Catholic Church - evil?

In the last few days I have been made aware of deaths in Ireland of babies in a home for unmarried mothers This was in the Washington Post first and has only today appeared in the UK press (Guardian). See  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/04/claim-of-800-childrens-bodies-buried-at-irish-home-for-unwed-mothers .

Last year I saw the film Mea Maxima Culpa about how the Catholic Church deliberately covered up child abuse in the priesthood, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mea_Maxima_Culpa:_Silence_in_the_House_of_God . Right up to the Pope the  cover-up went on. Dreadful!

Other religions and religious groups may be as bad, but what is becoming public knowledge about the Catholic Church is nothing short of a scandal.  Why? It is totally un-Christian. I am sure, not that many years ago, other Christian Churches acted in similar ways. What I find despicable is that publically they pretend to be so "holy". It is a sham.

Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2111478/

If you see no other film in a cinema this year, see this documentary film. It beggars believe how complicit the Catholic Church has been in suppressing and hiding child abuse cases by priests world-wide. The complicity goes right to the pope. No wonder he has decided to resign. Shame on the lot of them!

And all shall be well

This afternoon I visited a colleague of mine known for over 40 years. We go back a long time.  Today John lies in a hospice bed in Cambridge, his life hanging on a thread, his body racked with pain from prostate cancer that has spread to his bones and vital organs. He is now on a continuous drip that helps to reduce his pain. His wife is the model of calm as she sits at his bedside, knowing that his life on planet Earth has just a few days or weeks to run.  We talk about "the old days". We mention a few names. We talk about trivial things. He slips into light sleep then wakes again. He is in pain.

And yet he is calm and ready.  John, his wife and their family have a strong faith and believe that he is being held and loved by a far greater power and love. He says calmly in a quiet voice, "I'll go when the Lord calls me".  His faith is utterly grounded and sure, with not a shadow of doubt. Oh to have such a strong faith, a belief that this is not the end, just part of our journey. 

Which brings me to the closing lines of T.S.Eliot's "Dry Salvages" from his Four Quartets:

"With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this Calling
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time. 

Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.

Quick now, here, now, always —
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one."

And all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.