VATICAN CITY (VATICAN CITY)
La Croix International [France]
November 12, 2022
By Robert Mickens
The sex abuse scandal involving bishops in France is just the latest episode in a serial horror show that has actually only just begun. What must Catholics do to not lose faith?
The phenomenon of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, like a dreaded disease that becomes the proverbial “gift that keeps on giving”, has now intensified in France with the recent revelations that a cardinal and nine or ten other bishops are currently under investigation by state or Church authorities for abuse or its cover-up.
Understandably, French Catholics are shocked and extremely angry. They had only just begun to deal with the devastating report that their country’s Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE) issued last year, which showed that some 330,000 youngsters were sexually assaulted by upwards of 3,000 French priests and vowed religious between 1950-2020, most of these cases having been carefully kept quiet and hidden from public view. And now the news of abusive bishops and even an abusive cardinal!
But believers in France aren’t the only ones who are reeling from the latest revelations. A priest friend from Canada sent me a message just the other day, saying: “I have to admit that this last wave of filth from the French episcopate is getting to me. I’m trying to find a rock to cling to in this storm.”
A storm, indeed. Various commentators at La Croix have described it as that and worse — a tempest, a tsunami, a disaster… But I’d submit that what is happening in France is only the latest and most pernicious stage in what I described exactly ten years ago — during a Nov. 16, 2012 talk at the City Club of Cleveland, Ohio — as the Catholic Church’s structural “implosion”.
It’s another inevitable result of an ethos perpetuated by members of a clerical caste and their lay enablers who are bent on preserving — at all costs — the Church’s anachronistic structure and many of its rituals and customs that appear more and more estranged from the radical message of the gospel.
Where this horror show began
And so here we are again, before another episode of what’s become known as the Catholic “sex abuse crisis”, a horror show that is in but the early seasons of what will surely be a very long-running series.
Just stop and consider the history of this crisis. The following account will be somewhat overly simplistic, but in no way overly exaggerated. The public face of the crisis dates back to nearly four decades ago when the first cases of clergy sex abuse and cover-up were discovered in the Louisiana diocese of Lafayette. It was in the 1980s.
There were a few bishops — including the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago — who realized, at least intuitively, that this was about more than a few bad apples in one diocese or region of the country. They called on the US bishops’ conference to set protocols. But they were immediately met with resistance. Another cardinal — Bernard Law in Boston — said his archdiocese had no such problem, which he knew was false. But Law was able to convince enough other bishops in the conference that Louisiana was an isolated problem and no national protocols were established.
The scandal of Louisiana led victims of clergy sex abuse in other parts of the United States to begin coming forward with their stories. And in 1989 a group of them formed SNAP (the Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests) to encourage other victims to come forward to seek healing and justice. Diocesan chanceries across the country initially refused to cooperate, which led SNAP to turn to the civil courts. Most of the bishops and their lawyers pilloried the group and claimed its members were trying to destroy the Church and make money off it.
But SNAP and its supporters were persistent and eventually more and more people in the pews began to see that there was a widespread problem of abuse in their Church. It all came to a head in 2002 with the revelations of numerous cases of clergy sex abuse and their massive cover-up in. the Archdiocese of Boston. Cardinal Law arrogantly called down the wrath of God on the Boston Globe, the newspaper that played the final and decisive role in exposing the scandal. This stoked the anger of Catholics all over the United States. Under public pressure, and unable to move about the archdiocese because he was constantly hounded by protesters and the press, the cardinal was forced to resign.
Rome says it’s a phenomenon limited to English-speaking countries
US Catholics now knew that no diocese in their country was spared. Clergy sex abuse had happened — and was still happening (and is still happening today) — everywhere. The bishops held emergency meetings and imposed “zero tolerance” (which is actually “one strike and you’re out”, even for just a “check swing”) on priests (but not themselves, the bishops) who were credibly accused of abusing a minor.
All of a sudden Rome had a problem. With the Americans. In fact, officials at the Vatican tried to protect themselves and the rest of the global Church by claiming — ludicrously — that sex abuse was a phenomenon limited to the United States. The reality is that waves of cases of abuse began being reported in Canada…. then Britain… and Ireland… Australia. There had also been some high-profile abuse cases in Europe, such as the one that led to the 1998 resignation of Austrian Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer. But the Vatican tried to contain the details of what happened and insisted these were merely isolated incidents.
Vatican officials like the late Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos of Colombia argued that clergy sex abuse, as a widespread phenomenon, was a problem only in English-speaking countries. Actually, the hierarchs in Rome and their canonical advisors had begun to see that this was not really true. So they switched tactics and, like the US bishops had done earlier in the crisis, started blaming the problem on the “litigious culture” that is more or less a part of all the above-mentioned countries, which only encourages “so-called victims” to come forward with accusations against priests in order “to get money”. That’s because the Church, as
everyone knows, has deep pockets. This was the Vatican’s narrative for a long time — a problem in the English-speaking world.
Take a good look at the map
Hopefully, you can see by now how this works. At first the Church authorities deny there is a problem. Then when faced with the facts, they bully or blame the victims and whistle- blowers. Eventually, when none of that works anymore, they take some “dramatic” action or draft protocols to dampen criticism and anger. And maybe — hopefully — they start to take full responsibility for their poor oversight and begin taking steps to heal and prevent future abuse.
But our history shows that it takes decades to move through these various stages. And the point is this: most dioceses around the world have not even gotten past the first step. There’s a huge map that hangs on the wall in the sumptuously adorned Apostolic Palace just a few steps down the hall from the offices of the Holy See’s Secretariat of State. Anyone who thinks the clergy sex abuse crisis is nearing its end ought to have a look at it.
The Catholic Church is like a giant spider web that pretty much encompasses the entire globe. There are parishes and mission posts even in the most remote places on earth. And as Catholics eventually had to admit that the phenomenon of priests sexually abusing children and adolescents never was limited to the United States or other English-speaking countries, and saw victims come forward in parts of Europe and Latin America, there are places — in Africa, Asia and East-Central Europe — that continue to deny the existence of clergy sex abuse in their churches.
In the pope’s backyard
And then there is Italy where the number of people who are still trying to perpetuate the
myth that there is no widespread problem is dwindling. The seemingly invincible wall that has long been successful in keeping the problem hidden is starting to show cracks. That wall has been so formidable up to now because of a collusion between the Catholic hierarchy, politicians, big business and the mainstream media.
But Italy — where the social mores are still very traditional, despite the “live-and-let-live” image the country tries to portray — is changing. Many Italians (especially those in Rome) tend to be anti-clerical, even though most have remained at least cultural Catholics. Indeed, entities that are Catholic or are connected to the institutional Church still give jobs and rent homes to many Italians or their relatives. And this has helped ensure that ordinary citizens are part of, or at least not vocally opposed to, the ongoing collusion. But the situation is changing with every new generation, and there are signs that younger Italians are fed up shielding the Church.
The bishops can grouse about how unfair it is to single out the Catholic Church and complain that people ignore the fact that the abuse of minors is just as much or even more widespread in other sectors of society — as Pope Francis continues to do, even as recently as on his return flight from Bahrain several day ago. But this is not a winning strategy. And it misses the point completely.
Francis has done a tremendous job during his nearly ten years as Bishop of Rome, but he does not get high marks on how he has dealt with sexual abuse. His attitude has been ambivalent, at best. Yes, he’s set up a child protection think-tank or advisory body. And he held a summit on abuse with the heads of all the world’s national episcopal conferences. He’s also strengthened some of the already existing mechanisms for dealing with accused priests and issued new protocols for dealing with bishops who abuse (others and their office). He can also find extremely strong words and metaphors for condemning abuse.
“Put not your trust in princes”
But Francis has been highly selective about the way and towards whom he has applied these measures. A number of victims have also claimed that he has never responded to their personal letters. Most recently it was the woman Cardinal Ricard abused. She said the papal nuncio in France informed her that the pope had received her letter. It’s also frustrating to see Francis act swiftly to remove an auxiliary bishop in Germany for embezzlement, but then learn that he asked a diocesan ordinary in France who admitted to sexual misconduct to stay in office for another six months — and then allow him to tell people he “retired” because of health reasons.
It’s not pleasant to have to say that Pope Francis is part of the problem, especially after praising him just last week for the bold speeches he gave in Bahrain. But, as it’s been stated here on more than one occasion, the pope is not perfect. He, too, makes mistakes. He, like all of his, has blind spots and a shadow side. This is not a judgment on his soul or an attack on his person. It’s only to acknowledge that he is just a human being like the rest of us.
The psalmist warns: “Put not your trust in princes.” And we Catholics must keep that forefront in our minds as we go through this period of crisis and what eventually will be — I am convinced — a complete implosion and profound transformation of the current structure of our Church. But in order not to lose heart or give in to the temptation to walk away we must also think clearly about what we actually believe and in whom we actually believe. And along with that it is essential to cultivate our interior resources. We need to anchor our faith, hope and love more tenaciously to God in quiet personal prayer. This is not pie in the sky. It is the only solution.Because all our leaders and heroes have clay feet. And all our human structures will eventually collapse and die. But — in case it needs to be repeated again — only after death comes resurrection. And it’s on the resurrection that Christians base their faith.
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Read more at: https://international.la-croix.com/news/letter-from-rome/the-churchs-implosion-its-gonna-get-worse-before-it-gets-better/16887