Cobb

Folks say that Catholics are out of touch with modern sexuality. That's true, but what does 'modern sexuality' prove? That is a simple yet subtle question that could be answered strictly in terms of sin, but there's a great deal more there. My assessment is that the primacy of sexual intimacy in human relations needs to be evaluated. We need some way of determining who is the repressed and who is the sybarite. The Catholic Church has always deemed fit to side with the repressed and to sublimate sexual behavior from masturbation on up. This has compromised it and introduced double standards. What would be more majestic than a Catholic Wedding if it could bless the sexual desires of man and wife rather than repeat the same set of restrictions it has on every other man, woman and child save one.

Furthermore, the Latin Mass is very sacred and quite frankly very cool. I only regret that I didn't learn it all, damned Vatican II. I think that a Latin Mass can be very appealing.

But let me focus on the Catholic Priesthood for a moment. You really have to have a very good reason to enforce and respect a celibate male priesthood. The Catholics have as good a reason as any, whatever exactly it is. (Let's not go to the Gnostic interpretations of the sexuality of Jesus right yet) But I think it is becoming clear that such a life is not as heroic as it might have been. Are poverty, chastity and obedience restraints that generate a pure spiritual strength in the man? Or do they simply cripple?

The concept of a Father Confessor is brilliant and as far as I'm concerned it is the cornerstone of the Catholic Church's presence. Catholics are decidedly not evangelical but their frocked priesthood used to be a very public symbol and strength. Today one only sees the collar in public on Halloween. If I were a Catholic Priest, or Nun, I would always be in the public eye at all manner of public functions as an extension and exemplar of the Church. But the celibate priesthood is not garbed and fearless. They are a shadow of their former selves. Who thinks of priests as heros any longer?

Once upon a time, if you had a problem whether or not you were Catholic, you could go to a Catholic church and speak to a priest. Today if you have a problem, you go to the internet, or you watch Oprah or you call into talk radio. Why is the Catholic Church ineffective in America? Because nobody expects them to know anything. If the priests were doing their job, Dr. Laura wouldn't have a job. Neither would most of blab radio, and the quality of moral advice Americans get would be a damned sight better. Where the Catholic Church could provide clarity and reason, it provides mystery and withdrawl.

If you contrast the role of the Catholic priesthood in this country with that of Latin America, nothing stands out so clearly as the weakness of the Americans when contrasted with the heroism of Archbishop Romero. American Catholic bishops symbolize nothing so much as stodgy partisans, satisfied with the status quo. None come forth to do battle in public on the questions of our time. The men of the cloth here are not men of the people.

I will not belabor points already made about sexual scandal. It is a horrifying development and a monstrous crime. I beleive it demonstrates the sclerotic nature of the Catholic leadership and is a consequence of its inability to draw strength from the laity. It speaks volumes of the distance between clergy and laity and underscores my point about the hermetic Church. This distance has reduced the sacraments from living rites of passage of the faithful and community to rote exercises and instructions for people divorced from the spirit of life, calculating their way towards salvation.

One should also take note of this flaming dissent:

"As a successful black [Roman Catholic] priest, I recognized I could write my own ticket, but I never felt at peace. No matter what I wanted to do, I always had to get the stamp of the white establishment," George A. Stallings, Jr., the founder of the African American Catholic Congregation in Washington, D.C., explained in an Ebony interview. "I realized the church is a white racist institution controlled by a preponderantly Euro-American white male hierarchy that for a century had decided the fate of black people in the Catholic church," Stallings continued. "My blackness could no longer tolerate it!" And every Sunday since July 2, 1989, the Most Reverend George Augustus Stallings, Jr., has celebrated the so-called "Gospel Mass"--a blend of Catholic and traditional black Protestant worship styles--at his independently established Imani (Swahili for "faith") Temple African American Catholic Congregation.

The jury is out on Stallings. I've heard nothing of him in many years. His bold assertions certainly seemed appropriate to 1989 but I wonder if they have brought him true success.

In summary, I would say that the Catholic Church needs a revitalization of its priesthood and a new engagement with the laity and public which breaths life into the sacraments and rites. I strongly believe that the new Rosary is a step in the right direction. It fits perfectly within the tradition and extends it. The Church needs to summon its resources and become more of a sanctuary than simply a place of worship. Priests need to straighten up, fly right and regain not only the trust of the laity but the public trust. That will require acts of heroism. Most of all, American Catholics need to do right and show some pride. It's a tall order, but the Catholic Church is capable of all that and much more. After all, it was the parent of the Anglican Communion.