How America's Catholic Church crucified itself
A very interesting article appears in the The Sunday Times this morning giving an English analysis of the abuse scandals in the Roman Church. I can't say that there is anything refreshing about it, but it is good that such reports are being made beyond our borders. The crisis, if it is a crisis, will only be dealt with if it is perceived as real by all parties concerned, those on the inside and those looking in.
Since we know that the Church will survive this moment--doesn't Jesus somewhere say something like the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it--I can't see why we are not moving more vigorously toward the necessary acts that will bring healing and reconciliation to those who have been harmed by abusive priests and also by a hoard of our esteemed successors-to-the-Apostles who seem to be witless when the moral rubber hits the road.
I don't know about you, but it seems to me that there are a great number of Bishops who ought to be engaged in public acts of penance. If they did their own time in prison--some place rather more sever than that recently enjoyed by Martha Stewart--that might go a very long way to achieving the restoration to which all their current posturing speaks.
Reactionaries in the Church and Society take the opportunity of this dark moment to rattle their sabers for rapid social change. Some demand that all homosexual men be rooted out and expelled from the Priesthood and Religious Life and banned from the Seminary. Others wish to abolish the Latin discipline of celibacy. Still others demand the ordination of women to the Diaconate and Priesthood. Homosexuality is not the cause of child abuse. Celibacy is not the cause of child abuse. Masculinity is not the cause of child abuse. I promise you that should we ever have married women priests, some number of them will one day be guilty of child abuse.
As a society we may never be able to stop the sexual abuse of minors. Parents do it, sisters and brothers do it, family friends do it. IT is a betrayal of trust, and at its root that is something that you can't simply prevent. WE can prevent a culture of SILENCE that fosters a social dynamic which allows abuse to happen a second, third, or fourth time.
The abused and those who abuse them (especially in the context of the Church) are sons and daughters of God, redeemed by the Blood of Christ, they are our brothers and sisters--that never stops. WE have a duty to them. Each of the abused and each of the abusing have perduring spiritual, emotional, and material needs which we, as their brothers and sisters, must meet in charity and justice. Jesus death; his burial, his resurrection from the dead; his ascension into Glory; and his long-awaited return requires this of us.
We have learned from men and women with AIDS that SILENCE=DEATH. We have learned from Jesus that, The Truth will make you Free. Our challenge at this juncture in history is to model the notion that TRUTH=LIFE.
If kids knew that they could tell and their parents would still love them, if kids knew that they could tell and their lives would not be made worse for the telling, abusers would have ever fewer opportunities for future abuse.
If abusers, and/or potential abusers knew that there was an alternative to jail and remarkable public humiliation, perhaps they would tell on themselves.
Why are we waiting to be sued into bankruptcy and corrosive self-destruction? Why not face the problem head on as the pastoral problem it is? Why not just fess up to the fact that some awfully shady horrors can happen? Why not invite all who have been abused to come forward, quietly or publicly? Real abusers could be put in jail or other remedial situations, along with the Bishops that moved them from parish to parish. The abused could benefit from what ever kind of counseling they and their families want or need for the rest of their lives; and, perhaps from reasonable public settlements. This model might prove to be expensive; but it would have to be less expensive, less corrosive than our current obsessive wrangle with liability, secrecy, and shame.
Truth Telling seems to have been very effective in South Africa, maybe it could be very effective here. The Passion of Christ calls us to acts of courage. Perhaps we owe it to ourselves and to our children to pray for courageous hearts as well as healing and mercy.
Since we know that the Church will survive this moment--doesn't Jesus somewhere say something like the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it--I can't see why we are not moving more vigorously toward the necessary acts that will bring healing and reconciliation to those who have been harmed by abusive priests and also by a hoard of our esteemed successors-to-the-Apostles who seem to be witless when the moral rubber hits the road.
I don't know about you, but it seems to me that there are a great number of Bishops who ought to be engaged in public acts of penance. If they did their own time in prison--some place rather more sever than that recently enjoyed by Martha Stewart--that might go a very long way to achieving the restoration to which all their current posturing speaks.
Reactionaries in the Church and Society take the opportunity of this dark moment to rattle their sabers for rapid social change. Some demand that all homosexual men be rooted out and expelled from the Priesthood and Religious Life and banned from the Seminary. Others wish to abolish the Latin discipline of celibacy. Still others demand the ordination of women to the Diaconate and Priesthood. Homosexuality is not the cause of child abuse. Celibacy is not the cause of child abuse. Masculinity is not the cause of child abuse. I promise you that should we ever have married women priests, some number of them will one day be guilty of child abuse.
As a society we may never be able to stop the sexual abuse of minors. Parents do it, sisters and brothers do it, family friends do it. IT is a betrayal of trust, and at its root that is something that you can't simply prevent. WE can prevent a culture of SILENCE that fosters a social dynamic which allows abuse to happen a second, third, or fourth time.
The abused and those who abuse them (especially in the context of the Church) are sons and daughters of God, redeemed by the Blood of Christ, they are our brothers and sisters--that never stops. WE have a duty to them. Each of the abused and each of the abusing have perduring spiritual, emotional, and material needs which we, as their brothers and sisters, must meet in charity and justice. Jesus death; his burial, his resurrection from the dead; his ascension into Glory; and his long-awaited return requires this of us.
We have learned from men and women with AIDS that SILENCE=DEATH. We have learned from Jesus that, The Truth will make you Free. Our challenge at this juncture in history is to model the notion that TRUTH=LIFE.
If kids knew that they could tell and their parents would still love them, if kids knew that they could tell and their lives would not be made worse for the telling, abusers would have ever fewer opportunities for future abuse.
If abusers, and/or potential abusers knew that there was an alternative to jail and remarkable public humiliation, perhaps they would tell on themselves.
Why are we waiting to be sued into bankruptcy and corrosive self-destruction? Why not face the problem head on as the pastoral problem it is? Why not just fess up to the fact that some awfully shady horrors can happen? Why not invite all who have been abused to come forward, quietly or publicly? Real abusers could be put in jail or other remedial situations, along with the Bishops that moved them from parish to parish. The abused could benefit from what ever kind of counseling they and their families want or need for the rest of their lives; and, perhaps from reasonable public settlements. This model might prove to be expensive; but it would have to be less expensive, less corrosive than our current obsessive wrangle with liability, secrecy, and shame.
Truth Telling seems to have been very effective in South Africa, maybe it could be very effective here. The Passion of Christ calls us to acts of courage. Perhaps we owe it to ourselves and to our children to pray for courageous hearts as well as healing and mercy.
<< Home