What Are Catholics to Do When Our Clergy Let Us Down? – Part 1

The shepherds of the Church were given to us by Christ so, when He left His human time on Earth, the people would have leaders who would point us to truth and encourage us to “be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.” Distressingly, it seems that for every “A+” cleric we recognize who understands his job description (e.g., a Bishop Joseph Strickland or a Cardinal Robert Sarah), there is another one who earns an “F” in how faithfully he shepherds and two others who at best could be graded with “C”s.

Although God tells us through prophets or through Christ Himself that our fundamental task is to love the Lord above all things and that we must take the singular path to God which leads through a narrow gate that many won’t fit through, we unfortunately do not hear these same words of truth and wisdom from a portion of our Catholic clergy. We have some men of the cloth who either keep mum about our essential task and about Christians’ call to be in the world but not of the world, or they indeed speak out, but mainly to preach inappropriately by spreading theology which is erroneous, blasphemous, or downright heretical. 

We appreciate the many priests, bishops, and cardinals today and throughout history who are brave, honorable, and faithful, sincerely striving to give their best to the people of God. This 3-part series of articles is about those other clergy – the ones letting us down. It is not being written for the fun of throwing stones at our shepherds. Rather, by pointing out that there are failing men who improperly wear the collar, it helps us recognize and value the upright ones who properly wear the collar. Additionally, perhaps if the “bad” ones are outed, they will be motivated to want to change their ways and transform into the “good” authentically Catholic leaders whom we applaud for proper and dynamic pastoring.

As Catholics, we must not blindly follow clerics who refuse to act as guardians of the faith but instead we must expose them to the disinfectant of the light. When we separate the sheep from the goats, we can identify which specific priests gravely need us to pray for them to repent and return to the path of righteousness. 

Pastors (aka priests, bishops, cardinals) are referred to as our “shepherds” – the Latin word for “pastors” – because they are called to imitate Jesus, who called Himself the Good Shepherd. Jesus referred to the people as His sheep since sheep are a unique type of livestock who require much attention, care, and guidance. Catholic clerics are tasked with leading, gathering, feeding, and protecting their parish’s flock.

Contrasted with the honorable, brave, and faithful shepherds whom we see as leaders in the Church, we all too often come across dishonorable men of the cloth. They are characteristically of two types – either cowardly shepherds or wolf-like shepherds. The former type are too weak and passive to pick up their shepherd rod and staff entrusted to them by God and the latter type may have happily grabbed the rod but only to improperly lead their sheep on the wrong path. 

Catholic flocks are “like sheep without a shepherd” when they are under the care of this first category of dishonorable priests – the silent or laissez-faire spiritual shepherds, also known as cowardly clergy. These cowards are akin to a shepherd seeing a wolf approach, being too scared to confront the danger, and running away, leaving the sheep in harm’s way. A pastor who is silent is certainly not shepherding, as there is no evidence of him feeding his sheep with the truth found in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, and thus, he is leaving his flock open to error and subject to casualty. 

The refusal of priests to speak up in their Sunday homilies about traditional Church teaching (e.g., on divorce or sexuality) or to refrain from delving into the dangers of modern society (e.g., addressing the impossibility of so-called gay marriage or of women priests) creates confusion among the faithful about just what should be a Catholic’s priorities and about what path to take. 

A weak, passive priest who won’t take a stand vocally might think he is showing charity, but he is actually allowing his flock to live in danger. Silence gives consent, so a leader’s toleration of dissent is perceived as approval to his followers. If the congregation sitting through Sunday homilies is never spoken to about the horrors of abortion, the evil of sexual depravity, or the reality of hell, the average Catholic-in-the-pew can only assume that the culture’s views on abortion (“my choice”), sexual mores (“love is love”), and the afterlife (“there is no hell”) are correct, or at least are not to be considered sinful.

The laissez-faire pastors are not doing their flocks any favors by playing the “go along to get along” game. These type of clergy – which unfortunately make up a large slice of priests, bishops, and cardinals in the 21^stCentury – have forgotten that the Church instructs us that admonishing the sinner and instructing the ignorant are spiritual acts of mercy.

“Cowards” is indeed a suitable word to describe those clergy who directed their flocks to put all their trust in an immunologist during the covid-19-era instead of vociferously directing Catholics to turn to the Lord for hope and never stop receiving Him in the Eucharist. It also describes the clerics in present day who spinelessly remain silent instead of proclaiming established Catholic doctrine such as “homosexuality is disordered,” or instead of taking a stance in refusing Communion to Catholic politicians who actively work to promote abortion. 

For some, their cowardly silence and inaction is out of fear of upsetting the more liberal members of their congregations by bringing up so-called hot button issues. For other clergy, their refusal to mention these issues is due to them not believing in what the Church teaches.

Yet, as bad as it us for Catholics to sit in the pew but not hear their pastors boldly speak the truth and to not be led by brave, counter-cultural bishops, there is a worse situation. There is the second type of failing cleric who is more dreadful than the silent, passive ones.  In the forthcoming Parts 2 and 3 of “What Are Catholics to Do When Our Clergy Let Us Down?”, we will identify this shameful category of pastors and discuss what faithful Catholics must do about this thorny problem.