Rod Dreher, sorely vexed by all the scandals, is tempted to leave the Catholic Church and join an Orthodox church. Here’s my comment:
Ultimately, God does not intend us to each be our own judges of what is right and wrong in matters of faith. When we came into the Church, we were asked to consider the Church’s teaching authority. The Church teaches that certain doctrines are divinely revealed, and we were asked: Do you hold and believe all the doctrine that the holy Catholic Church teaches as divinely revealed? It’s a significant obligation to take on, and one we intended to be irrevocable.
Unless breaking communion with Rome has a positive value for someone, it’s hard to see a way to justify the departure. That’s why the converts I’ve seen leave were people who came in from Protestantism, passed through Eastern Catholic life, and on out to one of the Orthodox churches, all the while maintaining a consistent anti-Roman attitude.
Rod, if you choose to reaffirm your identity as a Catholic in union with the Pope, whether Roman or eastern, you will be giving your children a valuable lesson about fidelity and about acceptance of our limitations.
(via Amy.)
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Rod should read some Church History. During the Rennaissance the Church couldn’t have sunk lower. But she never compromised her doctrinal teachings (a near miracle under the circumstances and clearly the work of the Holy Spirit). And as time went by those loyal to the Church turned things around so thoroughly that today’s people consider the Counter-Reformation era impossibly strict and puritanical.
And where does Rod go when he sees all the chaos in the Orthodox Church?
He’s falling prey to that old fallacy of judging a divine institution by the deeds of its human members.