Can we still love and serve the church?

Abstract

I was at a party recently and asI sat comfortably ensconced in my armchair, a middle-aged lady, of comfortable means, sat on the arm of my chair and began to tell me what she thought of the Church . She went through the familiar litany of scandals andadded, with a certain pride I thought , that her two children no longer went to Mass and that she couldn't really blame them. So, as she knocked back her 'Jimmy and white ', I didn't argue with her- it wasn't the time for making neat theological points about the Church being the people of God, or that all of us make up the Church and share a responsibility for it. However, in the meantime I have thought about what she said and the barely concealed anger with which she delivered her piece.