The archetypal shepherd

The exercise is like trying to resurrect a broken down motor vehicle engine – something else I’ve been involved in at various points in my life. If the engine has something like a broken crankshaft, or a smashed big end bearing (something wrong deep down in the heart of the engine where you can’t see it without taking the whole engine apart), it does not matter how much energy and time one spends polishing up the extractors, shining up the carburetor, or changing the spark plugs, the engine is NOT GOING TO WORK until you actually pull the whole engine apart and replace the part deep down inside the engine that has malfunctioned.

Our Church is very much like that at the moment. The news of recent days just bears this out.

Until the Chief Engineer of this ship actually decides that he is going to address the heart of what is wrong with the Big Engine that drives the Holy Roman Catholic Church effectively the work of these millions of people around the world who are "polishing the extractors", "shining the carburettor" and "changing the spark plugs" is essentially in vain. We may as well all take the days off and go and sun ourselves on Bondi Beach. Nothing we do is going to make the slightest difference until someone decides to actually deal with the crankshaft or the big end bearing that is broken. The Chief Engineer is arriving in Australia on Sunday to have a look at the engine. The question we might ask: is he going to finally start addressing the real issues that need addressing? He needs to do something about the Chief Mechanic by the looks of it before any progress can be made on actually seeing the problem down in the heart of the engine.