Why We Stay

Non-Catholics sometimes ask liberal Catholics why they stay in a church that seems so messed up, especially around issues of sexuality, celibacy and the status of women. It's hard to articulate the reasons. But at a lunch today with some Catholic buddies, Donna Hanson, diocesan director for Catholic Charities for the Catholic Diocese of Spokane, read us this quote below. It sums up beautifully the paradox felt by those who stay.

"In the course of a half of a century, I have seen more Catholic corruption than you have read of. I have tasted it. I have been reasonably corrupt myself. And yet, I joy in this church -- this living, pulsing, sinning people of God, love it with a crucifying passion. Why? For all the Catholic hate, I experience here a community of love. For all the institutional idiocy, I find a tradition of reason. For all the individual repressions, I breathe here an air of freedom. For all the fear of sex, I discover here the redemption of my body. In an age so inhuman, I touch here the tears of compassion. In a world so grim and humorless, I share here rich joy and laughter. In the midst of death I hear an incomparable stress on life. For all the apparent absence of God, I sense here the real presence of Christ."
Father Walter Burkhard, S.J.