Catholic Church needs real change
Actions of predators and those who covered for them have damaged all members
There is a cancer within the Roman Catholic Church and without immediate and decisive intervention it will die.
The systemic and systematic sexual assault by clergy upon children, adolescents, seminarians and nuns defies comprehension. Just consider for a moment the sheer geographic scope of the scandal: Canada, the United States, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia and Chile. And it spans decades.
The most recent revelation of abuse, as evidenced in the investigation undertaken by the Grand Jury in Pennsylvania, has revealed well over a thousand victims in six dioceses. The evidence was based on the Church’s own internal documents acquired by the Grand Jury, as well as the statements of victims and perpetrators who appeared before them over a two year period. The final report is enough to churn one’s stomach as, apparently, was an even longer report presented to Pope Francis by Archbishop Scicluna of Malta after his investigation into abuse in Chile. Then, there is the result of the commission of inquiry into abuse in Australia. The Church’s participation in the residential schools in Canada can only be called an exercise in cultural genocide. It is all quite overwhelming in its extent and utterly incomprehensible for an institution dedicated to upholding and defending the dignity of the human person. This betrayal of Gospel values is staggering. The Roman Catholic Church has lost it moral compass, voice and authority. Its integrity lay in ruins. Its very foundation, built on trust, shattered.
How did this happen? How did we allow so many dysfunctional and psycho-sexually immature men to be ordained? Why did we protect the predators at the expense of the victims? And why did bishops cover it up? We can apologize all we want. We can say we are sorry for the mistakes of the past. But it all rings hollow.
Why? Because we are not coming to grips with the fact that fundamental change is necessary and before that can happen we need a massive attitudinal change on the part of the leadership.
This cancer within the Church has its source in a very bad lifestyle, one that has fed on clericalism, careerism, and institutionalism. When we operate on the principle that the reputation of the institution supersedes the dignity and humanity of the victims then we have developed a heart of darkness. When we operate on the principle that the clerical “brotherhood” has to always have each other’s back then we have become insular and unable to see outside that paternalistic enclave. When climbing the hierarchical career ladder places one in a position of power whereby that same power, instead of being at the service of others, is used to manipulate, coerce and obstruct then we have entered into moral collapse.
As a member of the Roman Catholic clergy I am sickened beyond my ability to articulate. Not for a second do I want to diminish by one iota the horror perpetrated upon the victims and what they have to live with. Not for one second do I want to draw any equivalency between how I feel as a member of the clergy and how a victim feels. There is no equivalency.
But I do know that the actions of the predators and those who covered for them have produced profound dismay among those clergy who are not predators and who try to perform their ministry with integrity. It becomes increasingly difficult to do so when trust has been destroyed. How can I stand at a pulpit and exhort others to live according to Gospel values when the very church I represent is morally sick? How can I minister to the young or vulnerable when trust has been destroyed?
The damage is incalculable but very real and far reaching. A tsunami of clerical abuse has engulfed the Church. In its wake are thousands of victims, both those directly impacted by the predators and the cover-up and those left desperately trying to find something of value in an institution whose original mission was to do good in the world.
Prayers are simply not enough. Neither are apologies. In addition to those we need a very public acknowledgement, ownership and acceptance of responsibility for inflicting an unconscionable evil upon others and it must come from the very top. And we need fundamental structural and disciplinary change. We need action. Without it the Roman Catholic Church will very soon enter into the realm of total irrelevance.