[Craic] Fwd: Chittister article

[Arthur Blomme]

Great article Alan.  As Chitizer says the church is making some progress.

I am reminded  of _Christians and 911_ by David Ray Griffith.  At the 
council of Nicea,  the church changed course dropped its critique and 
instead became an advocate for Constantine and the Roman Empire.   Today 
many of us hold our faith in the goodness of the empire at an even 
greater level than our faith in the church.  We cannot consistently 
recognize the potential for evil by the empire.  We no longer believe 
that the empire is the *"beast* with ten*horns* and seven heads" 
(Revelation 13)

Art

On 5/03/21 8:08 a.m., Allan Baker via craic wrote:
> CRAICers;
>
> I received this note from a friend, and I thought that you might like 
> to read some words from Sister Chittister.
> Allan
>
>>
>> *Sent:*May 1, 2021 2:02 PM
>> *Subject:*Chittister article
>> I know some of you like this author.
>>
>> *Joan Chittister *recent article in*Reporter Magazine*
>>
>> Over the years, we have begun to discover some differences between 
>> Jesus and the church: Jesus has credibility.
>>
>> The reputation of the church, on the other hand, teeters. The papacy, 
>> the very cornerstone of the church, is a little-known history because 
>> so many of the early popes themselves were morally decrepit. The 
>> institution itself has wavered between the preservation of the faith 
>> and the amassing of power. The call of the church to protect the 
>> faith deteriorated into the Crusades rather than into universal 
>> unity. Evangelization became more a game of denominational 
>> competition than wholesale welcome of the ecumenical others.
>>
>> Until finally, the renewal of the church has been swamped in regalia, 
>> clericalism and wealth. The eminence of the church has become more 
>> architectural, more institutional than ringingly, obviously, 
>> universally compassionate. At least not as the divorced Catholic saw 
>> it then. Not as the Catholic in a mixed marriage saw it. Not as the 
>> beaten women they were telling to be more obedient to their husbands 
>> saw it. And certainly not as LGBT persons seeking real love and the 
>> sacraments they need to maintain them even now.
>>
>> Yet, it is also the church that saved itself over and over again. The 
>> church recoiled from nepotism — the control of the church by family 
>> dynasties. The church faced a long, long struggle to do it but 
>> managed finally to free itself from secular power in a monarchial 
>> world that had come to engulf it in simony and the selling of 
>> positions, pastorates and religious hucksterism.
>>
>> Even more, the church pursued idea development well beyond the errant 
>> levels of piety gone astray or magic confused with sacramentalism. 
>> The church triumphant educated generations of the faithful who sought 
>> to lead both a spiritual life and a humanly fulfilled life. And, from 
>> age to age, the church gave the world models of sanctity that kept 
>> Jesus alive in our midst.
>>
>> Over the years, we have begun to discover some differences between 
>> Jesus and the church: Jesus has credibility.
>>
>>
>> *Subject: **RE: Chittister article *
>> *Date: *May 1, 2021 at 2:19:54 PM EDT
>>
>> I should add the last section
>>
>> The desert monastics tell the story of Abba Arsenius, a scholarly 
>> man, who is seen asking a peasant for advice. "Why would you, who are 
>> so learned, ask this peasant for advice?" And Arsenius answered them, 
>> "Yes, I know a great deal about Latin and Greek yet I have not 
>> learned even the alphabet of this peasant."
>>
>> The modern church needs a listening Abba Arsenius badly.
>>
>> To do otherwise is to confess to some kind of charade where the 
>> church pretends to care about the concerns of the laity — but 
>> actually ignores them, where the concerns of the laity are solicited 
>> but not treated publicly, where "the priesthood of the laity" is 
>> theologized but not included in the foundation of this new church in 
>> this new time.
>>
>> And that's where the difference in the Christian life sets in: Jesus 
>> was credible.
>>
>> <https://www.ncronline.org/authors/joan-chittister>
>> Sent from Mail <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for 
>> Windows 10
>
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