You may not know him, but I thought this interesting....

Professor/Doctor Peters, JCD, over on In Light of the Law had this to say about a Roman Catholic's recent decision to join the Orthodox Church. For those of us who lament our "current Christian Communion's" ecclesial decision-making process, this case is worth pondering.

"I have never met Rod Dreher [pictured above] and know little about his work. Folks whose opinions I trust indicate that he is an intelligent, thoughtful man. A few days ago, Dreher publicly announced that he had left the Catholic Church and joined the Russian Orthodox Church, this, apparently, being at some level his reaction to the clergy sex abuse crisis and its associated scandals. See also his Clarifying and Gratitude posts. On the whole, I found Dreher's arguments for leaving the Church unoriginal and unconvincing, but then, I don't think there are any original arguments for leaving the Church (sub sole nihil novum) and I wouldn't find any of them convincing anyway (Domine, ad quem ibimus?), however much I might sympathize with what I was hearing."

Professor Peters continues:

Let me say, I don't think that all the ills of the Church are reducible to violations of canon law, nor is perfect adherence to law a guarantee of sanctity; but I do think that disregard for Church law has caused or worsened many of the problems we face today. Dreher would be right to decry the anomian attitudes that pervaded various hierarchies in recent decades. But no one should think that serious violations of canon law are unique to the clergy, nor should one underestimate the harm caused when someone, especially of a high profile, violates Church law in protest against those who violate Church law.

For the full post:
http://www.canonlaw.info/2006/10/some-canonical-thoughts-on-rod-drehers_17.html

Re: Mr. Dreher, see, for example:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5256754