Dear Kevin:

I am reminded of a scene from Hamlet: The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

Methinks you protest WAY too much, or more accurate whine and make excuses to leave the Church and abandon your Faith.

If your faith was as solid as you describe then you would never have left. Why would you leave Jesus? Because of a few corrupt priests and bishops? There are about 500,000 priests in the world and some 5,000 bishops and because a handful of priest and bishops committed sin, you abandon the whole faith. What a coward!

Is the torture and death of Jesus on the Cross that cheap to you? Is His payment for your sins not enough?

So what if there are corrupt priests and bishops. They are human; humans sin. The Body of Christ, the Church remains pure and holy because CHRIST is holy.

Methinks you need to stop looking at the storm and look rather to Jesus.

There was another one who, like you, looked to the storm and Jesus replied, "Oh, you of little faith."

St. Peter walked on water until he took his eyes off Jesus and instead focused on the storm. When he looked to the storm he began to sink.

You take your eyes off Jesus and look at a few thunder boomers and think the ship has sunk. It is not the ship that has sunk, but you, into the deep waters of apostasy.

It does not have to remain that way. Jesus is there beside you with His hands outstretched to you. Just grab hold of Him and He will save you from yourself.

Yes, the Church has within it a whole lot of sinners. What else is new? As one old baptist preacher once said, "the Church is a hospital for sinners, not a resort for saints."

We are all sinners. Yet, Kevin, you not only throw stones at the sinners, but throws stones at the bottom of the boat to try to sink her. Friend, the ship of salvation cannot be sunk no matter how many bishops, priests, laymen, or even popes are corrupt. The gates of hell shall NOT prevail against the Church. Either that is true or God is a liar. And if God is a liar, then He would not be God.

Kevin, if you wish to leave the Church, then do so, but don't blame the EXTREMELY few bad priests and bishops. Look in the mirror to see the real source of your apostasy and then get over yourself. Grow up!

God Bless and may you be healed of this immaturity, pride, and apostasy.

When you are more rational, then take a new look at the Church. I see Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II, more than 5,000 canonized Saints, beautiful history and liturgy, devotions of such a spiritual depth as to be awesome. It is not all storm clouds, my friend.

Most of all, in the Church I see Jesus. As long as Jesus is there, in the Eucharist, all else can come crumbling down and yet I will be there because Jesus is there. If the priest is a drunken, womanizing, pervert it is still through his hands that I am able to partake of my Lord. Jesus is there.

St. Francis was once asked to chastise a corrupt bishop. When St. Francis confronted the bishop he said not a word. Instead he fell to his knees and kissed the hem of his cassock. Then he looked up to the corrupt bishop and said "bless you father for it is through your consecrated hands that I make receive my Lord." The bishop was shocked. He was expecting more from the holy man. Later the bishops repented.

I wonder how many priests might have repented had you humbled yourself before them like St. Francis? How many will repent if I humble myself before them?

Perhaps we will never know. I hope that others get the point, however. Yes, we have bad pastors sometimes, but the Body of Christ is holy nevertheless. And in the whole, the bad ones are a severe minority and can hardly be used as an excuse to leave the Church.

I know as for me, if 80% of the bishops became heretics (that actually happened once), if the Pope was entertaining women in his personal quarters, if 99% of the priests became perverts, yet I WILL NOT LEAVE.

St. Peter said it, "Where would we go, Lord, for it is You who have the words of eternal life."

I pray that you will return home where you belong.

God Bless
Bro. Ignatius Mary