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Church Of Saints And Sinners… Who Are Trying To Be Saints
- Fr. Deo Camon, LPT, PhD
- Dec 10, 2020
- 2 min read
I came across an article that criticized the Catholic Church for the hypocrisy of its bishops and priests. It was published December 8, 2018, coinciding with the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.
The author contended that the Catholic Church’s criticism of the present administration fell on deaf ears because the Filipino people approved the campaign against drugs while the bishops/clergy are seen as corrupt, immoral, and “mukhang pera.”
The problem with that article and its perspective lies in the presumption that members of the Catholic Church hierarchy are saints. This is something false because the Church is composed of saints and sinners.
Granting without conceding that bishops and priests are corrupt, may I ask what institution in the Philippines is not corrupt? I will love to know if there are any.
The problem is that there are those outside and within the Church who wants to portray the Church as the “ideal society” whose authority comes from the integrity of its leaders.
I disagree with this notion because it is both misleading and hypocritical.
The Church is a community of sinners, which has never denied its sins. Catholic history books chronicled numerous corrupt popes, bishops, and priests.
The problem is that some think that they are better than those who came before them. Those hypocrites who project the image of being “unstained” by sin, but we know it is only hypocrisy.
However, this is only half of the story.
The Catholic Church is indeed made up of sinners, but it is also made up of saints. There are men and women from all walks of life and vocations who lived a life of holiness that those who are still sinners are invited to follow in their own lives.
The reality that the Catholic Church is not all saints should not hinder Catholics from following the Church’s teachings.
Those who preach and those who listen are both targets of God’s Word, which means that when the call for repentance is preached, it is true for both the preacher and the listener.
The Word of God is a double-edged sword that wounds the preacher and the listener.
The truthfulness of the Gospel is based on Jesus, not on those who preach it. It is true because of Jesus, not because the preacher is holy.
I think the author of that article forgot something essential. The fundamental call of Jesus when he preached the Good News is not perfection, but repentance.
The Gospel, and I think the Lord, never presupposed that preachers should be perfect so that they can preach the message of Jesus.
If that is the case, then no one among the Twelve is worthy to preach the Good News with maybe the exception of the Beloved Disciple (whom tradition tells us is John) as narrated in the Gospel of John. I hope you got the irony in this statement. After all, during the early part of his ministry, he sent Judas Iscariot among those who preached the Gospel.
Jesus did not come for those who are healthy but for those who need healing. Repentance, not perfection, is demanded of the faithful because “perfection” can be a form of hypocrisy.
Those who are “perfect” can turn out to be hypocrites.
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