In recent years the Catholic Church has been racked with scandals and corruption. Hearing of the abuses that have been perpetrated by those in positions of authority throughout the Church, the bishops who seem more concerned about worldly reputation than service of their people, and the confusion of teaching coming from the Vatican and often exacerbated by the media, people can begin to despair. This is a dark time for the Church and that inclination towards despair is understandable.
However, I believe that having a historical perspective can offer us some hope even in these dark times. I am blessed to have studied and taught Church History for years, and I find the knowledge that I gained over those years to be a powerful source of comfort as I am confronted by the scandals and confusion in the Church today.
When Jesus established the Church, he promised that the gates of the netherworld would not prevail against it. (Matt 16: 18-19) This was not a promise, though, that the netherworld wouldn’t attack, or that there wouldn’t be times of great trial and suffering. Just as we, as individuals, are sure to suffer on this pilgrim journey, so too will the Body of Christ, made up of each of us, suffer in this world.
We see that corruption immediately after the Church is founded in the person of Judas Iscariot. The Apostles were Jesus’s closest followers and the predecessors of our bishops and one of them, Judas, compelled by his desire that Jesus act in the way he, Judas, expected and desired betrayed Jesus, turning him over to the authorities who ultimately put him to death.
Between the years 817 and 1073 A.D. there was a string of notoriously bad popes, some of whom only served for a handful of days before being assassinated by rivals seeking the papacy. Pope Stephen VI even exhumed the body of the previous pope, Pope Formosus, and put his corpse on trial. Pope John XII was only eighteen when he was elected pope and his papacy was marked by hunting, banqueting, simony, and boys being consecrated as bishops in order to gain favor with wealthy families.
In the following centuries it was quite common for both popes and bishops to use their position within the Church to claim temporal power and seek to influence the political landscape. One of the most infamously scandalous of these popes was Alexander VI, who in addition to using his position as pope for secular gain, also fathered nine illegitimate children. His papacy was right before the Reformation, and in light of it, it is easy to see why many thought drastic reform was necessary.
All these historical blights may not seem to offer the hope I promised, but they are only one side of the story. Each time that the Church was overwhelmed by corruption and scandal the Holy Spirt responded by stirring up renewal. At the same time that the Church was suffering from a long string of bad popes, the Cluniac, Cistercian, and Carthusian monks were renewing monastic life and spreading throughout Europe, offering people an example of holiness in their daily life.
While the corruption within the Church in the Middle Ages did lead to the Protestant Revolt and Reformation, it also inspired the Council of Trent which brought needed reforms and a new clarity of teaching, reviving the Church from within. At the same time numerous saints sprang up in response to the darkness of the time, including Pope St. Pius V who reminded the Church that papacy could be a place of great holiness. In addition to this saintly pope, this period of history brought us Sts. Thomas More, Teresa of Avila, Philip Neri, Charles Borromeo, and Ignatius of Loyola to name only the most well-known.
Our hope is not in an earthly institution but rather in the living God and we are confident that the Church he created will remain, despite seasons of darkness, because he, himself, in the person of the Holy Spirt, continues to lead and safeguard it. When we hear reports of scandalous behavior by our priests and bishops, when we receive confused or muddled teaching, when we see our leaders seeking worldly recognition or acquiescing to the demands of the age, let us not be shocked or despair as if this were something new. Rather take heart and recall that at all times, from the beginning, this has happened and at the same time there has always been a response of renewal and of saints rebuilding the Church.
If you do not see that renewal currently at work bear in mind a few things. Often movements of renewal begin small and are hidden until they begin to bear fruit. They are happening nonetheless. I know of communities of lay faithful who have joined their lives together to strive for holiness springing up throughout the world. New religious orders continue to grow and thrive as young people, disgusted with the current age, seek to live lives of radical discipleship. Humble, faithful priests and bishops may not make the news, but they continue to serve their people well despite being largely unseen.
Finally, if you desire to see renewal in the Church, if you want there to be new saints, then seek to be a saint yourself. We are all called to holiness and now is the time for each one of us to seek to be that source of renewal, hope, encouragement, and inspiration that the Church needs. It is not pride or hubris to seek to be a saint in these times, rather it is a response to the call the Holy Sprit continually makes in all ages, but most ardently in times such as these. In doing so we can become sources of hope for those who come after us when the Church once again passes through a season of darkness into one of light.
Prose for the sake of Poetry 