Church Abuse

~ Laura

I've been following with sadness the stories about the abuse of children by priests in Ireland and Germany. Religion is not usually one of my topics on this blog, but we've been talking about it at home, so I thought I would put it out on the blog.

Terrible stories of sexual abuses of children by their trusted parish priests have been a mainstay in the news in the US for a while. American bishops have been chastised, benefits have been paid out to past victims, and a few of the worst offenders have been sent to prison. It was seen as an American problem. Now, victims in Ireland and Germany have come forward to tell their stories. The Pope himself may have been involved in hushing up past crimes.  

Catholics are horrified by the number of perverts at the pulpit and by the seemingly lack of concern by church hierarchy for the victims of this abuse. (See Maria Farrell's response.) The congregation at our local church has dwindled noticeably in the past five years. It's easy to get a good parking space now. 

The only way that the church will survive this disaster is through major reforms. We need to enlarge the ranks of quality priests by allowing women to become priests and by allowing priests to marry. The church must bend, rather than remain rigid. If it doesn't bend, then the church will end up toppling over in the storm like the many trees in our town.

Published by Laura

7 thoughts on “Church Abuse”

  1. These stories are indeed dreadful. I’m an outsider, and don’t care if the catholic church dissolves (saving it is a job for those on the inside).
    But, the stories do make me wonder about what we need to do to protect children in a variety of environments. The stories seem to identify a number of elements that promulgated the abuse: secrecy, hierarchical leadership, popularity (it’s interesting how many of the priests accused of pedophilia are generally admired), powerlessness.

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  2. I’ve never been in a diocese that went through any serious abuse and hush-up scandal (thank you Archbishops Wuerl, Sheenan, and others). I think major reforms are going to happen, but not in that way. It looks to me like they are trying to improve the quality of priests by raising the status of priests. In other words, more work to highlight the importance of sacramental issues. Just as the scandal has tended to encourage those who want reforms like a more open clergy to call for that as a solution, those who think society in general went to down the tubes because of a general decline in sexual morality see that as the main problem. It’s similar to the broader culture war, but much, much friendlier ground for the cultural conservative arguments.
    My parents live in one of the most conservative diocese in America (it has shifted a bit with a new bishop). When I go to church there, I see 25 year-old priests and my dad talks about how they took half his parish to start a new parish. The expanded church they built less than 10 years ago was over-filling again. Obviously, this is in an area with continued population growth, but my point is that I don’t think you can make a sweeping statement that more people are leaving the Church because it is too rigid than are staying/joining because it is rigid.
    In my own diocese, they are closing parishes, but population is down even more. The masses in the populated East End areas where I travel are just as full as ever. You don’t see quite as many younger priests, but the seminary class sizes are up.
    And, you can very clearly see how the Episcopalian diocese tried to reform and wound-up split in two. That stuff was local news here. My back-up church draws a full crowd for two masses on Sunday and big crowds for 2 other masses. (I don’t get-up early enough on Sunday, so I don’t know about the other masses.) Across the street is the Episcopal Church that was one of the drivers of the reform that lead to the split. Excepting the time I went for a (secular) concert, I’ve never seen more than a dozen cars in the lot.

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  3. “We need to enlarge the ranks of quality priests by allowing women to become priests and by allowing priests to marry.”
    Item #1 isn’t going to happen. As to #2, while married men may become Catholic priests (and have not infrequently lately, whether in the Byzantine rite or in the case of Anglican converts), it’s just not going to happen the other way around (celibate priests marrying).
    I think Catholics tend not to know about the difficulties of Protestant clerical marriage and family life, and to see only that the grass looks greener on the other side. In practice, it’s too easy for a minister’s family to come in last. After hundreds of people (some of them pretty darn needy) have used him up emotionally, his family gets what’s left over. And there may not be much at all, particularly if he has to work a second job to support his family. Meanwhile, the kids are supposed to be perfect, and the wife is supposed to be perfect and work hard (but not be interfering!), while most likely having no friendly peers for support. It’s like being a First Family, but on a smaller scale, and with a lot fewer perks, and it lasts your whole life, rather than 4-8 years.
    When it goes wrong, there’s a lot of heartache. I have a cousin who has been a Protestant minister of a biggish church for some time, as well as the father of a large family. I’m not clear on all the nuances of the situation, but his wife left him recently and he was forced to resign his pastorship. If he had been able to reconcile with his wife, he could have kept his job, but the church board feels quite naturally that a divorced man cannot be a model of successful family life. Those kids are going to need a lot of therapy.
    http://stuffchristianslike.net/2009/09/622-the-pastors-kid/
    http://stuffchristianslike.net/2008/04/140-telling-the-pastor-what-his-kids-have-been-up-to/
    bj is correct that a very high percentage of abusers seem to have created an alibi in advance by being charming, charismatic, etc. Back during the US scandals 8 years ago, one news story template that popped up a lot was popular pastor suspended for investigation and his loyal flock rise up in protest (I don’t care if he did XYZ 20 years ago, he visited my dying mother and he’s a good guy, etc.). A few years back, I read a book called Why Does He Do That? It’s about domestic abuse, but there were a number of points from there that are relevant to sex abuse cases: 1. The abuser is able to make the victim look crazy, including to the victim’s family. 2. The abuser is really manipulative and can use anything (including 12 step programs). Bearing in mind the skill at manipulation and the people skills of the serial abuser, I think you have to give a little slack to the people who screwed up when dealing with them. These serial abusers are Grand Masters of mind games.

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  4. Among the “Top 1000 Problems Facing America Today,” the fact that some religious institutions are dwindling does not quite make the cut. When the Catholic Church devotes its resources to support a political issue, I am on the other side 98% of the time.
    I can see no value in transforming the Catholic Church from the religious equivalent of Mark Foley to the religious equivalent of Orrin Hatch. Mr. Hatch’s unquestioned personal morality does not make his viewpoints on most issues any less repellent.

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  5. Raised Catholic, in the New England. My High School was closed to sell property for the lawsuits. My headmaster (not a priest) was arrested for child pornography.
    My in-laws were raised in Ireland, Staunch Catholics and many of my husband’s family went to the Brother’s Schools. (not the orphanage types just regular) They are all now reformed catholics, don’t believe in religion and can’t believe what went on, under their noses. My MIL just decided after her second trip in Ireland last year when another scandal broke and reading the horror stories (if you haven’t read the Irish Times stories do, they really give incredible details of the rampant cult like abuse of children in the name of God) she was done and hasn’t been back to church.
    We struggle with being progressive, educated liberals who are pro-choice but want our children to have the church like we did. Meaning, some morals, values, raised with religion but free to decide later what you want from God later. We keep trying to give the Catholic Church the benefit of the doubt. However, with the new throw-back pope, looks like things won’t be moving in any direction except backwards.

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  6. “Among the “Top 1000 Problems Facing America Today,” the fact that some religious institutions are dwindling does not quite make the cut.”
    Putnam’s Bowling Alone suggests that it is a big deal, that in the US altruism and religious involvement go hand in hand. Changes in religious institutions affect the welfare of society at large. Putnam doesn’t talk about this specifically, but city schools that educated poor children get closed and hospitals that were founded to give charity care send bills to collections.

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