Witch Hunts, Chesterton And Obligations

The Anchoress has once more, written from the front lines of the controversy swirling around the Catholic Church. In her post, More on the Witch Hunt, she continues her conversation of the real world issues facing the Catholic Church, as presented by the MSM. In her post, The Anchoress discusses gay priests, and touches on Church hierarchy and the pedophilia scandals that rocked the Church.

In talking of these matters, the MSM media carefully and deliberately crafts an illusion- that somehow, the Church appeals to homosexuals and others that are considered sexual deviants. Those of course, are ridiculous assertions. There are enough outlets to exercise gay sexuality and to participate and be a part of a gay community, to be found almost everywhere. One needn't attend a religious seminary for years and risk discovery when pedophilia materials can be downloaded from the Internet in the privacy of your own home. Pedophiles can do their deeds with a discount plane ticket to Thailand and risk nothing.

That is not to say that these problems don't exist- clearly, they do and they have been dealt with poorly. That said, there is a part of the conversation on the matter that is ignored by many and misrepresented by others.

The fact of the matter is that people go into religious vocations out of a sense of duty, or obligation. They do not choose that vocations to assert their 'rights.' They choose that vocation as a form of communal service, a calling, despite the challenges and temptations that some face. These problems are not unique to the Church. There are cops who have no business being cops. There are firemen, paramedics and other first responders to disasters that will pick your pockets or help themselves to your valuables at the first opportunity. There are pedophiles and immoral people to be found everywhere.

Still, the Church is different. Those who heed the call to serve want to save your soul and not your sofa, in a fire- and therefore are held to a different standard.

G.K. Chesterton wrote, "All conservatism, is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone, you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone, you leave it to a torrent of change." It seems those words, best of all describe recent Church response to negative events. The Church left things alone and did not get out in front of them- and they deservedly paid a steep price. Every organization has it's problems. How they handle those problems determines the effectiveness of that organization. The Church has undertaken the monumental task of attempting to elevate itself and become even more relevant in peoples lives.

It is easy to be an armchair critic. It is not so easy to deny the truth. Every day, the Church feeds millions of people a day, provides health care and education for millions more. The Church provides those basic human needs and rights for millions of people, Catholic and non Catholic, all over the globe, every single day. They do so out of a sense of obligation. There are people who feel and live that sense of obligation every single day, year in and year out. It isn't 'rights' that determine the relevancy and value of any Church or religious organization- for which society as a whole, can be grateful.

The Church will do what it must do, to fix the current crop of problems and other issues that will inevitably rise. The Church is accountable to it's adherents and and not the demands of media, notwithstanding the beliefs of network and cable news.

A few days ago, Maxed Out Mama said something that resonated with us.

”That Which Is (God) created the world so that it both had order and flux. The flux, in a physical sense, is present at the very lowest level of existence. You have to read up on physics to understand it, but the bottom line is that everything you see around you is rooted in particles that are fluxing in and out of physical existence.

What we are seeing in the travails of the Catholic Church are representative of the 'physical' Church. We ought not to forget the more important part of what the Church is and represents- the good things you cannot see and how they manifest themselves, every day. The strength of that Church doesn't lie in Rome. It is however, found in the pews, every day.