There are two interrelated scandals rocking the Catholic Church, but you’ll only hear about one of them in the mainstream press: the heirarchy’s foot-dragging over sexual misconduct by the clergy. But there is a scandal behind the scandal. Many Catholics no longer believe in or even understand, the doctrine of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
It is no accident that the same generation that produced this sexual disgrace is the same generation that allowed Eucharistic devotions to atrophy. The two scandals are related because both are crises of truth. The shameful behavior would not have gone so far if religious superiors had dealt with it more candidly. And if we no longer believe in the Real Presence, we are depriving ourselves of our most tangible connection with the God who described Himself as the Way, the TRUTH and the Life.
We Catholics do not usually like to talk about this subject too much in public. Our belief that Jesus Christ is really and substantially present in the Eucharist sets us apart from others more than any other belief. Yet, we know that the Church wouldn’t really be herself without this sacramental reality, and that we aren’t really Catholics unless we believe it.
We are Christians because we believe in the saving power of Jesus Christ. We are Catholic Christians because we believe that Jesus Christ is substantially present with us in the Blessed Sacrament. There is no other reason to be a Catholic that is even worth mentioning in the same breath.
We don’t expect a dramatic, life-changing miracle each time we receive Holy Communion, or pray in front of the tabernacle. But the time we spend in front of the tabernacle or receiving Holy Communion is time spent building up our relationship with Jesus, and that is always time well spent. Day after day, week after week, we are changed by the experience.
In 1999, our diocese of Santa Rosa had a series of sexual and financial scandals that resulted in our bishop’s resignation. One of our responses was to begin Perpetual Adoration in the cathedral parish, and in another large parish. At the cathedral in Santa Rosa, Perpetual Adoration began on the feast of Corpus Christi of the Jubilee Year of 2000.
I have gone for at least an hour a week ever since. I can tell you one thing for sure. Not only is Jesus exposed to us in the Blessed Sacrament, we are also exposed to Him. It isn’t possible to sit there with a guilty conscience. You either have to clean up your act, or stop going.
As the weeks go by, I gradually feel layers of self-deception peal away from my character. I won’t say that I have never told a lie since I started Adoration. But I can say that I tell a lot fewer. The parts of my life that are twisted, and somehow lack integrity, just bother me a lot more when I spend time with Jesus. I find it easier to muster the courage to tell the uncomfortable truths, to avoid the convenient fibs. I am personally convinced, for instance, that Eucharistic Adoration saved my marriage, by helping me to tell the truths that genuine love needs in order to flourish.
Rod Dreher has been covering the bishops’ mishandling of the scandal in the National Review. He closed one of his articles with the following story, meant to illustrate how the Church ought to deal with priestly misconduct. Let me quote it in full.
One parish priest says he will never forget the day he realized his former boss, an East Coast bishop (now retired) was a true man of God. “We had to meet with a family whose child had been abused by one of our priests. When we sat down face to face with them and the lawyers, we told them that the bishop had said his first priority was to do the right thing. We told them our investigation had found that the priest was guilty, but that he had never been in this kind of situation before. We had removed him from any further parish involvement. We told them that we didn’t believe we had been neglectful, but we wanted to help the family in any way we could, because we recognized lives had been damaged, and we were profoundly sorry. And that was the bishop’s position.
“I looked across the table and the family was crying,” the priest recalled. “The father said, ‘Thank you. We never wanted to persecute anybody. That was all we wanted to hear.’”
This bishop confronted the truth in a loving way.
There are critics inside and outside the Church who insist that we need to change the rules about celibacy, homosexuality, and anything else they don’t happen to like. In my opinion, the crises now rocking the Church are not crises of doctrine, but of truth and of charity. Therefore, increased preaching of the Real Presence needs to be part of every diocesan response to these crises. Along with lay oversight committees, increased screening for seminarians and increased training for diocesan employees, the bishops need to institute policies that increase Eucharistic Devotion. Bishops could insist that every priest commit himself to one hour a week of adoration. The priests should read the Divine Office in front of the Blessed Sacrament. We need more Corpus Christi processions, benedictions and Forty Hour Devotions.
Where are we going to get good and holy priests, if not from in front of the Blessed Sacrament?
This article is available for free reprinting in your church or non-profit group’s newsletter. If you plan to use it, please notify me at jrobackmorse@sbcglobal.net and use the following attribution: "This article, originally published at www.townhall.com, is reprinted by permission of Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse. You can obtain her 60 minute audio CD, “What Straight Divorce has to do with Gay Marriage, at www.jennifer-roback-morse.com.jennifer-roback-morse.com.
Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, is the founder of Your Coach for the Culture Wars, a business that helps organizations maintain their core values in the face of today’s culture wars. She is also the author of Smart Sex: Finding Life-long Love in a Hook-up World.
