It is anonymous.
The
American bishops’ decision to withhold the Sacraments from the church faithful,
and withhold the holy priests whose very purpose is to render them to the
church faithful, forsakes the examples of the saints, forsakes the vows of the
church, and runs exactly contrary to Christ’s chastisement of the pharisees and
His challenge to the apostles to “put out into the deep.”
The
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued guidance early in the
pandemic that bishops cancel public Mass, and the bishops have followed, with
some closing their churches to all sacraments and even private prayer. As April
drew to a close, the USCCB issued new guidance that bishops should begin to
reopen the church.
Most
remain quiet, but some of the country’s 177 dioceses and archdioceses have
indicated they
will follow or
trail the secular authorities in their phased reopenings. The reality,
however, is that the USCCB has no actual canonical authority over individual
bishops. Nor should the bishops bow to civil authorities to separate the
faithful from Christ’s gifts, as most but not all have.
The
bishops have allowed themselves to be led astray and cowed, even reprimanding
priests on behalf of the civil authorities for quietly serving their parishes.
The faithful take notice. And this must end.
Each
of the sacraments was uniquely instituted by Christ for the purpose of
extending and granting His grace to the faithful, regardless of situation or
circumstance. Indeed, if there is anything that can and should be extended to
the faithful in troubled times it is God’s grace, and the means of doing so are
those sacraments.
A
wonderful thing about the sacraments is they are not “goods” or possessions to
be alternately withheld or bestowed, freed or loosed by bishops. They are
Christ’s means of gifting His grace, the faithful need them, and it is the
bishop’s responsibility and solemn obligation to provide for them. Christ’s
instruction to “Do this in remembrance of me” is not qualified by any “except
for when’s.”
Consider
the very sacrament of Holy Matrimony. At its critical moment the spouses-to-be
“promise to be faithful to you, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in
health, to love you and to honor you all the days of my life.”
St.
Paul, in his first-century epistles, writes that the church is the bride of
Christ. He reveals this miraculous truth to us for us to understand and for us
to wonder, and it would do well for the bishops to understand and to wonder
themselves. They might begin with the promises of the spouses and understand
their role as leaders who make, and are obligated to keep, the promises of the
bride to the bridegroom, Christ Himself.
Are
the bishops being faithful in bad times and in sickness to honor Christ all the
days of their lives? There fear and risk management in the bishops’ collective
retreat to the chanceries; love and honor, not so much.
In
thinking of the church’s duty in times and places of rampant pestilence,
consider St. Teresa of Calcutta. Were she alive today, the bishops would be
rebuked by her excellent example without her needing to utter a word.
Or
consider St. Damien of Molokai, St. Roch, and St. Aloysius Gonzaga. In the face
of disease these priests got to holy work fulfilling the promises of the
church. They are venerated as saints not for their knowledge of canon law,
deference to secular leaders or lethargy, but for their faith and action.
The
bishops, our shepherds, are culpable for more than mere inaction, however, for
the closing of churches and suppression of the sacraments are their willful
acts. Heaven takes notice.
Christ
called Himself the Good Shepherd, saying, “The Good Shepherd gives his life for
his sheep. But the hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the
sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees. […] And the
hireling flees because he is a hireling and he has no care for the sheep.”
It
is not rash to observe that the bishops have fled the pasture and their
individual — yes, individual — flocks. They have demonstrated their status as
hirelings whose own the sheep are not. None of this is lost on the sheep. The
odd thing is that in doing so, the bishops have herded each other together and
thus the shepherds are proven to be sheep themselves. Sheep in shepherds’
clothing.
Bishops:
Roust your individual selves, take up your crooks and return to the work of the
Good Shepherd, for Christ’s sake – and for the sake of His church.
The
author is a faculty member at a university associated with the Roman Catholic
Church.
This
byline marks several different individuals, granted anonymity in cases where
publishing an article on The Federalist would credibly threaten close personal
relationships, their safety, or their jobs. We verify the identities of those
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