A Priest Predator, a Young US Doctor & an Archbishop

By Jerry Slevin
Christian Catholicism
January 29, 2015

http://christiancatholicism.com/ireland-a-priest-predator-a-us-med-student-an-archbishop/

Dr. Rosemary McHugh, a US family physician, has just bravely described her own experience as a victim of an Irish priest predator and the hurt it has caused her. She describes his outrageous and unexpected misconduct when she sought spiritual guidance from him, while she was a young doctor in Dublin following her Jesuit Loyola University (Chicago) undergraduate education. She also describes the help she received from present Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin. Aiming to help curtail priest abuse, Dr. McHugh has generously made available to me for posting here a chapter she prepared on a pro bono basis for an upcoming book on restorative justice. Dr. McHugh’s chapter, set forth below in full, offers much hope and wisdom to abuse survivors and the entire Church community, as they continue to try to come to grips with this terrible and ongoing scandal in the Catholic Church.

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CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE PERSPECTIVE OF A FAMILY PHYSICIAN WHO IS ALSO A VICTIM/SURVIVOR OF CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE

BY: Dr. Rosemary Eileen McHugh, M.D., M.B.A., M.Spir.

Introduction In the past, I had always been a great defender of the Roman Catholic Church, and believed the Church when it claimed that it was being victimized by others. If I had not been sexually assaulted by a Carmelite priest myself, I would find it hard to believe that any priest, religious brother, nun, bishop, cardinal, or pope would even think of sexually abusing an innocent child or a vulnerable adult. It took my own personal experience to help me to understand that sexual abuse by clergy and nuns in the Roman Catholic Church is not only possible but it is worldwide, with no need for accountability to civil, criminal, or international law. I believe that there are still many good clergy and nuns in the Catholic Church. I am sad that most of the leaders of the Church have chosen to ignore the command of Jesus to protect the innocence of children and to make the sexual predators accountable to civil, criminal, and international law, like other sexual predators are subject to, thereby putting more children at risk of being sexually abused by clergy in the Roman Catholic Church.

My Background I grew up in a very Catholic family in Chicago. My parents, Thomas McHugh and Rose Ann Moore, were immigrants from County Mayo, Ireland. They met at the Irish dances in Chicago, married, and raised three children. I was the middle child.

My parents had deep faith and every night we were all on our knees to say the family rosary. Every morning my mother and I were at Mass with my brother Tom, who was older and an altar boy. Tom went through the seminary system and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1967. In his first parish assignment, Tom fell in love with one of the lay teachers in the parish school. He became laicized and left the priesthood to marry. My brother and his lovely wife are happily married and have raised five wonderful children, who are now all married and having their own families. Tom received an M.B.A. from Loyola University Chicago and worked in business for years. Now Tom is the Director of Religious Education in the parish where he and his wife live, and where they raised their family in South Carolina. My sister married and became a legal secretary. There are several nuns and priests in my family.

Educational Background I went to Catholic schools. In grammar school, I was taught by the Franciscan nuns from kindergarten through grade five, then by the Dominican nuns from grade six through grade eight. I was taught by the Benedictine nuns at an all-girls high school, St. Scholastica Academy. I was taught by the Jesuits at Loyola University Chicago and graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Biology, in the Honors Pre-Medical Program in 1966, and later with a Masters Degree in Spirituality in Spiritual Direction in 2013.

After receiving my Medical Degree from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland in 1972, I did my internship and some residency training in Dublin. While working in a hospital Casualty Department/Emergency Room, I came down with severe pneumonia in both lungs and was a ward patient for a month in St Kevin’s Hospital in Dublin(now a Trinity teaching hospital called St James’ Hospital). When I returned to health, I was blessed with the opportunity to train six months in obstetrics at the Rotunda Maternity Hospital in Dublin.

In 1975, I moved to England to do further medical training before returning home to Chicago. At the Queen Elizabeth Medical Centre in Birmingham, England and in Leeds, I did a residency in OB/GYNE and a 2 year Fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology.

Years later when I was home in Chicago, I received a Masters in Business Administration Degree from Dominican University, Rosary College, in Illinois, in 1992, with the hope that I could advocate for my patients more effectively in the newly developing medicine-for-profit arena. Sadly, I found that the business people were only interested in making profits, and showed no interest in the complexities of patient care.

My Desire to become a Medical Doctor

My desire was to become a medical doctor. I was grateful to be accepted into the honors program in pre-medical studies at Loyola University Chicago.

In my first pre-medical year, I was hit by a car on Sheridan Road as I was running across the street to get the train home after class at Loyola’s lake shore campus. Both bones in my right lower leg, the tibia and fibula, were fractured and tore through the skin anteriorly, a few inches above the ankle. A long rod was put inside my tibia bone surgically for stabilization of the fracture and remains there to this day. I was in a cast on my right leg up to my upper thigh for 3 months and had to use crutches. I was grateful to be able to return to my classes, by getting a small room in the girl’s dorm, instead of being a commuter.

My mother was pressuring me to be sure to get to confession at least once a month. I thought I had a good reason not to be able to get there, since I could not get into a confessional with my leg cast. My mother won and I asked a Jesuit if I could go to confession after the daily Mass that I attended.

The Jesuit happened to be the one who had been in the ambulance with me, after I was hit by the car. Following Mass, the priest and I went into a quiet vending machine room near the chapel, and I went to confession face to face for the first time, while standing with the support of my crutches. That was my first experience of going to confession outside the confessional and I found it helpful. The Jesuit, Fr. Ralph Talkin, S.J., then became my spiritual director for the four years that I was in pre-med at Loyola.

My parents encouraged me to apply to medical school in Ireland, because Ireland tended to have balanced classes of about equal women to men. The United States medical schools at the time favored men. Since I preferred to be where there were equal men and women in training, I applied and was accepted to the medical school at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. I was very grateful, because I had many aunts, uncles, and cousins in Ireland. I am deeply grateful to my parents who always gave me their continual love, support, and prayers. I am also deeply grateful for my excellent medical education at Trinity College Dublin.

As a Medical Student in Dublin, I Sought Spiritual Guidance

In my last two years of medical school in Ireland, I felt the need for spiritual guidance. I started to go regularly to confession to a priest, Fr. Richard Mulcahy, who happened to belong to the Catholic group called Opus Dei. Since he was very busy as the head of Opus Dei in Ireland, I transferred to Fr. Oliver Powell as my regular confessor. I never joined Opus Dei and was grateful that these priests were available to students for confession and spiritual guidance. At times, Fr. Powell was not available and I went to confession at one of the churches near Trinity College. On a few occasions, I went to confession to a Fr. Desmond McCaffrey, a Discalced Carmelite priest, in a confessional in St. Teresa’s Church, off Grafton St. in Dublin’s city center and down the road from Trinity College.

The Sexual Assault

The only time that I ever met Fr. McCaffrey outside of the confessional was the time that the sexual assault occurred. At the end of confession one day, the priest invited me to an evening devotion that he was giving in a few days to lay people and nuns at a convent in Dublin. It was on a rare night that I was not on duty, and I was glad to be free to attend. After the service, Fr. McCaffrey asked me for a lift back to St Teresa’s. I agreed. On the way, as I drove by my flat, the priest said he would like to see my flat and have a cup of tea before he returned to where he lived. I never thought there would be a problem. After making a pot of tea, I turned around towards Fr. McCaffrey and was stunned to see him standing in front of me with dropped pants around his ankles and masturbating into his handkerchief. He then sat down on the couch and continued masturbating into his handkerchief. I had never seen a man masturbating before.

I was shocked and silent. He told me that he regularly saw a young woman for spiritual direction and they would go to her bedroom, undress, and go to bed together. He also mentioned that his favorite book was The Little Prince and that his name in religion was Fr Emmanuel, which means “God is with us”!

I was surprised that he showed no shame or guilt and made no apology to me. I gave up the thought of a cup of tea and just said that I would drive him home. I said nothing more. He pulled up his pants, and I drove him back to St Teresa’s.

My Reaction to the Sexual Assault

After I left Fr. McCaffrey off at St Teresa’s Church, I remember being very upset and shaken as I was driving back to my flat. I wondered why the incident happened? I wondered what I had done to cause it? I felt a very heavy weight in my heart, as I wondered how I could repair my relationship with God, who I love deeply and would never want to offend. After much prayer, I decided that the best thing would be for me to go to confession to a priest that I did not know, and confess that I had sinned sexually with a priest. I decided to confess it as me being totally responsible, because I did not know what responsibility was mine before God.

The next time that I was in the confessional to talk with Fr. Oliver Powell, I told him what had happened. He offered me absolution in case I would feel better getting absolution. I told him that I already went to confession in case there was need to do that, and I did not want absolution from him, because I wanted him to feel free to speak to whoever he needed to, without the seal of confession being a hindrance to him in my regard. He asked me for permission to talk with Fr. Mulcahy, his Superior, about my experience. I agreed.

Intuitively, I had the feeling that Fr. Powell did not believe my story at first. Then I reflected on Catholic teaching about Mary Magdalene being a prostitute and how in the seminary, young men were being told that women could not be trusted and were causes of temptation and sin. The Eastern Catholic Church has always had respect for Mary Magdalene, and has even referred to her as “the Apostle to the Apostles”. The fact that the Eastern Catholic Church has never forced mandatory celibacy on its priests has given it a healthier appreciation of women, in my view.

When I next spoke with Fr. Powell, he told me that Fr. Mulcahy wanted me to give him the name of the priest involved, in order to give him what is called “fraternal correction”. I was reluctant for some time to give the name of the priest, since I felt that I had no right to openly accuse anyone other than myself. Finally, I did give the name of the priest to Fr. Powell. Before Fr. Powell saw him, the priest called me at my job and wanted to meet again. There was no apology in his voice. I told him that I did not wish to see him again. Then Fr. Powell made an appointment to see him.

After he met with Fr. McCaffrey, Fr. Powell told me that he was surprised by the less than humble reaction of the Carmelite priest, who was annoyed that he was found out and tried to make Fr. Powell feel bad for presuming to give fraternal correction to a brother priest. Fr. Powell told me that he recognized the priest as someone who had been studying in Rome at the same time that he was there. Nothing further was done at that time. The Carmelite Superior and Provincial were not informed.

Soon afterwards, I left for England to continue my postgraduate medical training for a few years in the National Health Service, before returning home to Chicago in 1980. In 1988, I married another physician, Dr. George B. Beranek, and we settled in the Chicago area. We were married for 15 years.

On reflection, I am grateful that God gave me the opportunity to have to talk to a trusted person about the sexual assault soon after it happened. Otherwise, knowing myself as an introvert, I may have withdrawn into myself with a feeling of estrangement from God. Having an honest and truthful loving relationship with God has always been deeply important to me.

I never talked about the clergy sexual abuse that I experienced in Dublin to my parents or to anyone else after I left Ireland for England, until more recently. I can completely understand victims of clergy sexual abuse who never talk about it, or only get the courage to talk about it thirty or more years later.

My Desire to Deepen My Relationship with God

In 2006, I had the opportunity to do a 36-Day Retreat on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola at a Jesuit Retreat House in Los Altos, California. A lot had happened in my life. I had married a fellow physician. We were unable to have a child, even with the help of invitro fertilization(IVF). Both his widowed father and my widowed mother, who had lived with us, had passed away. My husband and I divorced. We sold our home. I was doing a Fellowship in Geriatric Medicine at the Veteran’s Hospital. I felt the need for a closer relationship with God.

My spiritual director during the long retreat was a Jesuit priest who was a psychotherapist from London. Fr. David Smolira, S.J. was in transition from being the Jesuit Provincial of England, Scotland, Wales, and South Africa, to setting up a Jesuit Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa. He had also done training in the U.S. During the retreat, I did share my story of what happened to me in Ireland. Fr. Smolira told me that I had experienced a sexual assault. That was the first time that I was able to put a name on what happened to me, in my experience with Fr. Desmond McCaffrey.

The Memory of the Sexual Assault Returned in 2010

In 2010, I was in Ireland for a brief visit to attend a family wedding in County Mayo. I landed in Dublin early on a Monday and checked into a Dublin hotel for the night. Since it was shortly before noon, I thought it would be good to attend noontime Mass to thank God for my joy at being back in Ireland to see my relatives again. The Church nearby happened to be St Teresa’s Carmelite Church. As I was looking towards the altar during Mass, to my surprise, I saw the name of Fr. D. McCaffrey on the first confessional near the altar. I became overwhelmed by memories of the sexual assault. I asked God what should I do, and did this mean that I should do something now, and share my story with someone to protect others?

On the internet, I had been reading about the clergy sexual abuse problems in Ireland. I was impressed to read that the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Diarmuid Martin, was standing up for the victims, even at the expense of his own fellowship with his fellow priests and bishops, who were covering up for their clergy brothers.

Gratitude to Fr Oliver Powell and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin

I wondered if Fr. Powell was still in Ireland. I called the Opus Dei house and asked to speak to Fr. Powell. To my delight, Fr. Powell came on the phone. I told him that I was just passing through Ireland to attend a family wedding, and I found that Fr. Desmond McCaffrey was still in active ministry, and that I felt led to write to the Archbishop of Dublin to share my story, and to tell him that I did not think the Carmelite should still be in active ministry. Fr. Powell was very kind. He told me that he remembered what happened to me years ago, as if it was yesterday, and for me to give his phone number to the Archbishop in my letter, so that he could back up my story to the Archbishop. That night I wrote to the Archbishop and mailed it before leaving Dublin the next morning.

Telling My Story to the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Diarmuid Martin

As soon as the Archbishop read my letter, he called me on my cell phone and wanted to meet and hear my story. When it seemed like our schedules were not matching, the Archbishop offered to have me meet with someone else. I told him that I did not know what kind of spin another priest might put on my story, and I would like to be able to tell him directly. We were able to meet at the Archbishop’s House. I was able to share my story. The Archbishop was an attentive listener. At the end of an hour, the Archbishop told me that he would get back to me.

Shortly after I arrived home to Chicago, I got an email from the Archbishop, from the Carmelite Provincial Fr. James Noonan, O.C.D., and from a lady, Dr. Johanna Merry, who worked as a pastoral counselor on cases of clergy sexual abuse for the Church. I learned later that Dr. Merry had been a nun and now was married.

Telling My Story to the Police and to the Detectives at the Sexual Crimes Unit in Dublin

After I sent Dr. Merry my story, she referred my case directly to the police, which was the policy of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and which, I believe, needs to be the policy in the United States and around the world. After communicating several months with the Dublin police, my case was then transferred to the Sexual Crimes Unit in Dublin and I worked with the Dublin Detective Unit.

Dr Merry presented my complaint to Fr. McCaffrey, his Superior, and his Provincial. Of most concern to me about Fr. McCaffrey had been his apparent lack of conscience, with no apology and no apparent remorse at the time of the sexual assault. He was exhibitionist in his behavior towards me and acted as one who felt invulnerable and protected by the power of “Holy Mother Church”, with no need to be accountable for his actions.

I believe that Fr. McCaffrey only admitted to masturbating in front of me, and apologized when Dr. Merry read him my complaint, because he knew that my advocate, Fr. Powell, was still in active ministry and vividly recalled the situation of the sexual assault years previously. Dr. Merry said that the body language of Fr. McCaffrey was inappropriate and he was smiling while apologizing, knowing that the Church would protect him.

Fr. McCaffrey was removed from active ministry and I received a report annually on how he was being monitored. In November, 2014, I received emails from Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and from Dr Johanna Merry to inform me that Fr Desmond McCaffrey had just passed away. It was very kind and thoughtful of Archbishop Martin and of Dr. Merry to inform me of that. It was also very kind of Dr Merry to tell me that she went to the priest’s wake and brought a white rose in remembrance of our desire for healing to take place, and for Fr McCaffrey to rest in peace.

The Deceitfulness of the Predator Clergy

As I have learned more about the dynamics of the predator clergy, it is of interest to note that Fr. McCaffrey’s written version of what he remembers happening was very different from my version. He did admit that the whole episode was vague to his memory, and he referred to me as Rosaleen, instead of my name Rosemary. However, he created a very different scenario. He said that I invited him up for beer, rather than him inviting himself up to my flat for a cup of tea. He said that we had 2 beers each and one thing led to another. These lies of his have helped me to understand how hopeless victims might feel when they cannot prove that an event happened the way that it did, since priests have been put on such a pedestal, that they are believed over the victims, especially if the victim’s reputation can be discredited by the sexual predator clergy and by the Church. I am very grateful to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and to Fr. Oliver Powell for their support in bringing the truth to light, for the sake of the protection of others. I believe that Fr. McCaffrey saw me as a vulnerable adult in a flat alone and leaving Ireland soon for England, where I would be out of sight and no problem to him.

In 2011, as the scandals of clergy sexual abuse were being reported in Ireland, it was reported in The Irish Times and in the New York Times, that Archbishop John Charles McQuaid, who was Archbishop of Dublin for thirty years, was accused of serial child sexual abuse. “In a statement, a victim’s group, One in Four, called for a statutory inquiry into the allegations, saying that if Archbishop McQuaid was, as is alleged, a sex offender himself, then it is no wonder that the secrecy and cover-ups which have characterized the church’s handling of sexual abuse was so entrenched.”[2]

Archbishop McQuaid had been the Archbishop when I was a medical student at Trinity College Dublin. McQuaid had forbidden all Catholics from the Archdiocese of Dublin from going to school at Trinity College, because it was a Protestant institution at the time. Many Catholics ignored his demand and attended TCD. For many years now, Mass has been celebrated in Trinity, and the Jesuits have come on faculty and offer courses in theology. Trinity College Dublin is open to all faiths.

My Further Pursuit of God

After the retreat that I made in 2006, I developed a deep desire to learn more about the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. I decided to apply to Loyola University’s Institute of Pastoral Studies to do a Master of Divinity and Master of Spirituality combined degree part-time, while still practicing medicine as a family physician. When I found that there was not much spirituality in the Master of Divinity, which seemed to be more about Church ritual, I dropped the M.Div. part and went forward to receive the Master in Spirituality Degree in Spiritual Direction in 2013. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to train in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, since that program was still nearly completely limited to the Jesuits in training at Loyola. Sadly, the attitude of some Jesuits is that the Spiritual Exercises are a Jesuit possession, even though Ignatius was a lay person when God taught him the Spiritual Exercises, which were meant for everyone, women and men. The Church leaders would not even listen to Ignatius until he became a priest, and even then, the Church called him up twice to the Inquisition. The leaders of the Church did not seem to like the idea of the lay people being given direct access to God, which was an important part of the message given by God to Ignatius, when he was a lay person.

My Research on Child Sexual Abuse in the Roman Catholic Church

While doing the Master of Spirituality, I had the opportunity to do research on the clergy sexual abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church. The following is my research on the sexual abuse of children in the Roman Catholic Church, which I did mainly during my course in pastoral ethics at Loyola University Chicago. I learned that clergy sexual abuse of innocent children and vulnerable adults has been going on for centuries, with little or no demand for accountability of the abusers by the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church. More and more cases, both old and new, are coming to light in the U.S., in Ireland, in Britain, in Italy, in Germany, in Belgium, in Africa, and around the world. Tragically, judges, lawyers, police, and politicians have also been complicit in protecting the hierarchy of the Church and the predators from accountability to criminal and civil law.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)

I was curious to learn more about the problem, about the victims of clergy sexual abuse, and about how the abuse had affected them in trying to live their daily lives. On the television news, I saw a small group of people, with photos of children and priests, peacefully demonstrating outside of a Church. They said that their aim was to pressure the leaders of the Church to protect children from sexual abuse by priests. The group was called the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (also known as SNAP).

I discovered that the Founder and President of SNAP, Barbara Blaine, was based in Chicago. I phoned her and she agreed to an interview. I found Barbara to be a very quiet and humble person. As I listened to her story, I marveled at how God has led her from repeated sexual abuse as a child over years, by a priest in her home parish in Ohio, to her decision to earn a Masters Degree in Social Work, a Master of Divinity Degree, and then, in order to advocate more effectively for abused children, Barbara earned a Law Degree from DePaul University School of Law in Chicago.

Barbara’s journey has brought her to learn that her case of abuse was not that unusual. Years ago, when she had the courage to tell her parents about the parish priest’s abuse of her, she thought she was the only one that this happened to. She and her parents met with their bishop. He assured her that there were no other complaints against that priest. She said she felt so isolated and went through many years of therapy. She did not have the courage to be with a man for many years. She finally did marry at forty-five years of age.

Over the years, she found out that several of her classmates had been abused by the same priest. It seemed that the bishop had lied to her and to her parents. She felt that there may be many more women and men out there, who were abused by priests as children, and kept their secret hidden. Who could they share this shameful secret with? Who would believe that a holy priest of God would sexually abuse a child?

I had the opportunity to attend a few meetings of victims and family members who met regularly for the support of being with others, who understood what it was like to suffer the memory of priest sexual abuse. Each person had her/his unique story. A man in his 40’s spoke of being regularly abused by priests as a teenager. He was confused about what priesthood stood for. These were his first sexual experiences and he became confused about his sexuality. As an adult, he remains in and out of therapy.

A parent was grieving the loss of an adult son, who recently had committed suicide. The son had never told anyone that he was sexually abused by a priest when he was an altar boy. The son was married and had even kept his secret from his wife. Over the past year, as more stories of abuse by priests were coming out in the media, the son became overwhelmed with guilt and shame. He became estranged from his wife, telling her not to touch him, because he was dirty. Unexpectedly, he took his own life.

I met David Clohessy, Executive Director of SNAP, and learned that he and his brothers were sexually abused for years by a young priest in their parish. His trusting parents were happy to have a priest interested in their sons. When David tried to tell his parents about the abuse, they asked their son, Kevin, who was now a priest. Kevin denied it and made it seem like David was psychologically unstable. So, David became an outcast in his family. His parents continued to believe Kevin, until Kevin was found guilty of child sexual abuse as a priest. David is married, has 2 young sons, and lives in Missouri.

Both David Clohessy and Barbara Blaine want to do all in their power to protect children from sexual abuse by priests. They know how it can seriously affect the rest of a person’s life. SNAP prefers to speak of the victims as survivors, sadly too many of the victims of clergy sexual abuse around the world have committed suicide, and never had the opportunity to become survivors.

I also met one of 200 deaf men who had been sexually abused as children by the priest in charge of an institution for the deaf in Wisconsin. When some of the deaf children tried to escape, they were not believed by police, and were returned to the priest’s control. These deaf children lived a nightmare. As adults, some of them have the courage to tell their stories now.

What is Child Sexual Abuse and What are Effects of Child Sexual Abuse

Child sexual abuse occurs when a child is exploited sexually. It can take many forms: exposure of genitals, fondling, oral, vaginal, and/or anal intercourse. Children are most often sexually abused by someone they know and trust. The sexual abuse can occur for years. The child is manipulated into remaining silent. Victims are terrified of revealing the violence that was done to them sexually due to confusion, shame, guilt, and fear of being blamed, punished, or not believed.

Effects of sexual abuse include regressive behaviors, acting out, anxiety, low self-esteem, depression, suicide. It can take a lifetime for the abused to have the courage to speak up about what happened to them. Many never get the courage to speak out. Sadly, some victims of clergy sexual abuse commit suicide, when they give up hope of their story being believed, because of the secrecy and denial of the truth by the predator clergy, by their superiors, and by the hierarchy.

The sexual abuse of children includes the abuse of prepubescent, pubescent, and post pubescent children. Pedophilia is the name given to a sexual preference for prepubescent children of either sex. Seto, a clinical psychologist, says that the prevalence of pedophilia in the general population is unknown.[3]

Although Garry Wills, in his book Papal Sin says that the Roman Catholic priesthood is predominantly a gay profession,[4] Bishop Robinson of Australia believes the sexual abuse of children by priests can be a crime of opportunity. Some priests may be situational pedophiles and some may be true pedophiles.[5] In a clerical culture, where power and authority are abused, and where only prepubescent children are available for sexual gratification, priests who are homosexual or heterosexual may take advantage of the vulnerable situation of a child.

George Wilson, S.J., in his book Clericalism, The Death of Priesthood,[6] says that the clerical culture gives a priest a sense of status and prestige and an exaggerated sense of entitlements. Clericalism includes the belief that the clergy are superior to the laity.

Donald Cozzens, a priest and teacher, in his book Sacred Silence,[7] says that there is no sustained, honest effort to get to the bottom of the worldwide priest sexual abuse scandal that is rocking the Church. Instead, an anxious Church bureaucracy expresses denial, legalism, controlling power, and secrecy. He says a caste system evolved when the celibate, all male clergy lost sight of their primary identity as disciples and over identified with their ministerial priesthood. This psychologically isolates the priests from the everyday struggles of believers.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin spoke at Marquette Law School in Milwaukee on the clergy sexual abuse crisis, and on the need for restorative justice towards the victim/survivors of clergy abuse by the Roman Catholic Church. He found two main characteristics of the priest abusers whom he interviewed: narcissism and grandiosity. Dr Martin said that, with rare exception, none of the abusers had any guilt about sexually abusing a child.[8]

What Role Mandatory Celibacy Might Play in Clergy Sexual Abuse

Many believe that mandatory celibacy plays a huge role in the priest sexual abuse of children. In his book Faith That Dares to Speak,[9] Cozzens asks why the Church keeps defending celibacy? In answer, he says the power and control of the Church leadership increases when the emotional and affective support of a wife is denied. The celibate priest’s psychic investment in “Holy Mother Church” is his only identity, since he is neither husband nor parent.

Richard Sipe,[10] a former Benedictine priest for eighteen years, and a psychotherapist with a specialty in treating and counseling clergy, says that the scandal of priestly sexual abuse of minors reflects a flawed celibate/sexual system of ecclesiastical power. Power is consolidated in sexual terms. Analysis demonstrates a false understanding of the nature of human sexuality and of real human experience. He says that the present system fosters and protects sexual abuse.

Sipe found that many priests who abuse minors were abused themselves, as “special” friends of older priests. He says that the preferred candidates in the Roman Catholic clerical culture are obedient, submissive, and psychologically immature. Single men are more easily controlled, if their sexuality is secret. Double lives at all levels of clerical life are tolerated. Sipe says that Church leaders who are, or have been, sexually active are hard put to correct clerics who are abusing minors.

The power and control that holds the Roman Catholic Church together depends on the preservation of the celibate myth. Sipe says the 2002 Dallas Zero Tolerance Accord has largely failed in the U.S. He wonders if there will be a needed reformation in the Roman Catholic Church, as the systemic abuse of clerical celibacy is known.

In an article in the National Catholic Reporter in 2010, called “The Inner Workings of a Hierarchy with a Sex Offender Mentality,”[11] it was noted that the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church look at the sexual abuse of minors, as a violation of moral law, rather than as a violation of children. The article is written by Fran Ferder, a Franciscan nun and clinical psychologist, and John Heagle, a priest, psychotherapist, and canon lawyer. Both are professors at Seattle University.

Ferder and Heagle say that the Church’s focus on the violation of the law, instead of on the violation of children, shows that the main concern of the hierarchical Church is obedience to the law. A violated law and a violated child evoke quite different emotional responses. Tears are generally not shed over a broken law. These authors say that perhaps this is why we have seen precious few tears among Church leaders. They have been schooled to place obedience to the law above all else, with a tragic disconnect of empathy for the victims, being the predictable result.

The celibate priesthood has dehumanizing aspects to it. Ferder and Heagle found that the cognitive processing of clergy sexual abusers deny responsibility, minimize the seriousness of their offenses, blame their victims, can react with outrage when accused, redirect attention away from their behavior, and believe that they are above accountability.

These characteristics can be present in institutions and systems, as well as in individuals. Ferder and Heagle believe that this “group think” is part of the institution of the Roman Catholic Church. Many bishops deny, defend, blame the victims, minimize, cover-up, and display appalling deficits in empathy for the victims, even though the victims had been innocent children when abused, and their trust in the Church has been betrayed.

I believe that the Church would be healthier if priests, homosexual and heterosexual, were free to marry, and if men and women were able to be priests. This could decrease sexism, homophobia, and clergy sexual abuse, and increase compassion in the Church, as recommended by Moral Theologian Daniel Maguire from Marquette University in Wisconsin, a former priest who is now married with a family.

The Role of the Hierarchy in Covering-up and Protecting Predators Around the World

In my research, I found that Pope Benedict XVI, as Cardinal Ratzinger, was the head of the office in charge of faith and morals for twenty-four years in Rome, and dealt with clergy sexual abuse cases. In 2001, Cardinal Ratzinger issued an order to Catholic bishops all over the world, essentially instructing them to put the Church’s interests of avoiding scandal and protecting its assets, ahead of protecting the innocence of children from abuser priests.[12]

Instead of reporting cases of priest sexual abuse to the legal authorities and removing the guilty priests from active ministry, Cardinal Ratzinger facilitated the cover-up, the moving of predator priests to other parishes, other cities, and other countries. Even today, former Pope Benedict XVI is not admitting to his personal responsibility in allowing priest sexual abuse to flourish worldwide.

An excellent legal review of the lack of accountability of the popes is given by Geoffrey Robertson, Queen’s Counsel, human rights lawyer, and judge at the United Nations in his book in 2010,The Case of the Pope: Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuse.[13] The book is a devastating indictment of the way the Vatican has run a secret legal system that shields pedophile priests from criminal crime around the world. Robertson asks should the pope and his seat of power, the Holy See, continue to enjoy an immunity that places them above the law and allows terrible sexual crimes against children to go unpunished? Robertson argues that the pope and Vatican will remain serious enemies to the advance of human rights, unless they divest themselves of statehood and of obsolete Canon Law.

As of March 28, 2014, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has counted 6,427 clerics credibly accused between 1950-2013, which is 5.9% of U.S. priests. The bishops omitted reporting 2003 allegations, when there was a flood of allegations following the Dallas Charter, when more victims were getting the courage to speak up.[14] Only some bishops have released names. It is very important to note that an objective data base has found that fewer than 2 percent of sexual abuse allegations against the Catholic Church are false.[15]

The names of the abusing priests must be released, so that parents can be informed and protect their children. There has been so much deception by so many leaders of the Roman Catholic Church that SNAP is recommending that victim/survivors not bother with dealing with the Church in child abuse cases, and go directly to the police instead.[16]

The deceit and duplicity of Church leaders were starkly revealed in Philadelphia where a grand jury found that 37 accused priests were still in active ministry,[17] even though the archdiocese had recently passed the audit set up by the USCCB to protect children,[18] and Cardinal Rigali had said that there were no abuser priests in active ministry.[19] With this proof that the 2002 Charter is being ignored by some bishops, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, former chair of the USCCB National Review Board, asks if bishops can ever be trusted.[20] Cardinal Rigali has retired from his position in Philadelphia. He has never been indicted by law enforcement for his gross obstruction of justice towards the victims of clergy sexual abuse.

Religious order priests and brothers and nuns, diocesan priests, bishops, and cardinals have been found to be abusers. In the U.S., Bishop Accountability found that at least 19 bishops have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. Recently, it was reported in the New York Times, that a top Republican in New Hampshire called a bishop a “pedophile pimp” and said that the bishop had “brought shame and dishonor on my Church.”[21]

A Belgium bishop abruptly retired when it was made public that he sexually abused his own nephew for thirteen years, before and after being made bishop.[22] There have been at least thirteen documented suicides resulting from priest sexual abuse in Belgium.[23] It has been reported that over two hundred and fifty Chicago parishes have had accused priests over time, especially in low income neighborhoods. [24]

A Royal Commission in Australia that was set up to investigate sexual abuse within churches has found that at least forty boys and young men, who were taught by the same religious order of priests and brothers, have committed suicide in a small area of the country called Ballarat, when they gave up hope that their stories would be believed of being raped by their clergy teachers, because of the secrecy and denial of the truth by the sexual predator clergy, by their superiors, and by the hierarchy.[25] Cardinal Pell is from Ballarat and is now in the Vatican.

The former bishop of Joliet, Illinois, Bishop Sartain, who has been appointed to investigate the nuns, ordained a young man to the priesthood in 2009 who had known sexual problems. The police found that the young priest was sexually abusing young boys in 2010 in the parish he was assigned to. The day the young priest was sent to prison as a sexual predator, Bishop Sartain was whisked out of Joliet by the Vatican and elevated to be the Archbishop of Seattle, Washington.[26] Why do men who show a lack of wisdom and discernment get elevated to higher office in the Church?

Sipe says that Church representatives who declare that the sexual abuse crisis is over, are doing a disservice to the Church.[27] The refusal of the Pope and Vatican to enter into serious dialogue, and the insistence that every question about human sexuality is settled and it is only needed to conform and obey, has stripped the Church of its moral leadership and has been an essential component, Sipe says, in the worldwide Catholic clergy sexual abuse crisis.

The Church wants to believe that its teachings about sexuality are firmly based in scripture, even though modern scholarship contradicts this belief. In Chapter 16, “Celibacy and Misogyny”, in the bookPredatory Priests, Silenced Victims,[28] therapist Gillian Walker suggests that for real ecclesiastical reform, there must be an examination of how scripture has been read: 1) to legitimize the control of sexuality, which is linked both to misogyny and homophobia, and 2) to secure structures of male power and wealth. There is a fear by the hierarchy that opening an honest dialogue on celibacy and sexuality will reveal the truth of the abuse of power by a male elite for centuries, not reflective of the gospels.

Papal infallibility was the creation of a mentally unstable pope, Pius IX, when he decided to declare himself infallible in 1870. The ban on artificial contraception in Humanae Vitae, by childless, celibate popes and hierarchy, causes an increase in poverty and maternal deaths around the world. The ban on contraception has nothing to do with Jesus, but everything to do with the pope and bishops’ desire for power and control over the lives of women and couples. Such abuse of power by Church leaders, who have no lived experience of an intimate sexual relationship with a woman is evil, in my view.

Jesus formed a communal group of women and men, well-to-do and outcasts, and centered his teachings on love, compassion, and the reality of God’s action on earth. The first story of creation in the Bible is in Genesis, Chapter 1, and states that God created women and men at the same time and as equals in God’s image. The second story of creation is in Genesis, Chapter 2, and gives the male fantasy myth of Adam and Eve, where woman comes from the rib of man, when it is abundantly clear that there would be no man or woman on earth unless they came from the body of a woman. Why do you think men, especially churchmen, have ignored the first story of creation since the dawn of time?

Toward the end of his life the Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, came to believe that the human capacity for the love of another, is central to the knowledge of Divine Love.[29] Merton blamed the ancient traditions of Neo-Platonism and Stoicism for the Catholic separation of flesh and spirit, “stimulating self-hatred and a loathing of the flesh…that degrades and perverts the sexual instinct leading it into forms of expression which, in their sadomasochism and hypocritical selfishness are far more dangerous, much more radically impure, than the normal expression of erotic love.” St Paul was a Greek Jew and follower of Plato, as well as a follower of Jesus. Paul has had great influence on what was written in the New Testament. In his writings, unfortunately Paul separates body and spirit. From my understanding of Jesus, Jesus saw us as integrated persons and was more wholistic in his view of us.

Jesus Said the Truth Will Set Us Free/Obedience to the Church vs. Obedience to God

This is a moment of grace for the Church. It is a moment in history when all members of the faithful are called to speak their truth in love. Daring to question is not a sign of disloyalty to the Church. It is a sign of loyalty to the Gospel. As Cozzens says, it is a moment when believers must face their fears in the silence of contemplative prayer, and lay down their burden of being held in favor, which is a burden that many priests carry.[30] It is time for us to claim our freedom in the Spirit, for the greater glory of God. The Church must be understood to be a community of equals, women and men, straight and gay, lay and ordained, married and single.

Our fidelity to the promises and oaths we make, must be consistent with the fundamental promise of fidelity to God in Jesus Christ and in the power of the Spirit. Cozzens says that the Theologian Bernard Haring[31]speaks of the crisis that occurs when fidelity to conscience conflicts with promises made to obey Church authorities. Bernard Haring is quoted as saying: “Religious obedience has…dignity. In its absolute form, we owe religious obedience to God alone.”

There is a shadow side to the promise of obedience. Instead of facing the crisis of personal obedience vs. obedience to Church authority, one may reduce the complexity of the crisis to a matter of simple obedience to one’s proximate ecclesial superior. Cozzens says that when this is the case, integrity suffers.

I believe that the Church makes a mistake when it acts as if its teachings are incapable of further insight and development. A main memory that I have of Vatican II is the instruction to pay attention to “the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel”[32] as found in the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes), promulgated by Pope Paul VI on December 7, 1965.

Resignation of Pope Benedict XVI

In 2013, some healthy changes came to the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Benedict XVI resigned as Pope, and a South American Cardinal from Argentina was elected Pope. Instead of the harsh, narrow-minded, Germanic orthodoxy of Pope Benedict, Pope Francis, the first Jesuit to become pope, is striving to create a Church of compassion for all, especially for the poor and marginalized.

Will Pope Francis be able to Restore some Integrity back into the Church

Pope Francis has set up a committee to study clergy sexual abuse. Marie Collins, a survivor from Dublin, is a member.[33] Peter Saunders, a survivor from London, is also a member. I hope the committee is not a sham to make it look like the Church is doing something. Sadly, the past actions of this pope when in Argentina show me that he lacked the courage to do what Jesus would do to protect children from clergy sexual abuse. The pope still has not demanded the hierarchy to refer all allegations of sexual abuse directly to the secular law authorities for investigation and prosecution as needed. Disappointingly, when known as Cardinal Bergoglio, Pope Francis protected sexual predator priests and refused to meet with the victims. On a more hopeful note, the Vatican has laicized Archbishop Wesolowski, so that he may face charges of sexually abusing young boys in Poland and in the Dominican Republic, where he was papal nuncio.[34]However, Pope Francis continues to protect him in the Vatican. Accountability is so important and has been so lacking.

The United Nations’ Disappoinment with the Catholic Church’s Lack of Care for Children

In February and May, 2014, the United Nations called the Vatican to Geneva for hearings, to account for the Vatican’s human rights record on addressing the ongoing worldwide crisis of clergy sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. Attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) submitted reports and attended the meetings in Geneva.[35]

CCR Staff Attorney Pam Spees said that the U.N. Committee Against Torture has called the widespread sexual violence and rapes within the Church what they are: torture. Attorney Spees wrote: “This is an important recognition of the gravity of these offenses that have been minimized by the Church and places responsibility where it belongs – with the hierarchy in the Church, not the victims – and could help open new avenues for redress.” [36]

There are no statutes of limitations on torture, whereas the Church has spent large amounts of money on lawyers to block statute of limitation reforms in civil and criminal law. By limiting the time that a victim can get justice, the Church has been able to protect the predator clergy from accountability to civil and criminal law. It can take many years for a victim to gain the courage to speak up about the clergy sexual abuse, and the Church has used that silence to its advantage, and against the victims, for many years. By limiting the time that a criminal charge or civil lawsuit can be filed, the sexual predators can escape from ever being made accountable and more children remain at risk of being sexually abused by sexual predator priests, brothers, bishops, and some nuns.

The Church has not cared to be a good shepherd to the victims of clergy sexual abuse. Sadly, in 2015, the Roman Catholic Church priesthood continues to be a haven for sexual predator clergy, when the Church thinks it can get away with it in the U.S. and around the world, especially in poor nations where people have even less voice. At present, Pope Francis will not release his former archbishop Wesolowski to face charges of sexual abuse of young boys in Poland and in the Dominican Republic. It is the job of police to investigate the crimes and criminals in the Church. It is not the job of the pope to investigate the crimes and criminals in his own Church. The pope must give up his control to law enforcement, if there is to be truth and justice for the victims of clergy sexual abuse, and for the faithful to ever trust the Church again.

The United Nations Stresses the Need for Accountability of the Vatican/Holy See

It has been reported that the Vatican officials tried to pressure the United Nations Committee to not consider clergy sexual assaults/rapes as torture.[37] The U.N. is clear that rape is torture.[38] The Vatican officials also claimed that the Vatican obligations were restricted to the Vatican City State, and not to the worldwide Holy See. The U.N. Committee rejected the Vatican’s jurisdiction arguments and found that the Vatican’s obligations reached beyond the Vatican City State to all those acting under the Church’s effective authority and control.

The Committee criticized the Vatican’s failures to meet its obligations under the Convention to provide redress including financial compensation, rehabilitative support, and a guarantee that the crimes will not be repeated. To accomplish the goals of the report, the Vatican is required to take effective measures to ensure that allegations of violations of clerical sex abuse are communicated to civil authorities and to cooperate with the civil authorities in criminal investigations.[39]

After the second United Nations Report, which came out on May 23, 2014, Pope Francis finally met with some sexual abuse victims on July 7, 2014.[40] I hope this is not another token action by this pope, whose actions can show a disconnect from what he says and what he does. For the Church to continue to act as a moral authority, when it has so stripped itself of integrity and credibility, shows its continual lack of insight and its arrogance, in my view.

Barbara Blaine, President of SNAP, says “For too long, the Vatican has been able to deny and deflect attention from its role in enabling, perpetuating, and covering-up these sexual crimes around the globe. But the increasing attention international human rights bodies are paying to this crisis shows the Vatican’s days of impunity are numbered.”[41]

In Conclusion

Jesus said the truth will set us free. As Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin said in his talk in Milwaukee: “The first condition for restorative justice is that all parties are willing to tell the truth and to take ownership of the truth, even when the truth is unpleasant. The truth will set us free, but not in a simplistic way. The truth hurts. The truth cleanses…like a fire that burns…and lances.”[42]

I believe that the truth of the extent of clergy sexual abuse worldwide will finally become known, when all files on clergy sexual abuse in the Vatican and elsewhere are released to police around the world, to investigate and prosecute as needed. The member of the hierarchy, in my experience, who has had the courage to do the right thing, is Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin. When he became the Archbishop of Dublin, he provided the Murphy Commission with all of the files of clergy accused of sexual abuse that his predecessor had refused to turnover. To learn more about Dr Diarmuid Martin, please watch the interview of the Archbishop of Dublin by Bob Simon on the program “60 Minutes” on youtube.com or oncbsnews.com.[43] The first name of the Archbishop of Dublin needs to be mentioned, because the Vatican has replaced Cardinal Brady, who was complicit in clergy sexual abuse in Northern Ireland, with a man whom he mentored, whose name is Archbishop Eamon Martin.

Theo Gavrielides in the book The Restorative Justice Option argues that the sexual abuse/rape of a child by a priest is especially serious and has long-term consequences because of the “soul-murder” of the victim, whose faith and trust have been so grievously betrayed.[44]

I believe that it is time for ego and power and control to be put aside and for all of us to have the courage to ask what Jesus would have us do? Our deepest desire needs to be to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. I remain a practicing Catholic. It will be hard to overturn the culture of secrecy and deception that have been part of the Roman Catholic Church leadership for centuries. Maybe the Roman part of the Catholic Church, which began in the fourth century, when Christianity became the state religion and clergy changed from being servant-leaders like Jesus, to becoming princes like the Roman Court, needs to be cut away so that the Catholic Church can be resurrected.

I personally believe that a change must be made so that priests and hierarchy start promising obedience to Jesus, instead of to the pope, or as well as to the pope, which should create an atmosphere of reflection and discernment about what would Jesus do, which has been sadly lacking for centuries, as popes have ignored the command of Jesus to protect the innocence of children.

I believe that it is critically important for priests to be free to marry and for women and men, homosexual and heterosexual, to be free to train to be priests. Women are at least 50% of the Church. In Genesis, chapter one, God created both women and men at the same time and as equals in God’s image. The voices and presence of women in decision-making roles in the Church are desperately needed. A married clergy would end the destructive ban on artificial contraception and sterilization, and allow the heterosexual couples to make their own decisions on family planning.

Jesus died for everyone. Everyone needs to be made welcome in the Church. I am impressed by the words of the Moral Theologian Daniel Maguire of Marquette University, former priest and now married with family. He said that married gay, lesbian, and heterosexual male and female bishops and priests would bring a needed compassion to the Church. This could reduce the sexism, sexual abuse, and homophobia in the Church.

Unless we accept the truth of ourselves as homosexual and heterosexual people, and the freedom of everyone to marry if they so wish, we will continue to be hung up on gender and sexual issues, instead of being servants with Jesus in a world thirsting to know about Jesus and his love and care for us all. Unless we accept the truth of ourselves as Church, we will not be giving God all the glory. [45]

[1]

https://news.marquette.edu/news-releases/marquette-law-school-hosts-international-conference-on-clergy-sex-abuse-scandal/.

[2]

[nytimes.com]

[3] Seto,M. Pedophilia and Sexual Offending Against Children. American Psychological Association. Washington,D.C. 2008. p.6.

[4] Wills,G. PAPAL SIN: Structures of Deceit. Image Books. Doubleday. 2000. p.194.

[5] Robinson,G. Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church. Liturgical Press. 2008. p.10.

[6] Wilson,SJ,G. CLERICALISM: The Death of Priesthood. Liturgical Press. 2008. p.67.

[7] Cozzens,D. SACRED SILENCE: Denial and the Crisis in the Church. Liturgical Press. 2002. pp. 4, 6, 47, 177.

[8]

[catholicbishops.ie]

[9] Cozzens,D. FAITH THAT DARES TO SPEAK. Liturgical Press. 2004. pp.42, 43, 88, 133.

[10] Sipe,A.W.R. CELIBACY IN CRISIS. Brunner-Routledge Publishers. NY. 2003. p.199-267.

[11]

[ncronline.org]

[12]

[ews.go.com]

[13] Robertson,Q.C.,G. The Case of the Pope, Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuse. Penguin Books. 2010. pp. 1-228.

[14]

[15]

[16] Personal communication to me directly from Barbara Blaine, President of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

[17]

[articles.philly.com]

[18] USCCB. Report on the Implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.2003. Chicago. p.63. Philadelphia. p.257.

[bishop-accountability.org]

[19]

[20]

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/anne-burke-are-bishops-ever-be-trusted.

[21]

[22]

[23]

[boston.com]

[24]

[articles.chicagotribune.com]

[25]

[canberratimes.com.au]

[26]

[bishop-accountability.org]

[27] Sipe, A.W.R. CELIBACY IN CRISIS. Brunner-Routledge.N.Y. 2003. pp. 200, 224-225, 245-267.

[28] Walker,G. Chapter 16. “Celibacy and Misogyny” in Predatory Priests, Silenced Victims. Editors Frawley-O’Dea,M.G. and Goldner,V. The Analytic Press. London. 2007. pp. 216, 228, 229.

[29] Merton,T. Love and Living. San Diego. Harvest Book. 1985. pp. 114-115.

[30] Cozzens, D. SACRED SILENCE: Denial and the Crisis in the Church. Liturgical Press. 2002. p.41.

[31] Ibid. pp.46-48.

[32]

[33]

[thejournal.ie]

[34]

[huffingtonpost.com]

[35]

[]

[36]

[theguardian.com]

[37]

[catholicnewsagency.com]

[38]

[ncronline.org]

[39]

[]

[40]

[time.com]

[41]

[reuters.com]

[42]

[catholicbishops.ie]

[43]

[cbsnews.com]

[44] Gavrielides, Theo, Chapter 15, “Clergy Child Sexual Abuse; The Restorative Justice Option,” in von Wormer, Katherine S. and Walker, Lorenn, editors, Restorative Justice Today, 2013, p. 131-141.

[45]

[w.nytimes.com]