Change Catholic Mores and Everything Will be Honky-Dory

Folks, yesterday I hear this NPR News Story Pope Opens Holy Week Amid Sex Abuse Scandals, an interview with Paddy Agnew, the Vatican correspondent for the Irish Times. He concludes his analysis this way:

Mr. AGNEW: Until it is seen that a pope - and I can't believe it will be this pope - is willing to face some of the most serious problems in the church, by this: the role of woman, the role the lay, the question of the celibate priesthood, or the whole variety of areas of teaching on sexual mores - unless those change, the Catholic Church could be in for some very lean days in the future.

Listen to the story here.

Commentary. Let me start by pointing out the obvious: if these evil men had remained faithful to their vow of CELIBACY, these violations would have never taken place. The problem is not celibate chastity, but the failure to live the vow by men who solemnly promised it. Now, this failure has several causes including a very important one pointed at by the Pope in his recent letter to the Irish Catholics:

4. In recent decades, however, the Church in your country has had to confront new and serious challenges to the faith arising from the rapid transformation and secularization of Irish society. Fast-paced social change has occurred, often adversely affecting people's traditional adherence to Catholic teaching and values. All too often, the sacramental and devotional practices that sustain faith and enable it to grow, such as frequent confession, daily prayer and annual retreats, were neglected. Significant too was the tendency during this period, also on the part of priests and religious, to adopt ways of thinking and assessing secular realities without sufficient reference to the Gospel.

No doubt the Pope speaks of the excessive reliance on psychological methods, specifically talking therapies, that for decades were thought to be adequate therapies to cure sex abusers and restore them to service. This was the standard treatment in the 60's and 70's, following the "sexual revolution" which led to a relaxation of morals in many Catholic seminaries and institutions of higher learning. This situation also opened the door to the uncritical assimilation of Eastern mystical disciplines, and New Age psychobabble.

That's why I think that Paddy Agnew's "solution" is not to be taken seriously. What got us where we are today is not the "rigidity" of Catholic mores or adherence to Apostolic Tradition. What got us here was their erosion. Mr. Agnew's solution would not save the Church, but kill her.

I prefer a leaner, meaner Church, faithful to the Gospel and Apostolic Tradition, to a "broader" Church that would be weak, unfaithful, and therefore, uncapable to mediate Christ's very presence in the world today.