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July 15, 2004
Anger, righteous and not
Mark Shea on what to watch out for (scroll down a bit)
There are two sides to every great sin. There is the sin itself and also the effect the sin has on us. As a layman, there's precious little I can do about the sins of bishops like Krenn. However, there is something I can do about my reaction to people like Krenn. I can live in the love of Christ or I can be filled with rage and bitterness and let it destroy me. Basically, I want to say that I firmly believe God means for us to be healed of our bitterness (both as individuals and as a Church). He does not want the power of sin to destroy us, including the sins of other people and our own choice to cherish bitterness toward them.
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Comments
Mr. Shea would be so much more believable on this subject if he didn't show such rage and bitterness towards people who show rage and bitterness towards certain members of the clergy and their enablers. And I don't mean this sarcastically. I think a good Catholic would be perfectly justifed at being full of rage and very bitter when he sees a picture of two men in Roman collars kissing each other, and I don't feel that this reaction need in the least destroy him or his relationship with Christ.
I think Fr. Tucker does a good thing in saying that his blog is not the place for spiritual direction.
Posted by: David Kubiak at Jul 16, 2004 1:31:36 AM
As this site lacks any official status, spiritual direction cannot be conducted here.
Quoted from Fr. Tucker's page.
What has official status got to do with
spiritual direction -- I've taken much direction
from many sites of contradictory persuasions.
I'm seriously concerned about the 'source' of
spiritual direction -- whether given/received.
Posted by: Gia at Jul 16, 2004 5:26:41 AM
I've got to second David on that (and on the nature of righteous anger). I used to read CAEI on a daily basis, but I got so disgustd by the constant baiting and bashing conducted by the proprieter and frequent contributors that I lost interest pretty fast.
That's not to say that Mark isn't right about God not wanting anger to destroy us. I can't help but feel that it's more than just a little unimpressive though, considering the source.
Then again, I'm an equally angry, cranky bastard, so I'll stop pontificating as well.
Posted by: Steve Skojec at Jul 16, 2004 6:49:07 AM
This is a complicated topic. Here's where I'm coming from.
As anybody who reads the blogs knows, I'm two tics away from volcanic most of the time over all this stuff. I know this is unsustainable -- I mean, I have no doubt that the Church will provide plenty of scandal fuel to feed the fires of anger. What's unsustainable, in an atmosphere of constant anger and bitterness, is the Catholic faith. I'm pretty much to that point now -- so disgusted by the corruption that I find it difficult to stay in the Church, but convinced intellectually of the Church's claims, so I know objectively that there is nowhere else to go. There is nothing else to do but endure. How to do this? I don't know, but I'm finding out.
The problem is knowing how to manage the anger, and direct it toward the good. I am, frankly, revolted by some of the stuff in the Catholic blogosphere by people who carry on like any expression of anger over the ravaging of the Church by its clergy is sinful, a failure of charity, etc. That kind of response is, to my mind, deeply un-Christian. What would they have told fiery Jesus when he came out of the Temple, leaving the moneychangers in his wake? Today, many of our bishops, leaders of religious orders, and their corrupt priests have turned Our Father's house into a brothel. We have not only the right to be angry over this, but the moral obligation to be.
That's because anger is the right response to injustice. It is only through getting angry that we will find the impetus to push for things to be made right again, especially when we face all kinds of pressure to sit down and shut up. There have been so many times I've wished I could put this scandal out of my mind; it brings nothing but misery to me, makes me sit in mass (of late) with my stomach churning, wanting to leave, and brings anxiety and pain to my family. But as I've said recently on this or another blog, I keep thinking about my own two little boys, how vulnerable they are, and how precious, and how it could have been them -- and I find myself absolutely resolute never to shut up or back down until the Church has dealt with this crisis.
It is hard to do this. I hate it. Hate it. I know a victim's lawyer who has had to wade through a river of shit from various dioceses to get justice for his clients. He's a Catholic, and this whole thing has eaten his insides up like a cancer. He told me once, with real heartbreak in his voice, "I just want to go back to my Church." But he can't because he's known around his diocese as The Man Who Sues the Church. A pariah. The burden he carries is one very few of us, and certainly not I, will ever know. But if not for men like him, where would victims be? They'd be shoved aside by the chanceries, intimidated into silence, and the priests who raped them would still be sitting pretty in their parishes, because their bishops see no evil. Before getting to know this guy, I entertained the stereotype that lawyers like him are a necessary evil, that they're pretty much just ambulance chasers. No doubt many are. But that man is a broken Catholic who wants desperately to be reconciled to the Church, yet who knows the work he does is necessary, and can only be refused through cowardice.
Here's a true story, not from this lawyer. A teenage boy from a poor immigrant family is living with his mother while waiting on his father back home in Latin America to arrive. He starts having behavior problems, so the boy's mother takes him to the priests at her parish, and asks them to help her give her son some manly guidance, at least until his father gets to the US. The priests agree to do this, and promptly introduce the boy to gay group sex in the rectory.
When the dad arrives and finds out what these priests have been doing to his son, he goes straight to the chancery, thinking they'll be as outraged and appalled as he. The poor man, who is a laborer, and who speaks no English, meets with an auxiliary bishop, who offers to cut him a check in exchange for his signature on a piece of paper giving the diocese's law firm the right to represent him in this matter. In other words, they were trying to manipulate a poor man angry over the homosexual molestation of his son by parish priests into silence and settlement; as it came out later, the Church had been well aware of sexual problems with at least two of these priests, and had simply transferred them around. Luckily, this immigrant father had enough sense to see what was going on, walked out, found a good (non-Catholic) lawyer, and took the diocese to court. Those priests are, the last time I checked, no longer in ministry. Thank God.
That wouldn't have happened without that father's anger.
I am awfully tired of being angry about this. But more than that, I am awfully tired of picking up the newspaper and reading about gay orgies in seminaries, or bishops and religious orders shipping molester priests overseas to avoid prosecution, or priests being arrested with rubber gloves and Vaseline in their purses, and so forth. If more ordinary Catholics would get angry, the bishops would feel the heat, and move faster to clean up the mess. Jesus commands us to forgive, but are we supposed to do that in the absence of repentance? Does anybody honestly believe the bishops are repentant over this (as opposed to merely regretting that it happened)? Far from feeling guilty over anger in this scandal, I'd say that if you aren't angry, you aren't taking it as seriously as you should.
Then we come back to the problem of how you avoid letting righteous anger destroy your faith. If somebody has an idea, I'm all ears. Seriously. The answer is not, and never can be, to put our heads in the sand, to "offer it up," to trust the Holy Father, or following any of the other sincerely-meant pious nostrums that one way or another, are a method of avoiding the evil in our midst, and our own responsibilities as Catholics to do whatever we can to cast it out.
Speaking for myself, I am not mad at God over this; because I believe in and love Him and Our Lord, and cannot stand what the hierarchy and many of the clergy have done to His Body, I feel all the more compelled to speak out. If we were in the Methodist Church, say, I would long ago have simply packed up and taken my family to another denomination. But this is, I firmly believe, the Church. There is nothing to do but hold one's ground, and fight, and try hard to see Jesus as separate from the mitred pederast-coddlers and pampered exploiters of the poor who wear the legitimate mantle of apostolic authority, as did Judas Iscariot.
Posted by: Rod Dreher at Jul 16, 2004 7:17:47 AM
The interesting thing to me over all of this Austrian seminary thing is how Michael Rose literally comes out smelling like a rose about his book.
He was maligned by the NCRegister, Crisis, and OSV (not to mention a certain priest with a blog who occasionally posts here) and, for all intents and purposes, dismissed as one who was "exaggerating the truth" a bit.
Oh, really?
Have a look at his take on the Austrian seminary thing:
http://www.cruxnews.com/rose/rose-16july04.html
Posted by: st. michael at Jul 16, 2004 7:36:02 AM
The interesting thing to me over all of this Austrian seminary thing is how Michael Rose literally comes out smelling like a rose about his book.
He was maligned by the NCRegister, Crisis, and OSV (not to mention a certain priest with a blog who occasionally posts here) and, for all intents and purposes, dismissed as one who was "exaggerating the truth" a bit.
Oh, really?
Have a look at his take on the Austrian seminary thing:
http://www.cruxnews.com/rose/rose-16july04.html
Posted by: st. michael at Jul 16, 2004 7:37:19 AM
The interesting thing to me over all of this Austrian seminary thing is how Michael Rose literally comes out smelling like a rose about his book.
He was maligned by the NCRegister, Crisis, and OSV (not to mention a certain priest with a blog who occasionally posts here) and, for all intents and purposes, dismissed as one who was "exaggerating the truth" a bit.
Oh, really?
Have a look at his take on the Austrian seminary thing:
http://www.cruxnews.com/rose/rose-16july04.html
Posted by: st michael at Jul 16, 2004 7:42:21 AM
What do you want, Rod? Riots in the streets, at Mass? You and others have made the case that this is a huge problem and that it's sickening beyond belief that priests did this and that bishops covered it up.
Now what?
You've judged your anger to be righteous. Others might judge that your anger is more self-righteous than righteous. I also wonder if, as a journalist, the pelt-hunter in you isn't satisfied, and that has you frustrated. I wonder if the editorialist in you is upset that your rage hasn't sent everybody to the barricades.
Are you pissed off because nobody else is as pissed off as you?
You do sound bitter to me. Don't be.
Posted by: John Heavrin at Jul 16, 2004 7:49:18 AM
Anger can be a motivating factor to actually do something to solve a problem. But when anger goes on and on, and feeds itself and others continually, it becomes an end in itself. Pretty soon, the "righteous" anger begins to resemble something very "unrighteous". Vengeance then rules the day and, in the end, more harm and division has occurred.
St. Paul tells us in the Bible that we are supposed to build up the body of Christ with our speech - not tear it apart. I have only been reading this site for a short time, drawn because it was "Amy Welborn's site", but such a spirit of anger and revenge permeates it that I find it impossible to read. There are more "fantasies" of revenge and degradation than honest dialogue. I think my time would be better spent praying a rosary or the Divine Mercy chaplet - praying God has mercy on all of our sinful souls.
Posted by: Anne at Jul 16, 2004 7:49:23 AM
If you want a direct link to Michael's article, click right here.
He calls the St. Poelten seminary scandal "the Catholic Church's Abu Ghraib." He's right about that. As I explained on Dom's blog, we all had reports of the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib long before it became an international story. What turned it into a Very Big Deal was the existence of photographic evidence of the malign corruption there. Same thing with the Austrian seminary. We have all heard about gay derring-do in seminaries, but now, apparently, there is ample photographic evidence of the situation in one seminary. I hope many, many more of these photos come out, so at least some Catholics can quit living in denial.
One more thing about the anger thing: if Church leaders had paid attention to its angry reformers early on, so much needless waste and destruction could have been avoided. We wouldn't have had the Reformation, and lost half of Europe to Protestantism, if the bishops and the popes of the day had paid attention to what angry Catholics throughout Europe were telling them about the true state of the Church. In 1985, if the US bishops had simply listened to Fr. Thomas Doyle, who at the time was a straight-up orthodox organization man, and acted on the report he gave to them, think of how different things would look today.
Posted by: Rod Dreher at Jul 16, 2004 7:49:56 AM
If you want a direct link to Michael's article, click right here.
He calls the St. Poelten seminary scandal "the Catholic Church's Abu Ghraib." He's right about that. As I explained on Dom's blog, we all had reports of the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib long before it became an international story. What turned it into a Very Big Deal was the existence of photographic evidence of the malign corruption there. Same thing with the Austrian seminary. We have all heard about gay derring-do in seminaries, but now, apparently, there is ample photographic evidence of the situation in one seminary. I hope many, many more of these photos come out, so at least some Catholics can quit living in denial.
One more thing about the anger thing: if Church leaders had paid attention to its angry reformers early on, so much needless waste and destruction could have been avoided. We wouldn't have had the Reformation, and lost half of Europe to Protestantism, if the bishops and the popes of the day had paid attention to what angry Catholics throughout Europe were telling them about the true state of the Church. In 1985, if the US bishops had simply listened to Fr. Thomas Doyle, who at the time was a straight-up orthodox organization man, and acted on the report he gave to them, think of how different things would look today.
Posted by: Rod Dreher at Jul 16, 2004 7:49:56 AM
Anger can be a motivating factor to actually do something to solve a problem. But when anger goes on and on, and feeds itself and others continually, it becomes an end in itself. Pretty soon, the "righteous" anger begins to resemble something very "unrighteous". Vengeance then rules the day and, in the end, more harm and division has occurred.
St. Paul tells us in the Bible that we are supposed to build up the body of Christ with our speech - not tear it apart. I have only been reading this site for a short time, drawn because it was "Amy Welborn's site", but such a spirit of anger and revenge permeates it that I find it impossible to read. There are more "fantasies" of revenge and degradation than honest dialogue. I think my time would be better spent praying a rosary or the Divine Mercy chaplet - praying God has mercy on all of our sinful souls.
Posted by: Anne at Jul 16, 2004 7:50:13 AM
Anger can be a motivating factor to actually do something to solve a problem. But when anger goes on and on, and feeds itself and others continually, it becomes an end in itself. Pretty soon, the "righteous" anger begins to resemble something very "unrighteous". Vengeance then rules the day and, in the end, more harm and division has occurred.
St. Paul tells us in the Bible that we are supposed to build up the body of Christ with our speech - not tear it apart. I have only been reading this site for a short time, drawn because it was "Amy Welborn's site", but such a spirit of anger and revenge permeates it that I find it impossible to read. There are more "fantasies" of revenge and degradation than honest dialogue. I think my time would be better spent praying a rosary or the Divine Mercy chaplet - praying God has mercy on all of our sinful souls.
Posted by: Anne at Jul 16, 2004 7:50:46 AM
Sorry about the triple post! I only clicked once but my computer went haywire! Peace
Posted by: Anne at Jul 16, 2004 7:54:33 AM
Michael Rose does not come out smelling like a rose over his book. There were elements of the book that were amazingly slipshod, he weakened his point considerably by banging the "orthodox" card and pretending that "orthodox" priests or bishops could not possibly be implicated in such things (a stance he's since had to backtrack on - I believe he quoted, for example, Bishop Curtiss of Omaha prominently in his book, Bishop Curtiss who has since been shown to be very hostile towards lay Catholics who bring up evidence of sexual impropriety by priests.)
There was much Rose said that was true, but the fact remains that his book was flawed in exactly the way his critics said it was.
Posted by: deb at Jul 16, 2004 7:57:04 AM
Gee, thanks, Anne
Posted by: amy at Jul 16, 2004 7:59:56 AM
Rod, there are two questions here; 1) what the anger does to us and how we should handle it's impact on us; and 2) the actions that should flow from our anger. On the second, I think we shouuld heed St. Benedict's admonition to the faithful to act. From rule 64 on selecting an abbot (or abbess, depending on the translation):
“But if (which God forbid) the whole community should agree to choose a person who will acquiesce in their vices, and if those vices somehow become known to the Bishop
to whose diocese the place belongs,
or to the Abbots, Abbesses or the faithful of the vicinity, let them prevent the success of this conspiracy of the wicked, and set a worthy steward over the house of God. They may be sure that they will receive a good reward for this action if they do it with a pure intention and out of zeal for God; as, on the contrary, they will sin if they fail to do it.”
Of course, acting with a pure intention is easier said than done.
for the rule see Rule of St. Benedict
Posted by: Herb Ely at Jul 16, 2004 8:05:22 AM
Rod, there are two questions here; 1) what the anger does to us and how we should handle it's impact on us; and 2) the actions that should flow from our anger. On the second, I think we shouuld heed St. Benedict's admonition to the faithful to act. From rule 64 on selecting an abbot (or abbess, depending on the translation):
“But if (which God forbid) the whole community should agree to choose a person who will acquiesce in their vices, and if those vices somehow become known to the Bishop
to whose diocese the place belongs,
or to the Abbots, Abbesses or the faithful of the vicinity, let them prevent the success of this conspiracy of the wicked, and set a worthy steward over the house of God. They may be sure that they will receive a good reward for this action if they do it with a pure intention and out of zeal for God; as, on the contrary, they will sin if they fail to do it.”
Of course, acting with a pure intention is easier said than done.
for the rule see Rule of St. Benedict
Posted by: Herb Ely at Jul 16, 2004 8:07:54 AM
Rod Dreher “There is nothing to do but hold one's ground…”
For me, Rod, you’re one of the few commentators left, in the this little corner of Blogdom, that has anything to say that is worth reading. The rest of it is mostly chaff.
Posted by: Oengus Moonbones at Jul 16, 2004 8:10:02 AM
Rod, there are two questions here; 1) what the anger does to us and how we should handle it's impact on us; and 2) the actions that should flow from our anger. On the second, I think we shouuld heed St. Benedict's admonition to the faithful to act. From rule 64 on selecting an abbot (or abbess, depending on the translation):
“But if (which God forbid) the whole community should agree to choose a person who will acquiesce in their vices, and if those vices somehow become known to the Bishop
to whose diocese the place belongs,
or to the Abbots, Abbesses or the faithful of the vicinity, let them prevent the success of this conspiracy of the wicked, and set a worthy steward over the house of God. They may be sure that they will receive a good reward for this action if they do it with a pure intention and out of zeal for God; as, on the contrary, they will sin if they fail to do it.”
Of course, acting with a pure intention is easier said than done.
for the rule see Rule of St. Benedict
Posted by: Herb Ely at Jul 16, 2004 8:13:41 AM
Rod is correct that there is a great deal to be angry about concerning the scandals besetting the Church. I share much of his anger. However, I draw a distinction between the sinful men who have committed sickening crimes and the Church, the bride of Christ. It is the duty of every loyal Catholic to aid in cleansing the Church of evil clerics and laity. That is the whole purpose of excommunication. However it is also our duty to love the Church and never fall into the soul damning error of hating the Church because of the sins of her members.
Posted by: Donald R. McClarey at Jul 16, 2004 8:17:00 AM
I really think Rod's post about holding one's ground sums up the authentic Catholic position these days. And it goes beyond just the sex-abuse scandal. It's the failing liturgy and the deconstruction of sacraments and canon law. It's the stripping of the altars. It's the loss of belief in the true presence. It's the loss of urgency for the conversion of souls - because we've become, for all intents and purposes, a universalist Church. It's the inability of the Catholic institution as a whole to stand up to the pressuring forces of society - like Catholic pro-abortion politicians. The Church is in incredible crisis, and everywhere you look, you see Christ stripped, wounded, bleeding and crowned with thorns.
His bride has been ravaged by his own apostles. Where there was once only one Judas, now there are many. And because as faithful lay Catholics we believe, really believe in the hierarchy Christ instituted, we are rendered impotent in our ability to effect change.
I actually have quite a good parish, with an exceptional pastor. Our parish is one of the wealthiest in the diocese, but strangely, we were in one of the lowest ranks for donations to the bishop's lenten appeal. Our pastor, despite what his feelings may be for our miserable bishop (who supports gay adoption, among other heinous things), asks us to give money to the appeal. "We've been blessed with three priests in our parish where other parishes are lucky to have one." He pleaded. "Please show your gratitude to the bishop. Your money will not go to settle lawsuits."
I can't speak for the other parishioners, but I can speak for myself. My wife and I argued once on the way to Sunday Mass because she wants to tithe but I don't want my money going to the diocese. I don't care about lawsuits. I don't want my money to be used at the discretion of the diocese. I DO NOT TRUST THEM.
How are we supposed to react? To be silent? To bury our heads in the sand and finger our beads and wait for divine interaction? We must pray, but we must also act. Sometimes I feel that the purpose people like Rod (and I'd like to consider myself in the same category, on a lesser scale) serve is to be like John the baptist, running around screaming, REPENT! People need to wake up! The majority of people I talk to refuse to acknowledge the depth and scope of the problem. "We have to just trust the holy father..." or "We have to remember its not up to us..." or "The most important thing is that we save our own souls..."
I am so FED UP with non-confrontation! We should be passionately in love with this Church, our MOTHER, who is being raped and defiled by her children! By her priests! By her bishops! If your mother was being raped, or beaten, or mugged, would you just cower in the corner saying a rosary or would you try to stop it - even if all you could do was yell "HELP!" until someone stronger than you would come?
I know that at the end of my life, I may stand before God and be accountable for overstepping my bounds, or being too angry, or being too passionate. But at least I can hope that I will never stand before his judgement and be accused of having been given much, and having not done enough.
"I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot.
But because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth." Rev 3:15-16
Posted by: Steve Skoejc at Jul 16, 2004 8:32:52 AM
Jesus commands us to forgive, but are we supposed to do that in the absence of repentance?
Yes.
Then we come back to the problem of how you avoid letting righteous anger destroy your faith.
If I were you, I'd go off to a remote campsite for a weekend, with a Bible, a rosary, a bottle of bourbon, two gallons of water, and a loaf of bread. Read the Psalms out loud and ask questions. Pray for yourself, then for your enemies. Thank God before, during, and after.
Posted by: Tom at Jul 16, 2004 8:53:40 AM
Mr. Skoejc,
I think your post speaks for the feelings of many Catholics who love the Church.
The diocesan appeal: I do not know if it is the same in every diocese but it is my understanding that no mater if you give or not, the diocese will get the money it is asking from each parish treasury.
I do NOT think this is right. Much of that money is used for thngs which are.....well, wrong (say like teaching non-married couples NFP via Catholic Charities). It is stuff like this which makes me furious.
What to do?
You are damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Posted by: mikey at Jul 16, 2004 9:02:13 AM
I've read that, proportionally, more teachers abuse children than priests. Knowing that, I don't find myself with my stomach churning at PTA meetings, with pain and anxiety in my family, thinking "it could have been my boys". I don't pay taxes to support the school system thinking that I'm feeding the beast that systematically rapes my children. I've been educated in Catholic schools, gone to Mass for 40 years and I just don't get how Rod can feel that his Mass experience has been poisoned by the situation. The Church has been afflicted by unspeakable evils from within throughout history. But to allow that stain to affect your own participation in the truth and beauty of the sacraments is, at least, an unbalanced reaction. Jesus condemned the actions of the Pharisees and Sadducees but remained an observant Jew, with, I think, His faith unshaken.
Posted by: jerry at Jul 16, 2004 9:14:08 AM
