Leaving the Catholic Church

About this sermon

I think it would be easy for me to be just succumb to the outrage and to refuse to share in the disgrace of what it means to call myself a Catholic. But I also think some perspective can be helpful. I want to try to share a message of hope through this video, but before I do, I think we need to admit some hard truths. In the past, my instinct on hearing stuff like this has been the defend the faith narrative. Yes, there are some bad priests and even a bad bishop or two, but the rate of abuse in the Catholic Church isn’t any higher than it is elsewhere… and so on. I think we need to finally come to terms with this and admit that the Catholic Church, in a unique way, has a problem here. There is widespread moral corruption in the clergy, and if recent allegations are true, it goes all the way to the top. But here’s the thing. The Church, isn’t the clergy, it isn’t the Pope, and it isn’t the parish or diocesan staff. The Church is the people of God… at least that’s what the catechism says that is as long as the current regime doesn’t try to change it. You and I are the Church and we have a choice. We can run away from this or we can stand and fight for our Church. We can fight the cancer that has grown inside of it and root it out. I take this as a test. A test of our reasons to call ourselves Catholic and to participate in the life of the Church. Because if our reasons have been, I like the flattery of being counted among a noble and ancient institution. Then that’s not gonna cut it anymore. I don’t go to Church to feel good about my association as a Catholic or to reinforce ideas about what a good person I am. I go to receive Jesus. I go because I recognize that I’m in need of his grace and mercy. I go to receive his body, blood, soul, and divinity, in the eucharist. For me to look at an unfolding scandal and say, “That’s it. I’m out and I’m never coming back.” It would be like hearing about widespread corruption in medical establishment and saying, well, I’m never going back to a Hospital again. It would be like hearing about widespread corruption in the law enforcement and the judiciary and using that as a reason to refuse to call the police when someone’s breaking into your house. I just don’t think there’s a lot of wisdom in that. If I were to succumb to that desire, I have to admit there’d be an attitude in it that’s saying, “I’m too good for this, so I’m going to withhold my association and my company from it as some kind of consequence for them. But what that would actually translate into is, “I’m too good for Jesus. I’m too good for the sacraments.” And that’s the most irrational thought a person who identifies as a Christian can have. And they don’t care. Those who are responsible for this garbage would be perfectly happy if people like me walked away. I’d only be hurting myself and my family by depriving them of sacramental grace. I’m hoping and praying that some good comes of these revelations. That we will see some actual, meaningful, reform and it’s going to take the voices of those who are outraged over it to stick around and make that known. Running away won’t change things. It won’t help victims and it won’t prevent future ones. Now is the time to have courage and stand strong. And lastly, can I just say, I’ve had conversations with people who are actual victims of this stuff and some of them are staying because they believe in Christ and they believe he meant for us to belong to his Church. If they’re staying in spite of what’s happened to them, I think that should sober up the rest of us who think it’s noble to act like victims on their behalf by leaving. So let’s start rebuilding the Church… and let’s start by ending tolerance for infidelity in our clergy. As soon as our pastors start to break with the consensus of the faith and its teachings, it’s not long before they set themselves up as their own authorities who can do whatever they want… and we’ve been tolerating that for too long. It starts and ends there. And we cannot ease the pressure for investigations. This needs to be investigated at every level and not internally. Independently. Let’s hope Pennsylvania was just the beginning and God willing, the days of corrupt priests and bishops are numbered. Twitter: https://twitter.com/briankeepsworth Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brianholdsworthmedia Business: https://www.holdsworthdesign.com

Topics

• Church & Fellowship
• The Church