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Joseph Wilson.'s avatar

When a religious hierarchy has lost credibility, that’s the ball game, folks — it will take a long time, a bunch of first-class Requiem Masses, and the appointment of replacements grounded in humility, common sense and genuine spirituality to regain that lost ground. In the old days, the thought of excommunication or interdict was soul-chilling to a devout Catholic. Bishops like Michael Olson do not seem to realize it, but that train left the station years ago, amid disastrous catechetical failure, pedestrian liturgy and above all the ongoing, supposedly-resolved-in-2002 sexual abuse scandal. Today, people will look for Jesus and His Church wherever they can find Him, in the familiar. For some Fort Worth Catholics, the Carmel. Others, blessedly, find this in their parish if it is a good, healthy Christ-centered place. Still others turn to monasteries, religious communities, traditionalist groups such as the SSPX, FSSP, ICKSP. The institutional Church — the diocese, the Bishop, the Vatican — no longer enjoys the presumption of innocence, or of competence, or of orthodoxy that would have been assumed decades ago. For many people the presumption is of irrelevance. I once would have thought this terribly sad, but now I just regard it as inevitable. Christ will break through every obstacle placed in His way, He will not abandon His Church, ultimately He will send the saints we need to spearhead a genuine renewal. But in the meanwhile, faithful people are doing the best they can to stay close to Him amid the disintegration.

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SCOTIUS's avatar

This whole story just gets stranger each time I read an update. It's almost too strange to be true. What ever happened to the avoidance of scandal and an abiding concern for the public good? This story has got to be so shocking and disheartening to younger people in the Ft Worth area who might be considering a vocation. I now place blame on both parties (the Carmelites and the local Ft Worth bishop and his legal team) for amping this whole thing up to fever pitch, going public with letters, threats of law suits and warnings, etc.

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