The blinkered selfishness uniting Catholic Church and GOP leaders

Today, American society is in constant need of more compassion, and more justice. There is a battle going on between the forces of unity and division, self-interest and community, "us" versus "me." We see this battle playing out in our contradictory Covid-19 response, in which many seem more interested in personal freedom than protecting one another, as well as in our seeming inability to effectively combat climate change, enact universal suffrage and protect voting rights.

And now we have a story which pointedly underlines the way this battle is also playing out in the Catholic Church. Over nearly 20 years, an Arizona Catholic priest baptized literally thousands of babies with the words “we baptize you” instead of the prescribed words of the Catholic Church: “I baptize you.” Those baptisms were all declared invalid by the Catholic hierarchy and the pastor has resigned. He used the word “we” instead of “I,” and the church punished the flock.

As someone who was baptized (I think), served as an altar boy, and at one point in my teens considered entering the Catholic priesthood, this story strikes a particularly deep chord with me. About four years ago, I stopped attending Catholic services and now go to a wonderful Christ-centered interdenominational church in my community. As the Catholic Church sexual predator scandal continued (and indeed continues) to unfold, and with abortion continuing to take center stage at nearly every mass — with much less time, if any, devoted to urgent issues such as poverty, war and capital punishment — I had enough.

Read the rest of my article on MSNBC.