Catholic and Loving it!

Difficult readings last Sunday for a blogger. Difficult readings. It all started out so well in the Old Testament...

If I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your life.

Fr Massie's example in his homily was that if you know that there are sharks in the swimming pool and you don't warn him, then it's kind of your fault when he gets eaten by sharks. Bloggers like this sort of passage because, loosely translated, it says "criticise people or else". It's a license to write things like this.

But that's the Old Testament and unless I plan to put myself right with God by slaughtering several thousand animals (might be tricky) I should probably stay awake while Fr Massie reads the Gospel reading...

"If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

Jesus always spoils the fun. An hour of boredom every Sunday morning and now this... tell him his fault, between you and him alone. Sounds bad for blogging, or at least, the kind of blogging that says "Fr Thingy did whatever and I don't think he should". Sounds like if he isn't happy, then Damian Thompson should be having a private word with the Bishops. Sounds like Fr Tim Finigan should never have blogged this (he should speak to them privately), Fr Z should never have blogged this (he should send his red ascii in a sealed envelope). Also, these bishops should have criticised an American policitician in private.

Closer to home, the Bishop of Lancaster in his very public Fit For Mission - Church [pdf] wrote that "Episcopal Conference statements and documents have a tendency to be often flat and 'safe' at a time when we need passionate and courageous public statements that dare to speak the full truth in love".

So hold on a moment. There seems to be a lot of public criticism going on, even by Bishops. Is everyone showing a flagrant disregard for what Christ has to say on the subject or is there something else going on here?

I think there are two main situations in which it might be acceptable to criticise publicly...

When there is imminent danger, either when the person is at risk of causing harm to themselves (you are using that chisel wrong) or if a person is intentionally causing harm to others. If somebody is in the process of shooting a classroom full of children, I highly doubt our Lord would want us to wait for an opportunity to question their actions in private.

When there is risk of scandal. Scandal, in the traditional sense, is when somebody's actions lead others to do wrong. St Thomas Aquinas covers this in his Summa Theologia where he says: Paul, who was Peter's subject, rebuked him in public, on account of the imminent danger of scandal concerning faith, and, as the gloss of Augustine says on Galatians 2:11, "Peter gave an example to superiors, that if at any time they should happen to stray from the straight path, they should not disdain to be reproved by their subjects."

As I see it, a significant number of priests in the Diocese of Middlesbrough are consistently undermining the teaching authority of the Church, that's a pretty imminent danger of scandal concerning faith. I fully intend to rebuke in public.

And in the words of John Lennon... I'm not the only one...