefs of ECUSA are heretical, but perhaps they might wash their own hands and clean their own house before doing so.
RE: “They [those RCs who] may declare that the beliefs of ECUSA are heretical, but perhaps they might wash their own hands and clean their own house before doing so.”
Hey JW [Gawain], that’s what those of us who believe the Gospel in the Episcopal Church are trying to do — clean our own house. And be of good cheer — the reprobate behavior of the RC clergy and bishops comes from capitulation to the same zeitgeist as the reprobate behavior of TEC’s clergy and bishops.
And oh yes . . . it will be interesting to see how many more TEC bishops — bishops of a comparatively teensy church — will be discovered to be just like our dear Jefferts Schori:
http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/article/37252
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2011/05_06/2011_06_24_Thomas_FormerLeader.htm
http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2011/6/28/lawsuit-prompts-priests-resignation
http://accurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2011/06/troubling-questions-raised-by-bishops.html
http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2011-07/episcopal-church-defends-top-bishops-record-abuse-case
http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2011/7/13/civil-lawsuit-casts-wide-net
http://geoconger.wordpress.com/2011/07/14/questions-remain-for-nevada-on-abuse-case-the-church-of-england-newspaper-july-14-2011/
http://geoconger.wordpress.com/2011/07/07/silence-from-ny-on-clergy-abuse-case-the-church-of-england-newspaper-july-8-2011-p/
http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/article/37479
http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/article/37314
http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/article/37463
RE: “They may declare that the beliefs of ECUSA are heretical, but perhaps they might wash their own hands and clean their own house before doing so.”
Hey JW [Gawain], that’s what we Episcopalians are trying to do — clean our own house. And be of good cheer — the reprobate behavior of the RC clergy and bishops comes from capitulation to the same zeitgeist as the reprobate behavior of TEC’s clergy and bishops.
And oh yes . . . it will be interesting to see how many more TEC bishops — bishops of a comparatively teensy church — will be discovered to be just like our Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori:
http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/article/37252
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2011/05_06/2011_06_24_Thomas_FormerLeader.htm
http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2011/6/28/lawsuit-prompts-priests-resignation
http://accurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2011/06/troubling-questions-raised-by-bishops.html
http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2011-07/episcopal-church-defends-top-bishops-record-abuse-case
http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2011/7/13/civil-lawsuit-casts-wide-net
http://geoconger.wordpress.com/2011/07/14/questions-remain-for-nevada-on-abuse-case-the-church-of-england-newspaper-july-14-2011/
http://geoconger.wordpress.com/2011/07/07/silence-from-ny-on-clergy-abuse-case-the-church-of-england-newspaper-july-8-2011-p/
http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/article/37479
http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/article/37314
http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/article/37463
Talk about “a deaf leadership unwilling to be held to account . . . ” — couldn’t be deafer, couldn’t be less accountable.
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This is a complex area. Abuse is not a Catholic problem but a societal one. Most abuse occurs within the family and rates amongst clergy are globally lower than amongst certain other professions including teaching. The highest rate of abuse occurs within care homes accross the board and this has impacted on Ireland and the Church simply becuase all carehomes in Ireland WERE run by the church. Alas it made paedophiles turn to the church in great numbers
Secondly the Catholic church was not alone in dealing with such cases badly. I think a look at Anglican organists and choir masters within the same period would paint a pretty grotty picture too and certainly this would be the case within many private schools as well. Quite simply child abuse was brushed under the carpet in the early twentieth Century and the church was as bad as all others.
Finally we should not take our eyes off the current economy of Ireland. Pressure is almost certainly coming from the EU who hold the purse strings and I believe it is no coincidence that suddenly Spain and Ireland discover a voice of criticism for the church.
None of this is to minimise the horror of abuse. But one needs to look at this rationally and see the many angles. It remains the case that most Catholic priests did NOT abuse, did a faithful job, said their prayers and do not deserve what is currently being thrown at them.
This is much more than pedophile child abuse. This also relates to the horrible abuse of children in orphanages and of girls who were treated like virtual slaves in institutions where they were consigned because of perceived promiscuous behavior. It’s partly because any of this existed in the first place, it’s party because of its mind numbing pervasiveness, it’s partly because it went on for decades (or at least it was identified as having gone on this long — who knows, maybe it went on for the last 1,000 years) and it’s partly because the Vatican responded in a cold, legalistic way.
Basically the metaphor of “Church as Mother” is not perceived as a metaphor by the Irish. The Church is our Mother. Yes, we say “look not on our sins but on the faith of your Church” as a way to overlook the individual failings of those who serve the Church, but not the insitutional failings of the Church itsef. Bear in mind that the Church is seen as infallibly guided by the Holy Spirit — notwithstanding that its mission is carried out by sinful humans.
If you found out your mother was a child abuser, it would change your relationship with her forever. Alternatively, if you found our your mother had hired babysitters who had tortured, raped, and enslaved you and when she found out about it her response was to issue legal documents showing that she had no legal culpability, that would also change your relationship.
The issue here is entirely one of trust. The Irish trusted the Church. Now they don’t. Jesus said “by their fruits you will know them” and many of the Irish now perceive the Roman Catholic Church as being rotten fruit. Is it true that this rottenness has pervaded all of Christendom? Maybe, but that isn’t an argument that’s going to draw the Irish back to the Church. Quite the opposite. “You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” A lot of Irish feel that the “salt has lost it’s flavor.” I don’t agree, but I certainly understand their bitterness.