On Thursday I heard Mary Gail Frawley-O’Dea speak in Naples at a VOTF series. She is a clinical psychologist specializing in trauma and had spoken to the bishops 2002 at the Dallas conference.
She focused on what she saw as the roots of the sexual abuse crisis. She had left the Catholic Church some time ago and has become a liberal Protestant, and her position was that the Catholic Church should adopt the ethos of liberal Protestantism to rid itself itself clerical narcissism that had enabled the abuse.
Unfortunately her theology is so different from Catholicism that most Catholics, especially those in the hierarchy, will dismiss her immediately, although she had some excellent suggestions. Among them was the reinstitution of the sacred penitentiary (although she did not use that term).
She said that bishops sought the easy way out of the accusations: pay off the victims and laicize the abusive priests. But this turned abusers loose with no control or supervision. She suggested offering such priests a residence in the country, where they could work, say mass, pray, and stay away from children. They would have no internet access or cell phone, and would be accompanied whenever they left the residence.
She described the process of mourning that victims had to go through for the life they had lost and Catholics had to go through for the image of the Church they had lost, an image that never corresponded to reality.
The clerical attitudes that she found intolerable and a betray of Christ were exemplified by an article that a Canadian referred me to: “Parent of Abuse Compliant Raps Plourde” (Ottawa Citizen, June 4, 1986).
The mother of one of the three boys allegedly abused by a Nepean priest lashed out Tuesday at Archbishop Joseph-Aurèle Plourde for his “unchristian” response to parent’s complaints.
On Monday, Plourde issued a statement criticizing parents for going outside the church with their allegations instead of “placing their trust in their own pastors, priests, and bishops.”
(snip)
The woman…said she had tried to get satisfaction within the church without result. After she had relayed her accusations on separate occasions to two priests a bishop, and a member of her parish council she was scolded by the bishop for gossiping, she said.
She said Plourde phoned her at her home in early May to say “she mustn’t go to the police and mustn’t go to the media and mustn’t bring shame upon the Church.
He said it wasn’t my concern and was in danger of a grave sin of scandal,” she said.
“Not once did any of these men ask about my son and his condition, not once.”
(The accused priest, Dale Crampton, later pleaded guilty.)
I really do not think that this attitude has changed – bishops have been told by their lawyers that they have to do certain things and have to pretend to be human beings and express concern for the victims, but my strong suspicions that it is all show, and there has been no conversion of heart. Liberals like Weakland and conservatives like Egan were equally hard-hearted.
The lack of compassion by the Bishops is very hard to comprehend. It begs the question, what is it about the Catholic faith that produces clergy who have no understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Could it be that Catholicism is such a complex, legalistic set of doctrines and practices that it has practically buried the Gospel ? It seems as though “Catholicism” and “The Church” have taken the place of God. Their clergy has forgotten about Jesus.
Nah, I think the vast majority of problems in the Church can be traced to Rome. The problem isn’t the teachings of the Church, celibacy, male-only priesthood, or whatever else the Call to Action people cite. The trouble comes from all the corruption in the Vatican. I’m guessing the corruption began spreading everywhere in the Church when the Vatican started exercising more control over selection of bishops. I believe the book Ambition and Arrogance by Douglas Slawson supports the conclusion that the Vatican itself is the source of corruption in the US Church. In that book Slawson describes William Henry O’Connell’s rise to power in the US Church through bribery and corruption. American bishops of the day were appalled and disgusted by O’Connell’s worldliness and sexual corruption (sodomy). Some tried to get rid of him, but O’Connell’s pals in Rome always protected him. Like O’Connell, another Boston priest rose to power using the same sort of behavior (Francis Spellman). Rite of Sodomy by Randy Engel makes it quite clear that homosexuality was tolerated and widespread in the Vatican long before Vatican II. In both Ambition and Arrogance and Rite of Sodomy the authors claim that O’Connell and Spellman were not religious men in the least. Both of these prelates also trained at the North American College. My belief is that the corruption in Rome itself is poisonous and has infected the Catholic Church everywhere in the world. The homosexuality, high-living, worldliness, etc. all start at the top.
The most impressive (to me) clergyman I ever met was a Mennonite who had settled with his wife in a rough neighbourhood to minister to the locals. They ran a community centre that helped many folks who were struggling.
I have seen lots of compassion on the part of Christian ministers and priests who are working at “ground level”. The few bishops I know seem compassionate enough (two in particular). However, it does seem a lot of bishops were/are challenged in this department, and I do wonder if this is at least partly the result of putting too much emphasis on the institution and not enough on the Lord. Manyof these guys seem to have been “churchmen” rather than disciples.
AltonRoute, I think you are right in the length of time and the extent, but it probably didn’t originate at the top as much as the top and the bottom finding common ground. 😉
In any case, venality knows no rules or boundaries.
Father, Why are the bishops that’ way for the most part? It seems to me that they mostly get chosen because they are company men first, even the orthodox ones. I met a young bishop who had his skiis waxed from 8th grade on, by little old ladies and clergy. Never cooked his own meals, never worked a day, except so very hard on important academic papers. The ones who go to Rome for advanced degrees have their way greased also….in both time and money. They simply have no idea. Even if they are nice and good people. How could they? They are like trust fund babies interning at dad’s company – a half a year at a parish here, another year in Rome for studies, vicar of this or that at 32 (or, like Bernardine, chancellor at 28). It’s all about ideas and systems and getting OTHER PEOPLE to give them money to give away, money with which they buy esteem and political privilege and assuage t heir own consciences. The bishops have use social justice as a way to get power and money.
Mary, I think you’re right that a lot of bishops have no first hand idea of what it’s like to live as uninstitutionalized adults and actually have to fend for one’s self. The progress from seminarian to priest to bishop you describe does ring true in too many cases. In seminary we used to speak of certain guys being “annointed”. These were the ones who were favored by the faculty and who seemed likely to get sent to Rome and then work in Chancery offices. From such ranks, most bishops seem to be chosen. We have been proven correct in most of our predictions. I believe that Pope Benedict did one year in a parish.
Bernardin shot to power under Bishop Russell. You have to wonder what was going on with Russell. He ordained quite a number of abusers and brought in a few. Not to mention the story of “Agnes.” Bernardin’s rise continued under Bishop Hallinan in Charleston and later in Atlanta.
Yes, the bad bishops tend to find the bad ones at the bottom. O’Connell had his nephew and Fr. Toomey. In the old days the RC Church went to lengths to dismiss the tales of Maria Monk. How nice to find out that reality would be far worse.
Fr. Koening,
One former seminarian told me that one of his friends got sent to Rome and almost abandoned his aspirations for the priesthood because of all the corruption over there. One former priest who was in our diocese said that a bishop emeritus always surrounded himself with pretty boys who had studied in Rome. The career track system seems designed to weed out priests who would make good bishops and administrators.
The Casting Couch was not reserved for Hollywood Directors.
Aw