Catholics at a Crossroads: Coverup, Crisis, and Cure

By Eileen Flynn

IT IS THE GREATEST CRISIS EVER TO FACE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH—the sexual molestation of minors by priests and the way the church hierarchy tried to cover up the situation, endangering more children in the process. Once it became common knowledge in 2002, the ugly reality of a dysfunctional institution corrupted by the complicity of cardinals and bishops in the sins of a relatively small number of molesting priests has brought a powerful institution to disgrace. Unable to postpone coping with this tragic reality, its leaders have been forced to begin the recovery process. But will it go far enough? More than 60 million people in the U.S. are in a position to choose to let the church be or to demand changes. Catholics at a Crossroads: Coverup, Crisis, and Cure offers a penetrating analysis of how the unthinkable happened and what exactly the Catholic Church needs to do to remedy the situation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paraview Press
• Release date: Mar 17, 2003
• ISBN: 9781616406202

Eileen Flynn

Eileen P. Flynn, Ph.D., has been a practicing Catholic her entire life. Married and the mother of four children, she received a doctorate in moral theology in 1982. Flynn, who lives on Long Beach Island, New Jersey, is a professor at Saint Peter’s College in Jersey City. She was awarded bene merenti status in 2001 in recognition of her outstanding service of twenty years.

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Endnotes

Stop

Shall I start with the cabin in the Blue Hills?–where he kept me on my knees all night after servicing him in ways that would make you vomit, if I told you? And how, when he was finished with me he told me that I could now call him Paul, I didn’t have to say Father Shanley anymore? Or should I move right along to the ruined house in Vermont where in a rage, he left me, without heat or food for an entire day, in the dead of winter, in the middle of nowhere, to teach me that I must never, ever say No to him when he wanted to use me sexually? Or shall I just start first with the dreams that still wake me in sobbing terror and sick to my stomach?

–Arthur Austin¹

Introduction

Few people are happy with the Catholic Church today. Priests, bishops, cardinals and the pope may seem tranquil on the outside, but they are crying on the inside. Progressives are unhappy about the way the reform-minded agenda of Vatican II has gotten sidetracked, and conservatives bemoan the disintegration of what once was a proud, enviable institution. Collectively, all Catholics suffer from shame and the pain of watching the church lose its credibility and sense of purpose. In the United States concern extends beyond the Catholic community to the broader society. Anticipating his visit with Pope John Paul II on May 29, 2002, President George Bush said that he was distressed and that he needed to share his feelings with the pope: I will tell him that I am concerned about the Catholic Church in America. I’m concerned about its standing. And I say that because the Catholic Church is an incredibly important institution in our country. ²

Due primarily to disclosures in 2002 about sexual molestation cases and the hierarchy’s handling of these cases, the Catholic Church is in an alarming decline. Facing what is wrong with the church will be an unnerving experience, but the issue must be confronted. People need to know what is wrong in order to become motivated to correct egregious misconduct. Now is the time to stop and determine the nature of the problems the church is embroiled in so that we can make an accurate assessment and begin to consider corrective measures. Just as youngsters at dangerous intersections are instructed to stop, look, and listen, so we who are at a momentous crossroads in Catholic Church history need to heed these rules. First, we stop to take a serious look at the crisis in the church today.

Statistics on priest molestation

Stating how many priests have sexually molested minors is critically important, but accessing accurate statistics is impossible. There are two reasons for this. The first is that many assaults are never reported and, therefore, never documented. The second is that there is no central data agency that keeps statistics on molestation of minors by priests. Even people who make every effort to gather information are stymied in their quest. Margaret O’Brien Steinfels, editor of the Catholic magazine Commonweal, illustrates this fact. When she addressed the Catholic bishops of the United States in Dallas in June 2002, Mrs. Steinfels said:

The truth is that we don’t know the truth, the full truth, about this sex abuse scandal. Despite the endless reports … we don’t know the truth. Yes, we know some truths–and they are horrifying and overwhelming. So overwhelming that we can scarcely keep track of times and places and numbers. But these facts we do know leave many questions unanswered…³

The estimate that is usually given on the number of priests who have sexually abused children and adolescents is approximately two percent. In reviewing a very thorough research study of the files of men who were priests in Chicago between 1951 and 1991 Philip Jenkins, a professor at Penn State, wrote that the files showed that fifty-seven diocesan priests and two visiting priests had been the subject of allegations of sexual abuse. This works out to 2.6 percent of that archdiocese’s priests having complaints made about their conduct. In 1.7 percent of cases the charges seemed justified.⁴ Citing information made available by two archdioceses in 2002, Father Stephen J. Rossetti, a psychologist and the president of a treatment center for priest sex molesters, agreed that the number of priests who have molested children and adolescents is about two percent. Rossetti relied on the archdiocese of Boston’s review of its records in 2002, which found the number of allegations was approximately 60, and it is important to note that this number represents the total number of accused priests over 50 years, … so the ratio is about 2 percent.⁵

A similar review conducted by the archdiocese of Philadelphia revealed that from 1950 until 2002, 2,154 priests had served and there were credible allegations against thirty-five. This is approximately 1.6 percent.⁶ From January until June 2002 the number of priests who were forced to leave active ministry because people came forward to accuse them of sexual molestation or because their prior history made them unacceptable risks was 250. Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, the president of the bishops’ conference, responding in Dallas to a request for an estimate of the number of priests facing sanctions, said that about 250 of the nation’s 46,000 priests had been suspended from ministry this year.⁷ An Associated Press report in December 2002 put the total number of priests who resigned or were removed from duty during the year at 325.⁸ Both figures represent less than one percent.

Culture of the Catholic Church

The Catholic Church is an institution and every institution has a culture. The culture of an institution refers to those characteristics that define it and contribute to assumptions about what it is and how it carries on its mission. People make decisions based on implicit understandings about institutions. For example, we know that we should comport ourselves in a dignified manner in a courtroom but we are much less concerned about our behavior at amusement parks. This is because we know that the culture of the court is serious and somber and requires decorum while the culture of an amusement park is relaxed and jovial. What we know has become a perception and we act based on perceptions and assumptions.

The Catholic Church is a complex international institution with a 2,000-year tradition. Hence, commenting on its culture is not a simple matter. Nevertheless, it is possible to consider eight ingrained aspects of the church’s culture, all negative, that have given rise to the current crisis involving the priest molestation of minors. The church is supposed to do Christ’s work in the world and be a witness to Jesus. If the Catholic Church carried out this mission, it would appear to be a holy institution and people would see it as doing Jesus’ work. But, today, people perceive Catholicism as corrupt; the church does not seem to be involved with doing God’s work. It is more like a holy mess and a wholehearted campaign to recover its credibility is necessary to restore its image.

1. Hierarchical structure impedes decisive action.

The church is arranged in hierarchical fashion. The Catholic Church is not a democracy. It is a mammoth international institution with more than a billion members, of which approximately 66 million are in the United States, and jurisdiction proceeds from the top down. The pope and his staff at the Vatican set policy and preside at the apex of the organizational pyramid. The pope appoints his assistants (bishops); they carry out his policies and implement them within their jurisdictions (dioceses). Members of the hierarchy profess loyalty to the pope and they invest a great deal of energy in maintaining this loyalty. The way they lead is by looking over their shoulders to determine whether or not the pope is pleased with how they are carrying out their administrative responsibilities and insuring that Catholic doctrine is presented correctly within their dioceses. Accordingly, they are not focused on the requirements of the people under them, not to mention the children of parishioners. It is not that bishops do not care about the people that they lead, only that the system is not set up with the interests of the laity as a primary concern.

Members of the hierarchy should work together to lead the church and serve its members. They should be collaborators and discuss common concerns with the intention of determining how to resolve them. Instead, they act autonomously within their jurisdictions and report only to Rome. Had the United States hierarchy implemented a collaborative element in their ministry they might have come to a communal understanding of the dreadful wrong constituted by priest sexual abuse and might have figured out a common procedure for righting this wrong. They might also have instituted procedures to warn one another about seminarians or priests who were dismissed from their jurisdictions because of sexual abuse of minors. In other words, with a collaborative element, it is more likely that necessary precautions would have been put in place and acted on.

2. Laity exercises a passive role.

Church members are known as laity. Vatican Council II called for the active involvement of lay people in the church.

Let the spiritual shepherds recognize and promote the dignity as well as the responsibility of the laity in the Church. Let them willingly employ their prudent advice. Let them confidently assign duties to them in the service of the Church, allowing them freedom and room for action. Further, let them encourage lay people so that they may undertake tasks on their own initiative.….(Bishops aided by) the experience of the laity, can more clearly and more incisively come to decisions regarding both spiritual and temporal matters.⁹

In spite of the Council’s mandate to bishops, to a large degree women and men think that all they are expected or allowed to do is to pray, pay and obey. The facts that the laity exercises only a passive role and that men and women docilely accept this role are two negative aspects of Catholic culture that figure in present problems. Lay people have little interaction with members of the hierarchy and there is not much interaction between parishioners and priests at the parish level.

It is lay people, however, who have brought accusations of priest molestation of minors to their pastors or bishops. Why haven’t abusive priests been removed after the first credible accusation of misconduct? Why have lay people allowed molester-priests to continue to function in parishes? Simply because the laity has been kept in the dark by both pastors and bishops who consistently tried to conceal