Sex, Scam, Salaries, and Syria

Entertainment personalities having sex videos are in the news lately. Surely they are culpable for what they do, but the more saddening thing are the people who upload these. Whatever faults, sins, or even perversions those personalities may have, they are still someone's father/mother, son/daughter, brother/sister. Sometimes the ones who are not involved directly are the ones who are hurt the most. As far as I know, one of those personalities has a daughter who is gravely ill. What a heartbreaker.

Then, there's the PDAF Pork Barrel Scam. Millions and millions of pesos spent for a "life of the rich and the famous". This poverty of the rich is far more pathetic than material poverty. It is an endless neediness and unquenchable wanting even to the point of deceit and corruption. While we often talk about doing something for the (materially) poor, it is greed that we should curb. The CBCP addresses the pork barrel scam.

Then, there is the tension between Fr. Dwight Longenecker and Michael Voris, which brought into focus the salaries of Catholic Answer's Jimmy Akin and company, EWTN's Doug Keck and company. Ron Conte has a good point that what is of more import is their teachings. I am not a follower of Jimmy Akin, but when it comes to EWTN, I think they have done a lot of good for the Church and for many souls. Who knows, maybe the people at EWTN are good stewards of the salaries they receive. It isn't bad to be rich if gained in honest and righteous way. But for every gift, much is required of us, too.
However, the deeper issue in Fr. Dwight and Voris conflict is the ensuing friction between Conservatives and Traditionalists.

The more disturbing news is the war in Syria and the military intervention being proposed. Pope Francis had called for a vigil on September 7- prayer and fasting for peace. The Pope urges for a peaceful solution to the situation. Hopefully our prayers may turn the situation around and halt the escalating conflict in the world. There are no winners in war... only woundedness remain.

Am I the Institution's Keeper

Supertradmum
explores our tendency to protect an institution's existence. She calls it "institution think" wherein the survival and continuance of the institution is of utmost important. She can't.
I would surmise that many of those bishops who failed to respond effectively to the sexual abuses of priests were thinking of what it will do to the church if it be found. They thought by ignoring it or moving the offender to another location will put an end to it. In governments, offices, organizations, and clans would also have an "institution think" wherein the image of the institution is protected at all cost even at the expense of truth and justice.

It is not just about loyalty to an institution but there is also that
kinship that develops in our circles of affiliation. One person's sin becomes the sin of the whole. That is what sin is, it stains everything it touches.
So we ask, am I the institution's keeper? Am I my brother's keeper? And in our human frailty, what we often thought as the best for the institution or another person can turn out to be the opposite. Thus, we go back again to the alpha and omega of everything - the Truth, Jesus Christ. It is only in and through God's grace and guiding will that we can truly love and care and truly be a proper keeper of all that there is.