ARCC spot LIGHT (analysis of Church issues offered by the ARCC Publications Committee, R. Schutzius, ed.)
How much truth is too much truth?
March 1, 2009
"Societies cannot survive without authoritative institutions. But which authoritative persons or institutions can withstand constant critical scrutiny? In our culture, we are predisposed to see damage done from failing to question authority. We are far less capable of grasping the destruction that can come from delegitimizing authority with corrosive suspicion. How much reality must we choose to ignore for the greater good of our own souls, and society?" Rod Dreher (a Dallas Morning News columnist and author of the Crunchy Con blog on Beliefnet.com).
Do we blame the killings of Lincoln, JFK, and Martin Luther King on the American people? Are we all responsible for the Salem witch trials? These examples and others like them occurred right here in the good old USA, but no one blames us all. So why do we blame the Jews for the murder of Jesus? "Let us pray for the perfidious Jews" has been the Holy Week prayer for centuries. Why not "Let us pray for Jews, the people who bore the blame of the Church for centuries"?
In Acts 5:27-42 we learn how that Jewish spiritual leaders rounded up the apostles and were ready to have them killed. They were saved by the courage and wisdom of a Pharisee named Gamaliel who warned them about making another mistake. (Note that Pope Benedict desperately tried to remedy a mistake offensive to the Jews about Bishop Williamson and his denial of the holocaust.) If the Jewish people are not to be blamed for the death of Jesus, who is? Benedict does not say. Might the truth be too hard to admit, that it was the Jewish hierarchy who were responsible for this crime (especially given the current situation in the Church today)? Might history be repeating itself? Is it not time for Catholics to speak up like Gamaliel and renew his warning about the need for a reality check and reform in the Church: ".... if it is of God you will not be able to overthrow it. Else perhaps you may find yourselves fighting even against God"?
March 1, 2009
"Societies cannot survive without authoritative institutions. But which authoritative persons or institutions can withstand constant critical scrutiny? In our culture, we are predisposed to see damage done from failing to question authority. We are far less capable of grasping the destruction that can come from delegitimizing authority with corrosive suspicion. How much reality must we choose to ignore for the greater good of our own souls, and society?" Rod Dreher (a Dallas Morning News columnist and author of the Crunchy Con blog on Beliefnet.com).
Do we blame the killings of Lincoln, JFK, and Martin Luther King on the American people? Are we all responsible for the Salem witch trials? These examples and others like them occurred right here in the good old USA, but no one blames us all. So why do we blame the Jews for the murder of Jesus? "Let us pray for the perfidious Jews" has been the Holy Week prayer for centuries. Why not "Let us pray for Jews, the people who bore the blame of the Church for centuries"?
In Acts 5:27-42 we learn how that Jewish spiritual leaders rounded up the apostles and were ready to have them killed. They were saved by the courage and wisdom of a Pharisee named Gamaliel who warned them about making another mistake. (Note that Pope Benedict desperately tried to remedy a mistake offensive to the Jews about Bishop Williamson and his denial of the holocaust.) If the Jewish people are not to be blamed for the death of Jesus, who is? Benedict does not say. Might the truth be too hard to admit, that it was the Jewish hierarchy who were responsible for this crime (especially given the current situation in the Church today)? Might history be repeating itself? Is it not time for Catholics to speak up like Gamaliel and renew his warning about the need for a reality check and reform in the Church: ".... if it is of God you will not be able to overthrow it. Else perhaps you may find yourselves fighting even against God"?
The answer to Ron Dreher's question, "How much reality must we choose to ignore for the greater good of our own souls, and society?", is that we must never ignore reality, especially when it results in pain and suffering for the innocent. Our bishops ignored pedophilia among priests to protect the good image of the Church. To protect their own image the hierarchy hides the reality that it was the very hierarchical leaders themselves who killed Jesus. And the Jewish people have suffered from this cover-up ever since. Is this too much truth for the hierarchy?
3/8, 2nd Sunday of Lent, Quinquagesima = 50 days before Easter) Gen. 11:27-32, 12:10-20, Num. 11:10:15
3/15, 3rd Sunday of Lent, John 4:5-30, 39-42
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