The call to holiness

When the Sunday Times recently began to run its series of reports on priests in this country, who were alleged culprits in cases of sexual assault, it used such descriptions as “Church of shame” and “Brotherhood of silence”. It was evident that the reputation of the Church had been severely dented.

The same newspaper in its issue of June 29 published a response from Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, chairman of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (full statement here). This decisive and unambiguous statement reaffirmed the bishops’ determination to cooperate with the authorities in working out the most efficient way of reporting abuses. It was received with immediate appreciation by the Sunday Times.

In its editorial headed “An act of courage and great honesty”, it declared Cardinal Napier’s statement a brave and courageous thing which deserved the support of all South Africans. The Church, it remarked, “has gone a long way to restore its reputation among a public that is sick and tired of the abuse of young people.” The air, it said, had been cleared in a dramatic and courageous fashion.

However, the newspaper cautioned that it intended to continue to expose cases of abuses, wherever they occur.

In expressing its views so forthrightly, the Sunday Times acknowledged the Church’s “rightful place” in South Africa’s desperate need for moral renewal.

On the same day, June 29, Archbishop Buti Tlhagale was installed as bishop of Johannesburg. In his address he commented that if the Church’s moral integrity is compromised, we run the risk of being simply a gong booming or a cymbal clashing.

In other words, Christian living, like justice, must not only be done but must be seen to be done.

Yet there are pitfalls for us all. At one time Catholics were regularly admonished in sermons to beware of the temptations of “the world, the devil and the flesh.” These words may be unfashionable today, but human nature is always attracted to the pleasures of power, luxury and sexual gratification.

The history of Europe in particular reflects how the Church gradually became politically powerful. The higher clergy grew remote from their people, as they lived in the style of secular potentates, often possessing much in the way of material grandeur, while the lower classes feared them.

Saints such as Francis of Assisi and Catherine of Siena showed them up as they lived in simplicity and in imitation of Christ.

Our faith teaches us that human nature has been stained by Original Sin, and the consequence is that our passions can rule our minds and better judgment.

St Peter wrote: “Awake! Be alert! Your enemy the devil, like a roaring lion, prowls round looking for someone to devour. Stand up to him, firm in faith” (1 Peter 5:8). And St Paul, equally conscious of human frailty, admitted: “I bruise my own body and make it know its master, for fear that after preaching to others I should find myself rejected” (I Corinthians 9:27).

The Church, it must be remembered, is not an institution that promotes morality as a kind of code of ethics. The Church represents the sinless Christ in the world, and its pastors and people must continually examine themselves and purge all that is sinful from within them.

Personal holiness is the vocation of each one of us.

See also editorial of July 16-22, 2003