Institutions

Two articles from the beginning of this week, both from the LA Times, both good, both wrestling with the same idea. If you're a Catholic, what is your duty to powers other than the Church - especially that power is the U.S. Government?

It's been a thorny issue for Christians from the days of Jesus, who gave the equivocation "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s ."

The first one deals with the Catholic Worker, which helps the homeless in LA. The organization has never registered with the IRS as a non-profit, which ensures that the infrastructure for the group is off the books, and donations to them non-deductible. Why?

"We have this idea in the back of our head that money corrupts," said [Catherine] Morris, 72, a former nun who has a wide and tireless smile. She said the group collects about $200,000 a year. "It seems the first thing that money goes to is salaries, and we have no salaries."...

Her husband, Jeff Dietrich, agreed. "We don't want the federal government's permission to do this," said Dietrich, a 61-year-old with a robust mustache.

"Jesus really didn't have anything to do with the state, and he wanted people to take care of each other.

"

The organization runs a shelter and soup kitchen, and provides a dental and medical clinic for the city's poor. They rely on "no-strings-attached altruism" from its donors and volunteers to get things done. The Times gives a few lines to the history of the lefty Catholic Worker and founder Dorothy Day:

A writer, social activist and pacifist, Day embraced the radical politics of the Depression era — her brand has been described as "Christian anarchism" — along with more orthodox teachings of Roman Catholic morality, including an opposition to abortion.

Day, who died in 1980 and has been proposed for sainthood, maintained that charity should be a personal endeavor and that living among the poor is a virtue.

Score one for God over Caesar. Compare this to the story this one that ran the next day, about a little-known fact in the ongoing trials in the Catholic church over sex abuse. It starts this way:

An elderly nun, under questioning by a lawyer, recently said she could remember almost nothing about his client, a child who had been sexually molested by a Roman Catholic priest.

Lawyer Irwin Zalkin was puzzled because church records showed she had heard several complaints about the San Diego priest, and the file noted that she had reported them to higher authority.

Finally, Zalkin asked whether she was familiar with "mental reservation" — a 700-year-old doctrine by which clerics may avoid telling the truth to protect the Catholic Church.

"She explained in her own way that it is 'to protect the church from scandal.' She said she subscribed to the doctrine," Zalkin said.... "You put somebody under oath; you assume they understand that under civil law they would be committing perjury to lie. It complicates that process when there is a doctrine that allows for a lie to avoid scandal to the church."

The article goes on to describe "mental reservation," a Catholic tradition unsanctioned by canon law to keep the authority of the church intact under assault from civil law by stretching the truth. Clearly, since the first wave of pedophilia cases hit in 2002, this has been an issue, ith millions of dollars at stake. At least "half a dozen lawyers," according to the article, have run into the practice in the courtroom. When church officials were confronted about its use on the stand, they are advised to not answer the question by their lawyers.

Who has your loyalty - God or Caesar? A tough question, obviously. I mentioned the Mennonite s the other day, and in the course of their radical peace witness, one of their pastors was quoted as saying, "We have discovered some doubt as to what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God, and have decided to give the benefit of the doubt to God."

But where does God lie? Where do you draw the battle lines? In turning away from government, to keep the spirit of altruism from becoming an institution? Or, in disregarding the law to preserve the institution you've set up, ostensibly, to help the poor in body and spirit? Beyond me.

Forgive these tardy posts, btw. The magazine has been in overdrive and I'm finding it hard to focus. All better soon.