(Continued ...)
A civilization governed by the Gospel
The Catholic Church finally won out, by virtue of the intrinsic strength of the good. And, little by little, aided by divine grace which never fails, she took the Greco-Latin decadents and the Germanic barbarians, converted them and educated them, and inspired the building up of a brilliant civilization whose apex, hitherto unattained, occurred in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
In this epoch, according to Pope Leo XIII, “States were governed by the philosophy of the Gospel.” Then, “the power and divine virtue of Christian wisdom had diffused itself throughout the laws, institutions, and morals of the people, permeating all ranks and relations of civil society.” The harmonious relation between religious and temporal power, “bore fruits important beyond all expectation, whose remembrance is still, and always will be, in renown, witnessed to as they are by countless proofs which can never be blotted out or ever obscured by any craft of any enemies.”
It was during this time that the Church developed scholasticism, built the Gothic cathedrals (with their stained-glass windows and monuments), created the universities and the hospitals, encouraged the sciences and technical progress, perfected international relations between states, abolished slavery, advanced social progress, raised the condition of women, in such a way that, in the fourteenth century, Europe had far surpassed all the other continents.
As a scholar of medieval technical progress of that epoch illustrates, “it was the building, for the first time in history, of a complex civilization which rested, not on the backs of sweating slaves or coolies, but primarily on non-human power.”
The greater the advances made by historical and scientific studies on this material, the more this truth will come to light and unmask the myth that the Middle Ages was a backward era of oppression. Specialized literature in this field is multiplying.
Why accuse only the Church?
Notwithstanding, there are always minorities at odds with the dominion of virtue, of truth and of good, so that, periodically, the Church sees itself the victim of new onslaughts.
One of the preferred procedures continues to be that of accusing the Church of precisely the wrongs that the world itself is not ashamed to commit. Who are the principal destructors of childhood innocence today? Who promotes an unstoppable pornography, which respects neither age nor dignity, and which incites all types of sexual crimes? Who are the ones exerting generalized pressure on schools to initiate children in immoral practices? Who pushes for changes to the law so that Christian influence may be abolished and substituted with the paganism of old? These questions beg answers; it is a theme worthy of a future study.
Let us consider the accusation of paedophilia. As specialists affirm, based on the latest research, the majority of these crimes are committed in the family home itself, and the abusers are principally the stepfathers, who are followed, sadly, by biological parents, other relatives and by the boyfriends of the relatives of victims. Curiously, never has an adversary of the Church requested a serious study on the relationship between the degradation of the family — the main cause of the existence of millions of stepfathers — and the crimes of paedophilia, or demanded an investigation on the dangers of bringing boyfriends into the house where minors reside.
In passing, it can be noted that the mass of paedophiles is made up of married men. It is also noteworthy that all religions have members involved in cases of paedophilia, and some in gigantic proportions. Why, then, raise an international campaign only against the Catholic Church?
Unmistakable proof of the sanctity of the Church.
We emphasize once again: it was the Catholic Church who, ever faithful to the teachings of her Founder, ended the practice of paedophilia in the West and inspired a horror of it.
Therefore, those who attack the Church in this regard are using against her, a value that is her own, thereby implicitly recognizing that she is unassailable from the standpoint of the counter-values of the world.
In other words, the opponents themselves are providing evidence that the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church is substantially holy.
The Catholic Church censures the world because it is corrupted. She calls for a high standard of chaste and pure conduct. The thick and fierce onslaught of the enemies consists in accusing her of not practicing the morals that she herself implanted in society. This is the essence of the current publicity campaign with respect to paedophilia.
But how to implicate the Church for the misconduct of a minority of its members? One of the most authoritative studies regarding the problem of paedophilia, by Philip Jenkins, analyses the journalistic techniques that are used to emphasize, not the offenses of individuals, who happen to be priests, but rather their institutional context as giving rise to their behaviour. Suggestive titles, plays on words, and well-studied terms are used, such as, for example, giving a book the attention-grabbing title: “Lead Us Not into Temptation.” In turn, television programs about cases of paedophilia present a background of liturgical ceremonies, Gregorian music and priests in cassocks, so as to stigmatize the Church as a whole, and to produce a visual association between that which is distinctly Catholic and the stereotype of lascivious and shameless priests.
Although doctors, teachers, nurses and other professionals rank high in number among perpetrators of paedophilia crimes, would anyone be so absurd as to accuse all members of these professions, and debase the entire group, because of the crimes of a minority?
Meanwhile, this is what is being done in the case of Catholic priests. The shock that the sexual offences of a priest causes in public opinion — a shock which is warranted, since the Catholic Church is the only institution that expects its members to be spotlessly pure and its priests to be saints — is something that the adversaries know well how to exploit.
The substantial sanctity of the Church
The question remains as to how the Church can maintain her holiness in face of evidence that some priests have committed these grave crimes.
In reality, the strongest argument against the Catholic Church has always been the lives of bad Catholics. However, the presence of unworthy members within the Church of Christ should not cause surprise. Jesus Himself compared His Church to a net that catches good and bad fish (cf. Mt 13:47-50); to a field where the weeds grow together with the wheat (cf. Mt 13:24-30); to a wedding feast, at which one of the guests appears without a wedding robe (cf. Mt 22:11-14).
Nevertheless, the Church will always remain stainless, as Saint Paul emphasizes: “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so as to present the church to himself in splendour, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind ― yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish” (Ef 5:25-27).
The same does not apply in other earthly institutions. Since they are merely human, the failures of their members may tarnish them. The Church is the only institution that has a divine dimension. Therefore, despite the faults of its human dimension, its substance always remains pure. She is holy, because her Founder is holy: she is the Immaculate Spouse of Christ. Only men within the Church are sinners; Holy Mother Church cannot sin.
“She is therefore holy,” Paul VI points out, “though she has sinners in her bosom, because she herself has no other life but that of grace: it is by living by her life that her members are sanctified; it is by removing themselves from her life that they fall into sins and disorders that prevent the radiation of her sanctity.” Therefore, this rule applies to any member of the Church, including those who belong to the clergy: they only err when their love for the Church diminishes and they slacken in their commitment to her.
“In this perspective,” says Cardinal Biffi, Archbishop Emeritus of Bologna, “it becomes clear that all of our faults — small or great — not only constitute an infidelity to the love that links us to the Father, belittling the redeeming work of Christ, and resisting the sanctifying action of the Holy Spirit, but they also outrage and inflict suffering upon the Church. Every contradiction with our baptism is always an ingratitude against she who brought us forth in baptism; it is an attack against her beauty as Spouse of the Lord; beauty that, in human eyes, becomes obscured through our reprehensible act. […] But we, at least, though we sin almost as they, are accustomed to daily asking for the pardon of our dear Mother for all that we have thought, said or done in a spirit that is not fully ‘ecclesial.’”
Sinners do not belong to the Church by reason of their sins, says Cardinal Journet, “but for that which still remains in them of gifts from God, by reason of sacramental character, faith, theological hope, their prayers, and their remorse. They are linked, so to speak, to the just. They are found in the Church provisionally, to be, one day, either definitively reintegrated or separated from her. They are in the Church, not in a salvific manner, but as paralyzed persons in respect to her more elevated and significant activities.”
Clearly, the Church “does not expel sinners from within her bosom, but only their sin; she continues to maintain them in the hope of being able to convert them. She fights within them against the sins they have committed.”
Emphasizing the sanctity of the Church which is not stained by the sins of her children, Cardinal Journet calls attention to her intimate relationship with each of the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity: from all eternity, the Catholic Church is known and loved by the Father. She is founded by His Son, who came to redeem us by the Cross. And she is vivified by the Holy Spirit, who came to establish His dwelling in her. “The entire Church thus appears as a people united, in the image of the oneness of the Father, Son and Spirit, de unitate Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti plebs adunata.”
The relationship of the Mother of God with the Holy Church is another factor of her sanctity. Knowledge of the true doctrine on Mary will always be a key to understanding the mystery of Christ and of the Church. The Sanctity of Our Lady is reflected in the Church; her virginity, her purity, her openness to the will of God. The angels and the blessed in heaven also preserve the Church in sanctity, ennobling her worship of God.
All of the works of the Church have the sanctification of men in Christ and the glorification of God as their goal. However, she could not realize this finality if she were not holy. Thus, even if, on this earth, she be governed by and composed of sinners, she is indefectibly holy, as is proven by the abundant fruits of sanctification that she has produced. One outstanding sign of this sanctity is the voluntary observance of the evangelical counsels, by which hundreds of thousands of men and women renounce everything that they could legitimately have in this life ― family, possessions, freedom to make their own decisions ― to totally imitate Jesus Christ.
The Church has the courage to demand that all of her children combat sin. Many souls say “yes” to this appeal; however, the good that they practice generally remains hidden. Evil receives much more publicity in this world, since its boldness grabs everyone’s attention. Be that as it may, men and women of extraordinary sanctity are never lacking to the Church, and as an instrument of sanctification, she undergoes a continual renewal.
It is, therefore, a grave error to propose modifications to the ecclesial structure. When “people start to question the value of the priestly commitment as a total entrustment to God through apostolic celibacy and as a total openness to the service of souls,” noted Benedict XVI during his trip to Brazil, “and preference is given to ideological, political and even party issues, the structure of total consecration to God begins to lose its deepest meaning. How can we not be deeply saddened by this?”
The full document may be found here:
http://www.arautos.org/desagravo/?lang=en
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Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, EP, is Honorary Canon of the Papal Basilica Saint Mary Major in Rome, Supernumerary Apostolic Protonotary, Doctor of Canon Law from the Angelicum, Master of Educational Psychology from the Catholic University of Columbia, Doctor Honoris Causa from the Italo-Brazilian University, Member of the Thomas Aquinas International Society (SITA) and of the Pontifical Academy of the Immaculata, Founder and Superior General of three entities of Pontifical Right: International Association of the Faithful, Heralds of the Gospel; Clerical Society of Apostolic Life, Virgo Flos Carmeli; and the Society of Apostolic Life, Regina Virginum.
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