Colleen McLean

The Hebrew Bible tells the story of Israel and her relationship with God. The story unfolds from the beginning of creation, illustrating the eternal divine plan of election and formation. The first five books, the Torah, were traditionally believed to have been written by Moses and pre-date the prophets and writings.

The first five books of the Hebrew Bible are often known as “Torah,” which means “The Law.” This title indicates the shared Jewish and Christian tradition that Genesis through Deuteronomy represents a cohesive divine revelation to ancient Israel in the Sinai desert following the Exodus event and giving of the covenant. Most Bible scholars agree that the Torah resembles legal codes and treaties found among neighboring ancient Near Eastern cultures and have documented correlations between Torah and legal codes of the Babylonian, Assyrian and Hittite Empires.

What is marriage? From a Catholic perspective, marriage is a covenant relationship between one man and one woman reflecting the covenant between God and human.  Like the divine covenant, marriage ideally creates and sustains a bond that is eternal, always faithful and fruitful.

Although community is a crucial aspect of any religious experience, it can be taken too seriously and put the personal relationship with the divine at risk. I can only speak of my own Roman Catholic experience in this matter and share with you two areas in which Catholics need to exercise caution in balancing community and the personal.

My life as a Roman Catholic hinges upon being a part of a community of believers.  Indeed, Christianity in general is a religion for a group of people as is most organized religion. I think that is the “organized” part of religion — people share their beliefs through public rituals and shared symbols. When I consider my life with God I can see it in two parts, the personal and the public.

The sexual abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church is huge and continually unraveling throughout the world, country by country. It’s sick and tragic. It’s infuriating and mind-boggling. It is actually not a new concern, which is awful, and it will not be healed soon. The truth of the crisis is that it’s rooted in the Catholic belief on priestly ordination and to open up that can is to see all of the worms such as married men and women in the priesthood.

Pope Francis is a humble man attuned to a simple life. He is concerned for the poor and is willing to touch them, sit with them and wash their feet. He prefers public transportation and is an ‘outsider’ in church politics.