Through a Glass Darkly: The Silence of God

The Harrowing Effects of Religious Hypocrisy:

I've just finished Ingmar Bergman's magnificent trilogy exploring the dimensions of faith, which is composed of three very beautiful, but rather austere films; Through A  Glass Darkly, Winter Light, and The Silence. Winter Light is the most religiously explicit of all of Bergman's films, focusing as it does on the religious crisis of a Lutheran pastor, who's soul has simply been emptied of all palpable sense of God's loving presence. I couldn't help thinking of the many crises facing the Christian churches in this day, the Catholic Church in particular, as Bergman's three profound films carried me into their interior, deeply spiritual worlds - with all of their bleakness, darkness, despair - and the faint glimmer of a redeeming light seen in the far distance on the horizon. Faith is a distant glow, burning gently and barely perceptibly, in the burned out hearts of Bergman's characters, and  they must discover and nurture this glow themselves -without the consolations of a hypocritical religious structure - through their small acts of love and sacrifice for one another. A terrible doubt always hovers over Bergman's films and the characters within - will they discover within themselves this delicate glow of faith and meaning, or will there only be ashes?

What intrigued me about this trilogy is the manner in which it illuminates Bergman's own crisis of faith, since he used these three films to work through many conflicts stemming from his own childhood religious upbringing and the abuse he suffered at the hands of his minister father. Bergman's father was a Lutheran pastor and later chaplain to the King of Sweden. Ingmar would listen enthralled to his father's glorious sermons on Christian love - then find himself subjected to the most painful torments from his towering minister father. If Bergman were discovered to have wet the bed - as a boy of five!- his father would beat him mercilessly, then  lock him into a dark closet for hours at a time, only to remove him and force him to wear a red dress for the remainder of the day. Such torments continued for years and instilled in the young Bergman a profound distrust of all official ministers of religion and a life long disgust with all forms of religious hypocrisy. Ministers were capable of composing the most glowing sermons on Christian love, but within whose hearts no such love had found room  to grow and flourish-deserts of the heart concealed behind honeyed words of hypocrisy. Does this not remind us so much of the sexual abuse crisis of the Catholic Church - particularly of the failure of a fairly representative number of Church leaders to display even the most rudimentary concern and practical support for victims of abuse? The great crisis of faith this scandal engenders in the minds and hearts of sincere spiritual searchers is this: If the spiritual power that is supposed to be operative within and accessible through this religious institution cannot even penetrate the hearts of its ministers and leaders, cannot find room to grow and flourish there to the extent that they place the well being of children above the reputation of the institution - and cannot inspire it's own leaders with the grace and insight to prevent such a tragedy on such a grand scale - then of what use is it? This is the terrible doubt, which pursued Bergman all his life and which he explores in so many films, a doubt instilled in his own soul by the abuse he suffered at the hands of a minister of the faith. Fortunately, spiritually discerning persons realize that the efficacy of the Spirit does not depend on the witness of fallible leaders (and that not all leaders, to be sure,  remain unresponsive to the movements of the Spirit), but transcends them and flourishes on the margins, in the shadows, among the outcasts and those frequently deemed the least worthy of grace. Nonetheless, in the face of such a powerful countersign being given collectively by the leadership of the Catholic Church, the doubt still remains. This is why it is imperative for discerning Christians to offer their own countersigns to the negative sign of sinful, abusive leadership - and to offer havens of peace and serenity in the midst of trials and contradictions, witnessing to the delicate but ecstatic joy of the living flame of Love which burns brightly in hearts that have been opened through grace and the purging of the grasping ego.

This brings me to the moving climax of Bergman's film, Winter Light. Bergman has inserted into this film about profound religious doubt, one deeply spiritual man of faith, the crippled, hunchback sacristan who shares these remarks about his reading of the gospels with the exhausted pastor. In light of the failure of leadership within the Church today, they speak for themselves, words from a marginalized cripple, who is a humble servant to the despairing minister of religion, but who witnesses far more effectively to the spiritual efficacy of his religion than the minister himself. Such is the mystery of grace:

Now I’ve gotten as far as the story of Christ’s passion, and it’s given me pause. The passion of Christ, his suffering, wouldn’t you say the focus on his suffering is all wrong? This emphasis on physical pain. It couldn’t have been all that bad.  It may sound presumptuous of me, but in my humble way I’ve suffered as much physical pain as Jesus.  And his torments were rather brief. Lasting some four hours, I gather? 

I feel he was tormented far worse on another level.  Maybe I’ve got it all wrong.  But just think of Gethsemane, Pastor. Christ’s disciples fell asleep. They hadn’t understood the meaning of the last supper or anything. And when the servants of the law appeared, they ran away, and Peter denied him. Christ has known his disciples for three years.  They’d lived together day in and day out, but they never grasped what he meant. They abandoned him, down to the last man.  He was left all alone. That must have been painful. To realize that no one understands. To be abandoned when you need someone to rely on. That must be excruciatingly painful. But the worst was yet to come. When Jesus was nailed to the cross, and hung there in torment, he cried out, 

"God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

He cried out as loud as he could. He thought that his heavenly father had abandoned him. He believed everything he’d ever preached was a lie. In the moments before he died, Christ was seized by doubt. Surely that must have been his greatest hardship. God’s silence.

And yet...and it is a significant qualification ...a powerful spiritual beauty lies within the profound silence of all of Bergman's films, reminiscent of the silence of the Irish playwright, Samuel Becket - the silence of waiting upon God. Characters suffer in all of Bergman's films, they are bereft of normal human hope, they search within the desert of the heart for some spring of living water which does not seem to gush forth, and so they remain in silence, waiting. God may be silent, but his presence is revealed in the deepest inner core of the heart, a silence that is a deep inner stillness and which prompted the Catholic contemplative, Bernadette Roberts to exclaim that the most perfect name for God was Silence.

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New John Jay Study debunks myth of link between gay priests and sex abuse. Sex abuse declines as number of gay priests increases.

Thanks to Religious News Service and Dating God for this near instant report on the long awaited and just released John Jay College of Criminal Justice report on the clergy sex abuse crisis.

(Update: here is a link to 3 SNAP victims' highly critical responses to the John Jay Report: Snap Network)


As if once wasn't enough, yet again this second John Jay report forcibly debunks the myth of a gay connection to the sexual abuse crisis - but it does so with a whammy of a final punch line.

the researchers found no statistical evidence that gay priests were more likely than straight priests to abuse minors—a finding that undermines a favorite talking point of many conservative Catholics. The disproportionate number of adolescent male victims was about opportunity, not preference or pathology, the report states.

What’s more, researchers note that the rise in the number of gay priests from the late 1970s onward actually corresponded with “a decreased incidence of abuse—not an increased incidence of abuse.”

 Read the full report at the above link for Religious News Service and for commentary at the link for Dating God and the New York Times.

From the NYT article: The report notes that homosexual men began entering the seminaries “in noticeable numbers” from the late 1970s through the 1980s. By the time this cohort entered the priesthood, in the mid-1980s, the reports of sexual abuse of minors by priests began to drop and then to level off. If anything, the report says, the abuse decreased as more gay priests began serving the church. 

Many more boys than girls were victimized, the report says, not because the perpetrators were gay, but simply because the priests had more access to boys than to girls, in parishes, schools and extracurricular activities. 

In one of the most counterintuitive findings, the report says that fewer than 5 percent of the abusive priests exhibited behavior consistent with pedophilia, which it defines as a “psychiatric disorder that is characterized by recurrent fantasies, urges and behaviors about prepubescent children.

(Snap member, David Clossey reponds:

-The crisis isn’t all that bad, the report suggests, because many of the kids who are or were violated had experienced puberty. Never mind the fact that child sex crimes, no matter at what age, are always illegal, immoral and hurtful. So the hair-splitting between pedophiles and ephebophiles (a distinction that seems to matter to few besides bishops) is, for the most part, at best irrelevant and at worst distracting.

“Thus, it is inaccurate to refer to abusers as ‘pedophile priests,’ ” the report says.

There are days when the light shines through the clouds, however briefly. This is one of those days (and it's gorgeous on the Vltava River here in Prague.) Perhaps I should have said, 'however dimly.' Whatever the flaws of the study, leaving Bishops free to conclude "we don't have to change a thing," it is the final nail in the coffin for the assertion that gay men are the locus of the problem.

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Swami PrakashakaBOOM Will Fondle No More and The Vatican Goes on Trial

Swami PrakashakaBoom

Hardly a laughing matter, but I love this eclectic little website devoted to tracking down Indian guru child molesters. Even the name - GURUPHILIAC- exemplifies the wit with which these highly intelligent people go about their task - debunking the fornicating fakes and creepy gurus, while also taking time to praise a few well balanced, sane and unpretentious spiritual teachers. Does this have relevance to the Catholic scene? You betcha. Most of the kreepy gurus are accused of fondling young girls - with the exception of Sai Baba who fondled them all, but had a propensity for young boys. A Santa Barbara friend of mine was a devotee until her 14 year old son was groped by Sai Baba in a private 'initiation' ceremony. She hauled him out of the ashram that very evening and they were on the next flight back to the US the following morning. What does this mean as a reflecting mirror on Catholic priest molesters? Don't know, really, and wouldn't want to make a 'gay' connection, of course, only to point out that altar boys are far more available to altar priests than little girls are to worshiped Guru Divinities. The common denominator, however, is the undue reverence and obedience given to exalted male priestly figures who claim to have a monopoly on the dispensation of sacred power, and the easy way this reverence can be manipulated and abused. I appreciate this site, however, because they go out of their way to recommend some very sensible spiritual guides who make no claims to complete enlightenment. See Heart of Now.  I also have to admit to a feeling of relief that 'we are not alone' in the propensity of over-exalted sacred figures to satisfy their wanton desires upon the innocent.

Not so with the cover up, however, and this brings me to Queen's Consul Geoffrey Robertson's book, The Case of the Pope: Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuse, which I've just finished (picked it up in a Florence book shop last February).

The book is far too rich for me to summarize quickly - except to say that he does build a very plausible case for Vatican and specifically, Pope Benedict's, vulnerability to charges of 'crimes against humanity' which could very likely be lodged with the European Court of Human Rights. He also demolishes the argument that the Holy See has any legal standing in calling itself a state, and really has no business having six very vocal observers and lobbyists at the UN sessions. The legal arguments are complex and convoluted, but Robertson makes them remarkably clear and logical. I found it an enthralling, if shocking, read. Yes, we've heard it all before, but never in such detail and laid out case after case - of Vatican obfuscation and obstruction of justice. Nauseating is too delicate  a word to describe the effect on the reader, and one is left pondering the folly of humanity in allowing such a scam to continue for so long. The Vatican, quite simply, is harmful to children.

In reference to groping gurus, here is  Robertson's response:

The Church's response, still echoed by those like Alan Dershowitz who defend the present Pope, is that hierarchical sex abuse occurs in all religious institutions and in secular schools, and it is wrong to 'stereotype' the Roman Catholic priesthood. But the evidence does reliably show a remarkably higher level of abuse in Catholic institutions (see chapter 2) and in any event, the defense misses the point, namely that this church, through its pretensions to be a state, with its own non-punitive Canon Law, has actually covered up the abuse and harboured the abusers. Moreover, this particular religion endows its priests with god-like powers in the eyes of children, who are put into their spiritual embrace from the time when they first develop the faculty of reasoning.....'Catholics are indoctrinated from their childhood that priests take the place of Jesus Christ and are to be obeyed at all costs, and never questioned or criticized.' (Fr. Tom Doyle). A church that puts its children from this early age under the spiritual control of its priests, representatives of God to whom they are unflinchingly obedient, has the most stringent of duties to guard against the exploitation of that obedience to do them harm. That duty includes the duty of handing over those reasonably suspected of child sex abuse to the secular authorities for trial and, if convicted, for punishment. It is this duty that Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, a.k.a. Benedict XVI, has for the past thirty years adamantly refused to accept. 


Again, the value of the book, in my opinion, is not its exposure of the extent of the cover-up and Vatican intransigence in dealing with requests for confidential information about accused molesters. We've heard all of these stories before, even though Roberson does a great service by gathering so many shocking examples into a single read. The book really packs a wallop because of the tightly argued thesis from a first rate legal mind that the Vatican has no legal ground to call itself a state and therefore no excuse for claiming immunity to criminal prosecution, as it has tried to do on many occasions. The book  has had a wide readership, particularly among other first rate legal minds, and there are already rumblings from Belgium of a test case that will be brought before the European Court of Human Rights charging Benedict with crimes against humanity. The defenses are cracking, and I can only see this as one more hopeful sign of the Holy Spirit - not wreaking vengeance, so to speak, but helping us all to dismantle the false idol we have created out of high priestly authority in the church.

By an odd coincidence,  on the same trip to Italy that yielded this find in a Florence bookstore, I also picked up -in a Vatican bookstore - two books on the traditional sacerdotal priesthood, Jesus Our Priest, by Gerald Collins, S.J. and Goodbye Father, by Richard Schoenherr, a massive sociological study of the Roman Catholic priesthood, completed in 1995, but not published until 2002. Both authors express their deep appreciation and reverence for the mystery of the sacerdotal priesthood in the church and affirm its fundamental necessity for the Catholic charism. Collins is more traditional and more mystical, Schienherr more cognizant of the many contradictions and distortions of sexism in the church which ultimately undermines the very value of the priesthood he so cherishes. But it was a shocking and highly ironic juxtaposition for me to go from Robertson's book to the other two (reading back and forth), and to be reminded so graphically of what horrendous harm has been occasioned by our exaltation of the sacred all male, celibate priesthood. Robertson was, in fact, the antidote to Gerald Collins, even though I found Collin's foray through the history of Catholic reflection on the priesthood to be deeply moving - yet ultimately deeply sad. We have gone astray with something so sacred and have allowed it to be sullied and torn and ultimately discredited. Something of great sacredness is at the core of the Catholic sacerdotal priesthood, but erecting a clerical caste around it (of whatever gender or sexual persuasion), only serves in the end to destroy it. The very nature of the priesthood needs to be redefined and freed from its present straightjacket of ecclesiastical control. How that is to be done I leave to the Holy Spirit - but not in a passive fashion. The signs are being given us of the way forward, it is up to us to properly discern them and then devotedly act upon them with heartfelt dedication.

I end these reflections with Robertson's dammning indictment of Benedict XVI:

What will be required of the Vatican, as a signal of a new commitment to put children first, is the complete abandonment of Benedict's claim that the Holy See has the right to deal with suspected felons under an obscure, inefficient and secret ecclesiastical process. But Canon Law provides a form of power, and perhaps Benedict's fatal flaw is his attraction to power - to the pomp and circumstance of statehood, to the queues of world leaders who come to bend at his knee and kiss his fisherman's ring, and to the satisfaction of having delegates promote his ideology with six seats at UN conference tables. Journalists often tell how this kindly old man offers to share his food with them, but an analysis of his behavior suggests a man in thrall to power and unable to give any of it up - even for the sake of innocent children. When it ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Holy See quoted the words of John Paul II, to the effect that children 'are that precious treasure given to each generation as a challenge to its wisdom and humanity'. John Paul II himself, as we now know, failed that challenge by cosseting notorious child molesters and turning a blind eye to the mounting toll of child victims. So did his closest lieutenant, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. On the question of whether Benedict XVI is capable of the wisdom and humanity to protect the children of his church, the jury is out.

Needless to say, this book was written and published before the recent revelations of criminal cover up in Philadelphia. 

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PHILADEPHIA HERE I COME: Following the Spirit Away From the Institution

In light of the recent scandal in the Catholic diocese of Philadelphia,  a horror story which I have no wish to summarize - except to say that this will be worse than Boston for the American Catholic Church. -I thought I would re-quote passages from a sermon by Bishop Thomas Gumbelton (see the full posting here), making it clear through words of wisdom that many people are 'leaving the Church' not simply as an act of personal will or revulsion in response to such scandals, but in obedience to a personal call of the Holy Spirit. The scandals, as shocking and reprehensible as they are, simply provide the catalyst - the objective, concrete support - for a powerful interior movement, leading many  sincere seekers into the wilderness of faith. Many such courageous souls are carrying the 'Catholic charism' with them in their hearts, providing safe haven during a dark age. We need to ask what the Spirit is telling us about this mass exodus, and not simply view it as a sociological phenomenon - or as a flock of mindless geese scattering haphazardly during a storm. The presumption should be that the Spirit is leading many of these sincere spiritual asylum seekers, providing them with the interior guidance to discover alternative sources of spiritual nourishment outside the formal institution of the Catholic Church. What should that tell us about 'the Signs of the Times,'

(The title of this posting is an ironic reference to Irish playwright, Brian Friel's, first major success, Philadelphia Here I Come.)

That is another thing we find happening in our church today, where God seems to be leading some of us, many of us in fact, away from sort of a blind obedience to laws that were created, the human laws, even though they were created within the institution of the church. A couple weeks ago, I was part of the national meeting of the organization called SNAP, which is a Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests. Now these are people, almost all of whom have had bitter experience with the hierarchy of the church.

They can’t go into a church like this anymore; they’re too traumatized and hurt, so they have to find their own way, but for many of them, it’s a deeper faith life than they’ve ever had before. They discover God loves them, they can follow the path where God is leading them.

And, you know, there are 30 million people in this country, 10 percent of this population in the United States, who have walked away from our Catholic church, from the institution of the church, probably some in your families, but that doesn’t mean they’ve walked away from God for some of them because perhaps they’re gay or lesbian and they’ve been excluded, called disordered, and they can’t accept that. They know they’re good people so they have to walk away, but it’s God calling them, and with confident assurance and strong conviction, they go where perhaps they would rather not have gone. But they do it because they have faith.

So all of us, I think, have to keep on listening in our lives to God speaking to us deeply within our spirit and develop a relationship to God, not a relationship to a human institution, not a relationship to human laws, not intellectual assent to doctrines, but we must develop a relationship with God that will give us that confident assurance and strong conviction that when God asks us to move in some way in our life, or to accept some difficulty in our life that we would rather not, that we can go where God needs us with confidence, with joy, and with peace in our hearts.

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ALMOST ABDUCTED

Ruminating over the sex abuse scandal in the Church today, I was reminded of a disturbing incident from my own childhood, which I didn't fully appreciate at the time, but which has taken on increasing significance with the passing years. My mother, Mary Jane Cameron, was a math and PE teacher at Marina Junior High School in San Francisco, at the corner of Chestnut and Fillmore Streets. and most of her students were blacks and Hispanics who had been bused in from the poor districts and projects of the city to this exclusive Marina neighborhood school for the very rich, a situation I never fully understood.  I can remember walking down the hallway to my mother's classroom and hearing her shouting authoritatively at her students, something I never heard her do at home,  and once I even witnessed her slap a boy in the face, which was truly shocking. It was a tough school and a very tough job and my mother hated it, because it required her to be so strict in order to be kind. The year would have been 1953, I was nine years old and attended the distinguished Madison Grammar School, which has since been changed to the Claire Lilienthal Elementary School.

l

These pictures bring back such memories of those years and I can still see myself being carried kicking and screaming down the hallway in the enormous arms of the gigantic Mrs. Mary O'Leary, our first grade teacher, because I was having a wild tantrum (the drama queen in the making). Mrs. O'Leary, because of her large bulk, always wore smocks that concealed the bumpy  outlines of her body. In the fourth grade, I was allowed to walk on my own the seven blocks from the Madison School on the corner of Divisadero and North Point Street to Chestnut and Fillmore streets, where I would skip up the stairs of Marina Junior High and enter my mother's classroom to wait for her school day to be over and the bus ride to our apartment in Pacific Heights, overlooking the San Francisco Bay.

 

On one bright, warm, sunny spring day, I was skipping down Chestnut street and had almost come to the corner of Fillmore, when a strange man stopped me and said, "Where are you going, sonny?" At that age, I was a very chatty, friendly child and would talk to anyone anytime anywhere, though I had been warned, and very severely at that, not to talk to strangers. Because the incident registered in my young mind at the time I have little difficulty remembering what I said to him. "Oh, I'm going across the street to meet my mother, she's a math teacher at Marina Junior High, and she also teaches PE and one time I went into the girls' locker rooms and I saw them in the showers together and once I saw a girl's titties." Babble, babble. The man laughed and then said, "Would you like a ride across the street?" and opened the door of a very large black limousine parked by the curb. I was delighted by the suggestion, and said cheerfully, "Oh, thank you very much," and jumped inside and began immediately bouncing up and down on the wide back seat. I had never been in such a large car before and this felt like such an exciting adventure. It never occurred to me until much later to notice that the car was facing in the wrong direction! The man walked around behind the car and came to the driver's door. He stopped and seemed nervous somehow, as I clearly remember it, because I got a good look at him at that moment. Very close cropped hair, almost balding, on a round head with a series of bumps in the back, stubble on the chin, not very tall, and chewing a tooth pick. After some moments of hesitation, in which he seemed to be looking at something behind the car, he opened the driver's door, leaned in and said, "Sorry, kid, I can't take you today." I was so disappointed that I just sat there with my mouth in a round little 'O.' Had I done something to offend him, I wondered, had I farted when I was bouncing up and down on the seat? Before I could figure the situation out, the man barked at me, "Beat it, kid, I'm busy." I scrambled out of the car, somewhat frightened, confused, and offended. What was that all about, I wondered, and I ran across Fillmore Street, into the swinging front doors of Marina Junior High School and up the stairs to my mother's classroom, determined to tell her all about it. However, by the time I got up onto her floor I had one of those 'uh oh' moments. My mother had always admonished me very severely for being so friendly to people on the streets and warned me time and again about the dangers of taking candy from strangers, getting into their cars, talking to them in parks. She had always advised me to "walk away" very quickly and if anyone attempted to 'interfere 'with me in any way, I was to shout out, "Police" at the top of my lungs. And so for prudence' sake, I decided to keep this little incident to myself. It would only be many years later that I would fully appreciate what a close call I had had that day, and had it not been for a fortuitous circumstance (someone staring at the man from behind the car?), I might never have seen my mother again.

My mother wasn't the only one to so admonish me. I remember an incident with my next door neighbors, Mary and Anne Murray, who had been accosted by a flasher in the park. I was in their living room when the girls told this story to their mother, and she asked very severely, "What did you do?" Anne, the oldest, said, "Oh, we just stood there and giggled." Mrs. Murray grabbed her daughter by the arm and shook her and shook her, yelling, "Don't you realize how dangerous that could have been. Don't you ever do that again. You run, you scream, you yell for the police, do you understand me? Do you understand me?" Repeated for emphasis and shouted at all three of us children. Both girls were almost in tears and I was stunned by the vehemence of the outburst, but it impressed on all of us children the fact that there were evil men out there in the world preying on young children, desiring to do nasty things to them, and we must always run and always yell for the police.

That was 1953, and the present day apologists for the sex abuse scandal in the church are trying to tell us that those were different times and people didn't appreciate the seriousness of sexual abuse and bishops wouldn't have felt the urgency to report incidents of abuse committed by priests to the civil authorities. To which my aunt Gini (mother of 13) would simply reply, "Bullshit."

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AN UNHOLY MESS: CLERICAL ABUSE OF WOMEN IN INDIA

It is such a beautiful spring day today here in Prague and I experienced such a moving and mystical Eucharist this morning at the beautiful little baroque church of St. John of Nepomuk 'On the Rock' behind my house, that it seems a shame to sully the purity of the day with another scandalous tale of sex abuse in the Church. But these stories coming out of India are important in all of their horror and monstrosity because they involve women rather than young boys, and reveal a degree of violence and torture inflicted on women that we have not seen in the cases involving male youth. This, in my opinion, is the real underbelly of the sex abuse scandal, the unholy tale that has yet to be told - the horrendous abuse of nuns by priests that is going to make the abuse of young boys look like kindergarten pranks by comparison (an exaggeration to be sure). What strikes me immediately about these tales, and others like them coming out of Africa,  is the disparity in the level of violence imposed upon female victims in contrast to male victims, as if women are the recipients of a more cynical form of manipulation, domination and contempt. Boys can be  dominated, manipulated, abused...but only up to a certain point, when their sacred maleness protects them from the worst excesses of abuse of women. An editorial generalization on my part, of course, but there it is. I'm reminded of a line from Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather Part III, which he puts into the mouth of the saintly cardinal (modeled on Albino Luciani, Pope John Paul I. "Great goodness always attracts great evil." Indeed. 

For my more positive and more hopeful thoughts of the day,  inspired by this morning's Eucharist, I've written a reflection for the progressive blog Open Tabernacle which I hope to post later today.

from India Today

The sex scandals that have rocked the Roman Catholic Church from the Americas to Europe may have hogged international headlines, but for Kerala, cases of rape and sexual abuse by priests and nuns, and attempts by the church to brush such cases under the carpet, have had a history of recurring as media stories.

Sex is taboo for nuns in all Christian denominations and for priests in most of them. Yet a section violates this rule with impunity, even resorting to murder to silence the voices that may blow the whistle. And in most such cases in Kerala, the church has had no qualms in flexing its financial, religious and political muscles to shield the black sheep from the law of the land. The Sister Abhaya case is a classic example.

According to the CBI, Sister Abhaya, a 17-year-old college student in Kottayam, had inadvertently stumbled upon the tryst of Father Jose Poothrikkayil, Father Thomas Koottoor and Sister Sephy at the St Pius X Convent on March 2, 1992. Apprehensive of the consequences, the trio killed Sister Abhaya, hitting her with an axe on the head and throwing her body in the convent's well. The Church tried its best to hush up the case and succeeded to an extent as it took 16 years for the investigating agencies to make the first arrests-the accused were nabbed on November 19, 2008. Further investigations, however, have hit roadblocks. Even after the arrests, the Church has not stripped the accused of their rights and privileges. On the contrary, it has fought strongly on behalf of the three. Consider this: The copies of the CD of the trio's narco-analysis were mysteriously leaked and shown on television. Again, a crucial prosecution witness, an assistant sub-inspector, was found dead a week after the arrests. And Sister Sephy has moved the Mumbai High Court against the medical finding that her hymen had been surgically re-implanted. Says Jomon Puthenpurcakkal, the activist who has relentlessly fought for justice for Sister Abhaya, "The church uses all its resources to protect its people from any heinous crime. The real world behind its shining walls is a trash pit." 

Yet another case of the church's defence of its violators is that of Father Benedict, a Roman Catholic priest who was arrested in the late 1960s in connection with the murder of a young woman. The local sessions court had awarded him five years' rigorous imprisonment. The Church, however, hired the services of one of the most expensive Supreme Court lawyers then, to argue Father Benedict's case in the High Court. The court acquitted the accused and till he died a few years ago, the Church took care of him. Such instances abound.

Another case, which is almost as well-known as that of Sister Abhaya, is that of the suicide of Sister Anupa Mary, resident of St Mary's Convent, Kollam, on August 11, 2008. Her suicide note stated that she was ending her life due to the sexual harassment she had faced at the hands of a senior nun. In a fit of originality, the convent's mother superior denied the allegation, stating that the nuns slept in a cubicle that was only six-feet high, so it was "impossible" to abuse her sexually.

In yet another shocking incident dating back to October 2008, a 60-year-old nun of the Congregation of Daughters of Mary Convent at Anchal near Kollam had alleged that young nuns from the convents were being forced to have abortions. The nun is now in a mental hospital at Thodupuzha in Idukki district. Her nephew alleges that she has been forcibly admitted to the hospital by the convent authorities. A nun who has gone public with such allegations is Sister Jesme, who quit the holy order after 33 years of service to it to expose the wrongdoings within the church through her book, Amen: The Autobiography of a Nun.

The 53-year-old Jesme, who was the principal of a leading women's college managed by the church, has given explicit details of sexual encounters that nuns face almost daily. She writes in the book: "At a retreat for novices, I noticed that girls in my batch were unsettled about going to the confession chamber. I found that the priest there asked each girl if he could kiss them. I gathered courage and went in. He repeated the question. When I opposed, he quoted from the Bible which spoke of divine kisses." In yet another instance, she discloses: "I was sent to teach plus-two students at St Maria College. There, a new sister joined to teach Malayalam; she was a lesbian. She would come to my bed in the night and do lewd acts and I couldn't stop her.' A recall of a priest's sexual overture towards her is the most shocking: "Back in his room, he tried to fondle me and when I resisted, he got up and asked angrily if I had seen a man. When I said no, he stripped himself, ejaculated and forced me to strip." 

Sister Jesme equates the Church with a greedy father who does not marry off his daughters and does not allow his sons to marry as well. What is disturbing, however, is the Church's defence of acts it prohibits when committed by the upholders of its values and virtues.

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THE CHURCH IS EMPTY: MISSA PASCHALIS

Last evening I went to the beautiful church of St. Simon and Jude in Prague to hear a stunning concert performance of the Weser Renaissance Ensemble, one of the most sought after ensembles in the world specializing in early 16th and 17th century music. The performance piece was a haunting mass by Flemish composer, Heinrich Isaac, entitled Missa Paschalis, and the ensemble consisted of one counter tenor, two tenors, one baritone and one bass accompanied by a coronet and four trombones. I felt completely carried back to an earlier time in history and into a rare and wonderful sacred space conjured up by the rich polyphonic music. It reminded me very poignantly of how rich the Catholic spiritual tradition has been to so many who have been touched by it in a mystical way and that this mystery has been communicated most powerfully through the Eucharist and the Mass, as well as through the witness of such martyrs to injustice as Bishop Oscar Romero and the Jesuits massacred in El Salvador. In these terrible times of revelation, we have to remind ourselves that the Mystery still exists within the broken container of the institution, even though we are being painfully weaned away from dependence on the structures of authority. These structures have weaved such a tangled, corrupt and suffocating web around the Divine Mystery that it has become obscured to many. It is time for the structures to fall away and the loud noises we are hearing in the streets today, both the anguished cries of the abuse victims calling out for justice and the hysterical, high pitched denials of the Episcopal and Papal enablers, is simply the clattering sounds of the superfluous scaffolding falling away. The authority system, having proven itself defunct,  is simply no longer needed and must be dismantled, leaving the way open for a true reformation of the Catholic communion. It will not surrender its power of its own accord, it will not reform itself from within, so power and credibility must be taken away from it, thereby enabling us to experience the  Divine Mystery that still lives within the living community of the Spirit. This community will still have the responsibility to pass on the tradition and to still act as a conduit for the sacred mystery, but new forms of organization need to rise from the ashes. As the Old Catholic Church so eloquently witnesses (along with other Spirit filled breakaway communities), there are ways of being Catholic outside the control of the Vatican system.

This is why I thought it appropriate to experience this rich, deeply moving spiritual music in a church in Prague which has been de-consecrated and is now used as a concert hall. It's 'sacred power' has been taken away from it, the Eucharist is no longer reserved, and it has  simply become an empty shell of great artistic beauty, but devoid of that unique Catholic mystical presence. As I looked at all of the ornate decorations, the statues, the paintings, the crystal chandeliers, I felt Saint Simon and Jude had become an apt metaphor for the  present state of the Roman Catholic institutional and hierarchical system, a relic of the past devoid of sacred presence. As the scaffolding falls to the ground with a cacophonous clatter, the divine mystery is being set free, like an ecstatic  bird, soaring, soaring through the air on great white wings.
This morning I received this email comment from a close friend of mine which expresses how so many 'Catholics' are now feeling today about faith and spirit and life:

I continue to have moments of special warmth coming from somewhere... it feels like a combination of Christ and Ramakrishna... Christ thru Ramakrishna.
A few weeks ago I felt a cord cut ... a cord that made me feel tied to the Catholic Church... one that had guilt attached. Now, I feel the cord is cut and I am free just to be.
Something is happening and I am different.

Indeed! Something is happening, the cord is not only being cut, we are  not only different - but we are all so much the better for it. Alleluia!

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THE PATH TO HEALING

Thanks to Colleen Kochivar-Baker at Enlightened Catholicism for this extraordinary article from Father Tom Doyle on the path to healing for sexual abuse victims. However, it is also a brilliant summation of the path to healing and spiritual wholeness for all Catholics today in light of the horrendous scandal now unfolding day by day. The comments in parenthesis are Colleen's.

There is no available tradition or font of information about healing the spiritual wounds of clergy sexual abuse. Consequently one can only look at the damage and its sources and respond to each aspect of the trauma. It goes without saying that any therapist working with victims should be well aware of the idiosyncratic nature of sexual abuse by clergy and by Catholic clergy in particular.

The first level of response should be to the victim's self-destructive belief system. The immediate concern should be the victims' concept of a priest. He or she needs to be aided and supported in shedding the magical notion that the priest is somehow the personal representative of God or the stand-in for God. The dependence of the victim on the priest and on the clerical system needs to be first challenged and then replaced with a deeply rooted sense of personal spiritual autonomy. This "adult spirituality" of the victim-priest relationship will bring freedom from the misplaced guilt that burdens so many victims. (This is certainly clinically true, but the Church itself, cannot afford to take this route because it undercuts virtually the entire Catechism when it comes to the priesthood and sacramental system.)

De-mythologizing the concept of the priest necessarily leads to a re-imaging of the notion of God. This is perhaps the most fundamental and radical dimension of the healing process. Upon it hinges the victim's concept of Church, sin and even self. Catholic theology is rooted in a theistic notion of the Higher Power. God is a supernatural, personal being who controls all aspects of life. It is possible to move to a concept of God that does not lend itself to the toxic beliefs about guilt, suffering, sin and punishment.[42] Such a transition is easiest on the cognitive level but much more challenging to the emotions. Many victims are all too painfully aware of the personal devastation caused by the sexual abuse yet they continue to feel guilt because they have exposed a priest or sued a Church entity such as a diocese. This is all grounded in the irrational belief that God resides in a special way in the institutional Church.

Once a clergy abuse victim begins to accept a Higher Power that is non-judgmental, non-vindictive and not under the control of the ordained office-holders of the Church, he or she will be able to move to the next necessary level of healing which is separating the visible, institutional Church from the Higher Power.

This should include an unfolding of the mysterious emotional ties and reactions associated with the victim's relationship to the institutional Church. Once the variety of feelings are acknowledged it is perhaps time to cognitively examine the historical and doctrinal bases for the Church's contention that it was founded by God, is controlled by God through clerics and provides the only authentic source of spiritual security. At this stage the victims may be helped by reading one or more books that provide an objective and scholarly exposition of traditional Church teachings and traditions on the nature of the Church.[43] As they examine concept of the Higher Power they realize that what they have believed in and feared was not an authentic reality but someone else's vision of what god was all about.

Responding to the Loss of Religion.

The victim's anger at the Church and possibly at religion in general needs to be acknowledged and affirmed as a healthy response to the abuse. If it has not been done earlier in the recovery process this might be the appropriate time to examine the radical distinction between organized religion and spiritual security and strength. The toxic belief that God will be displeased if the victim feels anger towards the Church must be dispelled and replaced with a more realistic belief that the organized religious body has actually been a barrier to a secure relationship with the Higher Power. Victims attribute spiritual power to the visible Church because it has been presented as the only pathway to God. Most Catholics are never allowed to progress beyond a level of spiritual and religious development that is early-adolescent at best. The recovery process from clergy sexual abuse offers a unique opportunity for spiritual maturity. This maturity will provide the emotional security needed for whatever choices the victims makes about the place or religion, worship or a higher power in his or her life.

Affirming the Church's responsibility.

The institutional Catholic Church has thus far avoided accepting its responsibility for the culture of clergy sexual abuse and cover-up. Church authorities have made public apologies for "mistakes made" and have shifted the blame to others such as the media or the medical profession.[44] Yet no public statement has given evidence of a full awareness of the causality of clergy abuse or of the damage done to those abused.

Victim/survivors need to explore the substance of some of the official apologies and then come to an emotional as well as cognitive acceptance of the fact that the institution and its office holders will not because they cannot respond in a manner that would reflect full awareness and accepted responsibility. Some victims get "stuck" in an almost endless contentious process trying to get the official Church to realize the enormity of their actions. They need to come to a realization that the Church's narcissistic self-concept of a perfect society renders its leaders incapable of comprehending that the responsibility is rooted in the very core of the institutional Catholic Church.

The Church's responsibility is directly related to the process whereby it has educated and formed Catholics from childhood to adulthood. The victims need to be able to see this as effective pre-conditioning that is related not only to the grooming for the abuse itself but also for their subsequent guilt and shame in responding to the violation of their bodies and souls. (They also have to understand that experiencing this same conditioning is the reason their fellow laity turn on them and irrationally support what ever excuse the Vatican or a given bishop uses.)

A key aspect of this process is the concept of sexuality internalized by most Catholics. The guilt, shame and fear associated with it are responsible for much of the post-abuse trauma. Re-examining the Church-given sexual awareness can be a slow, difficult and often fear-laden process but it must be done in order to guide the recovering victim in the internalization of a healthier notion of sexuality.

Finding an authentic spirituality.

Most clergy abuse victims did not realize that they had a spiritual dimension to their being until it was taken from them. The final phase of healing involves the discovery of this spiritual dimension and the acceptance of an authentic, life-giving spirituality. God or the Higher Power is re-imaged from an omniscient super person to a source of power and love that is not shaped or limited by human conceptions. The traditional relationship with God was far too enmeshed with loyalty and obedience to the deity's self-styled earthly representatives. When this is abandoned there is room for the transition to a spiritual relationship with a Higher Power or even an institutional Church that is not a source of pain, fear and guilt but rather enhances life and provides joy and balance. This non-toxic spirituality requires a healthy sense of self-worth if it is to take root and grow. The path to emotional and spiritual health is often long, always arduous and usually bewildering at times. Yet is can be traversed with an outcome that promises not only freedom from the spiritual pain but a new and hope-filled future.

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TOM DOYLE ON ABUSE CRISIS

(Thanks to William Lindsey at Bilgrimage for this link)

The Pope, the Church, and Sexual Abuse: A Perspective
Guest Commentary:submitted by Thomas P. Doyle, J.C.D., C.A.D.C.

(taken from Voice of the Faithful)

Holy Thursday, April 1, 2010

The reports that Pope Benedict had mishandled a clergy sex abuse case when he was archbishop of Munich have sharpened the focus of international attention on the Pope, the Vatican and the seemingly perpetual problem of clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church. This revelation coincided with what some believed might be the culmination of the furor in Ireland by the pope’s Pastoral Letter to the Irish People.  Questions about the Munich case and the mixed reception of the papal letter have guaranteed that critical interest will intensify rather than recede.

First, a brief summary of what I suspect happened in Munich back in 1980. The priest in question was credibly accused of sexually molesting two minors. His bishop arranged for him to go from his home diocese, Essen, to Munich, to receive treatment.  Treatment reports and a strong recommendation that he not be allowed contact with minors were submitted orally and in writing to an auxiliary bishop of Munich. Nevertheless the priest was assigned to parish work in Munich even while he was in therapy. The Munich archdiocese reported that the Vicar General, who was second in command in the archdiocese, decided to place the priest back in a parish. Although the former Vicar General claimed it was totally his responsibility and that then Archbishop Ratzinger had no part in this decision, this is highly unlikely in light of the Church’s own law as well as the unwritten yet equally powerful customary practices within church administration.

Archbishop Ratzinger’s direct involvement in the acceptance of the priest from another diocese and his assignment of the same priest to ministry in a Munich parish was mandatory according to Church regulations. The Catholic governmental system is such that the archbishop has full power and everyone under him functions on delegated authority or power. Only the head of a diocese or archdiocese, the bishop or archbishop, has the authority to accept an outside priest or to make an assignment. More important though is the fact that this priest was being sent for therapy resulting from his admission that he sexually abused two minors. Even if aspects of the bureaucratic process were handled by priests in inferior positions, it is improbable that the archbishop was not informed and involved in the dealings with a priest who admitted to such a serious transgression.

Then-archbishop Ratzinger probably handled this case the way similar cases were dealt with throughout the Church at that time. True, there were internal procedures in place to investigate and deal with reports of clergy abuse of minors, but these were very rarely used. The common approach was to maintain secrecy, insist on therapy in a few cases and re-assign without disclosing the priest’s background to the new assignment. This unofficial substitute process, common throughout the Catholic world, has been the reason for the criticism. Thousands of civil litigations have been initiated because this departure from the approved procedures constitutes negligence according to the secular courts.

The scandal, as it is commonly referred to, has finally found its way to the pope’s doorstep. This may have been his first direct contact with clergy sexual abuse but it was clearly not his last. After leaving Munich in 1982 Cardinal Ratzinger assumed leadership of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, ironically the present-day descendant of the Roman Inquisition.  As Prefect, or head, he was responsible for processing the petitions of priests seeking release from priestly obligations. His office also handled cases of sexual abuse sent to the Vatican by the world’s bishops. Thus he had some idea of the nature and scope of clergy abuse. Since most cases never entered into the church’s administrative or judicial system, it is safe to assume that the prefect was not accurately aware of the full extent of cases throughout the world.

Since the first public revelation in the U.S. in 1984 Catholic officialdom has responded to questions and criticism with a variety of explanations. These have ranged from accusations of media Catholic bashing and a rejection of the Church’s traditional sexual morality to claims that the bishops just didn’t know much about sexual abuse or were led astray by their medical advisors. Those who have criticized the hierarchy have been accused of dissent, disloyalty or worse. Victims and their attorneys have been demonized or told to forgive and move on. None of this rhetoric has stemmed the continued revelation of more victims and more cover-ups. The Pope and the bishops have not been able to move from defense to offense or even to guarded neutrality. The public apologies and expressions of regret and shame that have come from bishops have been rejected by the victims as insincere and self-serving.  In his letter to the Irish people, released on March 19, Pope Benedict expressed what certainly sounded like sincere sorrow and regret. Throughout his letter however, he injected references to the institutional Church and even put harm done to the victims on equal footing with the loss of respect and confidence in the Church. This adds to the conviction that at the end of the day this is not primarily about healing the victims or purging the Church of the source of the pain, but about power, papal and episcopal power, and the assurance that more of it won’t be relinquished.

Sexual abuse of the vulnerable by clergy has been a shameful aspect of Catholic culture for centuries. Church defenders claim it has always been a minuscule percentage of the clerical population, but the numbers are irrelevant. What is urgent and destructive has been the way the Church leadership, from the papacy on down to local bishops, have responded. “For the good of the Church” victims have been ignored, silenced and rebuffed, and criminal offenders have been quietly sent off to new assignments, often to offend again. “For the good of the Church” those harmed by the clergy have been led to cooperate in their own exploitation, convinced by their trusted leaders that the institution’s image and the exalted status of the priests is of greater value than healing or justice.  Though other institutions, public and private, religious and secular, have all experienced sexual abuse and other forms of internal corruption, the Catholic Church is unique. It has used its immense spiritual power and its absolute authority to control victims to the extent of persuading them to be part of their own cover-up.

There will continue to be abuse by the clergy as long as the ecclesiastical environment that allowed it to flourish continues as a closed, hierarchical system enshrouded in secrecy and sustained by the power of fear. As sexual abuse cases surface in country after country the patterns of cover-up, collusion and denial are the same. This is not proof of an international conspiracy or a secret order sent to all bishops as some would have it, but of something more radical. The world-wide outrage, the seemingly countless lawsuits and the close examination by various academics are directed at the status quo in three areas: the essential role of the clerical sub-culture, hierarchical governance and the efficacy of the theological dogmas that support them. The most realistic response is also the most fearful to the hierarchy and to many clergy and laity as well: a thorough, fearless examination of the heretofore untouchable system of power and control and the closed, secretive and often privileged world at the heart of the institutional church.  There is really only one vital question: Why is this system and the men who sustain it more important than the emotional, physical and spiritual welfare of a single, innocent child?

Pope Benedict’s letter to Ireland was remarkable in that he confirmed what most had already known: that favoritism of the clergy and “misplaced concern for the reputation of the Church and the avoidance of scandal” are among the elements of the crisis. Clericalism, the belief that clerics, especially priests and bishops, are fundamentally different from ordinary people and entitled to deference, obedience and unquestioned respect because of their exalted state, is the source and support for these aspects of causality. Clericalism has many faces. It is the delusion that priests speak for the Almighty and therefore are entitled to special treatment and even immunity from accountability for criminal behavior. It is the source of the conviction held by many, including top-level Vatican officials, that the legal systems of secular society are subordinate to Canon law, the Catholic Church’s own system of governance.  

It is unlikely that Pope Benedict would ever allow a close scrutiny of the clerical-hierarchical world. In his letter to the Irish he leveled unprecedented criticism directly at the bishops but stopped far short of demanding radical accountability nor did he dismiss the most egregious architects of the cover-up. To undertake the unspeakable and allow an objective, fearless and radical examination into the causal relationship between the “scandal” and the system would lead to a risk that probably extends beyond the imagination of all bishops, namely the dismantling of the very structures that assure the existence of their world.

Although clergy sexual abuse has plagued the church for centuries, the current reaction from the body of believers, but especially the laity, has been significantly different from anything in the past. This reaction has had a seriously detrimental impact on the essential aspects of the church’s operations in the world.

The persistent question of where this will all lead does not end with radical or earth-shattering answers if one considers it with pragmatic realism. The pope will not resign and it is unlikely that there will be a widespread purge of every bishop who has engineered a cover-up. A few bishops will submit to pressure to resign, but it is unlikely that any will be submitted to any disciplinary measures or if they are it will not be made public. Catholics who have been sexually abused, encouraged by the current wave of publicity and assisted by survivor support groups will continue to overcome the fear and shame that had paralyzed them in diocese after diocese. The Vatican and the bishops will continue to respond defensively, perhaps with more creative yet still unconvincing excuses.  

The end result is already well underway. The image of pope and bishop is steadily shrinking because the deference, respect and credibility essential to this image has been severely damaged and continues to erode in spite of all efforts to regain or at least hold on to what is left of their former stature.  Catholics are walking away in ever increasing numbers convinced that they don’t need the control of the institutional Church for spiritual sustenance. The sexual abuse scandal may not be the only reason but it certainly is the dominant reason for the diminishing role and influence of institutional Catholicism. The Church will survive but in the long run it won’t be in the form of a gilded monarchy with its stratified vision of humankind.  In all likelihood it will be the Church as community and hopefully this Church will hold as its most important members those who are most vulnerable, most rejected and most in need … not of control, but of love.

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WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US

Nothing new in the following article, wise words of wisdom that any sane, rational person would endorse. I was just struck by the fact that this was written eight years ago in 2002 and is more timely than ever.  Blame Church Arrogance, Not Oversexed Society

by Robert Scheer

While it might appear to be sweet revenge for the Inquisition, it is best to resist the impulse to burn some Catholic priests--and the cardinals who covered up their criminal activities--at the stake. Be thankful that we live in a secular, pluralistic society in which the heavy hand of the sanctimonious is restrained. But it would be helpful if the church's leaders, from the pope on down, for once would assume accountability for their lengthy history of covering up scandals rather than shifting the blame to homosexuality or a too-permissive secular society. The church's recent equation of homosexuality with pedophilia or any other sex crime is a slander against a subset of the national population that shows no greater inclination to sexually criminal behavior than the heterosexual population. Even within the cloistered Catholic priesthood there are plenty of charges that priests are molesting women, such as in the case of an Iowa priest accused of groping a female parishioner after an evening Mass. The woman sued the priest, the bishop and other church officials for concealing the priest's history of sexual abuse. This same priest was later accused of sexual advances toward a 13-year-old girl at a Catholic school, but the case was dropped when he resigned. The larger problem is one of arrogance. The church presumes to act as the guardian of our morals by telling the rest of us--including non-Catholics--how to live, as if the attainment of a healthy sexuality is a simple matter of shunning the texts and images the church finds objectionable and has so often managed to have banned. D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover," which was banned in this country until 1959, could not possibly have led priests to pedophilia since that is hardly the focus of this or most erotic works. Nor could the "sacrilegious" art at the Brooklyn Museum--so viciously attacked by Catholic leaders--in any way explain the degenerate behavior of priests who were not allowed to view the paintings. To indulge the wrath of the censor is to deny that sex crimes such as pedophilia are the result of mental illness, a terrifying disorder that strikes Catholics as well as atheists, the married and the celibate, heterosexuals and gays. Indeed, the loudest moral censors often are hiding severely destructive compulsions. A decade ago, it was Father Bruce Ritter, director of the massive Catholic Church-supported Covenant House for runaway children, whose alleged sexual abuse was covered up by the church but eventually exposed to the world. Ritter, who had served on the Reagan administration's Commission on Pornography, was hailed as an "unsung hero" by President Reagan in his 1984 State of the Union address and in 1990 was visited by President George Bush. Those ringing endorsements should give pause to those who now celebrate faith-based charities as the panacea for a troubled social order. Months after meeting with Bush, Ritter stood accused of having had sex with a young male in a New Orleans hotel during a break in the pornography commission hearings. Two other men connected with Ritter's program also came forth to accuse him of having sex with them when they were minors, and an investigation by Covenant House's board of directors turned up extensive evidence of sexual misconduct. Ritter, who had run what the Los Angeles Times called "the largest child-care agency in the country," was forced to resign in disgrace from Covenant House. As one searches for an explanation for why so many priests have been exposed as child molesters recently, there is no indication that pornography or other manifestations of a permissive secular world pushed any of those men of God into their insanity. Indeed, the more plausible explanation is that they led a life too cloistered from the ordinary sources of adult sexual stimulation and satisfaction. As the stories of the Bible amply testify, sexual perversion was a feature of the human experience long before the advent of modern communications technology. Certainly the history of the Catholic Church is replete with tales of decadence on the part of priests long before the allures of the silver screen, cable TV and the Internet. Rather than scapegoat gay men--or sex outside marriage, pornography, masturbation, short skirts, precocious children, Hollywood films and so on--the Roman Catholic Church might be best served by reciting the wisdom of Pogo at every vespers: "We have met the enemy and he is us." Pedophilia is a serious crime, irrevocably damaging young lives. The problem here is not that the church had sick priests but rather that their evil ways were permitted to fester by the indifference of corrupt cardinals and bishops who then and now blame everyone but themselves for the terrible harm that has been done. Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

We live in a spiritual age, and until the bishops and the pope learn to lead a people hungry for authenticity, trust and spiritual nourishment, we will look elsewhere. There are millions of Catholics with deep spiritual wisdom -- millions of faith-filled people who love God in transformative ways. We will trust their faith and witness if the bishops fail us. 

My faith is not shaken by these scandals. My hunger for my own conversion to a more loving, more just and more peaceful way of living is undiminished. On Easter, my family and I celebrated the hope beyond all hopes and did so with the Eucharist. 

But this is Altargate. The hierarchy, not the faith, is in jeopardy. The pope need not resign. He must do something far more difficult: convert. 

Thanks to William Lindsey for the link to this article by Timothy Shriver in the Washington Post

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