Piling on
Like the Counselor, I've refrained from much commentary online, somewhat in deference to my devoutly Catholic parents, and recognizing the complexities of the situation, but just how much stupid am I expected to take from Rome?
The "world attacks" and small words for body of the church to do penance - as if it was all the rest of the members and not its leadership, at every level, that's at fault - the weaseling, the odious comparisons to the Holocaust . . . how is it possible to accept that there are any among the clergy untainted?
I was raised in the Church, went to Catholic schools, including a prep-seminary (for a year; I was a wash-out wannabe, thank Christ), and never had even the least creepy experience, although God knows some of the priests and nuns I encountered had issues, usually of anger. The vast majority were loving, kind, caring persons, and many deeply intellectual. They were mostly educators and devoted to the task, and of those who were merely among the practitioners of mysticism, even those sincerely meant to apply themselves to using their rites to establish a community that would support and nurture among them all and sundry their better natures for the benefit the community thus fostered.
But I always liked John the Baptist best, and there's no way he, of the Jesus who overturned the money-changers tables in the temple, would accept this cabal. For centuries the Church has used its power relationship to abuse the weak and vulnerable, and it has to stop. Calls for penance are meaningless if the amount to rhetoric or the traditional, anecdotal "ten Hail Marys". And so far that's all we've got. It's time to throw it over. Christianity is not to blame, but those who claim its oversight are. Sack the Pope.
Change we can believe in.
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4 comments:
I've been thinking about this quite a bit, and it seems to me that the way out would have to have several features. The first would be a set of truth commissions. I'm not sure how many-- one for every country? Maybe it could be proportional-- X number per million Catholics in a county or region. (Won't need many in Saudi Arabia for example.) Each commission should be composed of religious and lay persons, and as many nuns as they can find. There should be some cannon law expertise on each, but there should be lay experts in criminal and civil law, and being Catholic should not be a requirement. The lay people should be compensated for their service.
The second thing that has to happen would be for the Church to commit to making anyone who is implicated in clerical abuse available to the civil authorities in the jurisdiction where the abuse is claimed to have occurred-- for both criminal and civil prosecution. They can start by extraditing Cardinal Law.
Finally, The Vatican should agree to civil liability pursuant to the principles of respondeat superior in all instances where a member of the clergy is found to be civilly liable for abuse pursuant to the laws of the particular jurisdiction, and it should waive all statute of limitations defenses.
We haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg on this thing yet. I cannot imagine what horrors went on in Africa, for example, and even in the US, where we are fairly far along in unearthing the full story we still don't know much.
Between the NY Times and the opportunistic atheists among us, there is the major, major point to be made that The Catholic Church, not withstanding its absolutely sclerotic heirarchy, is a major force for good throughout this sad and sorry world.
I in no way defend either the perps or the hierachy. I am delighted that they should both be hounded to death but while the creepies are preying on children or ignoring their fellows who do it while distracted in admiration for their own robes and red socks, the vast, vast majority of vowed religious men and women and a majority of the laity who both follow and sometimes lead their vowed religious go on working and praying for and with each other for the betterment of all people.
Here in the US, our churches are still largely full and young people are still bringing their children to faith by example.
It's not a "baby and bathwater" situation because the baby is far bigger than the bathwater. The difference is Faith, a very real belief that most of us believe we are loved by God and we happily, gratefully return that love through our preferred form of worship.
Hang with the good ones. Don't let the bad people distract you from the good. In fact, seek the good ones out. If they can't restore your faith in the Catholic Church, perhaps they can, at least, restore your faith in human beings. And remember my mantra: The Church is the people of God". That does not exclude Popes and Cardinals. It just marginalizes them to where they belong.
I'm not so sure I agree with your premise there,TCA. Although devising a metric for "good vs evil" would be a difficult proposition, I'd have to figure that being implicated in just about every genocide on every inhabited continent on the planet through the 20th century would be bound to run up the score a bit. On a world-historical level the Catholic Church is probably the worst of all religions, ever, and if you roll in all the other Christian faiths I'm hard-pressed to come up with a second place award. I'll grant you good intentions on the part of many, but tell that to the Incas. Or the Jews.
Organizations protect themselves and the older they are, the more embedded the secretive, protective behavior becomes.
As individuals, many, probably most, clergy are dedicated to the faith and the care of the faithful. Much good is done at that level. On the organizational level, the interests of the believers are lost and those of the unbelievers are disregarded altogether.
I'm no fan of religion. I'm even less of a fan of religions that become, or want to become, governments. That covers the major three or four.
Only incest can be more devastating to a child than being molested by someone who represents or interprets god/God as he or she has been taught to believe.
Shame on "the church" for maintaining the cover up.
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