Bob Redig: Catholics Church must fix problems to regain trust

By Bob Redig
Winona Daily News
March 15, 2015

http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/opinion/columnists/bob-redig-catholics-church-must-fix-problems-to-regain-trust/article_9b61c77d-f3c7-5629-b661-3e624fadff85.html

While Pope Francis is on the right track, moving from pomp and arrogance to simplicity and humility, he has two major problems to deal with.

While some concepts can be dismissed as a theological construct, as Pope Benedict did with “limbo,” others require the consent of the whole Catholic Church.

Papal infallibility and irreformability are, as Bishop Robinson of Australia says, a prison that the Vatican has built around itself stone by stone. By definition only one entity can claim that perfection. The institutional church is not God. Truth may be absolute but human interpretation and understanding of it is imperfect and must adapt and grow.

Only when all Catholics are included in the discernment process can we humans begin to approach the truth. If not, egregious mistakes will be (and have been) made, too numerous to list, but among them the claiming of papal infallibility and irreformability.

Pope Paul VI, fearing the appearance of weakening church teachings, took birth control and priestly celibacy off the second Vatican council table. To this day, these problems have not been dealt with.

The birth control teaching has, with good reason, been soundly rejected by almost all Catholics. Many priests and most laity recognized the hypocrisy in the teaching. The methods allowed are as unnatural and artificial as a physical barrier — mainly time and space are physical barriers and the intent is the same — frustrating nature’s central call (next to hunger) to preserve the species.

If the intent is allowed, the method, as long as non-abortifacient, is irrelevant. But the most serious impact was the weakening of the Institutional Church authority, with the worldwide Abusegate bishop cover-up one of the final nails in the coffin.

But, ironically, the reason most Catholics give for leaving the church is that they feel they are not being served.

This is a direct result of the Vatican refusing to deal with priestly celibacy, married priests and female priests. It has resulted in overworked priests administering multiple parishes and being either unable or unwilling to personally pastor their parishioners. In fact, it has come home to roost in the Diocese of Winona where the bishop has had to bring in foreign priests, who while competent, present cultural and language barriers. But more devastating is the denial of weekly Mass to some otherwise viable local parishes—Immaculate Conception Wilson among them.

Since Bishop Quinn is unable to provide a priest to serve Wilson’s needs, the All Are One Roman Catholic Church board has offered to share its pastor, Kathy Redig, Roman Catholic Womenpriest, to provide weekly Mass to the Wilson parishioners if they so wish. While pastor Kathy is not licensed by the Winona Diocese, she is a valid priest, ordained in apostolic succession, as was Winona’s bishop.

For the Catholic Church to be relevant in these times, to reverse declining attendance, to better serve its people, to again be meaningful in peoples real lives, those in charge are going to have to deal with the above obstacles to change and growth.