Opinion> Connie Schultz> Non Catholics Are Grieving Too 2010 04 07

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Non-Catholics Are Grieving, Too

As a columnist who isn't Catholic, I used to feel that whatever happened in the Church was a whole lot of none of my business.

It was as if I lacked standing and my status as a Protestant would call my motives into question. As Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan so aptly put it last week, non-Catholic journalists like me have tended to avoid covering the Church because we don't want to appear to be anti-Catholic.

My reticence evaporated during the debate over health care reform, when the all-male U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops felt free to impose its beliefs — and its restrictions — on all the women of America. The bishops lobbied to ban abortion funding from the bill, even though no such provision ever existed. Then the bishops brayed over how successful they were at nearly derailing health care reform.

When the leaders of dozens of religious orders of nuns bravely stepped up to show their support for the health care bill, anti-choice Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak fired off this dismissive shot:

"When I'm drafting right-to-life language," he said, "I don't call up the nuns."

So, the Catholic Church was fighting against women's reproductive rights, and one of its elected darlings was bashing nuns — all of whom are women. Suddenly, what was happening in the Catholic Church was very much my business.

I can't help but wonder whether the Church's machinations around women's rights — lobbying Congress, denying Holy Communion to elected officials who are pro-choice, "investigating" the conduct of America's nuns — amount to a less-than-masterful attempt to distract us from the darkness within. The Catholic Church is in a lot of trouble, which is casting an undeserved pall on its faithful followers and righteous leaders.

The Church's sex abuse scandal, which was first ripped open in America, is now bleeding across Europe. Noonan accurately notes that it took American newspapers a long time to investigate allegations of abuse, but she also claims that some of us never went after this story because we didn't much like the Catholic Church.

"Because of this bias, they didn't see the story," she wrote.

"They thought this was how the church always operated. It didn't register with them that it was a scandal."

What an offensive suggestion, that we could be willfully blind to the abuse of some children — that their Catholicism could render them unworthy of our attention, our concern. Call us cowards for wanting to avoid charges of being anti-Catholic from colleagues and from readers. Criticize all our news organizations for waiting too long to invest the human resources and hours it took to pursue the allegations.

But please, let's rein in the stereotypes of non-Catholics. Like millions of others who never have prayed at the Stations of the Cross, I am outraged over this betrayal of God's children.

As coverage of scandals expands, we can almost hear hearts constrict. In recent weeks, conversations with friends who are practicing Catholics have left me drained from the effort to understand.

I don't question why they stay with the Church. As they always tell me, Catholicism is as much a way of life as it is a religion. I'm not the first Protestant to envy this universal community born of ritual and faith, and I am not the only Protestant mother to benefit from its wide embrace. Next month, our youngest daughter will graduate from a Catholic university, where one of her closest friends is a priest whose faith in God — and in her — changed the trajectory of her life.

I also don't question my Catholic friends' anger at the media coverage about the growing scandal. No one likes bad headlines over the faces of family. And so many are still reeling over the closings of Catholic churches in Cleveland, where I live, and across the country. How much bad news can any one person take?

What I do question is how a church with so many faithful could continue to betray them with its silence. How long before the Church acknowledges just how badly, how routinely, it has failed to protect its most vulnerable from predators in priest frocks?

My Catholic friends are grieving.

Their pain is very much my business.

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and the author of two books from Random House, "Life Happens" and "... and His Lovely Wife." She is a featured contributor in a recently released book by Bloomsbury, "The Speech: Race and Barack Obama's 'A More Perfect Union.'" To find out more about Connie Schultz (cschultz@plaind.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

Comments

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Connie, I have to comment. As a devoted Catholic, I must say you are sadly lacking in understanding the very basics of my faith. Rather than attempting to "distract us from the darkness within", as you say, the bishops are valiantly attempting to keep the darkness outside from invading within. The bishops did not oppose the healthcare bill because they want to limit women's reproductive rights! Even though the church has bravely been the voice crying in the wilderness when it comes to the contraception issue - which in your world is simply a nonissue - the bishops have never tried to persuade this fundamental belief on non-Catholics. However, on the issue of abortion, which the health care bill will provide for whether I as a faithful Catholic want to fund or not, they have been outspoken. Why? Because they want to limit your reproductive rights? Absolutely not! But they do want to speak for those with no voice - the innocent child in the womb. Who speaks for them but the bishops? Everyone else seems to want to forget that there is a child involved in this issue. However, if you were to take your car out today and hit another car carrying a pregnant woman, who subsequently was killed, you could be held responsible for 2 lives. We seem to think a child in the womb only counts when we want it to! As far as investigating the nuns, this process was started well over 1 year ago, long before the 59,000 you are so proud of were ever in the spotlight. There are troubling issues within some groups of nuns - who are supposedly representing the Church - which have long needed to be addressed. When they claim to be a part of the Church, but fail to stand for the very basic Doctrines the Church has been founded on, an investigation is warranted. This was many years in the making. And as far as denying pro-choice Catholics communion - well, as a Protestant please bear with me. The very fundamental basis of our Faith lies in the fact that Christ is present - Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity - within that little communion wafer you think of as a symbol. We as Catholics believe He is there, and that He remains there, once the bread has been consecrated by the hands of a valid priest. So we respect Him even in this humbled state with great love and care. We do not treat Him lightly. So when a Catholic who opposes the very basic teaching of our faith - that all life is sacred, even in the womb - it is a sacrilege and a mortal sin. Therefore, that Catholic should refrain from taking Communion until they are aligned with the teachings of the Church – or in full communion with the Church. Sadly, many Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence. It takes a real act of faith. But Christ gave us this precious gift so He can be with us until He comes again. If you read thoroughly John Chapter 6 of the Bible, particularly verses 52 on you can begin to understand the Catholic position. And finally to the meat of the matter – the issue of abuse. It is a sad fact within the Church, and has affected my own family in very profound and personal ways that I will not go into here. However, the media are attempting to crucify the good men along with the sinners. Undoubtedly, the Church has not always handled this issue in a correct manner, but I do believe that is changing. And Pope Benedict did speak to this issue on his trip to the United States 2 years ago. There are some, however, who seem to only want their pound of flesh from the Church. Can you truly say the way this is being handled in the press is beneficial to the victims? Or are there other motives at work here? I liken the job of the bishops in the Catholic Church in today's world to trying to row through rapids on a raft with only a toothpick for an oar! They are truly the voice crying in the wilderness. In closing, I challenge you to truly study the teachings of the Catholic Church through her own words of the Bible, the Catechism, and papal encyclicals. You just might be pleasantly surprised.

Comment: #1
Posted by: Melanie Gifford
Mon Apr 12, 2010 6:30 AM