The Roman Catholic Church is currently conducting a public relations disaster that threatens the credibility of the entire organization.
The Church's response to revelation of serious misconduct on the part of some of its clergy has been to stonewall and attack the criticism.
Pope Benedict has allowed himself to become Pope Richard Nixon....
"It ain't the crime, it's the cover-up"
Allow me to provide a little of my own background. I am an agnostic, heretical, lapsed Catholic, utterly uninterested in participation with the Church or its rituals or Sacraments. I come from a family of German and Irish Catholics from Philadelphia, I was indoctrinated into the Church at an early age, learned Church dogma from The Baltimore Catechism, went to Catholic elementary school (we went to the Chapel to pray for President Kennedy on November 22, 1963) and most of my surviving family members are faithful Catholics, including my 86-year old father and my aunt, who is a member of a religious community in Erie, Pa.
I learned skepticism and distrust of the Church at an early age, not from pedophile priests, but from enthusiastic parents who stuffed me into a hated, scratchy, tweed suit and dragged me off to Mass in 100 degree Orange County CA when I was 5 years old.
I drifted away from participation when I entered Junior High School, and drifted farther away while attending High School. The Wild and Woolly Hippie years dragged me even farther away from the Church, and the Hippie Jesus Revolution in the 1970's finished the job.
My experiences in the Hippie Jesus Revolution added a bit of understanding that I had lacked as a 1960's Catholic, the Protestants seemed to read the Bible more than I had seen anyone read it while participating as a Catholic in my adolescence (in the '60's, Catholics didn't read the Bible much, maybe they read it more now, I don't know...) As a result of going to church with Protestants, I wound up reading a pretty big chunk of the Bible, not all of it, like some of them claim, but certainly all the Gospels, The Acts, Revelation, most of the Epistles, and a lot of the "Old Testament," more than I'd ever read as a Catholic youth. I feel like I have at least some understanding of what Christianity is about, or at least ought to be about, and I've got an added benefit of having been involved with both the Catholic and the Protestant branches of Christianity.
Being a Catholic is a little like being in the Army. It's got a chain of command, complete with Generals, Colonels, and Lieutenants in the Holy Orders and a lot of Sergeants and Privates among the faithful, and this structure is very important to Catholics, but quite mystifying to our Protestant friends who are essentially a bunch of religious anarchists, at least compared to the Catholics.
The Catholic view has been that the Pope is Christ's representative on Earth, recalling Christ's words to St Peter that essentially said "what you allow or bar on Earth, I'll allow or bar in Heaven"
This connection to The Savior has rendered the Holy Father unassailable to Catholics, that any criticism of him or the Church is a criticism of Christ Himself, and cannot be allowed. Further, any criticism of The Holy Father by Protestants (or heretics like me) gets a knee-jerk response of "They are attacking Jesus"....
Let me suggest that they've gotten it way wrong ...They seem to have forgotten how humble Jesus was. One of the last things Jesus did on Earth, according to the Gospel, is he stripped down to his underwear, got on his hands and knees, and washed his disciples filthy, stinking feet.
Think of it. Here's GOD ALMIGHTY getting on his hands and knees and washing someone's feet! What an example of humility and service to others!
Meanwhile, the guy who's supposedly got Jesus' job while he's away, wears $2000 hand-made shoes and hand made clothing worth hundreds of thousands of dollars while leading the Faithful in prayer. Isn't it the Holy Father's job to stand in for Jesus on Earth? Would Jesus do ANYTHING we've seen from the Church or it's leadership? Anything at all?
(crickets)
"Well, whaddaya want him to do, Lefty?"
I want him to do Jesus' job, what would Jesus do if He was sitting in the Vatican with all this controversy and criticism? Would he allow his associates to utter disgusting anti-semitic rants from the pulpit in St Peters'? Or would he seek repentence and reconcilliation?
Jesus job was to TAKE THE BLAME not dodge it. I submit that it's the Holy Fathers' job to be the Holy Father and TAKE THE BLAME!
What would be the response of believers (and unbelievers!) if the Holy Father went on teevee and publicly took the blame for the scandal? I don't mean saying that he caused the scandal, just that the Church is at least partially responsible for the scandal and that he's going to lead the Church in seeking God's forgiveness and God's help in binding up the wounds of the suffering.
What would happen if he ditched the hand-stitched garments, donned torn sack cloth and rubbed ashes on his face and in his hair and went before the congregation and declared a year of repentance, a year of going barefoot and mitre-less, a year of prostrating himself before God in his daily Mass?
I'm not suggesting that this is all that needs to be done, but if the Holy Father wants to regain respect for his authority as Christ's Representative on Earth, he needs to do what Jesus would do!
I hope that Catholic folks aren't outraged by my thoughts on this subject. I have tried to avoid any intentional bashing of the Church or of believers, even though I'm pretty outraged by the behavior of the leadership. I don't currently have internet access at home, so I won't be around to engage in the comments, mea culpa....