We’re facing a crisis in our Church today. The clergy sex abuse scandals that we thought were largely behind us have reared their ugly head once again in recent years (including 2020), and they are causing many to question their faith or just leave the Church entirely. People are wondering why they should listen to the teachings of priests and bishops who do not practice what they preach, and they are struggling to come up with a good answer.
So how can we respond to this crisis? Why should we remain Catholic when the corruption in our leadership seems to run far deeper than we imagined even a few years ago?
This is obviously a much bigger topic than anybody can adequately cover in a single article, but I’d like to offer just one small part of the answer. If we turn to Scripture, we find that it gives us a reason to remain under the leadership of our priests and bishops even when they fail in their duties towards their people. This reason comes from one of the least read books in the entire Bible: the Letter of Jude.
The Warning
Jude is one of the shortest books in all of Scripture. Like Philemon and 2 and 3 John, it is so short that it isn’t even broken up into chapters. It only has verses, and one of those verses contains a dire warning that is surprisingly relevant for us today:
“Woe to them! For they…perish in Korah’s rebellion.” (Jude 11)
If you do not know who Korah is, that is okay. He is an obscure figure from the Old Testament, so you really have to dig deep into the Bible to even recognize his name. However, like I said, this minor character from Israel’s ancient history is actually very relevant for Catholics in the 21st century.
Korah was a contemporary of Moses, and during Israel’s wanderings through the desert before finally entering the Promised Land, he led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron, the divinely appointed leaders of the people. He challenged their position and claimed that they had no right to rule their fellow Israelites (Numbers 16:1-3).
In response to this rebellion, the earth opened up and swallowed Korah and his servants, and then fire came down and consumed his supporters (Numbers 16:31-35). From these two events, it became clear that Korah and his men were wrong. Moses and Aaron were the leaders that God had appointed over his people, and the people were supposed to obey them and accept their authority.
A Warning for Today
So given this history, what does it mean for people in the Church to “perish in Korah’s rebellion”? Jude was referring to people in his day who made the same mistake that Korah made. There were some in the Church who rejected the authority of the leaders God had placed over them, just like Korah and his men rejected Moses and Aaron, and Jude was criticizing them for following the lead of this sinful rebel.
And this warning is still important for us today, almost 2,000 years later. We too have an obligation to respect the authority of the Church’s divinely appointed leaders. Granted, God doesn’t pick them by hand the same way he chose Moses and Aaron or the Apostles, but that doesn’t lessen our obligation towards them. By virtue of the sacrament of holy orders, the priests and bishops of the Catholic Church are divinely commissioned to guide us and lead us as we journey to our Promised Land, heaven, and we have to accept their leadership.
We cannot dismiss their teachings and lawful decisions or just leave the Church entirely if we don’t like them. Even if they do terrible things and make really bad decisions, we still have to accept that they are our leaders. Sure, they are not perfect, and we can correct them or appeal to even higher authorities when they step out of line, but the one thing we cannot do is reject their leadership. That is the sin of Korah, and it is exactly what Jude was warning us against.
Don’t Perish in the Rebellion
And right now, this message is as important as ever. With all the scandals going on in our Church, we desperately need to hear it. Yes, our leaders have done some really bad things. Yes, they need to get their act together. Yes, we can and should demand that they do better than they’ve done for the past several decades.
But none of that means we can simply reject their leadership or leave the Church because of it. Jude’s warning doesn’t include any loopholes or exceptions for scandalous conduct by our clergy, so if we want to remain with God, we have to remain under the leaders he has given us. To reject those leaders is to reject God himself (Numbers 16:11), and if we do that, we will perish just like Korah and his followers. The only difference is that our death will be spiritual, not physical, and that is much worse.
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Photo by Tom Keldenich on Unsplash
