The Catholic Bishops’ Greatest Victory Since the Onset of the Sex Abuse Scandal

Novermber 13, 2009 - Sometimes, you can detect spirituality by the very "feel" of a vicinity. Visit the Church of St. John Lateran! Visit Assisi! Visit the Vatican!

Such is the power of the Church. Such is the power of a bishop.

The other kind of power in the reach of our prelates is of the political kind.

It is a lesser kind of power but was demonstrated recently and with drama when the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops vigorously lobbied Congress to take abortion out of health-care coverage in its version of the bill now wending its way through the Senate, and in a stunning victory -- shocking pro-choicers -- Congress did just that.

It was the greatest victory for the bishops by far since the beginning of the priestly scandal -- which left respect for bishops at a frightening nadir.

We're not sure they realized how low opinion had sunken in general communities.

Now, victory! -- perhaps even a turning of the tide? Heroic.

After years of criticism for not acting strongly enough against abortion, the bishops did that with great proficiency.

They did it with wisdom. They did it without harshness. They did it with the strength of their anointing, with prayer, and with love.

Cardinal Sean O'Malley chose to take advantage of the Ted Kennedy funeral to gently confront President Barack Obama about abortion in the health-care plan -- making plain to him how strongly the bishops felt.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington, D.C. dialogued with House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and she took his call the day of the vote and to everyone's shock ended up deleting abortion from federal funding in the bill that went on to victory. He did it without shouting into a microphone.

The point: our bishops have won a huge victory, for the time being; they showed wisdom; they spoke softly but carried a big stick (the stick: over sixty million Catholics).

There is much left to do. There is the Senate version. There are many other issues confronting dioceses. There is the true crisis of fallen-away Catholics (many of whom leave because the Church has become so dry and intellectual). Their numbers are staggering. Can we even really say many of them are Catholics any longer -- that there are sixty million?

With all due respect, the bishops must look in a very profound way at fundamental mistakes in modern Catholicism, starting with the lack of holiness in many churches and rectories and the way mysticism has been stripped from the pulpit.

Radical changes are in order -- changes that go far beyond resolutions that can be passed either in Congress or at the annual bishops' conference.

Excerpts of a longer article which appeared on SpiritDaily.com. Reprinted with Permission of Michael Brown.