LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Church's top-down character keeps abuse concealed, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (August 25, 2018)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Church's top-down character keeps abuse concealed

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
August 25, 2018

https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/mailbag/church-s-top-down-character-keeps-abuse-concealed/article_070f9e1f-3fa5-5385-8eca-48c11528b531.html

In this Sept. 23, 2015 file photo, Pope Francis reaches out to hug Cardinal Archbishop emeritus Theodore McCarrick after the Midday Prayer of the Divine with more than 300 U.S. Bishops at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington. Seton Hall University has begun an investigation into potential sexual abuse at two seminaries it hosts following misconduct allegations against ex-Cardinal McCarrick and other priests.
Photo by Jonathan Newton

I am wondering if the long-standing and thorough concealment of clerical sexual abuse doesn't have a lot to do with the top-down character of the Roman Catholic Church.

Who appoints and promotes bishops? Well the pope does, or, maybe apostolic delegates and nabobs in the Curia tell him whom to appoint. In any case, in a top-down regime the main thing the higher-ups want from the lower-downs is no trouble.

If everything is running trouble-free, the lower-downs are assumed to be doing a good job. If there is any trouble, even the trouble of cosseted members of the laity or politicians among the clergy complaining against desperately needed reform, the higher-ups will wonder what the lower-down bishop is doing wrong, why things are getting out of hand. He must not be running his diocese very well if the Vatican is receiving complaints from big donors and ultramontane clergy. He must have no skill in the arts of secrecy if scandals in the diocese are getting into the local news media.

So, if his excellency wants to abide in the Vatican's favor, if he has dreams of advancement to a more prestigious see, if he wants to avoid early retirement, he had better get with the program and keep his diocese trouble-free whatever the price.