Systemic evil in the Catholic Church

This recent report of yet again another listing of sexual abuse horrors of children is not about “a few bad apples” (“Maryland AG report: ‘No parish was safe’ from ‘rampant sexual abuse’ in Baltimore’s Catholic archdiocese,” Nov. 17). It is, rather, another example of systemic evil within the Catholic Church.

There is something inherently wrong within a leadership system that lends itself to these perversities, and I wager that something is the leadership structure itself. An all male, celibate, single viewpoint for centuries is bound to lead to distortions, and it has. This leadership is not whole. It is not holy, not even close. The words health, healing, whole, and holy are derived from the same Anglo-Saxon root, Haelen, to be, make or become whole.

Over and over the Roman Church “reforms” involve better selection of men for the priesthood. As Einstein stated, “No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.” So too here, the answer demands a radical reorientation of their professional religious structure, and dare I say, one opened to any of God’s children who find themselves called to serve in an ordained way.

This will not eliminate sexual perversion, but it will go a long way to forging a more wholistic and therefore more holy community.