Conscience

I will admit from the very start that I am not a regular reader of the Catholic Herald, so I am indebted to local columnist Bill Wineke for putting me on to this. A few of you are glazing over already--Catholic Herald? Bill who? Stick with me here--I am about to break open a sex scandal of major proportions. But first, let me back up.

Apparently, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI's Humanae Vitae position paper upholding the Catholic stance on contraception, Bishop Robert Morlino wanted to say a few words. He initially said them to church staff members, but his speech was published in the Catholic Herald on July 24, 2008, just in time for the anniversary.

According to Bishop Morlino, the trouble with moral decay in the Catholic Church began with the decision of many Catholics to follow their consciences instead of the edicts of the Pope. Once that Pandora's box opened, it was only a short step for church leaders to follow their "own consciences in terms of sexual misconduct." So, essentially, the consciences of some church leaders, in the absence of listening to anything the Pope might have to say, lead them to believe it was okay to molest children. Disagreement with the Pope's opinions on birth control was just the first step towards pedophilia.

For those of you who believe I am sitting on the skinny end of a tree branch with this, let me quote Bishop Morlino...

"Once bishops, priests and others decided they could use conscience to excuse them from obedience to the truth, as taught by the Church-when bishops and priests started giving conscience the authority to determine moral truth, rather than obey the truth as taught by the church, it is not surprising that some priests and some bishops started to follow their own conscience in terms of sexual misconduct.

The rejection of the Natural Law and reason, in the rejection of Humanae Vitae because of a misunderstood notion of conscience has lead to all of these terrible consequences and on top of it all too, the sexual misconduct scandal with some priests."

Bill Wineke has his opinion about this when he says "Dismissing it (the clergy abuse/bishop cover-up) as a manifestation of a contraceptive mentality is to do a disservice to the priests and the people in their pews." I agree with him completely, but he has ignored the larger question here--who is ultimately responsible for the sexual misconduct scandal in the Catholic Church?

I think some of you already know the disturbing answer to this question: Jimminy Cricket, guilty right down to his shiny little spats. The evidence is overwhelming. Who kept saying "let your conscience be your guide?" The Blue Fairy. And who was the conscience? Jimminy Cricket. Who was reaching the masses at just the right time? Exactly! Have we had priest sex abuse scandals before or since? This is the smoking gun here...not only were some priests ignoring the Pope, they were listening to Jimminy Cricket and the Blue Fairy instead. Not since the Teletubbies scandal have such supposedly benign characters warped our sensibilities so severely. I hope we can find it in our hearts to forgive, but Disney has a lot to answer for on this one.