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PDF versionDoes the hierarchy's getting together mean it's falling apart?
by Eugene Cullen Kennedy on Feb. 09, 2012
"It's not easy being green," they sing on the soothing fantasy byway of Sesame Street. It is even harder being violet or crimson for church officials struggling to extricate themselves from the pile-up car wreck of the sex abuse crisis on the all-too-real road to Rome.
This gathering of hierarchs to discuss the still-unsettled problem comes a decade after The Boston Globe exposed the depth, extent and ecclesiastical chessboard, move-them-here-and-move- them-there handling of priests accused of sexually abusing those in their charge.
It has been 10 years since Pope John Paul II, acting as shocked as Casablanca's Capt. Louis Renault on discovering gambling at Rick's Place, summoned American cardinals to Rome to express his dismay at the revelation of what high-powered churchmen, including then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, blamed alternately on America or the media or a combination of both.
Now leaders of the church have gathered at a meeting at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University to hear, as if for the first time, that child abuse is a crime that should be reported to and handled by the police. This is hardly a startling piece of news for anybody with at least an eighth-grade education and is the principle American bishops rallied around at their June 2002 meeting in Dallas to discuss and be instructed on the subject.
Now Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles sex abuse cases, gives a keynote talk in which he states that the hierarchs "are learning" more about the problem, and Msgr. Stephen Rosetti, repeating suggestions for policies and programs that have been initiated many times under different titles in the last 10 years, offers the hardly electrifying insight that the church should put victims first and keep children safe.
The assembled hierarchs, like sinners coming down at a Billy Graham crusade to be saved, attended a service at which "we implore," in the words of Canadian Cardinal Marc Oullet, "forgiveness for those who have abused in various ways."
Oullet, according to Religion News Service, also said that "this evil is within us and severely tarnishes our testimony."
Marie Collins, an abuse victim from Ireland, told those gathered at the meeting that her archbishop had been more interested in protecting her abuser than in understanding her suffering. This kind of response, she said, had led to the "death of respect for church leaders."
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There is no doubt that the hierarchs present are sincere -- they are good at sincerity when the need arises -- but this conference places them before us as if they were Rip Van Winkles rubbing their just-opened eyes to learn about the sex abuse crisis as if they had slept through the last 10 years of revelations. These hierarchs, who already have at least as many guidelines as there are relics of the true cross for handling this crisis, have now adopted new ones. Like generals who drop a bomb when you ask them how to achieve peace, members of the hierarchy who believe that the path to heaven is paved with paper bomb us with new guidelines whenever they feel cornered about their inability to address the deeper problems of which sex abuse is but a symptom.
There is something immensely poignant about these administrators coming together back at square one, still fighting a rear-guard action about a problem whose dimensions have been explained to them on many occasions. They are good men who want to do the right thing but cannot because they are caught up in a hierarchical system that holds them like hostages to its own survival. The system demands that they sacrifice their own feelings as well as their own common sense to protect its crumbling architecture and its medieval procedures.
The headlines may indeed tell of convening high-ranking churchmen in Rome to do something about the sex abuse crisis that is arguably the church's gravest challenge since the Reformation, but other news stories in recent days document a system in decline. The late Cardinal Archbishop Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia ended his days mired in a mismanaged sex abuse scandal that attracted the attention of a grand jury. His successor arrived to find that millions of dollars had been embezzled by an archdiocesan employee. A trial date has been set for Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Mo., for possible criminal action because of administrative failures in monitoring a sex abusing priest.
The archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, says something that would once have been unthinkable in the land of saints and scholars that has turned out to sound more like the country of Sodom and Gomorrah. Ireland, Martin says, is not ready to receive a visit from Pope Benedict XVI. His coming "would have to fit into the overall timetable of the renewal of the Church in Ireland."
That's Irish-speak for: "We haven't really dealt fully with the sex abuse problem yet."
Meanwhile, the Vatican, issuing defenses as if they were plenary indulgences, is embarrassed by a leaked letter from Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former secretary of the Vatican City-State governing body, that charges financial mismanagement and "cronyism." The Vatican once more expressed its confidence that all the contracts were bid fairly with no fixing, and everything is just fine.
While hierarchs at the big Rome meeting ask once more for "forgiveness" for mishandling the sex abuse crisis and mistreating its victims, the retired archbishop of New York, Edward Egan, announced he is taking back his 2002 apology for the way he handled the sex abuse crisis. He claims that his dealing with the problem was "incredibly good" and, saying that "I don't think we did anything wrong," issued a challenge to name a bishop who did a better job than he did. This is called unrepenting at leisure, and if he is serious about his challenge, he had better stand out of the doorway when something like the Oklahoma land rush heads his way with responses.
On almost the same day, we learned that the archdiocese of Milwaukee is asking the bankruptcy court judge to dismiss the cases of 540 victims who claim to have been sexually abused by priests. In the same news cycle, we learned that Poland, cited as the bulwark of old-fashioned Catholic faith, has had a serious problem of sexual abuse by priests who, according to a report in the National Catholic Reporter, usually "receive light sentences" and that "most still serve in parishes."
Before anyone can inhale, the Vatican Insider reports that at the ongoing Vatican meeting, the prelates learned that "According to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Asian Catholic Church is finding it hard to fight pedophilia 'because of the cultural differences' that exist' and 'the varied interpretations of what child abuse constitutes.'"
Msgr. Charles Scicluna, who just held a closed-door meeting with Asian church leaders, explained that, in educating these countries, "the first goal is "to create awareness." Well, yes.
Scicluna also recalled the words of Pope John Paul II to the American cardinals 10 years ago: "There is no room in the ecclesiastical ministry for people who can harm young people and cause a scandal among them."
These revelations are symptoms of the ineffectiveness of the imploding hierarchical model, the heights of whose heavily privileged clerical plateau provided the breeding ground for the problem as well as for the defense of its supposedly sacred structures. As long as its defenders remain unaware of the disintegration of the hierarchical style and continue to cooperate with the pope in attempting to restore it as a major aspect of the reform of the reform, the problem will never be understood while new guidelines will fall like the tears of longsuffering victims from gatherings such as this.
[Eugene Cullen Kennedy is emeritus professor of psychology at Loyola University, Chicago.]
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so absolutely right on.
so absolutely right on. Cullen has brilliantly faked out the fakirs. We historians call the vatican-speak: sociologism, meaning once you have described the situation/problem/ issue as far as you can get away with without putting your audience to sleep, you think you have exhausted the truth of the matter. The only way power arrives at speaking the truth, is to speak the truth.
Great article again Eugene.
Great article again Eugene. Straight talk is sorely needed. Interesting that he compares Ireland with Sodom and Gomorrah...I often wonder if the Irish battle with the bottle stemmed from generations of church child abuse.
"I often wonder if the Irish
"I often wonder if the Irish battle with the bottle stemmed from generations of church child abuse."
Interesting and astute point,
The Irish have a sex problem
The Irish have a sex problem of some sort. It seems the Bishops and priests there have laid such guilt over sexual sins on their catholic followers, that all sorts of sexual distortions could have evolved among their priests, including alcoholism. We know that Irish moms were promised a free pass to heaven if they raised a son to be a priest. Irish prelates are known for an unhealthy view of sexuality. The good news is a lot of the Irish prelates are dying off or retiring being replaced by more Latin types who seem for the most part to have a more healthy view of sexuality.
As Eugene Kennedy skillfully
As Eugene Kennedy skillfully describes, we are witnessing the slow-motion implosion and collapse of the world's oldest, all-male feudal oligarchy.
The cluelessness of the hierarchs evokes both pity and anger because it didn't have to be this way. The ancient Christian martyrs, whose very blood gave birth to the Roman church, perplexed the Roman elites by singing and praising God loudly as they marched into the colosseum to their certain death.
As Christians, death and resurrection are suppose to be our indelible characters of our faith. Not the preservation of the hierarchs' political hegemony over the rest of the church.
At least the hierarchs could, if they had a generative bone in their bodies, acknowledge that their time has passed, and begin the change that will have to ultimately evolve if the Catholic Church is to even survive the end of the 21st century: LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE!
The Book of Deuteronomy says it best: "I place before you the blessing and the curse ... CHOOSE LIFE!
While there no doubt were
While there no doubt were more than a few who turned to the drink in order to forget, even for a little while, the abuse they suffered at the hands of the Church, Ireland's overarching problem with the drink more than likely stems from centuries of extreme poverty. There is a definite correlation between poverty/unemployment and drug use that has been shown in various studies, with some even arguing causality due to the hopelessness caused by long term unemployment.
BAD MEN & BAD MODEL ......
BAD MEN & BAD MODEL ...... Gene, the pope may soon retire and the curial connivers are jockeying for a front seat by exposing each other with media leaks, etc..
The Roman abuse conference is a PR stunt likley suggested by the pope's criminal lawyers as the prosecutors move in. More papal bull; and no beef.
The establishment on an "abuse" research center in Munich under the pope's puppet, Cardinal Marx, may be just a ruse to enable the pope to ship his secret abuse archives out of Rome and beyond prosecutors' reach.
The pope is now even trying to dump Obama as US "prosecutor-in-chief" by a creative contraceptive Trojan Horse legal strategy.
For more information on the abuse conference as a PR stunt, please note the comment, "Rome Sins; Jesus Weeps", accessible by clicking on at:
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/vatican-abuse-summit-abuse-victim-r...
For more information on the pope and US bishops' new criminal defense strategy to dump Obama as US prosecutor-in-chief via a contraceptive Trojan Horse ploy, please note the comment, "Shame on NCR", accessible by clicking on at:
http://ncronline.org/news/politics/obama-administration-went-too-far-con...
Tacitus wrote: "The Romans
Tacitus wrote: "The Romans create a desert and call it peace.". This appears to be pretty much what the hierarchs are up to. Write off all those who disagree with them and pacify those remaining with guilt and fear. Same book, same page.
BRILLIANT!!! "Ubi solitudiem
BRILLIANT!!!
"Ubi solitudiem faciunt, pacem appellant."
It has been 10 years since
It has been 10 years since Pope John Paul II, acting as shocked as Casablanca's Capt. Louis Renault on discovering gambling at Rick's Place, summoned American cardinals to Rome to express his dismay at the revelation of what high-powered churchmen, including then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, blamed alternately on America or the media or a combination of both.
------------------------------------------------
What a great piece Professor Kennedy. Thank you for being so clearly and accurately focused again.
Guardian of the kids, Ratzinger, continues to display his shock, as did his predecessor, to this day. This all to fallible pontiff is still convinced and trying to convince others, as are his cardinals and bishops, that sexual abuse of children is principally a creation of the press, and a particularly evil manifestation of both American culture and the American church. So, concentrating on the American press as much as the dopes in the Vatican do should come as no surprise.
Which raises another point, either pope Ratzinger and his henchmen are slow learners, or they have been and continue to be complicit in one of the greatest criminal coverups, by a head of a sovereign state or by anyone for that matter, in history. It's one or the other.
What a breath of fresh air,
What a breath of fresh air, reading Kennedy's excellent article.
After reading NCR' s unbelievable and irrational defense of the mindless behavior of the US bishops being outraged over the treatment by the Obama administration of a teaching that hardly any Catholic accepts, I am reminded why I won't cancel my subscription to the NCR.
Thanks, Eugene .
Me too! It's truly a great
Me too! It's truly a great article, right on target. And, regarding NCR position ,it is quite discouraging. Only about three or four columnists keep using their heads, and not following the drums of war of the obnoxious J'Accuse by Mr. MSW. The political scene it is so much distorted, that I don't know anymore which is my left or right hand. And, in religious terms, I'm thinking about to stop reading knews from the Vatican, because I'm really afraid that their insanity is contagious.
I'm thinking about to stop
I'm thinking about to stop reading knews from the Vatican, because I'm really afraid that their insanity is contagious.
-----------------------------
Manuel, Don't let them infect you. All Catholics are called to holiness despite the sausage-making in the Vatican. Which Prince Bismarck reminds us is something we shouldn't be watching. Lest we lose faith in the government. In this case, the Church.
The all too venal and corrupt hierarchy and the criminal toadies surrounding this aging Pontiff must not keep us from seeking our own spiritual balance and sanity. Retreat into the caves of prayer, repentance, self-denial, and service. Then find others to do the same and you will build up the fabric of a new Church.
Like a serpent shedding it's skin in the hot desert sun, sinful popes, cardinals, and bishops will scurry into the desert and under the rocks, but you must retreat to a desert of your own. Of your own thoughts, prayers, and good deeds towards the weak, the ignorant, the hopelessly self-centered. You must shine as a beacon in the night and a sun by day. That is what we're all called to do all the time, so don't be dismayed and distracted from that course.
Popes and cardinals come and go, but you are still called to service in the vineyard no matter what. If many are called, but few are chosen, that applies to the hierarchy in spades. They'll be called to give account before the throne of grace in ways you won't be.
Dear Father, Thank you very
Dear Father,
Thank you very much for your kind and inspiring comment. I'm doing just what you recomend. The only problem is, raised as a preVII Catholic, it hurts too much to whatch the backward march. Perharps I am silly, but I still respect, perharps too much, the magisterium. And I still strugle with it. God bless you!
Thanks, I feel the same way!
Thanks, I feel the same way!
Sarcasm is not the proper
Sarcasm is not the proper genre for discussing this tragic aspect of Catholic history and simplistic explanations are no more helpful here than when offered by Rome. The hierarchical system is manifestly NOT imploding in the church, in government, at Loyola of Chicago, or even in the archdiocese of Chicago when your revered Cardinal Bernardin was archbishop. You can wax eloquent all you want, but you have neither explanations nor solutions to offer. If hierarchy were the root of this tragedy, we wouldn't have teachers being arrested at Los Angeles public schools, entire faculties being removed and replaced, or a higher percentage of pedophiles among mental health professionals than among clergy. If you despise the church as it is, say so, but don't disguise your venom as analysis.
I like Gene. Been reading his
I like Gene. Been reading his books and analysis for years. His quote tha "guidlines will fall like the tears of long suffering victims..."can be put another way: they fall like birds frozen in the air and drop dead to the ground.
Also "sex abuse is just a sympton of a deeper problem..." called RELIGIOSITY.
Unfortunately, it seems that religion is diminishing spirituality, the relationship of God, Myself (who I am and whose I am), others and the cosmos.
To much externals with little regard to the Christ within.
Excellent, Glen. I've been
Excellent, Glen. I've been thinking about this for a long time, cradle Catholic that I am. Religion is man-made and puts up walls that tell others, "We're right, you're wrong, shut up!." The true love and spirituality of Jesus is unitive and tears down walls with unfathomable, unconditional love.
To quote a favored bumper sticker: "God wants spiritual fruits, not religious nuts!"
Damian. Your error is found
Damian. Your error is found in your final words:"If you despise the church as it is..." You equate the "church" with the hierarchy to the exclusion of rest of the baptized. Membership in the church is defined by baptism not ordination.
Your anguished criticism is in error. You obviously don't realize that the bishops' decisions to secretly re-assign accused priests caused thousands upon thousands of other children to be abused. The indisputable facts are that the average pedophile abuses over 40 victims and some pedophile priests were reported to have had as many as 120 child victims. These high numbers would not have occurred if bishops had not enforced a policy of silence on the allegations that were reported to them. The bishops' silence caused children to be sodomized. This is not disputable, except for the willfully ignorant.
As a retired therapist I have some knowledge and experience in these matters.
Pointing to pedophiles in other parts of society does not excuse the hierarchy from the culpability of their crimes. The behavior of bishops in over 25 countries in causing the sodomy of children is shameful, inexcusable, and indefensible.
Verily, Bless you for
Verily, Bless you for continuing to open our eyes to the ugliness which for many is too painful to accept. Yes, the hurt is at times unbearable for Catholics , but to overcome it we have to face facts, especially by those who continue to pretend this is just a bad dream and it never happened.
For some prelates, they're either in denial or they've anesthetized themselves from the crushing effects of knowing they are living lives of sacrilege and suppressed guilt. This may explain the continuing transfer of predators from parish to parish or from diocese to diocese. Yet these malefactors continue as models of how to flout the law openly in our faces.
Our seminaries and religious houses contribute mightily to the creation of this clerical culture. They continue to this day be breeding grounds for future priestly pederasty in ways the best efforts of the Vatican have failed to stem.
What are the
What are the sources/citations for your allegations? Frankly, if I ever heard a totally faulty response, it's yours. So some further explanation would be interesting.
If hierarchy were the root of
If hierarchy were the root of this tragedy, we wouldn't have teachers being arrested at Los Angeles public schools, entire faculties being removed and replaced, or a higher percentage of pedophiles among mental health professionals than among clergy. If you despise the church as it is, say so, but don't disguise your venom as analysis.
-------------------------------------------
You need to stop living in a state of denial. This tired old argument from Vatican apologists that sexual abuse is rampant elsewhere far exceeding what has come to light in the Catholic Church has no basis in fact. This is the continuing mantra of of the nay sayers and proponents of maintaining a status quo which obviously is crumbling before our very eyes.
Catholics and non-Catholics do not and never have held up public school teachers to the high moral standards expected from the whitened sepulchers we see operating in the priesthood and the hierarchy today. These people are living proof of sacrilege in action.
Until this criminal class of clerics is brought down by the laity and by local law enforcement authorities, exposed for what they are, and removed from priestly ministry by the people themselves voting with their feet and their pocketbooks,if need be, this sequel to the 16th century revolt now rearing its ugly head after 450 years will just continue to unfold. Priestly pederasty is not just a phenomenon from the 1970, but we're seeing how it has been the Church's biggest and ugliest kept secret for centuries.
God knows how many billions it will have cost the Church worldwide once it subsides. Whatever type of church is left, there will be fewer and fewer intelligent and principled Catholic men and women willing to continue to foot the bill.
Well said, Damian. Also, we
Well said, Damian. Also, we shouldn't forget that many of Mr. Kennedy's fellow psychologists "treated" priests accused of pedophilia, then consented to having them return to ministry.
Inaccurate. The vast
Inaccurate. The vast majority of clerics and religious who were sent to treatment were sent to church-run centers that had no idea of how to treat sexually abusing priests. The very, very few who wound up (usually by a court order and after a tremendous fight by the local Church authorities with the Courts)in a 'secular' treatment program were far more adequately treated by professional clinicians who specialized in work with offenders. The church-sponsored treatment centers were founded to deal with alcoholic priests & religious, not sex offenders by any means. The treatment programs in the non-religious world use best practice models, have active research and outcome studies going on, national reporting systems, extensive training of its staff, elimination of clinicians not suited to the work, and have empirically demonstrated success rates (not "cures") surprising to everyone who cares to know. Your opinions are suppositions, MSchenk, and not correct. The sort of situations you refer to were soley based on what was discovered years ago when the Church, in some legal cases, used their "treatment programs" to prove how they took appropriate action in some cases. It was like sending cardiovascular patients to an eye clinic.
Had I been at the meeting
Had I been at the meeting where the bishops were told by Msgr. Charles Scicluna that JPII had said: "There is no room in the ecclesiastical ministry for people who can harm young people and cause a scandal among them," I would have intervened by saying "Yes, there is! There is plenty of room, and always has been. That is the problem!" But that is the least of the reasons I was not there!
Please, since you infer that
Please, since you infer that you are in the know, reveal what are "......the deeper problems of which sex abuse is but a symptom". In who do they reside? What are the basic ones?
What science can be applied to their cure?
The social sciences
The social sciences (organizational and other appropriate branches of psychology, sociology), organizational development, management science, cultural studies --- insights from all of these professional disciplines (and likely others, as well) can be used to study the institutional structures, rules, behavioral norms, etc. of the Church of Rome.
Historical theology (or theological history), not to mentional liturgical and other branches of history, and biblical studies likewise demonstrate that Jesus did not establish any institutional apparatus for a "church" as we understand this term today. Jesus delivered God's teaching and left it up to fallible human beings, guided by the Holy Spirit, to disseminate the teaching. Our ministries, ordained and otherwise, were historical developments to meet the perceived needs of their times.
If Jesus said "I have come so that you might have life" and if he assured his followers of the help of the Spirit, then such backdrop indicates that the Church is always in need of renewal. Vatican II acknowledged this ever-updating, this *aggorniamento*.
The needs of the Church-at-large (the People of God) must come first, not those of its formal ecclesiastical leadership who understandably have self-preservation at the forefront of their thinking and behaviors.
In a nutshell, the Church of Rome --- protests of its formal leadership notwithstanding --- has much more leeway for changes in rules, structures, processes, etc. than we might be led to think. By not establishing any of the aforementioned, Jesus left us much room for institutional/organizational change and adaptation.
For a quick response, read
For a quick response, read many of Dr. Kennedy's past essays here on NCR. If you need to know more, searches on the internet will lead you countless resources on the topic, to provide you with material on any aspect you like. A little bit of self initiative can produce a library room full of knowledge. Good luck in your search!
Jesus responded, "Well did
Jesus responded,
"Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites,
as it is written:
This peoples (IE the Bishops) honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
In vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts
“You nullify the word of God
in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.
And you do many such things."
Thank you Eugene... You put
Thank you Eugene...
You put it all neatly and precisely in a nutshell.... and yes I mean a NUT SHELL...
Thank you for hitting the nail square on the head. There is no rest, we just have to keep on fighting for victims and for the protection of kids.
Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, USA, 636-433-2511
snapjudy@gmail.com
"Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests" and all clergy.
Putting aside child abuse for
Putting aside child abuse for the moment, the "constant teaching" of the Catholic hierarchy has been that all sexual activity outside of marriage is "gravely sinful". This they are willing to pound into the heads of all and sundry who are willing to listen to them. So, what part of "chastity" do these idiots not understand?
If it's difficult being
If it's difficult being green, how much more difficult is it being "lavender?"
Not difficult at all as long
Not difficult at all as long as the pew potatoes, i.e., the "sheople", continue to toss their shekels into the weekly collection plate --- and as long as wealthy benefactors with influential connections in the Vatican continue to subsidize such scandalous, nay, obscene, behaviors.
In other words, the Holy
In other words, the Holy Spirit continues doling out more than enough ROPE for them all to HANG THEMSELVES!
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/diagnosing-implosion-benedicts-vatican
Leave them alone, and they'll come home, wagging their CAPPA MAGNAS behind them!
An outstanding essay, Dr.
An outstanding essay, Dr. Kennedy. I am struck, with greater clarity this time, of how much the Church heirarchy and related structures are indeed coming apart, much of it due to their own inept actions or inactions, to be more precise. So it poses, for me, a question: is it possible that the reforms of the Church called for over the past 10 decades or so that the heirarchy has repeatedly refused to do, is the work of the Holy Spirit in splitting the Church apart from without in order to bring about true reforms? Can it be that out of the ashes of the filth the Church has created, maintained, and tried to hide from public view (and still does), the renewal will emerge? I pray that will be the case, as I am so pained by this entire mess created in quicksand that only pulls the whole Church into the bottomless muck a bit more each and every day. If something of use can come from all of this, we are truly blessed.
Out of (institutional) death
Out of (institutional) death can come new life. Let's hope so!
Well.Thank you,Mr.Kennedy.A
Well.Thank you,Mr.Kennedy.A more reasoned,measured,well though out response could hardly have been written;thank you.As an evangelical Christian who has long been both baffled and intrigued by Roman Catholicism,I find it somewhat difficult at times to muster sympathy for the so-called"laity's"response to the inept and Keystone Koppian handling of your"heirarchs"to this matter.Why are you,the laity,allowing the wholesale spiritual slaughter of your little ones to continue unabated?Are you all masochists and/or sadists?Are your souls so enthralled,so enslaved to these monsters who arrogantly presume to speak for Almighty God that you yourselves are utterly without pride,without feeling or regard or real,actual love for your own children unless"father"tells you what that is? It is claimed that this four-day gathering of these bishops is intended to bring about"healing and reconciliation"among the flock and its shephards.Seriously?In what sane world can wolves heal the sheep they themselves have so grievously wounded?Are you kidding me,and yourselves? I've said this before and I say it again with no apologies:I thank Almighty God in the name of Jesus Christ that I am not a catholic;the"Gates of Hell"prevailed against that"church"a long,long time ago.
Thank you for helping us
Thank you for helping us remember why, in spite of all our faults, we are not prejudiced and hate-filled people with axes to grind. We may wash our dirty laundry in public, but we don't need your filthy anti-Catholicism to help us clean house.
Mind that plank in your eye.
Mind that plank in your eye.
Since I do not know you, this
Since I do not know you, this may be a reach. Yet I feel most confident in stating that I think it is a certainty that many others also thank Almighty God in the name of Jesus Christ that you are not Catholic. And not to intrude on your sanctimonious self-righteousness, but I think study after study on sex abuse shows that the percentage of Catholic priests that have abused children is about the same as the percentage in other clergies of other denominations, and about half that of the general population.
And please--nowhere in the above statement is a defense of any person who committed and abuse, nor of any person who helped cover it up. I'm just joining my voice in saying "as you judge, so shall you be judged".
Dear Augustine, Thank you for
Dear Augustine, Thank you for your comments. Another remark to the writer may be " And where is HIS LOVE?? "
I think study after study on
I think study after study on sex abuse shows that the percentage of Catholic priests that have abused children is about the same as the percentage in other clergies of other denominations, and about half that of the general population.
------------------------------
Augustine Obl.S.B,
All studies of this issue are tentative because research is continuing and will continue for years to come. The archdiocese of Los Angeles alone has revealed records of abuse going as far back as 1922.
This isn't really a numbers issue. So why waste your time relying on lower Catholic figures for priestly abuse than for any other group? Our priests are not Protestant ministers of the Word. Catholic culture places the clergy on a far higher pedestal with much higher expectations. We have a highly attuned sense of sacrilege too. We've seen a Church committing widespread sacrilege with bishops and two popes simply standing by expecting nobody to be the wiser. This has all exploded in the Church's face. Like a hand grenade going off in one's hands.
You have cited the accepted and often repeated argument advanced by the Church hierarchy itself and it's apologists/defenders. The real underlying decay in the Roman Church is NOT priestly pederasty. It is a culture of cover-up, prevarication, hypocrisies repeated time and time again from the pulpit with the intention of diverting the faithful's attention from the issue of sexual abuse to deliberate demonizing of gays and women.
Furthermore, we're seeing more and more instances of bishops suborning perjury in trials, what amounts to criminal acts of bribery, and extreme forms of malfeasance in office by the repeated misuse of diocesan and parish funds. Embezzlement by bishops who have misdirected charitable contributions and bequests by those who "pay, pray, and obey" to silence sexual abuse victims and their families.
Prayer and a calling others not to judge is good, but it must always be tempered with an equal attention to achieving justice, bringing into the transforming and purifying light the serious misdeeds of those who will not reform themselves or the institution they serve. Whether it be bishops or average men and women in the pews. We must not retreat to the caves for prayer and repentance, only to pretend all is well and attempt to escape the harsh realities and iniquities surrounding us.
There is no "safe house" either in a monastery or in the caves from a sinful hierarchy and a sinful pope who arrogantly and willfully neglect widespread institutional reform.
By your response here, it is
By your response here, it is glaringly clear that you do not know Catholicism, either it's structural/institutional side, nor it's life and practice by the faithful and many/most of our clerics and religious. Many of our arguments with the instituional side of the Church has to do with it's failure to find it's true place in the modern world, as was the purpose of the Vatican II Council. We, too, painfully experience the human failings of our supposed leaders in our struggle to comes to terms with and deal with the sex abuse scandal, and if you read these blogs frequently, you will see that many are not sitting idly by while others try to avoid the extensive problems that have been unveiled by the sex abuse scandals, and other manipulations by our supposed leaders. But we are, as all Christian churches and believers, on a continuing journey in learning about and understanding what being a follower of Christ really means. Our Church has fumbled and stumbled, but we are characterized by a huge international community of believers who stand by all of what is right and best about Catholicism. Please don't judge us so harshly, as it means you have to ignore the vast good our Church has done, is doing and will continue to do throughout the world in His name and through God's grace. The personal faith experience is fundamentally different than the institutional expressions, and that applies for every group of believers. And, by the way, I would like to apologize for anyone who has responded with anger and personal attack to your comments. But you knew that was going to happen, didn't you? I would hope, however, that you will pardon us for our passionate reactions, and you for yours, and all promise to try to do better the next times there is such and occasion. I hope this may help you to "muster" at least a bit of sympathy for us as we continue to fight for our Church. We need understanding and your prayers - and we should offer them for you as well.
Praise to you, sir or madam,
Praise to you, sir or madam, from this Anglican/Episcopalian for your thoughtful, measured and Christian response to the evangelical "Christian". I couldn't help reflect though how some of your American hierarchy (George and Chaput notably) have embraced that group as bosom buddies in the culture wars. We can debate how many evangelicals think horrible things about Catholics and your church in general but it is clearly more than a handful. I suspect Benedict the theologian is not enamored of evangelicals who think Genesis is literal history. Too bad the USCCB appears not to think that way about their fundie allies.
Whereas the pope used to be
Whereas the pope used to be elected to office by the people of Rome, and Whereas the college of cardinals is a relative newcomer to history and
Whereas said college is currently stacked in favor of yes men for the pope and
Whereas bishops, as in the early church were both appointed and elected and
Whereas the current college of cardinals and bishops are incompetent yes men,
Be it resolved that the members of the Catholic church call for the resignation of all cardinals and bishops now in office, with their Roman leader Joseph Ratzinger and that 100 Catholics elected each from their respective dioceses elect their next bishops, priests and cardinals to office in an orderly fashion for the honor and glory of God, and furthermore that the age, competence, and gender of all candidates be established by Fr. Hans Kung, Father Richard Sipe, and Dr. Eugene Cullen, as a steering committee. They may appoint helpers who are known for intellectuar and moral integrity and holiness of life. The only person to whom these new leaders are to be compared is Jesus Christ and Mary his mother. A brief catechism, not more than ten thousand words, a book of liturgy not more than ten thousand words, a code of canon law not more that ten thousand will be put in place by the steering committee and persons whom they elect or appoint. All current Catholic 'buildings' will be under the jurisdiction of twelve new elected apostles. The doctrines of Purgatory, Indulgences and the Canonisation of Saints will be immediately abrogated. All liturgy will be simple and done decently and in order, using both men and women as priests, deacons, and acolytes. Bishops will be elected by diocesan synods. This we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen. From your mouth to
Amen. From your mouth to God's ear. From your pen to God's eye.
LETS DO IT! FACEBOOK THIS!
LETS DO IT! FACEBOOK THIS! SEND IT TO ALL CATHOLICS! THE SPIRIT IS ALIVE AND WELL IN THE LAITY!
Amen, Amen!!! If only....
Amen, Amen!!! If only....
In the blame game, don't
In the blame game, don't forget, please, the most credible scape goat: The Woodstock generation. I was never able to understand how it afected, for instance, the Church in Ireland, some decades before the music festival took place.
That's because you're
That's because you're allowing actual facts to get in the way. And, as we've all learned through the teachings of that great conservative thinker, Stephen Colbert, facts always have a liberal bias.
These past ten years since
These past ten years since the scandal broke in Boston are the same ten years that the hierarchy sat around and debated the wording of the liturgy....more window dressing while the store is on fire.
The church of Constantine is
The church of Constantine is dead. Conceived in power and born of Roman politics, God was able to use it for good in spite of itself. Now it is time for it to yield to the great pattern of death and resurrection. It has failed to heed Jesus' admonition that the grain of wheat must fall to earth and die in order to be reborn and yield fruit, thirty, sixty, or one-hundred fold.
If we truly believe in the Resurrection, we must have faith that God will raise his people up on the third day. Propping up the rotting corpse or forcing a resuscitation on the second day will not do.
Thank you, Eugene Kennedy,
Thank you, Eugene Kennedy, for again laying it all out so clearly for all to see. Vatican II might as well not have happened, because all that hope for a faith that acts and responds in a modern world seems misplaced.
Vatican II made it possible to hold on to faith in a universe we now know holds a billion stars in uncounted galaxies with millions of worlds that could support life as we know it, and millions of other stars that could support life so different we cannot imagine it. Atoms break down into pieces that cannot be seen, only hypothosized, and who knows what smaller pieces lie within. Black holes bend time. Modern medicine lowers blood pressure and cholesterol, cures cancer (sometimes), and controls fertility, so that people can have the children they want when they want and some people who cannot conceive bear children thanks to invitro fertilization. It saves the lives of children and adults who used to die from disease or injury.
Black people can no longer be treated as slaves or second class citizens, and, like women, we can all vote, hold political office and compete in the business world just like white men. Democratic forms of government are expanding across our globe, so that more and more people are receiving and accepting responsibility for shaping their societies, rather than having no voice, no power. And the information now available to anyone and the ways we can constantly and instantly communicate with one another lets us see into what were once dark and secret rooms and share what we find instantly, with millions.
It is a paradigm shift that has arrived. We have more freedom, we are more educated and more aware and healthier than ever before. This is the world now. We need our Church to step into this world. I won't go back to a barefoot, pregnant, powerless, uneducated existence ruled by monarchs and hierarchs who spent centuries fighting with and against each other, for reasons of their own power and the certitude of their rectitude. I invite the Church into this world of today to help me understand the loving God who created the billion stars and me and you, and came to us in the life of Jesus.
Here is a hint, though. I am female, powerful, smart, and working through some anger after long years of your neglect. I will know the Church has NOT made that paradigm shift into the modern world if it tries to tell me it is a sin to use modern medicine to determine if and when I will have children. Just a hint.
The story of Vatican II has
The story of Vatican II has not ended, even if it seems as though Vatican II might just not have happened. I too am a woman in my own right, even if most of that reality, that paradigm shift occurred with the help of a psychiatrist. However, it certainly would also not have happened without the seeds that were sown by Vatican II when I was in my late teens. I too long for the Church (the institutional one) to make that paradigm shift into the modern world. In the meantime, I take heart that some of the seeds have taken root, sprouted and bloomed where we were planted. As Pope John 23 stated "we are here to tend a garden" not a museum (I'm paraphrasing...) Thanks for your post. It has helped me to regain my focus after some discouraging news coming out of the Vatican this week. Thanks for your post, which I obviously can relate to. Always good to know that we are not alone....
"These revelations are
"These revelations are symptoms of the ineffectiveness of the imploding hierarchical model, the heights of whose heavily privileged clerical plateau provided the breeding ground for the problem as well as for the defense of its supposedly sacred structures. As long as its defenders remain unaware of the disintegration of the hierarchical style and continue to cooperate with the pope in attempting to restore it as a major aspect of the reform of the reform, the problem will never be understood while new guidelines will fall like the tears of long suffering victims from gatherings such as this."
Thanks, Eugene. I have been reading your column in NCR for many a year, but you have just written the most accurate and telling paragraph of your distinguished career. The guys in the silk robes have dug themselves into a massive hole. Any reasonable person would stop digging. Instead the old boys club--and it is all boys--are not only digging harder, they are reaching for a bigger shovel.
The priest/child sex abuse scandal has broken in the USA, Canada and Western Europe, but it has yet to explode in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia. This means this crisis still has a lot of room to grow and go.
I, too, thought that
I, too, thought that paragraph was a high point in a powerful article. I love the phrase "disintegration of the hierarchical style," which implies the failure of an entire way of thinking, acting, and presuming that is self-destructive, arrogant, and hopelessly out of touch with how our understanding of what justice, fairness, decency, strength, freedom, critical thought, and responsibility are has developed over the last 350 years.
Nothing of real and lasting
Nothing of real and lasting consequence will be done until Benedict XVI no longer sits in the Chair of Peter. He has a mind-set that will never permit him to see reality. Until we get a Pope willing to face the Church's problems with clear vision, we will continue to bleed.
Matthew 16:18. I tell you
Matthew 16:18. I tell you that you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Since Jesus uttered those words many, including many on this site, have tried to destroy the Church but have not been -- and will not be -- successful. If you do not want to be a part of this Church that Jesus founded, flawed as it may be, fine. But why work so hard to destroy it. You are certainly free to leave. So much negative energy!
Looks to me like the church
Looks to me like the church is doing a very good job of destroying itself without any outside help.
Dan Pickett
I believe that no one who
I believe that no one who expresses thoughts on this site wants to destroy the Church. Conversely, I believe they want to RESTORE the Church to follow in the foot steps of Jesus. Much of what is happening with/in the hierarchy is so far from what Jesus taught that there needs to be a restructuring, reimagining and reforming of the present way of operating in the Catholic Church.
Anon, I think the whole point
Anon, I think the whole point of Eugene's article is that it is the hierarchy who are destroying the Church.
WE aren't destroying the
WE aren't destroying the church. There's no need, when these clueless bishops are doing such a fine job of it. Jesus also had some good advice about this lot that involved millstones and a trip to the sea. Let them go, and let's see if WE, the People of God, can do a better job.
Matthew 16:18. I tell you
Matthew 16:18. I tell you that you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Since Jesus uttered those words many, including many on this site, have tried to destroy the Church but have not been -- and will not be -- successful. If you do not want to be a part of this Church that Jesus founded, flawed as it may be, fine. But why work so hard to destroy it. You are certainly free to leave. So much negative energy!
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This is the cry of the antedeluvians who have been with us for 2000 years. You can always tell them by their support for an unchanging church and their belief in the sacredness of the status quo. Quick to wrap this unchanging church of history in Matthew 16:18. A piece of scripture with a notoriously spurious origin. Perhaps, the most misunderstood, most contrived and often misinterpreted of all biblical passages. It says whatever one group or another wants it to mean, and thus it will remain for eternity.
Nobody validly baptized ever "leaves" the Church. Even if they wanted to.
"They are good men who want
"They are good men who want to do the right thing but cannot because they are caught up in a hierarchical system that holds them like hostages to its own survival. The system demands that they sacrifice their own feelings as well as their own common sense to protect its crumbling architecture and its medieval procedures."
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Something recently has happened inside me. I'm sensing more a feeling of pathos and pity for the bishops, instead of anger and a burning compulsion to fight their colossal obtuseness, not to say it doesn't exist.
All this negative energy directed toward the Roman Catholic Hierarchy is so misplaced and unlikely to convert them from their hard-wired episcopal culture of doctrinal imperialism and self-preferred belief in exclusive God-appointed grace-bearing. The "American Pope" is such a paragon of episcopality. It will take a lightning strike like St. Paul experienced to change him from his course of imperial conviction.
As a pew catholic, I don't need all this episcopal humbug, and you don't either. Simply stop "buying" into it. Change will come. I have the obligation to live the Christ-life with the people who are communal to me. I must inform my conscience and be true to it. I can live the Christian life and leave it to God's grace to deal with others; each person has to make his/her own personal responses, including bishops.
It's not that I'm going to become passive, but it is that I'm not going to let the negative culture of clerical misbehavior darken the light that shows the way of positive living.
Until the bishops see the light for themselves, they won't change. But it doesn't hurt to keep the lights lit where there is darkness. Let's be as convinced of the need for compassion as we are for confrontation. www.WordUnlimited.com
Great comment! Thank you!
Great comment! Thank you!
"According to the
"According to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Asian Catholic Church is finding it hard to fight pedophilia 'because of the cultural differences' that exist' and 'the varied interpretations of what child abuse constitutes.'"
So, in Asia it is acceptable for clerics to rape children? If that's the case, then the Vatican has many more important issues to deal with than the English translation of the Mass!
Vatican II changed
Vatican II changed everything. Without Pope John's ultimate act of great courage in calling that Council, Catholics might still believe they should obey corrupt absurd bishops, much like German Catholics obeyed the founders of the Third Reich.
Because of Vatican II, the teachings of Our Lord Jesus and the Primacy of Conscience have been secured in the minds and hearts of subsequent generations. The Father Knows Best mentality of previous millennia turned into the nightmare of child sex abuse by the very men we were taught were Other Christs, and their fancy pants enablers, the bishops who we were taught were "shepherds".
These mostly old men, claiming to be celibate if not virginal, hold a belated Vatican gathering suddenly suggesting that they care about children being raped all over the globe by men with roman collars, while here at home the President of our Country has to be subjected to their hideous pretense that protesting contraception is about caring for life.
May the Holy Spirit continue to guide and bless all courageous souls who live out the call to justice inspired by Vatican II.
AW
Nowhere in the documents of
Nowhere in the documents of Vatican Council II will you find the hierarchical structure of the Church dismantled. The Council is one among many and is to be understood in that context. Vatican Council II did not negate previous councils of the Church. And primacy of conscience does not mean license to simply do as we please.
I have not heard even one
I have not heard even one person say that the primacy of conscience means
"liscense to simply do as we please." Can you document that this is anyone's understanding of "primacy of conscience"? If you can't, why purport that is what is being advocated?
It is also a matter of
It is also a matter of perspective. For some, as I venture to guess, like yourself, you regard any variation from what you believe to be the Truth is "license to simply do as we please." You are correct that Vatican II did not dismantle the Church structure, but it sure didn't intend to leave it as it was, either. One of the major thrusts of VII was the clear and unequivocal recognition of the vital role of the laity in all of the Church's structures, functions, and active life. And this is precisely where the institutional Church has been trying to negate and cover over since John Paul II became pope. Benedict XVI continues it now at an even more rapid pace, all to preserve a clerical heirarchy that is a closed system and that puts and keeps the lay Catholic in the lowest position on the totem pole of Catholicism. It's a denial and a perversion of what VII stated. So, your position only reflects, at best, one half of what VII was about and what it did.
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