BEST TO SHUT UP AND CARRY THE CROSS

By Tim Rohr

In a recent Facebook post, a priest took exception to a joke by TV personality Bill Maher:

"Bill Maher made a joke on his show this weekend about how Saint Valentine was a Catholic priest, which is why, to this day we exchange candy for sex."

The priest goes on to say that he "can take a joke," but then veered into a defense of the priesthood based on a 2004 study showing that children in public schools are 100 times more likely to be sexually molested by a teacher or other public school personnel than they are by a priest.

He's right. I'm familiar with the study and with many other studies which show that, statistically, children are many times more likely to be sexually abused by their own parents or a close family member than even a teacher, let alone a member of the clergy. 

The priest laments how, even with these amazing statistics, Catholic priests alone remain the butt of jokes and scurrilous assumptions while the exponentially greater crimes are ignored. 

Being a priest, it's quite understandable why he is speaking up. And good luck to him. But, at least in my opinion, this isn't the way to go about restoring the credibility of the Catholic priesthood.  

In short, it comes down to "To whom much is given, much is expected" - Jesus, Luke 12:48. And the priesthood, the CATHOLIC priesthood, is the highest office on earth, because there is no greater power on this earth than the power to forgive sins (John 20:23) and the power to turn ordinary bread and wine into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of God. 

So when those same hands, the hands that hold the power to transubstantiate earthen things into God himself, are used in an impure way, especially when said impurity is wreaked upon a child, then, to quote the same Jesus: "he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea." (Mt. 18:6, DR)

While "much is expected" of any person in authority over a child - parent, older relative, teacher, etc. - no other office compares to the power of the priesthood, thus the "filth in the church," as Benedict XVI labeled it, is exponentially worse than any crimes committed by people of a lesser office, even if the perpetrators are the child's own parents. Thus crimes against children by consecrated hands cannot be lined up on a graph so we can say: "See, we're not that bad." 

The only way forward for the Catholic clergy, and for Catholics generally, is NOT to object to Bill Maher jokes and point to comparative studies. The only way forward is to "take up your cross and follow me." 

This is especially true because this is a cross of our own making. While it's true the majority of priests never engaged in this "filth," there is hardly a member of the clergy, or even of the laity, who didn't know about it - and did nothing.

So, best to shut up and carry the cross. It's why He said: "I AM THE WAY."