The Serenity to Accept the Things I Cannot Change...

The Church is not going to change. The Church is, always was, and always will be filled with and run by sinners: chauvinists, power-mongers, social climbers, misogynists, homophobes, pedophiles, thieves and the like. It is a Church of sinners…always was and always will be. The Church in her inner form, her essence, her soul…cannot and will not change. She cannot contradict herself. She is the bride of Christ and the body of Christ: this cannot change. Yes, she can develop and grow…but only in accord with her inner self and all its constitutive elements. What has emerged with stark clarity in the current, double pontificate, and in the face of the sexual revolution in the West, is that conjugal, nuptial love is singularly iconic of the Church’s relationship with her groom, the Lord Jesus. By conjugal or nuptial we mean a love that is: sexual, romantic, gendered, heterosexual, conceptive or fruitful, faithful, exclusive, free, unitive, sacrificial, chaste and generous. The Church has always known this, but never so clearly as today. For over 40 years, since the issuing of Humanae Vitae, there has been a steady consolidation, retrenchment, and intensification around this icon of nuptial love: papal teaching on the theology of the body (John Paul) and the agapic-erotic nature of love (Benedict); the ecclesial movements and their fierce loyalty to the magisterium; a quiet, gentle renaissance of the consecrated life; and an episcopate and presbyterate increasingly confident in the face of a hostile culture. So, it is time for the “spirit-of-Vatican-II” progressives to give up the fight; to accept what they cannot change; and to surrender. The war is over. The Church never has and never will accept sterile sex or women priests. It is a waste of energy to protest, complain, and whine about this. It is time for the liberals to accept this reality and to stop wasting their energy (and ours) in the effort to change the Church. They can stop and take a deep breath. They can stop fighting against reality. They can enjoy serenity and peace. They can recoup their energy and redirect it in more productive directions, especially their own personal conversion and sanctification. They can love it or leave it. Since they can’t beat us, they can join us. If women priests, contraceptives and gay marriage are really important to them, they owe it to their own integrity and that of the Church to move on to another community of faith. If they love the Catholic Church more than they want women priests and contraception, it is time for them to relax and live calmly with the reality of the Church, a reality that they cannot and will not change. As they age and approach death, may they be granted this peace and serenity!