Clergy child abuse
The late Msgr. John Tracy Ellis was in my opinion the greatest Catholic Church historian of the 20th century. In my book, “Encounters With Holiness” (Alba House), I share his critique of our bishops some decades before the recent sex scandals: “The thinking of the hierarchy has been profoundly colored by a spirit of secrecy, which has pervaded the church for centuries. Thus, the bishops are vulnerable to a kind of behavior that is not so much determined by conscious choices as by the hidden forces of the institution.”
These “hidden forces” involve a misguided secrecy aimed at protecting the church from public criticism.
The bishops who failed to rule justly, wisely and swiftly in these scandals are now covered with shame. Their mistakes have caused widespread public scandal. Their earlier hesitancy to have priests arrested for their sins has backfired.
The civil authorities no longer trust bishops to protect our children.
These faulty bishops, not all, seemed stunned when they found out that any cover-up of these crimes turned out to be a greater scandal than the sins themselves.
That being said, there are some mitigating circumstances in all of this. Many so-called “reliable” psychiatrists told the bishops that, with therapy, some of the abusers would be able to return to duty.
Some bishops foolishly believed them. Even the psychiatrists were misguided on this topic.
We now know that pedophilia is a lifelong malady for which there is no cure as of yet.
I can’t imagine that any bishop would ever knowingly turn a blind eye to the monstrous evil done to abused children. What I think happened in most of these cases was that the instinct to hide one’s dirty linen from the public led to a failure to act decisively and with finality.
The idea that pedophilia was merely a character defect similar to drug or alcohol addiction led many to choose therapy and wishful thinking over the permanent removal of the culprit from the ranks of the clergy.
There will be no healing from this tragic blight on the church until we move into a completely new culture of absolute intolerance of this crime. Once this is assured, we need to adopt a spirit of forgiveness for all concerned — victims, bishops and abusers alike.
I think Catholics everywhere should begin praying for both victims and abusers.
This won’t be easy. Forgiveness is what the Lord asks of us even if we don’t feel like forgiving.
Forgiveness is in the will, not the feelings. The will says yes or no.
We forgive not because we feel the person deserves it, and not because the predator offers a suitable apology.
We forgive because the Lord wants us to begin the healing process for ourselves and for the church. Jesus said, “I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete” (Jn 15:11).
As a first step, pray for the grace to forgive. Once again, it must be stressed that along with the new spirit of forgiveness, there must be a real policy of zero-tolerance of child abuse.
With that assurance in place, each of us must try to forgive those bishops who failed us. Fire them for their grave negligence, but pray for God’s mercy upon them.
Shame on those who have not been fired!
But pray for them anyway.
A campaign of prayer and fasting by each one of us can begin right now.
Knowing that the Lord takes delight in our charity, we can proceed with confidence.