How Catholics View Their Church in 2010

There are at least five ways for Catholics to view their Church today. Each of those visions is tinged by the sexual abuse scandal that has touched Catholic Church congregations around the world. While the high water mark for revelation of abusive behavior and hierarchical enabling may have already been reached and passed, the memory of that horror and the continuing trickle of news about new predators continues to envelop the Catholic Church. leaving its members to think seriously about their relationship with their place of worship.

1. We've Had Enough, We're gone. For some baptized Catholics, either immediately or after some serious reflection, their view of the Church they once attended has been shattered beyond repair. The actions of pedophiles and the apparent lack of appropriate response by those in positions of Church responsibility has destroyed the ability of many former congregants to trust or rely upon the words and the work of ordained leadership.

For some the parting was immediate and based on instantaneous and overwhelming disgust . For others the split took more time possibly because of the shock and the need some people have to spend more time processing the hurt that has been done to them. Others held off leaving the Catholic Church for a time because they could not determine where to go next. In the end the result was the same. People left, and they left in large numbers. Some continue to leave as they move to the view that "We've had enough, we're gone."

2.I Still Need the Sacraments and a Funeral. As horrific as the sex scandals were and as closely as they touched many families, millions of disillusioned worshipers have remained actively Catholic. Their view of the Church has been altered by what they have read and seen on television about the offenders and the Catholic Church's inability or unwillingness to deal effectively with this huge in house problem. Still their ties to the Church have withstood the onslaught of nasty headlines and stark reality.

For so long they have lived lives built around the seven sacraments and a Catholic funeral that they cannot conceive of any other approach to the divine. Their ties to the Church are at least marginally stronger than the revulsion they feel towards its actions. They want a Church Baptism and someday Marriage for their children, the sacrament of the sick for their own parents and themselves and the opportunity to receive the Eucharist every Sunday as they have all their lives. They want the peace of mind that for some comes with the sure knowledge that when they die they will be brought to the church and receive the final blessings that the faith community has to offer. They want these things even when they know that some of the ordained clergy who administer the sacraments and perform the funerals in the past have been pedophiles. For these folks the need for spiritual security trumps anger and frustration with the Church every time.

3.This is All Probably Blown Out of Proportion. While some Catholics suck up their annoyance with the Church because they don't want to loose out on the sacramental life to which they are accustomed, other Catholics have found a way to simply see by the sexual abuse scandals. It's not that they deny what they have read in the papers they just have come to the conclusion that, as bad as the scandal was it was also very much expanded upon because of the coverage of a perhaps anti-Catholic, anti-religious press.

From this perspective people get to feel liberated, they admit the evil and yet can still somehow take the high ground and put some of the blame for the extent of the uproar onto the press. Some feel that while there were molesters in the ranks of the clergy, their particular church was never effected. The only priests they know are "good priests" . The view of this group is that the Church has dealt with the situation, has apologized, has paid out incredible amounts of money to victims and now it is time to return to normalcy without looking under rocks for any more trouble.

4.The Church is Guided by the Holy Spirit we need to stand by our faith. The most orthodox view perhaps is the one that reminds congregants that according to Church teaching it was Christ himself that formed the church when he was still on earth giving full authority to Peter, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to be "the rock" upon which the Church would be be built. If as a Catholic you accept this teaching then even though you have great disappointment in some members of the Church for their behaviors, you still hold fast to your connection to the "one true Church". There is nothing, not even the sinfulness of members of the Church leadership, that should divide you from the Church that Christ formed.

This view centers on the reality that we are all human beings, We all sin. We all are entitled to God's forgiveness. We all pledge each time we say the Lord's Prayer that we wish to be forgiven " as we forgive those who trespass against us". While we might not have thought about how grievous the trespass might be until now, the reality is our very prayer life calls upon us to forgive and move on.

5.Faith by Indirection. Finally some Catholics have put together rather an amalgam of the other four view points. They have a great fondness for the Church and acknowledge its foundation among Peter and the Apostles. They acknowledge the Christian need to forgive even the rankest offense. They want to remain in communion with the Church community through the sacraments. In fairness they admit that it probably is impossible for the Church proper to be as bad as it has been pictured.

But part of their thinking is also linked to wanting to distance themselves from those in authority. The sexual abuse scandal has reopened old wounds and discontents among a large segment of the Catholic population. For them because of the sexual abuse scandal, the Church no longer has the moral high ground that allows them to deny ordination to married men and women, to speak against birth control, to denigrate the lives of homosexuals.

What these Catholics want is the same creed but different actions. And so they follow what one might call faith by indirection. They disconnect themselves from all that they find unpalatable in the Church and hold on tightly to the rest. They don't cry out so much any more about the failings of the church, they simply ignore the institutional Church as a dominating force in their lives. Their faith in Christ is strong but their connection to the institutional Church is as weak as they can make it and still be able to receive the sacraments.

These five views of the Catholic Church today represent only a few of the many different ways in which Catholics have responded to the horror of sexual abuse by their ordained leaders. But they do provide a spectrum against which perhaps you can judge your own reaction to what has happended in and to the Church and its people in the years since the exposition of the rampant sexual abuse at the hands of priests and negligence on the part of Bishops.