The recent scandals involving Catholic priests once again surfaces the weaknesses in humans. It is not uncommon to hear of human failings even at the highest of office in politics certainly as well as in the corporate world. And, certainly we should not expect too much of the religious who after all began life as a common man and is still human, whatever the frock that covers the body. In fact, at one Sunday sermon the priest right put it to the congregation when he appealed for decorum especially from women who turned up in church to take holy communion. He asked that they avoid wear spaghetti string T-shirts for "we priests are humans too...". The current scandals gripping the church indeed underscored what the priest said.
However, I can understand the sense of betrayal that the victims must have felt. I grew up with deep respect for one of my neighbours who was strict with his nephews. He was a regular at church and always seen as a person with an upright personality. One day while I was among my group of friends, I overheard him using the four-letter expletive matter-of-factly...and gosh how all my respect for this "Uncle" began to crumble. And as I grew into my teens, I even learnt that he was coveting a neighbour's wife. He would visit her when her sailor husband was away and she would go with him on his scooter for rides. Indeed I recalled my mum telling me how she once saw them walking hand-in-hand. There is a certain trust that we would place in a person, because of his office, or because of his title, be it CEO, teacher, priest, godparent for example. And the children who went to take refuge in the convent and other homes run by the religious would have thought that they have found the safest place on earth, only to be abused by the avarice of mankind.
I have always felt that in prayer, it should be a communication between Man and God. The priests and other religious are just facilitators. I have been put off many times by the high-brow attitudes of these people that sometimes put me in dismay. They behave very much like the Pharisees,and others behave like demi-gods themselves. If only they could leave religion to God himself, we could have averted all these man-made scandals.
