By BARBARA SIMPSON
I pity the poor Catholics who grew up at a time when the teaching of their Church and the actions of the clerics made some modicum of sense. What’s going on today, must be driving them crazy — if not away from the Church.
In those bygone days, there really weren’t any major public disagreements in the interpretation of religious beliefs and practice.
That’s not to say that everyone agreed about everything, but at least those disputes were relatively quiet and behind the scenes.
As a result, average Roman Catholics were able to live their religious lives relative smoothly. They might have difficulties dealing with their own personal sins and how to face their Confessions, but at least those were private disputes dealt with their own conscience, their confessor priest and God.
It is totally different today. The religious disputes and disagreements in the Catholic Church are headlines in media and on the Internet. Whether what is reported is accurate or even true, often doesn’t matter. The disputes make good headlines and good talking points, especially for those people who just don’t like Catholics.
Unfortunately, there are many of those.
In addition to the publicity given to religious disputes in the Church, there are now several generations of clergy who seem to play to the media and enjoy the notoriety. There might have been a time when people like that would have been given the word to “stop!” but that doesn’t seem to happen now.
I take that back. It does happen, but only to clergy who try to follow the traditional beliefs and actions of their Church. The “woke” factions in the hierarchy step in and shut them down — removing them from their parishes and even ordering them not to perform their priestly duties any longer.
Did I say woke? Yes, I did. Believe it or not, that mentality has pierced the walls of Catholicism and the effect is not good. It’s hard to know just where to look to see the effect, but a perfect place, since it’s in the headlines almost every day, is the Vatican.
Back in the “old days,” the activities of the Vatican were shielded and private. Very little made its way into the daily news and the average Catholic was lucky if he knew the name of the Pope much less the names of any of the other clergy in Rome. The Vatican was a different world. That’s not to say that all that happened there was as it should have been, but it was generally kept private.
Now, it’s almost an open book. We hear of sex scandals, of financial scandals, and of personal misdeeds. It certainly has raised concerns in the minds of average Catholics around the world who want to believe that their religious leaders are a cut above the average guy who has human failings.
What makes all of this worse is that the current Pope is almost always in the headlines, each time with him saying or doing something that raises the hackles of traditional Catholics.
Pope Francis really has turned out to be a divisive figure in the Church. Those who remember his activities in Argentina before he was Pope, are open about calling him a “Peronista” and “Marxist.”
While that may be strong language, and it is, you don’t hear or read about anyone defending Francis and saying the accusations are not true.
Francis has slowly watered down some of the teachings of the Church in terms of what is sinful and what isn’t. One issue that gained much publicity in this country is the question of whether Catholic politicians who support abortion should receive Holy Communion.
Francis has done nothing to tell those politicians, including President Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, that their support of abortion is sinful. In fact, he apparently supports them receiving the sacrament.
It leaves average Catholics not really knowing what the truth is of the situation. After all, if the Pope seemingly doesn’t mind, is it a sin?
Probably the main issue of controversy now is his declaration that parishes, for the most part, stop offering the Traditional Latin Mass. This has instigated fury not only across this country but literally across the world. The TLM has been celebrated for thousands of years in Church history but now, Francis has decided we are to stop.
Actually, the move is just another of the actions of many Church leaders to eliminate traditional worship from the Church following the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965. During the postconciliar period, Catholic worship changed drastically and, in fact, in the minds of many, it came to resemble Protestantism more than traditional Catholicism.
As parishes across the country try to adopt this new edict concerning the Mass, fury rises. In the District of Columbia, Wilton Cardinal Gregory, a supporter of Francis, ordered that Latin Masses be discontinued at all but three parishes in his diocese.
The same decision was made by Blase Cardinal Cupich of Chicago — his edict took effect August 1 and affects all of his parishes.
What’s notable is that interest in the Latin Mass has increased, and, in fact, younger Catholics are the ones who are most upset about the edict. They support the Latin Mass and are being deprived of it by the leader of their religion. They do not understand what is going on and are not happy.
The most recent action by Pope Francis was his trip to Canada last week to “apologize” to indigenous people for how the Church allegedly treated their children years ago in government schools in that country.
In fact, it was Canadian government policy, for nearly a hundred years, to remove the children from their homes and put them in government schools, most of which were run by the Catholic Church.
There have been reports of mistreatment of the children, though not all of them, and reports that many of the kids died.
In fact, there was a “scandal” that hundreds of unmarked graves have been found, with the allegation that children are buried there. Some headlines screamed that 215 children are buried there. The New York Post called it the “grisly story about a mass grave.”
Unfortunately, ground-penetrating radar has not confirmed that story and in fact, at this point, not one grave has been unearthed nor are there any human remains. Despite that, The New York Times reported that more than 1,000 people, mostly children, are buried on the grounds of the schools. In fact, last year, the Canadian government and media claimed a mass grave had been found and that the Catholic Church was responsible.
Pope Francis’ highly publicized trip was to apologize for the role of the Catholic Church in the Canadian school situation, but he did not claim the Church was responsible for deaths or any of the so-called graves. He met with native people and asked for their forgiveness. Despite the fact that he needed to use a wheelchair, he actively met with many groups and in fact wore a native headdress to show his commiseration with the native people.
How any of this may change the reaction of people about the Church remains to be seen. From what I’ve read, I don’t think it will have any effect at all. Unfortunately, those who hate will continue to do so.
Hate is something the Catholic Church knows all too well — it has experienced it many times in its history.
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