Hopeless?

Titus 1:7-9

          The summer before I entered the seminary we were told to read a book, a text, called the History of the Catholic church. It was fascinating reading. Much of it was not sugar coated as I suspected it would be but pulled no punches in the representations of the some of the Church's more unflattering affairs.  I had no problem really dissociating the events from the distant past from the enlightened times in which we live.  I gobbled it all up. The only problem for me arose when the string of unflattering affairs started to encroach on modern history.  Preaching that indigenous people didn't have souls or that slavery was justified and Biblically sanctioned was very problematic for me. At least there was a moment I chuckled at when I read that a Pope had pronounced that suspension bridges were evil and of the devil.  It was clear to me that the church was as flawed as any human except they portrayed themselves as having some Godly righteousness that gave them the ok to act in any way they saw fit.

           The last decade has seen an enormous amount of Bishops, including the Bishop of Rome who have aided and abetted pedophilia, lies and coverups at the hands of priests and at the expense of the victims and their families.  There seems to be no area immune from the religious rot that infests the Roman Catholic Church. Even Papal banking is infected by Mafioso.  Still, Pope Francis seems to be a good and decent man with a good heart and true faith. It seems a miracle he was elected to lead such a rotten crew.  Perhaps we should not expect more of Bishops who are clearly intensely human. If it only weren't for the fact that they try to set themselves up so high up on a pedestal, arrogant and self righteous.

            Today I read a story in the news about a young man, a boy of 16 actually, who committed suicide in Bogota after he was outed and harassed by Catholic school officials there.  The ignorance and lack of love was rampant. Sadly it is not just the Roman Catholics but a whole array of religions, politicians and even nations that forsake the Gospel message of love for hate, misinformation and scapegoating. I won't even mention forsaking scientific knowledge. The ignorance is legion.

             What happens in the world and especially a church, any church when tradition trumps the true message of the Gospel? Where is the love, the inclusiveness, forgiveness, sound Biblical exegesis and good Biblical scholarship? Where is the Holy Spirit?   Is it a blasphemy when a church abandons the Holy Spirit and denies the message that Jesus so ardently and richly lived for us?  

              How long will we endure the machinations of the ministers and clergy that inspire hate, misunderstanding and war?   I don't ask because I have any answer. I only feel sadness when I read today's Scripture passage and find church leadership so lacking and that fail to live up to what a Bishop should truly be. Someone please help me understand. Someone please help me to have a reason to hope that we as humans and we as a catholic church (small "c") will fully embrace the Gospel message. 

     A time to pray in humbleness and pray for forgiveness. 

For a bishop, as God’s steward, must be blameless; he must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or addicted to wine or violent or greedy for gain; but he must be hospitable, a lover of goodness, prudent, upright, devout, and self-controlled. He must have a firm grasp of the word that is trustworthy in accordance with the teaching, so that he may be able both to preach with sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict it.