I viewed some very conservative Catholic writing yesterday and was sharing something with my husband last night. One of the articles referenced some canon law and basically said that women should still be covering their heads in church. Through a series of illogical connections, the author asserted that the priest could be considered an angel in his role at Mass. So 1) out of respect, women should cover their hair, and 2) the covering serves to steer the priest away from concupiscence. My husband suggested we then need to cover the children. It took me a minute before pedophilia crossed my mind. I had to admit that was a pretty good observation.

It is maybe odd that I have never been angry at the Catholic Church over that scandal. I have reserved my ire for the specific fools involved in the illicit activity and then the cover-up. I even know the family of a young man who was eventually driven to suicide years after unresolved abuse. It saddens me and I think we, the Church, need to do everything we can to ease the suffering and correct the injustices. We have much penance to perform and prayers for healing. But I wonder if I am just not very surprised by portions of a hierarchy I have come to distrust in general.

There have been some particular nuns, priests, and bishops I have known who have been inspiring to me, but in the case of the bureaucracy as a whole, I have been unimpressed. Deaf and out-of-touch are two terms that come to mind. Do I sound arrogant? I don't know. But somewhere in my education in Catholic schools and a Catholic family, I concluded that each member is as much the Church as the next member. There are absolutes when it comes to morality, and I need an institution or at least a community to which to cling and in which to flourish. So being Catholic is woven into my life in a way that I would find leaving the Church almost impossible. However, bureaucratic corruption is also a reality. If pointing out that flaw in the Church makes me arrogant, so be it. Of course, I have a problem with authority in general. I'll save that issue for another post.