{"id":3447,"date":"2007-09-26T10:52:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-26T10:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2007\/09\/the-demands-of-holiness-apply-to-every-one-of-us-no-exceptions.html"},"modified":"2007-09-26T10:52:00","modified_gmt":"2007-09-26T10:52:00","slug":"the-demands-of-holiness-apply-to-every-one-of-us-no-exceptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/09\/the-demands-of-holiness-apply-to-every-one-of-us-no-exceptions.html","title":{"rendered":"“The demands of holiness apply to every one of us. No exceptions.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Words for the day: <\/p>\n

We hear people all the time saying they\u2019re upset with \u201cthe Church.\u201d Or that \u201cthe Church\u201d has let them down. Or that \u201cthe Church\u201d has distorted Christ\u2019s message and needs to be reformed.<\/p>\n

I agree with these people. I\u2019m not satisfied with the Church either. I want the Church to be more holy. I want the Church to purge all the corrupting influences of sin, temptation, and worldliness. I want the Church to be fearless in love, courageous in confronting evil, and eloquent in bearing witness to the Gospel in a culture of greed and despair.<\/p>\n

But what most of those people are really complaining about is the clergy. Their definition of \u201cthe Church\u201d includes only the visible leadership of the Church: the pope, the cardinals, the archbishops and bishops, the priests and deacons. That\u2019s the Church they want to criticize and turn around.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad they hold bishops and priests, including me, to high standards. Members of the clergy should lead holy lives that are an example for the Church. I only wish these people would remember that the Church includes them, too. When Christ said, \u201cBe perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect,\u201d he wasn\u2019t talking only about the clergy. When he said, \u201cGo and preach the Gospel to all nations,\u201d he wasn\u2019t talking only about religious professionals. The demands of holiness apply to every one of us\u2014and in a special way to husbands and fathers who have the task of leading families. No excuses. No exceptions.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., from a talk given recently at an Indianapolis men\u2019s conference for Legatus. The entire talk can be read right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Words for the day: We hear people all the time saying they\u2019re upset with \u201cthe Church.\u201d Or that \u201cthe Church\u201d has let them down. Or that \u201cthe Church\u201d has distorted Christ\u2019s message and needs to be reformed. I agree with these people. I\u2019m not satisfied with the Church either. I want the Church to be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"The demands of holiness apply to every one of us. No exceptions." - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/09\/the-demands-of-holiness-apply-to-every-one-of-us-no-exceptions.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""The demands of holiness apply to every one of us. No exceptions." - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Words for the day: We hear people all the time saying they\u2019re upset with \u201cthe Church.\u201d Or that \u201cthe Church\u201d has let them down. Or that \u201cthe Church\u201d has distorted Christ\u2019s message and needs to be reformed. I agree with these people. I\u2019m not satisfied with the Church either. 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No exceptions.”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic Deacon Ponders the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/5a7b3c6e9d155e382842aa310ff9b1ee","name":"Deacon Greg Kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/114\/1144d939be636f641ea021e1d347f9fdx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/114\/1144d939be636f641ea021e1d347f9fdx96.jpg","caption":"Deacon Greg Kandra"},"description":"A Roman Catholic deacon serving the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, Greg Kandra is News Director for the diocese's cable channel, NET (New Evangelization Television.) Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}