Catholic Bishops? Oh boy.

Last updated on: October 1, 2010 at 12:41 pm by Dave Griffey

Catholic Bishops? Oh boy. 2010-10-01T12:41:00-04:00 Dave Griffey

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Why the Catholic Church isn’t one big country Church – and a good thing too. It turns out, much to the surprise of many, that just because the Catholic Faith has a singular magisterial authority to say this is what the Bible says and that isn’t, this is what the Faith teaches and that isn’t, nonetheless the Church isn’t one big homogeneous club with one person telling us what to do down to what socks to wear. Rather, the Bishops have tremendous influence now and always in the life of the Church. It is the Bishops, after all, who received the authority as leaders of the flocks from the beginning of the Church’s history. It is the Bishops today who can make, or break, a diocese. Basically, Bishops are a varied lot with some close to this or that Pope, others farther away, some administering their charges faithfully, others not so much – and all Bishops having their own little two cents worth thrown into this or that issue. That’s not to say Catholics should forget that Christ promised to protect his faithful from error. But it is to say that Bishops can nonetheless step out and cause no end of mischief along the way. And owing to their authority, that mischief can be devastating.

Take for instance old medieval tales of Bishops fielding armies that kings would envy, or living in luxury while the masses starved. Sure, those tales are overblown by Protestant and secular polemics. But there was truth to them, and no small number of Bishops exploited their charges throughout the centuries for their own gain and at the expense of those committed to their oversight.

Or how about the abuse scandal. Sure, we could parse the data all day and point out that sexual abuse has nothing to do with abstinence, or that it is not unique to the Catholic Church. We could show other religions struggling with the problem, or mention that socially we are still unaware of the extent to which those outside the Church have been abusing children. But all of that was not what made the abuse crisis so scandalous. That would be the Bishops actively using their positions to suppress the truth, dodge responsibility, and in some cases, intimidate those seeking justice.

Or this story, in which English Bishops are feeling the love from the gay rights movement and trying desperately to walk a line between loyalty to Church authority and appeasing the ever-fervent calls for obedience from the homosexual lobby. Sure it’s embarrassing. And yes, those leaders can bring the faithful with them down the path toward wherever they wish to go. Not to mention this will be a boon to those who wish the Church would toss all those old non-modern-21st century values.

But that’s how it goes. The Church is vast and diverse, not always to a good end. But for all those who do badly, or compromise the faith, or let the muscle of the non-Christian world intimidate or tempt, there are more who serve Christ faithfully. There are those who were at the cutting edge of the sexual abuse crisis trying to stop the pain and end the problem. There were those throughout the centuries who served faithfully, with no attention given them, living a simple life, and working to the ends they were commissioned to achieve. There are those who stand firm, being tempted neither by right or left, republican or democrat, gay lobby or abortion lobby or bombs and bank accounts priorities.

So when we see a Bishop covered up abuse here, or bishops and priests are embracing the latest, hippest, coolest values that all the important people of Today (TM) are embracing, we needn’t despair. There always have been bad apples, weak apples, corrupt apples, and apples wishing to be the court prophets of their age. But like those majority of planes that land safely every day and don’t make the news, most bishops, like most religious, are faithful to the calling, working to guide the flocks to a full relationship with God through Christ Jesus as lived out in the Sacramental life of the Church. And that should give us comfort in times when the bad apples are given the headlines and used to pull us aside from the narrow path.

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