Sitting at lunch in the GSU with a group of friends completing the Daily Free Press crossword, a conversation arose about the inadequacies of the two part series on the Catholic Church. Miss Dubuss was on to something with her article, but failed to place emphasis on the young Catholic community’s capacity to heal, which I thought the issue demanded. Furthermore, the focus upon monetary issues in the second article, an issue far less critical than issues of faith and healing, is petty and disappointing. Since the scandal, the church both in Boston and at my home in Baltimore has emphasized our need for healing. Archbishop O’Malley was appointed because of his desire to begin the healing process. I believe the Catholic Community has become only stronger given this crisis of Faith. It is during times of difficulty when most individuals rally around a leader. Take the post-September 11th dramatic rise in patriotism for example. During this time of crisis in the church, I turned to the figure of our Pope. Pope John Paul II is an historic and holy figure with a strong moral compass. For Miss Dubuss to note “something was ‘off’ about the Church’s hierarchy” is to miss a strong faith-based need for this hierarchy. No matter how holy, no institution has escaped mistreatment or exploitation through the faults of man. In the first article of the series, emphasis on a Catholic demand for “a caring and receptive organization of priests, bishops, and cardinals” casts generalizations about the priests and bishops within the Catholic Church. In 9 years at Catholic school, I encountered dozens of priests, nuns and bishops, all of whom were compassionate and approachable. We must move past the assumption that the small minority of priests and bishops guilty in this tragic incident constitute a majority within the Church. Any institution that is closely involved with children, be it education, religion, or Boy Scouts, will attract pedophiles. As Anne Rice said, “Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult.” Any hierarchical system is slow to change and modernize. The modernization of the Church to meet the needs of its 21st century parishes has been a long time coming. I think Miss Dubuss failed to capture the promising tones in the quotes she employed in her article. She focuses her commentary on Catholics’ relationships with God becoming less Church-centered. She makes a distinction between spirituality and religion, yet fills the article with comments on young Catholics’ eagerness to cling to traditions like the rosary and become more active in their parishes. I hoped Mary Kate would have used this opportunity to illuminate young Catholic’s revitalization of close relationships within their parish. The word Catholic means all-embracing. It is this fundamental communal element of the church that I hoped the Daily Free Press, in this time of healing, would have emphasized rather than the Boston church’s brush with bankruptcy and, more importantly, the few souls who said, “‘Screw this – I don’t want to be a part of this.'”
Sincerely, Bridget Mooney CAS’05 Member of the Boston University Catholic Community 617-352-7723
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