Why Clerical Corruption Does Not Justify Apostasy, by Casey Chalk

Dr. Korey Maas, a Lutheran and professor of history at Hillsdale College, in a recent article at The Federalist regarding the current sex abuse scandal rocking the Catholic Church, asks, “Is there any church abuse too far for the Catholic faithful?” The answer, quite simply, is no. Elsewhere, Maas presses, “what abuses, both physical and spiritual, might the [Catholic] hierarchy not commit, cover up, or even reward in the confident belief that the faithful can never depart without endangering or even forfeiting their salvation?” The answer to this question—amazing as it may sound to non-Catholics—is also no. There is no limit to the evils the Catholic hierarchy could commit that would warrant faithful Catholics leaving their Church for some other religious institution. I could simply leave it at that, though I would imagine many readers will demand explanation of this assertion, and a more thorough response to Maas’s other critiques of my earlier article at The Federalist.

Two Essentially Different Paradigms

There is an essential paradigmatic divide between myself and Maas that explains both Catholic indefatigability regarding their defense of the Church, and Protestant incredulity towards what many Protestants perceive as stubborn, head-in-the-sand intransigence. For Catholics, the Church Christ founded is a visible unity. The bishop, who claims to possess an office with apostolic origins, and all those Christians in communion with him, is one manifestation of this unity. Baptism, the sacrament given to all Catholics and which serves as the door into the Christian life, and the sacrament of the Eucharist, performed by priests who bear the authority of the bishop, are other examples of this same tangible, visible unity…..Read entire article, go to: crisismagazine.com/2018/why-clerical-corruption-does-not-justify-apostasy