Sin never stops. This weekend, we got word that a friend and local pastor stepped down due to an inappropriate relationship with an adult. It hurt me, my family, and many others. It has wounded many good people who were shocked to find out that a man they looked up to made such decisions. Furthermore, this is the second local priest in the last year to reveal such news.  All of this and we are still dealing with the sex scandals of decades before. I sometimes ask myself when will it stop...and then I remember that it won’t until the end of this world.

The Church is made up of sinners. We are all sinners. This fact doesn’t excuse any scandal or sin. But, it is a reminder that the Church has faced bigger issues and has still not only survived, but flourished. It can also be a reminder to us to keep our eyes on the prize, which is Jesus. 

​​​If you are feeling upset, angry, confused, etc, that is natural and okay. In fact, I believe we need to be outraged and upset about sin and scandal. It is an issue of justice to be stirred up about such things. Others have been harmed and we too are affected by such sin. Some reading this have been hurt by Church leaders. Leaders who betrayed the sacred trust of those they care for should be held accountable if they break that trust. So your feelings of wanting justice done are right and good. Still, there is something we are called to, which is much harder. We are called to be merciful with others, as God is merciful with us.

Mercy does not mean we don't seek justice or just whitewash the sin. It means we make the tough decision to love others, when they may not even deserve it. Just like God loved humanity, though we had forsaken him.

This can only be accomplished if we pray. Pray for all involved in these scandals. Pray for the victims, the perpetrators of these sins/crimes, the Church, those that have left the Church because of the scandals, our leaders, our families / friends, and yourself. Let God know your thoughts and feelings. Ask him to heal you. Ask him to give you the grace that can strenthen you. Turn it over to him.

Our God is offended by sin even more than we are. Yet, he is merciful enough to forgive any sin. If we are to be more like God, we need to also forgive. But, our forgiveness does not mean we do not seek earthly justice for the victims and punishment – esp. if there is a crime perpetrated. This leads me to my next point.

Rest in God alone. The scandals only confirm what we already knew about sin, humanity, the Catholic Church, and God. The Church itself is the Bride of Christ. Her holiness will never be changed because of the sins of her members. Yet, she is also full of sinners and in need of constant purification. As long as humans are alive and members of the Catholic Church, there will be horrible sins committed by the Church’s members. This does not change the truths of the Church of the grace she is a vessel of. 

All God has to work with is sinful, limited, and insufficient human beings like you and me. Yet he can do big things with little humans, if we let him.

So all of the publicity about the scandals could (ultimately if not right now) be good for the Church, if we use it as a wake up call to work on our own sin, be accountable to one another, purify the Church of those that abuse others, and enter an age of renewal because the scandals got us to stop settling for being comfortable and mediocre Christians (are you comfortable or settling for mediocrity?)

Another step to renewal is to stop laying all our Catholic problems at the feet of scandals and sin. Not every problem in the Church is due to the scandals. Our leaders who sinned did so before the sin was made public. Bringing it into the light helps us recognize it and do something about it. So this is a big deal. But, we can’t throw the entire Church under the bus for the sins of a few members. Furthermore, I believe the scandal has become an excuse, for some, to maintain the status quo and not challenge ourselves, our neighbors, and our leaders to grow. An excuse to do what everyone else is doing, because it is the easiest path to take. The lack of ongoing and deep conversion, community, friendship, accountability, evangelization, etc - got us into this mess.

How did we get to the point of decline? By not being holy. How did so many scandals happen? Because we don't function as we ought to. We settle for so little and allow ourselves to be tempted into comfort and thinking being a little better than our pagan neighbor is enough. It isn't. God wants so much more. He wants all of us.

So, if we are to fix any problem it should start with ourselves and then those closest to us. We need to start working out our own holiness. The ultimate fix to every problem within the Church is holiness. Holiness is not achievable by our own merits or hard work, but only by cooperating with the grace that God provides to us through the sacramental life.

Therefore, holiness is not so much what we are doing, but what God does through us. What are you willing to do to be a saint? The answer to that question is also the answer for how you should respond to the scandals.

To be holy, we have to do all that God asks of us, including making disciples “in season and out of season”. It requires us to be faithful to the mission to evangelize, even when we know that being Catholic could be used against us. Paul put it this way when writing to Timothy:

"I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry." -1 Tim 4:1-5

So, how do evangelize the world in the midst of scandals and sin? We do it with faith in God, not humans. We do it realizing that the only way we can help others is by abandoning ourselves to a God that wants nothing more than to save a corrupt world, including sinners like you and me.

God wastes nothing. Nothing! He is the one who can draw good out of grave evil, because he alone is perfect, all-powerful, and truly good. We evangelize by being instruments of God. By being faithful. By doing what he asks, even when it is hard. When we don't, we repent and start over.

Let this be a reminder that we shouldn’t make idols of other humans. All of us sin. All of us are in need of redemption. None of us is God. So, don’t put your faith and hope in others, but God alone. Let us return to a radical faith in Jesus, that allows us the perspective we need in moments like this.

**Yes, Catholic leaders brought the Church scandals on us, by their immorality & cowardice. 
**Yes, some want to burn the Church down completely.
**Yes, some innocents will suffer and have suffered the consequences the guilty brought on us.
**Yes, the devil is actively seeking our downfall and that of our leaders.

**Yes, Jesus is Lord! So let us not allow our faith, peace, joy, hope, etc be diminished. Let us boldly proclaim that Jesus is the conqueror of sin and death. Jesus alone has this power!