Wednesday, May 01, 2002
I have no time for this, but my two cents on keeping back from the collection plate: My thoughts are related to this post at Amy Welborn's site. In it, the writer calls for a slow regeneration of the Church, over a generation or more.
This may be the way it will go, but revolutionary change is not un-Catholic per se, though perhaps not the rule. I remember Chesterton said something about the problem with the women's rights revolution was not its existence but that it did not end -- it continued to revolt long after it was useful.
I think that it is sound policy to hold back every single dime from the diocese and every parish around. This is our chance for a limited revolution: not to change the rule of celibacy or rewrite the liturgy, but to tell bishops simply one thing: Stop the molesters. Certainly more faithfulness would cure this problem, but it is also amenable to worldly solutions like strict policies regarding molesters and seminaries.
For all the worldliness that the bishops have manifested, it seems a solid policy to hit them in their worldly soft middle. We can strike while the iron is hot, effect a true change, and then let the leaven of a more faithful, etc., etc. generation work even more good in the Church. Certain bishops seem almost immune to pleas for decency, so why not appeal to their more corrupt nature?
The momentum is on the side of the laity; if we lose it, the change may indeed come over a generation, but with much sorrow in the meantime.
-Jimmy Tomato
This may be the way it will go, but revolutionary change is not un-Catholic per se, though perhaps not the rule. I remember Chesterton said something about the problem with the women's rights revolution was not its existence but that it did not end -- it continued to revolt long after it was useful.
I think that it is sound policy to hold back every single dime from the diocese and every parish around. This is our chance for a limited revolution: not to change the rule of celibacy or rewrite the liturgy, but to tell bishops simply one thing: Stop the molesters. Certainly more faithfulness would cure this problem, but it is also amenable to worldly solutions like strict policies regarding molesters and seminaries.
For all the worldliness that the bishops have manifested, it seems a solid policy to hit them in their worldly soft middle. We can strike while the iron is hot, effect a true change, and then let the leaven of a more faithful, etc., etc. generation work even more good in the Church. Certain bishops seem almost immune to pleas for decency, so why not appeal to their more corrupt nature?
The momentum is on the side of the laity; if we lose it, the change may indeed come over a generation, but with much sorrow in the meantime.
-Jimmy Tomato
# posted by Peter @ 7:01 PM 
