UNITED STATES
New York Times
Ross Douthat
Soon after Jorge Bergoglio became Pope Francis, I wrote several pieces exploring the idea that the new pope might be striving to effectively transcend the liberal/conservative civil war that’s dominated Catholic life in the West since the Second Vatican Council, and find a new synthesis or center for the church somewhere beyond that post-1960s conflict. I have not written as much on that theme in the last year, mostly because of what’s been happening with the debate around divorce and communion: There the pope’s choices have at least temporarily added fuel to Catholicism’s internal conflict, rather than cooling it, in ways that threaten to overshadow other elements of his agenda, other possibilities for his time as Peter.
But even with that polarizing debate percolating in the background, the last few weeks have offered a pair of case studies of what I had in mind when I envisioned this pope as a unifying figure (to the extent that’s possible) for the post-John Paul/Benedict church. …
Then the second case study comes from the sex abuse commission appointed by Francis, which has just raised the key outstanding issue in the church’s reckoning with sexual misconduct — the need to have a mechanism of accountability for bishops who ignore or cover up allegations against priests. The failure to establish such a mechanism was the signal omission in Benedict’s otherwise laudable efforts in this area, and when Francis was elected I opined that the shadow of scandal and media suspicion couldn’t be lifted from the church without one. Subsequent events have suggested that I wasn’t completely correct, since the press, enthused and fascinated on other fronts, hasn’t exactly held the pope’s feet to the fire on this issue … but I think the basic point is still sound, and that the issue has the potential to return and return and return without some formal process for dealing with the episcopal disasters that continue to surface.
Francis has established some potential precedents in this area, removing a Paraguayan bishop for protecting an accused abuser and ordering an investigation of Kansas City’s bishop for his handling of a pedophile priest. But those remain ad hoc exercises, and since both bishops are on the traditional end of the Catholic spectrum those cases have been read by some as cases of theological score-settling rather than just disinterested discipline. I think/hope that reading is mistaken, but either way it highlights the need for a more formal and transparent process. And since sex abuse has been an issue that’s cut across every theological divide within the church, such a reform has the potential to unify and satisfy Catholics of differing views … while at the same (hopefully) turning the page, at last, on one of the defining crises of the post-conciliar church.
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