Time for Catholics to rise up

Andy West, Malay Mail Online

One of the great paradoxes of modern society is that those bestowed with the greatest level of public trust tend to be those who most abuse it.

Look at leading bankers, for example, whose modus operandi appears to consist of a systematic and ruthless focus upon maximising profits, rather than diligently caring for the smooth functioning of the global economy.

Then there are elected politicians, who generally seem to expend the majority of their energies on cynically furthering their own careers and accumulating personal wealth, when they should really be making conscientious and selfless decisions to benefit their communities.

And how can anyone admire or respect fat cat business executives who are far too often prepared to chase the profit motive by exploiting their workers, fooling consumers and accepting backhanders from their associates, instead of using their positions of power to provide ethically developed and socially beneficial products and services.

Perhaps the greatest and most depressing example of abused trust is the Catholic Church, which is being increasingly exposed as a hypocritical, corrupt and wholly unethical organisation.

Lay aside arguments about religion: this is not about spiritual beliefs and endless doctrinal squabbles with Protestant and Orthodox sects, other faiths and non-believers.

Whether or not the Catholic Church is “correct” in its teachings is beside this particular point.

This point is, rather, about the Catholic Church’s use and abuse of its power; about how, as an immensely influential organisation, the Vatican dreadfully mishandles its responsibility to the global community.

The latest dirty laundry to be exposed was this week’s death of Jozef Wesolowski, a former Archbishop and Vatican envoy who was due in court to face allegations of child sex abuse.

Wesolowski’s death means, of course, the hearing will now not take place, and it doesn’t take a particularly cynical brain to wonder whether his premature end was “engineered” by his former employers to prevent the full details of his offences — and perhaps those perpetrated by others in similar positions — coming to light.

Even if his death was by natural causes, the manner in which Wesolowski exploited his position of power to pursue ghastly and decidedly non-Christian acts is already clear. This Archbishop was a paedophile, plain and simple.

None of this is new: examples of high-ranking Catholic priests committing child sex abuse offences have been horrendously prolific in recent years, contributing significantly to the church’s loss of popularity and support.

But the skeletons in the Vatican closet are not just about child abuse.

There have also been financial scandals, with a series of allegations of money laundering and tax avoidance — helping to fund the lavish lifestyles (what was that about a rich man and the eye of a needle?) enjoyed by leading officials — serving to further undermine the church’s credibility.

And although this crosses into the grey area of religious belief rather than law, the Vatican has also proven itself to be morally questionable — especially its role in directly contributing to the spread of AIDS in Africa by instructing its believers, who are often badly educated and therefore particularly vulnerable to authority, not to use condoms.

It all adds up to present a grizzly picture, making it very difficult for anyone to retain respect for the leadership of the Catholic Church, irrespective of what you might think of the religious beliefs it presents.

Many faithful Catholics will chide me, I am sure, for overlooking the steps taken by Pope Francis to stamp out child abuse within the Vatican since his appointment two years ago.

Well… too little, far too late. The Catholic Church, all the evidence suggests, has for a very long time been a haven of scandalous personal conduct, utterly at odds with its self-appointed task of delivering the Word of God to mankind. It is corrupt to the very core and minor change is not enough to rectify the damage.

What to do about it? For starters, we need to publicly and openly acknowledge the extent of the Vatican’s corruption.

That doesn’t happen at the moment, but it should. While most Western politicians would identify the growth of Islamic fundamentalism as the greatest threat to global security, the disgraceful conduct of the Catholic Church is arguably equally worthy of external intervention.

Ultimately, though, the desperately required destruction and renewal of the Catholic Church, which is effectively a private members club and can therefore simply ignore condemnation from governments or non-believers, would be most effectively applied from within.

Latest estimates suggest there are 1.25 billion practising Catholics worldwide. That is an awful lot of people, and I cannot believe for one second that many of them would condone the conduct of the organisation to which they subscribe.

To repeat, this is not a religious argument. Even if you accept Catholic teachings as 100 per cent accurate, representing God does not exempt the institution which communicates those teachings from criticism.

I am not urging Catholics to change their beliefs — I am urging them to change the way their beliefs are administered.

Catholics — all Catholics — are ultimately responsible for determining and changing the organisational structure of the Catholic Church. And they cannot, surely, be very happy with the current state of affairs.

For everyone’s sake, the message is simple: rise up, Catholics, question, challenge and demand change — now. Your faith deserves better.