These Hallowed Halls once bustled with activity. Little feet pattered the floor led by men and women who had committed their lives to service, charity and reverence to God. Now they lay quiet, pealing paint and rusted door knobs are all that’s left of the buildings that formed the leaders of our past.
These Hallowed Halls are an image of a Church that once featured the best and brightest teachers, leaders and servants. These Halls are where saints of the past were formed, values were imbued and civic culture was modeled in the caring, loving and compassionate teachers of the past.
Today is my Father’s Heavenly Birthday, he would be 82 today. He loved this Church we call Catholic, dedicated his life to prayer, petition and prioritized tithing to this Church over saving for retirement. He lived the “good life” for his 79 years on this earth. He was one of the many men we call fathers who built and sustained these Hallowed Halls.
Now, as the sound of bustling children has been replaced by silence. And we’ve learned this week that in these same halls walked perverted perpetrators of our past. It makes me sick. We have failed, my father would be disgusted and left in the wake are souls crushed, lives altered and faithful led astray.
This is not new. The prophet Jeremiah warned against this writing, “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD.” And St. John Chrysostom, stated in 4th century, “The road to hell is paved with the skulls of erring priests, with bishops as their signposts.”
But this scandal is greater than ever before.
In Pennsylvania, a sweeping Grand Jury report identified 301 leaders of Catholic Dioceses, Parishes and Schools from the past who abused young, innocent children satisfying their own desires, and soiling ground underneath the Hallowed Halls of our beloved Church. These sinful men were in positions of authority. These youth were entrusted to them by faithful mothers, loving grandparents and families the Church serves who are in the poorest neighborhoods of American Society – the most vulnerable in the world, the very people we our Church are called to serve used for pleasures of sinful bishops & priests.
This is not the Church my father built. And I am not one of the thousands of victims. However, this is the soiled ground on which I now stand, in a Church that we call Catholic.
So what next? I am confident this is not yet ove, because sin entered the world. It goes back to Jeremiah, past the cross of Jesus to St. John Chrystostom and only the final return of Jesus can overcome it.
So what next? We can and should kneel down begging forgiveness and mercy. This Catholic is here begging forgiveness and mercy, led by those who recognize the severity of this crisis. One of those Catholic leaders, Father John Hollowell, has given a series of talks on this crisis over the last two weeks, exposing the heart of a Church broken, tattered and torn – a Church that is on fire. One talk I will link below, you can search for more by simply search his name on YouTube or clicking here, to his YouTube page.
So what next? The Catholic Church is on fire this morning. Ignited by the fiery, sinful steps and erring eyes of men we called our Fathers and Priests of the past. These men my Father trusted for 79 years abused little children. He trusted his ten children, baptized and formed us the Catholic faith all the while men across the country were using this platform for the worst, most disgusting acts a man could imagine.
So what next?
The choices ahead are rather simple. Many Hallowed Halls are now empty, the church is on fire and the bodies of sinful are buried, long in the past.
So what next? A very good friend of mine who is a Priest in Cleveland Parish purchased this sign on Amazon this week and plans to sit daily at a coffee shop engaging the community.
He text me last evening and said, “Gonna start sitting outside one of the busiest coffee shops in Cleveland, no retreat, it’s time to advance.”
Satan has tried from the fall of man to influence and destroy God’s church in multiple ways. The most effective of ways he has found is from the inside out. Going all the way back to the times of Jeremiah, he has taken the sinful nature of man, cloaked it in the robes of clerics, clergy and bishops, and lit the fire of sin destroying institutions of men meant to lead us closer to Jesus.
Pope Francis wrote in response to the crisis of our time, “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security…”
So what next?
One of our best US Catholic leaders, Bishop Allen Vigneron, wrote a letter to the faithful titled “Unleash the Gospel,” describing the clarion call for his beloved Detroit Diocese and all faithful followers of Jesus Christ. In it he wrote what the New Evangelization, the renewal of his diocese and our church, should look like. Many quotes I could share and I’d encourage you to read it for yourself. But this one struck me this morning on my Dad’s birthday.
As the fire burns in our church, Bishop Vigneron wrote:
If the church is viewed as a human institution, then it is easy to become overwhelmed by the challenges that face us. The feeling that we have to carry the burden of a struggling Church contributes in turn to weariness, discontent and defeatism. It may seem as if we are pushing a rock up a steep hill and getting nowhere. Where there has been such lethargy, dear brothers and sisters, let us repent!
We have fallen. The Catholic Church has failed too many, too often. The Leaders have scandalized the Church my father helped build. But that does not determine my action and should not determine yours.
Led by Bishops and Holy men of God like my friend in Cleveland, Bishop Vigneron and Pope Francis, we choose to advance.
In Spiritual warfare, just as in all wars of the past, there will be setbacks. Crisis will certainly occur because the enemy, Satan, is real.
Let us recall one of the greatest crisis in war. In liberating Europe from the Nazi occupation, the allies were making great advances only to face a staggering challenge in the fields of Ardennes. On December 16, 1944, 406,000 German men rushed headlong into the front lines of 225,000 Allied forces, The Battle of the Bulge had begun.
Over the next several days, a massive breach in the Allied frontline formed as an overwhelming tidal wave of German forces exacted a brutal toll on the under supplied, out numbered allied forces. Countless men were wounded, killed and left for dead as retreat was called across the allied line.
But the retreat did not end in defeat. The onrush of men was met with equal resolve from those inside the military institution of the Allied Forces. In just 14 days, hundreds of thousands of men were mobilized and thrown at the advancing Nazi forces to turn the tide. Nearly 500,000 men rushed to the aid of the 225,000 trapped men on the Allied frontline swelling the ranks to over 705,000 allied soldiers.
Men rushed in upon their brothers to stop the Nazi advance, saving countless men’s lives and reversing the tide of war. Men young and old dropped everything hearing of their fellow man in need and rushing to their aid, at the risk of their own lives.
This Catholic Crisis can be viewed in the same light. A massive breach in the front line of our Church. The Hallowed Halls are soiled, the bodies of men are littered about and we stand in the ruins of the attack by the enemy, Satan. We can recoil into defeatism, weariness and discontent or we can lean into our Christian faith as Jeremiah and St. John Chrystostom once did and call it what it is – Sin – and speak of our solution – Mercy and Salvation on the Cross of Christ.
In every moment of our past, from the ruins of Noah’s floods, David’s sin and ultimately Judas’ betrayal – in every moment of our past, the resolve of the Spirit of God instilled in Holy warriors of faith – A New Pentecost arises.
We are witnesses to this in our age. The task at this moment is not to stare at this empty Hallowed Hall, and retreat into ourselves. The task is to follow the call of Bishop Vigneron –
The task of our time is to rush into this Breach! The task is not to point to a cleric in black robes as our savior. The task is not to yield our guns or swords, or condemn with our lips. The task is to propose Jesus Christ as the Savior whom God the Father offers to every human being. The new evangelization is not a membership drive, nor is it an effort to shore up a code of conduct. Rather it is a call to encounter Jesus Christ anew, to invite people to respond by surrendering their lives to him. This call is for all, from the fields of fallen soldiers of Christ.
Don’t shy away at this time. The enemy is real and the crisis is upon us. Let’s rush into this breach, following the footsteps of our forefathers of faith and turn the tide of this battle, taking back and redeeming the soiled Hallowed Halls by the Blood of Jesus Christ. Satan has advanced, but he shall only win if we lose our resolve. Let us not fail, rush into the burning church, bringing renewal once again.
Intersect Me 