[Craic] Fwd: Chittister article

[Greg Gillis]

Thank you Allan, great article as Art says, I liked your comments too Art
very poignant!

Greg


On Mon, May 3, 2021 at 11:08 AM Allan Baker via craic <
craic at lists.integralshift.ca> 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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