The Mission Bells

November 23, 2024

There’s a genuine sense of belonging in most churches and places of worship. Congregations are supportive and compassionate with members in need. There are celebrations for holidays, weddings, and christenings, and the equivalent of a communal hug during less uplifting moments. 

Even though, according to a recent Gallup poll, religious service attendance has dropped in recent years and is likely to continue declining, there are still substantial numbers of Americans who regularly attend formal religious services.

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What is going to happen to those communities if information about pedophilia and satanic ritual abuse, particularly with respect to the Catholic Church hierarchy, becomes widely known? For congregants who look to religious leaders for guidance and moral strength, it’s going to be a big shock if they learn some horrifying facts. 

I say if, because although disclosure feels like an engine running on cosmic fuel – unstoppable and inevitable – who knows for sure?

I still have friends deeply embedded in Catholicism. Many Catholics, including these friends, have dismissed or excused documented instances of priests committing pedophilia. Staunch churchgoers seem to have a callous or disbelieving attitude toward the victims. Even if indisputable information is released (regarding, say, the Vatican as headquarters for Satanism), many Catholics may still play at see-no-evil. 

As Pam Gregory noted in a recent update, people are now moving toward in-person communal activities. Perhaps existing religious communities can be retooled along more spiritual, less dogmatic, lines. It would be a great pity to dismantle long-standing relationships among congregants, and dissolve supportive communities, simply because their leaders have behaved immorally and illegally for perhaps hundreds of years. Innocent, well-meaning congregants ought not to be punished because of those misdeeds.

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When I lived in downtown Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara Mission was just a few blocks away. When the wind was just right, I would hear the mission bells and I would always stop and listen. I’ve read that loudly clanging bells, such as the bells of Notre Dame, can drive out demons. Perhaps the ringing of the mission bells for the past 200-plus years has eradicated the embedded demons within those adobe walls and within the hearts of the priests and bishops who have served there.

If not…I have faith that the solar flare and Ascension will complete the job.