Lord, Have Mercy!

By John Seng
LinkedIn
November 14, 2018

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/lord-have-mercy-john-seng/

People who attend Catholic Masses with any regularity will recognize the following ritual, as explained by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops:

At the very beginning of the Mass, the faithful recall their sins and place their trust in God's abiding mercy. The Penitential Act includes the Kyrie Eleison, a Greek phrase meaning, "Lord, have mercy." This litany recalls God's merciful actions throughout history.

At Sunday worship in recent months, it’s dawned on me that in this year’s new light of horrifying revelations of abuse by clergy over many years worldwide, maybe it’s time to turn the tables. Aren’t Catholics in the pews the ones who should expect their Catholic Church celebrants to, perhaps for the next 50 years, initiate each Mass by recalling the sins of priests, bishops and cardinals themselves, apologizing at every assembly and begging the Lord’s mercy?

The above proposal is but one of dozens or even hundreds of reforms to which the Catholic Church hierarchy should succumb and embrace.

Ominously, the prospects for meaningful and timely change just took a dive, given this week’s surprising dictate by the Vatican to neutralize the U.S. bishops’ plans to develop new standards at their meeting in Baltimore. What’s worse, Rome declared that the bishops should outright resist external oversight until their global meeting in February.

My purpose in writing is to share my outrage which, whether anyone reads this article or not, enables me to blow off a big, steaming blast of wretched disappointment in the Church hierarchy’s contemptible track record.

I’m a lifelong Catholic and a business person with 40 years’ experience working for companies of all sizes, both as employee and as self-employed entrepreneur. Also, I’ve consistently worked for and served on the boards of national and local non-profit societies, associations and a church parish council. I’ve seen all manner of responsibly operated, profitable, growing and healthy organizations.

I’ve also witnessed examples of, shall we say, “not so much.”

One major trait of all healthy operations is an active and engaged external, stakeholder-stocked board of directors. A governing board holds leadership and management accountable for achieving vision and mission outcomes, but above all, maintaining organizational ethics and integrity.

What we need is the advent of a deep dredging and reformation operation in the worldwide Church. Clearly, the hierarchy, starting with the Pope - where the buck stops - right? - have proven themselves not only incapable to the task, but largely reluctant if not wholly unwilling as evidenced by this week’s stonewalling announcement from Rome. In a business, a speedy response is essential to avoid disaster and shore up confidence.

Earlier in 2018, bishops from Greensburg to Harrisburg obstructed Pennsylvania State Attorney General Josh Shapiro as he courageously left no stone unturned in seeking justice for victims of abuse. And then bishops such as Washington, DC’s Cardinal Donald Wuerl, implicated in the Pennsylvania findings, later asserted that Mr. Shapiro didn’t have all the facts, as if he and his brethren had partnered with the attorney general all along in unearthing the truth. Today, the Diocese of Buffalo is bobbing and weaving versus media scrutiny of its similarly dismal track record in disclosing the names of abuser clergy and covering its tracks in other ways.

For decades, our so-called shepherds cloaked in miters and robes couldn’t be troubled to shine the right spotlight if there might be a chance that permanent stains showed up in the wrong places. Abuser priests were reassigned to other parishes, or sent away for psychological or medical evaluation, only to pop up elsewhere all too frequently, disclosure to parishioners be damned.

Any person who hasn’t watched the film “Spotlight” should rent it on Netflix, streaming, tonight. Thank God for the media, I like to say. Not only were the Catholic Church hierarchy not up to the task of self-governance – they were and perhaps still are complicit in concealment of the truth.

For an independent chronicle of past and current abuse cases, visit www.BishopAccountability.org.

Heaven is High…

Accountability to a pope in Rome reminds me of a proverb traced to the Yuan Dynasty (established in 1279 AD by Kublai Khan, leader of the Mongol empire) to characterize corruption and regional authorities who abused their power at the expense of citizenry:

????? - “Heaven is high and the emperor is far away.”

Catholic Church management is long overdue for external oversight. Those charged with governance – bishops and cardinals, and yes, the Pope – how often do these men refer to themselves as shepherds guarding their flocks? No, thank you, says this little lamb.

As the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops met in Baltimore this week, they had originally planned to pray on day one (box checked), and then on days two and three, make up their minds about, well, what’s a body to do about all this scandal? Instead, the Vatican pulled the rug out from under that agenda. “So sorry to you victims of child rape, groping and fondling – as well as to your families and friends, and to everyone else we’ve done our best to spare the trouble of knowing…after 70 years, we just need more time.”

Does anyone out there agree with me that in the back of every bishop’s mind, and most unfortunately, Pope Francis’s quite possibly, is “What do we have to do to make the problem, the pain, the scrutiny of us go away?” Think like, “I’ve been a priest all my adult life and a bishop for a good deal of that time. Some among us, including maybe me, have screwed up in small ways and perhaps engaged in criminal acts outright. None of us is kidding another that we’ve known for decades that this smoking volcano was gonna blow.” And now it is, with perhaps the worst yet to come with a host of other US states following the suit of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New York.”

Is the mindset of this group 100% focused on self-preservation? Is the Pope Catholic?

Yes, the bishops and the Pope are praying alright. Praying for an almighty “do-over.”

In the secular underworld, the management staff of a company or non-profit organization should expect to be rewarded for exemplary performance in the way of bonuses or raises. By contrast, following sustained periods of poor outcomes, management may not be happy yet has no choice but to accept accountability. Projects get cancelled and heads roll. In the case of abuse, harassment, corruption or criminal episodes, plan on your termination and legal consequences.

The bishops escape all or at least most of this kind of rigorous scrutiny and consequences. In the wake of the scandals, their common theme is to express remorse and pray for healing. The interesting thing about the full healing of a physical injury is that the sign of a bruise, broken bone or open wound eventually tends to disappear. That’s exactly what our Pope and your local bishop want: Clap of the hands, everyone, pray and pray for that healing so we can resume business as usual.

The Poor…Metrics

For a moment, let’s put aside if possible, the all-consuming tragedy of priestly abuse of their flock amid cavalier oversight by bishops, and consider a less frightening but still sad set of metrics: In any demographic, regular and occasional Church attendance continues its steady decline, baptisms are down, church marriages on record are down and more, according to a 2018 Gallup Poll.

Still unconvinced that change is overdue, just for business reasons? What about Church closings?

From 1990 to 2017, the number of Catholic Church parishes dropped more than 12% to 17,156, as reported by CARA, the Center for Applied Research of Georgetown University. CARA also reports that 30 million Americans self-define as former Catholics, an all-time high (although Catholics still have the highest retention rate among all religions).

In any other organization with such a poor track record, management pays the price. These guys are failing miserably as leaders, never mind, if you can for an instant, the abuse catastrophe. Maybe the downward trend in recent years is spurred by the revelations from Boston in 2002. But on whose watch?

Catholic Church leadership is a breed apart, immune from any kind of accountability despite their poor numbers and an even more dismal history of hustling the flock in attempting to bury the abuse crisis. Only an impossibly, hopelessly corrupt power structure not only tolerates known abuser priests and bishops such as Theodore McCarrick, but even worse, places this person in charge of overseeing the prevention of the very acts he had been committing before he was promoted to Cardinal in the Archdiocese of Washington. Only an impossibly corrupt administration could shield priests, bishops and cardinals from identification, due process and justice as in the case of the many priests worldwide who were transferred to new real estate and fresh kill victims.

This performance by Church leadership is counter-intuitive and creates the latent effect of destroying “faith” in Catholicism. Catholics who had re-opened themselves to the message of the Church thanks to Pope Francis’s seemingly new and refreshing attitudes may likely fall away again. Furthermore, for the sake of maintaining and protecting the Church, these revelations of sin and criminal scandal accomplish precisely the opposite.

Oversight, Damage Report, Never Forget

Where does one begin with reform? Nobody owns any corner on the answers, and certainly not I. But while forgiving me my anger and frustration, please consider a handful of ideas that focus not on healing; rather on discovery, prevention and reform. Let others continue to preach healing.

We need reforms, new policies, governance and action that we as lay Catholics in society must force upon the current and future Church hierarchy, to preserve the union of our Catholic faith as, well, as we thought we knew it. And for the love of God’s Church.

Again, where to start with reform? I respectfully submit the following proposals:

1. I firmly believe that it's time for lay oversight, at least of the US Catholic Church business. Why doesn't a coalition of 100 or 1,000 lay power-brokers form a veritable torch mob at the door of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops to say "we're tired of this abuse" and "you can't manage it, so step aside while we do?" The more the bishops will say this week or next February that they have cleaned up their act and reformed, the more things will inevitably stay the same.

We in the laity ARE the Church. We are not outsiders. We are THE primary stakeholders, and none more so than victims. Victims without a voice. We are all direct or indirect victims of abuse, victims of a leadership that preaches God’s values on Sunday but tolerates or outright does the opposite from Monday through Saturday. Without your congregations, you bishops would cease to exist. You’d need regular jobs where someone supervises you.

In the US, lay Catholics need to mobilize at the parish level, diocesan and nationally to “bring it” to the bishops. Are you a Catholic doer in your community? A volunteer, business owner, community organizer, elected official, current parish council member or just upset enough to get involved? We need to build from the grassroots up a local and national independent oversight body of lay people to insert ourselves in the management of the local diocese and on a national basis, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In a new, clean, healthy model, the Catholic Church clergy from the Pope on down would maintain the domain of everything religious: the sacrifice of the Mass, the sacraments and preparation for the priesthood. However, the “business” of Catholic Church such as finances, personnel assignments, and legal actions would all fall under the sharp scrutiny of external lay boards. Separation of church and state, if you will.

Happily, I’ve read news recently that many other lay Catholics are now advocating for this kind of reform. Without it, history will repeat itself, make no mistake.

2. Just what is the true damage of abuse? News reports refer to a pattern of abuse dating back 60-70 years. CARA data shows the first reported instance of abuse by Catholic priests taking place in 1869. Does anyone out there think that Catholic priest abuse began spontaneously not long after the Civil War?

The Church should be made to fund an independent and thorough study, unless one already exists, that can project with strong confidence an estimate of the extent of abuse by priests in America since the Catholic Church’s founding in 1789 in Baltimore, perhaps a stone’s throw from the bishop’s meeting this week. If scientists can analyze and determine the date of a meteorite landing on Earth, then an austere, independent panel of social scientists and Church historians can be commissioned to research the history of probable Catholic clergy abuse in America and report to Catholic Americans today.

How many Americans have Catholic priests abused? Won’t estimating that number cost a lot to research and report? Yes, indeed. And take a lot of work. A good Catholic confession involves admitting all the mortal sins the penitent can remember. I vote for helping the Catholic Church estimate a credible damage report. Helping it remember.

The Vatican can auction off a handful of treasures to pay for the study.

3. Create a holy memorial statue to the victims of abuse. Organize and conduct a national architectural award process to design and then build the memorial statues. Mandate that every Catholic parish church in the US provide a location at each church entrance to serve as a permanent reminder to the victims as well as a sign of the harm caused and eternal forgiveness requested as our shepherds lost their way. The first statue should be placed, dedicated and blessed in front of St. Peter’s in the Vatican.

Again, bill the Vatican.

Press Onward

Scandal occurs repeatedly in business and government. But healthy companies, non-profits and governments depend on checks and balances to prevent and root out corruption. In all cases, public organization leadership is held accountable by any mix of boards, shareholders, customers, voters and law enforcement.

Catholic bishops and accountability? Be patient, my son.

While I continue to press for positive change in Church oversight, I will maintain my support of local parish and clergy. Whether you are Catholic clergy or lay person, the job of proselytizing our faith has been made exponentially more difficult by the big bosses, but onward we should press. That is the right thing to do.

The Catholic Church, that is we the Catholic lay people, should demand healthy reform beginning with independent oversight of our Church leaders. We need to know the extent of damage caused by them and by too many clergy. And, we need solid reminders not to forget what happens when no one’s watching the guardians of the flock.

I believe that God will judge us all on how we, including priests, bishops and popes live our lives on Earth. In the meantime, however, I believe it’s incumbent upon the majority of Catholic souls on earth – the laity – to demand and take significant control over the governance of the business end of the Catholic Church, which can only be described as having lost the true north on its compass, if it ever existed.

- John J. Seng