I am a member of the Catholic Church here in Forster Tuncurry. I am deeply saddened by the sexual abuse scandal in our church and particularly the recent case of Cardinal Pell. Although we confess to be a “church of sinners seeking forgiveness”, I’m sure most Catholics are in shock to think such things could happen in our church.
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The newspaper headlines read “Catholic Church in Crisis”, and indeed, the institution of the Catholic Church (like so many other institutions these days) has been shaken by the misbehavior of some of its leaders.
Despite the crisis the church will survive even though many, whose faith in the Institution has been shattered, will leave us. The church will survive because, no matter how high ranking some of its leaders might be, they are not the whole church. The church is the people in the pews and these are the ones, through their relationship with Jesus Christ, that will carry the faith and ensure the church will go on.
The church are the grandmothers who pass the faith to their grandchildren, the church are the teachers in our Catholic Schools who welcome the children into a loving community, the church are the members of the St Vincent de Paul Society who bring relief to the struggling poor, the church are the funeral ministry team who visit the family of the recently deceased and bring them comfort and hope, the church are the parents who want a strong spiritual foundation for their children’s lives and bring them to be baptised, the church is represented by those people who gather on the weekend to pray for each other and for the world and whose other-centred lives witness to the value of a loving, supportive community,
The institution may need renovation but the Catholic Church will survive.
