BishopAccountability.org
	Distressing Days: Suffering As Much from the Church As for It The Phillyburbs April 21, 2011 http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/courier_times_news/opinion/guest/distressing-days-suffering-as-much-from-the-church-as-for/article_31ac2a37-c084-5fe5-ba4f-4472a85abfc7.html Whereupon Jesus said to the 12, Would you, too, go away? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom should we go? Thy words are the words of eternal life; we have learned to believe, and are assured that thou art the Christ, the Son of God. -John 6:69-71 In February, a grand jury in Philadelphia released a second report on sexual abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Like the first report issued in 2005, this second report is a disgusting chronicle of sodomy and mendacity. Shortly thereafter, the archdiocese suspended 21 priests who have been credibly accused of sexual corruption or improprieties. (Two more suspensions have just been announced.) I live and worship as a Roman Catholic in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and am familiar with some of the suspended priests. This is beyond question an exceedingly difficult time for the church. In this grim context, I decided to use this Lent to revisit "The Belief of Catholics," a classic statement of the faith by the English writer, Monsignor Ronald Knox. It is a book that serves to remind one of why the church embodies what St. Paul called the more excellent way. Knox (1888-1957) was the son of an Anglican bishop. Educated at Eton and Oxford, he was initially ordained as an Anglican clergyman. Later, he converted to Roman Catholicism and was ordained a priest in 1919. Knox wrote a stream of excellent and enduring theological works and rendered a translation of the Bible that remains one of the finest available. (The epigraph above is from the Knox translation.) It was while serving as the Catholic chaplain at Oxford that he published "The Belief of Catholics" in 1927. It is a work that has justly earned its reputation as a masterpiece of apologetics. The first half of the book addresses matters central to all Christians: God's existence, revelation, and the authority of Jesus Christ. Knox works his way through these complex areas with an elegance and clarity that reminds the reader again and again of C.S. Lewis. Like Lewis, Knox combined a mastery of Christian doctrine and English prose. The second half of "The Belief of Catholics" advances a distinctly Catholic understanding of Christianity. That is, Knox maintains that Jesus Christ left not the Bible but a teaching community - a church. (The church later selected and canonized the writings that became the New Testament.) As Knox wrote: "What did our Lord leave behind him at his Ascension? An example, certainly, to the human race; but you need not be a Christian to inherit that. He left behind him no writings; the Scriptures of the New Testament were composed years later, and it is the Church, not our Lord personally, that guarantees to us their authenticity and their integrity. He left behind him a body of moral precepts, and something, at least, of a theology. But all these, be it observed, have only been handed down to us by the agency of a society which he originated; a society which consisted in the first instance of his own immediate followers. That society is primarily his legacy to the world; he left us, not Christianity, but Christendom." For Catholics, the church is where one is born, lives, and dies. It is a total society that pervades the whole of life, generously -even lavishly - dispensing God's grace and forgiveness. As a Catholic in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia these days, one often feels that "you suffer as much from the Church as for it," as Flannery O'Connor once memorably phrased it. That is why "The Belief of Catholics" is especially appropriate for this time, when Catholics need to endure the distressing present by concentrating on the eternal nature of the entire project. Knox compellingly emphasized that "the Church is not merely an institution outside ourselves or above ourselves; it is ourselves." Gregory J. Sullivan is a lawyer who resides in Holland. Email: Gregoryjsull@aol.com
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.