For several years I've been a volunteer at a big, old, beautiful Catholic monastery-church in DC. This came about because of my interest in beekeeping. The Monastery has a robust beehive operation and I volunteered to be a helper. When I got a call back from the volunteer people at the Monastery I was asked if I was interested in any other kind of volunteer work and I said "sure, what do you have in mind?" They had in mind minor office work, which is right up my alley -- I like the busywork of office work. So I've been going to the Monastery once a week for years, and have enjoyed it immensely. Some good friendships have resulted, and I'm particularly close to the friar who runs the business office.
I'm not at all religious and if I had to check off a box I would have to check "agnostic, with an admiration for most, but not all, Buddhist thought."
The most recent scandal in the Catholic Church has made me question why I'm devoting my time and effort to this particular volunteer job. My work there has never been about religion or about god or about any particular belief. No one there has ever even asked if I'm religious and they do zero proselytizing. But suddenly I'm very self-conscious about just walking into the building. Does working there, or even visiting there, suggest that I'm OK with the scandal that seems to touch many corners of this religion?
What to do....
4 comments:
Wow, I'd have never thought of that. Any accusations against the Franciscans?
There are many wonderful and good Catholics, and I've seen them involved in many charitable causes in the community. I wouldn't like to tar them all with the same brush, ya know? But that's a question for your conscience.
Susan: you asked so I checked. Yep Franciscans involved too. In Pennsylvania. I never thought about checking that until you asked. I would like to discover that the head father at *my* monastery — he’s called a guardian — has spoken out publicly against this business but something tells me individual priests don’t go off script very often. Doug thinks I’m wrong and that the lead guy in a parish might speak to his congregants openly. I’ll find out.
If you take any group of people, especially one numbering millions, it is absolutely impossible to think that they would all act in moral, healthy, positive ways. Especially when those actions and behaviors are put to them as an imperative. Mathematically I would say it is impossible. Someone is going to do something on the sly--sticking their hand in a till, daydreaming during prayer, reading contraband, etc. Humans are more sinner than saint (in all likelihood).
Pope Pius XII and Benedict XVI were both associated with the Third Reich and acted largely in self-interest. Ratizinger, for example, was a member of the Hitler youth. Then there are the criminals hidden away in really swank surroundings -- left to live out their days in extreme comfort (www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/12/gay-clergy-catholic-church-vatican). Then there's the issue of secret funds and payoffs. So there's a long, well documented history of complicity and duplicity as far as I'm concerned. The Pennsylvania (and even Boston) scandals are maybe periods at the end of a very long sentence. And there's been hanky-panky among monks and priests and clerics and lay brothers for eons. Abbey life was wild! Rape, incest, homosexuality! "The land has been absolutely submerged under flood of fornication, adultery and incest, so that the very semblance of modesty is entirely absent." So they didn't call them lay brothers for nothing. And they had women, too. Lots of hanky-panky.
But the charity of many Catholics is virtually limitless: "Say what you want about me, but don't say a word about the Church . . . or Father Mulcahey." They will tell you that the church does far more good in the world then bad. There are many priests who are true to their vows, improve their communities, advocate for the poor, run powerhouse charities, and make a real difference in the spiritual lives of their parishioners.
A massive issue for me, though, is how little say Catholics have in the larger affairs of the church. Catholic churchgoers, including women and/or nuns, have so little say in the wider affairs of the church, affairs that are handled by a small cabal of mostly white men (as opposed to the demographics of the worldwide Catholic faithful). That is another argument in my mind for stepping back, one that leads to all kinds of potential reforms, including female clergy, non-celibate priests, lay leadership (akin to deacons and bishops), and all sorts of things that are likely to never come to be.
Goodness and purity are hard to find in the world. If you enjoy your time at the Monastery and it helps you, and you have some faith in their works and in the people with whom you deal, then I would serve. As individuals, they are innocent until proven guilty, or do we lump them in with the bad apples? You can make your feelings known, too, as best you can; they may welcome the dialogue.
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