PARIS (FRANCE)
La Croix International [France]
February 28, 2024
By Jean de Saint-Cheron
The Church has been able to recognize the seriousness of immaturity when it comes to married couples, but less so when it pertains to the clergy
Two former religious sisters recently came forward and gave chilling testimonies of how they were abused by Marko Rupnik. They demanded that justice be done and that transparency finally overcome the Church’s culture of secrecy, which does not protect the victims but the the abusers. But will their testimonies be enough to change thinking of the Catholic hierarchy?
As Philippe Lefebvre O.P. courageously wrote in his 2021 book Comment tuer Jésus ? Abus, violences et emprises dans la Bible (“How to kill Jesus? Abuse, violence and control in the Bible”), the Word of God urges us to face “what happens when abuse takes place, when itis known and yet silenced, when silence sets in, when the victims are not listened to (…), when the great drama of the Passion summons countless actors and sets in motion centuries-old processes of silence, intimidation and internal schemes”.
Pope Francis inherited Church’s developing response to the abuse crisis in 2013. His predecessor had begun it with courage and certain observers, notably psychiatrists and psychologists, pointed out that the emotional immaturity of certain priests was a more serious problem than we thought. But clericalism was then overwhelmingly designated as the heart of the problem.
No doubt it has played, and still plays, an important role in certain mechanisms not only of control but of silence, and therefore of protection from predators. But the root of the problem was perhaps to be found elsewhere. The example of French former priest Bernard Preynat is exemplary. A very clever manipulator, he was also described as sexually immature by the psychiatrist in charge of the legal expertise.
Immaturity is difficult to detect
“Affective immaturity describes a delay in the development of emotional relationships […] contrasting in adults with the level of development of intellectual functions,” noted a study a group of French psychiatrists published in 1999.
Immaturity in adults, however, can sometimes be difficult to detect, to the extent that some immature people can appear perfectly adult and even brilliant in their way of thinking, writing or, in the case of priests, their preaching. The report published in 2021 by France’s Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church (CIASE) devotes five pages to the issue of clericalism, but term “immaturity” appears only three times in the entire report. It concerns priests only once (§ 1344).
The solutions envisaged by the CIASE report, already judged to be well implemented, are the delay in the age of entry into the seminary. This is supposed to allow candidates more time to mature before their priestly formation. It is also meant to ensure they received psycho-affective training provided during the formation, and personal discernment in conjunction with a spiritual director. To this can be added the use, in certain cases, of individual psychological counseling.
But in a large archdiocese like that of Paris, such support is provided solely on the basis of the voluntary service of the seminarian concerned (§ 1350). In the most obvious — therefore dangerous — cases of immaturity, a number of seminarians from French dioceses in recent years have not been refused ordination. Some of them, however, found refuge in another diocese and were ordained priests the following year. The now famous cases of Fréjus-Toulon are not isolated. Some dioceses in and around the greater Paris have had similar issues.
In the realm of marriage
No doubt, the question of immaturity is complicated. But it is too serious to be taken lightly. Emotionally immature priests “are incapable of dealing with the fundamental ambivalence of the links they maintain with their faithful”, suggests philosopher and author Nathalie Sarthou-Lajus.”Because of this denial, they are victims of their own idealization and their own quest which is, initially, a quest for the absolute. The absolute is dangerous when it obscures ambiguity,” she says.
In matrimonial matters, moreover, the Church discerns and takes very seriously the lack of maturity, an area in which canonical jurisprudence is clear, since emotional immaturity constitutes an impediment, that is to say a cause of nullity of marriage. To put it even more clearly, if at the time of marriage, and even in the months or years that followed, the behavior of one of the two spouses demonstrates serious emotional immaturity, the Church easily recognizes that a true marriage never took place.
This protects the spouse who is victim of the emotional immaturity of the one he or she married. The consequences of immaturity are serious. They include possessiveness, narcissism, refusal to recognize one’s faults, disproportionate reactions to frustrations, inability to control one’s impulses, inability to accept the renunciations inherent in making a commitment, emotional blackmail, and lying (to oneself and to others).These usually lead to manipulation and control. If the Church can recognize the seriousness of immaturity in the marital domain, why can it not do so regarding its clergy?
A “love” that’s impossible
In the case of immature priests, who by definition are not married, the consequences weigh on the victims that they choose, consciously or not, to “bear” their immature pains, such as celibacy chosen for the wrong reasons. What follows are impossible “love” stories, destabilizing and hurtful attachments, dangerous and perverse game-playing and so on… What will we do to protect the victims? Obviously,the nullity of priestly ordination does not exist, but dismissal from the clerical state does.
In principle, no one these days (at least in France and the West) is forced to enter the seminary. No is forced to make a vow or promise to be celibate unless he has freely chosen to do so. As Saint Paul wisely says of those who claim to be celibate: “If they cannot control themselves, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with desire” (1 Cor 7:9). Burning with desire… Paul does not even seem to be talking here about an act, but about the disastrous consequences of an uncontrolled desire, and an unfulfilled renunciation – which is therefore not really one. To get married, however, you still have to be an adult.
In 2024, the blind spot about the emotional and sexual immaturity of certain priests necessarily continues to give rise to serious instances of abuse. This is especially because of everything that the relationship with “Father” entails, including the frequent confusion of the spiritual with the emotional, which create a fertile ground for influence. It is not a question of ordaining only saints, nor even heroes of maturity and balance. But it is about detecting signs are clear enough and avoiding scandals. The Church has everything to lose by remaining disarmed or silent in the face of the denial of manipulators who have never reached adulthood in emotional and sexual matters. Because if we try to spare the last contingents of seminarians, we will end up emptying the churches.
Jean de Saint-Cheron is an essayist and regular contributor to La Croix.