The church must change

The sexual scandals that have been swirling around the Roman Catholic Church these last few weeks—more accurately, these last few years—have come to roost in our area.

Last week, a young student and his parents registered an official complaint demanding redress in the U.S. Court Middle District in Scranton against the Diocese of Scranton, its bishop, James Timlin, two priests of the Society of Saint John in Shohola and the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter who owns and operates St. Gregory’s Academy where the alleged abuse began.

The complaint states that because of numerous sexual contacts with the two priests, the youth “has suffered permanent, emotional and psychological injury.” Damages of over one million dollars are being sought. A jury trial is demanded.

Many are asking the reason why this phenomenon is so prevalent in the Catholic church today The answer is that it’s not one reason. It’s many.

First, many pedophile men are drawn to the seminary and priesthood. Most of these unfortunate men suffer from an undeveloped, pre-adolescent attitude towards sexuality. They are afraid of it and so they were drawn to the seminary where they were kept like hot-house flowers in an all-male society, separate from any contact with the real world. Then they were ordained and thrust into society without any preparation where they have intimate contact with both sexes, unprepared and further burdened with a vow of celibacy. Such a situation is like a tinder box ready to explode. I myself was a witness to this in the seminary and in the priesthood where I encountered a few of these men.

But this doesn’t explain why the present scandal is so grievous. You’re always going to find sexual aberrations in any population—even among priests.

The thing about the scandal that bothers me most, is the way the hierarchy handled it—or mishandled it. The bishops, to a man, thought first about saving the church at all costs and, second, about saving the offender. Hardly any sympathy seemed to have been given to the victims. On the contrary, the victims were doubted, castigated, harassed, threatened and cajoled into silence and submission, often being plied with large sums of money to buy their silence. The harrowing details of their stories are finally being told to the world by the wounded victims themselves.

There is something deeply wrong with the hierarchical structure of the church. For hundreds of years, the bishops have suffered from something called “clericalism” which holds that they are an “untouchable elite,” protected by God Himself under the aegis of the pope in Rome. They view any criticism as inspired by the devil, and regard critics as people who want to destroy the church and their power over it. This arrogant attitude is clearly evident in Cardinal Egan’s method of handling the scandal both in Bridgeport, CT where he was bishop, and in the New York Archdiocese.

Is there any hope for the Catholic Church? There might be if the laity come forward as they are now doing and demand that the hierarchy and the papacy be open, honest and attentive to their voices; if they demand that the practice of celibacy be changed and be made optional rather than compulsory; if they demand the ordination of women to the priesthood. Both are man-made laws that could eventually be changed.

There was once a time when the voice of the “People of God” was listened to in the church. Clericalism didn’t always hold sway. There was a time when, for instance, the laity and the local clergy “elected” their bishop. But this would never do under the current, iron-fisted rule of the Vatican.

The movement that was begun at the Second Vatican Council when the bishops discussed “De Ecclesia”—the Nature of Church—calling for less of a militaristic and legalistic rule by the pope and the Vatican, was quickly squelched by the next pope, Paul VI, a fearful man, who was lead more by the powerful Italian cardinals in the Curia (his cabinet) who really ruled the church, than by the spirit of the People of God.

So, I say, there is a slight possibility the church can survive these present scandals. But only if the people continue to speak out. Only if the pope, the Vatican Curia and the hierarchy listen to the voice of the People of God and undergo some deep soul-searching. Only then will radical change be able to happen.

Tom Kane, Staff Writer