On the back of my car I have a sticker that says, “Proud to be Catholic”. With all that has happened in the recent sex abuse scandal some people might wonder how I could be proud to be Catholic and continue to publically acknowledge that. Nonetheless, I am proud to be Catholic and I am also ashamed at what some of our Catholic priests and bishops have done or even failed to do. It is so sad that those Catholic priests, who performed all sorts of atrocious acts on Children, failed to live by their calling. They are very sick men. I think that it is even sadder that some of our Bishops hid what had been happening thus perpetuating more abuse. St. Luke, in Acts 20:28 talks to the bishops of the early Church saying “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.” Some day these bishops will be held accountable before the Lord. But even though these priests and bishops are a big part of the Catholic Church, they do not account for the whole of the Catholic Church. The Church itself is Holy. St. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians Chapter 2, verses 20 through 22 says “Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” The Church is Holy, but these men are human and are sinners.
We have to remember that for 2,000 years, the Church has been the presence of Jesus to the world. The Catholic Church put together the bible that we use. It is God’s word and we deliver it to a world that needs it so badly. Every day, in just about every area in the world, the Church brings forth the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and continually offers to the sick (and dying) the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick as well as the other Sacraments. Besides all those things that you would expect the Church to do, it “has been the means of reducing more languages to writing than have all other factors combined. It has created more schools, more theories of education, and more systems than has any other one force. More than any other power in history it has impelled men to fight suffering, whether that suffering has come from disease, war or natural disasters. It has built thousands of hospitals, inspired the emergence of the nursing and medical professions, and furthered movement for public health and the relief and prevention of famine.” – Kenneth Scott Latourette, Sterling Professor at Yale University: A History of Christianity, Vol. II, originally published by HarperCollins Publishers 1953, revised 1975, pp.1470,14.
In Saint John’s Gospel (13:35) we read, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.” For me, the Catholic Church excels at showing the love of Jesus to all people (not just its own). Matthew Kelly tells us, “Every day the Catholic Church feeds more people, clothes more people, houses more people, and educates more people than any other organization in the world…” That is something to really be proud of. Statistics provided by both Forbes Magazine and Business Week confirm this statement. They state that, “The Catholic Church is indeed the largest charitable organization on the planet BY FAR.” Some of the statistics are quite interesting. Charity and healthcare centers run in the world by the Church include: 5,391 hospitals, most of them in America (1,627) and Africa (1,295); 16,610 dispensaries, mainly in Africa (5,181); America (4,731) and Asia (3,520); 604 Care Homes for people with Leprosy, mainly in Asia (296) and Africa (187); 16,270 Homes for the elderly, or the chronically ill or people with a disability, mainly in Europe (8,348) and America (4,086); 9,924 orphanages, mainly in Asia (3,934); 12,376 nurseries, mainly in Asia (3,247) and America (3,435); 14,551 marriage counseling centers, mainly in America (5,546) and Europe (5,666); 3,776 social rehabilitation centers and 38,484 other kinds of institutions.
To me the Catholic Church is the very presence of Jesus in the world. It continues to bring His healing and compassion and teaching and presence to those who need it so badly. It is made of human beings who often fail at being what God calls them to be, but it is empowered by the Holy Spirit and will continue the mission God has given it. I have no doubt that Satan loves to try to pull apart the Church. Satan knows how to use human weakness to harm the Church, but, as Jesus says, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). I am proud to be a Catholic. I will continue to love my Church and do whatever I can to build it up. I will support all those many good priests and bishops that we have who have been so hurt by this scandal. I will also pray for all of the victims of the abuse and for all who have been affected by it. I will be vigilant in fighting the evils that are attacking and are within the Church. St. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Our Church is the Body of Christ, the Victor!