Anger and Hope

For years I have been very angry at the Catholic Church, mainly for the handling of the sex abuse crisis by the Bishops and some Cardinals, and certainly the two Popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI.  I have, however, been able to differentiate the stupidity along with a state of denial of some members of the hierarchy from the basic teachings of the Church as a whole.  Because this is not a religious forum, I will leave out the basic faith teachings and mention the vast and wonderful treasury of the church relative to social justice issues. 

Over the past 15-20 years with the hierarchy whooping and hollering about abortion, homosexuality, and contraception, demanding that people accept every little pronouncement about each of these subjects, my anger grew exponentially.  For example, the insistence that one could not be pro-life unless one advocated the overthrow of Roe v. Wade.  Nothing was ever discussed as to whether this would have any effect on the abortion rate at all, or whether the result would actually be women dying from having unsafe abortions, whether in back alley clinics, or self-induced.  Someone, and I really wish I could claim this, thought up the term “pelvic issues”. 

Regardless, what angered me as well as this emphasis on pelvic issues was that the world seemed to be going to hell in a hand basket.  And what were the hierarchs concentrated on?  Pelvic Issues!!  For those unacquainted with the Gospels recording some of the life of Jesus, He never ever mentioned abortion, homosexuality or contraception, so these issues were not really important to what His teachings were.

Our country was engaged in an illegal war – actually two.  Iraq and Afghanistan.  Bush and Cheney claimed we had to invade Afghanistan because of 9/11, but the planes weren’t flown by Afghanis; they were flown by Saudis.  Our invasion of Iraq, supposedly over non-existent WMDs, was obviously about oil and the huge amounts of dollars to be skimmed from our government by Halliburton and KBR contractors. Our government was engaged in gutting the federal services that people down on their luck depended on, or were actually entitled to, and I don’t refer to “entitlement” programs.  Federal annuities to retired employees took many hits.  Local and state government pensions were attacked as causing the economic problems the country was having.  The philosophies of Ayn Rand and Ivan Boesky (of Greed is Good fame) took over the thinking of the radical right, leading to the cutting of taxes on the very wealthy and big corporations, cutting regulations on big banks allowing them to virtually destroy the economy of this country and the world.  And the federal government was lying, lying and lying some more to the American people about how the economy was strong, the war was going splendidly, and all was right in Washington’s heaven.

At the same time, the radical religious right began their push to destroy government services to the poor under the guise that it was the “Christian” thing to do.  Why?  Because then people would learn to rely on God rather than on government.  This is one of the reasons the radical right both hates and is frightened of socialism, or anything that they believe is tainted by socialism, like the Affordable Care Act.  People will rely on this government program and not God.  I believe they are smart enough not mention God in their ranting against government, so they use all sorts of tortuous logic such as people will lose their self-reliance, will become dependent, will stop working, will become lazy, will stop relying on God.

So what does this have to do with my anger with the Catholic Church?  I believe, whether one is fond of it or not, that it is the only worldwide institution that has a banner big enough that people of good will, whether Catholic, Christian or not, can use to prop up their smaller banners.  The Church has a recognized established authority figure that can express positive assertions that people of good intent will listen to.  In the past few years, the Church has failed dismally in fulfilling this mission.  It is my belief that people need a banner to follow, not blindly, but that can perhaps help lead the way to a different mode of thinking.

Enter Pope Francis.  He has already begun, in just a few short months, to change the way people are reacting to what has been going on.  Sure, people had already begun to act before he came on the scene, and a goodly number of people had never stopped trying to promote the common good.  Occupy Wall Street is a great example.  But the other night Jim Wallis of Sojourners was quoting the Pope on the need to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, find shelter for the homeless.  He recognized the need for this support. The Pope had a monumental prayer service in front of St. Peter’s for peace, and peace starts to break out.  I’m not sure if it was the result of the prayers, or just the fact that a recognized, established world authority figure was willing to get out in front of thousands and thousands of people and act for peace.  It let world leaders know that the people want peace, not war anymore.

I have hope that for a change the world has a leader who can talk about social justice issues that are universal longings in the hearts of most people and actually have world leaders listen.  What a novel concept.  Compassion and mercy taking the place of greed.  Hope springs eternal in the human heart.