In Catholicism, much scrutiny has gone awry when it comes to sex scandals. In the black church, money hungry pastors and shady spiritual leaders are growing richer while more and more of the sheep in their flocks are being turned away for coming to service with real issues that need real prayer from the real people in the pews. It’s time more of us concern ourselves with making changes in our own lives before we try to change someone else’s habits or behavior patterns.

The church (whether you consider yourself a Buddhists, Muslim, Christian or you believe in the principles found in the mystic form of Judaism or its school of thought in the Kabbalah) is supposed to be the one place where sins are acknowledged, admitted and ultimately corrected through some sort of spiritual connection that is in place to turn us away from our wicked ways. Instead, it has become the place that maintains a certain bondage by controlling, manipulating and brainwashing the general public of believers. Instead, the church has quickly become the place where sins are hidden or camouflaged, and in some cases, where enemies are made.

Click on the link to find out what the Pope recently said during an interview concerning the state of the church and its greatest enemy. After reading the story and checking out the Pope’s quotes, come back and tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Are we guilty of adding to the drama in our local churches and the kingdom’s community all across the world? Have you seen activity in your church that reflects the acceptance of purification  and the act of learning to ask for and yield to forgiveness? Do you agree that forgiveness cannot be a substitute or replacement for justice? Tell us below how this report appeals to you and your involvement with the church regardless of your denomination. What solutions do you propose to assist in resolving these types of issues?

From USCatholic.org:

CHICAGO (CNS) — Father Augustine Tolton was the first U.S. priest of African descent and may one day be a saint from the Archdiocese of Chicago.

The archdiocese is introducing the priest’s cause for canonization, according to an announcement by Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George.

“It is appropriate that, during this Year for Priests, we recall our forebears who were holy men in the presbyterate” of the archdiocese, the cardinal told the Catholic New World, Chicago archdiocesan newspaper.

Having Father Tolton as a saint would be a blessing for the whole Catholic Church but, in particular, for Catholics in Chicago, he said.

“First of all, saints intercede,” he said. “We need his prayers and his help, especially to become a more united church. Secondly, his example of priestly dedication, his learning and preaching, are great examples for our seminarians and priests and should inspire the laity.”

Father Tolton was born into slavery in Brush Creek, Mo., according to “From Slave to Priest,” a biography of Father Tolton by Sister Caroline Hemesath, a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family.

Click here to read more.

For a writer of memoirs, Mary Karr has had a charmed life. That is, a lot has happened, almost all of it colorful, much of it painful. And, in each of her three books, she’s followed the advice of mentor Tobias Wolff (“Take no care for your dignity”) and produced not just a bestseller, but a memoir that expands our idea of what a memoir is.

If you missed The Liar’s Club or Cherry, Karr’s just-published Lit: A Memoir thoughtfully provides a cheat sheet. Raised in Port Arthur, Texas by a father who worked — literally — in oil and a flighty, unstable mother who, one especially dark night, was intent on killing her daughters with a knife, Karr bailed on her family when she was 17. In California, she did menial work and learned to drink. But she knew that writing was her destiny, and she honed a style of poetry that stripped language clean in order to deliver taut, blunt stories.

She got noticed — especially by a tall, Harvard-educated poet. They married and had a son, and, right there, when it looked as if she had everything, she started downing a bottle of Jack Daniels a day. It wasn’t as if she didn’t recognize the trouble she was in. Alcohol flowed through her family history — her father, she’s written, could start a fight sitting alone on the front porch. But she was desperately afraid her husband would divorce her and win custody of their son.

“Lit” is about many things: the resolution of her relationship with her mother and father, her struggle for recognition as a writer, her inability to unfreeze her marriage. But mostly it’s about alcohol and faith — about an intellectually arrogant woman who’s too proud to surrender and too smart to believe. In the last half of her book, she does both.

The image of Mary Karr at AA meetings and on her knees in prayer is a stunner. The release from alcohol, hard as it was, is the lesser miracle for her. The greater surprise? Her embrace of Catholicism.