Taking Time

Now, I know that EastEnders is not exactly realistic. And I know that the idea of a boy of about 14 or 15 buying the time of a (not much older) prostitute so that she can enjoy some fast food and a chick-flick on DVD with him rather than plying her trade is particularly far removed from cinéma vérité in any sense of the term. But it still set me thinking.

Father Michael Pfleger may have more than a touch of Tim Westwood or Ali G (but not for a laugh) about him. And his flock is certainly entitled to orthodox Catholic catechesis, including, as Latin Catholics, the Roman Rite recognisable as such.

But we orthodox Catholics need to look at Saint Sabina’s, Chicago. Where are our employment resource centres? Where are our social service units? Where are our homes for the elderly? Where are protests against our own equivalents of Jerry Springer (Jeremy Kyle) and Howard Stern (Jonathan Ross)? Where are our battles against drugs? And where are our purchases of prostitutes’ time in order to send them to counselling and job-training schemes? For that matter, where are our counselling and job-training schemes?

If we fail to provide these things, then we leave the way open, at best for Catholic priests who fail to ensure orthodox Catholic catechesis (including, for Latin Catholics, the Roman Rite recognisable as such), but more probably for persons even worse than that.