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PDF versionSome bishops questioning clerical culture
Aug. 13, 2010
Bishop Donal McKeown (Photo by Press Association via AP Images)
Analysis
In statements, speeches, interviews and at least one pastoral letter, bishops in various parts of the world have begun raising provocative questions about whether something intrinsic to the Roman Catholic church -- perhaps its clerical culture, its manner of governance, its exercise of authority, or a combination of such elements -- has either caused or abetted the priest sex abuse tragedy.
From South Africa to Australia, Austria to Ireland, prelates are suggesting that perhaps deeply ingrained habits that have become inherent to clerical and hierarchical behavior, yet are inimical to the message the church proclaims, have contributed to the depth and scope of the scandal.
In seeking to understand the crisis, the bishops have speculated on whether the scandal might be rooted in inadequate seminary training or in a “narrow clericalism” that placed priests above reproach. They wonder openly about the effects of church “triumphalism” and how leaders could have ignored the plight of children for so long.
Though the statements by individual bishops are not coordinated and have occurred in a variety of contexts, the questions they pose range over similar terrain, exploring it at different levels and degrees of formality. In each instance, the provocation for the introspection is the sexual abuse crisis in which thousands of priests worldwide have abused tens of thousands of children ranging in age from the very young to late teens.
The discussion that is emerging from church leaders in other parts of the world is markedly, and in some instances dramatically, different from the responses and analyses of the problem that have been advanced by bishops in the United States.
One of the more formal and extensive examinations was issued May 23 by Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Canberra and Goulburn, Australia, in a pastoral letter timed for Pentecost, titled “Seeing the Faces, Hearing the Voices: A Pentecost Letter on Sexual Abuse of the Young in the Catholic Church” (see story).
Coleridge declined an interview, responding in an e-mail that he invited reference to the letter, but that he had otherwise decided to allow the letter to speak for itself, adding, “For the moment I may have said enough.”
Coleridge’s pastoral outlines how his awareness of the problem grew -- from meeting with and listening to victims, to reading transcripts of trials and working in the Vatican. That awareness eventually led him to a point of view that at first he had rejected, that priest abuse of children was “cultural rather than merely personal, at least in the Australian situation.”
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“I came to think that the problem was in some way cultural, but that prompted the further question of how; what was it that allowed this canker to grow in the body of the Catholic church, not just here and there but more broadly? I would part company with some answers to this question, because they seem to me ill-informed, one-dimensional or ideologically driven. There is no one factor that makes abuse of the young by Catholic clergy in some sense cultural. It seems to me rather a complex combination of factors which I do not claim to understand fully, even if I now understand more than I did.”
Among the elements Coleridge listed that may have contributed to the culture that allowed the crisis to fester and grow are:
- “Poor understanding and communication of the church’s teaching on sexuality, shown particularly in a rigorist attitude to the body and sexuality.”
- Clerical celibacy, while not itself a factor in Coleridge’s estimation, “may also have been attractive to men in whom there were pedophile tendencies which may not have been explicitly recognized by the men themselves when they entered the seminary.”
- “Certain forms of seminary training which failed to take proper account of human formation and promoted therefore a kind of institutionalized immaturity.”
- “Clericalism understood as a hierarchy of power, not service. ... It was a fruit of seminary training that was inadequate at certain points, and it is almost inevitable once the priesthood and preparation for it are not deeply grounded in the life of faith and discipleship.”
- “A certain triumphalism in the Catholic church, a kind of institutional pride, was a further factor. There is much in the Catholic church, her culture and tradition about which one can be justifiably proud. ... But there can be a dark side to this which leads to a determination to protect the reputation of the church at all costs.”
- “The church’s culture of forgiveness, which tends to view things in terms of sin and forgiveness rather than crime and punishment.”
- A “culture of discretion” that “turned dark when it was used to conceal crime and to protect the reputation of the church or the image of the priesthood in a country that has never known the virulent anticlericalism of elsewhere.”
Others speak out
While Coleridge had the opportunity to watch the scandal unfold from several vantage points -- he spent several years working at the Vatican’s Secretariat of State before being appointed a bishop in 2002 -- others caught in the crossfire of the controversy have also issued strong, if much briefer, statements.
Bishop Donal McKeown, auxiliary bishop of Down and Connor in Ireland, commented following the release of the government report on sex abuse in the Dublin archdiocese: “What I am looking forward to is the church in Ireland seriously taking on that agenda [for reform], committing itself to a process that will develop us into a church that is transparent, that is open and accountable.”
Bishop Willie Walsh (Photo by Press Association via AP Images)Bishop Willie Walsh of Killaloe, in advocating for reform, told The Irish News, “If some structures which we have put up over the years and over the centuries have to be taken down, then so be it.”
In an April 22 statement, Irish Bishop Jim Moriarty of Kildare and Leighlin said he was announcing his resignation because he had been part of the governance of the Dublin archdiocese “prior to when correct child protection policies and procedures were implemented. Again, I accept that from the time I became an auxiliary bishop, I should have challenged the prevailing culture.
“The truth is,” he said, “that the long struggle of survivors to be heard and respected by church authorities has revealed a culture within the church that many would simply describe as unchristian. People do not recognize the gentle, endless love of the Lord in narrow interpretations of responsibility and a basic lack of compassion and humility.”
In late April, in what one informed Vatican observer termed “a rare breach of normal etiquette at senior levels of the church” Austria’s Cardinal Cristoph Schönborn accused another cardinal, Angelo Sodano, of complicity in the cover-up of sexual abuse allegations against Schönborn’s predecessor.
During an interview with Austrian journalists, Schönborn said Sodano, during his tenure as Vatican secretary of state in the 1990s, blocked an investigation of former Vienna Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër. After the charges became public, a group of Austrian bishops announced they were “morally certain” that Groër, who died in 2003, had been guilty of abusing former novice monks at the Benedictine abbey where Groër once served as abbot.
During the April interview, Schönborn reportedly also declared that “the days of cover-up are over.”
More recently, Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg, South Africa, delivered a stinging critique of how power is exercised in the church today during a talk to a group of concerned Catholics. The full text of the talk was published in the July 23 issue of NCR and is also available at NCRonline.org (see story).
He said that recent shows of church triumphalism -- in the case he cited, the use of the elaborate robe called a “cappa magna” -- is unfortunate “in a church torn apart by the sexual abuse scandal.” He argued that such displays are symbolic of an ongoing “restorationism” in the church, an attempt to return to the kind of centralized power structure that existed before the reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council.
Martin seeks reform
The term “culture” appears in many of the analyses. It is never precisely defined, but often used in a way that assumes Catholics understand its meaning.
An example is contained in the statement issued by the Irish bishops, from their December 2009 conference, responding to the evidence of widespread abuse and cover-up detailed in the Murphy Report, the result of a government investigation into the Dublin archdiocese: “We are shamed by the extent to which child sexual abuse was covered up in the archdiocese of Dublin and recognize that this indicates a culture that was widespread in the church. The avoidance of scandal, the preservation of the reputations of individuals and of the church, took precedence over the safety and welfare of children.”
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin (CNS/Reuters/Cathal McNaughton)Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, a Vatican official much of his career who was appointed to Dublin in 2004, has been an unusually forceful advocate of full disclosure. He has also sought, behind the scenes, the resignation of a number of Irish bishops, including two of his own auxiliaries who were implicated in past cover-ups. The two submitted their resignations to Rome at the end of last year, but the Vatican has recently refused to accept the resignations (see story).
In March, following release of the Dublin report, Martin told The Associated Press that his colleagues in the Irish hierarchy “must tell ‘the entire truth’ ” about decades of church cover-up of abuse or face broader investigations by the government.
Martin willingly handed over as many as 60,000 pages of documents related to abuse and cover-up. In an interview on Irish television he said he had read many of them over a weekend and at one point became so disgusted that he threw them to the floor.
In the wake of those revelations, Martin has emphasized both priest training and formation of laity for pastoral work. He said at one point that he was working on plans to have seminarians, prospective deacons, and laity training to be pastoral workers “share some sections of their studies together, in order to create a better culture of collaborative ministry. The narrow culture of clericalism has to be eliminated.”
In that same May 10 talk to a Catholic group, Martin expressed discouragement at the reluctance within the church to undertake “a painful process of renewal.”
While expressing optimism that ultimately the future of the church would be guided by the Holy Spirit, he said that on a personal level, “I have never felt so disheartened and discouraged about the level of willingness to really begin what is going to be a painful path of renewal and of what is involved in that renewal.”
In this talk and other statements, Martin is not specific about the practical steps he might envision in that renewal. Perhaps he stays away from specifics because raising the specter of renewal in such terms can also raise a host of complications. While he believes the future of the church in Ireland “will see a very different Catholic church,” he said he worries “when I hear those with institutional responsibility stress the role of the institution, and others then in reaction saying that ‘we are the church.’ Perhaps on both sides there may be an underlying feeling that ‘I am the church,’ that the church must be modeled on my way of thinking or on my position. Renewal is never our own creation. Renewal will only come through returning to the church which we have received from the Lord.”
But before any renewal can occur, people have to be aware of the need for it, and Martin lamented “the drip-by-drip, never-ending revelation about child sexual abuse and the disastrous way it was handled. There are still strong forces which would prefer that the truth did not emerge. ... There are signs of subconscious denial on the part of many about the extent of the abuse which occurred ... and how it was covered up. There are other signs of rejection of a sense of responsibility for what had happened.”
Different response in US
To the ears of U.S. Catholics, the candor of Coleridge and Martin, especially the latter’s cooperation with civil authorities, would ring as a starkly different approach than that taken by most U.S. prelates. But the assessments of the several government investigations that have been conducted into the activities of various dioceses in Ireland are strikingly similar to those made by the few grand juries and the National Review Board appointed by the U.S. bishops in the wake of the explosive revelations in 2002 about sex abuse and the church cover-up over decades in the Boston archdiocese. The conclusions are in agreement about fundamental points: The church failed to report crime to civil authorities and in most instances acted to protect the interests of the institution and the priesthood rather than act in the best interest of those abused.
In the United States, bishops argued when the first cases of sexual abuse and cover-up were revealed in the mid-1980s that they didn’t understand the illness, that in reassigning priests they were acting on the best advice of psychologists and psychiatrists. Later, some of the loudest defenders of the actions of the hierarchy argued that the media was blowing the scandal out of proportion, or that the church, unlike other secular institutions, was being unfairly targeted by lawyers who foresaw big paydays for their clients in settlements of civil lawsuits.
That defensive posture was evident in the analysis of Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a section of his 2009 book, The Difference God Makes: A Catholic Vision of Faith, Communion, and Culture. “The priestly sex abuse scandal has been transformed into a scandal of church leadership, of church authority,” he writes. “Deservedly so, for bishops have failed, but also deliberately so,” he adds, placing the blame for the shift largely on the “opinion columns in The New York Times.”
“Priestly abuse of children and young people is a great tragedy of unbounded proportions and bishops must take responsibility for it; but it is also an occasion to unleash the anti-Catholicism that has never been far beneath the surface in U.S. history. For some, the only safe Catholic, the only good Catholic, is a Catholic who is at odds with the bishops.” He then castigates “self-styled prophetic voices in the church today” and characterizes them as “pro-abortion, pro-contraception, pro-divorce, pro-gay marriage -- pro any of the other items on the long list of sexual and culture freedoms claimed today. That is the voice of the dominant culture, and those who speak it receive their reward, at least in the opinion pages of The New York Times.”
Martin seems to reject such defenses when he writes that while sexual abuse of children by priests “constitutes only a small percentage of the sexual abuse of children in our society in general,” that fact “should never appear in any way as an attempt to downplay the gravity of what took place in the church of Christ. The church is different; the church is a place where children should be the subject of special protection and care. The Gospel presents children in a special light and reserves some of its most severe language for those who disregard or scandalize children in any way.”
Similarly, he turns on those who critique the church’s response in terms of public relations. “There are those who claim that the media strategy of the church in the archdiocese of Dublin following the publication of the Murphy Report was ‘catastrophic.’ My answer is that what the Murphy Report narrated was catastrophic and that the only honest reaction of the church was to publicly admit that the manner in which that catastrophe was addressed was spectacularly wrong; spectacularly wrong ‘full stop’; not spectacularly wrong, ‘but ...’ You cannot sound-bite your way out of a catastrophe.”
Conceding that sexual abuse of children may have been viewed differently in past eras, Martin nonetheless wonders how the church could have turned its back on children. “It is hard ... to understand why, in the management by church authorities of cases of the sexual abuse of children, the children themselves were for many years rarely even taken into the equation.”
[Tom Roberts is NCR editor at large. His e-mail address is troberts@ncronline.org.]
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They still don't get it.
They still don't get it. This culture is an all male culture with next to no input by women. It is not representative of the real world. It
is on par with an all male army or prison. We all know what happens
in these institutions when the presence of women is absent. I believe
that women should be admitted to all.levels of
hierarchy from the priesthood all the way to the papacy. This would not
end all occurances of pedophilia but would alter
the culture which cultivates this abomination.
But the so called "all male"
But the so called "all male" culture doesn't exist in the Protestant churches of the Episcopal church, does it? And yet they seem to have even worse problems in the area of aberrant sexuality than does the Roman Catholic church. It seems to me there is an agenda being pushed here to get rid of the "all male" culture (i.e. clerical celibacy). That would be a huge victory for the forces of evil. Thank God Benedict XVI is not about to let it happen. Celibacy is one of the greatest gifts God has given to His church - the jewel in the crown of the priesthood is how I think a recent Pope expressed it.
So you are content with
So you are content with closing churches for lack of male, celibate vocations despite the efforts of the American bishops to put a bandaid on the crisis by importing 3rd world priests who could just as well be saving souls in their home country? You prefer to deny the sacraments to Catholics in rural areas rather than allow married men or women, married or celibate, to serve in those areas?
The Roman Catholic definition
The Roman Catholic definition of aberrant sexuality is at fault here. The problem is that the leaders do not understand the aberrancy of their own beliefs and lack of prophetic ideas about sex. It is do as I say not as I do and when there is an explanation of what they want it is pushed to the "sinfulness of the laity" without the recognition of their own sinfulness and aberrant leadership and spirituality.
The leadership has its own very serious problems and underdeveloped psycho social and sexual development. It believes in depravations that clearly have nothing to do with spirituality. It uses vey poor definitions to mislead laity and the entire church which is in a sinful leadership crisis. It is a misogynistic and homophobic leadership that uses its faulty and unethical definitions of sexual morality to attempt to control the People of God. In so doing it is confusing the laity and each year loosing the respect that it takes to govern a large organization.
This condition can only lead to less attendance in the pews over time and less contributions of money and talents from the masses. The Roman leadership, indeed, is in a very sad and sinful state.
You might consider looking at
You might consider looking at your argument from the other side of things. Given the current and projected contraction of the priesthood one could argue that every closed parish or parish without the sacraments is an even greater victory for the devil. Celibacy may be the jewel in the crown of the priesthood, but it's also becoming the cancer in the sacramental life of the Church.
"But the so called "all male"
"But the so called "all male" culture doesn't exist in the Protestant churches of the Episcopal church, does it? And yet they seem to have even worse problems in the area of aberrant sexuality than does the Roman Catholic church."
Anglicans and protestants haven't attempted to hide their sins in the laundry hamper. They're right out where everyone can see them, loud and clear.
The Catholic Church, has on the other had, got away with murder in hiding the evil deeds of it's priests and bishops for as long as they have. The stench from Rome's laundry bag reeks so badly, it's causing a chain reaction throughout the globe. Hence, the faithful are reeling in shock to discover the awful truth. The centuries of a clerical public face has been a carefully perpetrated fraud and a set of lies. It doesn't square with hard reality.
Read any of the major foreign newspapers and news magazines. They give it far more publicity than the "New York Times" ever did.
Actually, you are mistaken
Actually, you are mistaken about the prevalence of sexual abuse in other churches of the protestant persuasion. It is at the same level as the rest of society. While even that is too much, I don't think the anger at the Catholic church is just with the action itself, but with the cover up and the lies and the victimization of the victim. Besides, priests are voting with their feet. Many who leave the priesthood do so to marry, by their own admission. Many, many more remain deacons for this reason, again by their own admission, as the vast majority of them are married. I think they doth protest too much, or in this case, praise celibacy too much. A gift is something given freely to someone, not something which is demanded from one. Besides, how does your ideal mesh with the Anglican/Church of England/Episcopalian priests who are being accepted as priests, along with their wives and children? Something to think about.
THE CHURCH IN BELGIUM AND THE
THE CHURCH IN BELGIUM AND THE WORLD
Clericalism has often been described as the pursuit of ecclesiastical power at the expense of the laity. It is viewed as an elite caste unaccountable to the People of God.
It is this mindset peculiar to bishops and priests that renders otherwise ordinary good men so insensitive to the moral depravity present in some of their fellows that they will go to any lengths to enable, protect and cover up for them even years after the fact and in the case of ordinary priests renders them incapable of challenging Church leadership in the face of such evil.
Failing to protect the innocent from childhood sexual abuse all those decades ago and enabling further abuse by becoming complicit in covering up for perpetrators makes one wonder whether or not church leaders believe the words of Jesus in the Gospel.
Or is it rather that some do not consider Jesus’ words binding if following the words of the Lord embarrass one, causing him to lose statute and authority in the church? Is it a choice between arresting one’s advancement in this highly clericalized system and speaking truth to power?
Is it for all of these reasons and more?
This latest example of the abuse of power and authority in the Roman Catholic Church by Cardinal Godfried Danneels, the former leader of the Belgian Church, puts the lie to statements made not so many years ago by members of the hierarchy that the sexual abuse of children by clergymen was uniquely an American phenomenon.
Probably not the half of what has been going on in the Belgian Church is really known at this time. This in a country that is approximately the size of the state of Maryland in square miles.
Here in the United States previously sealed depositions that church authorities never expected to be made public support the fact that attempts at containment know no national boundaries.
Crimes against humanity?
No question.
As such they should be brought before the world court. After all, the Holy See is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child even though it has submitted none of the periodic compliance reports beyond the initial one.
Will the institutional Church take ownership for the complicity of its leadership in covering up for the actions of those who have preyed on the young and their own actions in putting so many more children in harm’s way?
Doubtful.
To date, have any complicit bishops in the U.S. been sanctioned for their actions?
Rewarded? Yes.
Sanctioned? No.
The crisis continues worldwide while in the U.S. bishops and state Catholic Conferences continue to viciously oppose legislative reform in any state where bills addressing it have been introduced. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland and Colorado are but a few examples.
Certainly not what one expected when the bishops of the United States promised Accountability & Transparency in 2002.
Can the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church be blind to the fact that its actions in continuing on its present course are speeding up an already unprecedented erosion of credibility among the ordinary faithful who want to cling to the belief that church leadership is capable of telling the truth and being accountable for its failures in protecting children?
Is it not this hubris of leadership, this horrific abuse of power that has created the rough seas, that perfect storm in which the Barque of Peter now finds itself floundering?
Or did Jesus’ words mandating the protection of children, the most vulnerable among us, include the caveat that his words were binding only if in protecting the children the cost was not too high?
____________________
[Sister Maureen Paul Turlish is an advocate for victims of childhood sexual abuse and for legislative reform in Pennsylvania. She testified in support of Delaware's 2007 Child Victims Law which removed all statutes of limitation regarding the sexual abuse of children]
Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victims' Advocate
New Castle, Delaware
maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com
Tom Roberts thanks for
Tom Roberts thanks for showing that in our church, our vast church, there are important voices never heard here in the United States where we constantly hear about the NY Times but not any substantial analysis of why and how this has happened and continues to happen. The NY Times blinders are everywhere---witness the statements of Archbishop Dolan, the bishops in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia--on and on. But never anything as penetrating as what is coming from other countries--thank God for that--there is hope for the church. Cardinal George, with all of his schemes, is especially insulting to anyone disagreeing with him--what a limited exposure to ideas he has had. Our Spirit works in strange ways with voices coming from other places--out of the blue.
The problem is indeed deep
The problem is indeed deep and complex. Those who publicize it should not be criticized for doing so, however much some of them may be quite gleeful about dishing dirt on the Church. The dirt, after all, is real and it is nasty. The men in dresses--all of them--bear some responsibility and need to own up to it. They need to clean up their "act". The Church is in need of serious reform, as was begun by Vatican II. Unfortunately, that reform has been largely aborted and reversed in favor of renewed clericalism by John Paul II and Benedict XVI, most of the latter's malfeasance coming while he was still going by the name "Ratzinger". How refreshing to hear some bishops who are least trying to tell it like it is and looking for actual solutions instead of denials and cover-ups!
It is hopeful that some
It is hopeful that some bishops are beginning to look for more than personal failure but rather a failure in the clerical culture at last. What is blatantly absent in the examination however is any sense that the Church's stance toward women my be an embedded part of the problem. As long as women are treated as second class there will be a distortion in the clerical culture and the Church.
Until these men actually act
Until these men actually act on ordaining women and include them equally in church governance top to bottom consider they serve to function as mere pressure valves manipulatively engaging in lipservice to release steam from an unjust ecclesial system without ever having to change it.
Thank you, NCR, for
Thank you, NCR, for demonstrating that there is consensus for change, at least among a minority of bishops. May this consensus raise the consciuosness and enable those who have not yet spoken to agree.
Earthshaking, pivotal moment.
Earthshaking, pivotal moment. At least a few bishops are mentioning a problem and a link and asking questions. This is a giant step forward. Hopefully, this trickle will become a raging river of truth. Enforced celibacy is the slave of clericalism. Celibacy's main purpose is to keep the high estate of the hierarchy intact. Christ himself called married men to the priesthood. It was a Tradition of the Church. The pope had no right to change that Tradition. Now it is time to make things right. Ordain married men and recall those ordained men who have married to full ministry. This would be a new beginning. Of course, it will take much more than this to renew the priesthood and the church after sacrificing children on the altar of celibacy. (Married Priests USA)
With respect
With respect Archbishop,
Christ may well be calling both gender adults to the priesthood and perhaps calling the laity to reflect on their own Royal Priesthood. Time perhaps to be less concerned with all that is childish rather than child-like and more concerned with becoming fully human.
You talk of a giant step forward--I see only the first tentative signs that a tiny remnant remain sufficiently intouch with their own humanity and their own conscience to strive towards the Light. There is a very long way to go. The church is miles behind many institutions in society when it comes to addressing all that is deeply human. A very long way to go and there is frankly more than a hint that the Roman church is an irrelevance to many who have torn themselves away from the pap.
Meg McKenzie-Scotland
Christ called married men as
Christ called married men as apostles and priests, but ultimately they left their families. Maybe that was OK for the beginning.
If there are going to be married priests, the "machinery" is already set up to do this with the "permanent" diaconate. I think it may be a good thing to let a few accomplished, middle aged married deacons with no small children "float" over to the diocesan priesthood.
There will be no big problems with financial support; abd no PKs (preachers kids-that huge Protestant church problem Catholics know nothing about).
Of course the married permanent diaconate can keep growing as it is. This is a very good thing.
How could the clerical
How could the clerical culture per se have caused the abuse crisis? There wouldn't have been any crisis if homosexual priests hadn't been messing with teenage boys in the first place. This is the cause of the abuse crisis. The crisis should not be overblown. At most about 4% of priests in the timeframe examined were involved. Still even one case is too many & 4% is still high for a class of people who are assumed to have a charism of celibacy.
Paulte, the cause is not
Paulte, the cause is not "homosexual priests". It is a medieval mind-set dating back centuries, instilled into every seminarian throughout the Church, which denigrates women, gays, those who criticize the decadent cult of clerical exclusivity and their arrogance.
A few bishops speaking out now isn't going to correct the larger corrupt hierarchical culture which continues and is very much in control. It must be turned on it's head by the people in the pews. Until that happens, those who pay, pray, and obey will simply be dismissed as cranks and misguided sheep.
You have a very immature and
You have a very immature and ignorant understanding of human sexuality and power issues paulte. Apart from your uninformed views on this topic it is a fact that both genders of children some much younger than teenagers have suffered sexual abuse by the clergy and other officials of the church. All such abuse was and is criminal and deforming of the spiritual, emotional and on occasions physical growth of the victim. The further denouncing of any victim brave enough to seek help is scandal heeped on scandal. The church has no credibility on any subject while this festering sore remains so unresolved. Only when enough clergy, religious and laity stand up to condemn the crime and work to seek radical change as was meant to happen under the lead of Vatican 11 Council changes will a maturing process start to really bring about the painful process of educating everyone in the Church to undertake the work of growing up! We all badly need to as time is running out for each and every one of us.
Friend Meg, I certainly go
Friend Meg, I certainly go along with your vision, especially with your final thought:
“Only when enough clergy, religious and laity stand up to condemn the crime and work to seek radical change as was meant to happen under the lead of Vatican 11 Council changes will a maturing process start to really bring about the painful process of educating everyone in the Church to undertake the work of growing up! We all badly need to as time is running out for each and every one of us.”
The only reason for the existence of the Christian Church is to bring about in this our world the governance of the “Abbá Father” of Jesus, “thy Kingdom come”: the reason for his life, actions, teachings, assassination, resurrection and sending of his Spirit. After 2,000 years of Christianity a mere 12% of today’s world population is Christian, and only half of that, 6%, is Catholic.
As of today neither the “Christian” USA, nor the “Catholic Vatican” have seen fit to ratify the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed by all in the UN on Dec. 10, 1948. So “what’s the hurry” as we fritter away precious time for our world which according to our British scientific friend Stephen Hawking has not very much more time before it collapses under our global environmental mistreatment. We complacently accept our factual denial of the very basic fundamental human right of every human person to enough to eat as one of our sisters or brothers dies of hunger every 4 seconds in today’s world. Without intending to be “apocalyptic” I have the impression that we Christians must get moving or else throw in the towel and give someone else a chance at bat. Or in the parlance of Jesus, let someone else be “the light of the world”, “salt of the earth”, “the leaven to transform the dough” of our humanity into the Kingdom of God.
Justiniano de Managua
What I consider the Church's
What I consider the Church's pathology regarding sexuality and sexual expression is a primary generator of sexual abuse. When straight men are sent to prison they often turn to other men for sexual release even though they are heterosexual. Deviation from one's norm and natural inclination to sexuality can very often create deviant behaviors. When sexuality is suppressed; when women are denied equality; when an all male- body becomes the single power structure within an organization, that organization is an unbalanced construct.
Married priests, ordained women would be a start on the right road. We are all aware of the origin of non-married priests, we are all aware it was based on money and greed. It's cornerstone is pathological and hence it's building unsafe.
It is getting late and the Church would do well to stop wasting time investigating its Women religious and instead focus on why it is so resistant to change and how their medieval concept of human sexuality is the cost of a cancer carrying church. There is still hope but not very much. Power is a funny thing, those who have it are blind and fearful and live in darkness. It will be hard to open the doors to the light.
Search "Gerald Fitzgerald" on
Search "Gerald Fitzgerald" on NCR over the past two years and read again how the hierarchy - and Curia - were informed from the 1940s onwards by the Servants of the Paraclete of the numbers of abusive priests. Discount the defence of “We never knew.”
And let's not imagine the only form of abuse is sexual. The Catholic Church has been crushing individuals with unjust treatment for centuries, and still does. In UK at present the case of the “Birmingham Three” is causing waves due to the extra-ordinary penal-type treatment the Birmingham Oratory has imposed upon three of its members “who have done nothing wrong.” Here’s one article which refers to the matter.
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/victims-of-the-old-authoritar...
Clerical culture is based upon the conviction “WE are not as OTHER men are.” It manifests itself in countless ways, but the laity is now realizing that the Emperor has no clothes.
What right has the Birmingham
What right has the Birmingham Oratory (or, for that matter, anyone else in the Church) to exile a priest to another country? Such cases in my view warrant intervention by the government -- not, of course, to take sides in any theological dispute, but simply to protect the civil right of a citizen to live in his own country.
This problem is a going to be
This problem is a going to be with us for at least a generation. As long as we have bishops like Cardinal George--handpicked by Bernard Law--who blame the press, liberals, and lawyers for this scandal, it is clear the old boy's club is still in denial.
Archbishop Martin said, "the
Archbishop Martin said, "the narrow culture of clericalism has to be eliminated.” If he is sincere and really believes this, and I think he does, it isn't going to happen first in the Vatican or with the archbishop's colleagues in the hierarchy. The People of God must instigate it and they mustn't wait for illumined seminarians and the next generation of priests to take the lead.
Waiting for the hierarchy, particularly in America where you have the wealthiest of all Catholic churches and where the move to reform would create a lot of attention in Rome, ranks right up there with waiting for the Second Coming. The USCCB would sleep through the Sermon on the Mount.
Archbishop Martin said, "the
Archbishop Martin said, "the narrow culture of clericalism has to be eliminated.” If he is sincere and really believes this, and I think he does, it isn't going to happen first in the Vatican or with the archbishop's colleagues in the hierarchy. The People of God must instigate it and they mustn't wait for illumined seminarians and the next generation of priests to take the lead.
Waiting for the hierarchy, particularly in America where you have the wealthiest of all Catholic churches and where the move to reform would create a lot of attention in Rome, ranks right up there with waiting for the Second Coming. The USCCB would sleep through the Sermon on the Mount.
Spot on analysis. We need
Spot on analysis. We need that breath of fresh air Pope John XXIII spoke of in 1960 in the Universal Church, especially the U.S. Catholic Church today. It's time for our bishops to start thinking "Christian" and not just Roman Catholic.
If they have to ask the
If they have to ask the questions, they really don't understand...laity is far, far ahead of them.
It's good to know that at
It's good to know that at least a few members of the hierarchy seem to be on the same page as those in the lowerarchy who might be wondering whatever became of the Institutional Catholic Church's cultural reforms urged by Pope John XXIII via Vatican II !
Thank you, Tom Roberts,
Thank you, Tom Roberts, for--as always--an illuminating and perceptive article. It's good to know that some bishops, perhaps, are "getting it" at last.
One aspect of the clerical culture that hasn't been addressed in depth, I think, is the deep-seated, often unconscious or subconscious misogyny that permeates the clerical caste. Fear of women, "daughters of Eve," denies men the company, the wisdom and the balance of women, and may be the driving force behind the shameful "investigation" of U.S. religious and the bullying of the NCWR. The compulsive exclusion of women from the deaconate and priesthood is based on this ancient and primitive fear--not theology, not Scripture, not tradition as clerics claim. Somehow this aspect of the culture must be addressed as well.
Yes, Judith D, I've seen it
Yes, Judith D, I've seen it in seminarians and priests going back almost 60 years. So, I know it is a deeply subconscious misogyny. The problem didn't just pop in the 1970s.
The clerical culture won't change. So, we need to dump the elite, career presbyteral and episcopal elite we have now, and proceed to ordain members of the "royal priesthood" on hand in the local parish.
To the following
To the following "speculation" on the part of the bishops, all I can say is, "DUH!"
"In seeking to understand the crisis, the bishops have speculated on whether the scandal might be rooted in inadequate seminary training or in a “narrow clericalism” that placed priests above reproach. They wonder openly about the effects of church “triumphalism” and how leaders could have ignored the plight of children for so long."
In my years of professional ministry within the Catholic Church (Lay Pastoral Ministry Coordinator, Spiritual Director, RCIA Director and Facilitator, Adult Faith Formation Coordinator, Liturgist, etc.) I was witness to the proof of this "speculation" firsthand. What seemed to be missing from diocesan sponsored seminary training was the following:
Authentic Spiritual Formation (Spiritual Formation empowers the individual to seek and answer the following questions: Who am I? Whose am I? What are my gifts and how am I being called to use them?)
Effective discernment
Adequate assessment of the ordination candidate's charisms
Adequate assessment of the candidate's emotional maturity
Humility
What comes forth out of the seminary when these foundational pieces are missing are young men who are underdeveloped spiritually, emotionally, and sexually. What is sad is that the situation is getting worse, not better. The young men coming out of seminary today have been taught how special they are for making the sacrifices of the priesthood and they live in their own self-constructed world of arrogance. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule and to those priests I offer a profound prayer of support and gratitude.
Wonderful article-thanks so
Wonderful article-thanks so much. Refreshing to hear about some bishops who actually seem to get the horror of the abuse and are willing to talk about changes that need to occur.
Bishops accused of 'cover-up'
Bishops accused of 'cover-up' in relation to their treatment of pervert
priests are still being hung out to dry, as it were, by the Vatican. Shortly after the compassion-driven 1962-65 Vatican Council they were encouraged, with tacit Vatican approval and guided by bogus psychiatry, to experiment with rehabilating rather than defrocking such priests. It was a huge mistake. But it was well-intentioned. Basically it wasn't the fault of the Bishops directly involved. Let's leave it at that. And move on.
Joseph F. Foyle, Dublin, Ireland
People are compassionate when
People are compassionate when they hear of abuse of the young by clergy. However the same are furious when a bishop or the like hides and denies the problem. Let us not blame the clergy but the bulk of the issue is those in authority. That is where the money has gone - to pay for the bishop's stupidity before and even now.
"People are compassionate
"People are compassionate when they hear of abuse of the young by clergy. However the same are furious when a bishop or the like hides and denies the problem. Let us not blame the clergy but the bulk of the issue is those in authority. That is where the money has gone - to pay for the bishop's stupidity before and even now."
Thank you Anonymous for that critical distinction and your focusing on the real crux of the sex abuse issue.
The statute of limitations may have run out for the perpetrators of these heinous crimes against children. The abusers may be dead now, but the culture of arrogance, silence, and dismissal of the laity's concerns is evident for all to see. Their response is one of I hear no evil, I see no evil, I know of no evil,. It is continuing amongst the bishops and the pope to this very moment. Criminal clergy are still being transferred from diocese to diocese (south Florida is filled with them).
Until the people themselves have indicated loud and clear, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore", there will be no chance whatsoever of this clearical culture changing.
An independent, autocephalous, Catholic Church in America is the ONLY viable solution short of another pan-Roman synod, a Vatican III. Unfortunately, no such action by this pope is even a remote possibility.
Asking if the Roman Catholic
Asking if the Roman Catholic clerical culture helped to promote abuse is like asking if ice cream is fattening. It is so obvious, that it is almost absurd to ask it.
WAKE UP WORLD! It is time to get back to the model of church that Jesus gave us, not one where men in expensive, fine robes, living in palace-like homes with many clerics and servants to do their every bidding, rule over everyone with nonsensical doctrine dreamed up by old sometimes-celebrate men behind closed doors. The hierarchy of the church as it has evolved today has proven itself to be sinful and corrupt. They must be forgiven for what they have done, but that does not mean that we need to follow them any longer.
We need... no... we require a church, based on the example of Jesus' ministry, that is open and inclusive. As one of the early popes decreed... what is followed by all must be decided by all.
The bishops in the U.S. act like agents of the foreign state government of the Vatican, doing its every bidding. They are appointed by the pope and swear total allegiance to him. They compete for papal favors and promotions. The spy on each other to ensure everyone speaks as one, hence the need for a papal nuncio. There are layers and layers of beauraucracy. They are not really spiritual leaders.
Cardinal George has misinterpreted criticism of the press. It is not anti-catholic; it is really anti-hierarchy. There can never be a true catholic church again, if ever, unless the corrupt, secretive, wall of the hierarchy tumbles.
A whole new ethos of
A whole new ethos of "hierarchy" needs to supplant the corrupt and unresponsive caste system which the boys in violet created long ago and would like to perpetuate. We would be better off looking for our bishops from amongst hermits and ascetics, or those laymen and laywomen who manifest true apostolic zeal. Those who are clearly living icons of Christ in our midst.
They're there and we have to look for them and turn the shepherding of the Church over to them.
Dump the ridiculous old boy's club, with Benedict 16 at the pinnacle, living and thinking as though they got their jobs from King John of Magna Carta fame, instead of from the people.
It is good to know that there
It is good to know that there are some honest bishops left in the world.
We need to replace most of the US bishops with real christians.
This article hits it spot on
This article hits it spot on in terms of what is needed here in the US. The church is suffocating the life out of the faithful by their lack of realistic and compassionate response to those who have suffered from priest sex abuse.
The cover up responses continue but in more politically correct tones. The Davenport Diocese hid behind their bankruptcy and unless pushed by the federal courts wanted to stop providing counseling support for victims.
I am not a victim but know some and knew some of the priests who were passed around from parish to parish as soon as their pedophile ways became known (even though many of us reported them to the former Bishops). To this day not all of the pedophile priests are gone but such is life when the secret is so deep within the bowels of the hierarchy. The good ole' boys just know how to keep the lid on better these days.
Questions? Gee, ya think?
Questions? Gee, ya think?
I'm sorry, but many of the
I'm sorry, but many of the lay people in the Catholic church could and did tell priests and bishops that very thing. But, they did not listen; now they inherit a church seriously flawed.
Add to the list of bishops
Add to the list of bishops who criticize the clericalist culture for its role in the ongoing scandal, Cardinal Walter Kasper, in his comments in Den Bosch, The Netherlands, a few days after his retirement this summer.
One snippet:
"We now all the more need priests with a strong inner identity, but who do not fall for the extremity of old clericalism in new clothing. Clericalism is not a sign of strength, but of weakness. A weak inner identity is compensated with often ludicrous outward signs. I am a supporter of dignified clothing for priests: as priests we need to be recognizable, a visible sign that we still exist and the message we process is as valid as ever. But we cannot give the impression that we live in the time of the 19th century Baroque; we must be people of our time and – despite the often contrary nature of our message – to show that we are also people of the 21st century."
"We now all the more need
"We now all the more need priests with a strong inner identity, but who do not fall for the extremity of old clericalism in new clothing"
This message from Cardinal Kaper also needs to be passed on to these ultra traditional upstarts into "old clothing" too. The ones going into seminaries ordering their silk capes and birettas from Rome's most exclusive ecclesiastical tailors just in time for their Tridentine ordination. Sporting a decidely pontificating arrogance to go with it.
It isn't the older genration of clergy from Pope John XXIII's age I'm concerned about, it's the newer generation of seminarians who've already canonized John Paul II and announce their unquestioning loyalty to Benedict 16 who sound more and more like a cross between George W Bush and Norman Vincent Peale. All dressed up in their silk fiddlebacks and heavy, pleated lace albs. These young fogies are your new generation of that "old clericalism" the Cardinal has in mind.
Your comments are so true,
Your comments are so true, and they show a newer generation of so-called "JPII priests" enamored of all the pre-Vatican ecclesiastical crap that is symptomatic of a sick, dysfunctional clerical culture.
If you haven't already, get hold of James Davidson & Dean Hoge's "Mind the Gap: The Return of the Lay-Clerical Divide" in COMMONWEAL. Based on longitudinal studies, these sociologists have shown how we can one day see the greatest "expectation gap" between an educated and informed laity (old & young) that will not kowtow to the ordained, on the one hand, and the JPII clergy (with their bishops) insisting that they have the final say on church matters because their ordinations give them an "ontological" superiority over the rest of us.
These JPII clergy, while relatively newer in some places, are not necessarily younger in age. A number of them come from ministry in other Christian denominations and are attracted to the crap coming out of Rome.
"These JPII clergy, while
"These JPII clergy, while relatively newer in some places, are not necessarily younger in age. A number of them come from ministry in other Christian denominations and are attracted to the crap coming out of Rome".
Joseph Jaglowicz, How true. JPII has always been an icon to right-wing evangelicals and the new neocon hierarchy in this country. The JPII clones we see having emerged, especially during the Bush years.
Unfortunately, these reactionaries JPII created dominate the College of Cardinals and Benedict will simply add to their numbers. This can only mean a renewed effort to reverse the basic principles of Vatican II on all fronts, but especially in the areas of liturgy and Church government.
We see emerging a triumphant and a reactionary papacy of 16th century vintage. All at the expense of the values of. Pope Gregory the Great, Leo XIII, John XXIII, and Paul VI. This is a cyncial use of the false prophets of evangelical, neocon Catholicism and Protestantism, and it is emerging rapidly as the signature of American Catholicism.
Because of his age, Benedict XVI is fighting the clock to get his stamp impressed on the Universal Church quickly. He has moved into high gear to use his compliant toadies in purple and scarlet to make the case for him. Just as John Paul II did. Hence the constant drumbeat on the popular front to advance issues which the Church has shown it is losing and will continue to lose, in plebiscites and the voting booth, both here and abroad. This has become a contining process of alienating gays,women, the affluent, the educated, and progressives in general. An alienation affecting not only Catholics, but non-Catholics too.
EWTN is just one of many forums where we see this strategy in full force.
Well, Duh! Now they are all
Well, Duh! Now they are all deer in the headlights!
Duh! Ya think???
Duh! Ya think???
No mention of misogyny or
No mention of misogyny or patriarchy! Even the ones that seem genuinely interested in fixing (at least the perception of) the problem, avoid getting close to the nature of the problem. That speaks volumes.
If they don't mention the
If they don't mention the tradition of misogyny and patriachy we know its hype. Hold their feet to the flames. Demand the Bishops put up real varifiable completion schedules for deep seated changes or tell them to zip it.
Clerical culture and another
Clerical culture and another class of victims:
While justifiable attention is given to the victims of the sex abuse scandal and the innocent priests smeared by the actions of a few, people are unaware that there is another group of victims in the fallout: priests on whom there is a ‘hint of suspicion.’ In their efforts to be thorough, the bishops have also targeted good men who they, the bishops - or their flunkies in authority, consider a ‘possible threat.’ This could be based either on rumors (the gossipy priest network), or on some past – not illegal – indiscretion already atoned for. Bishops have been trigger happy in unjustifiably shooting down these men depriving them their rights. Every diocese has this mezzanine floor of victim priests who have no canonical recourse, nor have the sympathy of the higher-ups. Afraid of the high cost of insurance (the only factor that guides these ‘custodians’), bishops have cast them to the outer circle and sacrificed justice and fairness at the altar of expediency. If Jesus did what the bishops do, then Peter would have been regulated to being a ‘second class citizen’ among the clergy in the church.
May the Holy Spirit inspire
May the Holy Spirit inspire all men and women of good faith to explore an ever greater openness and responsiveness to the reforms needed to help the Church to grow in wisdom. It is time for radical reform and repentance of the errors in authority and governance in the Roman Church.
It is time to look for new ways of serving and being faithful to the teachings of Jesus. The abuse and cover-up will never end if we simply go back to the pre-Vatican Church of the 12th century. It is time for old fearful men to resign and let younger and more progressive heads prevail. Only then will the people of God put their trust again in the Church.
To date there is not much hope for our future as we are lead by blind fearful men who have no vision of what the Church of Christ is being called to become by the Holy Spirit.
I see this as a big push away
I see this as a big push away from Rome...but I fear it...because the Bishops did such a lousy job handling sex abuse in their diocese.
The attitude probably stems
The attitude probably stems from clerical culture of the old Europe -- aristocratic bishops and popes -- answerable to nobody -- and the fact that the Roman Catholic Church was the "state church" for many centuries.
The Irish Catholic culchie diaspora and its empire bolstered up all this arrogance after the Church lost its hold on the European continent.
The future of the Catholic Church in the U.S. is the hispanics and for the Catholic Church worldwide -- the third world.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7346032.stm
In view of these demographic changes it will be interesting how the "clerical culture" pans out.
The Catholic clerical culture
The Catholic clerical culture of power and authority has already lost credibility and respect of much of the laity. Unfortunately good bishops and priests are often caught in an unhealty, unethical situation and forced to hide their consciences or lose their livlihood. Likely the lay organizations for reform of the church are in a better poition to save it from total collapse. We will have to see if Rome will start consulting with and collaborating with them.
I'd like to see cultural
I'd like to see cultural analyses of several U.S. churches in communion with the Church of Rome. It would have to be independent and conducted by respected scholars in various fields including organizational psychology, anthropology, history, etc.
Such factors as "manner of governance" and "exercise of authority" mentioned above are, in fact, manifestations of culture. (So is the top-down preparation of upcoming liturgical translations that effectively serve to reinforce orthotoxic beliefs and behaviors in the Church of Rome.)
For now, Catholics who decide to remain "within the fold" should divert their financial contributions intended for parishes and bishops' appeals to other worthy causes, Catholic or otherwise, that cannot be tapped by the bishops for operational expenses.
Tithing = Enabling
For Christ's sake, don't enable!!!
Joseph --- very well
Joseph --- very well put!!!!
Tithing = Enabling
Chuck from Minneapolis
The Palm Beach Fl. USA
The Palm Beach Fl. USA diocese has a rather unique perspective on the issue of sexual abuse of minors by priests in that within a period of six years, three years each, we had two bishops who were forced to admit culpability in abuse of minors. One had made ongoing payouts for 25 years. One of these bishops said, "Where were the parents?".
This line I think above all others went far, far, far beyond the pail.
In the, "Catholic Culture", parents are taught; be generous, have lots of children, educate them Catholic. The abuse perpetrated by this guy started when he was head master at a minor seminary. So obviously the boys' parents were entrusting his education to the church. What educate them Catholic now seems to mean is, "feed them to me. if I devour them, it is all your fault."
Abuse of the powers of the secrets of the holy office. With a possible promotion if you manage to keep a lid on it. The only real difference from area to area around the globe is proportional prefference. In Africa it appears at this point to be nuns, for those who do not live more or less openly with one or more women. The prefects know now and they knew the whole time about these and the founder of the Legion of Christ. Abuse of Power.
If confronted in private any one of them would probably say, "So what are you going to do about it?" I usually say, "For now, pray."
An excellent overview of the
An excellent overview of the child-abuse debacle within the Church. Here in Ireland we have the head of the Church, cardinal Sean Brady, remaining in his post as 'a wounded healer' - his own description. In fact he has lost all moral authority through his active involvement in the case of the notorious clerical paedophile, Fr Brendan Smyth, and his failure to ensure that Smyth was unable to continue his predatory attacks on children within the Church. In fact Smyth was able to continue these attacks for many years. Had Sean Brady come out at an early stage and admitted his involvement in this issue he may have retained some of his authority. In fact he said nothing at all about it until it became a matter of public knowledge as a result of a legal case taken by one of Fr Smyth's victims. Archbishop Martin has been the one who has dealt most openly and honestly with the clerical child-abuse scandal, but the pope's recent decision not to accept the resignation of 2 of the Auxiliary bishops named in the Murphy Report is a clear indication that as far as the Church is concerned Archbishop Martin has gone too far. It's yet another futile attempt by the Vatican to draw a line under an issue which is still far from resolved.
While there is much to ponder
While there is much to ponder in this article, I do not believe it helpful to begin w/ the assumption that these three current characteristics of the church - "its clerical culture, its manner of governance, its exercise of authority" - are "intrinsic" to it. Would you attribute any one of the three to Jesus?
LOL!!! How can any of us
LOL!!!
How can any of us expect men and women who are denied an open sexuality, who are denied children, who are denied spouses, to understand the abuse of children at a gut level? Of course priests, bishops, brothers and nuns have no sense of what is involved in sexual abuse of children! They are non-participants in the lives of children.
Expecting them to have a solid sense of the depth of the betrayal and damage done to children in this regard is like asking a collie what he feels about piloting a jet plane. How would he possibly know how he feels? He doesn't even know the very basics of the issues involved.
You cannot ask non-married, non-parenting, non-family oriented people involved in a life-style that is based on 4th century monastic living in the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East how they feel about child abuse at a visceral level. They don't feel anything. It is beyond their ability to understand the issue on a gut level or in the sense that a parent understands it.
If you asked me how I would feel as a gaucho in Argentina or a Taoist monk in China or anastronaut in outer space I could only guess. I have no experience with these things. And clerics and nuns have no experience in the raising of children, the loving and living with spouses or the ups and downs of married family life. Asking them to guide us or feel for us in these areas is ridiculous. Do math professors at the local college or state university teach English literature? Of course not, and why not? Because they are not qualified to teach outside their field.
Its the same with expecting clerics and nuns to viscerally comprehend child abuse from the point of view of a parent or guardian. The entire idea is ridiculous.
Wow, Thomas Barnes!
Wow, Thomas Barnes! PERFECTLY EXPRESSED! You said it all. Thank you!
The clerical culture may not
The clerical culture may not be able to heal itself. When most of these celibate males, work with, socialize with, live with, and have their careers entirely dependent on each other, it is very difficult to find any impartiality, or any decision not affected by personal relationships and career considerations within a tiny and closed group. It is a form of inbreeding.
The solution has to include changing the institutions to include regular and effective decisions affecting group members from outside the group.
Clergy should not be passing around assignments among themselves. There should be application processes followed by evaluations and assignments from administrators outside the culture. There needs to be diocesan divisions of labor to free as many of the ordained as possible for direct sacramental ministry to the laity and to put laity into all(perhaps term limited) administrative positions in all dioceses. Lay career advancement has to regularly extend outside of diocesan boundaries and depend on professional preparation and achievement.
Parishioners need to submit regular and detailed evaluations to pastors with copies to the diocesan administration. Parishioners need to be able to specify which pastoral skills they find most in need for their next pastor. Some way needs to be found for either the parish or the diocese to submit to the other a slate of candidates for interviews and assignments.
Having to "live above the store" and go home to the same house as your boss certainly contributes to the negative elements of clerical culture. It might be a good idea to get priests living off parish premises, to places where they have neighbors, maybe priest roommates of their own choosing, and the normal social interactions of neighborhoods, shopping, even commuting.
These suggestions do not address the institutional bases of clerical culture, or the problems of the seminary system developed to deal with the problems of the Sixteenth Century, nor the feudal and monarchical assumptions of that culture, but they do suggest some practical directions for change to ameliorate the introspective nature of clergy whose home, social, and professional lives are bound to fewer people than an average size high school. The clergy need to be better integrated with the laity, even under the present restriction to male celibates.
1) Coleridge's list:
1) Coleridge's list: A)Duh,...ya think???? B) Surprise!
2) What church "culture of forgiveness"? The church didn't believe in "crime & punishment"? People in my and many other families were totally devastated when they got a divorce, for serious and valid reasons, and were then forbidden to ever remarry. That policy not only punished the couple who were divorced but punished all of those couples who DID NOT divorce when they should have. It destroyed not only those couples, but whole families. You could be forgiven for committing murder, but not for committing divorce.
There has long been a
There has long been a "culture of forgiveness" for clerics. Not for anyone else.
How long will it take for us,
How long will it take for us, the Church, to recognise who Christ calls us to really be? People of faith, hope and love in the midst of the Kingdom for which we constantly pray: "Thy Kingdom come"?
Thank goodness some people are beginning to once again face reality in an honest and frank way. Thanks Tom for your writing.
"The problem of clericalism
"The problem of clericalism is composed of several problems. It is the problem of a caste that arrogates to itself undue authority, that makes unwarranted claims to wisdom, even to having a monopoly on understanding the mind of God. The consequence is the great weakening of the Church by denigrating or excluding the many gifts of the Spirit present in the people who are the Church. The problem of clericalism arises when 'the church' acts in indifference, or even contempt, toward the people who are the Church."
Richard J. Neuhaus, June 1989.
If the bishops were parents
If the bishops were parents of children they would have had a totally different approach to pedophilia. They would be enraged if they had any human feelings!!!
A parent would have protected his children and not their predators!
"If the bishops were parents
"If the bishops were parents of children they would have had a totally different approach to pedophilia. They would be enraged if they had any human feelings!!!
A parent would have protected his children and not their predators!"
The prelatical divas preferred to protect their own kind and themselves from serving time rather than protecting the innocent victims. That attitude hasn't changed.
Archbishop Coleridge presents
Archbishop Coleridge presents a wonderfully thoughtful and cohesive explanation/description of clerical culture.
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