Divorced Catholics are the illegal aliens of the Catholic Church. Perhaps they will all go to hell along with the priests who denied them communion.

I lived in Houston for six years--a lovely city. During my time there I got to know several undocumented immigrants--or to use a less politically correct term--illegal aliens. Every illegal immigrant I knew was a hard-working, law abiding individual. Several were practicing Catholics and some had families.

But an undocumented immigrant's life is different from the life of a citizen. A traffic stop, a minor misunderstanding, an encounter with an unsympathetic police officer--any small incident can turn an illegal immigrant's life upside down and trigger the process of deportation.

If you want to visualize just how tenuous an undocumented immigrant's life is, watch The Visitor, a terrific movie starring Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman, and Danai Gurira.  Sleiman plays Tarek, an undocumented Syrian living in New York City. One minute everything is fine and then Tarek is wrongly accused of jumping a turnstile in a New York subway station. Two plainclothes police officers arrest him, and he is whisked away to a detention center. Eventually he is deported back to Syria.

Although I wouldn't press the point too strongly, divorced Catholics are the undocumented aliens of the Catholic Church. According to Catholic doctrine, divorced people may not receive the sacraments of the Church unless they live a celibate life.

Divorced Catholics who wish to remarry or divorced persons who wish to become Catholics must have their marriage annulled by a diocesan tribunal, an expensive, time-consuming and humiliating process. Unless they are able to prove their prior marriage was not a true marriage at all, their annulment application will be denied.

The annulment process is truly bizarre, a throwback, one might say, to the Spanish Inquisition. I am told a majority of annulment applications are denied, but I have heard stories about people getting an annulment simply by writing a large check to the Catholic Church. And I know it is possible to get a marriage annulled even if there are children from the union.  One woman I know got an annulment of her marriage even though she and her husband had been married more than 15 years and had four children together.

Most Catholic skip the annulment process altogether and continue to receive the sacraments--or at least the Sacrament of Communion. Sympathetic priests sometimes counsel there is a "local solution" to divorce and that Catholics can receive communion if they make a good confession. Other priests say this is nonsense; and no bishop, as far as I know, endorses the idea of a local solution.

Thus, divorced Catholics reside in the Catholic community like undocumented immigrants. Year after year, they attend Mass, make financial contributions, and volunteer in Catholic works of charity.  Just as undocumented immigrants begin to feel like American citizens, divorced Catholics begin to feel they are Catholics in good standing. Indeed, sympathetic parish churches might be described as"sanctuary cities" for divorced Catholics.

But then one day, a priest of the old school finds them out and tells them they are forbidden to receive communion or go to confession unless they obtain an annulment.  Much like Tarek in The Visitor, they are whisked into  spiritual detention; and for all practical purposes, they are kicked out of the Church.

It would be pleasant to believe that the priests who condemn divorced Catholics are the Church's best priests;  but in fact, they are the worst.  The priest who denied me the sacraments was one of the priests who tried to cover up child rape by a fellow priest years ago.

I know many divorced Catholics who have left the Catholic Church because of the Church's harsh official stance on divorce. They come to realize that for many priests and bishops, the thief on the cross, the woman at the well, the adulteress Jesus forgave--all those Bible stories are simply tales for the nursery.

In fact, in the minds of many Catholic priests and prelates, the Catholic Church is not the Bride of Christ. Rather, it is an exclusive civic organization, much like the old whites-only country clubs where only the "best people" were allowed to play golf.

Pope Francis would like to bring divorced Catholics back into the Community of Faith, but even Pope Francis, a truly holy man, cannot overcome the mean-spiritedness of a large segment of the Catholic clergy,

Monsignor Richard Mouton was the spiritual cop who tried to deport me from the Catholic faith. I imagine he believes I will burn in hell for going to communion more than a thousand times before I got picked up in a random traffic stop in a communion booth.

And perhaps Monsignor Mouton is right. If so, the most frightening aspect of this prospect is the sure certainty that I will share a cell in Hades with Monsignor Mouton himself.

The Visitor

Great Falls-Billings Diocese files for bankruptcy to settle clerical abuse claims

This week, the Great Falls-Billings Diocese filed for bankruptcy to settle sex abuse claims against diocesan priests. Great Falls-Billings is fifteenth Catholic diocese to take this step and the second diocese in Montana to do so.

According to an attorney for some of the plaintiffs, the diocese will try to hold on to some of its real estate and cash, arguing that these assets are held in trust for local parishes and are not actually owned by the diocese. Good luck with that.

A spokesperson for the diocese, who will take charge of negotiations with some of the abuse victims, put the best face on this disaster. "Reaction of pastors and the laity has been largely a kind of 'What can we do to help?'" he said. "There is a feeling of we are in this together from our smallest parishes to our biggest ones."

But of course we are not all in this together. For nearly half a century, laypeople faithfully went to Mass, made their weekly cash donations, and listened to their priests and bishops. And all the while, Catholic priests were raping little boys while the Catholic hierarchy covered it up and someone washed the sheets that were stained with blood and semen.

As a Catholic convert who has loved the Church for over 20 years, I am beginning to feel like one of Hitler's camp followers who were huddled in the bunker with the Fuhrer as the Russian army crept closer, block by block. "How in the hell did we get in this mess?", those people must have asked themselves.

Christ can heal the suffering, we are told. No wound is so ugly that it cannot be salved by the Savior's blood. But we know for sure that child abuse victims never recover. They never recover. They never recover.

And so, returning to my bunker analogy, I ask myself: Is it is time for me to slip away through the rubble, leaving the fools who created this mess to their fate? I've stopped contributing to the Catholic Church altogether, sending my financial donations to a homeless shelter in Houston.

I would feel much better if the Catholic Church paid a real penance for all this suffering--if just one of the son of a bitches who covered up child rape was put in the slammer. But that has not happened and it will not happen.

Monsignor Richard Mouton

References

Dan Morris Young. Great Falls-Billings Diocese becomes 15th to file for bankruptcy. Catholic Reporter, April 3, 2017.

New Ulm Diocese files for bankruptcy to settle clerical abuse claims: What if some Catholic bishops had gone to jail?

Earlier this month, the Catholic diocese of New Ulm, Minnesota announced it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in order to settle clerical abuse claims.  St. Ulm is the  third Catholic diocese in Minnesota to file for bankruptcy because of sexual abuse claims against priests.

This is the list of American Catholic dioceses that have filed for bankruptcy so far---all triggered by revelations of sexual abuse by Catholic priests:

• Portland, Oregon
• Tucson, Arizona
• Spokane, Washington
• Davenport, Iowa
• San Diego, California
• Fairbanks, Alaska
• Wilmington, Delaware
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• St Paul & Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Duluth, Minnesota
• Gallup, New Mexico
• Helena, Montana

And of course, several other dioceses were stained by clerical abuse that didn't file for bankruptcy: Boston Archdiocese, for example, and the Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana. Clearly this scandal rocked the Catholic Church in every region of the United States.

It is perhaps too easy to lump this enormous tragedy into an easily summarized phrase: clerical abuse. But we should remind ourselves from time to time that we are talking about crimes against children. In fact, almost all these abuses involved a priest who put his penis in a little boy's mouth or rectum.

The psychological literature--not to mention our own life observations--confirm that these rape victims will never recover from what they experienced no matter how much counseling they receive or how much money they are paid. Some have committed suicide.

In my view, this shameful episode is not behind us and won't be behind us until the Catholic Church pays an enormous penance--and I don't mean money.  The bishops, diocesan administrators, and brother priests who covered up the scandal should be in jail--and not some fancy federal prison that has a golf course and ping pong tables.  I'm talking about a prison like Angola.

Just yesterday, Timothy Curley and Gary Schultz, former officials at Penn State University, plead guilty to child endangerment for failing to follow up on a report that Jerry Sandusky was in a shower with a small boy. They received that report in 2001, and it took 16 years for them to face justice.

Curley and Schultz have not been sentenced yet, but I fervently hope they both do hard time. I do not say this in a spirit of vengeance. Rather, it will take a harsh dose of justice to convince people they cannot shut their eyes to child rape.

Cardinal Bernard Law, who covered up clerical abuse in the Boston Archdiocese, is a prime example. Cardinal Law should be eating his daily oatmeal in the Massachusetts state prison in Shirley, not dining in some quaint little trattoria in Rome.  

All 50 states have child abuse reporting laws and child endangerment laws; and Catholic officials flagrantly violated those laws many times when they didn't turn sexual predators over to the police. Until some of these birds are jailed and publicly humiliated, the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal is not over and will never be over.

Cardinal Bernard Law: This guy should be eating oatmeal in Shirley, Massachusetts

References

Lori Falce & Shawn Anarelli. Schultz, Curley plead guilty in Sandusky scandal. Centre Daily News, March 13, 2017.

Amy Julia Harris. Several Catholic dioceses declared bankruptcy on eve of sexual-abuse trials. Minnpost.com, February 2, 2015.

Phillip Martin. In search of Cardinal Bernard Law. Huffington Post, August 7, 2016.

New Ulm Diocese to file for Chapter 11 protection. The (New Ulm) Journal, March 4, 2017.

Should Pope Francis Hire a Food Taster? Holy Simplicity v. Diehard Judgmentalism of Conservative Clerics

A few nights ago I had dinner in Houston with a group of friends. All are Catholic, all are near the end of their academic or professional careers, and all are unreservedly supportive of Pope Francis.  Listening to my friends speak about the Pope, I could see that my friends'

Louisiana man sentenced to 10 years in prison for stealing a toolbox from a church: Opportunities for bipartisan efforts to end injustice

Michael Duplessis, age 34, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for stealing a toolbox from Holy Rosary Catholic Church in St. Amant, Louisiana. Duplessis was sentenced after he agreed to a plea deal to avoid the possibility of  a life sentence.

A life sentence for stealing a toolbox! How could that be?

Michael Duplessis: Sentenced to 10 years in prison for stealing a toolbox from Holy Rosary Church

Apparently, Duplessis is a repeat offender. He had previously been convicted of stealing a cellphone charger from a residence and later a boat battery. Under Louisiana's habitual offender law, Duplessis is a three-time loser and could have been sentenced to life in prison for lifting that toolbox. I imagine the plea bargain looked pretty good to him.

Obviously a law that can send a man to prison for the rest of his life for stealing a cellphone charger, a battery and a toolbox is unjust and inhumane. In fact, Pope Francis has said that life sentences are essentially death sentences.

Surely, reasonable people can work together to repeal such a barbaric statute.

So why aren't Republicans and Democrats working together to do that? In fact there are dozens of unjust laws that could be repealed. As I wrote awhile back, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Claire McCaskill introduced a bill to stop the federal government from garnishing the Social Security checks of elderly student-loan defaulters. Who in Congress could oppose such a bill?

Unfortunately, our elected representatives at the state and national level are so caught up in political warfare that nothing gets done. And the mainstream press has become so obsessed with criticizing President Trump that it has abandoned its traditional role of advocating for justice.

Just today, in my local newspaper, Richard Cohen, a syndicated columnist, published an essay that was nothing more than warmed over criticism of President Trump. In case the public had forgotten, Cohen reminded us that Trump unfairly criticized Senator John McCain and the Hispanic judge who presided over the Trump University litigation. Isn't there something more timely and important that Cohen can write about?

Enough already. Republicans and Democrats should look for problems they can solve together, and the press should resume its traditional roll of publicizing injustices like the one perpetuated on poor Mr. Duplessis. This is how democracy works after all, or how it used to work, before everyone in public life began behaving like children.

References

Richard Cohen. Can't anybody play this game? The Advocate (Baton Rouge), February 17, 2017, p. 5B.

David J. Mitchell. Man gets 10 years in burglary of church. The Advocate (Baton Rouge), February 17, 2016.

Kathy Schiffer, Pope Francis Opposes Capital Punishment; Calls Life Sentences for Violent Criminals "A Hidden Death Penalty." Seasons of Grace blog site, October 23, 2014.

My humble apology to people who call themselves "recovering Catholics"

A couple of years ago I wrote an arrogant blog essay entitled "Don't insult me by calling yourself a recovering Catholic." I deeply regret this essay, but I am going to leave it on the web as a penance and a reminder to myself to be more humble.

In my essay, I took umbrage at people who describe themselves as recovering Catholics.  Such people, I said, are insinuating that Catholicism is a disease like alcoholism, drug addiction or a personality disorder. I quoted G. K. Chesterton, who said most people don't leave Catholicism because they reject Catholic doctrine; they leave "to have a high old time."

I apologize to lapsed Catholics for that essay; and I apologize to the late Mr. Chesterton for using his words to buttress my argument. I realize now that millions of Catholics have left the faith because the priests they encountered don't really want them.

My nephew, for example, is a Catholic; but he married a Protestant; and his wedding took place in a Methodist Church.  Recently, a Catholic friend asked him to be the godfather for his friend's child. But a Catholic priest refused to allow it. Why? Because my nephew was not married in a Catholic Church.

How much longer do you think my nephew will remain Catholic?

I myself had a nasty experience with Monsignor Richard Mouton in the Lafayette Diocese, which I've already described. I haven't been to Mass for months. Maybe I myself am a recovering Catholic.

Does the Catholic Church give a damn about the people it turns away because they are divorced or married outside the Church? No, I don't think so.

Pope Francis is a saintly man, and if all priests and bishops had just a small fraction of his kindly qualities, the Church would be fine. But the Church is losing members by the millions; so many American Catholics have left the faith that the nation's second largest religious group is made up of lapsed Catholics.

But the priests don't care. There are plenty of Catholic rubes coming to the United States from Latin America and Asia--enough to pay the utility bills for a few more years.

Nevertheless, I think the hardhearted clergy underestimate how much damage they are doing by refusing to extend a hand of mercy to people who are divorced or who married outside the Church.

Take my own case as an example. Many of my friends and family members are lapsed Catholics or indifferent Catholics, but they respect me for sticking with it. Now they see I may not be sticking with it.  And my lapse makes it less likely that dozens of friends and family members will ever return to the fold.

But perhaps I am being too hard on our rude and judgmental priests. After all, they are evangelists in their own way. They are doing their part to build up the nation's second largest religious denomination.

In this Cristmas season, an infant is found in a Walmart trash can: "Where ox and ass are feeding"

Why lies He in such mean estate,

Where ox and ass are feeding?

William C. Dix

What Child Is This?

On the Friday before Christmas--the eve of Christmas eve--an infant was found in a Walmart restroom trash can in the town of New Roads, Louisiana. Kyandrea Thomas was arrested, and she faces charges of attempted second degree murder. Police say Thomas gave birth to the child in a Walmart bathroom and deposited the baby in a trash can.

A local district attorney believes Thomas is the same woman who pled guilty to negligent homicide in 2011 for the death of a three-year old who was left in a day-care center van for nearly six hours in "scorching heat." 

In this Christmas season, it is hard not to compare the birth of a baby in a Walmart restroom to the birth of Christ more than two millennia ago. Surely a Walmart trash can is the modern day equivalent of a stable where ox and ass were feeding. Surely a child born in a Walmart restroom lies in mean estate equivalent to the manger of the Christ.

"Long lay the world in sin and error pining. Til he appeared and the soul felts its worth."

I embraced Catholicism more than 20 years ago. I was attracted by its beauty, its rigor, and the glorious witness of the saints. I see it now in simpler terms. 

When all the bishops and priests, cathedrals and theological tomes are set aside, my Catholic faith is simply this: God entered the world in the form of a child and affirmed the dignity of humankind. That child is the Christ, who continues to be present to us in the sacraments.

Our politicians and pundits assure us we live in "the best of all possible worlds," a world of rising prosperity and increased devotion to human rights. After all, transgender people can urinate in the restroom of their choice. Isn't that a sign that the trajectory of secular humanism will bring us to the Promised Land?

Indeed, some us do live in a kind of ersatz Promised Land. The people who read the New York Times and buy the luxury goods the Times advertises may think they live in the best of all possible worlds. 

But less than a week ago, an infant was found in a trash can in a small-town Walmart restroom. And this child, unlike Jesus, did not have Mary to nurse her, did not have Joseph to protect her and keep her safe.

Surely this is still a world where the soul does not yet feels its worth. 

References

Newborn found in trash at New Roads Wal-Mart in stable condition Monday. The (Baton Rouge) Advocate, December 27, 2016, p. 1B.