Martyrs for the Faith

Back when I started my blog, and even up to about a year ago, I had a lot of snarky posts, and I made a lot of comments on other blogs and in forums about "speaking up" and "telling the Truth". With others, I lamented that priests seem unwilling to tackle the difficult topics such as contraception, abortion, and objective truth in the face of our politicians that claim to be Catholic.

Since then, I have met some priests who are willing to speak up, and I've also gotten a job in a church, which likewise meant that it was time for me to have a spine, too. It's one thing to "preach" on a blog, where the consequences are limited to flaming (which can be deleted), or even debate. But it's something else entirely where simply presenting the teachings of Christ means that people have meetings with the Pastor about me, slander me, lie about what I actually said, and anonymously send me "surveys" declaring that I have no right to tell them what to do.

I have a WHOLE LOT MORE respect and appreciation for priests now than I did before I started this job. And I know now why so many priests have stayed away from difficult issues; the backlash is agonizing. And it's not even limited to the actual backlash; one wonders if their Pastor will back them up or sell them out. In the case of a priest, he wonders if his Bishop will come to call and suggest he focus on smoothing the waters as opposed to speaking the Truth.

And of course, the Bishop has the authority to move the priest, too.

No, the Church isn't perfect...unfortunately and fortunately both, she is made up of human beings.

My regular readers know that in July I visited some wonderful fellow Catholics in Ohio, and Fr. Schnippel was one of those friends I met that weekend. Just this very weekend, he was called upon to speak out, and has suffered for it. He said nothing contrary to Catholic teaching, but as we all know...too many "Catholics" don't know the teachings, or outright reject the teachings, instead finding it more comforting to attack the messenger.

There are a lot of people out there, a lot of good Catholics, that lament the failure of their clergy to speak clearly about our beliefs, especially the difficult ones such as life issues. And it's a legitimate concern. Yet, these same people often fail to understand how difficult it really is to tackle these topics in a way that is both pastoral (the true sense of the term) and fully truthful. Many of these people crying for these types of homilies and talks are not public speakers themselves. They don't know what it means to stand in a room or church full of people and say something that others don't like.

I've been there. It's hard to explain, but hostility can be FELT. Even if it's only one or two people, there is suddenly a tension that materializes; it's unsettling not only to the speaker, but as I've understood from those who were present in my case, they felt it, too. It's a tension that seeks to push the words back down my throat, leaving them unspoken. It's a tension that makes us, as speakers, want to be conciliatory, and it would be SO EASY to give in to that temptation! To be nice and just "get along". Why upset the status quo and make people upset when they are so convinced of the rightness of contracepting and voting for pro-abortion "Catholics"?

And never mind the backlash. I tend to be a VERY sensitive person; I wear my heart on my sleeve, for better or worse, and like everyone, I want people to like me. Normally, I get along with EVERYONE, even people with whom I may disagree; it's easy to find common ground somewhere within our humanity. And I learned that those who were unhappy with what I said tended to personalize their objections; they were angry and disliked ME even though their anger was at the Church. And so their attacks were personal when they went to my superiors. Thankfully, I had support from over my head, but I don't know how long that will continue if I continue to advance the same messages. And it's really difficult to know that you're walking into a lion's den that is SUPPOSED to be filled with friends. It is actually physically painful to be in that kind of hostile environment. I can't speak for priests here, but I can certainly speak for myself and how this experience has changed the way I look at things. And I'll admit I'm nervous about my next talk; because I have to remember my entire job on this earth is to please God, not the mob.

Can you IMAGINE, then, what your Priest must go through? We DO need to hear these difficult teachings, we need to hear them and be changed by them. And we look to our clergy to do this, rightly. But we have to place ourselves in their shoes and realize how difficult it really is...and pray for them.

The Priests who are willing to speak up always suffer for it, to one degree or another. And it's very wearing. I'm absolutely convinced that those priests who consistently provide Catholic moral teaching are martyrs for the Faith.

What's so sad is that they are being martyred by their own flock.

Pray for priests. I can tell you that it encourages me in a major way when our clergy speaks out and leads the charge. It gives me strength, knowing, that Father is willing to tackle this topic, and it's also my job to do the same thing. And he's taking a LOT more abuse than I am. In turn, I pray that those of us who blog, who work in churches, who live our lives and lose our friends because we refuse to cave into the status quo, in turn give strength and are a sign of hope to our priests. I'm certain THEY need to see that their words don't fall on deaf ears and that they're not speaking in a vacuum.

If you want hard-hitting homilies, if you want your priest to speak about the moral issues that so affect our society and life itself...pray for him. Support him. Compliment him when he speaks up. Let him know you're praying for him...and make sure you do!
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And be prepared to be a martyr yourself. It's not enough to listen, pray, and encourage; we all have to be willing to live out the Truth, and we're all going to take a beating for it, one way or another. Might as well make it worth it.