WHO IS REALLY SUPPORTING POPE BENEDICT AND THE CHURCH?

WHO IS REALLY SUPPORTING POPE BENEDICT AND THE CHURCH?

Easter Sunday evening just after the end of the 7:30 pm Mass all the lights went out in our area of Kingston. Not surprisingly St. Paul The Apostle church was not miraculously spared!! Music, as I have said, can be off key whether it is in a bar or a church.

That does not deny in any way the presence of the Risen Jesus in the community of the church. The church is unique.

The church does however share the realities of human life and society.

It is not surprising then that under pressure the humanity of the Catholic Church family responds like a dysfunctional family. A “normal” family under pressure, will frequently cover up and deny. Those who support a person or persons in such denial are termed “enablers”.

Well intentioned as it is they actually allow the person or person and the family to continue in a destructive pattern. The "enabler" is the spouse who covers up for the alcoholic or the well meaning friends who turn a blind eye to abuse.

Under the guise of support they actually undermine the person(s) and the family. They do not offer true support.

The comments of Cardinal Angelo Sodano before the Easter Mass in Rome on Easter Sunday I suggest are in the category of “enabler”. So too the comments of the papal preacher, Father Raniero Cantalamessa on Good Friday. Not surprisingly the Vatican had to quickly distance itself from those remarks and Father Cantalamessa had to later apologize. All that does not help Pope Benedict or the Catholic Church.

The true supporters of Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church are rather leaders such as Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard of Belgium who stated “With guilty silence it often gave preference to the reputation of certain men of the church over the honour of abused children”. Archbishop Leonard goes on to say, “For decades the church, like other institutions, has badly managed the problem of pedophilia in its ranks while it had an evangelical obligation to protect the dignity of these children”.

Speaking the truth in love is the way to truly support Pope Benedict and the church.

Yes, it is appropriate for Cardinal Sodano to offer the support of the church family to Pope Benedict during this difficult time. That support needs include a call and encouragement to face the difficult “family” truth with absolute transparency and accountability. Referring to the present situation as “petty gossip” is enabling and not truly supportive.

Archbishop Mancini of Halifax (Homily Mass of Chrism March 31, 2010) has stated, “There is no doubt that our Church is in the middle of a huge storm. From the Pope down to our local parishes, we are being hit by a violent wind of protest and criticism, and not without cause”.

This storm as Archbishop Mancini states is "not without cause”. Referring to it as “petty gossip” as did Cardinal Sodano in Rome on Easter Sunday is not supportive of Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church. Nor is it helpful to the rank and file in the Catholic Church, clergy and laity, who must face this family crisis in our daily lives – at work and among our families and friends.


To quote Archbishop Mancini of Halifax again, “Perhaps too many of us have forgotten that true transformation comes about only by the power of love, and not by the love of power. When we forget this, when love is no longer what drives us, then the Church is no longer an assembly of Disciples of Christ. It becomes an organization obsessed with self-perpetuation; and motivated by its own goals and objectives.”

There is hope.

As I stated in my Easter homily, “This may well be the most authentic Easter we have celebrated in the church for decades if not centuries. We are more in tune this Easter with the confused, doubting, angry, disillusioned disciples of the post resurrection scripture passages than we have been in a long time.