Editorial

By Paul Schratz

Welcome to the Church. Please excuse the mess.

That's how I'd be tempted to welcome new Catholics into the Roman Catholic Church.

Fortunately Archbishop Miller chose more eloquent words when he spoke at the Mass for New Catholics at Holy Rosary Cathedral. (See next week's paper for full coverage.)

The Church is the "natural home of mankind," he told several hundred newly baptized and confirmed, and just so there's no surprise, he said, this home has the best and worst aspects of any family.

As part of the Catholic Church, they will proceed through the "often murky sea of life," knowing the Lord is taking them by hand and leading them. They will quickly lose any illusion that they've arrived in paradise as the conversion glow wears off.

Not that this sacred home of ours is in bad shape, but we members have made our presence known. Our grimy fingerprints are all over everything, and we've damaged more than a few of Mother Church's prized possessions.

Humility and an appreciation for the sacraments come to mind, as does any sense of our home as the One, True Church.

Numerous Catholics have become members in name only, forgetting, if they ever knew, that Christ Himself left us this Church - this society of those who are called together in Him.

Many now attend Protestant churches after experiencing hurt feelings, scandal, or feeling let down by the actions of other Catholics.

Whether Father was rude to them 20 years ago or their neighbour was a hypocrite of the worst kind, they believe they simply traded in one denomination for another.

But the Catholic Church is not just another denomination. It traces its roots back to the apostles and maintains a teaching authority that will never waver in the essentials. That is the precise attraction for so many new Catholics.

So Archbishop Miller offered them some practical parental counsel to keep in mind lest they be disillusioned. This new home is a doubled-edge sword - a family in its best and worst sense.

That's sound advice. I know many Catholic converts and they impress me with their charity toward their adopted Church. They realize it's made up of saints as well as sinners, or as James Joyce said about the Catholic Church, "Here comes everybody."

We need more witnesses like those who enter full communion at Easter, rather than examples of Catholics who abandon their faith and encourage others to leave.

There's a current scandal in the U.S. involving a high-profile priest caught on film with a girlfriend. Most of the comments on media sites urge him to leave the Church for the woman, or to fight the oppressive vows that keep him from marrying her.

They don't realize that he is already married, and his bride is the Church. A priest who has an affair has no more right to walk away from his vows than a husband who is cheating on his wife.

There can be as many temptations to leave the Church as there are to leave a marriage. Indeed, as Archbishop Miller pointed out, being Catholic is like being married, "right down to the irksome obligations and monotony."

Although the honeymoon doesn't last forever, and we sometimes "feel disappointed and raise our voices against the Church as if she were other than ourselves," we need to realize that we are Christians and Catholics ... only in her and never apart from her," he said.

When we ask whether the Church meets our expectations, we need to reconsider and ask whether we meet the Church's expectations. (Spouses, feel free to apply this to each other as well.)

Quoting Hans Urs Von Balthasar, the archbishop said the saints are humble and that "the mediocrity of the Church did not deter them from joining themselves to it once and for all, for they knew well enough that without the Church they would not find their way to God."

Whatever happens in life, the archbishop reminded them, "never lose hold of the hand of the Risen Lord," Who will always lead us home.

Just don't mind the mess; we're family.