Healing the wounds

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen! Alleluia! Alleluia! - That dear friends is probably the only uplifting comment you will read in these "Young Voices" pages. Definitely not "Easter" kind of "Young Voices". Mind you, from my reckoning, all of the NCR choices as "straw" representatives of "Young Voices" tend to regurgitate the very doctrinaire points of view of the cheerless "Sponsors" that recommended them to NCR...

When will this author be ready to apologize for her promotion of women's ordination, gay marriage, birth control, and her associations with anti-Catholic groups like Call to Action, and dignity. Her voice here is one that unfortunately is followed by some, will she apologize to them for leading them away from Christ and his church? She's great at questioning what's in the hearts of others when they apologize, but can she even see her own sins for what they are?

Great article, Nicole. After reading about the boycott at Notre Dame by some of the the bishops and their statements regarding the practice of Reiki, they have lost credibility with me until they apologize for that as well.

These young people are doing exactly what Jesus did: challenging the authority of a lifeless, unthinking, monolithic and highly politicized hierarchy whose time had passed. I commend them for their intelligence and their generous dedication to the people of God. Without these dedicated and courageous members of the younger generation, our church would die out with those who are currently corrupting it. Alleluia, Christ is risen yet again.

I am a "semi-old' voice, but I think Nicole Sotelo is totally right.

Just like the criticism of White House officials of being INSULATED from the real world, this is the only practical explanation that makes sense with these out-of-touch Vatican/hierarchical pronouncements.

The hierarchy need to go visit their brothers' and sisters', nieces', and nephews' homes and experience real life. They need to change diapers, clean some toilets, hand-wash dishes for a couple of weeks, take out garbage; plant and weed a garden, and go minister in nursing homes all night, for a couple of months.

They would change their tunes, after getting out of their SAFE, PROTECTED, ivory tower lives.

Yes, the apologies from the leadership of the Catholic Church raise questions of their actual motivation - to recover public relations or to personally acknowledge regrets and contrition which then can lead to change in behaviors. The leadership appears to prefer "confrontation" as the foundation of their approach to problems. In their "nakedness" of doing so, the bishops reveal their limitations of guiding the People of God.

Yes, Nicole.

From a lay Dominican graduate seminarian---per Aquinas, "seldom affirm, never deny, always distinguish." If there is no credible evidence of self-giving loving (or in the case of the hierarchy, footwashing---which evidences humbly giving self as the Christ did), the Spirit is not as actively present as She (gender as historically characterized in Scripture) should be in the activity of the Church (regardless of whom is being examined)... ALL of the Church is wounded by our original wound (sin), and ALL of us should own it and work with it (none of us is holier than another because ALL of us are equally graced---mindless worship of the hierarchy can be idolatrous); and talk is cheap, actions provide the close reading of the human text!

Not to mention that the hierarchy certainly has NOT modelled the collaboration of Paul's kin-dom, either within the college of bishops or with the entire Body of Christ... unfortunately they appear to model power over, not power with, which is how the Christ ministered...

yes, mirrors hurt and often they lead to true conversion...

Nicole does not believe that these apologies are heart-felt? Such arrogance! How can she know? Pope Benedict XVI also pologized to victims in the United States (how quickly we forget that!) and scheduled a meeting with victim representatives during his pastoral visit last year. He apologized then because he was here -- his apology could be given directly to the victims and to the local Church so damaged and hurt by the acts of a few sick priests.

The US bishops have instituted policies in every diocese to screen out potential abusers. At least they are trying! It is totally impossible to screen out every potential abuser, after all we cannot read minds (though, clearly, some people expect that of the Church and her leaders). What the bishops have not done is to open the door to every possible lawsuit imaginable.

The reality is that the bishops have offered help when they can and are able, but they also have the responsibility of insuring that their dioceses can still function, that schools can remain open, parish churches still operate, the poor and needy can still be helped, seminarians still be educated. The truth is that for every penny the Church has spent on legal defense and in payouts to lawyers and victims, that means one less penny the Church can spend on students, parishes, soup kitchens, shelters, seminarians, young adults, elderly and infirm parishioners, etc. I applaud the bishops for saying that, despite the fact that we have an obligation to try to atone for the sins of our priests, we also have an obligation to see to the other ministries of the Church, ministries that benefit a far larger number of people than payouts do.

As for the rest, Nicole, like so many writers for NCR, seems to think that, if the Church does not bend to her will and create God in her image, then the Church and its leaders are not being honest, they are not genuinely interested in forgiveness. The truth is that the Church has been teaching and preaching the message of Christ for 2000 years. The Church has been safeguarding that message, a message that does not change, though its method of delivery may. Women have never been ordained priests. Gay marriage has never been permitted. Abortion has always been condemned as a moral evil, and on and on. When will writers like Nicole apologize for their arrogance, for their lack of humility in accepting the wisdom of God's Church? When will they apologize for the nails that they drive into the hands of Jesus by their intentional efforts to rend His Body, the Church, asunder?

I'm not holding my breath.

"The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their churches."

Slightly modified comment attributed to William H. Borah