Reflection on the crisis within the church

By Tom Dinell | Special to the Herald

The question that keeps haunting me, and many other Catholics, is this: With regards to the widespread clergy sex abuse scandal, how could our church leadership go so wrong with acts so contrary to our mission to be the face of God to all people?

Now, of course, one can choose not to ask the question because:

1. “There is nothing I can do about it.”

2. “It doesn’t affect me.”

3. “I am sick and tired of hearing about it.”

4. “It is just the media, the plaintiffs’ lawyers and church radicals stirring up the trouble.”

5. “It’s all old news.”

The pope has set aside these reasons for not asking the question. Pogo, Walt Kelly’s great cartoon character, once said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” Pope Benedict made almost the same statement recently: “Today we see in a really terrifying way that the greatest persecution of the church does not come from the enemies outside, but is born from the sin in the church.”

The crisis undermining the creditability of the church calls for serious rethinking on the part of the hierarchy, the religious and the laity. That process has barely begun, at least in an organized manner. Are we willing to ask the tough questions and follow through to the point that we as church hear what we may not want to hear?

Growth will not occur if we just blame the news organizations, the legal system, the National Survivors Advocate Coalition, the Murphy Report, or “a few bad apples.” It is not just an American phenomenon or something that happened in the distant past. We are not just another organization in which sexual abuse occurs.

Our problem is more than pedophilia and sexual abuse, bad as those sins are. It is more than acts of cover-up by the hierarchy who have too often chosen protection of reputation over the needs of the abuse victims. These actions are wrong as “The Charter for the Protection of Children and Youth” (U.S. Bishops 2002) makes clear. It is more than high financial costs imposed on dioceses, which has led some to bankruptcy. It is more than lack of information, which undermines trust.

There has been a failure to humbly, consciously and energetically plumb the fundamental question, namely: What is it about the structure and practices of the church as institution that made it possible for the abuse and subsequent cover-ups to occur?

n  It may lie with mandatory celibacy for priests or may not, but let’s ask the question.

n  It may lie with an all-male hierarchy or may not, but let’s ask the question.

n  It may be a lack of accountability or may not, but let’s ask the question.

n  It may be the backtracking from the reforms of Vatican II or may not, but let’s ask the question.

n  It may lie with our church’s form of governance or may not, but let’s ask the question.

n  It may lie with why we investigate the religious (nuns) but not the Vatican hierarchy (priests) or may not, but let’s ask the question.

n  It may lie with the exalted status we assign to bishops as compared to priests or may not, but let’s ask the question.

n  It may be a lack of understanding of the relationship between justice and forgiveness or may not, but let’s ask the question.

Some might say that asking such questions would weaken the faith of the faithful, but that is not so. Our faith is based on Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who are beyond time and space, the residing of the Spirit within each of us, the presence of the Christ in the Holy Eucharist, and “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church,” and not on a particular set of institutional arrangements, helpful as some of those may be.

Who should take the leadership in asking such questions? It would be best if the Holy Father took the initiative and appointed a commission composed of laity, religious and priests, including theologians, to consult widely and ably in order to examine such questions. This would say to the faithful and the entire world that the church is willing to confront “the greatest persecution of the church” which “is born from the sin in the church” openly and thoroughly.

The call of faith requires us to ask searching questions with great respect and to be open to where that search leads us, recalling at all times that God loves each of us and it is that love that binds us together as the People of God.