WAR IS IN THE AIR

"The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has issued guidelines for procedures in cases of sex abuse by priests, reiterating that local bishops have the first responsibility to protect young people and to monitor the behavior of their priests.

Under the guidelines posted to the Vatican website on Monday, the responsibility to investigate accusations of abuse by clerics is first that of the local diocese. If it is found that an allegation has “semblance of truth,” then the case, with all documentation, is to be referred to the CDF, whose remit sex abuse allegations have been since 2001.

The guidelines, that dealt only with canonical repercussions of sex abuse allegations, also repeated a point that has always been standard Vatican policy, saying, “Civil law concerning reporting of crimes to the appropriate authorities should always be followed.”

The local bishop, however, is still responsible for putting into place measures to protect the community. The CDF notes, “Indeed, the local bishop always retains power to protect children by restricting the activities of any priest in his diocese.”
Life Site News

There is something in this article that I think is poorly understood by most people, Catholic or not, about the nature of the Church. It is not a "top down" organization.

Because of it's understanding of subsidiarity the Church functions from the bottom up. The Bishop is responsible for his diocese. Most of the time the parish Priest is responsible for dealing with the day to day problems of his parish. Only when something exceeds his authority our ability to resolve it does it move up the chain.

Subsidiarity and the proper structuring of power is found in the Bible in Matthew 18:15-17:

"But if thy brother shall offend against thee, go, and rebuke him between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou shalt gain thy brother.

And if he will not hear thee, take with thee one or two more: that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand. And if he will not hear them: tell the church. And if he will not hear the church, let him be to thee as the heathen and publican."

The groups that are working against the Church are, for the most part, based on the ideas of Modernism and Relativism. Most of these groups have more in common with Marx than Aquinas. Their idea of government revolves around a strong central power that issues edicts to its subjects. Because they view the world through this Satanic distortion of the truth they cannot understand the way the Church really functions. So they attack the Pope for the sins of the Bishops, the Priests and the people.

I suppose that as an American and a history geek this is easy for me to see. The United States, under our Constitution, is structured in many way just like the Church. If you view the dioceses of the Church as states you'll see what I mean. Each diocese is a mostly sovereign unit of power, designed to stand on it's own. Each diocese can make it's own rules and regulations under the leadership of the local Bishop as long as those rules don't violate the laws of God and His Church. This is where the Vatican comes in.

Just like our federal government the function of the Vatican is to act as buffer against abuse of the people by the diocese and the outside world. It makes sure that the diocese does not violate our rights as Catholics. It does this through establishing basic guidelines that all Catholics must follow and by issuing rulings, just like our Supreme Court, when problems arise that involve the whole Church.

It is also the international face of the Church. One of the primary reasons for the American Constitution was to create a federal body that would allow the individual states to come together as a group to deal with foreign powers and to make treaties that would bind them all. Because we all belong to the same group, with the same interests it is sensible that we have a central clearing house, if you will, to deal with problems that involve us all and are to big to be dealt with at a local level. The Vatican, as a city state, functions precisely this way in the U.N. and in other international functions. The individual dioceses could not do this even though they have a vested interest in many of these groups and the laws they attempt to pass.

Because of the way that the Church and the United States are ordered it is very difficult for the people at the top to exert a whole bunch of pressure on the people at the bottom, unless of course the people at the top assume power they were never meant to have. Obviously this is the case now in the U.S. and has been the case many times in the history of the Church. But, when everything is working as intended, the individual diocese or states are the real authorities in the lives of the people.

Because of this the people have real power and real responsibility. In the end, it is the people that are truly responsible for letting this sex abuse problem get out of hand. Somebody, somewhere knew what was happening and did little or nothing about it. Some parent was paid to hush up or threatened with eternal damnation if they said anything. Just like politicians, the Priests and Bishops that were involved in this used their power to cover their trails.

If a citizen knows that a politician is involved in an illegal action they should alert the authorities. Of course, since the authorities are the ones that are doing the illegal things the complaint may not go anywhere. Or, the citizen may be approached to see if a deal can be worked out. Maybe they refuse. The politician can threaten to bring the power of the state against them in the form of audits or licencing problems or whatever. Is this any different than what has happened in the dioceses with the sex scandals?

So the citizen decides to take the complaint higher, maybe to the federal level. Since the boys at the fed probably know the guys the complaint is being made against so they may not act or may try to cover for them. Maybe the citizen gets more threats or promises of a pay off.

This is exactly what has happened in the Church. Because it is our responsibility to protect our Church from "all enemies, foreign and domestic" we've let the smoke of Satan enter because we have allowed ourselves to be intimidated and in some cases to be bought off by the corrupt leaders that have done so much damage. And this all started at the parish level.

I think, based on things that I've been reading lately, that the Vatican is laying the groundwork for a major overhaul. It seems that in statements such as the one above the Vatican is making a case to begin to exercise the power it has to protect the people and the Church from the damage being done by a minority of Priests, Bishops and Religious groups that have refuse to follow the guidelines established by the Church. I think it is moving deliberately so that it can remove the problem without destroying the Church by working within the legal framework established over 2000 years of history.

Back to American history, again. The War Between the States started because the avenues of argument were shut off. Both sides had said all they had to say and war was forced upon the country by a President that saw no other viable option. Whether he was right or wrong is an argument for another day. I think that the Church finds itself in much the same position.

The Church, at least here in America, has split into two opposing camps. On the one side you have the Traditionalists and on the other the Modernists. I realize this is a simplification but I think it is accurate in its generality. Both sides have said all that needs to be said. The traditionalists follow Rome and the ancient teachings of the Church while the Modernists turn whichever way the wind blows, chasing one heresy after another. These two diametrically opposed systems of belief can never be reconciled. War is in the air.

I believe that Rome is well aware of this and is attempting to position itself in a way that might avoid the mistake made by Lincoln, forcing two opposing sides to live under one flag through a massively destructive war when peaceful separation is possible.

I think that in the near future the people of the Church in America, and probably the world, will be given a clear choice; whether to follow Rome or to leave. I think that the Vatican is paving the way for formal separation from those that refuse to follow her teachings. I think that the Church is well aware of the lessons of history and will try to do this peacefully because full blown war is not the answer. But, things cannot be left as they are.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand." Abraham Lincoln June 1858

"And Jesus knowing their thoughts, said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate: and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand." Matthew 12:25