Why Remain Catholic?
I have at least one draft of a post open here to amplify and react to something written by Peter Kwasniewski, but I have to pause in order to make sure everyone I can reach reads his magnificent response to an anonymous seminarian's heartfelt question, Is There Any Reason I Should Remain Catholic?
The original lament is not specific to one pursuing the priesthood, by any means. As someone who listened to and read everything my husband, Phil Lawler, said and wrote about the liturgical and doctrinal crisis in the Church, as well as the abuse scandal (beginning in the early 90s as a real journalistic inquiry, after more than a decade of nameless suspicions); as someone who has read hundreds and possibly thousands of emails from Fr. Paul Mankowski and Phil to our group of friends, piling on examples and evidence of these dire (and connected) scandals, and contributed a few stories myself to the mix -- the sick and gut-wrenching trail of tears, most of which never even made it into the annals; as someone who strove to rescue a boy from the clutches of a priest fawned over by many, I too have had my share of anguish over my faith.
Call me naive, but I can remember a night in the early 2000s when I realized with a deep shock that our own bishops simply do not believe in Jesus Christ. They are, as a priest friend memorably preached, "functional atheists." I remember feeling the fool -- utterly betrayed, as if I had been left holding the bag of tricks we call Christianity.
The response Peter gives is the true and good one. I can't pull out quotes because you have to read the whole thing, in order, from start to finish. Let's heed what he says and stick together -- let's remain friends of Jesus Christ, of the saints, of truth, goodness and beauty, of tradition, and of each other!
Someone dear to me said, upon receiving yet another blow from the hierarchy, "We just have to get closer to the cross of Christ -- there is nothing left." Jesus Christ came to save us and He founded this Church. The Church is His Body and as such, will undergo everything that He underwent, including every step of His passion and crucifixion. To be with Him now and hereafter in His glory, we must be willing to suffer what He suffered. He loved us and will love us to the end.