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PDF versionA make-or-break moment on sex abuse and more Vatican news
by John L Allen Jr on Feb. 03, 2012
"That inflammatory accusations against the Holy See and the [Vatican Bank] are easily disseminated and make good fodder for conspiracy theorists cannot be doubted," he said. "But it would inure to the public's benefit if those same journalists who enthusiastically disseminated such allegations when the cases were filed would pick up their pens to write with equal vigor upon the cases' demise. To do so would responsibly reflect the public record that each of the cases died the undignified death it deserved."
In a polarized world, it was probably inevitable that opinion on the Catholic sex abuse crisis, like pretty much everything else, would crystallize into two opposing blocs. On one side are critics convinced the church still doesn't get it because it has failed to enact the sweeping reforms they support; on the other are apologists who believe the church has been unfairly turned into a scapegoat, and that if anything, it's overreacted.
Although there are highly distinct subgroups within each bloc, in general, both the critics and the apologists tend to be well organized and quite savvy about getting their message out. (Without comparing them in other ways, both SNAP and the Catholic League, for instance, have highly effective PR operations.)
Yet there is also a third constituency, swimming against the polarized tide, though you wouldn't really know it from media coverage or the blogosphere. Composed mostly of Catholic insiders, these are people who grasp the church's failures and who regard recovery very much as a work in progress, but who also believe the church has made important strides and could become a social pacesetter in anti-abuse efforts.
Generally, these are folks who work quietly within institutional structures, more interested in getting something done than in issuing press releases. Their effectiveness stems from their focus. Unlike the two other camps, these folks don't believe the sexual abuse crisis is primarily about something else, such as the corruption of the hierarchy or anti-Catholic media bias. They believe the core challenge is to create systems and structures that keep children safe -- and, where possible, to promote healing and reconciliation with victims.
Next week in Rome, this "Get Something Done" camp may finally have its day in the sun.
The occasion is a Feb. 6-9 symposium hosted by Rome's Jesuit-run Gregorian University, co-sponsored by several Vatican departments. Its title is "Towards Healing and Renewal," and its primary audience is officials from bishops' conferences and religious orders from around the world.
The idea is to identify best practices in abuse prevention and detection and to ensure that those practices become part of the church's standard operating procedure.
The impetus was a May 2011 directive from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith giving dioceses one year to develop "procedures suitable for assisting the victims of abuse, and also for educating the ecclesial community concerning the protection of minors." That deadline expires in three months, and officials in many dioceses, especially in the developing world, have said informally that they're waiting for the event at the Gregorian before putting pen to paper.
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Voices to be heard include:
- Marie Collins, an Irish victim of clerical abuse who's been an outspoken critic of the church's failures.
- Maltese Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the Vatican's top prosecutor on sex abuse cases.
- American Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, former director of the St. Luke's Institute in Maryland and a veteran activist in anti-abuse efforts.
- Leaders of the Center for Child Protection at Germany's University of Ulm, which has worked with the German bishops in developing their policies.
- Pioneers of the "Virtus" program developed in the United States by the National Catholic Risk Retention Group. Its centerpiece is "Protecting God's Children," a program that offers training on the warning signs of abuse and ways to prevent it as well as how to make a report and how to respond to an allegation.
- Bishops from Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines -- the three largest Catholic nations on earth -- along with South Africa, discussing responses to clerical abuse in those regions.
- Vatican officials, including Cardinals William Levada of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Marc Ouellet of the Congregation for Bishops, as well as Cardinal-designate Fernando Filoni of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. Archbishops Joseph Tobin of the Congregation for Religious and Savio Hon Tai Fai from Filoni's office will also take part.
One centerpiece will be the launch of a new Center for Child Protection in Rome, a joint project of the Greg's Institute of Psychology, the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, and the Department for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University Clinic of Ulm. The idea is to develop an e-learning course in abuse prevention and detection to be offered in English, German, Italian and Spanish.
The "Towards Healing and Renewal" event looms as a crossroads for the church for at least four reasons.
First, although the "crisis" -- in the sense of lawsuits, massive media coverage, demoralization and confusion in the pews, and all the rest -- has already exploded in Europe and North America, it has yet to arrive in most of the rest of the world. That includes most of the southern hemisphere, where two-thirds of all Catholics today live. The question is whether the church will continue to follow a largely reactive pattern, waiting for a revelation to trigger an avalanche and then scrambling to catch up, or whether it will finally get ahead of the curve.
Second, participants in this event represent a good share of the church's best and brightest minds on fighting abuse, and both the Vatican and the Gregorian have invested considerable resources in putting it together. If these four days don't produce momentum towards wider and deeper reform, it's an open question what might.
Third, both the Vatican and church leaders around the world have long complained of an imbalance in public attention with regard to the crisis. Breakdowns, such as those illustrated by the recent Grand Jury report in Philadelphia and the indictment of Bishop Robert Finn in Kansas City, Mo., generate headlines; success stories, such as the "Protecting God's Children" program, generally go untold.
That was the gist of Benedict XVI's message when he met with a group of church workers dedicated to child protection in the United Kingdom in 2010. He said: "While there are never grounds for complacency, credit should be given where it is due. The efforts of the church in this country and elsewhere, especially in the last 10 years, to guarantee the safety of children and young people ... should be acknowledged."
If there was ever a moment when imaginative communications efforts might produce such an acknowledgment, this event ought to be it.
(As a footnote, the symposium itself is off-limits to the press and the public in order to protect the free flow of discussion, organizers say. Participants, however, have been encouraged to make themselves available to the media throughout the event, and there are a couple of press conferences on the docket.)
Fourth, Catholic leaders have repeatedly stressed that the sexual exploitation of children is a broad social scourge and that the church wants to be a leader and partner with other institutions and movements in keeping children safe. As long as the perception is that the church is part of the problem rather than the solution, however, such partnerships will be tough to forge.
(Don't believe that perception is still widespread? Consider that a Philadelphia judge presiding over the criminal trial of two priests and a former priest recently said in open court, "Anybody that doesn't think there is widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic church is living on another planet.")
This summit represents a unique chance for the church to put its best foot forward, persuading at least some fair-minded people to regard it as a potential ally in child protection efforts. It is only, however, a chance -- next week will reveal how well participants take advantage of it.
For these reasons, the "Towards Healing and Renewal" symposium looms as a sort of make-or-break moment. I'll be on the ground in Rome covering it; watch the NCR Today site for my daily reports.
* * *
As a sidebar, the symposium has already drawn a bit of criticism in Ireland, home to arguably the world's most intense Catholic sex abuse crisis. Observers there have wondered why Dublin's Archbishop Diarmuid Martin isn't among the speakers, especially given perceptions that Martin is on the Vatican's black list because of his searing candor on the crisis, including a willingness to butt heads with other bishops.
On background, organizers say that's not the deal.
First, word out of Ireland is that Martin will actually attend the symposium, along with two other Irish prelates, including Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh, the country's most senior churchman.
Second, Marie Collins is among the speakers. She's an outspoken Irish advocate of reform and someone sympathetic to much of Martin's agenda. Last year, for instance, Collins was among eight victims who took part in a foot-washing ceremony in Dublin led by Martin and Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston, intended as a gesture of repentance.
Third, Martin is not the only prominent bishop with a reform record who's not on the formal agenda. O'Malley, for instance, isn't among the speakers, either. The U.S. conference will be represented by Bishop Robert Conlon of Joliet, Ill., who chairs the bishops' Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People.
The primary thrust of the event, organizers say, isn't to preach to the choir or to offer a platform to prominent voices in the hierarchy. Instead, it's to make the church's best practices systematic and institutional, and thus ensure that they outlive the personal charisma of pioneers such as Martin and O'Malley.
How all that plays out in the court of public opinion, especially in Ireland, remains to be seen.
* * *
There are three other Vatican stories this week to which I can't give a full write-up but deserve at least a mention.
A good run for the Vatican's lawyer
Whatever the Vatican is paying Berkeley, Calif.-based attorney Jeffrey Lena, who represents the Holy See in American litigation, it must seem like money well spent. Not only has the Vatican never lost a case in the States and never paid a dime to settle one, most of the roughly 10 cases in which the Vatican has been sued dissolve, sooner or later, because Lena prevails on the issue of jurisdiction and sovereign immunity.
By the way, winning on the grounds of jurisdiction isn't a legal dodge that insulates the Vatican from scrutiny of its conduct. In virtually every case that's come up, courts have taken a close look at the alleged facts, and then asked: Even if all that's true, does it establish a pattern of institutional responsibility for actionable wrongs serious enough to overcome sovereign immunity?
Lena's had another good run of late.
On Jan. 20, he prevailed in a procedural ruling in an Oregon sex abuse case, convincing the judge to deny a request to depose an official of a religious order on the grounds that the legal standard had not been met. On Tuesday, he won another procedural ruling in a Wisconsin sex abuse case, fending off a request from plaintiffs for more time to respond to the Vatican's motions to dismiss.
The big-ticket item, however, came Wednesday.
On that day, a federal court in Mississippi finally dismissed the long-running Dale v. Colagiovanni case, originally filed in 2002. It pivoted on charges by the insurance commissioners of five states (Mississippi, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas) that the Vatican had been complicit in scams perpetrated by a con artist named Martin Frankel, who's currently serving a 16-year prison sentence for looting a series of insurance companies to the tune of more than $200 million.
The Vatican connection is this: As part of his shell game, Frankel created a bogus foundation in the Virgin Islands named after St. Francis, with the ostensible purpose of serving the poor, but whose real purpose was to buy up insurance companies and pilfer them. To provide a veneer of legitimacy, Frankel recruited an elderly minor Vatican functionary, an Italian named Monsignor Emilio Colagiovanni, to lend his name and support.
Primarily as a result of the lawsuit, the Colagiovanni case has become a favorite of conspiracy theorists everywhere. It's now up there with the Vatican Bank scandals of the 1970s, the death of Pope John Paul I and the kidnapping of Emanuela Orlandi in terms of favorite Vatican mysteries.
Yet from the beginning, Lena always insisted that the Vatican, as such, was never a party to Frankel's scam -- that it was actually among his "unwitting victims." He notes that when Frankel tried to go through official channels in 1998 to solicit Vatican support, he was rebuffed, and when various parties later asked the Vatican if Frankel had any official backing, the answer was always no. Now, after more than a decade of litigation, the insurance commissioners have given up their efforts to prove otherwise.
In a statement this week, Lena bluntly suggested that the insurance regulators had targeted the Vatican in order to divert attention from their own failures to stop Frankel's scam much earlier.
Lena also had a parting shot for the media, which I reproduce here in full:
The 'Madoff of Parioli'
As papal aides this week struggled to put out a media fire ignited when an Italian TV program revealed confidential letters from the pope's ambassador in the States complaining of financial corruption in the Vatican, they simultaneously found themselves trying to keep the Vatican out of yet another scandal.
On Tuesday, Italy's leading daily newspaper, Corriere della Sera, carried a sensational story under the headline "From the Congregation for the Causes of Saints: 1.6 million for the Madoff of Parioli." It reported that an Italian Dominican, Fr. Francesco Maria Ricci, had invested slightly more than $2 million in a financial services operation run by financier Gainfranco Lande, who was arrested last April and charged with several counts of fraud.
Lande's Ponzi scheme is estimated to have wiped out the savings of a roster of elite Roman investors to the tune of roughly $300 million. It's earned him the title of the "Madoff of Parioli," a reference to the Italian region from which Lande hails.
Because Ricci is a "postulator," meaning an official responsible for sainthood causes for his religious order, the story seemed to speculate that Ricci might have been acting in a quasi-official capacity on behalf of the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints when he invested in Lande's scam.
Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesperson, was quick to reject that suggestion.
In a statement released the same day the Corriere article appeared, Lombardi insisted that Ricci is not a Vatican official. In fact, Lombardi said, people with sainthood causes to push are more akin to "clients" of the Vatican. As a result, Lombardi said, "The Congregation for the Causes of Saints and its Prefect, Cardinal Angelo Amato, have absolutely nothing to do with the events spoken of in the article in question."
The Last Exorcist
I've had occasion before to note that one of the best young Vatican writers going these days is Italian journalist Paolo Rodari. As it happens, Rodari has a new book out this week, co-authored with the world-famous exorcist of the Rome diocese, 86-year-old Italian Fr. Gabriele Amorth.
The book's sexy title is The Last Exorcist: My Battle against Satan.
Amorth, of course, is not literally the last exorcist of the Catholic church. He writes in the preface, however, that he embraces the book's title for its polemical value. Amorth strongly believes that exorcism and demonic combat are not taken nearly seriously enough by the church these days, including most bishops. As a result, he says, every exorcist can't help but sometimes feel like the last.
I predict the book will find its way into English translation, and will do very well. From a marketing point of view, exorcism is always a winner, and Amorth certainly delivers the goods. He speaks in colorful detail about his experiences of Satan, possession, deliverance and exorcism, and it's not hard to imagine a Hollywood screenplay in there someplace.
In terms of news value, one nugget from the book concerns Benedict XVI. As is well known, Pope John Paul II performed a handful of exorcisms during his papacy. (Or, if you prefer, prayers for deliverance, because he didn't always employ the formal liturgical rite.)
Amorth states, however, that to the best of his knowledge, Benedict XVI does not perform exorcisms.
That said, Amorth nevertheless asserts that Benedict's "entire pontificate is a great exorcism against Satan."
He tells a story to illustrate his point. One day in spring 2009, Amorth says, a group of four people attended a large public audience with Benedict XVI in St. Peter's Square. The two women in the group were Amorth's assistants, while the two young men, named Marco and Giovanni, were possessed.
The women escorted Marco and Giovanni to a spot as close as possible to the pope. As Amorth tells it, the two young men began to act strangely as soon as Benedict XVI entered the square. When one of the women told Giovanni to control himself, he responded in a slow and eerie voice: "I am not Giovanni."
When Benedict XVI made his way to the stage, Amorth says, the two young men began to scream. One of them yelled at the pope, "Holiness, Holiness, here we are!"
Benedict, according to Amorth, looked over, raised his arm and offered a blessing. Immediately afterward, according to Amorth, the two young men fell to the ground, stopped screeching and began to cry. Later, he said, Giovanni and Marco claimed to have no memory of any of these events.
Here's Amorth's summary comment: "The way in which Benedict XVI lives the liturgy, his respect for the rules, his rigor, even his posture are extremely effective against Satan. The liturgy celebrated by the pontiff is potent. Satan is wounded every time the pope celebrates the Eucharist."
"Satan highly feared the election of Ratzinger to the throne of Peter," Amorth writes, "because he saw in him the continuation of the great battle against him carried out for 26 years by John Paul II."
[John L. Allen Jr. is NCR's senior correspondent. His email address is jallen@ncronline.org.]
The primary thrust of the
The primary thrust of the event, organizers say, isn't to preach to the choir or to offer a platform to prominent voices in the hierarchy. Instead, it's to make the church's best practices systematic and institutional, and thus ensure that they outlive the personal charisma of pioneers such as Martin and O'Malley.
As long as the Church does not hold the hierarchy accountable for their actions in covering up abuse by priests, these "best practices" will fall short. They may be better practices than the Church has had in the past, but they are far from the best.
The grand jury reports in Philadelphia are damning in their description of the acts of Cardinals Krol, Bevilaqua, and Rigali. The trials ahead will test these indictments against others, but the image of the hierarchy as either uncaring or negligent will be on display. Neither is acceptable conduct, and the church -- by not taking the lead in holding its own leaders accountable -- will suffer all the more as the testimony proceeds and verdicts are rendered.
Best practices do not include shuffling negligent or uncaring Cardinals around (from Boston to Rome, for example) any more than they include shuffling abusive priests from parish to parish.
The accountability you desire
The accountability you desire typically begins with giving one's name. Anonymity is by definition an evasion of accountability.
Anonymous, I Agree. John
Anonymous, I Agree. John appears to be apologizing for the Vatican. This issue is the sin both of child abuse and the hierarchy's (including JPII's) hiding of it. joe yankech
sounds like a whole
sounds like a whole dismantlement of the phony church is in order. release all of the information in the vatican libraries to the general public.
It's time Philadelphia
It's time Philadelphia Catholics left this cesspool of vice and decadence and embraced the true faith of the Fathers, the Holy Orthodox Eastern Church.
The orthodox have been also
The orthodox have been also resposnible for much sex abuse, my dear friend. The difference is that the Orthodox Church is very small in the US and pretty much ignored.
Quoting Jesus: ""Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote that is in thy brother's eye. "" (Luke 6:42)
FM, You say, "the orthodox
FM, You say, "the orthodox have been also resposnible for much sex abuse, my dear friend. The difference is that the Orthodox Church is very small in the US and pretty much ignored."
Please stop kidding yourself and attempting to confuse and mislead others. The "size" of the OC has nothing to do with the issue at hand. It has remained uncorrupted in both faith and praxis from the time of the apostles themselves, and has never led the universal Church, as has Rome, into doctrinal error.
You are yourself contributing to the larger sin manifested in the Catholic Church's cover-up by your obviously unsuccessful effort to divert the minds of thinking Catholics from the real issues we're dealing with here. Issues, the Church continues to deny to it's own members and to the world through prevarication and subversion.
We see it in the continuing lack of accountability to the People of God at all levels of Church polity. Venal bishops misusing diocesan funds for sinful purposes, and failing to give account for bequests and other gifts intended for purely philanthropic ends, but ,instead, misusing those funds to pay lobbyists and criminal legal teams in order to either save the "diocesan patrimony", to use archbishop Dolan's term, or to keep the pope and his bishops out of court.
Neither the Orthodox Church nor any other Christian body can hold a candle to the panoply of sins, the continuing effort to mask those sins, and the level of degradation to which the Roman Church has plummeted in the eyes of the world. The Catholic hierarchy has become a living example of sacrilege in action. Cardinals and bishops who belong in caves doing penance are ,instead, strutting about Rome with crocodile tears. Vainly attempting to save what threads of credibility they may have left.
Just another publicity stunt by a Church rapidly losing credibility to all but those Catholics who continue to drink the Kool Aid the hierarchy and bishop of Rome keep force-feeding their obeisant and unquestioning followers. Thinking and concerned Catholics should just pick up their baggage, especially their pocketbooks, jump the wall and find more hospitable faith communities far, far removed from these vile people. To be seen in their company and to make excuses for them is to participate in an even larger sin.
Excellent observations. Until
Excellent observations. Until there are policies in place that hold bishops and other hierarchy accountable for their failures - until there are no more Philadelphias and Kansas Citys which seem to happen because because there are STILL no policies to hold hierarchy accountable for protecting criminal priests - it is all little more than lip-service.
The current policies impact the lowest levels of church workers - volunteers, teachers, low-level clergy. I am not aware of many indictments (outside of the current case in Philly which does include teachers) that involve any of these low-level workers who are now under the new policies.
It is the bishops who enabled pedophile priests to continue to molest even after their crimes were known and they are not accountable nor are there any policies that will make them accountable in the future.
It's all lip-service. This conference includes Cardinal Brady as a speaker. As I recall, Cardinal Brady of Ireland is among the very worst offenders. From wikipedia "In March 2010 it became widely known that the then Father Seán Brady had participated in an internal Church legal process in 1975 that required victims of Father Brendan Smyth to remain silent about their abuse. Smyth went on to abuse dozens of children before being brought to justice in 1994.[17] " Read the rest at wiki.
This conference is laughable.
This conference is laughable. You talk about having wolves guarding the hen house.
While bishops continue to privately lobby state legislatures the length and breadth of the U.S.A. to stop the extension of state statutes of limitations our hierarchical hypocrites (the New Pharisees) publicly embrace what is little more than a Vatican publicity stunt.
The secular media are treating this meeting as a sick joke. Pouring the opprobrium upon it which it so richly deserves.
While I do sympathize with
While I do sympathize with your position on this, I think the idea of having any bishop held accountable for their complicity in the abuse of children is a dead issue. There is not one source within the governing bodies of the Church that will move on that, from bishop's conferences to the halls of the Vatican. So, as regrettable as it is, it seems that our best shot at doing something definitive and constructive is this conference. That it is not met with equal force as a full and complete (and transparent) confrontation of the problem by the Vatican, will forever be a stain on the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and the permanent erosion of the moral authority of the bishops. These are the results of their own mishandling of the entire problem, despite the best efforts of various individuals, as those responsible for the safekeeping of the Church and each of its members.
Best practices? How about
Best practices? How about this: If you know of someone abusing a child, call the police and report it. What is so complicated about that? As a church we need to stop making excuses and stop being more concerned with the abusers than with the abused. I pray that at least some Bishops will take action on their own. Unfortunately it seems like criminal prosecution is the only way to get their attention.
Excellent articles. I am most
Excellent articles. I am most encouraged.
No Tom Doyle. No Richard
No Tom Doyle. No Richard Sipe. Only when those who dared to step "outside the system" for justice become something other than outcasts, and are considered worth listening to, will any sort of "Healing and Renewal" happen.
Otherwise it's just another "how can we put this behind us?" gambit.
MORE EVASIVE NONSENSE .....
MORE EVASIVE NONSENSE ..... Spin, spin, spin.....
John, what is the problem? No mention of the pope's praise of Tough Tony (RIP)? Ten years after the Philly grand jury began its sordid clerical abuse investigation and never a peep about it from the pope or the US bishop's group! Rigali, however, likely remains a potential criminal defendant so stay tuned.
Lena and the other high priced Church lawyers have ultimately failed. A delay is not a victory. The criminal prosecutions of bishops will only continue to mushroom. The senseless $1 million dollar average price tag per accused priest will yet bankrupt the entire US Church. Still the apologists keep telling Catholics all is well.
Catholics are docile, but not complete fools. The phony election year "religious liberty" crusade against contraceptive health insurance will fail. It will neither intimidate Obama nor get him to curtail the growing Federal prosecution of pedophiles and their enablers. It is appalling that the pope seeks to protect bishops from prosecution at the price of electing a US Republican presidential candidate who wants to invade Iran and stiff the poor further by lowering even more the taxes on the pope's wealthy Catholic contributors.
Now comes the latest fairy tail from Cardinal Egan, who like Law, Rigali, Dolan, Bevilacqua , et al. has managed so far to avoid full judicial scrutiny. Egan, an experienced curialist, blatantly rewrites history. Bishops may save their hides, but have they saved their souls?
For Egan's current revisionism, please click on at:
http://www.connecticutmag.com/Connecticut-Magazine/Web-Exclusive-Content...
"The question is whether the
"The question is whether the church will continue to follow a largely reactive pattern, waiting for a revelation to trigger an avalanche and then scrambling to catch up, or whether it will finally get ahead of the curve."
All indications are the former rather than the later. Last month, NCR had a story on the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church in Poland. The findings were frightening. The abusers are protected, and anyone who wants to address the problem, no matter how solid their Catholic credentials, is instantly denounced as an "anti-Catholic" and ostracized. No doubt, some day, the Catholic Church there will end up going through the same pathetic process it has in this country.wquqz
I find it incomprehensible
I find it incomprehensible that only one victim is speaking at the symposium. Sexual abuse is not the same, always and everywhere. The sexual abuse of prepubescent children (pedophilia) is vastly different than that of post-pubescent children (ephebophilia). Hearing someone describe their personal accounts is vastly different than reading about it....Regardless of how many "experts" are attending there are still those in the Church who NEED to hear the pain, shame and humiliation of the victims. Their story needs not only to be told but equally important, to be heard. It is estimated that 4% of the Catholic priests in the United States have had credible accusations against them of sexual abuse. Are any of them speaking at the symposium? If we want to be leaders in the realm of child protection may I suggest we commence an intensive study of those who committed these crimes, as well as their victims. Sadly, we don't have to go very far to research causes, profiles, tactics of sexual abuse of vulnerable individuals. We may not necessarily be the last word on the topic but regretfully, we have rather extensive resources of psychological insight and knowledge. Until then, we as a Church both lay and clergy alike, will never fully embrace the shame and pain of what has transpired. Then and only then, the mea culpas that we voice at every Eucharist will be shallow in their recitation.
" Unlike the two other camps,
" Unlike the two other camps, these folks don't believe the sexual abuse crisis is primarily about something else, such as the corruption of the hierarchy or anti-Catholic media bias."...In my opinion, it IS the corruption of the hierarchy that is primary.
... "Vatican and church leaders around the world have long complained of an imbalance in public attention with regard to the crisis. Breakdowns, such as those illustrated by the recent Grand Jury report in Philadelphia and the indictment of Bishop Robert Finn in Kansas City, Mo., generate headlines;"
breakdowns ??? what does that mean.... anyone that reads the transcripts of the Philly grand jury will read the disgusting breakdown of the hierarchy in that diocese.
there is no confusion for me in this sex abuse issue
who except Allen and other
who except Allen and other papal apologists think the Church has "over-reacted" to the sexual abuse in the Church? Someone has actually said that out loud?
he was after all a vcitim
he was after all a vcitim himself most likely... i went to school with him... the priests preyed upon us....
This symposium is a great
This symposium is a great opportunity to further develop safeguards against abuse. The Catholic Church could indeed become a leading voice in this realm. Just as the most credible person to warn against the perils of alcoholism is a recovering alcoholic, the Church has 'been there'.
However, has the drop in new abuse cases been a result of Church policy initiatives or can we attribute this drop to increased vigilance by the faithful? Prior to the Boston scandal, most Catholics trusted their priests and bishops without question. That has changed. The crime of abuse requires, like all crimes, intent and opportunity. The intent may still be there, but the opportunity has been reduced tremendously.
Put another way, it's well and good that the shepherd has renewed his commitment to guard his sheep, but the sheep are now packing machine guns and trusting no one near the lambs.
The other concern is that the culture of distrust that has grown in Europe, Australia and North America is less prevalent in the South. It is likely there is a tsunami of abuse cases in Africa, Asia and Latin America which may take decades to surface because the Catholic culture of deferral to clerical authority is still strong there.
But that too is an opportunity for the Church to demonstrate that is has learned from the scandals of the West. If it acts, rather than reacts, in the South it will go a very long way in atoning for its earlier sloth.
As I said, this symposium is a heartening sign. We can only pray it is a sign of even greater action to come.
this symposium is a
this symposium is a heartening sign. We can only pray it is a sign of even greater action to come.
----------------------------------
I wouldn't bet the family farm on that. It becomes a "heartening sign" when the pope and the entire hierarchy decide to resign because of a worldwide failure of confidence and the laughter which greeted the idea of this conference starts to subside. Then, along with their replacements elected by lower clergy and the People of God, we can begin to speak of this exercise in Rome achieving any degree of credibility.
John: A very fair and
John: A very fair and estimable approach we should laud. I suspect that celibacy is a polar "something else" not on the docket. Will there be any voice given to expert, unbiased research, experiential learning, case studies on the impact--if any--of in-advance clerical commitment to total denial/repression of sexual intimacy? The topic can't be the only thing on the table, to be sure. But can it be totally off the table? We have a lot to still learn. And in our learning, using the brains God gave us, we must be open to expertise and experiences that offer solutions that maybe right now are not "on our terms."
"Anybody that doesn't think
"Anybody that doesn't think there is widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic church is living on another planet."
John Allen--and you disagree? Read any of the grand jury reports in Philadelphia and come to conclusion othe than the judge's. The abuse in Philadelphia has been going on, it seems, forever. And has been covered up forever. It has been the way business has been done in Philadelphia.
Northcountry 1, I agree with
Northcountry 1, I agree with you completely! The problem is that John Allen is anything BUT an investigative reporter. By virtue of his close Vatican proximity and personal background, he truly is not capable of reporting the objective facts. This is a problem in any closed social system such as the Vatican and the Catholic Church. His livelihood is dependent on reporting only facts that won't cut off his sources. This is no different than the plight of most diocesan priests-------if they speak the uncensored truth, they are dead meat at the Chancery. If living in a cult-like environment such as we have in the RCC, it would take a real person of courage and integrity to be able to go up against this powerful and blunt misuse of authority. Sounds like something Jesus did and would do again today!
And the falsely accused? be
And the falsely accused? be it through misunderstanding or malice? Sadly they are a major but ignored component in the saga of abuse of the vulnerable.
"Safeguarding" officers never dare to fully exonerate an accused individual against whom an unsubstantiated accusation has been made, investigated and dismissed by the civil authorities. The accused are not safeguarded.
Yes, in times past too many accused priests were over-protected to preserve the reputation of the institution, but there is much less chance of that happening these days. I'm certain that every one of the chosen speakers will know clergy who have been cut off from their vocation due to false accusations inadequately, and so unjustly handled.
Mr. Allen would do well to
Mr. Allen would do well to dwell more on events on the ground in philly. KC, Milwaukee, Poland, Ireland. Germany etc. etc. and to brush off victim advocates as those who only put out press releases instead of focusing solely on his beloved friends in Rome.
John is the only news source
John is the only news source to cover these topics. He provides us all with a most useful and informative fountain of information. Thanks, John!
Is this on the "Get Something
Is this on the "Get Something Done" agenda? The "hierarchy" have identified the problem sometime ago, now what are they going to do about it?
In 2002, when the church came under fire for clerical sexual abuse, Cardinal Bevilacqua called homosexuality an 'aberration, a moral evil' and suggested gays were more likely to commit abuse.
The Vatican's Second in Command, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone has linked pedophilia to homosexuality . . and I quote:
They do believe, however, "that there is a relation between homosexuality and pedophilia," he said. "That is true. ... That is the problem."
Source: New York Daily News / Article:
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone blames homosexuality - not celibacy - for child abuse sex scandal / Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Wm. Donohue of the Catholic League wrote the following in a letter that appeared in the New York Times on April 11, 2011:
“When the National Review Board, a group of notable Catholics, issued its study in 2004, the team’s chief, attorney Robert S. Bennett, said that “any evaluation of the causes and context of the current crisis must be cognizant of the fact that more than 80 percent of the abuse at issue was of a homosexual nature.” One of the members, Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins, has said that “This behavior was homosexual predation on American Catholic youth, yet it’s not being discussed.” By the way, the figures after 2004 haven’t changed—eight in ten cases involve homosexuality. Worldwide, the Vatican estimates that 60 percent of the cases are same-sex, 30 percent are heterosexual and 10 percent involve pedophilia.” Source: AMERICA / Article: Bill Donohue's Ad in NYT / Posted at: Monday, April 11, 2011
Rev. Donald Cozzens, author of the 2000 book "The Changing Face of the Priesthood," estimates 50 percent of all Catholic priests are homosexual. Psychotherapist Richard Sipe, a former Catholic priest who has written and spoken widely on the priesthood, says 15 percent of homosexual priests are sexually active. If all homosexual clergy were to leave the U.S. Catholic Church now, the church would lose one-third of its bishops as well.
Then it would follow that given the makeup of the RC priesthood, and without a thorough cleansing of the temple of homosexual priests and bishops, one can expect that the abuse of children will continue.
This is yet another disturbing dimension to the ever-widening Roman Catholic Clergy Abuse SCANDAL perpetrated by the scandalous behaviour of the “church's hierarchy” and for which they must be held to ACCOUNT!
Sighhhh. I noticed in all
Sighhhh. I noticed in all your quotes you leave out the fact SNAP's membership is over 50% women. That aside, sexual abuse of women and girls is vastly under reported in society and that includes the sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. There are a number of reasons for that, but the biggest reasons are our culture in general values the sexual integrity of boys over girls, and believes boys are more likely to be victims and girls more likely to be complicit. This attitude is even more prevalent in religious cultures that are male dominated in teaching and leadership---and homophobic.
It's just so much easier to focus on gays, who as the KofC would have us believe are heterosexuals with a 'homosexual' problem, than it is to focus on heterosexuals with a 'heterosexual' problem. When this crisis finally explodes in the South, and the stories abound with abuse of women and girls, we might finally admit that clergy sexual abuse is not a problem of gay priests, it's a problem of clerical power.
Please do not forget to
Please do not forget to include in your review of the problem that during the majority of the period in question, it was boys and male adolescents that were really the only available victims. Most people seem to forget the number of adult women - including nuns - who were victimized as well. So it is not as cut-and-dry as you, June, would like it to be. I would also like to call attention to the contributions of Eugene Kennedy in a number of his essays at this site that illustrate the developmentally restricted psychosocial condition of many (but not all - either heterosexual or homosexual)priests who are the perpetrators of abuse. What looks like a homosexual priest problem is not enough to explain the wider problem. We have much yet to learn about all of this, and this issue of % of homosexual priests to the % of abuse victims has yet to be fully explored in a scientific fastion, despite the fact that some common opinions are being presented as facts. It is so difficult to wait for all of the studying to be done. But we are on the right track, I think, in discussing it openly as we are here.
I suggest that there is a
I suggest that there is a fourth group - and just possibly it is the largest:
Those that no longer give a damn about anything to do with Church Leadership.
Maybe we could call them The Numb Ones.
I suspect many are Vatican II Graduates who at one time thought that the Church heard their cries for reform ..... but now know better.
Many believe that being Pro-Life is something much more than simplistically being against something.
This group has her/his Sacramental Life and frequently an active prayer life. They even contribute to the upkeep of their local church.
..................... or maybe, I am just projecting.
With all due respect, Mr.
With all due respect, Mr. Allen.
In journalism, there is something that is called "follow up", which means, in professional jargon, keep informing about the last big piece of news. While referring to the Ponzi scheme,you forgot the opinion of the very Catholic British magazine The Tablet, that is more afirmative than you about the last Vatican scandal, the financial one. Allow me to quote:
"From the editor’s desk
Damaging lack of transparency
4 February 2012
Once again the Vatican has responded to a whiff of scandal in a way that makes it worse. Throughout the long and agonising saga of clerical child abuse, there were voices saying that it was all “got up” by the media, some denying that there was any substance to it at all. Sadly, that is how the curial machinery has chosen to deal with recent allegations of financial rather than sexual irregularity, even threatening legal action against the television station that broadcast them. But blaming the messenger is no use. The Greek historian, Plutarch, records how Tigranes had someone beheaded for warning of the approach of his enemy, Lucullus, “so no man dared bring him further information”.
What will curial officials who have seen things that disturb them make of the example of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who was deputy governor of Vatican City until he tried blowing the whistle on what he considered corrupt practices in the awarding of contracts? He was whisked away to America. And when Italian television drew attention to these facts, it was blamed by the Vatican press office – undoubtedly under orders from higher up – for mischief-making.
This is despite the fact that the Vatican has not attempted to deny the authenticity of the documents that fell into the hands of journalists. These were messages Archbishop Viganò had sent to the Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and to Pope Benedict himself, reporting “many situations of corruption and abuse of power that have long been ingrained in the management of various offices”.
He accuses a particular Vatican financial committee consisting of bankers of operating “more for their own interests than for ours”. Archbishop Viganò had every expectation of succeeding Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo to the headship of the Vatican City administration, a post that carried promotion to cardinal. Instead he was appointed nuncio to the United States, which does not; and his protests that his work weeding out corruption would be undermined were ignored.
Corruption has to be judged by its context. It is worse if it damages the honour of the Holy See; it is perhaps more easily understood if it reflects local custom and practice. Both those factors apply here. It is arguably as true of contemporary Italy as it was of eighteenth-century Britain, as Adam Smith set out in The Wealth of Nations, that “people of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public or in some contrivance to raise prices”. But the fact that such practices could never be entirely stamped out did not mean they should be allowed. Experience throughout the world is that the best antidote to corruption is transparency, which means shining a light in dark places and encouraging those who know of wrongdoing to come forward.
That is the fundamental reason why it is bad policy to treat whistle-blowers as Archbishop Viganò has been treated, even if, as the Vatican spokesman seemed to suggest, the reforms the archbishop instituted have dealt with the problem. Turning a blind eye becomes the norm, and one rotten apple can spoil a whole barrel. If this situation reflects badly on the Pope himself, that is all the more true of his right-hand man, Cardinal Bertone. And it reflects badly on the Catholic Church worldwide.
From the editor’s desk
Damaging lack of transparency
4 February 2012
Once again the Vatican has responded to a whiff of scandal in a way that makes it worse. Throughout the long and agonising saga of clerical child abuse, there were voices saying that it was all “got up” by the media, some denying that there was any substance to it at all. Sadly, that is how the curial machinery has chosen to deal with recent allegations of financial rather than sexual irregularity, even threatening legal action against the television station that broadcast them. But blaming the messenger is no use. The Greek historian, Plutarch, records how Tigranes had someone beheaded for warning of the approach of his enemy, Lucullus, “so no man dared bring him further information”.
What will curial officials who have seen things that disturb them make of the example of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who was deputy governor of Vatican City until he tried blowing the whistle on what he considered corrupt practices in the awarding of contracts? He was whisked away to America. And when Italian television drew attention to these facts, it was blamed by the Vatican press office – undoubtedly under orders from higher up – for mischief-making.
This is despite the fact that the Vatican has not attempted to deny the authenticity of the documents that fell into the hands of journalists. These were messages Archbishop Viganò had sent to the Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and to Pope Benedict himself, reporting “many situations of corruption and abuse of power that have long been ingrained in the management of various offices”.
He accuses a particular Vatican financial committee consisting of bankers of operating “more for their own interests than for ours”. Archbishop Viganò had every expectation of succeeding Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo to the headship of the Vatican City administration, a post that carried promotion to cardinal. Instead he was appointed nuncio to the United States, which does not; and his protests that his work weeding out corruption would be undermined were ignored.
Corruption has to be judged by its context. It is worse if it damages the honour of the Holy See; it is perhaps more easily understood if it reflects local custom and practice. Both those factors apply here. It is arguably as true of contemporary Italy as it was of eighteenth-century Britain, as Adam Smith set out in The Wealth of Nations, that “people of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public or in some contrivance to raise prices”. But the fact that such practices could never be entirely stamped out did not mean they should be allowed. Experience throughout the world is that the best antidote to corruption is transparency, which means shining a light in dark places and encouraging those who know of wrongdoing to come forward.
That is the fundamental reason why it is bad policy to treat whistle-blowers as Archbishop Viganò has been treated, even if, as the Vatican spokesman seemed to suggest, the reforms the archbishop instituted have dealt with the problem. Turning a blind eye becomes the norm, and one rotten apple can spoil a whole barrel. If this situation reflects badly on the Pope himself, that is all the more true of his right-hand man, Cardinal Bertone. And it reflects badly on the Catholic Church worldwide."
The lack of transparency has been the main problem with the Vatican, don't you agree?
Thank you for your thoughtful
Thank you for your thoughtful coverage of this important event.
Unless efforts at reform are
Unless efforts at reform are made part of canon law, they can preach to the rafters, but nothing will really get done to repair the terrible damage done to both the abused and to the reputation of the Church. The church is simply not very believeable in its efforts any more. I say this with sorrow. This is a church with too many generals.
It seems to me, John Allen,
It seems to me, John Allen, there is another way of looking at this problem other than US vs THEM. I think the solution depends on your worldview. If you accept that that the RCC is divinely founded and led by the Spirit, then there are no fundamental changes needed. It's enough to just tweak the system with a few new programs.
On the other hand, if you believe that the RCC is an organization with human beings leading it, who because of free will are capable of shutting down any direction by the Sprit, then ALL fundamental changes must be looked at for consideration.
We live in a world that is not totally spiritual but one that exists in the physical realm as well. So, it seems to me that ALL options should be up for discussion on how to change the RCC so that this sort of sexual abuse, cover-up, fraudulent use of funds, malfeasance in teaching, celibacy, denial of women's human rights, etc. can be studied. To do anything less gives the impression of window-dressing and the appearance of a publicity stunt.
The CC is: 1. "divinely
The CC is:
1. "divinely founded and led by the Spirit" - though "helped" is more accurate than "led";
& it is also:
2. "an organization with human beings leading it, who because of free will are capable of shutting down any direction by the Sp[i]rit"
It's not Divine *or* human - it is both at once, all the time, all of it. Not either one or the other - but both, together. At least on earth. In Heaven, it is fully human, and free of all flaws & sins & shortcomings; but not on earth. Not yet.
So repentance, conversion, reform are always needed. That it is Divine does not mean that it is not human, and therefore does not mean it cannot be in great need of correction. That Jesus is God Incarnate, did not prevent Him having a human nature capable of suffering - the Church is like that: because it is human, it can suffer from the lack of a Christlikeness it has not yet attained; it is never fully mature *on earth*. A Church of which the members are not perfect in holiness - though every single one is called to be holy & perfect - is a Church in which imperfection is found; and therefore, the possibility even of very great evil. The Holiness of the Church is perfect - but that is because the Church is Holy, not in itself, but solely because of Christ, the Source of all Holiness. The Church is both truly Holy (insofar as it is fully Christ's) - & deeply sinful (to the extent that it is not yet fully converted & made like Christ).
Very good points. To offer
Very good points. To offer some clarification in regard to the intervention of the Holy Spirit and the belief of many traditionalists that the Holy Spirit is always at work in the Church, it should be remembered that if the Holy Spirit is always present in the actions of the Church, it by no means is proof that popes or bishops have listened to Him. Just as to say that the bishops are the direct successors of the Apostles does not necessarily mean they act as one of the Apostles would. Remember that, according to the gospels and other scripture, the Apostles of Jesus were often confused, in conflict with one another, disbelieving, frightened, dishonest, inconsistent...oh wait: perhaps the popes and bishishops really are just like the originals! But in this regard, perhaps we need to move beyond what can, in the final analysis, only be seen as the hobbible, human failings of a group of men that helped cause great harm. If only we can move, now, to preventing it from happening again, and caring for those victimized.
I would have greater hope for
I would have greater hope for the "Get Something Done" crowd if - as in Philadelphia - there was not an unending stream of failures to "do what was already agreed upon" that weakens the credibility of the commitment of the hierarchy to creating a culture of safety for young people. That it has been a decade since Boston has only increased the need for healing and placed the goal of renewal further down the field.
Ireland’s Catholic bishops
Ireland’s Catholic bishops became active in the cause of the protection of Catholic children from clerical abuse at the precise moment that Ireland discovered, in 1994 – from sources external to the church – that those same bishops had always previously prioritised something quite opposed to child protection: the concealment of the same phenomenon of clerical abuse.
Since then everything that has happened on this issue in the church has also been driven by external revelation. This Vatican symposium is no different – and John Allen’s report gives no reason to hope that this generation of Catholic leaders will ever ask the question that most needs asking: why the church was never proactively self-regulating on this issue - why its leaders always had to wait for the world to discover that Catholic children were being abused before becoming ostentatiously interested in child protection.
So how can we believe that what’s in process now is primarily about child protection, and not a cover-up of the cover-up?
Well said Sean. I too, am
Well said Sean. I too, am hopeful but, will wait to judge this symposium. Your number 1 question "why the church was never proactively self-regulating on this issue is a good one. My number 1 question has always been, how can a pious organization protect the guilty and not the innocent little boys? The question has been inside my head for almost twenty years.
I am very encouraged by Msgr. Scicluna (head of sexual abuse investigations) comments that denial is no longer an option. This admission alone may move the Church forward.
Matthew 10:26 No secret shall not be revealed, no truth shall not be known.
Great comment, especially
Great comment, especially this line: "why its leaders always had to wait for the world to discover that Catholic children were being abused before becoming ostentatiously interested in child protection." This is played out again and again on an individual diocesan level. They all waited until they were exposed by an outside source. So, how do we know this is nothing more than another piece of a cover up for the cover up?
Good article, John. I think
Good article, John. I think these overviews of several key issues and events are your best work and I hope you produce more of them.
I'm delighted I left this
I'm delighted I left this retrograde circus, the Roman Church, years ago. The fraud and hucksterism from demonic possession to Fatima "secrets" is being reduced to pure farce. It only reveals the depth of evil infecting this body which Father Amorth sometime ago had warned had overtaken the Vatican. Now he appears himself to have been infected by Satanic forces by these ridiculous concoctions of his, and his cooperation with little more than a cheap publicity stunt.
Benedict XVI oversees a 2000 year old institution obviously in rapid decline. Like a burlesque routine out of date and out of touch with a modern audience. Fighting just to obtain credibility in a world dismissing organized religion of any kind.
This is not the church which has anything to say to Africa, Asia, and South America. Let alone to a skeptical and disbelieving western youth, ages 18 to 40, fleeing through the Roman Church's front doors like herds of antelope.
Some bishops still argue that
Some bishops still argue that the absolute number of ecclesiastical abusers is much lower than those outside the church. But related to the small number of priests (in my country, Austria, 0,13 percent of adult males), the probability for a priest to become an abuser is at least ten times higher than average. I hope that this conference in Rome may open the eyes of the responsible people to understand that, besides the power, the unbiblical celibacy and with it the general misconception of sexuality within the church is at least one of the reasons for sexual abuse by catholic priests. I am glad that the book “Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church – Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus” by Bishop Geoffrey Robinson is listed among the literature recommended for this conference. I have cooperated to translate it to German. I have been abused myself by a priest when I was a young boy.
When it comes to sexual abuse
When it comes to sexual abuse of children by priests, there is NO middle ground. I am the father of a young man who between the ages of 10-12 was abused by FIVE priests of the Albany, NY diocese. The diocese recently completed an investigation and the four(one is deceased) were exonerated and returned to service, one in a rectory with a school. I was a priest of the diocese for 10 years and knew these guys. During their grooming process they even told my son,"what would this do to your father?" Those at the symposium at the Gregorian(I received an STL from that institution) can mouth all the pious platitudes they want. They really do not care about the victims but only as Cardinal-designate Dolin recently stated, "I must care for the Patrimony of the Church. Hopefully some good will follow for the future but, what about he victim/survivors of the past. It has been proven...the Church cannot police itself. All states must change their statute of limitations regarding sexual molestation of youth.
It amazes me that this sort
It amazes me that this sort of event, and sensible protocols on dealing with historical abuse and managing child protection, have taken the world wide Catholic Church so long to put together. With the issue so huge in large, well resourced first world churches, there is no excuse other than fear of transparency.
I am a catholic who works for an ecumenical Protestant schools organization. This relatively small body with limited resources has had in place for several years an impressive set of policies, structures and processes for dealing with allegations and for ensuring staff are active in ensuring the protection of students in its care.
It has a committee that has dealt with the claims, decently and fairly, and provided compensation and support to genuinely harmed former students. And it certainly had its fair share of such issues in its history. Having worked with other bodies that faced this issue, I conducted my own due diligence when joining this organization several years ago, and was very impressed then with this element of its work.
As well as dealing well with historical and new claims, it has in place a quality induction program, an excellent on-line training program that staff must complete annually (with a test at the end) and regular communications with parents and staff on the value of protecting children from harm and the processes for making a claim or alerting to potential harm.
Finally it has in place a compliance regime that ensures that the schools and all staff meet the legislated requirements for employment (including the various police checks), and that the schools and management meet the internal and legislative obligations in regard to protecting students and others from harm.
Why has it taken the massive resources of the US, European and other branches of the Roman Catholic Church so long to make these first steps, when a small Protestant group can have such a great process in place. Perhaps they should sell their process to the Vatican. Wouldn't that be fun?
In the first paragraph, Allen
In the first paragraph, Allen refers to "the church" when he means the hierarchy. When, e.g., someone says, referring to the sex abuse tragedy, "The church doesn't get it," they mean the hierarchy doesn't get it. The church, understood as the whole Catholic people of God, overwhelmingly does get it. But the 99% of the church who do get it are not capable of moving the hierarchy to look at themselves and at why they covered up the crimes and sins. The anti-Christian clerical culture that informs the systemic basis for the cover up is still in place.
The symposium at the Greg will do some good in the way abuse is handled from now on, and that is to be deeply appreciated. But until the hierarchy looks at its systemic, sinful mishandling of our most vulnerable members, "the church" will rightly continue to be considered part of the problem and not the solution.
Obviously the money from the
Obviously the money from the US sent over in Peter's Pence has dried up to the point that the Vatican has taken notice. Their plans are all well and good on the face, but until I see a bishop/cardinal fired and sent off to live in penance (not to a Roman major basillica) because they did not expose clerical sex abuse they knew about, then and only then will I begin to believe the Vatican is starting to get serious. The next question will be, "How long does it last until they slide back into their old ways?"
Two questions: a) Why has it
Two questions:
a) Why has it taken so terribly long for something like the Gregorian University symposium to be held?
b)Far more important: is it likely, or even possible, that such a gathering will have the courage to ask whether the Church's institutions of governance are themselves part of the problem, and complicit in the appalling coverups and protection of those churchmen who ought to be held accountable?
Though I can't pinpoint the source, I'm told that at a recent Vatican gathering the great Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg said, a propos of papal apologies for ecclesiastical shortcomings and sins in the past, "Yes, you can apologize. But are you ashamed?"
I would like to hear the question addressed.
"Though I can't pinpoint the
"Though I can't pinpoint the source, I'm told that at a recent Vatican gathering the great Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg said, a propos of papal apologies for ecclesiastical shortcomings and sins in the past, "Yes, you can apologize. But are you ashamed?""
## Excellent question. The further question needs asking, "Do you repent ?". Shame is not much good if there is no repentance - without repentance, there will be no turning from evil to good. So one will just fall into the old wrong-doing. Which is no good, for individual or Church. Only repentance gets away from the danger of apologising for bad reasons: repentance proves that the apology - and the shame - was sincere and led to conversion.
That question (b) could hardly be more urgent. ISTM there is a strong tendency to see the individuals who make up the Church as needing conversion (& we do); but, to see the Church itself over against them, as a flawless, sinless abstraction; like a Platonic Idea. ISTM instead that the Church (on earth) is sinful, because it is made up of sinful members; & that the Holiness of the Church is totally from Christ alone. This idea leaves room for the Church itself - not just the people in it - to need reform & renewal. It doesn't leave room for boasting about the Church; it allows honest admission of real weaknesses in the Church, with no need for defensiveness.
The elephant in the room with
The elephant in the room with the pedophile issue is the power of clerical hierarchy to manipulate their subjects and to sidestep what is the real problem: the clerical world over the lay. Rome makes the rules or sets the standard for its benefit or interpretation of events. Witness the latest flap over contraception.
It remains to be seen whether
It remains to be seen whether this symposium is a sign of hope or just more hogwash. With Archbishop Levada's name on the list of speakers and the developers of the Virtus program and its spinoff "Protecting God's Children" being present - which according to a teacher I know in the local Catholic school system is hogwash itself - I kind of doubt that the symposium is anything more than hogwash too. So, it doesn't look too good. I openly admit I'm in the group that's "convinced the Church still doesn't get it" (actually I'm more forceful: I'd say, especially among many layfolk - my fellow prolifers in particular - who deliberately don't want to get it and in fact are on the other side defending our prelates with all their might.). So, I do really, really hope it's a good thing 'cause something has got be done - we need to truly deal with this terrible scourge of sexual abuse and the enabling behavior of the bishops toward predators and their persecuting behavior toward victims. We need brave eyes wide open and seeing. Then this awful polarization can finally stop and we cease going at each other and get back to being brothers and sisters dwelling in reasonable harmony again.
Reading this just after the
Reading this just after the current NCR article on Dolan's and Listecki's dodges in Milwaukee to keep their millions out of the hands of victims and the article on stonewaliing in Poland by JP2's handpicked, it seems as if Allen is talking about some other world in which B16 and his entourage have not disqualified themselves from respect, trust, and office by still refusing to put the needs of abuse victims foremost.
The Catholic church has been
The Catholic church has been criminal in their approach to child sex for at least 6 decades. Until they suffer the consequences that such criminals should receive, the Catholic church will forever be remembered for what they did.
They made some clear, intentional decisions, and they managed to get away with tens of thousands of child rapes with almost no jail time. However, they've lost hundreds of millions of current souls. Look at how busy your church is - most are 10% full on Sundays. Extrapolate, and that would mean 90% of Catholics have left the church in the last generation.
The next generation of teenagers has full access to the complete truth, and can also see how the Catholic church made every effort to conceal the truth and force the children to suffer the consequences instead of themselves. They have no reason to believe what the current generation once believed about the Catholic church.
Why would God let that happen if this was truly God's church? Unless the congregation requires a complete overhauls, the congregation will be held responsible before God for allowing this hierarchy to destroy His church.
In the long run, nothing will
In the long run, nothing will substantially improve within the Church of Rome as long as popes and bishops continue to backtrack on Vatican II's call for ecclesial renewal and as long as Rome continues to promote a culture that elevates the ordained at the expense of the rest of the People of God.
Catholics (at least those still within the venerable institution) need to deal with reality.
Tithing = Enabling continued dysfunction.
Stop the money!!!
When bishops think that they
When bishops think that they will be removed by the Vatican at the first hint of clerical sexual abuse, the "Problem," will vanish.
There are pedophiles everywhere. The problem has never been that there are pedophiles in the Church. It has always been that bishops protect them and worried more about losing a priest than children being abused.
The "Problem," has always been that bishops allowed the abusers to abuse so many children after finding out there was a problem.
Newspapers have removed more bishops for harboring pedophiles than the pope has. That's the "Problem."
Paying out millions to win
Paying out millions to win court battles against liability for sex-ause crimes with no respectfor the sacredness of life,{apart from abortons so it seems}, then speaking of the "entire pontificate being a great exorcism against satan" in the next, definately doesn't line up with scripture to me.
I think Rome Watcher is closer to the truth, it gives the impression of a pubicity stunt and window dressing.
I wonder who paid for the whole excercise, with the economic climate such as it is and the closing down of so many catholic schools and churches.
the whole thing is beyond
the whole thing is beyond hope.
Only a thorough housecleaning will do anything significant. The whole institution sits on "faith" and anything that puts a crack in that dike - the water will come running in and drown any significant changes.
Firing 10000 priests and EXcommunicating all of the Bishops who had any involvement with hiding the molestation is the only solution.
And that isn't going to happen...........
Especially when paid mouthpieces are having a field day with the law.
the other solution is simple - bankruptcy. The people can make it happen.
Then rebuild the church from the ground up.
Why should the head of a
Why should the head of a church, issuing orders to religious followers, then have the right to claim diplomatic immunity as a "monarchial" head of a "sovereign" state? The best thing that could happen to the Vatican would be for it to lose its status as a "country" and operate solely as a religion.
Alas, I would that it were so
Alas, I would that it were so simple. The problem is not the cat its the bag.
I started out in 1954 with the Salesian fathers. Immediately the stress was on
passing on the indoctrination about scandal. It was made very clear that
above all else holy mother church was to be spared from any scandal. The actual events were unimportant as long as there was no scandal. Scandal you
see is removed when no one knows anything about the event. You might say we
had a scandal bag. In the bag, out of sight, no visibility and no problem.
This was a cultural situation. Please don't try to tell me now that I am
70 plus that this bag is going to be abandoned by some meeting of probably
excellent individuals. Its unintentionally show and tell time and the cat
will bet all the attention but the bag will still be there. There are some very deeply ingranied elements in the clerical culture that will need possibly generations to remove. In the two generations passed now since i became aware of the problem nothing has changed. It turned out the man who recruited me and some of my friends was a pedophile. He had no interest in me of the kind needed. He got to my best friend. We discussed the event and both
concluded that going to the local ordinary would simply place the full burden
on my friend. So he left the school and went home. His father had some clout in the city and got to Dr. McQuaid. One morning we were introduced to our new rector. Was I the only one who knew what had happened? I do not know.
But scandal was avoided....not a simgle mention of the former rector and I
never in the ensuing years found out where he went. It was this culture of
scandal avoiding and putting things in the bag and out of sight that they
thought would save the church. But, truth will out. Now please tell me how they will undo generations in ingraining the scandal principle. Is this
why, despite pomises that it is all behind us now, there continues to be cases
of individuals who should know better still trying to conceal the dirt in the bag and avoid scandal and getting caught. I do not think the actual problem
has been adequately addressed. We will still have human failings, what we need is to remove the brainwashing and have inbred responsibility not hide
the evidence at all costs.
Thankss for the piece, I so hope for healing but have to remain skeptical. I
know the routines far too well.
God bless.
TomC
Tom For what its worth, God
Tom
For what its worth, God bless you.
Will the new "system"
Will the new "system" prescribe punishments for bishops whose dioceses do not follow the system? I doubt it. Bishops will continue to be above the law, church or state. Without consequences for the wrong doers, the system will not work. We will be hearing more of this scandal in the future, after future cover-ups are leaked out from non-church sources.
Good work by John Allen
Good work by John Allen here.
Several thoughts come to me.
The Catholic sex abuse crisis – now in its 3rd or 4th incarnation in 27 years or so – may or may not be “primarily” driven by forces (internal or external to the Church) other than the pure concern for children and genuine victims, but no competent policy analysis or historical analysis can ignore the probabilities.
Among elements ‘external’ one would have to note the quite possible motivations of an increasingly secularist Western culture in which neither the Left-liberal side nor the Right-‘patriotic’ side wish to be confronted the way they both were in the early 1980s when the Church took powerful public stands against both ‘liberal’ causes such as abortion and marriage and against nuclear weapons intensification. A Church gravely wounded in its public and moral credibility would no longer be able to present such obstructions to assorted agendas. (Hardly a fresh tactic: Goebbels used it to try and silence Church resistance to that Regime back in the day.)
Among elements ‘internal’ there are not only the Catholic version of the wider ‘victimist’ movement, but also what I would call the ‘diversity, democracy, and regime-change’ proponents. Although females are also perpetrators of or complicit in sexual abuse and married persons who perpetrate such abuse are at least as numerous as unmarried persons; and democracies these days seem as capable of torture and violence – and perhaps more so – as other forms of polity; and hence changing the basic structure of Church polity thus seems greatly un-compelling an idea (especially since the greatly ‘liberal’ mainline Protestant polities seem to be now in a parlous condition across the spectrum).
It cannot be ruled out as a cause for the failure of the 3rd (2002) phase of this ‘crisis’ that only the West (American and the core of Europe) have the legal machinery and tort-litigation capabilities to enable the type of ‘bundled’ lawsuits that by their simply construction push the Defendant toward settling out of court in order to reduce the costs of defending against the Complaint – which lawsuits and their fruits played a crucial role in the 3rd phase.
The press is being excluded from the proceedings – and that is, alas, a good thing. With the current afflictions wracking much of journalism (the need to frame everything as ‘conflict’ which then requires the melodrama of pure Good and total Evil to appeal to an increasingly sensation-seeking readership; the ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ approach; the intense need of media to make money in an age of declining readership and advertising revenue; and the adoption of ‘advocacy journalism’ wherein the media consider it their duty not to report but to take sides and then call it a ‘report’) the Vatican, I would say, is wisely and constructively preventing the current tactic of the media simply trolling for any snippet that would support their ‘advocated’ view, to the exclusion of any intelligent analysis of all the sides of all the issues and practicing 'gotcha' journalism.
Attorney Lena’s comment that the press could do well to report the outcome of trials that the press had highly-publicized at the outset goes precisely to this situation.
Clearly, the comment of the Philadelphia judge excluding the question ‘Do you think the Catholic Church is deeply involved in child sex-abuse?’ as a vetting question to be put to jurors must be taken as significant: she refused to include the question with the comment that ‘anybody who doesn’t believe the Catholic Church is so involved must be living on another planet’.
This remark reflects the role ‘advocacy’ journalism can have in mis-informing the public as to the realities of the situation (and you can’t dismiss the fact that there are numerous elements here and there among the public who very much want to be thus misinformed). Also, as a comment by a presiding trial judge it may well constitute grounds for a Motion to Recuse and perhaps even for a Motion to Change Venue on the grounds of one or another form of prejudicial predisposition.
Lastly, the ‘exorcist’ report indicates to me modern (or postmodern) refusal to embrace the Multi-Planar reality (this earthly dimension, and a dimension Above and Beyond) and embracing instead the this-worldly, materialist, and secular Mono-Planar framing: there is only this dimension of human history and events and there is no other. Which also rules out the Beneath and Beyond, which is how exorcism, I think, has come to be so ignored in Correct discourse (God and the Devil are equally remnants of superstition or for all practical purposes Scrooge’s ‘undigested bit of beef’).
"(Don't believe that
"(Don't believe that perception is still widespread? Consider that a Philadelphia judge presiding over the criminal trial of two priests and a former priest recently said in open court, "Anybody that doesn't think there is widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic church is living on another planet.")
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Sexual abuse has many facets. It begins with literal belief in woman being formed from the rib of man, ergo, property of man (males). Out of this mistaken premise, all manner of abuses against women have been justified. The judge is precisely correct in his (her) assessment.
Evolutionary evidence of the female/ male correlation needs to be integrated in the new "synthesis and analysis" of theological/ ecclesiological presumptions if there is ever to be a purging of sexual abuse from the church.
More denial and deceit in the
More denial and deceit in the Vatican:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/02/04/world/europe/04reuters-vatican...
Have Jason Berry, Richard
Have Jason Berry, Richard Sipe and Thomas Doyle been invited? These three brave men have been trying for 30 years to call to attention the sexual abuse by clergy and the grievous cover up by leadership who avoided responsibility. These men were shamed, scapegoated or ignored by both Bishops and laity who apparently believed reputation and appearances were more important than protection of the young people. I fear John Allen is naive. Sign me, a social worker who resigned her role as "window dressing."
Eve, I second your comment
Eve, I second your comment about naivete with as much strength as I have within me.
In addition to the 3 men you mention, in the same years Fr. Andrew Greeley worked with might & main alongside Tom Doyle, particularly, to call attention to the situations and suffered the same fate as the others. I don't mention him with a perceived invitation-slight because he lives with failed health. I mention him only because this is a priest who risked everything that perhaps the truth might come out, suffering severe consequences. I would also wish Bishop Gumbleton could be included - this man was an abused victim who became victim again when he broke "omerta" in siding with a court case on the issue of limitation statute.
As for the event itself how is one to become enthusiastic for effective direction when (as reported) participants & attendees are almost entirely comprised of clerical males - especially bishops, Cardinals & other power-figures - with juridical viewpoints masked as "pastoral" even to themselves?
Thanks to you Joan Krebs. Fr.
Thanks to you Joan Krebs. Fr. Andrew Greeley almost never gets his just credit. He was the first catholic leader (that I recall) admit to the size and scope of this ungodly behavior. Back in the late 1970's, Fr. Greeley was suggesting the number in the U.S. alone was over a 100,000 kids. What seemed impossible back then... is now a hideous reality.
I was hopeful til I read that
I was hopeful til I read that Rossetti, Virtus, and Levada were involved. Good grief. They are part of the problem.
Good protocols and "best
Good protocols and "best practice" procedures are only as effective as their real world implementation.
There have been many documented cases here in Australia where good procedural guidelines have been systematically ignored, as apparently was evident in Philadelphia as in several other places.
External i.e. non-church monitoring and investigations have proved to be the only effective mechanisms for correcting these problems.
I would hold little hope for success of a church-only conference of hierarchy and leaders of orders, advised only by other church officials and church consultants.
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