Easter thoughts

I know that Easter came and went a few weeks ago now, but I had been struggling with some ideas related to faith and religion around that time and was trying to figure out if there was something worth saying on the blog.

For the weeks leading up to Easter the role of the Catholic hierarchy in the abuse of children was a subject I was following quite closely. My book club had read The Bishop's Man by Linden MacIntyre earlier this year, and some of the issues it raised seemed to be playing out in the news in the weeks leading up to Easter.

I read Andrew Sullivan's blog regularly, and he has confronted the role of the church in abuse of children head on on his blog, with several posts daily on the subject. His faith is central to his life, and so the idea that his church (which is my church as well at times) could do the things it has done disturbs him greatly.

I am not a regular church goer, although I do find that my Catholic upbringing has been central to a foundation of ethics for my life. I don't agree with a great deal of what the church advocates, and struggle with my own sense of faith and belief. But what I have been struggling with most recently is not a question of faith, but of what I see as simple morality. I truly believe that we have a moral obligation to protect not just our children, but all children. In this the Catholic church not only failed miserably, but actually gave shelter and aid to those who damaged and abused the people who deserved our protection.

The church seems to have taken the road of protecting abusive priests in order to preserve itself. To me it is not even a question of whether these people should remain in the priesthood, but rather why are they not charged, convicted and put in prison instead of being shuttled between parishes.

All of this, and the 'spin' I kept coming across from the Catholic hierarchy was making it very hard for me to want to step into a church at Easter -- I haven't been going to church much this year anyways because of my training, but I was determined to go for the high holiday. I ended up being glad I did, because our parish priest did something I had yet to hear from any other person in authority in the church. His homily directly addressed the issue, and he took responsibility for the 'sins' of the church. His hope was that by confronting the issue we could at least start to heal. I was glad I went, and glad that I heard him. Unfortunately I haven't heard anything similar from anyone else, which depresses me.

I don't know if I can live a life of faith. But I'll keep wondering and wandering and let you know how I'm doing.