Moral authority 2000 years old

Ken Orr, Right to Life spokesman

Opinion

Martin Hanson claims on February 24 that the Catholic Church is facing “A complete loss of moral authority”. Ill-informed people have been making that claim for 2000 years. The moral authority of the Catholic Church is not dependent on the rectitude of its clergy, religious or laity. The Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ and He is the source of the Church’s moral authority.

The New Testament shows that Christ deliberately created his Church to be the vehicle of his continuing mission in the world. He promised to remain present in his Church for all time and he lovingly guides it through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

To ensure the success of this mission, Christ gave his Church the ability to teach, govern and sanctify with Christ’s own authority. The Apostles appointed successors to ensure that the Gospel would continue to be handed on faithfully as “the lasting source of all life for the Church” (Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium” 20; also Catechism #860).

The purpose of this authority is to give the Church the ability to teach without error about the essentials of salvation: “On this rock, I will build My Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18).

The scope of this authority concerns the official teachings of the Church on matters of faith, morals and worship (liturgy and sacraments). We believe that because of Christ’s continued presence and guarantee, his Church cannot lead people astray with its official teachings (which are distinct from the individual failings and opinions of its members, priests, bishops, and Popes).

The sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Australia by a small number of priests and religious is a cause of shame and pain. They betrayed their ministry, to minister to and protect children. The Church abhors the sexual abuse of children and is committed to the care, nurture and respectful ministry of all children and young adults, it safeguards all children, young people and adults when they are vulnerable by the establishing of safe, caring communities, where there is an informed vigilance as to the dangers of abuse.

The Church dealt with accusations of sexual abuse by clergy by following the professional advice of psychologists to send these priests for treatment and counselling; history has shown that this treatment was not successful. Sexual abuse is an international scourge that affects all churches and organisations. Sadly, the Catholic Church was not alone in not knowing how to deal effectively with this affliction.

The writer claims that fear of the supernatural provides no sound basis for good behaviour. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Our society has lost its sense of sin and the fear of losing eternal happiness. Virtue has become evil and evil has become virtue. Society no longer accepts what was for generations accepted as revealed truth, that marriage was exclusively for one man and one woman. Today it is proposed that children do not have a natural right to be raised by their biological mother and father. It is proposed that two men in a same-sex relationship have a right to have a child, thus depriving the child of its mother.

The claim that the Catholic Church should pay out huge compensation to victims of unsubstantiated abuse is unjust. The NSW Court of Appeal correctly found that the Church was not liable. The Catholic Church in New Zealand deplores all clerical sexual abuse; it is not the responsibility of the New Zealand Church to make comment on the actions of the Australian Bishops.