2 January 2010
Stephen T. BankoThe Church picks its sinners
The Roman Catholic Bishop of Providence RI has denied Rep. Patrick Kennedy access to the sacrament of Holy Eucharist. While “princes” of the Church have been impotent to address the scourge and scandal of pedophile priests in their midst, at least one is flexing his muscle on the subject of abortion in denying Kennedy communion. As Mel Brooks once put it, “it’s good to be king.”
But as loud and aggressive as the Church has been about abortion, it has been deafening in its silence about the mélange of other social issues that have transformed and undermined life in America. The denial of health care to nearly 50 million Americans has taken a back seat to the abortion issue as the Council of Bishops expressed a preference that no universal health care legislation be passed if it contains language funding abortion. The unprecedented initiation of “pre-emptive war” has attracted little attention and less commentary from the Catholic hierarchy. One wonders if any Catholic politicians who supported such war have suffered sacramental denial? Military leaders and a lot of elected officials seek a wider war in Afghanistan. Our unending wars have resulted in countless civilian deaths abroad and ever-increasing numbers of suicides and divorces at home. When last I checked, divorced was still contrary to Church law. Have any of those bellicose leaders incurred Catholic wrath? Do any of the bishops remember that “blessed are the peacemakers?”
And what of the financial community that has presided over the rape of the American middle class? Has the faith of Leo XIII, the working man’s pope, turned a blind eye to usury, the deception, and the avarice of those who have stolen so vigorously from the American people? How about oil companies executives who continue to prove that enough is never enough when it comes to gouging profit from working Americans? Surely some of them must be Catholic. Has there been any outcry from our religious leadership about this larcenous greed disguised as profit? We mustn’t forget the bankers and mortgage brokers who have destroyed the fabric of American life by turning the dream of homeownership into a recurring nightmare from which Americans can’t awaken. Lives have been destroyed. People are being made homeless. Are the brokers turned away from the communion plate? Do they warrant any attention from a Church once built around the sweat, faith and contributions of working men and women?
The silence surrounding the salient issues of our time is the sound track for the continuing saga of church abandonments, shrinking parishes and diminished legitimacy of the Church. Ambrose Bierce once defined hypocrisy as “prejudice with a halo.” Amen to that.
Copyright by Buffalo Report, 2010