EDITOR:

Today’s (Tuesday, October 10) Daily Press had an AP article by Peter Smith on the rise of the nonreligious in the United States. As pastor of St. Joseph & St. Patrick Church here in Escanaba, I can assure you that that trend is a common topic of conversation among priests and ministers and others engaged with religion. As a priest, I first want to say, I’m sorry. It is, to a great extent, our fault.

We have done a poor job explaining what it is that the Church has to offer. Sometimes we’ve allowed ourselves to be distracted by the crass realities of keeping a roof on the building, keeping the heat on, keeping the salaries of our staffs current. I don’t deny that stuff is important, but not nearly as important as other realities — your life, and God’s offer of eternal life. As we’ve worked to protect and grow the institution of the Church, we’ve often neglected to protect and grow the life of the Church — God’s holy people, all of us with messy lives, and all of us so precious to the Lord.

The scandals caused by some of those in ministry, scandals of sexual abuse, financial malfeasance, and, even worse, the grave scandal of covering up the abusers and turning a cold shoulder to the abused are horrific. And they are evil — the precise evil from which Jesus Christ came to free us. As a Catholic, I am proud of the steps our Church has taken to address these scandals, yet I know full well how much more needs to be done, and I am profoundly sorry that it has taken us this long to even take the steps we have. We need to do better. Christ expects nothing less of us.

I have only been a priest for eight years, but I have been a Catholic all my life. It pains me to know friends and family members who have chosen to walk away from the Church, not because I want to see the pews full in order to make our census look good to the bishop, or fill up our collection baskets. It pains me because I know that what we have, in our Church community, in our daily worship, in our sharing of Sacred Scripture, and in the great gift of the Holy Eucharist is precisely the answer to the question that so many of the nones are asking. Yes, you matter. Yes, your life has meaning. Yes, you were made for great things. And yes, you are loved.

Fr, Timothy T Ferguson

Escanaba