To oBEdiance or not to oBEdiance

The Lantern Vol 20

To oBEdiance or not to oBEdiance

As faithful Catholics spend another week without the graces of the Sacraments we have to deal with the fall out of our Priests being obedient to our Bishops

Why do I phrase this in such a way? Isn’t obedience good?

Before we answer that, let us define our terms and their origins.The concept of obedience has existed in society for ages. The concept comes from the perspective that someone or something which possesses greater knowledge and wisdom merits authority over others for the greater good of society and mankind.

Most of our societal underpinnings in law come from religious beliefs. As much as some people try to rationalize that they want a strict separation of church and state, Judeo-Christian ethics underpin many of our societal mores.

One's duty to obey orders is never so clear as in the military. If commanders would have to explain every order they gave, the military would be ineffective. For centuries this concept was never shaken or effectively challenged, the idea that someone was following orders explained centuries of atrocities.

That is until after World War 2. The Nuremberg Trials effectively modified this concept and created a new moral guideline which we now commonly refer to as crimes against humanity.

This new concept held people to a higher standard. They had to justify whether their orders were against a higher law. The law which values human dignity above all other things.

What is interesting here is that there is no real road map, no instructions other than the general observation that “ a person should know better”. Once again this concept is rooted in Judaeo christian beliefs, that a person needs to first follow their conscience.

In Catholic theology this is couched with the understanding that one first properly forms their conscience in the teachings of God. So for the Catholic, a decision made as a matter of conscience means they made a decision in light of God's teaching church and believing it is God's will above all things.

Catholic priests take an oath of obedience to their Bishops. The recent closures of all of our churches in these times are the result.

Must a priest always obey His Bishop? From what we have learned by both our past successes and failures the answer is no. Our most recent failure in the church is the unfettered child abuse that ran rampant in the Catholic Church. Our children were raped and abused and clergy hid these atrocities because of obedience. These were unjust orders in complete contradiction to the dignity of both the victims and the priests.

We see our priests continually deny Christ all under the principle of obedience. Several months ago I had this discussion with a parish priest and he just said he had to be obedient. I asked if the Bishop asked him to deny Christ would he? He said that was absurd, but no. So I asked him, where does he draw the line? How far will he deny his beliefs and his calling? Many clergy knew and participated in acts of atrocities for decades, and some still do, where is this line in their sandbox?

In order for me to succeed in revealing generations of child abuse, I had to ask this question many times. In the well-known play by Robert Bolton “A Man For All Seasons”, St Thomas Moore says, “my obedience is to my King, but to God first, God first.”

In this new crisis of our times the Bishops have ordered all churches closed and the sacraments to be withheld from the faithful. To the secular in society this is just a wise prescription, but to those who recognize our faith as “essential”, we have to ask or recognize the offenses against God that this entails.

For the laity, church law says the parishes belong to them. So in a time of emergency priests were instructed to lock the children out of their homes.

The priesthood is the means of delivering the sacraments for the sanctification of God's people.

We do not live in a moral vacuum but are constantly under attack. So in a time of need, the priests are instructed to allow the desanctification of their flock, a recurring theme.

Priests were not given any options, they were forced not to be priests. Forced to deny, both their baptismal promises, and their priestly calling. Many priests also operated in the past under the fear of reprisals as some do now. I know of both priests and laity, who exposed child molestation and were punished or removed. In a real sense, our Priests have been instructed to apostatize. We never know if this is from obedience, lack of faith or they are hiding something.

We also must now deal with the scandal of our Church in its utter abandonment of its mission in the world. Our Bishops surrendered their rights, duties and obligations to secular society. They completely accepted the notion that the Honor and Glory due to God was secondary to our life and our way of life. They agreed with society that the worship of a God, any God was not essential, they didn’t even put up an argument much less a fight.

I have to ask where is the Catholic conscience in our priests? Has it remained dormant and beaten down for so many decades that no one saw what they were asked to do? I know many see how wrong this is, but they all are being obedient while these crimes against our humanity continue.

For the Catholic priest at their baptism they promise to Be faithful, at their confirmation they promise to BE faithful, at their Ordination they promise to BE faithful. Obedience to the church or a bishop or a military commander is subservient to God’s law.

We need to teach our clergy who are so lost.

In this time of our abandonment we need to cry out, But God first, God first.