NEWINGTON (VA)
St. Raymond of Peñafort Catholic Church
August 6, 2018
By Fr. John De Celles
In today’s second reading, St. Paul writes: “I…urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received…”
Each of us is called in Baptism to live a life of love for God and neighbor, and keeping the commandments. Even so, sadly, all of us, from time to time, fail “to live in a manner worthy of the call [we] have received.”
But some of us have special callings in the Church, and for the Church. In particular, I think of priests, bishops and popes. Each of these are men have a special obligation to strive to live in a manner worthy of their very special calling, for the good of the whole Church. And when they fail, it has wider effects, and hurts the whole Church, which as St. Paul reminds us today is “one body.”
Now all priests will fail in smaller ways, and even larger ways that are not uncommon among men,
ways that may disappoint us, but not cause us to give up on them. But sometimes, some priests fail miserably and in repulsive ways, ways that seem to, as Scripture says, “cry out to God for vengeance.”
In the last few weeks we’ve heard in the news that the former Archbishop of Washington, one of the most powerful Cardinals of the Church, Theodore McCarrick, has been accused of such failures – terrible crimes and reprehensible grave sins. Although the Pope suspended him from public ministry until the investigations are concluded, McCarrick has publicly denied all accusations.
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