It's not hard for me to imagine that many of our priests feel this describes their relationship to the hierarchy.
Every once in awhile I come across an article where in the comment section one commenter unintentionally hi jacks the topic. One such article is currently posted at the National Catholic Reporter website. It's an article written by Phyllis Zagano entitled "Rome's checkbook strategy on women's religious". The comment which diverted the topic was this one:
As a priest I must object, and express my offense and outrage, to the constant "guilt by association" with the "clerical" church, as once again presented in this article. I am da--ed tired of it! This kind of gross oversimplification and villainaization of an entire group within the church is no different that the gross oversimplification and "villainization" of religious women as a "group." Yes, women religious and women in general have more than ample reason to be angy with the church. And, guess what, it case the thought never crossed your mind, many priests also have ample reason to be angry! For the love of Christ, can we stop this nonsense? In what way is it helping?
Actually it has crossed my mind that many priests also think they have ample reason to be angry. I don't think 'stopping this nonsense' is going to be especially effective. I do think if all these angry priests broke silence and stepped outside the clerical black line, that their da--ed bi--ching might be more effective and believable. Anonymous posts on the NCR don't cut it for me, no matter how much truth their might be in the message.
I suspect it might be these three paragraphs in Zagano's article which precipitated the anonymous priest's comments:
What does it all look like now? The world is beginning to see two Catholic Churches: one for bishops and priests and another for the rest of us. The one for clerics collects the money and controls the sacraments.
The church for the rest of us looks to women religious (and, now, male deacons) to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, shelter the homeless, visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead. These ministers of prayer and service slake the deep thirst of all of us for the Living Word. They do so largely without access to the collection basket.
Do priests and bishops get involved in all this Christian charity? Of course they do, but not so well that they’re the first ones you think of when it comes to works of mercy.
I happen to think Zagano is dead on when she writes the "world is beginning to see two Catholic Churches, one for bishops and priests and another for the rest of us." If priests don't want to be associated with the clerical version of Catholic church, if they want to be seen as part of the caring and concerned Catholic church, then they need to start shouting out and supporting that Catholic church. Inadvertently taking over a post with anonymous bitching about blanket vilification smacks of a victim not an agent of any meaningful change.
I understand why priests are not predisposed to opening up about injustice in the Church. Part of it is conditioning and part of it is economic survival. I just have a tough time generating much sympathy for the economic survival part when two million Americans are without employment for absolutely no reason or fault of their own. Unemployment is always easier to take when you can attribute it to taking some kind of stand than it is when you are just tossed out like so much unnecessary garbage with no hope of recycling.
These kinds of lay offs happen because everyday people have no leverage. Unions used to provide the kind of leverage which made employers somewhat accountable to their employees. Not so much anymore. The thing is with the current priest shortage, disaffected priests have a serious amount of leverage. It's got to be the conditioning thing that stops them from considering using their leverage--or maybe even realising they have such leverage.
Cardinal Law could speak to the leverage priests had in the Archdiocese of Boston. It didn't even take a majority of Archdiocesan priests to take a stand. It only took enough to threaten the functioning of the Archdiocese. American nuns have no such leverage, not being able to function sacramentally. Their leverage used to be in their numbers and relative wealth. Zagano thinks the lack of numbers now make the wealth appear to be a plum ripe for picking. A numbers situation which is working against American nuns could work just the opposite for American priests. Funny how that power differential thing works as opposed to just wealth. Priests have the power, nuns have the wealth. Lack of meaningful power always trumps amount of accumulated wealth.--see American middle class.
If the above anonymous priest is this angry and frustrated about how the rank and file clergy are being painted, he should turn his writing skills towards his fellow priests. But first he should understand that if his buttons got pushed this badly by this article, there is a reason for that, and that reason resides with in his own psyche. When he then gets past being a powerless victim, he might just see that far from being powerless victims, priests have huge power with in this system, they've just been conditioned not to use it. It's time to break that conditioning and take some risks of behalf of the whole Church. It's only what the Man they purport to emulate would do---and did.
Actually it has crossed my mind that many priests also think they have ample reason to be angry. I don't think 'stopping this nonsense' is going to be especially effective. I do think if all these angry priests broke silence and stepped outside the clerical black line, that their da--ed bi--ching might be more effective and believable. Anonymous posts on the NCR don't cut it for me, no matter how much truth their might be in the message.
I suspect it might be these three paragraphs in Zagano's article which precipitated the anonymous priest's comments:
What does it all look like now? The world is beginning to see two Catholic Churches: one for bishops and priests and another for the rest of us. The one for clerics collects the money and controls the sacraments.
The church for the rest of us looks to women religious (and, now, male deacons) to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, shelter the homeless, visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead. These ministers of prayer and service slake the deep thirst of all of us for the Living Word. They do so largely without access to the collection basket.
Do priests and bishops get involved in all this Christian charity? Of course they do, but not so well that they’re the first ones you think of when it comes to works of mercy.
I happen to think Zagano is dead on when she writes the "world is beginning to see two Catholic Churches, one for bishops and priests and another for the rest of us." If priests don't want to be associated with the clerical version of Catholic church, if they want to be seen as part of the caring and concerned Catholic church, then they need to start shouting out and supporting that Catholic church. Inadvertently taking over a post with anonymous bitching about blanket vilification smacks of a victim not an agent of any meaningful change.
I understand why priests are not predisposed to opening up about injustice in the Church. Part of it is conditioning and part of it is economic survival. I just have a tough time generating much sympathy for the economic survival part when two million Americans are without employment for absolutely no reason or fault of their own. Unemployment is always easier to take when you can attribute it to taking some kind of stand than it is when you are just tossed out like so much unnecessary garbage with no hope of recycling.
These kinds of lay offs happen because everyday people have no leverage. Unions used to provide the kind of leverage which made employers somewhat accountable to their employees. Not so much anymore. The thing is with the current priest shortage, disaffected priests have a serious amount of leverage. It's got to be the conditioning thing that stops them from considering using their leverage--or maybe even realising they have such leverage.
Cardinal Law could speak to the leverage priests had in the Archdiocese of Boston. It didn't even take a majority of Archdiocesan priests to take a stand. It only took enough to threaten the functioning of the Archdiocese. American nuns have no such leverage, not being able to function sacramentally. Their leverage used to be in their numbers and relative wealth. Zagano thinks the lack of numbers now make the wealth appear to be a plum ripe for picking. A numbers situation which is working against American nuns could work just the opposite for American priests. Funny how that power differential thing works as opposed to just wealth. Priests have the power, nuns have the wealth. Lack of meaningful power always trumps amount of accumulated wealth.--see American middle class.
If the above anonymous priest is this angry and frustrated about how the rank and file clergy are being painted, he should turn his writing skills towards his fellow priests. But first he should understand that if his buttons got pushed this badly by this article, there is a reason for that, and that reason resides with in his own psyche. When he then gets past being a powerless victim, he might just see that far from being powerless victims, priests have huge power with in this system, they've just been conditioned not to use it. It's time to break that conditioning and take some risks of behalf of the whole Church. It's only what the Man they purport to emulate would do---and did.
