Hierarchy's inability to mourn thwarts healing in church
This is a very good article from NCR, very well thought through, and well written too.
"In fact, Humanae Vitae was only superficially about birth control and the sexual abuse crisis was only partially about sexual abuse. Both crises were fundamentally about power: who holds it, over whom, to what extent, in what areas of life."
(snip)
"When mourning goes well, there is a cleansing of mind, spirit, and psyche to go on after loss; to reconstitute self, relationships with others, hopes, dreams and beliefs in a renegotiated engagement with the real and the possible. There is self-examination about our own contribution to the control we are losing, perhaps ending in a rueful recognition that we never should have had that much control."
(snip)
"When mourning is refused, however, we may deny that loss is permanent and instead manically try to restore that which is forever changed. Nostalgia, memorys rose-colored cousin, rules the mind and soul. In some cases, we select someone or something defined now as Other onto whom we direct rage for causing our loss of power and control even if our own behaviors actually ushered in the loss."
http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/hierarchys-inability-mourn-thwarts-healing-church
There are possible answers here to the strange dichotomy in the current behaviour of the Church hierarcy these men are not fools, yet they are behaving like complete idiots. The problems in the Church are so obvious that Blind Freddy can see them clearly, yet these very well-educated men are running around like headless chickens, trying to find answers to any problems other than those that are facing them.
Are they going to end up excommunicating half the church or more rather than face reality?
meow2u3
(24,775 posts)n 1984, just before retiring at a venerable age, the diocesan Bishop of Niigata, Bishop John Shojiro Ito, in consultation with the Holy See, wrote a pastoral letter in which he recognized as being authentically of the Mother of God, the extraordinary series of events that had taken place from 1973 to 1981 in a little lay convent within his diocese, at Akita, Japan. Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, in June 1988, approved the Akita events as "reliable and worthy of belief". In fact the Philippine ambassador to the Vatican, in 1998 spoke to Cardinal Ratzinger about Akita and the Cardinal: "personally confirmed to me that these two messages of Fatima and Akita are essentially the same". Hence in Akita we are dealing with a Church approved intervention of the Blessed Virgin Mary as sure in this respect as Lourdes, La Salette, or Fatima.
Only a few Catholics know of Our Lady of Akita but the message, like that of Fatima, is a specific warning of worldwide chastisement. The chastisement threatened is truly terrible far worse than the possibility of annihilation of several nations prophesied at Fatima. Akita is absolutely consistent with prophecies of Scripture.
"The demon will rage especially against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will no longer be pardon for them."
http://olrl.org/prophecy/akita.shtml
Here's another link fortelling the wholesale clerical corruption of the Vatican: http://whoislikeuntogod.com/category/catholic-church/marian-apparitions/modern-apparitions/our-lady-of-akita/
I also believe the hierarchy is to blame for the mass exodus of Catholics from the Church, among clergy and the laity alike. A large number of bishops and cardinals have become corrupted by power and secrecy. There's only one reason the hierarchy is retaliating against molested kids grown up, nuns who actually live up to Christ's teachings instead of preaching hatred, and whistleblower priests, bishops, and cardinals: they're guilty as the sin they're living in.
47of74
(18,470 posts)In your post you said that;
Yes, I think you're on to something there. I used to be the family distributor of parish involvement, eating, drinking, and sleeping it a lot more than my parents ever did. I did just about everything at church except say Mass (and there are priests who would probably let me if they could). But I haven't been to Mass in a while now and I don't know that I would go back for anything other than weddings or funerals.