Historical perspective

December 6, 2018
Alex M. Saunders, MD
San Carlos
 
Dear Kate Powell,
 
Your letter of resignation, in my opinion, is at just the wrong time. The fact that your letter is published means you have a voice. It is the voice of the faithful that will eventually bring about at least some changes for which you long in the church. Maybe not in my lifetime, because I am 86 year old. You, at 75 years, may still see some of them. Yet we both should continue to hope that the changes will come and use our voice. History tells us that the voice of the faithful is as powerful as the voice of theologians in bringing about change.
 
Historical perspective also tells us that the present crisis of abuse and what you call corruption was an episode that peaked, is now waning and was brief. Pope Benedict XVI apparently recognized both its existence and the fact that he could not cope with it and resigned. Many of the present hierarchy belong to Benedict’s hard-line, authoritative and paternalistic, historic time. They were not trained to deal with the abuse that they barely recognized and mostly got very poor advice. Most were not and are not corrupt. It may seem they were corrupt because in the past their absolute authority was based on guiding flocks of uneducated people and they could make better decisions than the flock. Our voices, like your voice, are the best way to tell them that it is no longer so. Like our own archbishop, they are beginning to listen.
 

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