Hey Mister, want to buy a millstone? (Main Forum)

The Latin word scandalum means ‘a stumbling block’.

In English the primary meaning of scandal is ‘anything that brings discredit to religion’ or ‘a stumbling block to faith’.

In Mark 9:42 the writer has Jesus say, "If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a large millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” The other synoptic gospels pick this up and repeat it. There is no “Gentle Jesus meek and mild” here. Jesus sounds furious, and murderous.

Clearly Jesus hated scandal and most especially he hated the sin of scandalising the young.

My father was a man of few words and he was slow to give advice unless it was asked for but he told me a few times unasked that when you tell lies you need a very good memory because one day a lie you told will come back to get you and the bigger the lie you told the bigger the bang when it explodes in your face. And you had better remember what you said because liars with bad memories quickly incriminate themselves. His advice was, “Tell the truth at first and take the consequences.”

Oh that our religious leaders had listened to my father!

Covering up crime is a very big lie. And as we are finding out all those cover ups are coming back to blow up in the faces of those who perpetrated them. And they are causing grave scandal to anyone who still cares enough to listen.

I do not know the details of the crimes outlined in last night’s Four Corners. And I know that every case is complex. But I have little faith in our Catholic leaders at present and I find myself disinclined to believe them. I once had almost blind faith in them. But now I don’t.

I found Cardinal Pell unconvincing, especially when he said, “I’d take the word of three priests.”

How tragic is it that “He’s a Catholic priest” is no longer a defence for anything? How sad that it is almost an admission of something? How ironic is it that the priest in Armidale diocese covered up lest priesthood be brought into disrepute and the cover up is part of the almost complete destruction of anyone’s faith in priests!

Meanwhile in Rome they are sacking a bishop for being critical of his predecessor and in Australia they sack a bishop who asks simple straightforward questions.

If I were entrepreneurial I would stock up on millstones.