Where is the darn crystal ball? part One

Oh, yeah.  I dropped it a few years ago and it broke.  I guess I will just have to try to figure this out without the use of that mystical lens into the future.

There are many predictions going around as to the future of the Church, in particular the Roman Catholic Church and mainline Protestant Churches.  Some say their day is past.  Others say that we are just on the verge of new reformation.  A few opine that the Church will continue to exist, but only as a shell, as in much of Europe.

I have been following with much interest both the events of the Roman Catholic Church and those of the American Protestant Church Community.  I’ll start with the Roman Catholics (RC).

The RC’s have been bombarded with, and with good cause, the scandal of  child abuse and pedophile priests.  The issue has become a global event, with many countries not nearly as generous in the civil and criminal response as the United States has been.

The economic fracture that this scandal has created is enough to destroy any institution.  The response of the Vatican has been to pull in.  Dioceses across the US have closed many large, and somewhat financially secure, churches.  In St. Louis, the Bishop has begun proceedings against a number of churches with property values alone worth millions, with the intent to close them and sell off these assets. 

The Archdiocese of Cleveland just closed fifty parishes with large assets.  Again, for the purpose of securing the financial position of the larger Church.   Some of these congregations are not taking this “sitting down”. They are organizing new centers of worship.

The bishop of Cleveland, Richard Lennon, wrote in a letter to the congregation at the now closed St. Peter Catholic Church, that to begin meeting and celebrating the sacraments at a place or facility not officially approved by his office, the congregants risk “excommunication”.  He added that he was concerned “for you and your salvation”.  He further said that “When there is a breaking of unity and communion with the church, there are consequences which affect one’s relationship with the Lord…”

The excuse in these and other cases is that the shortage of priests, dwindling contributions, and fewer parishioners, requires this action to take place.  The issue of the child abuse scandal is quietly, or so it seems, dismissed.

Then the Pontiff, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, as the Vicar of Christ to the world, has pronounced that women who attempt to be ordained as priests, and those who attend their services, or participate in their services, are immediately excommunicated.   To add insult to injury, his holiness decreed that not only was the ordination of women a violation of Canon Law, resulting in excommunication, but was on the same level as child abuse.

Now help me understand.  Is the Pontiff really saying that priest pedophiles, who are, whether or not the Church wishes to recognize it, subject to civil and criminal law for their actions, and entitled to long term imprisonment, the same as women who wish to be, and are ordained to be, priests?  Does he really think that these women should also be arrested, tried, and imprisoned for a long time for becoming priests against his wishes?  Is this the new era of the inquisition? 

I hear those righteous men wearing red dresses and walking in their Prada’s, shouting the command, “Raise the flogging poles!  Begin the fires.  Bring out the first woman for immediate burning, should she refuse to recant of her sin!”  Please….!!!  Cut me a break here. This IS the twenty-first century.

So the Vatican’s position with these two issues, one of a lack of priests (and an unwillingness to ordain women), and two, a financial crisis threatening even the stability of Rome itself, is to pull back and in?  Close, consolidate, reject, eject, wall up, and any number of descriptive words and phrases.  Where does it end?  When the only thing left is St. Peter’s Basilica?

No wonder there is an independent renewal effort on the part of many former Catholic priests and nuns, lay men and women, to create a new, universal, authentic Catholic Church.  The renewal effort is gaining momentum. 

It started with Vatican II, under the leadership of John  XXIII.  It continued with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.  It grows with each priest who marries, each woman who is ordained, and each former Catholic who finds a way to these organizations and groups. It continues with every other person, divorced, remarried, abused, gay or lesbian, trans or bisexual, who desires Christ and comes into a fellowship where the bread and wine are freely given, and access to Christ is freely available, without threats of excommunication or damnation.

When this movement truly crystallizes, and unites in effort, the days of the Church of Rome will be numbered.  Not in millennium, but in decades.

It is sad, astonishing, and tragic to watch, but watch we must.  A train/car collision happening in slow motion.  You just can’t turn away.

Share/Bookmark