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	Perspectives: Staying Catholic Amid the Church's Scandals By Carl Guido Marziali Pasadena Star-News June 12, 2010 http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_15284065 Why remain Catholic? Who wants to belong to a church notorious for abusing minors? This is an embarrassing but real question for many Catholics. These are not people looking for an excuse to leave. Take someone like me: an Italian Catholic from John XXIII's hometown, who belongs to a good parish right here and is raising his children in the church - and still I find myself trying to remember why I was ever proud to be a Catholic. I learned more than I wanted to know when I interviewed a legal expert about the scandals in the American church earlier this decade. I continued to practice, as did my interviewee, an ex-priest who remained devout after leaving his order. Now, however, he refuses to take his daughter to church. The avalanche of news about abuse and the cover-up in Europe has made me wonder if the church is capable of reform. Last month, Cardinal Roger Mahony's office distributed a brochure listing preventive measures taken in the Los Angeles archdiocese. (In an irony apparently lost on the diocese, the brochures came with ribbons reminding us to "Keep Kids Safe.") Mahony wrote that "reports of suspected sexual abuse and misconduct continue to be reported to proper civil authorities." This was meant to be reassuring, but it implied the problem has not gone away. Lapsing is simple. For those who want to stay connected to a Christian community, the questions are harder. Do abuses of power such as this scandal compromise the church to the core? If we leave, which denomination should we join? If we remain, are we indirectly supporting the abuse of minors? I can't be the only one asking myself these questions. Here are my reasons for staying. Because the priests and nuns in my life were positive role models who never laid a finger on me. I realize my good fortune adds insult to the injury of abuse victims. The only difference between us is luck. Because the church has always stood up for the most vulnerable: the elderly, the immigrant, and yes, children. After the thousands of damaged lives, the church's loss of moral authority for social justice is the saddest consequence of this mess. Because the church welcomes the poor instead of asking for tithes, or telling desperate people to pray for "health and wealth," or finding other ways to blame the poor for their poverty. Because the church is one of the most racially inclusive. Because I agree life starts at conception, though like many Catholics I do not believe it does any good to try to force others to see it that way. Because thanks to lawyers and the media, the church in this country has a huge financial incentive to do the right thing. One reason doesn't wash: that heroic priests and nuns make up the "true church," as columnist Nicholas Kristof and others have said. You cannot let off the church so easily. There are good teachers everywhere, but I don't see many parents defending the Los Angeles Unified School District. To remain a Catholic, one has to see something worthwhile in the institution. When I was a child, my parents taught me core Christian values, but also talked proudly of the church's tradition, scholarship and commitment to justice. In a year or two, when my sons are old enough to understand, I will have to explain what some priests were allowed to do to boys just like them. Perhaps I will be able to say that our leaders reformed. There is an outside chance the church will drop its stubborn insistence on the vow of celibacy. The Vatican has stated that celibacy is no longer "untouchable," while continuing to say it is not the problem. I can accept it is not the only problem: churches with married pastors and the Boy Scouts of America have their own abuse scandals. But the church does not appear to be asking the hardest questions. Does the vow attract people trying to suppress sexual issues? Did the pressure to seem celibate drive priests to target the young, who would be the least likely to talk or to be believed? Did guilt over breaking the vow lead some to the perverse rationalization that sex with the pre-pubescent did not "count"? We hear a lot of contrite talk from Rome. The pragmatist in me fears that the church will treat penance the way abusive priests treated confession: as the enabling step in a cycle of sin, guilt, repentance and more sin. The idealist in me hopes the church will change the conditions that lead to abuse by considering all options, without ideological blinders. Nothing has done more damage to today's Catholics and to the institution than its warped attitude toward sex. If the Vatican fails, it should not be shocked if Catholics find an alternative to a hierarchy fixated on control and external observance. That's how the church itself started.
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