Get Religion examines a Commonweal blog on the new archbishop of Baltimore, William Lori.
In the blog, Terry Mattingly says
Consider, for example, this passage:
While Lori is known for his orthodoxy on doctrine and social issues, he was praised by many for taking a hard line in dealing with abusive priests, and in dealing with subsequent financial scandals that emerged.
Catch that? It’s all about that crucial word “while.”
Even though Lori is theologically orthodox, he was also willing to take a hard line against abusive priests who did everything they could to shatter both their vows and the church’s doctrines, on multiple levels. Why is it hard to believe that someone can be orthodox and, well, just?
Terry points out that this implies an opposition, and that in my book Sacrilege, I, who am doctrinally and liturgically and politically conservative, am scathing in my comments on the abusers and their enables.
Most of the people who comment on the sexual abuse crisis try to adopt it to their narrative:
Liberals say that sexual abuse is the product of a patriarchal, hierarchal, obscurantist, hidebound corrupt Vatican-loyalists church that at least since Constantine’s day (or maybe St Paul’s) has gone astray from the feminist, sexual liberationist gospel that Jesus really proclaimed
Conservatives it is the result of amoral loosey-goosey feel-good liberalism which scarcely believes in God and has clown masses and doesn’t say the rosary and pals around with Democrats and that if we all just obeyed every jot and tittle of canon law all would be well.
Both try to fit the news to their version of what is happening in the Church. There is in fact evidence to support both sides: Maciel vs. Shanley, Law vs. Weakland.
What has happened is much more subtle. Abusers and their enablers are masters of manipulation: they know how to adopt their message to the narratives of their audience, narratives that have weaknesses.
It could be simple: “I am a dear old Irish priest who is kind and gentle with children and that is why I want to spend so much time alone with theme,” “O, Isn’t Faaather wonderful!” (Geoghan)
Or it could be: “You need to overcome your sexual hang-ups, o 15 year old boy. Look in this book, see, theologians now say that there is nothing wrong with homosexual acts, and that they can be ways of growing in sexual maturity.” (Shanley and Gordon MacRae)
All the segments of the church should realize that their narratives, their ways of interpreting what has happened and is happening, can be exploited for destructive and immoral purposes, and not just in regard to sexual matters. Concern for the poor can be manipulated into toleration of leftist thuggery; concern for order can be manipulated into toleration of fascist thuggery.
We should always be aware of how we can be manipulated by those whose intentions are not good.
Amen, brother.
I second Mary, amen!
“Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And, he said unto the woman,” …..Genesis 3.
You have made an eyeopening application of biblical teaching to our contemporary situation. Note who is the father of subtlety.
And I also say Amen.
The Church definitely would be far better off if bishops and other Church leaders tried to follow Canon Law. Right-thinking theological and liturgical conservatives know what the problems of the Church are. Unfortunately I have found that most of the conservatives in general are clueless. The more I’ve read about what has gone in the Church, the more it seems that so many Church leaders aren’t even remotely conservative, if by that term one thinks of rigid morality.
St. Peter Damian and St. Alphonsus Ligori would counter by saying the ultimate issue has nothing to do with conservative or liberal agendas that didn’t exist in their days.
AltonRoute, you’re absolutely right about the conservatives being clueless. They’re clueless because they’ve been conditioned not to think for themselves but to react as they think Church authorities would want them to react. (The liberals are clueless because they worship their own agenda). That’s why the widespread disobedience of canon law is ignored. The “conservatives” are no different than the prelates, who want to run things as they see fit, not as Christ would see fit (same for the libs).
Joseph,
Yes…the liberals/progressives worship their agenda. Today NCR put out an editorial in support of Bishop Geoffrey Robinson’s push to change sexual morality in the Church. The whole thing is ridiculous. The progressives have done immense damage to the Catholic Church and the conservatives fail to see the collusion of the bishops, clergy and religious in all this. Put on old-fashioned vestments and sing the Sanctus and Agnus Dei in Latin and the mindless conservatives will forget about everything.
Put on old-fashioned vestments and sing the Sanctus and Agnus Dei in Latin and the mindless conservatives will forget about everything.
TheAltonRoute, I couldn’t have put it any better myself.
Today NCR put out an editorial in support of Bishop Geoffrey Robinson’s push to change sexual morality in the Church.
To what ends? More “free love,” abortion and sodomy? Why doesn’t NCR just dispense with Christ and start worshipping Artemis, like they did in Ephesus back in the day?
Mindless conservatives are the fruit of pre-V2 Catholicism. Reactionary liberals are the fruit of post-V2 Catholicism. Put them together and you have one fine mess!
Doe anyone believe here that Our Lord Jesus would want religious ritual ( the Holy sacrifice of the Mass) be written and presided over by pedophile priests and their enablers?
This liberal/conservative duality is absurd. Clergy sex abuse continues because men, pretending to be celibate with absolute power, do not have any visceral response to children being raped by catholic clerics. It is as simple and as awful as that.
Jesus gave us only two commandments, to love God and our neighbor. These men with Roman collars who have remained silent inside of this heinous tragedy do neither. And yet they call themselves priests: the perverted clerics, the silent clerics , the enabling bishops. They are not, no matter what they tell you, and they do not belong on altars. Not even one of them.
AW
About 15 years ago, Lori sent a fax to all priests in his diocese warning him that a nun who was starting an orphanage was a fake. I was her volunteer development coordinator and had assembled a group of faithful, monied leaders to support her cause. She was a real nun. He had never spoken to her, and destroyed her reputation in an instant. I don’t think she ever recovered from that.
cmm, what would Lori’s motivation be for such an act?
I had the impression that he was an enforcer, and relied on superficial information. He really believed that Sister was a fraud, was not a nun, and was trying to steal money from people. He had never spoken to her or verified her status.
Sounds like she had a good case for a libel lawsuit.
I believe Canon Law requires the permission of the ordinary before someone may start raising money on behalf of pious causes. If the nun didn’t contact the ordinary for permission, then she was in the wrong. If the bishop defamed her, then maybe she had a case in civil law against him.
Do I like Lori? No. He appears to be another one of the phonies.