Again, I am not jumping on a bandwagon to bash my Bishop-at least not in this case. He says he is innocent, and I will back that (like my opinion means anything if I did not). We know it is not uncommon for people to use situations like this for whatever reason in their own agenda. I also have some other thoughts I will keep to myself.
Yesterday I had the privilegde to listen to a local radio talk show host personality whining about how they could do this to "his Church" and "ecclesiastically rape him" for an hour as we sat in the car taking the kids to their bowling league. He presented the question "call in and tell me what you think, should priests get married?" Like a Dodo, I called in.
"Pansy calling from her cell..."
"Hello Mr. Martin. I am calling regarding the question 'If priests should marry?' No."
"Well. why don't you think they should marry?"
"My father is clergy, and it is very hard on the family. There is so much to do and be done, and he does not nerely have all thre responsibilities of a priest. It would be too hard, either the Church or the family would suffer."
"Your father is a priest?"
"No, sir a deacon."
"A deacon? What faith is that?"
"Roman Catholic, Sir"
"St. Peter was married and that's good enough for me. Anglican priests are married and their families do not whine that they feel neglected."
"I am not sure 'neglected ' is the term-"
"Let me talk! In the early Church, they stopped priests from getting married so they could not pass land on to their families and so they could control the priests. What other reason could you possibly have tpo believe priests should npot get married?"
"Because a priest stands in for Christ who is the Bridegroom of the Church-"
"THESE PRIESTS THAT ABUSE LITTLE CHILDREN ARE EVIL! EVIL! A PRIEST CANNOT GET UP AND PREACH HOW TO ACT RIGHT AND PERPETRATE THESE CRIMES-"
"Well of course their actions are evil-"
"I DON'T BELIEVE YOU OR YOUR EXPLANATIONS ANYMORE! THE CHURCH IS EVIL >click< BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!"
This is actually the typical Albany Catholic, and ofr a moment I forgot before I called that this was about Church bashing because he talked about how he was a reader at his parish, the local Catholic High School his son attends, his son's confirmation last year. Any time you talk Church anything. be it the sex abuse allegations, or a simple Parish Council meeting, all it is is a frenzy about how the Church is horrible, it needs to change. Why do people bother calling themselves Catholic? Oh well.
In the meantime, someone on the homeschool email list sent an email stating that the Bishop has a letter to be read in graphic detail (i.e. cover your children's ears) denying the allegations. Why can't you ever just go to Mass in this diocese? The driveway might be closed anyway...
Update: I thought the letter was not that bad graphically, and was timely. It also set my mind at ease. The fact that we must hear about "sexual abuse" from the pulpit more and more probably has more to do with the times than just the fault of the Bishop.
Sigh! I'll pray.