Boston Herald columnist Margery Eagan, notorious for her heterodox views, profiles a Catholic woman who is beginning to abandon the Church. See, this woman is disturbed by the bishops’ actions in the Scandal (who isn’t?) and while she still prays with her son every day, she doesn’t go to Mass anymore. Oh, by the way, her husband is a lawyer for 70 alleged victims of pervert priests.
So, as I was saying, this woman doesn’t want to go to her parish anymore because she’s afraid her pastor won’t want to discuss the role of gay priests in the Church.
Note: Eagan makes a bizarre comment (not unusual for her):
- She works with her husband, Carmen Durso, a lawyer representing 70 alleged victims of predator priests. Not one of these men, by the way, could pursue his case under the bishops’ 10-year statute of limitations proposal.
Wrong! For one thing, the statute does not prevent any action in civil court which is where they’re pursuing the case anyway. For another, the norms provide a very specific mandate that the bishop shall seek an extension of the statute in notorious cases.
The thesis of the column is that because some Church leaders did abominable things, that somehow validates their reasons for wanting to throw out the Church’s teachings.
- Rosanne Zuffante says she can’t reconcile so much of the church’s actions anymore. Her husband, divorced before he married her, cannot receive communion for the “sin” of remarrying. “But who are these people to tell me how to live my married life?” Or how to live anything else?
They are the successors of the apostles. And it’s not their words and teachings that you’re rejecting, it’s God’s. If you don’t believe in the moral authority of your bishop or priest, then who will you listen to? Are you truly seeking Truth and God’s will? Or are you just going to abandon the search altogether? And note how the two women make the primary mistake of confusuing the Church and the bishops: “...she can’t reconcile so much of the church’s actions anymore.” The Church is not the bishops, it is the Bride of Christ, His Body, and it is the Voice of the Holy Spirit and it is the expression of the Love and Will of God in the world.
My question for anyone thinking of leaving the Church because of the Scandal: Are you sure you’re leaving out of a conviction that the Church is not the Kingdom of God or is it just a convenient excuse to abandon that which has become inconvenient or embarrassing?
