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| A Larger View |
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A Bi-Monthly Newsletter of the Inner Outer Partnership |
| Volume VII Edition 4 |
July/August |
2002 |
The Catholic Church In Crisis:
The Organism v The Organization
Over the last few months, we've discovered that beneath the everyday
activities of parishes and churches there lay scandal and shame. Although
priests take vows of chastity, many seem to have difficulty sustaining
them and have exercised their sexuality in ways that are not necessarily
healthy or in some cases legal. Child molestation is ignoble in and of
itself but when engaged in by someone in a position of trust and authority
such as a priest it becomes vile indeed. There are other breaches of
chastity which have not been publicized. While those among homosexual
priests too have become public, others for example pregnant nuns, some even
being impregnated by priests have been kept quiet. While the headlines
titillate our emotions and may tilt us toward emotional conclusions,
feeling for example that the whole clergy is involved directly or
indirectly, when seen in terms of the overall numbers, the actual
occurrence of these offenses is still quite small. What hurts the Church's
credibility is not the number but a culture that regardless of forgiveness
and compassion for the perpetrator, has tolerated these incidences and
been willing to hide them from the public.
The underlying problem is not pregnant nuns, pedophilia,
homosexuality among priests, and not even celibacy and chastity or how
widespread their breaches have become. The current scandal may very well
be the chink in the armor, the crack that lets us see that the Church which
is meant to be an organism, a living entity, has instead become an
organization, a static infrastructure choked by its own hierarchy, its own
laws, its own parochialism, its own blinders.
The consequences of the disclosures and the demands of the victims are
causing ripples in the core of that hierarchy and much of what the Church
as an institution has stood for.
Donations are down, many are questioning established practices and real estate may have to be sold to pay for demands for restitution and
legal fees. To those for whom the Church is sacred which is many Catholics it
seems as though the foundations are shaking.
And yet perhaps all that is
being shaken is the separation of the wheat from the chaff, leaving in
place that which will reinvigorate the institution to answer, to serve people not the increasing demands of an organization
perhaps grown too stale after its 17 centuries of existence (while it is
commonly thought that the Church is 2000 years old, it is often forgotten
that given persecution and other obstacles, it took some 300 years for it
to be established). So yes, the scandals are ugly, a test for so many, but
too an opportunity for the Church to refashion itself to contribute to
the fabric of a new century.
Bono and O'Neill; Did Opposites Attract?
The press dubbed U.S. secretary of the treasury Paul O'Neill and U2
lead singer Bono, the odd couple, an irresistible epithet. Yet they may be
more representative of the existing conflict as to how to tackle world
hunger and food shortages between the so called north (industrialized
nations) and south (not yet so). During their recent trips to Ghana, South
Africa, Uganda and Ethiopia, O'Neill reiterated his belief in the system as
it presently exists, in the power of markets and capitalism. Bono, who had
worked long and hard to convince O'Neill to undertake this trip, stressed
debt relief and the immediate aid that must come if further disaster is to
be avoided. His approach implied by-passing the system so dear to O'Neill,
at least temporarily, and putting the need of people first.
The problems of Africa are tangled and multiple, beyond the agreement or disagreement of an activist and a cabinet secretary, but the trip
illustrates that new solutions will need to be found if the continent is to
avert further destruction. Three hundred and forty-one million people
inhabit it, and at least half live on a dollar a day. To be able to
reduce poverty, its economy would need to grow at a rate of 50% a year,
instead of the current 2 to 3%. Many of the traditional economic
solutions such as foreign investment and trade suggested by the secretary
will therefore be needed, but these solutions usually require time to bear
fruit and the AIDs epidemic alone challenges the existence of a future.
The issues have become so complex that even were traditional economic
remedies applied and time not a factor, it is doubtful they would succeed
on their own.
To this writer, as to many not constrained by politics in the search
for answers, the Bono scenario of debt relief, rebuilding the
infrastructure and immediate aid holds much promise, and the reluctance of
O'Neill only stands for the obstacles of political concerns inevitably
accompanying foreign aid policy. Since we live in a world where pragmatism
is valued, O'Neill's stance cannot easily be discounted anymore than we can
afford to close our eyes to the human costs of AIDs, tuberculosis and
malaria, of war, of poverty, of unemployment. Neither should we loose
track of the reality that while we debate our strategies, Malawi, a small
country in Southern Africa is on the verge of famine and several
neighboring nations will soon follow. True, in cases such as Zimbabwe some
of the causes are linked to poor policies, in this case specifically to
President Robert Mugabe's land redistribution program and the unrest it has
led to. Nevertheless, the title of a Los Angeles Times editorial put it
directly, "Aid to Africa Can't Wait."
Upon his return to the United States, in a speech at Georgetown
University, O'Neill who must be given credit for having gone and having
listened, admitted he hadn't yet "made up his mind". Let us hope his heart
does it for him.
Rising Tuition Costs Deepening The Gap
At a time when a college education is more necessary than ever before, rising tuition costs are making it harder for all but the wealthiest
families to afford them. A recently released report by the National
Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, a nonprofit organization in
San Jose, CA, put it quite plainly. "Only the wealthiest families have
seen their income keep pace with increases in tuition. The lowest income
families have lost the most ground, and this is a major factor in their
lower rates of college attendance."
While, according to the report, Americans continue to attend college
at a higher rate than ever before, for families higher fees entail
working longer hours, cutting back on other expenses, and borrowing more.
Higher fees also mean that many college seniors graduate with a debt load
that is up 69% from 10 years earlier. For a low income family attending a
public four-year school, the average debt load is now $12,888.
"The need to borrow a lot of money is a real inhibitor" said Patrick M.
Callan, president of the think tank, pointing out that low income students
are of course hit hardest.
Another report issued by the Center for the Study of Higher Education
at Pennsylvania State University finds that "25% of all of the state
grant dollars to undergraduates are now awarded without any determination
of financial need." The trend is nationwide and reinforces the findings
that the burden falls heaviest on lower income families and students,
where the fear of being saddled with college loans stops many from
attending four-year schools.
Still another report released about the same time by the Institute of Medicine cites that more than 18,000 working age adults died prematurely in
the year 2000 because they lacked health insurance.
The gap between rich and poor may be very much with us, but we ought to
recognize the consequences for a society where increasingly only the
wealthy can attend college, or afford health care. Certainly access to
health care is crucial, but access to a college education, to the decent
livelihood it hopefully will lead to ( including health care), is just as
important. We can define compassion in any of the ways currently in vogue
and discover that at its core it would include access to education and
health care for all.
Knowledge A Non-Negotiable Necessity
A report, this one by the National Science Foundation, underlines in a different, if no less dramatic way, the need for education. Only 45% of
those studied knew that lasers focus light waves rather than sound waves.
At first glance it doesn't seem noteworthy, but in tandem with other
findings it helps point to the dangers of ignorance. Only 54 percent of
adults know that it takes the Earth one year to orbit the sun, 41% believe
that astrology is somewhat scientific, and 54% agree that humans developed
from earlier species of animals. In a society where all are equal and ought
to all vote and all sit on juries regardless of whether or not they know
what they know and recognize what they don't. Further, those same people are
those who more than likely participate in polls and it is their skewed
or faulty knowledge that ends up informing policy makers. Thus the
ripples of ignorance become so interwoven into the fabric of our society
that often they are legitimized, feeding upon themselves, enabled to grow
instead of being conquered.
The study also interviewed 400 trial judges from the 50 states and
found that most were not prepared to deal with the large amount of often
complex science presented in their courtrooms. In addition the study
found that many of the judges, like so many of us, did not usually
recognize their lack of understanding. Still those judges adjudicate
delicate matters that could potentially affect thousands of us.
Unless we recognize the value of knowledge, a by-product of
education, our ignorance shall make it that much harder to stand up for
higher values. Without knowledge, wisdom is impaired. Without wisdom,
spiritual values cannot thrive.
Web Site Of Interest: www. coveringtheuninsured.org
Being Aware of a Need
Covering the uninsured is a national campaign sponsored by the Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation and 12 other organizations such as the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, the AMA, the American Nurses Association, the AFL-CIO.
and AARP. Their goal is to bring awareness of this problem, one that
afflicts 39 millions Americans or 14% of the population.
The web site offers as much data as seems available on the profiles
of those 39 million. It also tracks legislation and suggests how to take
action by knowing how to contact your congressional representative, write a
letter to the editor, prepare a sermon or organize a town hall meeting.
The real usefulness of this site comes from placing much data in one
place including a glossary. To make sure the problem is not just a phrase
or a concept but rounded out so that consequences are understood in human
terms, personal stories add a touch of reality.
To Ponder On
"...Starvation shrinks everything but the eyes."
Bob Hasen, one of the first American GIs
entering Ohrdruf concentration camp
one of the earliest camps to be
liberated
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