Living in Denial

I came across an interesting point in a book recently. What was extra-interesting was that the author was making a point about something else, and yet the ramifications of theology often go far beyond what we realize (that is why we acknowledge theology is filled with "mysteries").

The point the author made was that a habit grew up in the mid-twentieth century of clergymen refusing to acknowledge errors. This spread into many areas of the Church, but the most significant issue (that the author referenced) was that Bishops over the last fifty years have refused to acknowledge the seriousness of abusive priests and so they just "let it go" and moved them to another parish. We all know the disaster which came from that.

There is another consequence of this bad habit of denying reality. It came to my mind when I read a letter written in the late 1960's that pointed out that vast numbers of people (including clergy of various levels of authority) expressed a complete disappointment with the Novus Ordo. Some said that it had no spirituality. Others said it lacked any clear Catholic testimony. Many said that the presence of God is hard to find (and maybe even is "hidden") in the new Mass.

Yet, though many saw it, no one (absolutely no one, as far as we know) said anything openly. They were living in denial. They could have clearly seen where this was going, and what the results were going to be on the Church over the next few decades (e.g. vast numbers of laity leaving the Church, religious abandoning their vows, clergy rejecting their ordinations, doctrinal compromise, moral relativism, etc.), but they just said nothing.

My grandmother once told me that if you make the same recipe ten times in a row and it always tastes like $%!# then you need to change the recipe. Yeah, the same holds true with the liturgy. We are all accountable to speak the truth with love. Even if that means that the laity need to speak the truth with love to a clergyman who is in denial, it needs to be done. To refuse to change out of a sense of pride or embarrassment never leads to good.

Furthermore, if you just keep doing the same thing for years you will eventually have people who start to like it because their "taste buds" have been conformed to accept it. Just because someone with burned taste buds likes it, does not make it ok. Of course, the other result is that those who actually do like it will take it even further "down the road" and end up with the liturgical chaos that exists in so many places in the Church (light shows, line dancing, jazz concerts, priests on hover boards, and monstrances suspended from drones, are just a few on the list of sacriligeous behaviors in Catholic Churches these days).

You do not need to scream and yell in order to do something about a problem, but you do need to be humble. Those who (apparently) pridefully just kept going are the real ones to blame for the current state of things. They could have done something before the "car got out of the garage" but now it is so far down the road that turning back is too embarrassing so they just keep driving; aimlessly. Let us pray that the Lord will convict some hearts and remind people of the importance of penitence--and the eternal consequences of impenitence.