Trouble in the Church

introspective

By Brendan Connors

The Roman Catholic Church has come under fierce attack in recent months, faced with allegations that Church officials did nothing to prevent the sexual abuse of countless children at the hands of trusted and respected members of the clergy. The scandal has focused largely in Boston, where the almost daily influx of new allegations on the news has made the likes of Reverend Paul Shanley and John Geoghan well known to all. For decades, it seems, priests who were known to have raped or molested children were systematically shuffled from parish to parish, where the abuse could continue, usually with the new community completely unaware that a sexual predator was on his way. I began to see amidst this explosion of allegations, and the equivocations of Boston Archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law in his depositions, that many Church officials had been more interested in preserving the image of an infallible Church and an untouchable hierarchy than they were in preventing the horrors visited on so many unfortunate children. I could not help but compare an analogous hypothetical situation in a school. If a principal or superintendent knew or even suspected that a teacher was molesting his own students, we would certainly hope that authorities would be contacted and that no child would be put in harm's way. We would be appalled to find out that the teacher had simply been reassigned to another school without admonishment and warning to its administration in the hopes that the problem would simply go away. Any principal who chose to turn a blind eye to such allegations for fear of tarnishing the school's reputation would be almost as guilty as the perpetrator himself.

However, due to great public pressure, and an explosion of allegations in the past few months, the Church has thoroughly revised its process for dealing with alleged victims and accused priests. Under the new system, any allegation of abuse against a priest often results in immediate removal from active ministry and sequestering pending a full investigation. But unfortunately, with the promise of sensationalistic media coverage and large monetary awards, spurious accusations do happen. As each new allegation is as widely published as the last, many reputations will be tarnished and lives will be ruined. Unfortunately, the public arena is one place where the ideal of innocent until proven guilty is rarely realized.

The lives affected by the scandal stretch far beyond the clergy. It has hit at my own high school, a large Jesuit school in Boston, where three priests who once worked there have been accused. The allegations surfaced last March, when a few former students alleged abuse that had taken place in the 1970's by two former Jesuit teachers, one of whom has since died, the other retired. But then, a third man approached The Boston Globe the day that story was to come out and charged that he had been molested by a third Jesuit around the same time, one who was still on the faculty in the History department. This priest, who has taught at my school for decades, was immediately suspended of his teaching duties and sent to a Jesuit Center elsewhere in Massachusetts pending the outcome of his investigation. With allegations of abuse decades past so hard to prove or disprove, even if the charge is dropped and his name cleared, it is doubtful if he will ever teach again. It is a difffcult but crucial task to foster an environment in which survivors of sexual abuse can come forward and be believed while avoiding a witch hunt.

As one unfortunate result of this controversy, I have seen a rise in the number of both die-hard traditionalist Catholics and less concerned cafeteria-Catholics who have tried to use the scandal to advance their own irrelevant personal agendas. Many in the former group place the blame for the abuse squarely on gays in the priesthood, as if homosexuality is synonymous with pedophilia. Some have said as much due to the focus on male victims of clergy abuse, but it is patently offensive and untrue to assert that sexual orientation has anything to do with the matter. Perhaps we should also bar heterosexuals from the priesthood, as many female victims have come forward as well. Conversely, many more progressive Catholics fault and demand reform of the requirement of celibacy in the priesthood, and the ordination of women. Their rationale is that the celibacy forced onto priests leads to sexual repression and consequently a higher prevalence of sexual abuse; however, all priests take a vow of celibacy, but only a very small fraction ever become sexual predators. Incidentally, even if such a relationship exists, correlation does not explain, let alone prove, causation. I can hardly imagine that someone who sexually abuses children would simply stop if given a healthier way to express his sexuality. And I would rather see changes on these matters happen because they truly are the right thing to do, rather than as pragmatic solutions to a very difficult problem.

These issues aside, the first priority for Catholics everywhere must be to ensure that the conditions of secrecy and cover-up that allowed such horror to thrive and those who observed to do nothing be changed so that this trend of sexual abuse in the clergy will come to an end. Many of the Church's concerned laity, most notably those in a newly organized group Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), want to take greater part in the solution and wish to realize the role that average people should have in the government of their church. The role they seek is by no means revolutionary, but ought to have been afforded them long ago. As one might expect, from its inception the group has been met with hostility from the Church's hierarchy, most notably from Cardinal Law. A more pressing matter for him has been the sharp drop in donations to the annual Cardinal's Appeal, a general fund that distributes money to organizations around the archdiocese, most notably for services to the poor. Many potential donors are afraid that money from this fund may be used towards settlements of abuse cases, and others feel that they could not in good conscience give money to an organization embroiled in such scandal. VOTF has promised that all donations would go to help those in need and not towards court ordered settlements. Law, surprised at the audacity of the group to circumvent his fundraising authority, declared that neither the Archdiocese, nor Caritas Health Care System (the organization of Catholic Hospitals of the Boston area), nor Catholic Charities would be accepting such donations. To add to the embarrassment, the head of Catholic Charities announced shortly thereafter that he had made no such agreement, and that all donations to their work would be greatly appreciated.

But despite Cardinal Law's clear ineptitude at dealing with this scandal, his contempt for the laity, and numerous calls for his resignation, he remains in the Chancery as the leader of all Catholics in the greater Boston area, seemingly indifferent to the plight of his flock. Some might wonder how I could continue to call myself a Catholic in the face of the unspeakable evil that those in my church have perpetrated. But it is they who subvert the very meaning of this ‘catholic' Church. Though the Church is not intended to be a democracy, it also should not an elite gentleman's club where those who should dare to disagree with its leadership are forced to find something else to do with their Sunday mornings. A hierarchy that is at best incompetent and at worst indifferent in dealing with such outrageous scandals is not the Church. Ecclesiastical leaders who to too many Catholics have lost all moral authority as a result of this scandal are alone not the Church. It is the entire Catholic population, the laity most especially included, that comprises the Church. VOTF, despite charges against it, is not a revolutionary group trying to force a radical agenda on a church's leadership. I truly hope that greater lay input through such groups will allow the Catholic Church to protect against such egregious and institutional sexual abuse in the future, and live up to its name as ‘universal'. If only its leaders could recognize this.

Questions? Comments? Please contact perspy@hcs.harvard.edu