On the Scandal pt. 1

I’ve waited until now to comment on the priest sex abuse scandal in the Church because I feel that this issue requires more than a spontaneous angry reaction. As I’m sure you have, I’ve seen lots of good takes and lots of bad takes on this trial that we now face. As is so often the case in this era, the lists of trustworthy and untrustworthy voices are like revolving doors with influential men and women streaming in and out too quickly for us to keep up with. As a priest said in the homily I heard last Sunday: “the Catholic Church in America is leveled – not destroyed, but leveled.”

Here are a few certainties that I believe we must hold onto in this time which is filled with so much uncertainty:

Through His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus Christ has saved us from sin and death, and has prepared for us a place in heaven. Our fallen species has been reconciled to God.

The community that was started by Jesus Christ has always and continues to subsist in the Catholic Church. The gates of hell will never prevail against the Church, and the sacramental life of the Church remains the purest and most dramatic manifestation of God’s activity in this world.

The Church does not produce sinless human beings – not through Her catechesis, and not through Her seminaries. If we say that we do not sin then we make Christ a liar. The recognition of sin’s presence in the world is an affirmation of the Christian faith, not a rejection of it. However, sin and death do not get the last word. This salvation is not the result of a personal statement of faith, but it was achieved two millennia ago through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection – the same Christ who entrusted the keys to the kingdom of heaven to Peter and the power of binding and loosing to the apostles. To be Christian is to believe all parts of this narrative.

Now, here’s my personal take on the scandal itself:

The most important people to consider are the victims. Both the laity and the clergy must do everything we can to listen to the victims’ stories and care for them both physically and spiritually.

Any person who sexually abuses children – lay or ordained – cannot coexist with society. They must be imprisoned. If secular society is incapable of protecting us from priest who have sexually abused children due to the time elapsed since the crimes were committed, then the Church ought to isolate these people from the rest of the world for the remainder of their lives.

Those bishops who have failed to do everything in their power to prevent these crimes are accessories to these crimes. They have demonstrated that, due to their cowardice, they are incapable of protecting and shepherding the Church.

Contrary to the rash proclamations of some lay persons, celibacy is not the issue. The “if only we had married priests” take suggests that women ought to absorb sexual violence from men, which is clearly erroneous. The suggestion that priests would be better people or better priests if they were married is both a misunderstanding of the priesthood and a misunderstanding of marriage.

While it is natural for the trust between laypeople and the clergy to be damaged by a scandal like this, it is irrational to respond to these tragedies by leaving the Church. The Church’s authority was never based on the behavior of human beings. We are not Catholic because of our trust in or fondness for priests, but because God has called us to Himself and has founded an institution for the purpose of leading all souls to heaven.

To move forward from where we are now, the Church needs both sturdy lay faithfulness and strong leadership from bishops who are willing to communicate openly and honestly about the state of the Church. Everybody needs to do their part.

Do not stop celebrating Mass. In fact, now is the time to increase our participation in the sacramental life of the Church. Both the laity and the clergy need strengthening from the sacraments now more than ever. Children especially need to be shown that in times of hardship we put our trust in God. If we allow our faith to be crushed, then we allow evil to be victorious over us.

We must continue to pray for the clergy. This is an extremely difficult time to be a priest, and the Church is still in need of vocations.

Perhaps the most difficult thing to do now is pray for the souls of the abusers. While our anger against them is righteous, and though they do not deserve our forgiveness, there is no person who deserves to be outside of the prayers of Christians.

Finally, we must ask Mary – the Theotokos and queen of heaven – and all the saints to pray for us and watch over us. Though the future is known to God alone, we know that this trial will not get easier any time soon.