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	Wineke: Catholic Church Undercuts Its Efforts to Promote Reverence for Eucharist By Bill Wineke Channel 3000 October 16, 2011 http://www.channel3000.com/news/29502016/detail.html As if today's headlines weren't depressing enough, Catholic bishops seem to have returned to the front pages. Locally, Bishop Robert Morlino has requested -- but not ordered -- his priests to refrain from offering parishioners wine during most celebrations of the Eucharist. He is the second bishop in the country to do so. The reason, he explained, is to promote reverence for the Eucharist. The Eucharist is part of the Catholic Mass. It is called "Communion" in most Protestant churches. It is a ritual reenactment of the last supper Jesus shared with his disciples, in which he held up bread and wine and proclaimed them to be his body and blood. Prior to the Vatican Council of the 1960s, Catholics were offered the "blood of Christ" only on rare occasions. Usually, only the priest drank the wine. Since then, it has become common to offer both the sanctified bread and wine. Morlino's request, if honored, would make the reception of wine more of an unusual occurrence once again. I'm not exactly sure about his thinking, but I assume it has something to do with the fact that it is relatively easy to spill or dribble a liquid, or even to swig it. This might deter from the reverence shown the sacrament. I was mulling all that over when I read a second headline: The bishop of Kansas City, Missouri has been indicted on charges of covering up the use of kiddie porn by one of his priests and, thus, endangering the safety of children. Bishop Robert Finn knew the priest, the Rev. Shawn Rattigan, had hundreds of suggestive photos of small children on his personal computer, but failed to inform authorities, the indictment charges. Instead, it handed the computer over to Rattigan's family, who destroyed it. It ordered Rattigan to move to a convent but -- and this is truly unbelievable -- allowed him continued contact with children. These charges don't stem from something that happened 10 years ago or, even, one year ago. They are current. And it's not as if the diocese is ill informed. It recently paid a $10 million judgment to victims of priest sex abuse. It has procedures in place to avert future problems; it even has a review board that includes a police captain. Oh, yes, the police captain. Turns out the diocese told the captain about one, count them, one, of the photos and asked his advice. He, apparently, didn't think one photo should lead to a huge intervention. No one told him about the hundreds of other photos. So the diocese involved an unwitting police officer in its deception. Finn, incidentally, was featured in a glowing article in the National Catholic Register back in 2007 about his efforts to combat the use of pornography. This stuff just never seems to stop. The bishops keep meeting and issuing noble reports and vowing that they will protect children -- and, then, they don't. Now, to the best of my knowledge, Bishop Morlino is not one of these bad actors. I've never heard even a rumor that he has covered up a crime or tolerated an instance of abuse. And I know that many of you will consider it unfair that I even bring him into this discussion. But, here's my contention: The lack of reverence for the Eucharist (if, indeed, there is a lack of reverence), the lack of respect for the church and its teachings, just might possibly have something more to do with the fact that every few months we read of another high-ranking prelate who has covered up the most vile activities of his subordinates than it has to do with faithful church goers who seek only to participate in the sacrifice of their Lord.
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