Prof. Cummings speaks my mind. Amen to all she recommends.
Would that the hierarchy have the courage to do so.
5
There are no revelations regarding pedophile priests.
Revelation:
1.
a surprising and previously unknown fact, especially one that is made known in a dramatic way.
"revelations about his personal life"
synonyms: disclosure, surprising fact, announcement, report; More
2.
the divine or supernatural disclosure to humans of something relating to human existence or the world.
"an attempt to reconcile Darwinian theories with biblical revelation"
These are neither surprising, unknown facts nor supernatural disclosures. Any thinking person has known the Catholic church was molesting thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of children over the past few decades.
The only revelation is how little anyone in power has cared.
13
We need women priests and priests should be allowed to marry. Period.
47
There is a simple fix here. Allow priests to marry - both different sex and same sex marriages. Some insane Pope a few centuries ago invented this policy that is against human nature. No wonder some priest are driven to moral degradation and other priests forgive them. It's immoral not to allow priests to marry. The church's policy is responsible for the damaged individuals...and for the unnatural life the priests must live.
28
The problem is less the men who committed these abuses than the men who covered them up. For them the arrogrant protection of the church from scandal demonstrates that God does not live among them or elevate them to dispense his Grace's. While this seems a particular Catholic failing, I have no doubt that such abuse of power is rampart among all who set themselves apart as clergy and those enablers who see themselves as "protectors of the faith."
4
The only sane way to be a "Catholic" is the way most Europeans do it. Admire the churches, artwork, pageantry, etc. but don't take any of its ideology seriously. All traditional religion should become an anachronism as people become more informed and enlightened. Speaking of "reform" is pretty ridiculous- this phony cabal should just be prosecuted to the max, the same as any other criminal enterprise.
17
The only way to hold the Catholic Church accountable and push its leaders to reform is to do what consumers do to offensive corporations: boycott products, withhold dollars, expose and boycott those who defend them with “crisis management”, legal help and other complicitness. The tsunami of Catholic school closings that started a decade ago will happen again, because weary Catholics will again hold accountable those who ask for money. They will demand assurances that much needed donations to run valuable Catholic schools and churches, and keep their children safe, are not being diverted to those that protect criminals who terrorize children. Many of us who attended schools in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and whose faithful parents trusted Cardinal Krol and his successors as they denied malfeasance, feel as if our whole upbringing was a lie. The priest who officiated at my wedding insisted on “pre-Cana” counseling (for two adults nearing 30!); a few years later, he was on lists of abusers. My alma mater, Archbishop Prendergast High School, hired a fundraising firm - CCS - that asked me to serve a capital campaign, only to have CCS brush me aside after my repeated questions re: could they guarantee funds raised would not be used for obfuscating and defending pedophiles. They could not, and they were quite worried about who else I “shared this concern” with. Until this hits the Church firmly in the BANK, then this abuse, and the lies, will continue.
35
The cover up of the criminal activity of priests by the hierarchy of the church makes the church complicit in the furthering of a criminal enterprise. The fact that it has been going on for decades in a myriad of locations all over the world leaves no doubt that this cover up was institutional policy.
I believe the furtherance of a criminal enterprise runs afoul of RICO laws. The government, through law enforcement and legal means, should take possession through forfeiture of church property and close this criminal enterprise down. Religious people can practice their religion and pray anywhere. They don’t need a church to do it.
20
While Dr. Cummings has my sympathy, it's really not that complicated. She's just another victim of the biggest confidence trick in history.
7
As a cradle Catholic, educated in a Catholic grammar school and college, back in the day when we needed 15 credits of Theology and 15 credits of Philosophy, I am continued to be sickened by the Church Admistration.
As a former Boston this is simply the same old story with a new set of names of victims, perps, and coniviing bishops.
This time it is personal, three of the priests were professors at the college I attended. I was never part of the prey, but I was not surprised by the innuendo I had lived with over the years.
There is no forgiveness for any of these monsters, but the worst are those who continued to prey and especially those in power who looked the other way since the Boston Spotlight.
I for one, will never give a cent to diocese requests. They will be offering the sacraments to me without the donations I paid forward for 40 years
18
Anyone who hears a whisper or a rumor of sexual abuse in a pulpit, (priest, pastor, bishop, parent, even a nun), needs to first pick up the phone and call the local police. It is a crime, a particularly grievous crime, which affects young children. The harm is deep and wounding and lifelong. I call it 'soul murder' and I'm not even a believer.
And yes, the RC Church is not alone in having its hierarchy ignore sexual abuse. But other churches long ago instituted policies which do not leave any adult working with children alone with them. People are encouraged to say if they have a concern, whether it's a child who keeps touching her or his genitals or inappropriate knowledge and language for their age.
Protect children. Keep them safe. If we don't do that, we've done worse than nothing. Don't drop your child off to a church where there is one pastor or priest in charge. In some cases in Philadelphia, there was a ring of molesting priests. No child should ever be left alone with another adult. The Catholic Church and Evangelicals need to protect children fully, not leave them vulnerable to predation.
10
If money and influence are not successful and the Cruch can’t get this systemic problem shutdown , it won’t be surprising what else could be uncovered in this seriously out dated myth.
1
The current seminary system is a significant part of the problem and needs to be scrapped, now.
Send trainee priests (male and female) to theological/divinity degree courses in regular universities, then a final year placement in parishes as well as studies in the particular aspects of Catholic practice.
(Mind you, if all the nonsense that has come to be associated with Catholic practice over the centuries and is very peripheral to the Gospel message, was eliminated, trainees could achieve that learning well within the final year).
The hierarchy, however, are too scared to do this as it would loosen the iron grip they presently have over the lives of seminarians.
And of course the celibaby rule would have to go, too. It would be inevitable that students would meet a subsequent life partner while studying at a regular university (another thing the hierarchs are scared of).
It's worth noting that Pope Pius XII (pope from 1939-1958) was a day student at his seminary, not a residential student, so there is a very interesting precedent.
14
There will be no solution until the Church abolishes celibacy. Celibacy was not part of the original Church. It was instituted in the 11 th Century to prevent wealth of priests going to children rather than the Church. Catholicism stresses the importance of following “Natural Law” yet celibacy is fundamentally unnatural. The Church will continue to attract and create men with twisted sexuality so long as it requires celibacy.
27
It’s important to separate Catholic dogma and doctrine from the actions of depraved, immoral men, and women. Yes, although rare, there have been women sexual abusers too.
Those of us, who stay in the Catholic Church, stay because our faith is grounded in Catholic dogma and doctrine, and our experience with priests and nuns have been positive, nurturing, and spiritually rewarding and fruitful. When we hear of acts of pedophilia, by some of our priests, we feel deeply wounded and ashamed, and it makes us question our fidelity to the church. We cannot even begin to imagine how much more painful and hurtful the violation was, and continues to be, for the victim of the actual act.
12
Catholic priests do not have to be celibate, and they do not have to be men. The Catholic Church decided to impose these rules in the Middle Ages. The opposition to birth control? Another rule with no godly basis. The Catholic Church turned a blind eye to birth control until the 1930s and then decided to loudly proclaim it a sin. All these rules were man-made, but they haven't worked very well. The Catholic Church is long overdue for a new Reformation. Why cling to practices that cause harm? Here's hoping Pope Francis has the courage to bring about healthy change.
40
I am a Catholic and overall still feel a strong affinity for all aspects of the Church. As a Catholic (and student of history) I have never had delusions that, while the ideals and fundamentals of belief are as true as ever, it was also always a human institution and as flawed as the society it existed in. While I have come across many tough priests, nuns and brothers none were in any way less than caring. They were human and none abusive by any standard.
Having said that and as a conservative by nature the Church must wake up from the medieval ages and recognise that the world about is more transparent, dynamic, widely educated, technically advanced and sophisticated by a wide margin than 20, 50, 500 years ago. That is both a challenge and opportunity to Catholics. We, starting with Pope Francis must grab the opportunity to push a renewed Church of Jesus, love and service into the future. We are taught about the Mystical Body of Christ where the lay people were at the center. To do so, priests must find a new role. Celibacy, a fine idea in the past, is an idea invented by the Church and whose relevancy has turned negative and irrelevant. The same is true, if more complicated, for the case for women priests. As much as I loved the Latin Mass as a boy, Pope John was right to push change and now Pope Francis must pursue Pope John's path and move forward thoughtfully but dramatically and deliberately. The time for Chris's dripview medieval view must be swept aside.
14
I think it’s unfair to criticize parents for spending more time on parenting nowadays. When I was growing up, I didn’t have homework until the 6th grade. Now kids are getting homework in kindergarten. And who is supposed to help them with it? Also, with school budget constraints, there are larger class sizes and teachers can’t give as much attention to each child. This issue dwarfs in comparison to the demands of the workplace. If you are not available 24/7, you are not a team player. Many companies advertise their work/life balance and flex time. Which basically means you can leave work at 5 and get back on your laptop at 9 after the kids have been fed and put to bed. I’ve found it to be almost impossible to find part time work that is both well paid and challenging. Even part time job adds state, “must be available to work occasional evenings and weekends.” Family time is not respected in our society.
6
Not every job can or should support a family much less encourage family life. When the value of your labor doesn’t coincide with the cost of living, it is the height of irresponsibility to start a family. My employers view is that any interest outside of work is a distraction that damages your performance at work. After all, are your spouse and kids going or pick up a shift here and there?
3
I totally agree! This is an important and often overlooked piece in how this abuse is allowed to gain a foothold.
1
As one who worked in the Church reform movement for 30 years, I totally agree with Dr. Cummings. The structure has to go. We were too polite all those years, Call to Action, Corpus, Future Church, Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church, New Ways Ministry, Women's Ordination Conference, Voice of the Faithful spent hours, days, weeks, months, years hoping to educate Catholics that they had a right to speak out about a dysfunctional institution. We called meetings, attended conferences, published positions, wrote petitions and papers and gave interviews. Now finally the pot has simmered long enough and the lid is blown off. We need some more bishop resignations We need to listen to the victims and weep with them. We then need to pick up the broken pieces of our faith community and return to a healthy, apostolic Jesus centered existence.
18
Is this the beginning of the end of the Catholic Church in America? The denial that it was just Boston or a few bad apples is no longer accepted by most. Attendance has declined. Schools have closed. Churches have closed. Fewer younger religious clergy so that the older ones have to perform mass at more than one church. Now this....
11
@Dr. P. H.
Sounds like a good reason to celebrate.
3
The church as it exists today should not continue to exist, not solely because of its disgusting history of permitting exploitation of others, but also because of its willingness to engage in a long-standing cover up. Add to that sorry history the avaricious accumulation of wealth and privilege, and you can see why morality requires a disbanding of the entire organization.
18
I agree, but you misunderstand. The church is the people, not the Admin and the religious. We could exist quite nicely without the two...just like it was 1,500 years ago.
6
This will all be a lot easier if we all agree to be intellectually honest and acknowledge that virgins don't have babies, and disavow magic of any sort. I, like the author, was raised in a Catholic family (I was born before Vatican II), and have nothing but good memories of the church, sacraments, traditions, family-anchoring rituals, kind priests and devoted nuns. All of this should be appreciated not only for the good that has come from it, but for its part in the human story (as should religion, and religions, in general). But science has flourished to the point of appreciating it for what it is. The problem with continuing to respect belief in things that can't be true is not only that it's dishonest, but that it sets the stage for believing anything else one wishes to believe; that, for example, shuttling pederasts to different locations in order to avoid scandal is the right thing to do because it protects the church. Up with honesty, art, ritual, kindness, family, charity, hope, commitment. Down with disingenuity.
21
I’m not sure that anyone has the answers.
4
Prof. Cummings, could you possibly convince what I call "the little old ladies" to just stop and walk away? Until that happens, not much will happen.
There are many parishioners who won't take action.
And that's despite decades of these crimes being committed and so many of them exposed and prosecuted.
At this point, the sentimental attachments must be dropped.
Yes, it is lovely that "Father is so nice. He took care of us when Dad died" and "My kids went to that school for a total of 22 years! We love St. Elizabeth's."
But enough already. If you keep attending and keep donating, you are complicit in the organization's refusal to stop the crimes and abuses.
Cut off the money train.
Leave the sanctuaries empty.
Speak up.
And be loud.
36
I'm a straight, married, woman.
I am picking up on a very distasteful undercurrent running through these comments connecting male homosexuality and pedophilia.
The two are not inextricably linked. Most gay men are not attracted to children any more than straight men are. Priests abuse(d) girls as well as boys.
Perhaps entering the priesthood was seen by gay men as a way to remove themselves from temptation. Perhaps children are/were often the victims of these abuses because they were easier to manipulate and more susceptible to threats.
Acts of sexual violence are generally much more about power and much less about sex. The tired notion that gay men are all (or mostly) pedophiles is insidious and I'm surprised that so many posters continue to perpetuate it.
44
Look up Fr. Jacob Bertrand. Straight guy, all about power.
4
I think we can all agree that child sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church is vile. However, I was a teacher and elementary school counselor for over 20 years. I called child protection for sexual abuse in over 100 cases in my career. NOT ONE was a priest or female. They were fathers, grandfathers, uncles, and male siblings. The enablers were mothers and grandmothers. Evey hour, every day, all over the US and the world this depravity is occurring. When this Catholic mess is no longer in the headlines and columnists go on to other topics, the problem will still be there. Will your outrage still be there? This problem has nothing to do with male celibacy. Not one of the perpetrators I came across was celibate. This Church evil is the tip of the iceberg. Start adequately funding child protection units, push your elected officials and law enforcement to take child protection seriously. The problem is in your town, your neighborhood and maybe your own backyard, not just your church. I write this in memory of the 2nd grader I once discovered with a weeping case of an of STD given to her by her daddy.
54
I wish to add my voice to the comments of Bill Fennelly. It is time for the church to allow and encourage marriage for priests, women to become priests and greater transparency in the operation and running of church affairs. This has to happen if the church wants to remain relevant in today’s world.
12
The solution to the foundational cause of this sexually repressed "sin" has been obvious for centuries! The Catholic Church simply has to go back to allowing priests to be normal healthy men and allow them to marry as almost all other religious male leaders are allowed to. This would also prevent the need to hire the obviously often deviant types who the Church now ordains more or less out of desperation to get bodies in pulpits.
10
When will decent people call for the creation of a global coalition to defeat the nefarious goals of Vatican City? Australia, Canada, France and the United States have all been targeted by sexual terrorists hiding under the patina of unctuous righteousness as clergymen preying on innocent youth. A state of war -- no other term is less accurate to describe this situation which seemingly shows no signs of abating.
3
I am a not a Catholic, so it is not my place to tell Catholics how to practice their religion. But it seems to me that the vow of celibacy that all priests must take is so counter to human nature and the biological sex drive that it needs to be reconsidered. The sex scandals that have wracked the Church are so common and pervasive that perhaps Catholics need to look at celibacy as a culprit. If the vow of celibacy is not done away with, perhaps priesthood should be restricted to older men whose sex lives are behind them or to men with exceptionally low libidos.
7
As a man I have often observed that women are overall better people than men. I still believe this. The Church should permit women to be priests, undoubtedly.
21
When will US opponents of Catholicism have the courage to request a global coalition to defeat Vatican City in its war upon innocent youth ? The United States, Canada, Ireland, Australia and France have all been targeted by the sexual terrorists hiding under a patina of unctuous self-righteousness. I am afraid we are all now in a situation which is tantamount to war with a hostile party seemingly impervious to the law of the land....
4
The writer seems otherwise quite intelligent, but suggests that this criminal network "voluntarily" censure itself?!? That's resetting the table? I understand religion's historical contempt of reason, but come on. Does this not make the writer, and indeed any who support the Catholic Church complicit? You can't "reset" this table. Table needs to go away.
14
The Catholic Church has degenerated into a misogynistic patriarchy. The institution is controlled by men who have a disproportionately large share of power and wield it abusively. Systemic sexual abuse coupled with institutional self monitoring is a disaster. Church imposed penalties include the ‘loss of clerical duties’ (formerly known as laicization, e.g. return to ‘common’ status). It doesn’t mean a priest is no longer a priest. According to D. Astigueta, SJ, Professor at Pontifical Gregorian University, “the sacrament...imprints an ontological sign on the being of the priest that can never be lost.” (E. Harris,“What does it actually mean for a priest to be ‘laicized’?” CRUX, CNA, 3/16/17)
This same Catholic Church has a different response to ‘common’ divorced members who participate in annulment proceedings. These (almost always female) members stand before a Tribunal defending their Sacrament of Matrimony against claims that the marriage was never valid. Annulments are typically requested by (almost always male) ‘common’ divorced members who want to marry a new spouse and remain Catholic.
The Church typically finds that the sacrament, “thought to be valid according to Church law” actually fell short of “at least one of the essential elements required for a binding union”, and declares “that a valid marriage was never actually brought about on the wedding day.” (usccb.org)
The Church rules that the ontological imprint of the Sacrament of Marriage on our being is lost.
2
Degenerated into? The Church that I grew up in and am still distantly related to has been that way since 500 AD.
4
@Peggy Appleby ..."degenerated into a misogynistic patriarchy"?. When was it ever anything else?
6
As an areligious human with some degree of common sense, it has always astounded me that supposedly educated people who probably are not naive concerning business and financial affairs, believe in the fables and fairytales that is religion. These tales of yore were retold hundreds of years after their supposed occurrence and were never recorded in any fashion by the illiterates who claim to have witnessed them. I do believe in God but God is not Jesus, Mohamed or Moses. No, Virginia, there is no burning bush.
6
Has it occurred to anyone that raping children is illegal? These crimes should be immediately reported to the police. Let the legal system sort it out. It is a complete abdication of responsibility on the part of our society to give the church any say in this. Report these crimes to the police. Let the church find out about the report after the fact.
24
Want to really get their attention - and action? Follow the money. Call for a coordinated, national boycott of the "annual diocesan bishop's appeal" undertaken in virtually every parish on behalf of their respective diocese. For a time, as a lay professional, I led one which was idealistically (or, one could now well say, ironically) titled "The Hope Appeal." Which prompts me to suggest that such a boycott might go under the banner of "The Change Appeal."
24
Yes, yes, yes. I wrote a letter to my local bishop, the U.S. National Bishops, and the Vatican that forthwith I will be offering no weekly donations. special request donations, and have terminated my payments to a foundation.
Follow the money for any organization, cut it out and it will come to its knees.
6
I'm a lifelong Catholic. Product of Catholic schools and institutions. This is not who we are, nor who we want to be. I'm not leaving the Church because of these men's actions and subsequent cover up. I'm staying because it's our faith, not theirs. It's our Church, not theirs. Much good work has been done to address the pain and suffering of these victims and to prevent future criminal and evildoing. More work needs to be done to find out what's happened, and to create a safe haven in our parishes and seminaries. I want to honor these victims and their families with positive action. I want to be part of this change for the better. So do the many priests and religious who live good and decent lives, in service to others.
10
Attended Catholic school K-12, all boys HS and the dark humor shared between many of the other boys in HS was how overly familiar some of the priest would behave. I don't believe for a minute some of my school mates were not corrupted because so many were from poorer families, dysfunctional homes or teen boys struggling with their sexuality. I particularly remember one brother from elementary school who was uncharacteristically sadistic in the punishments he handed out and rationale for said punishment. I would not be surprised if he ended up eventually on a list of abusers. I have still not heard any stories of the priest who were possibly assaulted or killed for their abusive behavior by some enraged parent but my experience tells me that this has occurred. Primarily because I recall a few hushed stories from my youth of incidents of violence involving priest but no one was ever there to tell the full story.
This not just a continuing scandal for the Catholic Church as an institution it informs us that there were many in secular authority like politicians and law enforcement that colluded to cover up these cases of abuse. When is someone going to bring them to account because I am certain if they did it for the church they probably did the same for other influential entities.
7
Sadism wasn’t limited to the Brothers. I can name at least three nuns and a principal who could have held their own in the Golden Gloves.
6
one of my closest friends and mentors was a catholic sister (she passed away), the depth of her grace and that of her fellow sisters-who i also had the pleasure of getting to know-was otherworldly, i strive to emulate her/them in my daily life, and yet the church saw fit to investigate sisters, especially those in the leadership conference of women religious-shameful really, especially considering where they should have been directing their investigating efforts; want change? -they should place these beautiful women in charge.
14
My son's body--who is twenty-two years old--looks like Anthony Bourdain's last I saw him. There was a time that he loved school, church, and school activities.
Their tattoos remind me of the military--more specialized. His attorney informed me that the military is more selective. His attorney was a conservative and took out an add in the Erie Times News in 2015. Well, I lean conservative as well and our city is in major debt. I don't know what more they can take from us.
1
@Tammy: pax christi.
This report on the Pennsylvania Catholic Church is a picture of a whole society as well. Unfortunately abuse of minors is not new in human kind and more frequent when we used to remain minors till we were 21 years old. It is not normal? Not at all. But further studies will reveal the extent of these abuses in all sectors of society. Now the Catholic Clergy is in the middle of the Show. Wait for more in the future.
3
The clergy (priests, deacons, etc.) who abused children should have been reported to the police, undergone an investigation, and prosecuted if sufficient evidence supported such. However, note that most of these cases occurred prior to 2002, and many much further back. I believe that the oldest cases are from an era when parents either wouldn't believe the child, the child didn't make an outcry of abuse, or the parents refused to report the abuse or refuse to cooperate with prosecution. This does not excuse the behavior of bishops and up who didn't remove these men from ministry and report them to law enforcement for investigation. But it does explain why these incidents have only come to light within the last 15 years. In 2002, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, with help from outside experts, implemented a training and reporting program for all person engaged in any type of ministry that has contact with children and at risk adults which requires a full criminal background check and refresher courses. In addition, changes were made in clearing applicants to enter the priesthood and deacon program which has helped to weed out candidates who are not suitable for that life, are mentally unstable, etc. That is the reason there are few fewer cases of recent abuse incidents. I cannot speak to what the Church hierarchy are doing in other nations to address the issue. And the Pope and upper administration of the Church (the Curia) need to out front and proactive.
6
What is this hand wringing all about. The simple fact is that churches (not just Catholics) think that they are parallel, independent, governments entitled to their own courts and law enforcement. As long as this idea exists, there will be corruption and abuse. 900 years ago the English crown tried to make the clergy answerable to the common law (i.e., civil) courts. I guess it never took. The clergy continues to exploit, abuse, bully, and extort the gullible.
12
You could also find another, more hospitable table. Or create your own.
5
As a people, as Catholics as protectors of children we must not let this stand. Atonement must involve a total realignment and more than just prayers and feeble pleas for forgiveness. Give the victims an amount equal to the church’s tax free status during the period of time identified. Heaven help us its child rape. Is there a worse crime? The Catholic Church should die as an institution if it doesn’t immediately reform dramatically. Never again! Never again! Never again!
13
The Church doesn’t need to invite lawyers into its archives, or to wallow in past sins. It needs to join the 21st century and start ordaining women priests.
8
The Catholic Church has proven itself to be eminently adaptable. This age will put that to the test. The patriarchal bent comes from ancient Rome, not Jesus. What is buried in the Vatican archives, edited out of the Bible by the patriarchal eye? Jesus surrounded himself with women disciples. In this age the feminine is coming out of eclipse. Sex is no longer the bedrock sin on which to build a church. The exclusion of healthy sex and women must end.
11
Thank you for so eloquently stating the emotions and thoughts swirling within me.
10
As a practicing Catholic, I want the priests, bishops and cardinals to be AT LEAST as good a Catholic as I am.
And I want to hear, delivered from the pulpit, a sermon excoriating the clergy for these decades of horrific abuses. I want to hear a sermon in which the outrage is AT LEAST as great as it is when they preach to us about abortion.
15
My strict Irish Catholic background shaped my life. Because I went to Catholic school from kindergarten through high school, I did not have a Protestant friend until I started working after high school because I (My father believed that women didn't go to college.)
For me, the Catholic Church is beyond redemption. The depth and prevalence of abuse calls into question the integrity of all members of the clergy. How could priests (and nuns) living in the close quarters of rectors and convents not know what was going on. My childhood neighbor (living directly across the street to the convent front door) served as a alter boy, became a priest, rose in the ranks and became a Canon lawyer was defrocked when the truth surfaced he was the greatest abuser of children in Southern Arizona. The Bishop moved him from parish to parish for decades. His legal training save him from going to jail.
I miss deeply the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist but I cannot separate the complicity in sexual and violent abuse of children by all priests off the altar to than a priest serving as the vehicle by which the miracle of the transformation of bread and wine becomes the Body and Blood of Christ. Today I am a woman of faith not religion.
17
The freedom of religion clause of the First Amendment does a better job of protecting abusive clergy than innocent children. If the Catholic church really wants to fix its child sexual abuse problem, it needs to allow priests to marry. But I don't expect that to happen anytime soon. In the meantime, it up to parents to protect their children as best they can.
4
The author, like all with a lifelong investment in the church, cannot admit that the institution is rotten from the roots. It’s founding principle is to gather power to itself. Celibacy, instituted to sterilize the financial drain that the unborn progeny of priests would bring, has instead spawned generation after generation of damaged children around the world.
10
@Don Bullick: No, the church is NOT "rotten from the roots" b/c Jesus is the ultimate root of the church. And Jesus never asked anyone for money, BTW.
What has been done in Jesus' name (for whatever well-intentioned and/or self-serving reasons) over the thousands of years - it's THAT which has gotten the Roman Catholic Church to its current state.
Many of Jesus' disciples were married; Jesus had many women disciples, and did not treat the women as "lesser than" the male disciples. And Jesus never said that only MALES could be priests.
So maybe we need to roll this back to what Jesus said, instead of what 2,000 years worth of men have decided on.
14
Frankly, I think parishioners should start staging Sunday Walkouts. Starting this Sunday. As soon as the priest starts talking, get up and walk out.
13
The amount of ink spent defending institutions build on Fairy Tale sand never ceases to amaze. Does no one appreciate that the biggest 'abuse' of all is the abuse inherent in the very idea of religion? Perhaps it is time to start indicting the parents of 'the faithful' who allow -- push? -- their children into the presence of sexual predators in the idiotic pursuit of Life Ever-after.
11
Bishops: Stop your fight to preserve the statutes of limitations. Instead, do the right thing for these people whose lives were destroyed by your Church. The Catholic Church is the wealthiest organization in the world. Make lavish, meaningful restitution to the victims. Make their healing your priority.
15
Perhaps, it's time to become a Generic Catholic Christian?
Unaffiliated.
2
Revolutionary change is necessary for RCC because gradual change has had no affect. The church has covered up predatory behavior among the clergy for hundreds of years. In Homosexuality and Civilization (Crompton, Louis; Belknap: 2003). Crompton quotes a letter sent to the archbishop of Florence from the city's anti-sodomy police, the Officers of the Night. The office did not have the authority to punish priests who were subject only to church law.
"...we have arrested several young boys who have been sodomized not only by laymen but also by numerous priests. This was made known to the representative of your most reverend lord, yet nothing has been done about it. For this reason we are most scandalized."
That was in 1470!
7
I would like to hear:
“We so wrongly demonized the feminine, including women themselves, mothers, and men who had sex with and formed families with women, that we had no women, no mothers, and no fathers involved in our administrative handling of the priests who sexually abused children. We apologize to women everywhere and throughout Christian history, and to men, for this grievous sin. We pledge to study and understand the sin of sexism, and then to eradicate every trace of it in ourselves, our church rites, and our administrative hierarchy.”
17
It baffles me that my Catholic Church insists on accepting Seminary candidates only from the very tiniest pool of young men willing to swear celibacy for life. Then our clergy and laypeople are all shocked...shocked that the ranks of priests contain more than its proportional share of men who are sexually disordered in some way. A second major, but related, issue is the severely declining numbers of priests.
Repealing celibacy is a first step to hoping to address these two issues. There is no time to appoint committees to study the issues further for more decades.
Christ's original priests were married men, and dropping celibacy requires only the stroke of the Pope's pen. It is the Holy Father's duty to take action to insure our Churches survival.
Many loyal Catholics, including myself are good and fed up...ashamed that our hard earned donations have been misused to protect child abusers.
16
Why do so many commentators think that marriage would stop pedophilia? People that molest children are sexually attracted to children. Marriage, the priest's frock is just a cover.
13
A place a the table only makes us complicit in the same corrupt institution that has existed for centuries. A consecrated host is only one manifestation of the body of Christ. We -- the people -- are another. That's the body of Christ we need to recognize. The institution is dying from the weight of its own sins and well it should. The church can live on in our homes and communities --without priests and bishops.
6
When I lived in NYC I went to a Jesuit parish for Mass. there were more gays at Mass than at the local gay bar. I loved the parish. Did you know that gays sing loud, volunteer, and $ give generously. Where I am now it is hard to find such a beautiful parish. It makes me sad. I’m “ starving” for community and a vibrant and deeply spiritual Eucharistic celebration.
6
I foresee no radical change in how the Catholic Church approaches this corruption in its body, because that would entail a foundational shift in its power dynamic, a dynamic that starts with the Pope and
reaches down to every part of the Church.
Empowering women, eliminating celibacy, doing more to make wrongdoers accountable for their actions as recommended in the Pennsylvania report, these are important and necessary reforms that will help to prevent abuse. But even they, by themselves, are not enough, even if they could be agreed upon.
The Catholic Church, over many centuries, has made giving immense authoritarian power to its officials so integral to the practice of the religious and moral doctrines that it preaches, that corruption and abuse cannot be rooted out without fundamentally changing both power structures and religious doctrines in ways that many, in and outside of leadership, will vehemently oppose.
Pursuit of power (including political power) and wealth, and the institutionalization of paternal authoritarianism corrupted the Catholic Church centuries ago, and I just don't see those in power and those who submit without question to those in power being willing to make the changes necessary to break the traditions that maintain it.
11
Well done, Professor Cummings. Will we hear those words you suggest from these men in charge? I think not also. But the people in the pew, and even some not in the pews anymore, will be heard, and their demands for change will be far reaching and lasting. The good old boy network is over. If they try to resurrect it, more of us will leave them to their own misery. It is 2018, and we must ritualize the atonement in ways that reach people at their core, and we must listen to voices like yours so that the message meets the mission.
2
The Penn State scandal with Sandusky was like a nuclear weapon going off, figuratively. What Sandusky did was horrendous, obviously, but it was also unfair that a lot of people who did absolutely nothing wrong were hurt, including every member of the football team. To some extent, the entire student body was affected.
So by comparison, it is rather puzzling that you hear about this kind of thing in the Catholic Church and the repercussions are so few. The loyal churchgoers treat it as if it is just a small anomaly rather than a scandal of epic proportions.
6
I've walked out and switched communions. Could not take the combination of clericalism, pedophilia, and misogyny that made every Sunday an overwhelming urge to throw the missal at the priest. Five years ago, I walked into the Anglican communion and am happy there. Not perfect by any means, but not pro-clericalism, not in favor of hiding, aiding and abetting pedophilia, and not misogynistic. On Sundays, I find myself thinking about Jesus and actually wondering how I can work towards being a better Christian --- something I almost never did in the last twenty years in the RC. Would encourage all readers of whatever persuasion (or no persuasion at all) to find what works best for them, but to keep in mind: if you find yourself in constant inner turmoil, that place is not where you should be.
10
I thoroughly endorse Prof. Cummings’ call to reset the table and her hypothetical homily. However, I question, why did you stop short of demanding that women have a place at the reset table?
5
There needs to be an end to celibacy in the priest-hood. The introduction of women as priests might go a long way to solving the problem as well. On top of this more oversight. Pope Francis may be the one to bring this sort of change to the Catholic Church; one can only hope.
3
This tragedy is enormous but not complex: the RC church is a haven for child abusers. New leadership must rout out the child abusers and all who enable and protect them. The Bishop of Erie, PA stated on national radio that no changes in the priesthood are indicated because this is a societal problem, citing Larry Nassar. This Bishop is protecting the status quo, deflecting responsibility, and thus is not fit for leadership. The church has had difficulty finding priests, for obvious reasons. What healthy person wants to take a vow of celibacy and live in a den of child abusers? The solution must include opening the priesthood to healthy, honest candidates.
9
With Kavenaugh on the Supreme Court, it's just a matter of time before parents will be able to send their kids to religious schools at public expense. Imagine all those children attending religious schools exposed to these people. Horrifying!
7
There are two ways to effectively deal with this - money and jail. The laity control the former, and the authorities control the latter. Both need to take action since the church hierarchy obviously won't.
14
While nothing can fully compensate the victims for the crimes they endured, the full assets of the church need to be available to the victims. No longer should a diocese be able to claim it's an entity separate from the assets it effectively controls. The lawyers and law firms who helped the church hide its crimes and avoid compensation for its crimes should be indicted also.
Until the Catholic Church opens the applicant pool for priests (and other levels of governance including popes) up to ALL people, including women and married people, it will never be a better organization.
4
I've been saying this for years, Catholic priests should be allowed to get married. How come you rarely see this kind of abuse from other churches i.e. Protestant and Orthodox? Celibacy is not a natural state for most men!
7
The most important change is that Catholics need to start reporting these crimes, not to the clergy, but to the police.
When priests and bishops and cardinals start appearing on the TV in orange jumpsuits and shackles, then the Church will change.
24
@MaryC: I agree with you 100%.
6
And so why is the Catholic establishment vigorously fighting efforts to extend the statue in regard to child abuse in Pennsylvania? Does not really sound like an organization ready to change its ways. Still protecting pedophiles. The organization needs to be abollished.
20
The pedophilia epidemic in the Church points to the arrested development of so many (maybe most) members of the clergy. They often enter seminaries or pre-seminaries at 14, 16, 17 years old. Who even understands their own sexuality and sexual needs at that age, especially if you were raised in Catholic 'morality'? I knew a monk whose mother insisted he belonged to god and place him in a monastery at 14. When he was 18 he told her he wanted to leave. Mother wouldn't hear of it and this good son remained until he died 50+ years later. But he was sexually, albeit privately sexuallly active. (With adult women, thankfully.)
6
I'm an X Catholic who is grateful to have attended twelve years of good Catholic schools without being abused by nuns or raped by priests as some family members, friends and schoolmates were--and am grateful to my parents for sacrificing so much to send us to better schools than those offered by our school district. However, the Church needs to do some serious penance for all its crimes--Say, make it pay 20% income tax and give 20% of its property to the states to be used as homeless shelters and hospitals.
9
People do not give power away willingly. It can only be done by force.
8
Yes the very very very Patriarchal Catholic church must seriously root out its treatment of predators cover up. BUT so must every other Patriarchal form of religion or institution. The Catholic Church makes a very visible, well organized, deep pocketed target AND it distracts from so many others that are equally, Patriarchal, guilty of these same behaviors. The Boy Scouts and various Evangelical churches, the Mormons, the Jewish faith and then there is rampant incest to consider. Who is looking into children brutalized in their own families. Where is media coverage to help right those wrongs.
I have much confidense that Pope Francis will make a real change here. But who can do this for those non Carholic victims? This should be your next story!
4
"Above all, I know Pennsylvania Catholics, who are generally more inclined than Catholics from elsewhere to place Father or Monsignor or Bishop on a pedestal and deem him above criticism or even suspicion. "
Why?
8
@Artmel
Pennsylvania is frequently derided as Pennsyltucky outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. A land of unlettered and unsophisticated folk unable to successfully enter the 21st century. A bit like Afghanistan, I suppose.
4
As Voltaire said, "Crush the infamous thing."
7
@Daniel
The Catholic Church is the Western version of ISIS, nothing less.
4
The 1st Christian community in Ephesus was led by Mary, the Mother of Jesus, descendant of Aaron.
Paul, who never met Jesus in the flesh, wrote the Epistle to the Ephesians to denounce men "taking orders from a woman." Also to imply that any unmarried woman, without a man to obey, might not be completely respectable or trustworthy.
Both those points, of course, were a direct attack specifically on Mary, whose unique status derived from having known Jesus longer than anyone else alive. She was Unmarried.
I cannot say for a fact that it was Paul who wrote the letter to the Ephesians. It is attributed to him. Certainly, it's an insidious letter.
Luke loved Mary. He didn't write it.
By contrast, 2 John was most likely addressed to Mary & her community. It is cautious, suggesting that there are reasons to be wary.
Catholics, Orthodox & some Protestants show deference for Mary for the simple reason that it makes logical sense that someone who spent 33+ yrs with Jesus knew Him better than someone who spent 4 yrs, or less, in His company.
Efforts to obscure the history of the women who played key roles in the Early Church, especially of Mary -- whose house still stands & can be visited (look it up) -- are deeply to be regretted. We must try to fill the blanks in with research. Seek & ye shall find.
There's no need to invent new data. It was always there, just hidden, because some men simply resent sharing authority.
Some men. Not all!
We are 1 Family. Love one another.
8
I would love to see an analysis of how much money the Us Treasury would gain by eliminating all religions tax exempt status.
As far as the authors wrestling with two approaches, neither of which is under our control, I’d like to respectfully, non/rhetorically ask the question: “Where were the nuns?”
To Joe Blow, fabulous comment, motivation for both antisemitism and male domination are both about power and absolute power knowing know limitations. Abuse the children and demonize the followers of the religion their founder, was born into, practiced, taught, and never rejected to accept genocide as long as it promotes Catholicism as an original religion. Honor goes to those who resisted both. Most important thing to remember.
Nevertheless, the religion is not to blame but the leaders set the standards. The religion supports helping the poor. The Church asks donations from them.
Shorter, simpler announcement - "We resign."
6
The US Catholic church continues to partner with political parties here to deny women rights and influence elections.
Papa Francis has a big heart, but is blocked by the more Conservative church leaders who insist on keeping a lid on anything bad....and this is in Rome to boot..
This will blow over, nothing will change because the church leaders do not want it to change, Pope Francis is helpless to make the necessary reforms without the buy in from the current entrenched church leadership..
Plenty of evil has come from the Catholic Church over the centuries and this may be the most evil of them all....
7
Every day we see members of Congress who swore an oath to defend and protect the Constitution instead defend and protect the president and the Republican Party.
The same happened for decades in the Catholic Church. Men who pledged their lives to serve god and his people instead chose to protect an institution from scandal at the expense of destroying the lives of little boys and girls who were entrusted to their care.
I feel sorry for the author of this essay for she as a scholar of history chose to ignore what are documented facts about the history of the church. It must be a terrible thing to cling to a myth that one built a life around and find that the myth of the church being the body of Christ was nothing more than a fairy tale.
13
There is no holiness left in an institution that favours its self interest over the lives of innocents, especially children. That there may be holiness in some of the people who are part of that institution is besides the point. The institution is not only guilty of among the worst crimes that humanity can be guilty of, it is guilty of covering up and perpetuating those crimes over and over. That makes the institution a vessel for a profound evil, more in tune with hell and the devil, no matter how much good its adherents and representatives might otherwise do. The chuch is morally bankrupt and has no moral authority left.
7
Deep in the Amazon jungle I met an amazing priest serving his riverine parishoners by motorized canoe, putting tin roofs on schools, helping with medical emergencies, performing the sacraments. I met many remarkable priests in my travels. The thin priests...
In Peru a Catholic 'Woman of the Year' had 17 children.
The history of the Catholic Church is an abomination. The history of the popes is a study in venality, immorality, self aggrandizement, political manipulation, war. Wealthy beyond reckoning, centuries ago it rendered its soul to Caesar in trade for power, pomp and riches.
Those shocked today by a thousand cases of pedophilia --where have been the rest of your life?
Denying marriage to a male priesthood what did you expect? Sex is a gift. Repressed by the Church, the priesthood becomes a demographic aberration--refuge of saints and abusers. Empowered by Church silence there is an ever present danger. Multiply PA by millions and open your eyes.
Church wealth, denigrating women, not allowing priests to marry, not prosecuting abuse. Your Church is sick, hocking its soul to survive, doctoring itself with arcane medieval remedies. It cannot and will not heal itself. What will you do? The solution is to continue Catholic while arming yourself against the Church? Can you do it?
-.
5
So I guess 1000 children molested is the number it took to have you decide there has to be wholesale change in the Catholic Church?
5
Unless the Catholic Churche permit the marriage of priests this will go on and on. The Orthodox Church permits priests ,but not bishops,to do so and to a great extend ,but not fully,avoids this monstrosity
2
I appreciate that you received comfort from the rituals associated with this institution, but as it is totally corrupt, not just here in PA but globally, it should be treated as any corrupt institution and be disbanded. Today the fact that "faith-based" charities and schools exist is an excuse for us to not contribute to our fellow citizens in their social needs and education, not to mention healthcare. People prefer "their own choice" on where and what to give, but churches of all types suck out a huge amount of compassion and money from common causes, and for what? To sustain a ministry of abuse, whether it's young people in the Catholic church. or poor people in some commercial congregations where the pastors lives well while their "flocks" struggle. Stop giving my tax dollars in the form of non-tax status, to these crooks and perverts!
6
"We welcome prosecutors and lawyers and historians into our archives, so that the full truth, however damning, might be known." Based on my years as a municipal defense counsel and more recently as a plaintiff's lawyer suing prominent Pennsylvania lawyers in a landmark federal case--for intentional malpractice and fraudulent concealment spanning two decades--my sad prediction is that Dr. Cummings' hopeful prescription to a faith based on confession and forgiveness will fall on deaf ears.
5
Call the Catholic church what it is, a CULT, full of power-hungry, sexual perverts. Get rid of it. Arrest, trial, and prison for those found guilty of behavior or cover-up. Enough is enough.
8
Saying that "that there are many priests and bishops with good and pure hearts", is actually meaningless. One does not have to be a priest or bishop to have a good and pure heart. One does not have to be Catholic to have a good and pure heart. It's the people in the church, with their inability to deal with the real world who look for "salvation" from a magical world that is the problem.
A Christian (not catholic) friend of mine, who is extremely religious, on a superficial basis, has told me, when I pushed him to say what he is taught, that I am headed to hell because I am Jewish. Since my beliefs do not mirror his I am going to hell. Nothing said about what kind of person I am, what deeds I've done in my life, or the kind of life I lead. Just a wide swarth, you are going to hell if you don't believe in what I am taught to believe. That is the kind of power that's been handed to these religious leaders.
Does anyone split us apart more that religion? Are not good deeds and living a moral and good life enough?
8
It is clear to me that the bishops etc do not believe in the teachings of their church. They are not afraid of their god's punishment. They are self-aggrandizing administrators and in their banality is great evil.
11
The sin of pride is a deadly sin. This abuse derives not from sexual orientation but from pride. This is how deadly sins work. They flourish in darkness and the ripples expand outward until the faith of millions is destroyed.
I was an Evangelical who was enticed into and nearly destroyed by a religious cult. I fled to Catholicism for the safety of Canon Law. I desired unity with other Christians. I converted in the 1980's to RC. After rolling revelations of rampant child sexual abuse and decades of official 'repentance' I gave up on the RC about three years ago. Now I have no faith in God at all.
They have proven themselves dreadful shepherds who slaughter their flocks with these dreadful sins. They are not just unrepentant sinners. St. Paul holds a higher standard for the presbytery.
The Church is in the grip of deadly sins. They cannot be saved. "Come out from among them", Jesus said.
How can holy people commune with that monstrous faith destroying AntiChrist?
1
Patriarchy is the foundational sin of the Catholic Church--men at the top of the hierarchy treat the laity as a whole, and women in particular with contempt. Children, and that would change if they had some, are collateral damage to their "very important work". What a disgrace.
I'd like a tally of all the lives the Church has ruined with sex abuse, enforced ignorance, stupid rules, bad advice, cultivated passivity and shaming. The numbers would be staggering.
8
In Catholic high school in the 1960's, I ran into one of the more famous Minnesota pedophile priests, Thomas Adamson, the school counselor, who was subsequently shipped from parish to parish as pastor in multiple dioceses. Thank god I knew I did not have a "vocation," as he proposed.
Here's a thought. Priests aren't allowed to marry. They do not, therefore, have any legitimate need for testicles. Catholic church priests should be required to be eunuchs. Priests would take their vows a whole lot more seriously. Would there be fewer priests ordained? Win-win.
17
So far, the official statements reek of the “thoughts and prayers” mantra of the gun lobby. I am waiting for the church to put the full force of their power and money into overturning statutes of limitation so that the criminals in their midst can finally be called to justice. Only then can the people they purport to serve begin to heal. Anything less is just adding insult to injury.
Going forward it is time to acknowledge that we are sexual human beings and that enforced celibacy and rampant gender inequality have paved this road to hell.
Right now all I’m hearing is “oops my bad”
10
I thought I knew where this opinion piece was going, but it never reached one obvious conclusion. History has proven to us that men in power let us down. In areas as diverse as politics, the military, education, sports, etc. In the Catholic Church, that male power is pure, not infiltrated by women at all. Women need to gain access to all areas of power in the Catholic Church. That is the radical change we need. In hindsight, things would have never gotten this far, of that I am certain. I'm mad as hell.
7
Catholics need to revolt
14
My Baltimore high school was featured in a popular Netflix series. I survived 13 years in that city's parochial school system, and I am not sorry to see them closing doors on churches and schools. Coming through the system in the 70's and 80's, there were always rumors and ripples about scandals with this priest or this choir director, and what I remember is the community turning on the victims and protecting the men in power. The nuns were not blind, and many of them were still very physically abusive to their students as a means of maintaining power and discipline. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
On the whole, in my singular subjective experience, I found that the bad overwhelmingly outweighed the good in the Catholic church I was brought up in, and my graduation from high school was the last mass I ever attended. I raised my children without religion and am glad of it, as are they. They are healthy skeptics who have been exposed to many different cultures and religious traditions.
I know that I am not in the minority. People are quietly leaving organized religion, Catholicism in particular, in droves. It is clear from investigation after investigation what was important to the church: power, money, and protecting those assets, damn the consequences to the countless innocent lives destroyed. Any institution that has this much poison and rot in its foundation needs to crumble. Let it.
9
@WVDem
Stunning. Thank you!
3
Glad you woke up now that it happened in your own backyard
2
Reform efforts will remain superficial unless the Church affirms and seeks to embody the theological principle that the laity are equal members of the "Church." The assumption that the clergy are the real church and faithful laity merely auxiliary has contributed to Church's aloofness and insularity amid this ongoing tragedy and scandal. Now is the time to rethink the theology of what constitutes the church.
Just one further reflection on what needs to be a comprehensive overhaul. The entire clergy should be in sack cloth and ashes. Alas, that has yet to happen, and I predict it, again alas, will not occur.
3
@kinlawj
"The entire clergy should be in sackcloth and ashes..."
I would prefer orange jumpsuits.
6
I was raised in the Catholic church - meaning my parents (mostly my mother) - had me and my siblings baptized and sent to a Catholic parochial grade school for eight years. Went through all the usual sacraments at the appropriate time. Even had an idea I might want to be a priest. Was an altar boy with frequent contact with parish priests. (I no longer believe in a god, and certainly don't practice Catholicism or any other religion, btw.)
When this story appeared the other day, it made be think how much at risk I was, but how lucky I had been. No untoward behavior against me, or anybody I knew. I feel like I dodged some bullets, but never really knew it until now.
2
Reforming the structure of the Catholic Church can only be done internally. However there are areas where the political clout of the Church affects others outside the Church. It is primarily because of the Catholic Church that in New York State (and others) clergy are not mandated reporters and that attempts to change the present law on child abuse, with it’s strict statute of limitations for both criminal and civil proceedings, have failed.
This is a learning opportunity for other religions to do a self evaluation about whether they are equally guilty of placing protecting the image and institutions of their faith community over the needs of victims. In any respects the coverup is more devestating then the abuse itself and perpetuates further abuse.
3
As social animals, we crave the company of others, "communion" if you will. Rituals and traditions reenforce that drive and give us comfort.
Churches have exploited these human tendencies--sometimes for good, sometimes for evil, but always for preservation of the church. These traditions allow parishioners to put their reason on hold. And that's the problem.
The Roman Catholic church is particularly practiced in such manipulation (although it's not the only one).
The notion that priests and bishops are representatives of Christ on earth bestows on them a level of reverence for which there's little support in the Bible. If I were at all religious, I might call it heresy.
But as an atheist, I'm more inclined to note that conferring that kind of power on a mortal (and, as all of us, flawed) being is dangerous.
1
This reminds me of when Jesus became angry at the money changers. What would Jesus do and what does he want? I believe he'd clean house of the perpetrators and those who protected them. I imagine that what he wants is for his sheep to be led and fed via the gospels. What about female deacons? Female priests? Married priests? We need to look at the fantastic examples of nuns and sisters. What about the radical idea of being a priest for five years and either renewing for another five years or not? In a reply to a comment I made yesterday, I certainly understand that homosexuality, pedophilia, and effeminacy are totally separate issues from each other. In no way, did I mean to link them together or imply that one led to another. I showed my comment and the reply to my wife and she said that she could see how someone might infer that I was linking them. My apologies to those whom I might have offended.
1
How can there be holiness in a church whose leadership hides the truth? It is at the level of the meaning of holiness that the church has to examine itself-nothing less.
1
Until we start understanding there is no god, churches will continue to harbor pedophiles, liars and cheats. While the general population is rife with these same types of individuals, the church uses god for their own means and we suffer for it.
1
Ed | Washington DC
The church still has not grappled seriously with the scope of the problem - and still does not get how wrong it is to bury the actions of abusers and bullies within its ranks.
Despite establishing a commission to look into the problem and address a backlog of cases, Pope Francis has still not established any protocol for handling sex abuse allegations for the Catholic Church as a whole.
For decades, the catholic church has known of thousands of abuses occurring in thousands of churches. The church chose to simply move priests who abused kids to other parishes (out of sight, out of mind), allowing those priests to continue on their path of destroying thousands of innocent lives.
Only through the brave public actions of the abused are people such as McCarrick being dealt with by the church - and that is only occurring because vatican lawyers realize that burying McCarrick under rocks will not work this time.
Some day, hopefully soon, the church will have a leader who will attack the church's history of denial, burial of accusations, and history of abuse head on, directly, without flinching, and without fear.
1
One might want to read the novels of J.F. Powers, about Midwestern priest life in the 1950s. https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/17/arts/j-f-powers-81-dies-wrote-about-p.... I read him perhaps twenty years ago. He describes the odd way the priests lived together. I think that there might have been a subtext about homosexuality. But at the time, and now, I felt that he was missing the sexual pressure being put on children. These people were not ordinary and I think that the fact that the writer did not address priests sexually abusing both boys and girls really destroys his books. He sees the problem but doesn't deal with the underlying situation. My guess is he didn't see it and I can't guess if people hid it from him or if he knew about it without identifying it.
In the 1990's, I worked in a program for juvenile sex offenders. My brother was a little skeptical about a flap in Arizona about a 14 year old girl and an archbishop. I said to him, well, do you go on camping trips sleeping in a sleeping bag beside a 14 year old girl? The priests normalized all kinds of behavior which was aimed at sexually approaching youngsters, and this is what prevented the hierarchy from understanding that it was the hierarchy itself which the deviant people were targeting. No matter where the bad guys were transferred, they kept turning up to scandalize their bosses.
The story is awful, terrible. But what's new in it? Haven't we known all this for years? And all the 'tut tutting' by the clergy since the report; they've had years to make true reforms -- the problem has been out in full daylight.
Dr. Cummings' diagnosis and prescription are no doubt correct, but likely little will change.
Again and again, yes it is the bishops and their fellow priests who fail to act. But again and again it is the failure of civil authorities to take on the prosecution of these bishops and priests in an affirmative action. Such was true in the case of Cardinal Law who got off rather well. Will any of the bishops mentioned in this Pennsylvania report who looked the other way be prosecuted? Doubt it. So don't just shame the Catholic Church, also shame the civil authorities.
1
I don't know how anyone, knowing what we now know about the corruption in the Catholic Church would knowingly expose their children in any way to any church member.
4
@Chris
I fully agree. Those parents who willingly exposed their offspring to Catholic clergy are accessories to the crime.
1
The Roman Catholic Church is profoundly dysfunctional. It’s very structure from the foundation is flawed. When you removed all female influences from men’s lives, ie as wives and daughters, it creates a system steeped in misogyny, contempt and superiority. It perverts the social order. Men and women must share power for a healthy society.
Yes I know that pedophilia is not solely the proclivities of unmarried men and many celibates are not such but the facts show that stunned sexual maturity and sexual repression, coupled with the belief that sex is sinful can distort and warp a persons healthy sexual desires. Sexuality must be a mutual act with mature consenting participants. Priest are not Jesus Christ, they must stop being told that are by Rome.
If Roman Catholics love the ritual and faith they have options.
Come to the visit the Eastern and Greek Orthodox churches. We are democratic and don’t recognize the Pope as such, he is simply a bishop of Rome.
While the Orthodox Church is not without its problems especially if you believe in the ordination of women, their priests marry and know what it’s like to raise families and they place a higher emphasis on love and forgiveness without the fear or hell and damnation. They are not obsessed with human sexuality or controlling women’s reproduction: contraception, abortion and divorce are not eternally damnable sins and permitted in certain circumstances. I promise you, you won’t be disappointed.
Rome is burning. Let it do so.
3
I'm a Catholic priest. Prior to my priestly ordination I was in Religious Life as a Brother. I love and have loved what I do and did. I believe that men coming to this way of life must be vetted in a deep and reverent manner. This begins with the vocation director asking very pertinent and even deeply personal questions. Have you ever been in love? Boy or girl? Man or woman? Have you had your heart broken? Do you know who you are sexually? Tell me about relationships in your life. Did any of them end badly? How do you handle stress? On and on. I also believe that teens and early adults should not be welcomed into seminaries until they have reached at least the age of 26+. We need men [and women] coming to this life who know themselves and who know themselves especially in relationship. It is time to change the structure of Formation. It is time to grow up.....Spiritually, Emotionally, Physically, and Relationally!
19
@Daniel P
Isn't the fundamental problem that the demand for priests far exceeds the supply of men who have made the rational choice that they wish to remain celibate forever (and who never change their mind)? The unfortunate implication is that there will always be a high percentage of priests with unresolved sexual issues, who are ill at ease with the unnatural condition they have committed to. I think the expectation that none of those frustrated men will ever act inappropriately is hopelessly naive. Innocence and trust are wonderful aspects of religion, but when it steers its adherents into such willful naivete, religion becomes dangerous.
1
People are focusing on the individual Priests, Bishops, etc., many of whom are protected by statutes of limitation. I think we should be going after the Catholic Church itself. There can no longer be any doubt that it has been church policy for hundreds of years and across the world to promote and protect child rape.
They are therefor a criminal organization. Their tax exempt status should be terminated. All federal, state and local grants should be canceled immediately. All Catholic organizations, including their charities, should be immediately barred from any government work. Bills for the full, current value of all church property should be sent to each and every diocese in the country. The proceeds of their criminal activity should be seized as permitted under the applicable law.
If we are to stop this monster we must cut off all of its sources of income, it is the only thing they fear.
4
Catholicism is a shining example of Titus Luccretius Carus's (99-55 BC) dictum, "tantum religio potest suadere malorum." To such depths of evil has religion been able to drive men. Though to be fair all religions are immoral philosophies hiding under a warm blanket of fake morality,.
2
When my devoutly Catholic father wanted me to become a priest like his brother, my also-Catholic mother's reaction was, "No way! That lifestyle is unnatural." Even my father admitted it would be better if priests were allowed to marry. The vow of celibacy distorts a natural human need into a perverse game of testing limits for these predator priests who have authority and control over children trusted to them. Add to that the Catholic Church's doctrine inculcated into these children that embraces illogical miracles like the Virgin Birth, it's no wonder that these priests are able to convince kids that they're closer to God by having sex with a member of the clergy or that gargling with holy water will counteract residual sin from oral sex or whatever other twisted religiosity these tortured minds create. And the Catholic Church labels gays as "intrinsically immoral," "contrary to the natural law," and "objectively disordered." I would apply all those descriptions to the Catholic Church itself.
8
When is Ross "The Pope is a dangerous liberal" Douthat going to grace us with his pearls of wisdom on this hot topic? Too soon?
4
Author and priest Andrew Greely said a long time ago that the RCC was run by a "Lavender Mafia". These men are subject to blackmail by pedophiles. The only solution is to come out of the closet, stop the self-hate, and apologize for obstructing marriage civil rights.
4
How could anyone stick with an organization that continues to facilitate the most heinous crime, (other than murder) in humanity? Okay, if you must believe in a supernatural diety, fine, but why this particular brand? Looks like an evil cult to me......but oh yeah, there's the 'tradition'. Poppycock.
1
I was raised catholic, sent to catholic schools through high school, but stopped believing in the logic of it all when I was still a teen. I’ll never go back, ever. The church treats women as baby-makers and second class citizens, all the while far too some priests are pedophiles while the rest of them provide cover-ups. Beyond disgusting. And no doubt it’ still going on. Pennsylvania is but part of the problem. It’s too late to talk about allowing priests to marry, about reforming the church. Too late.
6
I've studied, albeit superficially, the various historical milestones of the Catholic Church. I was raised Catholic and it was always interesting to me how the nuns and priests rejected certain questions. So I decided to find answers myself. This Church has been corrupt for centuries because they quickly abandoned Christ's message in favor of money and power. The decisions that came out of the various Councils like Nicaea clearly demonstrate man-made policies designed to keep the faithful in line through fear and intimidation. They deliberately established priests as the representative of Christ, giving them an aura of supernatural power. That is a recipe for disaster in any organization! Now...Dr Cummings wants a complete reorganization with massive firings and policy changes. We could hope that a Pope would take this on, but let's remember that John Paul was complicit in some of the abuse cover-ups...and he was rewarded with sainthood!! Pope Benedict took overt actions to cover things up! The only way the Church will change is if the faithful get the Vatican's attention. A start would be to stop contributing money...in any way. Don't support fundraisers, don't tithe, don't give a dime in the collection basket.
4
Unfortunately, this should not surprise anyone. The Catholic Church has a longstanding history of abuse (Boston Arcdiocese), enslavement (Magdalene Sisters) and murder (Children of Tuam) of children. It's time for all to recognize this egregiousness and call it what it is - systematic and horrible inhumanity. It's time that the Catholic Church be held accountable for all its crimes both legally and financially. The systematic abuse of the people who place their trust in the Church must be stopped. I hope that Pope Francis, who has brought some credibility back to the Catholic Church, can change its longstanding culture of inhumanity.
4
As a Catholic I am also sickened by more horrible sex abuse headlines. But the pope needs to do what most corporations would do which is Clean House. Fire the bishop and all offending priests and all others who knew about this. Then start over with new people. This is 1 more example why the Catholic Church needs women priests to alleviate the shortage of priests worldwide so the church will stop bringing in male sexual predators.
1
The Catholic church, that is, the men who own and run it, have one goal, and only one goal - protect their power and influence. They will not reform except to find better ways to hide their criminality. The only moral and ethical action for all those "belonging" to a Catholic church (understand it is not "your" church, you only attend. The "priests" own and operate it and you are their subjects) is to stop supporting it. Leave the Church. Stop giving these men money. Make them get real jobs and real lives. And live in the real world where their actions will lead to shame and jail. It is the only way. Make the Church fail and disband. Good riddance.
3
Entering post secondary education, at a Benedictine college, I did witness some pretty serious situations, involving students, monks, alcohol and sex. I had the good sense to recognize and avoid involvement. I saw it and turned away, by free will, then dropped out of school.
Where I was 19, younger children or more vulnerable young people do not always have the good sense to recognize and avoid the peril. Perhaps, their measure of free will and their ability to control their actions hasn't developed. Know that pedophiles and their protectors have placed their own agendas over those they serve in the Catholic Church, these are unlawful and sinful acts of their own volition. By the faith they will be judged, but by the state it is so very complicated.
The United States of America, has enabled and endured this pedophilia problem like no other country. Some abusers have been tried, convicted and imprisoned, but no one is any way near satisfied. I am not satisfied, and I want justice, legislation
(on federal and state levels) to reign in the problem, then education to prevent it, a seemingly impossible task, at present. Crucifying the faith congregations will not serve any good, nor will retreating from faith. Substantive change is needed, and it is no coincidence that this foment boils to relevance at this scary time in our nation's history.
1
For the safety of children under its care, the Catholic Church needs to employ women in meaningful positions of authority. These women must have oversight over any man or woman interacting with children, and be empowered to involve parents or police as necessary.
Institutions run solely by men do not consistently keep women or children safe.
The Catholic Church was my refuge from my well-meaning but horrifically alcoholic parents. I attended Catholic schools seven out of first nine school years, was a Knight Commander in the Knights of the Altar (an altar boy organization), and nearly entered the priesthood.
But I was too curious, and candidly, too intellectual. I read not just the Bible, but the early church fathers and a good bit of the Summa Theologica of Aquinas by the time I was 14. And so much church history. I realized it had so many contradictions, and had strayed so far from the message of Jesus in the New Testament, that I could not, in good faith (pun intended) remain.
I entered a lifelong search for higher meaning, studying deeply most of the world’s great religions, nearly converting to Judaism in law school, and settling on a goulash of Buddhism, the Stoicism of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, and mostly a vague, regretful atheism.
It took several different things in my life and my thinking to bring me to where I am now. I had overlooked Eastern Orthodoxy, probably due to the hard-wired hostility toward it my pre-Vatican II education had instilled in me. I had been to a number of Orthodox weddings, funerals, and special events. Uncomfortably, I felt somehow at home.
A few months ago, I began studying it in depth. The upshot is that I found a faith with all I had loved about Catholicism, and little or none of the deficiencies. I feel bad for Catholics. But I have found a better way.
2
My heart aches. Pray Pope Francis recognizes it is time for ordination of WomenDeacons and moving on a path or Ordination of called women to the priest hood. We must break up this 'men's club".
4
If you really want change simply withhold your contributions. As the money dries up they will be forced to reckon with this travesty.
7
Jumping ship for a moment, I'll quote the Dalai Lama:
"Kindness is always possible". I read that as his very pertinent and timely response to Matthew 25.
Any institution that finds that inconvenient is a table set for cannibals. Best get off that menu.
4
You are only now horrified? You're decades late.
9
I attended Catholic schools from grade 2 through college (the latter in Pennsylvania) and came to know many priests. During that period I formed the conclusion that they were ordinary people, some wonderful, some mediocre, some deeply flawed. But, they were all wrapped up in this mystique of the "priesthood". As the Pennsylvania report documents over over again sexual predators were protected by their bishops and, yes, even by parents of victims. I agree with the author that the table needs to be reset. starting with the tradition (yes, it is a "tradition") of celibacy and including those silly outfits clergy wear (cassocks, mitres, etc.). The many priests I knew taught me that sexuality is a spectrum. I wondered how anyone could be celibate voluntarily. Some, I realized were asexual so celibacy was hardly a difficult choice. Others, often pointed toward the priesthood as children, wrestled with celibacy and realized it was not for them. They left the priesthood, married, and lived happily ever afterward. And then there's that group along the spectrum that are sexual predators. The priesthood is a choice cover for them and a prime hunting ground at the same time. As soon as their superiors learned of their abuse of boys and girls, not to mention their abuse of their office, they should have been handed over to the civil authorities.
I am hoping that the Pennsylvania report will rattle to the core those Catholics who still cling to the institution and lead to a mass exodus.
3
Two words: Married priests (of either gender). Okay, five words.
1
I don’t understand how the author still feels graced by the many sacraments received while the perversion was happening. If you are so ready to denounce sin and demand a fresh start, you need to start from within and cleanse yourself first. You were an unwilling participant in everything that happened , not just your blessings. You should not be graced amidst sin, depravity and crime.
1
Another change Catholic brass can make is to top their list of "reforms" with: 1. CALL 911 when presented with allegations of child sex abuse, which is a CRIME.
3
Thank you, Kathleen Sprows Cummings, for one of the very best commentaries on the state of pedophilia in the Catholic Church, by a practicing Catholic. It is imperative that those of us, within the dysfunctional family, stand up and demand change.
The pedophilia and the egregious behavior by the church leadership, by covering it up, quickly sully and nullify the charitable works of the entire Catholic Church, in one abominable instant.
1
Perhaps you may not want to send your kids to church this year, eh? Or, to school, too!
1
Forced celibacy is NOT healthy. Imagine - day in, day out, year in, year out, constantly having to fight the forces of nature.
You want reform? Let priests marry .. Better yet, require that they be married before they are allowed to experience the Rite of Ordination.
It's time to seriously ask whether the Catholic Church is a criminal syndicate that should be investigated and prosecuted accordingly.
7
I've lost all interest in listening to Catholics tout remorse and reform regarding their church. Stop making excuses for what is clearly a corrupt and evil institution. Find another church. It's that easy.
3
@MKV
They can make excuses AFTER they get out of jail.
Not until.
1
There is so much that is wrong with this article. Yet another pious, God-fearing person who feels blessed by the Church, pretending to speak harshly against its crimes. "People will say that there is still holiness in the church, that there are many priests and bishops with good and pure hearts, and they are right." What "holiness" can exist in a place that for decades has been revealed to be a hotbed of pedophiles? What sane, decent person spends his life working within such institution knowing this? Who dares to say that some of the priests inside that cult had no idea of what was going on? And if such were the case, how can they claim to be the wise, godly men who are supposed to lead the world? Thousands of children raped and they never heard about it? Please. "We acknowledge that our system of seminary education is deeply flawed". I dare say that no, it is not flawed, but works as it probably was intended to, a place for the indoctrination and absolute obedience to a group of men who designated themselves as representatives of a god. Add to that the lie of celibacy, and what could go wrong? "We were granted privileges because we were meant to represent Jesus Christ on earth." NO. NO ONE is "meant" to represent Christ or any other god. You give yourselves that title. Are we not done with the Middle Ages? Haven't we seen enough?
15
@NoCommonNonsense
Cummings is in denial.
You are not.
Thank you.
7
Perhaps, just perhaps, it might be time to cease to attribute magical powers to the members of the clergy.
7
The Catholic Church will regain its credibility when it starts divesting itself of its ridiculous wealth and assumes the role of a penitent.
1
We all know the answer to the problems of the RCC - two requirements will make great strides towards curing this "Church" of evil: 1) Allow priests to marry; 2) Ordain female priests. All other excuses and proposals will not stop this endemic problem.
1
Dr. Cummings: may your wisdom and your exquisitely written statement be embraced by the Church now, tomorrow, and forever. So many people have been driven away from the pews: suspicious, leery, aching from the sore lack of moral courage and the inauthentic leadership in the Catholic hierarchy.
Many thanks, and much power to you.
3
The continued sexual sins of priests and the sins of the Bishops who covered up their sexual predators sins, did not report them to police, who transferred them to other parishes to repeat their serial rapes, all these priests and bishops, must be ex-communicated, whether they are dead or alive;this must be the stand the Church must take IF it wants to have any credibility; it must say to the clergy, these sins are murder of the innocence's souls, their humanity, it is the sin of robbery of the victim's peace of heart and mind for life, the bishop's sins are the sin of approval of the corruption of innocence, of arrogance for deciding they should not be punished by legal authorities, by these bishops of permitting continuation of these crimes, all these priests and bishops are serial sinners of the worst kind and must be ex-communicated which means they can go to church but may never receive communion again, just as some lay ministers are arrogant & decide who gets communion and who does not;these priests seek
to release sexual urges by rape;there is no worse sin than the sexual sins of these perverted priests. They must all be excommunicated.
@Sandra
As a United States citizen, I would prefer they be tried and jailed.
NO ONE should get a pass for raping a child just because their own clothing triggers a knee-jerk reaction, "Awww, what a nice guy he must be."
As a tax-paying atheist, I will NOT tolerate these criminals! I have enough criminals in high places. Don't need any more.
Jail them.
7
To be clear, a clergy that was/is celibate was an invention that is only 1000 yrs old.... established to protect Church wealth... NOT to to serve the lay church or Christ's values.... Pope Gregory established this and a Virgin Birth as doctrine.
I have to ask "What would Jesus do?"
.... he did chase the money changers from the Temple, didn't he.... what would he do with these criminals?
4
@Tom
More to the point: What would the cops do?
1
I was born and raised Catholic, we were a family of 8 kids, went to Catholic schools from kindergarten to college, and I had not stepped into a church for 15 years before my mother’s death, and have not since she died 10 years ago. The education I received was outstanding, but along with it came beating from nuns, lay people and priests, and since everyone around me was getting the same treatment I just thought it was normal behavior. As my doubts grew during high school, my faith disappeared completely when my small high school was closed because of an abuse scandal which was covered up as a lack of funding issue due to the inability of students to transfer to our school. One lowly monk went to jail for a short term and no higher up administrators were affected other than being promoted to better jobs. I have never once missed the “comfort” of the church, and my kids were raised to think for themselves and to treat others as they would be treated, plus they were never slapped because they gave the wrong answer to a question in class. Nostalgia for my childhood? Yes. Belief that the church or any religion is focused on the betterment of mankind? No. Belief in fairy tales has a funny way of becoming dark realities.
7
The best solution to the problem is abandon religon entirely. It is possible to be a good, kind, caring person without the framework of invisible friends and myths.
Throughout history, the tangible (real) good done by religion(s) has been overwhelmed by the incredible evil done in its name.
Any rational examination of its impact upon the world would cause it to be abandoned immediately.
10
None of this is surprising. The Roman Church has been worshiping its own power and its ability to avoid punishment for broken civil laws or collusion with government to its advantage for a thousand years. Perhaps longer if we go back to 325 AD when Constantine made it the official state religion. Why else would it allow a Cardinal to become Secretary of State in France and to don armor and fight wars leading the army? And later replace him with another Cardinal?
We are finally seeing its disengagement with governments in South America where it has prevented them from passing laws for the benefit of their people. These nations are mired in poverty and illiteracy thanks to the church's war on birth control. It will take a century or more to undo the damage it has caused with its crusade against the people. At last the Cardinal and Bishops are being restricted to their churches and even there they cause damage to the people.
3
The Catholic Church is taking steps to reform, but the heart of the matter is that it has been too slow to change, period. Its modus operandi when confronted with patterns of abuse (sex and power) is to deflect, use euphemisms, and abdicate full responsibility. Dr. Cummings never advocates jail time for the guilty in her apologia, which is full of guilt, understandably, over how this church has betrayed her. I feel for her and other Catholics who are struggling with whether or not to remain Catholic, but unless the Pope starts telling his followers that these priests, etc. will go to jail and not just be shuffled off to a remote parish, I will never be a fan of the Catholic Church.
3
While the revelations from Boston and other places regarding sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church were horrifying, nothing prepared me for reading the grand jury report out of Pennsylvania. I felt physically ill and brought to tears reading this abominable litany of degradation and sadism against children. Not only is it time to reset the table, it's time to overturn the table and dismantle it. Jesus taught the love of God and the love of neighbor as yourself. Not one word about banning birth control, keeping women subjugated, or not allowing priests to marry and have healthy sex lives whether with opposite sex or same sex partners. It's not hard to imagine that young men frightened of their sexuality or stunted in their sexual development might flee to the "celibate" lifestyle only to find that they can't run from their own attractions and impulses, but get no help in understanding or managing them. But to act on them against vulnerable children is the greatest betrayal of trust imaginable. Nothing but nothing excuses the behavior of abusing children or of shielding abusers. The full weight of criminal law has to be brought against all involved no matter how high up the hierarchy it has to go. The Catholic church needs to abolish mandatory celibacy for priests, and open the priesthood to women, and empower the lay people of the church to help transform it into something Jesus would recognize.
4
“Times Up!” Enough “we are sorry” & “this is all in the past”. Facts are the Catholic Church’s pedophilia and sex assault problem is international and part of their “culture”. Most of the changes implemented in the US have not been adopted in other countries. Facts are that while the Bishops, Cardinals and even the Pope express outrage and contrition, their lawyers stonewall, cover-up and attack the victims.
I say sue & jail them until these Prelates cry Holy Water and if that means the Church gets run out of town, so be it. “Times Up!”
3
I was born within the bounds of the Fond du Lac Reservation formed in the LaPointe Treaty of 1854. I attended a missionary evangelical church; I attended St. John's University in Minnesota.
The Benedictine priest who greeted me on a visit was convicted; the Benedictine priest who married my wife and I was convicted.
The Romans simply referred to the transgressions as the duality.
Call it what you will, but we all knew to watch our backside as Satchell Paige said, "Someone might be gaining on you."
6
Many say end celibacy. Seems to have already been ended in practice. But to accomplish this the church would have to be prepared to see large numbers of current priests marry other men.
1
To allow the Catholic Church to continue to operate in the US is to fail as a civilized state.
To allow the Catholic Church to go forward is to be duplicitous in their failure as a civilized institution.
5
Oh my dearest Pontiff do you not see,
all of the young Luthers coming for thee?
7
@Jeff Rau Liked your post. It brought back the memory of my parish priest suggesting that I no longer attend youth meetings because I objected to his statement that Martin Luther deserved to burn in hell.
I stopped attending church many, many years and years ago because of their stance on many issues (Divorce…Birth control…Their rules on celibacy… Prohibition of married priests…The lack of women in the priesthood and positions of authority). Their cover up of the molestation of children by priests has caused me to lose all respect for their institution.
The time has come for the setting up of a Reformed Catholic Church instead of accepting their brand institutional changes.
1
Jesus said “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!" (Mt 18:6 ESV)
You child abusers - please do me a favor and take Jesus' words at face value. How many little ones have you caused to stumble!
4
@Theologian
If we take Jesus' words at face value, then we are either condoning suicide or murder, depending on exactly who it is that places that millstone around the criminal's neck, themselves or one of us, and pushes them into the sea.
Either way, sounds about right to me.
Raping children and/or forming pedophile sex-rings is right down there with that case I heard of last week, that a German mother and her boyfriend sold her son to a group of violent pedophiles on the "dark web".
I would be hard pressed to explain the difference between that group and the rapists in Pennsylvania.
As you can see, I'm less concerned with theology than I am with ethics.
The Catholic church is nothing more nor less than an old boys' club. They need women priests, period. I doubt you'll see any sort of major reform, such as you propose, because those men will never voluntarily relinquish their power. Humility is a virtue lost on many priests.
1
Isn't it time we gave up on ancient mythology? Obviously, telling young men they can't be sexual ain't worked out so well...
7
Dr. Cummings focuses on cover up and oversight. They are important. However, no better management scheme or personnel change will cure this problem because its origin lies in demanding clergy to be celibate and hence super-human. No organization can be staffed by only super-humans. At the same time, even if one child would be harmed, it is one child too many. Clearly, without changing the teaching of the church on celibacy, it is setting itself up for failure.
3
Guys can be monks only and turn it over to the nuns. what a bunch of self serving, self deluded and slightly silly little boys.
1
The American Catholic bishops must close all seminaries
immediately and indefinitely. Send all seminarians home.
4
Ms. Cummings,
It's taken sexual abuse for Catholics to gain humility.Where were the Catholics during the Holocaust, in particular Pope Pius the 12th, whose silence, gave tacit approval to the murder of 2,000,00 Jewish Children who died in their Mothers arms.Catholic Anti Semitism led the way to the persecution of the Jewish people for generations.Although, I would have never been complicit in the crucifiction of Christ, I shudder every Easter when the Passion Play is performed, which brings out the vile hatred of Jews .I get no pleasure in the current tragedy in the Catholic Church, as innocent children have suffered.I wish when the Catholic Church rids itself of this evil, it will also rid itself of Anti Semitism.To those Catholics that truly follow Jesus teaching I apologize.
7
Thank you.
I wonder what the writer would say about John Paul II, whose "Santo Subito" beatification was preceded by arranging a Vatican sinecure for Bernard Cardinal Law, who protected many rapist priests for years, and then left the United States while a Massachusetts District Attorney was considering charging him with abetting those criminals under his authority. This abuse scandal is not just about the patriarchal institutions that Cummings would reform, but about the entire church, the edifice itself, and the lay people, who value that church above the children ruined under its tent.
6
I share the professor's perspective; the time has come to break open the closed world of the Catholic Church middle and upper management,
I teach (happily) at a small Catholic founded by women. While we have problems like any other institution, we have not had cases of pedophilia and so are somewhat isolated from the excesses detailed here and the earlier reports about Boston.
Therein lies my fear-that local Catholic parishes and institutions that feel isolated from the excesses of priests may not feel the obligation to say or do anything.
Wrong!! It is all our duty to find ways to pressure, if necessary with money, the hierarchy to make real and obvious change to make the church more open. You can begin with real equality for women, married priests, and many other measures. It is the best, and perhaps the only, way for the church to survive over the next two or three generations.
However, given the self-absorption of many bishops and cardinals, I am not sure that it will happen. We may be the last generation of Catholics as we now know the church.
3
For non-Catholics enough is enough already. Our tax dollars fund a criminal enterprise that ex-communicates a woman for procuring an abortion but elevates, promotes, condones, and cooperates with child rapists. Any Catholic believer who continues to associate with this criminal enterprise must take responsibility for the crimes it continues to commit. I will say the same to my Catholic relatives. I don't know how to deal with an approaching marriage to take place in a Catholic church. It sickens me to know that people I know and love are blind to their own membership in a criminal organization. They put their own children in harm's way, and I and others get to foot the bill for this criminality. Enough already. Abolish tax exemption for religious organizations and let those who belong fund their own beliefs and activities.
7
For those interested, there are a number of articles on this travesty in First Things. (firstthings.com). As horrific as the abuse is, the cover-up, at times involving human trafficking -- victims and predators alike (for which there is no statute of limitations) -- on the part of bishops is far more indicative of the depth of the crimes involved. Indeed, as this smacks of organized crime, I have argued that the RICO statute should be invoked. And, whereas revoking tax-exempt status may not pass constitutional muster, putting named diocese into receivership supervised by a non-ecclesiastic special master may be called for. It's a deeply sad and tragic thing when the motto of the USCCB should now be: "We Give New Meaning To The Laying On Of Hands."
4
I wonder if ridding all religions of tax exempt status would pass constitutional muster, would allow lower tax rates, cost them more to run schools in communities that need their students in public schools, get government out of religions, close the deficit. Wonder if Republicans could support it. Or Democrats for they matter
It will never change. It is institutionalized. Be wary of any member ofthe clergy, male or female.
Teach your children defensive tactics and always to tell someone about any aggression: physical or mental.
If you're an adult and tempted, let him/her leave the clergy first, rather than invite trouble. Otherwise, you are an enabler.
Better yet, vote with your feet and leave .
The Catholic Church is just as ignorant as the Trump administration if not more given it's long history of lying and collusion to cover up thousands of sex crimes. The truth will bring down both these towers of ignorance, greed and corruption.
5
End the tax exemption. American citizens should not be subsidizing Joel Osteen, The Roman Catholic Church, or the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
20
I am not a Catholic. I am however a Christian confirmed in the Episcopal faith. I am no longer a part of organized religion. This report is the most egregious and damning example of what is wrong in the Catholic faith. The church hierarchy must be held to account here both legally and morally. Does the Pope have the courage to not only continue investigating this corruption in other diocese in America, but also the courage to turn these criminal priests over to law enforcement and the courts for justice? Does he have the courage to open the church's vast coffers and pay the reparations that these victims are due. Does he have the courage to change the priesthood to put an absolute stop to this obscene pattern of behavior not only created by church rules but protected by the supervisors of these sexual deviants who prey on children? It has to be fixed in order for the Catholic Church to continue to exist. If indeed it deserves to continue to exist at all.
Stop making excuses for those pedophiles . Not being able to marry does not make them a pedophile, they are criminals and so are their enablers. The Catholic church is violating weak minds with fiction and empty promises, stealing their money and doing horrible things to their children. Close all churches, arrest everybody, use their wealth to heal their victims and above all remember - There Is No God.
3
@Karin Byars Agreed. 100%.
1
Catholics in general have been complicit and are to blame for the abuse scandals. The Churches positions on birth control, masturbation, and on the right of the clergy to marry was so unnatural as to make its sex scandals inevitable. Most Catholics were in the position to ignore the Church's teaching which we did but those in the priesthood were stuck. The silence of the average Catholic directly contributed to the evil that the Church caused. If Catholics stopped contributing to the Church the abuse would end.
7
"Tuesday’s grand jury report about clerical sexual abuse in Pennsylvania has changed my mind." Had she never heard of Ireland’s priestly pedophilia and episcopal cover-up, also spanning decades? Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionnaires of Christ, accused of sexually abusing members since he founded that organization in 1941? This man's sins were known to the Vatican, yet JPII honored him lavishly. Cardinal. Ratzinger was appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1981—a consummate insider, who knew of Degollado’s reputation. Yet Degollado remained in place until Ratzinger became Pope, and even then, punishment involved quiet retirement. Before Pennsylvania, the diocese of Boston was bankrupted by settlements to victims of sacerdotal sexual abuse. The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has a decades-long history of priestly pedophilia. Cardinal Dolan of NY was involved in trying to shield diocesan funds from future lawsuits by victims. Portland, Tucson, Spokane… the list of bankrupt dioceses is long. Ah yes, faithful Catholics should fight for a place at that table? Professors from Notre Dame will stop priestly crimes in, well, Peru or Perth?
7
@Des Johnson Apparently this "historian of Catholicism" has not heard of any of those cases.
Catholic missionaries did untold damage to entire societies by spreading their version of faith. The Catholic Church collaborated with the Nazis in WWII and had a cosy relationship with the Mafia. The Vatican's bank has committed multiple economic crimes. And the Catholic Church's predator priests have preyed on the children the world over. Perhaps it's time to abolish the Catholic Church.
7
70 years!!!
That's 3 generations. Don't kid yourself, this depraved sexual abuse. was occurring before then as well.
What is your bet that it is just a matter of time before the next pedophile priests scandal surfaces?
The Catholic Church is a corrupt and criminal organization.
3
@RPM
Charlemagne wrote of the perversion in the priesthood over 1200 years ago and hoped he'd never hear of it again. It's a good thing he isn't here to see how pervasive it has become today.
Its a lost cause !!!!
5
The Catholic Church Inc.
Shut it down.
Wrap yellow crime scene tape around the Cathedrals and churches
Shut it down.
No more hiding behind Jesus on the Cross while you commit horrific crimes against the most vulnerable.
Shut it down.
7
The only genuinely ethical option would be to return the church to its roots. Seize and liquidate the Catholic Church’s assets for distribution among those they have violated. Followers are then free to continue meeting as their nomadic ancestors did forming loose and temporarily associations with itinerant preachers.
3
“Protecting the Church from scandal” in these cases seems less likely a concern than “Protecting the wealth and political power of the Church.” The close connections between religious patriarchs and politicians are well documented. And can anyone fathom the vast riches of the Vatican that would be attached and depleted by successful lawsuits against perpetrators and their protectors?
I’d be happy if there would be less talk about religion and more clarity about liability.
3
As an emeritus, I am proud of you professor. Our background experiences, our PA history, our outrage, and our thoughts about the process of solution are very similar.
It is time to question everything, including the unintended consequences of Catholic doctrine and practice. I read today Cardinal DiNardo’s thought that a root cause was a failure of leadership. That’s undoubtedly true, but it is also not root. Why the Failure? Is it due to a common attribute of the leaders? For example, all are celebrate males, is that relevant? Is the problem a product of the culture of the Church? Is the priesthood a brotherhood that leans more to protecting brothers than protecting children? Is it a misplaced response to threat? The population of priests is shrinking, so we really must keep as many as we can?
The “whys” have to be asked, no matter how sensitive and painful those questions might be to those who once revered and respected the Institution and hope, again, to do so.
1
I'm no Catholic, nor even religious. I think it is myth.
I still value it, and admire the Pope. Why? Not the myth stuff. It is the values.
Sexual abuse of little kids isn't that value.
Those who believe in the institution and myth are willing to pay a price to protect them. They excuse things. It is like war crimes, which somehow don't horrify the people doing them, nor far too many on their side.
But what else, who else, is out there promoting full time the positive values of religion? Love. Forgiveness. Helping others. Do unto others. What Jesus is said to have taught, not what has been done since in His name.
If it takes a myth to promote that, then myth we must have. We've had myths just as weird with far less value.
The crimes undermine the values. The myth can't do the only good things that religion has to offer, if it is poisoned by crimes. People turn away, run away, and keep their kids safely away.
This is existential for the Church, but it is also vital to the rest of us who don't even believe. That's because we DO believe in and share the underlying values that almost nobody else promotes.
Modern politicians and pundits have a horror of sounding religious, giving that ground to churches. We hear much about opposition to excesses, like the baker whose myths keep him from serving part of the public.
That baker represents a perversion of the ideals. Who will actually teach them? We need those teachers, those leaders. They mustn't be criminals.
As a former Catholic, I would recommend two massive changes. First, that the whole process of finding and training priests needs to be abandoned and a new way found. The current population of deacons and lay readers become the feeder system for priests. Rather than see priesthood as a life-long career, let's reserve it for those men and WOMEN who have led good lives and had professions as business people, teachers, professionals, and parents. Select the people in their communities who are respected for their kindness, ethics and responsible use of power. Use some of the Church's wealth to provide an early retirement for these folks, train them to give the sacraments, and expect 10-15 years of service in return.
Second, dismantle the hierarchy. Get rid of the seminaries that are breeding grounds for corruption and deviance. Get rid of the sycophants hanging around the bishops and cardinals. Get rid of the fancy mansions, the corrupt lawyers and the pretty boy private secretaries. Go back to grass-roots service and care, by people from the community working for their community and answerable to their community. There will always be academics and scholars who want to work on the fine points of angels on pins. Let the universities handle that. And a committee of parish-appointed businesspeople can handle the finances that are currently hidden in archbishops' and cardinals' personal files.
9
But Gaston, without the financing angle that the higher ups handle in secrecy, what motivation do they have to go into the church, the earlier motivation of young boys is just unacceptable in this day and age.
There is no biblical requirement for a celibate priesthood or for an all-male priesthood. In fact, there have been times in church history both when priests were not required to be celibate and when women played a much larger role. The switch to celibacy came in response to corruption in the church. Today, the celibate priesthood has generated a more dangerous, nonfinancial, corruption. If rules could change back in the day, they can change today -- and in fact did, for married Anglican priests admitted to Catholicism.
It is time to recognize that the present arrangement hasn't worked for at least a century. It is hard to imagine the raping of our children being so casually accepted, if women were in positions of power. It's time for a major change.
6
@allentown
There is far too much emphasis on celibacy in the RCC.
Let them emulate their supposed first pope. Peter was a married man. The bible tells us he had a mother in law.
Mary had other children. The bible speaks of Jesus' brothers and sisters. The church has gone to great effort to make Mary a perpetual virgin to be emulated. The bible says little of Joseph but the church has protected her status by claiming Joseph was an old man (perhaps impotent?) and that the siblings were cousins though the words used mean brothers and sisters. There s a word for cousin and that isn't used to describe them.
It is well past time to allow for married clergy in the RCC.
2
This action merits an interstate law enforcement task force with wide ranging powers. This is a vast interstate criminal conspiracy, very similar to organized crime. Organized crime however, never specifically targeted children.
4
Yet another ridiculous "I'm SHOCKED" column by yet another catholic who pretends that no one had a clue about the priests abusing, molesting and raping the children of their flock and the cynical, self-serving cover-up and enabling of those crimes by the church hierarchy.
This was no secret.
Plenty of people knew about it and looked the other way. Plenty of people talked about it in hushed tones and then publicly pretended that it wasn't going on. Plenty of times over decades these criminals were exposed, the bishops and cardinals said "how awful", made promises to stop it and then did exactly the opposite. Over...and over...and over.
And I've heard the "this is last straw line" from persons like Dr. Cummings every single time. That's some straw, It's more like a cat with at least nine lives.
The Catholic hierarchy have repeatedly proven that they will lie about stopping these crimes and will protect (and even enable) the criminals who are their fellow priests rather than dong the moral and decent thing. Enough of this madness and enough of lay Catholics and their pretensions of shock and surprise. When they actually DO something to take control of their church away from the bishops and cardinals I'll believe them about their outrage.
4
My last published article on this tragic subject was written over 15 year ago, during the last big reveal of the prevalence of child molestation in the Catholic Church. The article, written with John Heagle, a Catholic Priest and long time colleague, was called "The Inner Workings of A Hierarchy with a Sex Offender Mentality". We were praised by some and excoriated by many for naming the fact that the problem of child sexual abuse is deeply ingrained in and supported at the core of the closed, secretive, sexually ambivalent hierarchical system. Though I hoped, at the time, that something in that system would begin to change as more revelations occurred, I knew that it wouldn't. Powerful systems don't willingly change from within. They do what sex offenders do: Lie, cover up, deny, try to change the subject and blame their victims. There exists at the heart of such systems a grandiosity, a belief that laws that govern the populace do not apply to them. They have proclaimed themselves "ontologically different"--elevated to a spiritual reality that is beyond or above the merely human. So again, those in magenta robes, and golden miters will issue public apologies. But, they won't cry for victims. They won't suggest any changes to the corrupt system. And behind the scenes they will scorn those who would dare expose their sins. They will fight to keep their power in tact, and their system protected from outside scrutiny. I've seem it for decades.
7
Kathleen,you are in denial. You think atonement by the church will end sexual predation by the clergy. It might make you feel better, but atonement by the church will not stop priests and cardinals from molesting children. There is only one solution to the problem. End celibacy by priests and nuns.
2
I am not a Catholic and never could be one. I am a woman, and as a woman I simply don’t understand how any modern woman could be part of such a misogynistic, patriarchal, bigoted, venal, selfish, money-grabbing group of hypocrites. I am so sick of the never ending crimes of the Catholic Church and cannot for the life of me understand how any thinking, feeling being - male or female - could continue to be part of this monstrous organization, this horrendous club. It baffles me.
7
Don’t hold your breath! The type of reform you are advocating will never happen, there is just too much wealth and power involved.
1
"We need to rip off the tablecloth, hurl the china against a wall -"
What are your specific recommendations for reform, Dr. Cummings? Are Catholic clergy be allowed to marry? What else might save all souls from these cesspits of lust?
@vishmael
The Church's requirement of celibacy amongst the clergy as being the Godly thing we must have, is belied by married Uniate priests and admission to the priesthood of married Anglican priests.
The Orthodox churches, which the Roman Church recognizes, is not in heresy, but schism. Their priests are married.
1
If this was a group of incidents isolated in one location.... it would be one thing. This ROT is SYSTEMIC and GLOBAL.... It requires a systemic and global solution. Self policing is not an option!
The laity, the "real church" have to seize control and remove the current feckless leadership.... prosecute and imprison as necessary...and take control of what is left.... or simply allow the these criminals to ruin what is left.
Good cops know who the bad ones are... Good doctors know who the bad ones are.... Good priests knew who the bad ones were.... and do/did nothing!
4
I would advise any rational person to leave this nonsensical, corrupt organization. End of story.
6
The Catholic Church could best reform itself by letting go of the fairy tale that is Christianity. That is Islam. That is Judaism. Probably most young men who enter the priesthood are conflicted about their sexuality. And preoccupation with sex ( especially attraction to children) becomes an obsession which needs release. The whole religious edifice which posits a belief in a supernatural God needs to come crashing down. And then we can all meet and work together as human beings for people and the planet.
6
Hit em where it really hurts - take away the Church's tax exempt status. Do that and they'll offer up the predators in their midst post haste.
1
As a cradle Catholic I am outraged. Now is the time for a new reformation- enough is enough {prayer for the victims, verbal apologies are hollow) The Church wil die ( and probably deserve so) without it. What should be done immediately: expose all molesting priest now all the way to the very top and bring them to justice, provide relief for all victims {if it bankrupts the Church, so be it), women must join the ranks of priesthood and must be elevated to higher ranks as they progress through their calling, married priest must be admitted into hierarchy , acknowledge that celibacy is unnatural,sexuality is as essential as water, stop this craziness that a priest must be a celibate male (crazy) stop the abuse....now
2
This kind of abuse has been going on for centuries. Human, all too human. There is no such thing as spiritual. There is no such thing as holy. All religion is nothing more than pagan myth.
3
@Indigo Agreed - 100%.
Unlike Ms. Cummings, I don’t believe the Catholic Church can be reformed and atone for its massive sexual predation sins. The grand jury report out of Pennsylvania is too vile, as were similar reports out of Boston and Ireland. The Church of mercy and loved has died. And we murderered it.
“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?”
— Nietzsche, The Gay Science, Section 125, tr. Walter Kaufmann
2
Reform starts with people being informed about the truth of heretical priests such as Fr. James Martin:
https://www.churchmilitant.com/main/generic/fr.-james-martin-sj
Does being a pedophile make these men want to be priests, so they have unquestioned access to children, or does being a priest make them pedophiles? Which comes first? It would appear that it's the latter. Most young men start out believing they have a calling to the priesthood. They want to serve God and their parishioners. Has anyone studied the evolution of pedophiles in the priesthood so they can be better understood? It's pretty clear that something about the church has to change, but what is it? Allow priests to marry? Accept homosexuality? What?
3
It is high time, and long past, to recognize that the church is not now and never was the Roman clergy. Despite their deluded claim, the Roman popes and their servants never in fact held, solely as their particular responsibility, the mandate as true and singular voice for the entity they named the Mystical Body of Christ.
Rather, as the man himself said it, wherever two or more are gathered in my name, I'm there.
The popes and priests pontificate that women cannot control their own fertility; 90% plus Catholic women demonstrate by their conduct that those guys don't know jack.
The church may be infallible; the guys in the clown suits sure ain't.
1
The Catholic Church has become a pederastic cult, unsafe for children, unsafe for adults. Anyone who supposes this cult can be reformed is stiffarming reality.
Smart people will join a different church.
I'm mighty glad I'm not Catholic.
4
Yes, there's still hole-ee-ness in the Catholic Church, just as there always will be while effeminately-dressed bachelors (nothing against secular, transgender ladies) are allowed, in any civil society, to teach children their cruel lies. Also, Catholics will always be hole-ee (mentally) while they allow themselves to be directed, like so many human robots, to go through their creepy Catholic aerobic exercises in their pews. That it's so chillingly creepy is no accident - it's part of how that death-cult has alienated the humanity of its followers to outsiders for the past 2000 years, just as Roman priests did when they led the worship of Rome's pagan gods.
1
@Dave Agreed. Good writing.
Ending abuse in the Catholic Church should begin with finances. Time for the Finances of the American Catholic Church to be taken over by lay Catholics. Every parish and every diocese should be managed by a lay board of directors. No Catholic should give a dime to the church until this change in management has taken place. With lay boards committed to ending abuse of children, clergy could not hire and pay law firms to fight against charges of pedophilia. Clergy could not hire and pay law firms to fight legislation to extend the years before the statute of limitations tolled for complaints of sexual aggression. There have been countless examples of misuse of church funds over the years, and sometimes the bookkeeper messengers are fired rather than the abuse addressed.
Lay boards in charge of finances would have prevented the unconscionable act of Timothy F. Dolan, now Cardinal in New York, but in 2007 archbishop of Wisconsin, from requesting permission from the Vatican to move nearly $57 million into a cemetery trust fund to protect the assets from victims of clergy sexual abuse who were demanding compensation. These kinds of repulsive actions should be ended by the Catholic Church.
5
Here's your problem: "Pennsylvania Catholics...are generally more inclined than Catholics from elsewhere to place Father or Monsignor or Bishop on a pedestal and deem him above criticism or even suspicion." Why is that? Sad and pathetic.
As far as I can see there is no holiness in the Catholic Church with this modern day church members. They side against the Pope . He is for helping the immigrants this Catholic group voted for a GOP Trump to give them a hard time and separate their families like Nazi Germany. Our Pope says any harm to the environment by supporting coal and fossil fuels is harming humanity. In these two statements Pope Francis is the only true Catholic and christian. HIs congregation has severely strayed and cannot be fixed. The strayed catholics also support the war monger GOP the Pope doesn't. Time to close them down and this time give a background check for all your priests. I hope there will be women this time the men have failed miserably for thousands of years.
The “awful truth” that the coverup has been going on for 70 years makes me want to scream. Who came up with that? Does that mean that this widespread abuse was not going on in ‘47, ‘46, ‘36, ‘26, and back... back as far as a thousand years? Two thousand? The victims are not a thousand, or a hundred thousand. They are countless. Many lived out their lives and died with this pain and religiously imposed shame. The Vatican’s words are like a molecule of water thrown on a firey holocaust. Exactly how is there anything left, at all.
10
@Bluebeliever
In a pastoral letter to the Church the Emperor and Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne writes that he has heard of perversion in the priesthood and hopes he never hears of it again. That's over 1200 years ago.
No, this is not a recent phenomenon.
Despicable and inhuman. And the Catholic Church leadership is responsible for a massive, centuries-long cover-up. But another small part of this is that this can be an outcome when you deny a cohort of humans any sexual release whatsoever. And that is the fault of Catholic doctrine.
Sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has been occurring for hundreds of years worldwide. It's far past time to clean it up completely or shut it down.
3
If I see women ordained, and priests allowed to marry I may think
something in the Catholic Church change for the better. Until then the rapes of children in the Catholic Church will continue unabated,
Unabated !
3
Why this need for the catholic church? Can't you people think for yourselves and move on with your lives?
2
Maybe the table does not need to be reset. Maybe the table needs to be taken outside and set alight. Enough with the table! Who needs it? Saying the Catholic church needs to be reformed is a bit like saying the KKK needs to be reformed. The evil of the Catholic church is part and parcel of the Catholic church, interwoven into the fabric of the church. Don't get me wrong -- the protestant churches have their own evils and are equally deserving of scorn. All churches are evil at their core because they are false at their cores. It's time to give up on the ancient relic of the church. It's time to get real.
2
The only answer is to allow priest to marry. Now, the priesthood attracts many child predators.
1
Allowing priests to marry must be one potential solution to be considered.
2
@Trump Rumpler If they were 'normal' enough to make 'normal' relationships & marry & raise a family & live a 'normal' life - they would not go into the Church. Priests are not 'normal' - they are all neurotics who are incapable of living a 'normal' life.
Like so many others, the Catholic church is a patriarchal system through and through. ANY institution that does not share power equally with women devolves into abuse of power against the vulnerable. Religion, government....
Unchallenged notions of male entitlement, whether spiritual or temporal, riddle otherwise-glorious human possibility like termites.
When will men in power exhibit that wisdom?
Will we look back – half-century or so from now – upon the institution of religion, the way we look today upon the institution of slavery...
After all, slaves were provided with a purpose and order to their lives, a modicum of reliable room and board – a universal basic income, of a sort...
And music...
Yes – music seemed to be as key to their happiness as any of the above...
What freed American slaves most directly was a confluence of abolitionist agitation and the invention of automated crop handling machinery...
Such transition is not fait accompli – Central Europe re-introduced slavery into 20th-century manufacturing, for several years...
Taking a leap – of faith – on what machines might supplant contemporary religious dogma...Or at least its pandemic evils...
Perhaps sex robots – at least for the pastorate...
With that – would those in authority declare lay robotic sex (?!) sinful, limiting the flock to sex with each other...
May take a Scalia to divine what the Book has to say on this...
Genesis and the story of Lot’s wife touch on the subject...
So, Antonin’s first likely bit of dogma – only nameless female robots allowed...
But then – his prodigious intellect would leave me back in the cheap pews, as he channeled some sort of hybrid 23rd century Elysium-Vatican...
Just one more speculation...
Exception might be carved out for robotic altar boys – for the sole purposes of lighting all of the altar candles more quickly, and ringing the bells more evenly...
Intelligence = atheism
2
I'd suggest any rational person to just leave this nonsensical, corrupt institution. End of story.
1
@mkcreative Agreed. All rational people become Humanists.
3
Pope Francis- the PR Pope- is not going to do a thing to hold child rapists, and their enablers, to account.
The entire church exists to enrich itself and its top members.
It is a business. And their business was child rape. They should be taxed like a business.
The thousands of children raped by the Catholic Church end up being more likely to commit sexual crimes in their own life. The Catholic Church has spread pain, misery, and child rape throughout our culture.
Tax the church until it dies. Let good Catholics, who do not rape children, form a new church.
3
So ...
An institution recruits only men as its priests, rules that they must be lifelong celibates, and tells them that they are the direct, electric, pure representatives of God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son. They speak for God. And that they can perform miracles ... change wine into Christ’s actual blood. That they are, in themselves, holy. Potent.
What could possibly go wrong?
4
Good and holy priests do not rise through this hierarchy. It is time to stop giving this institution your money. The leadership will make noises, hope to wait out the storm, and continue the pederasty power dynamic which is now clearly revealed to be at the core of the organizational model. I had hopes for Francis. I was a fool. It is clear he too has been in on this monstrous and enormous secret and that he will not seek change because he and the rest of the leadership does not want change. They like the church to operate as the hand of evil, cloaked in righteousness.
3
I agree with every word that has been written here. While mentioning that I am a life long Catholic,where our two little boys attend the same Catholic grade school which I attended many years ago,fast and radical action is now the only option. While also mentioning that fortunately I have never personally known an accused or guilty priest as Ms. Cummings has experienced,this is a Church-wide fatal cancer which now has to be attacked with only extreme measures. For starters,the Pope has to write a letter to all Catholics of the world which will be read to every Sunday Mass gathering ASAP. Also,the Catholic lay community has to be involved with all seminary admissions and all situations involving charges against priests. This process has to be seen as fair,transparent,and accountable to all concerned,including the priests.
1
Marriage for Catholic priests would not reform any pedophiles. What it would do is encourage the participation of individuals who are whole enough to desire and maintain a loving, intimate relationship with another individual. A second change that would balance the power structure is the ordination of women. Female eyes and ears in a situation see details differently. Yes, sexual harassment and child abuse has been reported in protestant churches, as it is across the population. But the rate is so much lower. I believe this is because the clergy come from a wide range of backgrounds and because all genders (in most churches) are welcome.
3
@jab
I believe it is lower because of the difference in the beliefs of the congregants but there are other reasons.
Our insurance companies have advised us on how to avoid the appearance of an improper relationship. All small child classes are taught by two adults who are not married to each other. All classrooms have windows in the doors. Any class where only one student showed up is doubled up with another. Separate rest rooms for adults.
If you are operating a church and Sunday School ask your liability insurance company for advice.
1
I have to agree with those who suggest we need more than a resetting of the table. In light of these despicable and criminal acts against the most precious and vulnerable among us, walking away from the table or destroying the table altogether seems necessary, but why is it so hard? For our 80 year old parents, they are crushed because their Catholic faith is the bedrock of their lives. For our 20 year old kids who moved on from the Church that very first semester of college, this is a never-look-back situation. But what about us in the middle? My husband and I have weakened our relationship to the Church in the last ten years, but this latest episode of criminal activity makes it feel like the end for us. We have had some incredible teachers, nuns, and priests in our lives, but it doesn't make up for this horrifying reality that some of our fellow human beings have endured. These young people are the only true victims, but we Catholics are hurt too. Our religion and its rituals are so tied in to our ethnic heritage and very identity, that it makes this step of walking away feel lonely and rudderless.
1
Of all the articles I have read calling for reform of the Catholic Church following the Pennsylvania revelations, none to date addresses three structural changes in the Church that would go a long way towards correcting centuries of abuse: 1) the ordination of women; 2) the end of celibacy for all clergy; and, 3) the recognition that nobody, including the pope, is infallible. Endless repentance, prayer, and pleas for forgiveness are not enough to exorcise the root of the problem. A church structured in the form of the Catholic Church, i.e. hierarchical, authoritarian, male dominated, power hungry, intolerant, misogynistic, and claiming to be infallible, was always destined to become corrupted.
1
@David VB
As far as Papal Infallibility, it didn't become a dogma until the 19th Century. In the conclave that adopted this, some cardinals left the room so they couldn't vote for it
@Ron Ozer
The doctrine of Papal infallibility does not mean that the Pope doesn't make mistakes in ordinary affairs. It means he is infallible when he rules on doctrine or dogma because it is believed that he has the protection of the Holy Spirit which guides him in his decisions.
People been trying to reform the Catholic Church since 1517. They haven’t succeeded so far, what makes you think they will now? This Pennsylvania scandal is an infinitesimal blip against the background of a 2000 year old system of arbitrary and misguided beliefs.
3
I can imagine how devastating this is for someone who is proud to be a Catholic. If you think this is the end for worship, don't! There are other churches out there who will welcome you. Try Episcopal! I grew up Orthodox, but found Episcopal to be very fresh and airy!
1
The central problem facing the Church today is the role of the priesthood in the Catholic faith. This privileged caste claims itself to be the essential interlocutor between sinful man and the deity. Yes, women need to be admitted to the priesthood. And, yes, priests of either sex should be allowed to marry and have families. But, until the laity are raised to a level commensurate with the priesthood and begin to participate broadly and deeply in all Church affairs from the Vatican down to the lowliest parish, the central rot will not have been addressed. On that issue, Martin Luther, John Calvin, et al. had it exactly right.
4
The Catholic Church in Newfoundland had its own moments of shock and revelation starting 30 years ago when charges of child sexual abuse started being laid against multiple priests and Christian Brothers. It shook the very foundations of the Catholic church's rock-solid place in the life of this Canadian province. It changed the hold of the Catholic Church and the most noticeable result was the end of denominational education in the nineties. Through it all the church fought relentlessly against accepting responsibility for the welfare of the survivors, insisting it was up to the individual parishes. The mother church turned its back.
Two of the survivors went to Rome on their own dime to ask the "Holy Father" to accept responsibility. They were left standing at the gate. It is an image of Biblical proportion.
Maybe this is the last chance for the Catholic Church to bring about real reform... but having lived through the cataclysm of faith that happened here, I doubt that it is possible. Besides, the growth of the Catholic Church is Africa now. There's a whole new frontier. Will it be any different than the pattern emerging into truth in North America? It would be dangerous and unrealistic to hope.
2
This ship is going down. All you good people are doing is rearranging the deck chairs. Change must be radical.
4
can we agree that celibacy is not a useful religious construct?
1
The very structure of the Catholic church is one which enables sexual abuse. The combination of a strict hierarchy, a code of Omerta, high level officials who are considered holy and beyond reproach, and of course priests who are both trusted with children and expected to quash all sexual desire, create the perfect conditions for abuse and coverups to thrive. Most other organizations wouldn't be able to get away with it, but the literally sacred trust given to priests and bishops by the community is exactly what the church cynically took advantage of to perpetuate this. And I believe it is no accident that religions which allow their priests to marry and have normal sexual relations, such as Protestantism, have much lower rates of abuse. Protestant religions also don't have the organized system of concentrated power that allows top officials to shuffle priests around and keep people quiet. I can't understand how anyone can keep going to Catholic churches given these revelations. The entire church just looks like a front to protect pedophiles. Even as accusers were coming forward, the church kept doubling down on its secrecy, always believing priests over victims, never truly apologizing, never reporting priests to the police and never attempting to stop the abuse themselves. How can they ever be trusted again? How are they not just another cult taking advantage of people's deepest needs and fears in order to get away with horrific deeds?
3
@Samuel Russell
Unfortunately, about half the Anglican parish churches I've attended have had to deal with pedophiles. Back in the 1970s, the pedophile priest at my current parish was simply moved to another parish...and another, and another, and another. The whole thing was so well hushed up that I never heard about it until the 1990s, when a woman bishop - not the men who'd shuffled the priest around - was sent to tell the congregation what had happened all those years ago.
What finally stopped this predator's career was his appointment to the chapel of a university college. The students there were old enough to call the police themselves, instead of having to rely on parents and the Anglican hierarchy to protect them.
The truth is that every church, like every boarding school, is going to be a target for pedophiles - and needs to act accordingly, with background checks, training, rules about the use of washrooms etc..
And to call in the police.
4
Agreed, it is time for complete overhaul, but is it salvageable?
I think not. While this is certainly the most horrific example of the failing on the church, it is not the only irredeemable quality.
Better to start anew.
1
Perhaps to show some humility, the Roman Catholic Church in the United States might voluntarily renounce its tax-exempt status until there is widespread agreement among stakeholders that it has turned away from its millennium-long pattern of crime against humanity.
2
Ms. Cummings: The problem here as I see it, is that you have still bought into the notion that the church is a mans' world ...because they said so. You seem to have accepted second-class status because of the blessings of sacraments. When women are treated with respect and welcomed as priests will be the day that this church starts to address the monumental shortcomings. As to setting the table or overturning it, what took you so long to recognize this abuse syndicate?
Both the Christian Orthodox schism and the Christian Protestant Reformation criticize and deny the "holiness" of the Catholic Church. Along with the Abrahamic Jewish predecessor of the Old Testament and the Abrahamic successor of the Quran there are a multitude of a prophets and scriptures. The Catholic Church is not nor will it ever be ready for reform.
Listening? Learning? Sorry, these are criminals; they should first resign, en masse, and begin preparing for trial, conviction and prison.
3
Kathleen, a bit more light in the stgyian gloom,thank you. The truth will set you free, as scripture says. I attended a Mass prayed so well by the excellent parish priest [Fr Michael] at 1pm European time, but the horror of those who were and are tradued by the beauracy is truly appalling. Organised crime.
All of this is beyond appalling and has been for decades. But listening to New York's archbishhop exclaim how "embarassing" and "humiliating" this is does nothing for my disbelief. This is not about anyone's public image or self-esteem. It's about the institutional sexual assault of children on a mass scale, sanctioned by the ruling class of the Catholic religion.
10
This 'problem' is universal. There have been well documented & publicized cases in other US States & in other countries. In Canada there was a huge court case in relation to Catholic run residential schools (that's where the 'problem' is most acute - boys are trapped, nowhere & nobody to go to for help). There is a drama\ documentary on this case. It is a gripping story, very moving, & it shows how the Catholic Church works - universally.
I think the 'problem' is all due to the concept of 'celibacy'. I have no idea who 'invented' this concept. The Church trains young men to go out & minister to their flocks. But they have no knowledge of or experience in real life - forming relationships, the stresses & strains of marriage, the struggle to make a living while having children & bringing up a family. Priests are the least suitable persons to go out & tell normal people how to run their lives.
Any young man who joins the priesthood is totally neurotic. The same applies to any woman who gives up her womanhood to become a Nun - even more neurotic.
There is an old saying - ".. 'do' or teach or go into the Army or last of all go into the Church". That is, the 'Church' is a place for the lowest of the low, those incapable of getting a normal job & living a normal life.
What can you expect from a Church that still runs in the Dark ages. It is no wonder to me that the Catholic Church has so many 'problems' universally.
1
The horror that I seen in the Pennsylvania grand jury report is that it concerns just ONE STATE out of 50. The Catholic Church is built upon a corrupt foundation of power and control, camouflaged by the smoke and mirrors of the "mystery" of the faith.
The only "mystery" is why so many people of faith have bought into that corruption for so long.
2
How many more children have to be abused by predatory "clergy" before REAL reform occurs? The obstinate hierarchy of the Catholic Church has refused to admit their sins. Real reform will have to be a grassroots effort lead by churchgoers themselves.
Sadly, Americans continue to permit institutions like the Roman Catholic Church to operate with impunity. The Catholic Church in America is guilty of crimes against humanity, and the judicial system fails to act. All 300 prisets should be tried in the state courts and placed in prison for life. Instead, we hear the church wants to have dialogue. America is a failed nation. But then Americans like it that way.
3
Let us ask, why is it the Catholic Church, alone among Christian denominations---Lutheran, Anglican, Orthodox, Coptic, Assyrian, whatever---that has so massive a problem? Answer: its unique, 1,000-year-old doctrine of priestly celibacy. There is, of course, no Biblical justification for the doctrine. It was introduced to prevent priests from accumulating aristocratic positions for their heirs out of Church property. It is obsolete, pointless, and leaves potential priest unable to mature sexually (and then, by the way, to offer sage advice on . . sexuality).
1
I quit the Catholic church when I was 14 -- a boy in my class shot and killed himself with a hunting rifle. He was an altar boy. I remember a memorial service where the priest told us that he would be happier now, because he was in heaven. That did it for me. Years later I told this story to a social worker -- her immediate response was that it was likely that my classmate had been sexually abused. When I look up the records for that diocese, there were many cases of sexual abuse documented after the incident I recall. Just saying. Always grateful that I left.
6
I was raised in a Catholic family, attended Catholic kindergarten, grades 1-8, high school and college. I was the normal believing altar boy. In high school I worked closely with priests on student events; I learned that priests were just normal men, no more enlightened than the businessmen and farmers around the area. In college, I realized the Catholic Church had no special enlightenment, was no better or worse than corporations, governments or unions.
Now we learn of the Catholic corruption and abuse in just one small area in Pennsylvania. And I think: why do people continue to participate in the Catholic church? People still take their children to Catholic youth events. People still contribute money to help the church pay their sexual abuse settlements. Some Catholics still believe their local priests and bishops have some enlightened knowledge and power.
Other organizations have passed out of existence when they became corrupt or dangerous. We fought wars to defeat groups that practiced slavery or fascism in Nazi Germany.
The Catholic leadership has mainly regretted getting caught, staining the Church's image. Little has been done to help the victims, and that much only reluctantly. Some Catholics defend the church, pointing to some good works, some good priests and nuns. But it's not enough, the tide has turned, we see the church clearly now. Catholic leaders can make no further claim to moral leadership. It's time to leave the church.
6
Would it be too much to ask the church to get follow Christ's admonishment to krrp out of politics and governance? He did say something like, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God, the things that are God's." Stick to the Savior's call and "Fish for men" - that is, beliefs, and values within individuals, their souls. Just give up trying to "pass camels through the eyes of a needles."
3
Quit the Church, or become an accomplice. It’s that simple.
3
I appreciate your willingness to attempt to confront the scourge of child sexual abuse within the church. But, as long as the faithful insist that it is an issue of "sin" - how quaint it sounds - rather than crime - the church will never eradicate the problem. I ask you, Ms. Cummings - if hundreds of priests were found to have stabbed thousands of children to death, would you still be referring to their actions as "sins"? In that case, at least the victims would be at rest. The crime of sexually abusing a child leaves that child in a kind of waking death, perpetual torment for the remainder of their lives. When a priest abuses them, he compounds their torment exponentially by having been a perpetrator who claimed to be God's representative. Could it get any sicker than that? As much as the church would like to frame this behavior in a narrative of sin and redemption, it will continue to fail. There really is no redemption for pedophiles. The only option is to imprison them and remove them from society where they cannot traumatize children again. If said priests are so inclined, they can work out their salvation from a prison cell.
2
How many more of these stories do we have to read before society recognizes that religion, not just Catholicism in America, is an evil, venal, abusive institution that does everything in its power to belittle, abuse, disorient and restrict the lives of the people brought under its power. We will never have a peaceful world until religion is banned.
4
@alocksley Agreed 100%.
My priest as a child in Pennsylvania was named in this report. I feel so betrayed to know that he was a known abuser and allowed to continue in his position. The catholic church, in my opinion, is irreversibly stained and has now lost what little shred of legitimacy it had left after the last child abuse scandal. The only way for it to atone for its sins is to completely annihilate itself. Destroy everything completely. No more catholic church. I hold anybody personally responsible going forward who gives them any money as accomplices to child molestation. Find a new religion or abstain. If there is a god, she’ll understand.
4
There is an anecdote regarding Alfred Hitchcock who spied a priest approaching a young boy on the sidewalk. Supposedly Mr Hitchcock rolled down the window of his car and screamed "run boy run." As Christopher Hitchens also stated, he has told his religious friends that he has more to fear from them and their beliefs than anyone else. As one looks around this world, and sees the refugees from Myanmar persecuted by Buddhist priests, the ongoing conflict between Jews and Palestinians, Isis and shi'as, and sunnis, the sectarian violence in Ireland, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre, etc etc., Mr. Hitchens statement has a lot of credibility. It would appear that we humans could do ourselves a great service by dumping all of these religious institutions into the sea. Finally, let this non-believer point out to the Catholic Church and their coddling of priestly pedophelia, that one of the greatest condemnations issued by their Jesus was against those who abused children. Something about a millstone to be hung around their neck and for them to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
3
@Kjensen
I too am a great fan of Christopher Hitchens. How I miss his eloquent voice, especially today when our Supreme Court is about to be corrupted by the far right and our free press is under constant attack.
I have been listening to Christopher on youtube so I am prepared to counter today's religious zealots. The power of these organizations have only worsened in our country.
1
If you sell snake oil, you go to prison. If you sell eternal life and that only you have unlocked the secret, you avoid taxes, get wealthy by spreading fear, guilt and poverty, help destroy the planet by banning birth control, stack the Supreme Court, do whatever you want sexually and cover it up. How sad in this time of enlightenment and science.
8
It's been 17 years since the Catholic church sex abuse scandal in Boston. That's plenty of time to have rooted out the predators in the priesthood, to have put in place policies to prevent new cases of abuse.
The bottom line is that the church isn't willing to do what it takes to root out the cancer. What would it look like if the church was? They'd start turning over priests to the police.
7
@SAO
"Wow, those 17 years just flew by, and we've been so busy. Just give us a few more centuries and we'll sort out the abuse stuff eventually."
Maybe it's time for the ever decreasing number of parishioners to come to the same conclusion I did.
Stop wasting time and money kneeling down before plastic mannequins depicting spirits that never existed.
I don't need religion to tell me to be faithful to my wife & family, and to treat others in the same way I'd like to be treated.
The priests who violated these kids are felons & the hierarchy that concealed these crimes are guilty of conspiracy.
ALL OF THEM need to be in jail.
4
Legislators: Liberalize statutes of limitations to allow suits for damages in cases like this when evidence has been long suppressed.
Parishioners: Pay all future tithes into an escrow *not controlled by the Church. And drive the money lenders out of the temples.
Where is the new “Martin Luther” for today. May she emerge soon!
1
The Catholic church does not have a monopoly on the predation of children but it certainly has the worst record among organized religions. In order to solve this problem, one must ask what makes the Catholic church particularly susceptible to this abuse. My view is that this susceptibility can be directly traced to the celibacy state of many clergies. While it is commendable that the church ask the clergies to give up all worldly desires to serve God but we must realize that this demand is incompatible with being human. The Church effectively as all its clergies to be super-human. Is it surprising that many of them fail and abuse targets that they can manipulate and hide their shame? If I am right, the only fundamental change that will substantially cure the Church is changing its teaching on celibacy. It should be noted that there is nothing in the bible that demands celibacy; it is merely a tradition.
3
There are two pillars of the Catholic Church that must be removed for it to join the modern era: end celibacy of the clergy and end the all male hierarchy (including the papacy). Many catholics may feel that if that happens the Church will cease to be Catholic. If those two pillars are the foundation of Catholicism then it will remain forever an anachronistic institution and not likely to survive another 1000 years.
3
There is a third choice, Dr. Cummings.
Leave.
It didn't take the abuse scandal to convince me that the leadership of the church remained too mired in the past, in its hypocritical positions on women (which I am) and homosexuality (which I'm not), to appeal to the adult me.
Sometimes, it feels hard to have walked away. Having been raised Catholic (although I attended public schools and CCD) is as much a part of my cultural heritage as my Irish and Germany ethnicity. But the older I got, the less I could reconcile my own personal beliefs about what is right and what is wrong and those taught by the church.
The good thing is that having a religion to practice is optional. There are plenty others out there -- maybe it's time for more people to find one.
9
There is a third option: Leave. It's difficult. Believe me, I know. I was raised Catholic. It was an important part of my upbringing and identity. My parents and many of my friends are still faithful churchgoers. But in the early 2000s, I decided I simply could not in good conscience be Catholic anymore. As in this writer's case, I grew up in Philadelphia and many of my teachers were credibly accused. In my childhood parish, priests never stayed more than 5 years or so. The church repeatedly condemns women, gay people, divorced people, etc. but will not condemn the abusers in its midst. I have tried to go back a few times, but I just sit in the pew and fume. So now I worship in an Episcopal church. My husband is done with organized religion. My children go to church with me on major holidays--they've become the churchgoers I used to mock (two-times-a-year Catholics!). But we are never going back.
25
@KC No, the Church does not repeatedly condemn anyone. That’s YOUR belief.
1
"Yes there is still holiness in the church". The problem lies there - in this construct "holiness". So long as there is a perception that this quality is present in some people more than others, and so long as those people who have more of this thing called "holiness" are placed in a position of instructing or leading others (I believe we call this "relations of power"), unholy things are going to happen. This is true for all religions. When the Catholic church becomes the "no holier than anybody else, most notably the church leaders" church, then maybe children will be safe and some sort of reasonable corrective mechanisms can be put in place to protect the vulnerable. So long as "holiness" remains part of the dialogue, bad things are going to happen - in all religions.
4
No doubt clergy of other religions have been engaged in abuse and had it covered up, not to mention people in just a few other institutions that we know about, like sports, medicine and entertainment.
Of course, the RC church needs to actively clean its house. But also, I believe that it puts itself in harm's way by insisting on celibate and unmarried clergy. That leads to personal isolation which I have to believe increases the chances of a priests yielding to temptation. Pope Francis is a sensible and decent man. He should change the celibacy rules because if he doesn't, I doubt whether his likely more conservative successors will.
7
Dr Cummings reports a change in heart and wants to lead a more aggressive Catholic reform movement Her inability to see that she--like other practicing Catholics--remain the central problem is more than troubling Leave the Church and starve it of your contributions and attention As an adult you don't or shouldn't need the fairy tales (communion, virgin birth, Ascension, martyred saints--with a focus on raped and abused women) or CYO games that got you hooked as a malleable grade schooler
10
Clearly, it's not a matter of errant priests. It is the toxic culture of the institution itself . . . the hubris and infantilization of its clergy, its sexism, its obsession with consolidating and maintaining power above all else. I personally have witnessed all of these time and time again. If the Church really tried to "clean itself up," it would collapse.
I am a faculty member at a Jesuit institution. Nothing but silence from the administration. One of my colleagues, a tenured professor who has far more courage than I, resigned two days ago in protest. I will never set foot in a Catholic church or service again, but I still work at their behest and perpetuate their hypocrisy in the service of evil. And it is evil, no matter how much they try to dress up their activities in the guise of "good works." I feel complicit in this process, and am ashamed and embarrassed to admit that I work at a Catholic institution.
2
When you have a religion that requires its leaders to be celibate, this opens the doors to people that have sexual issues such as an attraction to children. Is it any wonder this is an ever present issue? The church covers this up because their "celibacy" rules for priests add to the problem, encouraging those who would otherwise not marry due to their sexual issues to find acceptable social standing and employment there.
Unless and until the Roman Catholic Church abandons both the exclusive priesthood of men and the untenable, unnatural doctrine of priestly celibacy, any gesture at reform is just that: merely gestural and not substantive. Yes, some will protest that these are the very qualities that makes the Church what it is, and without them it is no longer the Roman Catholic Church. If that’s the case, so be it. It is then an institution founded upon and defined by its corruption, rendering its sacraments hollow and mockeries of everything Jesus lived, died and lived again for.
6
The latest revelations reminds us that in a church that is run by "princes of the church" instead of servants of God. The arrogance of bishops and cardinals like those that "served" the faithful in Pennsylvania remind us that reform is still necessary. American Cardinals like Raymond Burke who openly oppose this current Pope in his efforts to reform the Church should be called out. Seminarians who are taught that they superior to the congregants they serve should be reminded that they are different, not better.
This significant issue cannot be addressed in the 1500 character limit set by NYT comments.
Celibacy may hold an answer. The one answer? -- maybe -- maybe not.
An old childhood friend from New York City became a Diocesan priest in his mid to late 20's. Most every week, we spoke about his assigned ministries in multiple parishes over the years. Weddings, confessions, sermons, etc., were punctuated by ONE continual challenge he faced every day.
His most pressing concern was framed in a most familiar way, (a way that typical young male friends were able to communicate) --- "I can barely keep it in my pants," --- referred to his continual problem of relating to many attractive women in his parish.
As far as I know, his issue was never with children, but the issue of repressed physical intimacy will not go away if people are "isolated" from stable intimate physical relationships.
We all need intimate loving relations, and that includes tender touching, and tender words.
Celibate priests can deliver tender words, but tender touching is clearly over the line -- for celibates, for teachers, for bosses . . .
Are married priests the answer? It's the same old question we've heard for centuries.
Fallible humans need to face the complexities, not run away from the responsibilities.
1
In all the furor over sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, I'm surprised there hasn't been more investigation of the underlying causes. Surely the demand that priests must remain celibate fuels the pedophilia crisis. No other major religion makes this demand on its clergy. By denying priests the right to express what are natural needs and desires, many priests must reach a fever pitch of sexual frustration, and, given their positions, children are the easiest, most available outlet for those frustrations. Moreover, priests may conclude, by some twisted reasoning, that sex with children is less "real" than sex with adults, and hence less of a violation of their vows. Certainly allowing priests to marry would be one practical step the Church could take to help alleviate this crisis and make Catholic children safer.
@uncanny IDK - do we see widespread abuse by celibates in other religions? Any reported connection between Buddhist priests and child abuse? Isn’t this more about power than sex?
If the Church really wants to make a fresh start it needs to turn over 75 years of personnel records to law enforcement officials wherever they are. Come totally clean. Beg for forgiveness. Then turn over Church management to women.
8
Why put them in federal prison where they can perfect their ping-pong game? Put them in a regular state prison with the other sex offenders like themselves.
4
I had a lot of hope that this mPope would deal with this problem. But that has not happened and he seems to ignore its existence. I think this will be the the failed papacy....
The author did not mention the main solution. Allow priests to marry. It should be mandatory by law to report pedophiles. Otherwise the superiors should be held responsible.
Influential American Catholics like the author should make it their mission to allow priest to marry.
1
Ms. Cummings
I am not a Catholic. Neither am I a fool. There is no reason to believe the Pittsburgh atrocity is an isolated case; there is every reason to believe it isn't, and that the Catholic Clergy is still hiding a very big ball. And, there is no reason to believe that the 'problem' suddenly started appearing only seventy years ago in a localized jurisdiction in the Eastern United States.
The solution is not complicated but it is also largely kept off the table for discussion. To rid the church of pedophiles, the Church must change the environment that attracts them. This means the Church must again, as it once did, allow priests to marry. To believe that celibacy does not go to the core of the problem is to believe it an incredible coincidence that their is no similar infestation of pedophilia in the Episcopal Church, it's sister Church, the Church of England, the Greek or Russian Orthodox Churches or the various congregations of Protestant Churches.
4
“The church must come to terms with the sins of its past and reform itself.” But nothing will happen by simply telling the church that it needs to go to confession and reform itself. You might as well tell Donald Trump that he needs to improve his behavior. The church was founded as a patriarchy and has little interest in relinquishing that power.
To focus on just sexual abuse is to be blind to the deeper rot. How does Cummings propose to reset a table that is built on absolutes and a static view of the universe? This is an institution that still views the world as it did thousands of years ago when it was founded.
And why put the onus on the church and not on its members? If you don’t like the products a company produces or the service it provides, what do you do? You take your business elsewhere. People should leave the church, stop giving money to it – walk away from what is an obvious scam.
Here’s the problem for the church reformers: all the faithful who have consumed the Kool-Aid, who are enthralled by the church, its smoke and mirrors, its ostentatiousness. These people pooh pooh the scandal as a few bad apples, and hold the church “above criticism or even suspicion.” Like Trump supporters who would back him even if he shot two people in broad daylight, the Catholic faithful will not be moved.
Because the church is not about serving people, but about selling the drug and serving an imaginary god in the form of the males who made up the rules for the club.
2
Dr. Cummings,
What you left out from your reforms is the opportunity to make women priests. And to fire any cardinal who protected the criminals in their midst. This includes the pope who protected the cardinal from boston......There is no level of the church that is innocent....bring in women......if you really want change this is the best way.
6
The problem with the Catholic Church is celibacy, which is an unnatural form of existence which leads to predation and sexual abuse. It is amazing that thoughtful and intelligent people like Ms. Cummings omit this essential fact from their attempts to understand the perverse, destructive, and appalling results of this essential element of Catholicism. Combined with institutional authoritarianism and the gullibility of the 'faithful,' there should be no surprise that forcing people to try to adhere to a completely unnatural and counter-human existence would lead to anything but sexual perversion.
2
The protestant churches would welcome you with their married male and female pastors. A few have a ritual very similar to the Roman Catholic one.
2
What occurred in Pennsylvania dioceses and has certainly occurred elsewhere is far beyond a "sin." It was planned perversion. Perverts worked in groups to share victims, for God's sake! They never would have stopped, never would have felt remorse, if their victims remained silent. They used the Catholic Church for cover, and found it from the the bishops we were raised to trust with our souls. Maybe God can forgive these perverts and their enablers. But they all need to be separated from society and locked away in a penitentiary with glass lined cells, so they are forced to stare at their images and hopefully get as physically ill as we are now.
1
This is about power, not about sex. Stop with the celibacy talk. This is about a religious organization that has been able to operate like a Mafia.
8
Ordain women.
6
Although I attended Catholic Schools and sent my children to them, I advise every Catholic to jump ship. Do not ever enter a church or Catholic School again unless you want to be complicit with this culture of pedophilia. I took this action many years ago due to these revelations and have never regretted leaving.
Yes, they need a total overhaul... Vatican II was a total overhaul in many senses... they completely changed the liturgy (gutted its entire meaning, actually), dropped the spiritual language, opened up opportunities to the laity, removed many of the smoke and mirrors... basically made it a slightly more ritualistic version of Protestantism. If you experienced the church before Vatican II and now, you experienced two totally different religions. So, complete change is not totally beyond the Church's capacity.
Let diocesan priests marry and the religious orders can remain celibate, if they choose. This would allow for a larger pool of potential priests, though I do not believe celibacy is the root cause of this abuse (if a normal, healthy individual can't handle a celibate lifestyle, then he seeks out relationships with adult companions, not children. These priests were sick the day they entered the seminary and the Church, due to a robust combination of hubris and stupidity, failed to grasp their destructive capacities). And, once you have a larger pool of candidates to choose from, then you weed out the trash and put in place regulations that turn future offenders over to civil authorities. I do not believe these changes are beyond the Church's capacity, again, given what we saw happen during Vatican II. It's frankly only a matter of time.
1
The Bible calls claiming to know what God thinks "Taking the name of God in vain". The fact that Moses had to resort to the burning bush story for credibility is the fatal flaw in the 10 Commandments.
There is only one just solution: dissolve the Catholic church, sell all the Vatican's assets and give the money to the victims. Give away the churches, the land and the property to the members of each parish and let each community worship God as they see fit.
4
They've been molesting children for several centuries and if they were any other company we would have put them out of business but we live a lie in this country the supposed separation of church and state is a lie.
3
If priests and nuns were allowed to wed, a great deal of this misery would be eliminated.
This crisis is larger than what triggered the Reformation 500 years ago. Until the church recognizes the full dignity of women, as Christ did, and they are on equal footing in all things, the never-ending abuses of men in their singular positions of authority will continue unchecked in the pursuit of power, money, sex and control over others. Inside and outside the church, it's the same story and damage due to the lusts of men.
Christ declared everyone equal before God two thousand years ago. As an institution created to make that a reality, the church has yet to fully acknowledge and embody that truth. This crisis is the opportunity for a reformation that would truly transform the world. What better way for the church to lead?
Genesis 2:18 - And the Lord God said, “It is not good for man to be alone”.
8
How about rescinding tax exemption for the Church as a starter? The Church should be forced to disgorge the millennia of loot it stole from all over the world to pay reparations for running its pedophile ring. Let the Church return to its vow of poverty. But never let your kid enter one of their buildings alone.
10
Let them become Episcopalians.
2
I think there is something very unique about the persuasive pedophilia among Catholic priests. I am not a Catholic but grew up in Souhern Baptist Church in the 1950-60s. Our sex-related scandals revolved around the pastor or minister of music running away with the church choir soprano. Actually, this happened rather often and usually was resolved by all parties making confessions and begging congregation's forgiveness- after all, we are all sinners. Lots of self-righteous weeping and forgiveness by everyone, including the aggrieved spouses. Our pastors had very little one on one contact with children in the church.
Can any priest be trusted?
3
It's more of a sex-crime organization masquerading as a church. All the talk of good works, Mother Teresa blah blah, are smoke screens that throw journalists off the trail, so that the leaders can freely pursue their predatory behavior. Shut 'em down, as you would other criminal organizations.
10
Again I recommend the Bible be read, studied, discussed, and implemented. All this is so much against the teaching of Jesus it is sickening.
This op-ed by a "historian of Catholicism" is simply an extended rant and makes no real valuable suggestions. In fact, it is too early for a remedy. Just sit with the truth for a moment and tell me your being a Catholic is more important than the thousands of lives who have been ruined. Cummings conclusion is too simplistic. She can do better.
2
The Catholic Church is way past being reformed. Get rid of it altogether. The world would be a much better and safer place without the perversion, the lies and the coverups.
11
A Catholic monk by the name of Martin Luther (1483-1546) wrote a reform in Europe just 500 years ago.
6
At this point, priests should close their churches, drape them in black, and appear outside them like Job, who "scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery as he sat among the ashes" (2/8).
1
The greatest mistake of all has been the Church's inability to separate religious doctrine from civil crime and prosecuting those within the Catholic Church who violated criminal law by brushing it all under the rug instead of dealing with it transparently. We continue to deal with the fallout decades later.
2
We left the church a long time ago but last night I felt sickened thinking that anyone of my siblings or classmates might have been abused by a priest or a nun for that matter back in the 50s or 60s. Religion is the opiate of the masses it was once said.
2
If I rob a bank, I go to prison. If I use a sledgehammer to damage my neighbor's car, I, at the least, get arrested. If I commit other kinds of property damage - embezzlement, insurance fraud, larceny, theft - I go to prison. If I deal drugs, even a small amount - prison. But be a Catholic bishop and cover up the worst crime possible that damages lives? Molest hundreds of kids? Why, nothing. It is not just the Catholic Church that has failed -- where is our law enforcement? Why has this been tolerated for so long? WHY DOES NO ONE GO TO PRISON!!!! And it is not just the Catholic Church - we still have yet to shine Me Too on the sexual abuse that happens inside the family unit.
383
"Where is the law enforcement?" Look at the 100+ years of Irish/US history of Irish Catholics in the US and the employment of Irish immigrant families weaved into law enforcement and fire responders... so many connected to politics and controlled by the Catholic Church. That's why they don't go to prison.
@Barbara
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racketeer_Influenced_and_Corrupt_Organizat...
The RICO Act focuses specifically on racketeering and allows the leaders of a syndicate to be tried for the crimes they ordered others to do or assisted them in doing"
@Barbara--Not only does no on go to prison, the Church that protects them still retains a tax-free status. This after institutionalizing and covering up criminal violence against children and teens. This after sending predators into unsuspecting communities, paying for their retirement, sending them for Church-sanitized therapy, or defrocking them without the new neighbors knowing that their children may be at risk.
An excellent and important piece, I hope that many Catholics speak up and step up to demand extensive and real changes. I fear that the findings of the Grand Jury in Pennsylvania represents only a fraction of abuse and coverup that the Catholic Church has perpetrated and that continues to be hidden or denied by that institution.
My two sisters and I declined our family's traditional Catholicism very early in our lives because the patriarchical and illogical institution felt very contrary to our nascent feminist perspective and our belief that every individual should be fully responsible for their decisions and that that responsibility cannot be cleared by confession or prayer or penance. If you hurt someone in any way, deliberately or accidentally, you must take personal responsibility to acknowledge and rectify the harm that you have done. From my viewpoint, the Catholic church is demonstrating its belief in the absolution of sins to avoid its responsibility for the harm that the Church's representatives and institution have wrought against so many children. This is terrible and must not be condoned by any who consider themselves to be part of the Catholic church.
3
This is the biggest crisis the church has faced since Martin Luther. It has lost its moral authority. Why would anyone listen to a priest now? This lifelong, throughly disgusted Catholic can see no reason why anyone would.
The structural problem that led to this is that only unmarried men can be priests. Apologies and training is not a fix and barely even a band aid. They need to fix those structural problems so that the public has confidence that this is over, and because any structure that permitted these travesties to occur so pervasively needs to be crumpled up and burned. The fix is painfully obvious: priests must be allowed to marry, and women need to be priests.
If they do not institute those basic and obvious reforms (and I highly doubt they will), then the Church will disappear in the developed world. And it should.
6
Birth control has gifted women the time, once occupied by many children, to become involved in their religious institutions. The wisdom written in the Bible, allows for human innovation. Praise birth control for enabling strong women, like you - Dr. Cummings, for leading the charge.
2
Beth D.--Women, and their children, are the main victims of religion. I'll never understand why any of them have anything to do with churches, or religion. Stop indoctrinating children! Let them grow up and make their own decisions about what to believe. If they aren't scared to death, in the beginning, they will probably not subscribe to this foolishness, later on. They will be using their critical thinking skills, weighing the facts, not falling prey to the ingrained beliefs of their parents. You want your children to be better off than you, right? Then, let them decide for themselves, as adults.
1
@ChesBay
Your comments express beautifully why we must oppose Besty DeVos', our education secretary's, efforts to allow education vouchers for religious schools. We must stop the indoctrination our children in religious schools of any kind. Carefully documented and cross examined scientific knowledge can not triumph over a myth that is planted in a child's mind and then perpetuated throughout life.
Christ did not require priests and the monarchy above them. Why have our churches needed them after the alignment to Constantine in the fourth century of the Christian Era? Perhaps we have strayed from honoring a Good Shepard to adoring corrupted power. Its hierarchy now attacks our children and all we do is say the rosary, pass the plates and recite long lost mysteries of faith.
Forgive us our debts.....millstones, anyone? Peace be with you.
2
It sure took you long enough to come around that "there is sin in the church".
You did what so many have done, give the Catholic Church a pass and looked the other way at what was know: child sexual abuse was prevalent in the church.
You did what so many do, give deference to a male dominated institution and significantly, give deference to religion even in the face of facts, incidents, talk, proof and basically common knowledge about sexual abuse in the institution.
The Catholic culture is imbued with the notion that priests and the church do no wrong; that's part of the definition of the entire enterprise and has nothing, nothing to do with God or faith.
Moreover, our government, with the admirable freedom of religion, is not comfortable with prosecuting or investigating wrong doing in religious institutions. Lots of misdeeds are OK if there're part of "expressing one's faith". And all the church had to do was cry "anti-religious, anti-Catholic" whenever their sins were called out.
More so now, people will be allowed to hurt others, discriminate or even commit crimes to "express one's faith."
The PA attorney general has done a brave service: spell out in profuse detail what has been going on for decades which people like you Ms Cummings, have refused to believe.
Your "sorrow" and "sadness" is ridiculously self-serving. You are an example from inside Catholicism of allowing this abuse to take place, and probably allow it to continue.
7
@ ENN:
Your position on the scourge in the Church is, as another writer wrote, an exercise in whataboutism. This, too, is a current scourge in moral matters.
Two comments seem needed:
1) Cradle Catholics, as I was, are indoctrinated to believe that not only are ordained men Christ's representatives on earth but are raised above 'mere mortals' by reason of their ordination, and
2) this belief is a paralyzing and powerful mechanism used against the groomed target of a disordered priest/cleric/religious/nun who sexually abuses/molests and/or rapes a child/young adult or seminarian.
Make no mistake that these dynamics change the depth of depravity. They are not easily understood by those not steeped in Catholic schools as was I for 16 years. They charge the sordid history of sexual abuse in the Church with a layer even more heinous than those other examples you offer for equally aberrant behaviour.
The report is only one more lifting of the curtain's edge on a vile history in the Church. Catholics will either be outraged or silent until the next tenacious Public Defender brings the light of day to another State/diocese/parish.
Then, we wmight hear of the young girls who were impregnated, bore children or had abortions and were made to carry their shame into adulthood too. While the boys bear the brunt of the behaviours, the girls did not escape them either.
4
@nola73
True. And neither of the sexes were spared from HIV/AIDS.
Many years ago (about 25?) the Oregonian (Portland, Oregon) had a full-page article about the number of priests who were sick and being "retired". The numbers of the priesthood had already started to crash and this was a further loss of priests.
I've always wondered how many children, raped by the priests, also contracted the disease.
1
I have not been a practicing Catholic in many, many years. I simply do not agree with many of the beliefs the Catholic church or other organized religions stand for. I do not see how ANY Catholic person can condone the Popes' statement. For me, each and every one of the priests, clergy and all who simply moved them around on the figurative chessboard should be publicly excommunicated. Anything less is not acceptable. Many of those who were abused have had their lives ruined. Because of the church. Because of the people in the church. Because of the higher ups in the church who condone such actions by their silence and complicity. It is despicable behavior. It might not be feasible to excommunicate so many given the fact that few are going into the field of the priesthood. They should ask themselves if it is feasible to condone lying, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, blackmail and other things these people do to protect themselves. I am quite sure that probably every single state in America can do the same research and sadly with the same result.
2
Send lots of "holy men" to jail for the rest of their life. The perpetrators and their enablers. That would be a good start.
Then, leave the church. It's the congregation that enables these people. They are the support system. The donations life blood of this corruption.
Plus what's with the fancy dress? It's past time adults stop playing fancy dress party and get respected for it. They should get mocked for it.
3
Can we all do some math? 1,000 victims over 70 years is 14 per year. 300 priests over 70 year is less than 4.5 per year. The ASPCC edtimates that there are 600,000 abuse cases per year. And cover-ups were rampant everywhere.
It appears that the Church is a minor player here and is being dragged across rhe coals for little reason.
1
@michjas
So are you saying that because there were 'only' 4.5 victims per year in Pennsylvania dioceses the Catholic Church should not be called to task? Isn't one victim enough to justify reforms?
And if the institution as a whole (all the way up to the pope) has been shown time and time again to cover-up this abuse, shouldn't the Church, as well as every other abuser and enabler, be punished?
Is this whataboutism a result of not being able to come to terms with the corruption that lies within the institution? If you are Catholic (or religious in any way) I am sure that you pride yourself in having a strong moral core grounded in God's teachings. Please take a step back and realize that the church, in its current form, does not reflect His teachings. Do not minimize this abuse for the sake of rationalizing your faith.
Sorry, at this point, no moral person is interested in all of the redeeming qualities, nor your special experiences, nor your pathetically inadequate metaphors about “resetting the table.”
This thing is a monstrosity: a multinational, centuries-old child molesting machine. Tax exempt status should be revoked. The church’s massive land holdings should be liquidated and proceeds given to the countless victims. It needs to go away.
7
@MikeD
You're absolutely right. Any Catholic diocese that was involved with abuse or covering it up should be treated as a criminal organization, with its assets seized and the proceeds given to victims.
1
RICO (The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.
How does this not apply to the Holy Roman Catholic Church?
6
This exposure started in 2002! Year after year is more and more of the same. This church cannot be saved, let it wither and die.
2
For God’s sake, and for the safety of children, it is time to allow the priests to marry and have families. Every aspect of this behavior, from assaulting children, seducing seminarians, to the extensive cover ups, is aberrant. These men can not handle celibacy. So, as an institution, please give it up!
And, we need women priests! It is really time to come out of the dark ages!
2
It is likely that in the past, the celibate priesthood served as a convenient cover for men who were not interested in sexual relations with adult women in the first place.
"Why doesn't a nice boy like you have a girlfriend?"
"I'm going to be a priest," the young gay man would say, and instead of being condemned, he would win praise from the faithful.
Remember when, in the HBO series "The Sopranos," Carmela remarked about how unusual it was to meet a Catholic priest who wasn't a "finook"?
But a celibate priesthood could also serve as a hideout for pedophiles. Not only would the individual's lack of interest in adult women be unremarkable but he would also have a great deal of unquestioned access to children and adolescents.
The Buddhist monasteries of medieval Japan were hotbeds of pedophilia. Nobles would send their sons to be educated, and it was not uncommon for young boys to be forced to dress as girls and to be raped by some of the monks who conveniently interpreted the celibacy rule as a prohibition *only* on sex with women.
To be sure, Protestant churches have their problems with sexual predators. But in the mainline denominations, married men, married or single women, and GLBT people in stable relationships are welcome to serve as clergy, and anyone, clergy or laity, who works with children and youth is required to take training sessions on how to avoid even the hint of scandal.
2
@Pdxtran
Not to mention with Protestant churches priests don't have absolute authority where it comes to running the church. Protestant mainline churches generally call their priest ie interview and hire them, and they have authority over them,and if a Bishop knows a pastor committed sexual abuse and didn't report it, both he and the priest would be out the door really, really fast, because their is accountability. The fundamental answer to the Catholic church and similar institutions is there needs to be accountability and oversight, the Dieu et mon droite power of the church leaders has to be abridged. I am not talking 'lay advisory groups', I am talking with real power over the running of the church (I am not talking Church teaching or belief here, that is a different matter). As long as the hierarchy has near absolute power, all the talk of reform, all the talk of change, is meaningless, because they have no reason to change. The church fathers in Ireland, who oversaw abuse that makes this report look like nothing, say things like "we lost Ireland", "It is our fault", yet not one of them is pushing for real change, and the Vatican has remained dead silent about the Irish situation, other than shaking their head and saying "it is terrible". Put it this way, if a private institution had this kind of crisis, the board would have swept the entire ruling structure out the door, and changed things; the church's reponse is "the church moves slowly"
1
Whenever I read of the latest findings of widespread abuse and concealment in the Church, my mind goes to the tiny victims of Tuam.
In Tuam, the Church behaved in ways more worthy of the SS than the follower of Christ. To misquote Voltaire, "Ecrassez l'infame."
2
@Stephen Landers
I thought of that this morning, the 700 bodies in the septic tank.
Every person commenting and giving this a big blow-off, would also defend the nuns and priests and give a 'no, nevermind' that the infants weren't even given proper burial.
One of the commennters actually did the math, how many kids raped, how many priests, how many years, and decided that it had only been 4.5 children a year.
Is that "SS" or just pure Mengeles? He had decided that we were all making a big stink over small potatoes.
Hey, have a good day, Stephen. Thanks.
Some may claim the numbers abused in comparison to the % of the general population are low blah blah blah! This behavior is repetitive and continues to be uncovered decade after decade.
I don’t care about the small numbers. That is not the point. If it happened once that would be unacceptable.
The cover up...the hush and the passing of these criminals from one parish to the next. THAT has to stop. That is the problem.
Solutions? Many...
- allow both women and men to serve in leadership positions
- allow women to become priests
- allow a complete review of records and files by independent commissions
I gave up on the church for this and many other reasons. Reform in needed or more will leave the church.
1
And this is the institution that commends a woman’s right to reproductive choices. Yes, I am saying birth control and abortion. Enough of the hypocrisy!! I am a Roman Catholic, and can no longer sit through the out of touch patriarchy’s sermons. The anti-intellectualism, the dumbing down of the gospels’ message. It is repugnant that these ‘men’ hold the sacraments in their hands. I ‘will’ no longer play along.
5
Corruption did not start/end at the Vatican and its thousands of parishes around the world. The ultra-orthodox Jewish world needs a similar period of examination and reform. From hiding child molestation and sexual abuse, to stealing funds from the government and UJA (taking funds earmarked for education of social programs and using them to purchase homes for their rabbis). The overlap with the Church? Both preach (privately for the Church and publicly for the ultra-orthodox) that protecting the community is more important than living by the values they preach.
3
@SDG
You are correct, the church is not unique, though they dwarf the size of the ultra orthodox, the church scandal is global and affects literally a billion people give or take. But it is the same problem, an insular group with power retained in the hands of a few, a culture where you don't mention sins committed by leaders and quite frankly, as with Catholics in the past, where issues around sexuality are so taboo, that people won't deal with it, and if it involves their religious leaders, either are 'a lie' or they blame the child. The other issue, like the church, is that law enforcement and society, for political reasons (ultra orthodox Jews tend to vote as a block), are afraid to challenge them, much as they didn't challenge the church or went along with coverups. The brooklyn DA basically quashed any kind of investigation of the ultra orthodox, claiming if they investigate the leaders won't cooperate (really? They don't cooperate, throw their long beards in jail for obstruction of justice)....not to mention the DA is an elected position and every vote counts.
I have to admit that I am quite irritated with Catholics these days. That it would take the systematic raping of thousands of children for Catholics to start to realize that maybe something needs to change within the church says far more about Catholics than the church. If any practicing Catholics had bothered to look into the history of their church (and moral leader), they would have found nothing but corruption and hypocrisy since day one. Day one. The Catholic church has always been corrupt - this is such common knowledge that it boggles the mind that anyone could overlook it.
Instead of looking at what happened to the church (nothing, it's as disgusting as it's always been), why not look into the mirror and ask why you have been getting your moral and spiritual guidance from pedophiles - or worse: cowards and opportunists who protect pedophiles.
6
The author states that the table needs to be reset, as if that’s a radical position. How about taking a position that’s proportionately radical to the notion that it’s okay to institutionally abet pedophilia? Wake up! Storm the castle, stop ‘demanding change’. If the weight of the last 20-plus years of horrifying revelations hasn’t produced meaningful change - and it hasn’t - these current and inevitable future ones won’t either, as neither will any outraged-sounding but ultimately useless words.
2
Having been confirmed catholic, I knew the Catholic Church in particular, and organized religion in general, was a bastion of hypocrisy and repression before said forced confirmation. Thankfully my parents stopped forcing me to attend church activities once the charade of me being inducted into the church as an adult was completed. I've never gone since.
It's a wretched, controlling cult with more than it's fair share of child abuse. Saying it happens in other areas of society is a cop out. My catholic upbringing didn't show me god's grace, it damaged me psychologically. The sacrament of penance for children? What kind of sins does a 9 year old have!? Anyone know where I can get my baptism, first communion and confirmation annulled?
3
While peers of mine were being processed for Confirmation, I was leaving "The Church". We had reached the age of reason after all. The baseless hierarchy of the church and it's demand for personal subjugation had become obvious. The institution was a machine for control and I could not in good conscience give my will over to the direction of a hypocritical mythology.
4
Anybody who didn't know the Catholic church had this level of sexual predators is naive. I left the church 35 years ago after being hit on by seminarians and priests at my catholic college repeatedly. Complete hypocrites, but the ultimate end of my faith is the idea that the pope or anybody else is infallible. This essential aspect of Catholic practice creates the mindset in children as well as adults that they are at fault when the victims of an encounter with church officials. And yes, I also was abused, not sexually but in other damaging ways, as a child, by nuns and priests as well. My 5th grade nun decided she didn't like me and, as I was transferring to public school for 6th grade, she doctored my transcript saying I was stupid and when I entered public school I was in all remedial classes. This horror affected the rest of my development and confidence negatively. Just another example of the kind of vindictive abuse that occurs. My parents were too clueless or 'indoctrinated' to even notice.
I believe in the essence of Catholic thought, its intellectual power and flexibility; the church has a very fine intellectual legacy and I support the pure abstract church, but the hooligans who control it are a disgrace.
4
All five of the 'conservatives' on the Supreme Court were Catholic until Mister Scalia passed on. The President and Mister McConnell would like - very much - to get that number BACK to five. Why exactly? Are no other religions represented in the judiciary? Are agnostics and atheists unable to tell the weight of one scale from another? Why? Child abuse is reprehensible, yes, yes, but why this deliberate 'packing' of the Court? Who's gaining -- or hoping to gain -- what from it?
3
@Wm Conelly Duh. Roe v Wade. That's it. And the Christianists are behind that packing 110%.
It's been 1700 years. That should be "gradual" enough. Wholesale change is actually not good enough. This corrupt institution should disappear into history. Your God will still be there. I'm guessing that He doesn't approve of the Catholic Church, but humans telling believers what God wants or means is pretty arrogant. Organized religion serves one purpose. Power and money for mostly men.
6
Our shepherds have betrayed their sheep. They have sold us out to the wolves for deviant sex. Our shepherds reek of the smell of the wolves because they conspire with the wolves against us. The sheep are repelled by the smell of the reek.
Our shepherds have turned the house of God into a wildly obscene frat house (Jeremiah 7:11). They have stripped themselves of their sheep's clothing to reveal the orgiastic wolf inside (Matthew 7:15). They bind us with heavy burdens yet they themselves claim that the same law has no applicability to them (Matthew 23:4) .
We have lost confidence in the debauched clerical fraternity. By consorting with wolves, our shepherds have squandered their trustworthiness. They have shredded their own reputation. It is in tatters. A well founded skepticism has arisen in the sheep against their shepherds together with the presumption that all members of the debauched clerical fraternity are guilty until proven innocent. All members of the debauched clerical fraternity are presumed to know about the debauchery that is happening within the frat house - all protestations to the contrary notwithstanding. Many rotten apples have spoiled the whole barrel.
Now is the time for the clerical fraternity to rend their Cappae Magnae and put on sackcloth and ashes (Esther 4:1) or they risk being tarred and feathered by the multitude for their debauchery. A year of humble penance for our august lords.
The church seems to be moving in the opposite direction. Rather than shoring up its sagging position in the first world, it is moving aggressively into the third world where it can ply its traditional playbook in virgin lands. This is going to happen again.
8
I was raised fundamentalist.
The crimes of the Catholic Church are not the only crimes against children that happen. However, the Spotlight is once again on the RCC.
We have a problem with language here.
First: What has happened to thousands of children is not a "sin".
It is a crime.
Any church may define "sin" any way it pleases - but "crimes" are stated by the larger society.
The "crimes" here are: rape (of all types, in all places, to all age from 18 months up to adult), conspiracy (the sex clubs that groom and kiddie-swap, the upper levels of authorities that shuffle priests along, and that decide what part of the playbook should be used to silence the victims, etc.), hard core porn (both kiddie-porn and adult). And on and on.
And here is where the "sin-line" stops: when the acts have already been ruled on by the common society to be crimes.
Crimes: They need to be charged. They need to be perp-walked, fingerprinted, get a mug shot. It needs to be determined whether they are allowed bail. Are they a flight risk? Oh, yes. Exhibit A: Cardinal Law. then a trial, then a sentencing and then they serve a long, hard time.
NO statues of limitations. NONE.
Start with this 300 priests and work outward.
If that does not happen, then the RCC is nothing but a crime ring, a sex-ring, passing around the kids.
RICO.
The church must be dissolved. The proceeds go to the victims.
All tax-exemption gone.
All contracts with the gov, ended.
Here's the "sin-line", aka, the CRIME line.
7
Any truly faithful person cannot believe in, obey or blindly follow the earthly clergy.
If you trust in the Almighty you know God is capable of getting in touch with you without the help of the bearded or freshly shaved individuals in the long robes claiming to represent Him directly and exclusively.
If you cannot memorize the ten crucial principles of faith and that’s why you are going weekly to a church, a mosque or a temple - to be reminded of them repeatedly - either you have extremely bad memory or the clergymen are terribly bad teachers.
Whatever the case is, you will not solve you problems in any building, regardless of the quantity of granite, marble, gold or paintings piled up inside of it.
The solution to you problems is solely within you...
8
@Kenan Porobic
Heck with 10 , every one of the faith groups devolves down into "love your neighbor as yourself, and God, that is the law" or "Do not unto others what is distasteful to yourself, all else is commentary".
The time to tear the tablecloth off and smash the dishes happened long ago. Many Catholic women, especially progressives and feminists have been creating a quiet revolution with their feet, refusing to be complicit in the criminal activities of an ossified institution and going elsewhere to nurture their faith and work for justice and liberation. Obsessed with power, Catholic clergy cannot find the way to save themselves or the church they claim to love. Raised Catholic, educated within the system K through Masters, I worked for the church for a large part of my career. While I was not subjected to clergy abuse or sexual incontinence, it reared its ugly head in nearly every Catholic organization I spent time in throughout my my time as a Catholic. The power structure believes it is privileged and exempt from most of the moral framework they impose. I joined the quiet revolution after the Boston Crisis. I could no longer remain complicit in the ongoing rape of children and cover up to say nothing of all the other ways clergy abuse power with the faithful. Converting to Judaism liberated me from the lessons of a lifetime and I now understand what healthy clergy, religion and faith community look like, feels like and acts like in this world.
Your definition of “reset the table” is drastically different than mine. You say the Catholic church should “rip off the tablecloth” but your ultimate prescription is for church officials to issue a public mea culpa in a sermon. Like most other commenters for the past quarter century, you’re ignoring the mastodons (elephants are too small) under the rug— that priests can only be men and cannot be married. How’s this for a formula for disaster? Inspire a bunch of boys to become priests, give them no outlet for the sexual desires intrinsic to human nature, give them no counseling or training for how to be celibate, place them in an occupation in which have nearly unquestioned authority and respect, and then turn them loose with tons of children. The result has been demonstrated publicly countless times— pedophilia by some percentage of priests who could not navigate the life they had chosen. And, of course, consistent coverups by a strictly hierarchical organization dedicated far more to self-preservation than to protecting children. There is not one thing to suggest that the Pennsylvania findings would be different anywhere else. The only difference was the detail of the Pennsylvania investigation. “Resetting the table” for the Catholic church means allowing priests to get married and women to become priests. Anything less will just yield more of the same. The recent Vatican lamentation about Pennsylvania shows they have no plan to change anything.
15
Hypocrisy, not holiness. The church is a corrosive patriarchy. Leave the church, start another, and all of us former Catholics will join you.
2
...or become an atheist.
I read through all the comments and not one pointed out whether the history of the Church actually upholds the principles of Christ. Dr Cummings is a historian, how much can one overlook to forgive it's sordid history? Catholicism is more a cultural than spiritual tradition. I come from a country that one is born into it, but my family found its spirituality wanting. As I grew I studied it's history and was grateful for my family's intuition. Here's a brief breakdown of it's history:
Indulgences, the Crusades, the book burning of the Nicene Council, the Inquisition, the Trial of Galileo, the murder of Joan of Arc, the murder of Tyndall who first translated the Bible so we could all enjoy it, the bloody history of the popes, the Vatican's relationship with Hitler (why did the Germans who were very religious, not be deterred from Nazism by the Church, hint: a law was placed where 10% of a salary is removed from paycheck donated to the church, to this day. The only way to stop this is to officially leave the church. Austrians also.), there's the bloody history of the popes, with more intrigue than any Hollywood movie. Oh, by the way, celibacy began in order to impede the children of priests from inheriting property.
2
Time to end celibacy. in the church, and to talk openly about homosexuality.
1
Why even associate with the Catholic Church in any way? You do not need them to live a moral life. In fact, it seems to model the exact opposite. Stop giving them money. I am appalled at how otherwise good people twist themselves into pretzels to try to justify continuing to be members of this corrupt, criminal institution.
7
For those who think that allowing priests to marry will magically solve the problem of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church:
“About 44 percent of convicted pedophiles either are or have been married, and a vast majority of pedophiles have sexual relationships with adults — only 7 percent say they are exclusively attracted to children.”
http://theweek.com/articles/479986/pedophilia-guide-disorder
4
Replace Christ with Marx and NOTHING changes. Replace patriarchy with matriarchy and NOTHING changes.
Replace humans with chimps and NOTHING changes.
Replace animals with plants and NOTHING changes.
It's a plot.
We call it LIFE.
Dear Ms. Cummings, If there were a thousand victims in just Pennsylvania during the past 70 years, then there have been thousands more in the U.S. over the same period and hundreds of thousands throughout the world in that time. Over the course of the church's history there have probably been millions -- an uminaginable crime against innocence perpetrated and covered up by the very men who dispensed the sacraments you speak so fondly of. So please do not speak about the need for "radical reform" of an institution whose evil is staggering and unredeemable. The people who lived in the bucolic villages around Auschwitz and Dachau believed in the sanctity of the Nazis' mission. Until they were forced to walk through the camps and the crematoria and face the reality behind the comfortable lies they told themselves.
7
I've always felt uncomfortable with the male-only celibate priesthood, and I think that particularly in a time in history when there is a need for the emergence of the archetypal Goddess within our culture, the dysfunctionality and atavistic nature of a male-only priesthood is amplified.
Though I find some elements of the Church inspiring, profoundly beautiful, and lovingly tender, overall I find the culture of the Catholic Church to be suffocating and conformist, overly focused on surface cleanliness and outward shows of moral uprightness, and not supportive of the path to wholeness -- a path which contains paradox, innocence, imagination.
I am disturbed but not surprised by the disgusting stories of profound abuse that are contained in the grand jury report. It's important that there be light shed on these atrocities.
Yes there is sexual abuse elsewhere -- but consider the institutional support for abusers within the Catholic Church, as well as a culture that has partly created this problem. Many years ago, visiting a church, I realized that there was a man sitting in the pews who was masturbating during the church service. When I saw him get up to speak and realized he was a regular scripture reader at that parish, I never went back there.
What has always puzzled me is how blind people can be. It only took one visit for me to see what was happening -- why didnt' anyone else notice? We need a church of awakened people, not morally upright sleepwalkers.
The author and various posters on this thread are quick to say there are "good people" among the Catholic clergy. I would question that. It sounds rather like Trump saying the same of the Nazis at Charlottsville. First, consider the situation in Ireland. Abuse of children was so widespread - so endemic to the system that it was impossible for any member of the clergy to be unaware of at least some aspects of it. The numbers given in the Pennsylvania report indicate a similar conclusion. Therefore it is not unreasonable to classify the clergy into two groups: active abusers and passive enablers. Neither are "good people." The gorgeous pageant of the church is like a magnificent palace, the foundations of which are rotting, the cellar is filled with filth and the walls are crawling with vermin. Still the pageant plays on, it's actors mouthing words of love while its practice continues to suppress women and LGBT persons and to cling to a medieval authoritarianism reinforcing absurd superstitions ( read about the House of the Dormition of the Virgin for one classic example of absurdity.) One recalls Oliver Cromwell's words to the Long Parliament: "Go, in God's name go. You have sat here too long for any good you may have done."
It is time the whole sham of an organization is broken up. Let the indictments flow, prosecute the guilty and let all the dirty laundry out for all to see.
As someone who was brought up in a Catholic home and went to Catholic grammar school, I know the arrogance that fueled the mindset that put institution over individual. In spite of the fact that the individual was a child. This institution is guilty of crimes against humanity and the fact that it is allowed to continue to operate is appalling.
If it is true that one of the results of child molestation is the victim could one day become the predator, the repercussions of this organizations malevolence will be felt far into the future. Shut it down
2
Ordain women and drop celibacy. That's the only hope for the church. Time to move forward from the 2nd century CE.
3
The Catholic Church has been in denial and cover up mode for years. I am one of thousands that decided to vote with my checkbook. Have not given a cent to this corrupt organization for 8 years and counting.
Last official count was that the US Catholic Church had paid more then FOUR BILLION dollars to settle / silence sexual abuse claims.
As a father, grandfather and former coach of a youth soccer team I have to ask the obvious. Where were the parents? Where were the police?
I understand the temper of the times, the position of authority and respect (even to the point of worship) afforded to the Catholic leadership from priest to pope.
What I don't understand is how so few if any of the many thousands of cases of sexual abuse, sodomy, and rape committed by these deviants resulted in a criminal trial and conviction.
Or in the assault or worse of a priest by an enraged parent.
1
@Rick Spanier When the Catholic Church has the power of absolute belief over a community, there is no where to go. There are court records of testimony of young boys who were sexually abused by the mighty holy priest telling their parents in desperation and being thrown out of the home for daring to say anything against the revered priest. And also because the parents thought that their sons were "homosexuals".
3
I recommend yanking the Catholic Church into the modern world: allow priests to marry and invite women into every level of the power hierarchy. Nothing short of that will heal the institutional complicity in torturing children.
As, a born, raised and educated Catholic, I think what the Catholic church needs are:
* Terminate the vow of celibacy;
* Allow married men to become priests;
* Allow priests to marry;
* Allow women to become Deacons or priests;
* Allow Catholic deacons to become priests;
* Rewrite the Canon law the church has now and make it an absolute requirement to report any allegations of clergy abuse to the police;
* Purge any clergy in the seminary who had permitted student abuse by anyone, student or teachers;
* Make it an absolute requirement that a Bishop of a diocese must acknowledge and reply to anyone who write, emails, calls or visits and leaves a message; No more Hiding from people.
* Create a lay commission to evaluate and approve or disapprove spending church monies over $2,500.00, with their ruling to be binding on the bishop and pastors.
Shut down every church - perhaps disband the entire model of governance and control, remove all privileges and tax status - shine a light into every corner - financial and personal. If you're a Catholic, vote with your wallet and your faith - stop supporting this hideous institution
2
As a 71 year old former altar boy and the student of 12 years of Catholic education, my thoughts are, "keep on writing Kathleen as hundreds of million people across the globe are still believing the 99% made up mythologies of one of the worlds most successful spiritual cults.
It truly is that simple, the leaders of Catholicism have deep misogynist beliefs that harm human beings; pedophilia is just one.
3
Somehow we should ban Catholic priests from the US. This doesn't require banning the Church; but will force it to use laymen as leaders -- married laymen in most likelihood. Basta!
Why can't you see the obvious? Catholicism, like all religion, is for people who can't think straight. There is no evidence that underpins faith. Religion is a con. But, don't blame others because you fell for it. It says more about you than it does about the church.
1
I keep hearing “but there are good priests out there.” First of all, what a pathetic argument against change. Reminds me of “there are fine people...”
Secondly, it would seem the above argument is false. Any “good” priest would stand up loudly in protest for change...and/or quit. If the the typical Catholic response to these atrocities (hands up, shaking head) is any indication then I highly doubt any priest would be better. I would expect this from the Taliban but here?!?!
2
There are 2 facets of evil here: the rapes and other abuses; and the coverup. I address the latter. It's clear that the Catholic church administration is rife with criminal conspirators and, through its criminal conspiracies, places its own organization ahead of both humanity and the law. This has been true for decades (at least) and probably nationwide. This cannot be allowed to continue and the perpetrators will not fix this themselves. They must all be removed and their functions shifted to laypersons operating transparently. No more bishops, monsignors, archbishops, or cardinals charge of anything in the US; those who are innocent of these crimes can go work in parishes or other ministries. This could be accomplished through prosecutions of individuals accompanied by a RICO consent decree applying to every diocese -- but it could also be accomplished by decree of the Pope. He could accomplish a lot by announcing it at Mass on Sunday. However it happens, it has to happen -- nothing less will be sufficient -- and the sooner the better.
1
The rape and abuse of children/adults by priests/clergy is not sin-- it is an utter Crime Against Humanity!
10
Time for a second Reformation.
1
I am not Catholic nor religious in any sense. (Not even housebroken, some might quip.) Yet I deeply respect Ms. Cummings careful--and courageous--thinking. The Catholic Church desperately needs more of its members to think in like manner.
As someone who was raised STRICT catholic, parochial schools K-HS, and who left when being condemned for using birth control in the late sixties, I applaud the attention given to the Church's ongoing cover up about monstrosities committed against almost exclusively boys by priests.
Can we talk about the horrible things done by the church to WOMEN, too? How about the designation of us as lesser beings who are not only subjected to scrutiny of their most private, personal, female areas (our reproductive lives), and whose gender has relegated them to the status of never a part of the clergy, unless it's to be a nun -- dedicated to Jesus and serving the men who act as their agents on earth. We were always taught that the only way a woman could approach the altar was to clean it. Women were born to serve Jesus and their husbands and to bear and raise up armies of more Catholics -- especially those prized males who got to be the leaders of everything from civic to private lives.
3
I've been a life long Catholic and have some wonderful memories of the priests and fellow parishioners I've met. However, as I hear more and more about how the church has handled the child abuse issue, I've come to realize that we need immediate, radical changes to save the institution. Two suggestions:
First, the priesthood should be opened to all of those who feel the call. Single AND married men AND women. If an organization wants to hire the best and brightest people, it doesn't start by eliminating three-quarters of the talent pool.
Second, people have to stop treating priests as though they were extraordinary humans. I've known a lot of priests. Some have been wonderful, some have been little tyrants, some have been children who never grew up, some have been clueless, some have been cruel. Accepting whatever 'Father' says or does is an attitude from the Middle Ages that is better left there.
2
Honestly, if you need a church, there are plenty of other Christian denominations to explore. Rome is not the only church even if they say they are.
3
Please read John Julius Norwich's history of the papacy "Absolute Monarchs".
Power corrupts, and corruption has been a part of the Catholic church for centuries. I expect the abuse of children has been a part of the church for just as long, but times have changed, and less is hidden.
Yes, children are abused in other parts of society and always have been. But the church holds itself up as a moral arbiter and judge.
1
I'm a Catholic who has been going to church for over 50 years. For a couple of decades it seemed attendance had steadily dwindled (including my own). But lately I've noticed a resurgence--Sunday masses are packed. I attended a church out of town and thought maybe there was some special event going on because I couldn't even find a seat. That used to happen only at Christmas and Easter. This past Thursday was the Feast of the Assumption, and the church was full. On a weeknight. I guess my point is that something has changed. People are going to Mass not out of a sense of obligation or guilt but--dare I say it--joy and community. Looking at all the loving, attentive, socially aware families with young children, I have faith in the future of the Church.
3
@Anonymous It's because a lot of Catholic churches are closing -- fewer churches, filled with people from the closed parishes.
1
I friend of mine that once attended Quigley South Seminary School in Chicago told me of the pervasive culture of instructor priests preying on sexually conflicted novices. The Catholic Church, when it was institutionalized by the Roman Empire, adopted many of the traditions of the Roman religions it came to replace, including the celibate priesthood. So, it's my assertion that there is no place in Christianity for an institutionalized celibate priesthood. Go Quakers!
1
"Yes, there is still holiness in the church. But the sin is so pervasive and corrosive that it is irresponsible to talk about anything else."
The Catholic Church does not need to just reform, it needs to go away and from that; maybe something which actually delivers on holiness can be created. To do otherwise, is simply working on the margins.
2
Perhaps it is time for those of still practicing the Catholic faith to make our own "Exodus", if not from weekly mass, then from weekly contributions.
And so, another chapter in a long line of - who dun its - is published and those of us still carrying on the "faith" are left to defend it. Not so this time. Not so anymore.
6
Recent revelations out of Pennsylvania and many other cities across this country over many decades and others of thousands of cases only reveals that pedophiles seek out places where they can access children alone and unfettered.
The Catholic church needs to consult with experts such as law enforcement that help investigate and prosecutors that have the knowledge of how to help prevent future crimes against children.
The first place to start is eliminating altar boys/girls. It's completely unnecessary but a start. The other is educating the public on a simple truth. If an adult male other than the natural father shows extraordinary interest in your child, be suspicious.
Normal men do not want to spend extra time with your kid on the pretext they just like your kid and want to play catch, video games, or other activities with them. Sure many men are excellent coachs and teachers but it crosses the lie when they "volunteer," to spend additional time with your son or daughter and take them places, and play with them etc.
Those that don't believe it are naive. The decades of revelations out of the church is only what we know of. Numerous victims will never out of shame and embarassment ever reveal what happened to them.
135
@A P WRONG. Eliminating altar boys? Really? The answer lies in the vetting process of entering the seminary. The FSSP has tons of traditional priests, and tons of altar boys (no girls) They don't have a problem with sex abuse AT ALL because they know how to screen the perverts out who are trying to enter the seminary.
@A P: I get where you're coming from. But do you really want to eliminate volunteerism, or allow it only for women? Because that is the logical endpoint if everyone behaves as you say they should.
A history reminder: The vast majority of clerical sex abuse occurred in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. Since 2002, when the scandal broke in Boston, only a few cases of clerical sex abuse has occurred. This history is corroborated by every investigation over the last 15 years. Clerical sex abuse is not an endemic in the Catholic Church today. What has remained is the unwillingness of the Bishops to tell the world what happened all those years ago and to hold accountable those within their own ranks who grievously mishandled cases of sexual abuse.
As such, while there is reason to discuss the merits and theology clerical celibacy, male-only priesthood, et cetera, those discussions are irrelavent to the scandal. Endemic clerical sex abuse stopped years ago without the implementation of any of these supposed solutions. These are evidently not solutions to the already-solved problem. Discussing them here only distracts from the problem at hand, which is the reticence of the Bishops to give a full account of what happened in their dioceses and the refusal of the Bishops to hold one another--and sometimes themselves--accountable.
1
It should be obvious that the Catholoic Church in the United States, from top to bottom, should be subject to investigation and prosecution under the US laws popularly known as the RICO statutes. It strains credulity beyond the breaking point to suggest that so much criminal activity can be sustained & concealed over such an extended period of time without general awareness of those activities throughout the organization. It must be presumed that individuals not personally engaging in the criminal sexual conduct must, at a minimum have been aware of its pervasiveness within the church and have acquiesced to its concealment from their paritioners and local law enforcement. The RICO statutes provide the investigative and prosecutorial tools to compel comprehensive testimony from within this obviously corrupt organization.
3
I too am a product of a Catholic Education and attended Immaculata College within the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. My Catholic education formed my character and provided me the spiritual foundation that allowed me to lead the community of Eden Prairie to shut a toxic landfill, withstand the trials of life, give me the tools to raise three good, responsible sons, and now I work with the Archdiocese of Atlanta to implement an Action Plan, I wrote with my University of Georgia colleagues for the Pope's environmental encyclical Laudato Si. The Church can be a force for good, particularly in the area of combating climate change. Its leaders must now reform the church to allow priests to marry so they can get on with the business of addressing the important issues of livesf.
1
Dr. Cummings article is smack right on! As a 70 year old Catholic, we were raised to think the priest were holy and could do no harm. Over the years I grew to believe they were human beings , just like the rest of God’s humble servants. I remember years ago being asked if I wanted to have my foot washed on Holy Thursday, as is traditional. Christ washed the feet of the disciples. My first reaction was no. Women were not traditionally included in that part of Holy Thursday Mass. But then I thought Yes of course I will do it, and I did. The Catholic Church must face their sins head on. With declining attendance at Mass ,the church needs to be honest and more inclusive of all Catholics in society today.
In a former marriage, my husband turned out to be a very troubled man. He was violently resentful of any church attendance, of any Catholic priest (I'm Lutheran), or of any religious belief at all.
This was a shock to me as he had been raised as a French American Catholic, and past hopes of his family were that he become a priest. Instead, he became a physicist, but never left behind his internal rage. Ultimately, this rage became life threatening to me.
His personal journals, I discovered, were filled with violent images of burning down Catholic churches and killing priests. When he was court-ordered into counseling in the early 1990s, the counselor suggested he may have been molested by a priest or priests.
I never discovered what was the root cause of his rage as we divorced and he left the area. However, when I read these accounts of massive Church cover ups and abuse, I am again saddened for my ex, whose whole life was influenced by rage and perhaps shame. What a waste of a life due to the selfishness of the Church.
2
The author writes, "...in an institution whose leaders time and again chose self-preservation over the protection of the most vulnerable people entrusted to their care." As Anthea Butler has so aptly put it, this is how a criminal syndicate does its business. Presumably there are supposed to be redeeming features of the Catholic Church unlike, say, the Trump family and other forms of mob, but the commonality is their willingness to use authority to retain power at any cost. That this happens to be supporting, ignoring, and protecting pedophiles is just their particular "cost of business." Now wrap this in the mysterious superstitions and manipulations of "sacraments," "eternal life," claims to moral superiority and every issue of authoritarianism, mendacity, grifting, and abuse is magnified by matrices of the "divine." If certainty is even more dangerous than ignorance, the claim to a divine institution presents us with the most potentially vile construct of any human creation.
1
@Rover ". . .an institution whose leaders time and again chose self-preservation over the protection of the most vulnerable people entrusted to their care." Sounds like the GOP!
The church will respond to one thing only. Money. Stop giving it to them.
2
The Catholic Clergy for far too long has been a perfect refuge for sexual deviants. These stories have been winked at and joked about for generations (at the very least) - with the old one about Priests and Altar Boys. When I attended an All Boys Catholic High School in the 90's rumors about the Monks who ran the school abounded and Monks flirting with students was completely normal. The Church needs to open up to married and female clergy if it wishes to save itself. But it won't. Because all the offenders and closet cases still in the Clergy are too afraid of being found out by those who don't share their dirty secrets.
2
I am VERY grateful for the education that I received in the Catholic system, but when I see a priest or bishop now I gag and my blood pressure takes off because I see one of two things - no matter how many priests and bishops there are with "good and pure hearts."
First thing I see is an 'enabler' who enables the destruction of the moral fiber of the church through his passive and non-responsive position on sexual abuse. Or, second, I see a potential pedophile.
Neither is an acceptable way of thinking. I agree and demand implementation of Ms. Cummings' corrective actions. The church must establish the immediate ordination of female and married priests and bishops; and accept the submitted resignations of everyone in the College of Cardinals.
Until that time, to quote the famous Harry Kalas: "I'm outta here." - and so is my financial support.
2
Excellent article and excellent speech that should be heard from the pulpit this Sunday. I too am a Roman Catholic but my personal philosophy is that there are many paths to God and that God does not choose what path we take to reach Him, we do.
Yes, I too was taught to put priests and all clergy of the Church on pedestals because they transcended their natural sexual urges to become 'purely' spiritual in nature, and totally dedicated to God. Meanwhile pedophiles were 'packing the house' for the past 70 years, and they are sexual predators who cannot be cured and should not be endured.
Is the Church fearful of losing a huge percentage of their clergy by purging itself of these heartless predators and that is why they are moved from parish to parish spreading their plague?
There should be women priests and priests should be allowed to marry. It is bogus and hypocritical to worry about a lack of dedication to God by women and married priests yet allow pedophiles to live among the flock like wolves. These pedophiles are apostates as well as a danger to the congregation.
It is a heartbreaking and sickening situation and the Church is still trying to ignore the problem or cover it up. The politics of the Vatican are the biggest disgrace as the pedophiles have become entrenched and must have many protectors within the Church. Where is their Catholic conscience? The one that makes the rest of us examine our motivations and actions daily for God's approval.
I was raised Catholic, and have fallen in and out of actual participation and practice. I have been out ever since the Spotlight story broke. I will not return unless true reform (ie allowing priests to marry, priests of any gender, prosecution of these sexual predators and their guardians) occurs. Sadly, I doubt I will see it in my lifetime.
1
Like the United State, the Catholic Church has grown too old, too protective of its secrets, too much a bullying institution. Both institutuions need radical reform.
1
Since I have already commented on this subject in great length I will try hard to be brief. After 46 years in the R.C. church I left (26 years ago). Since then my spiritual life has included married ministers who have spouses and children and minister no semblance of rigidity in dogma, I have also been blessed by ministers, elders, and deacons who are female. My church will even bless same sex marriage. There is a tolerance here for our differences that brings us closer to the teachings of Jesus that no practicing Catholic (or Protestant Fundamentalist for that matter) can ever experience while in a patriarchal, misogynistic, homophobic, and hypocritical established religious system. Get over the idea that was pounded into you at an early age that the R.C. church's dogma of "No Salus Extra Ecclesia" (No salvation outside of the Catholic Church). It's untrue. It's a lie! If God is that capricious to limit His grace and salvation to one system alone (and a very corrupt and sinful one at that) who needs Him?
1
You would think that the latest Pennsylvania disclosures, on top of the many earlier scandals, would suggest to believers that the entire superstructure of the Catholic Church and its system of beliefs are nothing but human inventions, but apparently many Catholics manage to mentally stick-handle around that obvious conclusion. To me it suggests two things (a) human beings have evolved to accept delusions as fact and (b) if you get to young children you can program that in with such effectiveness that these sex crimes can be rationalized away. People simply can't face the fact that the world is what we can see, not what we want to believe. How is it that there is only one physics, one chemistry and one mathematics, but thousands of religions? Because each and every one of them, at its heart, is a scam.
2
The RCC feudal family is growing in Africa, South America, India and other parts of the "post" colonial world. It is crucial that an attempt is made to keep the children and women safe right now.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-13/worst-catholic-sexual-abuse-scanda...
3
When the story broke, I listened to an interview of a bishop on Public Radio. Incredibly, he immediately shifted the blame to ‘society’. I’m sure this has been going on for the last 2000 years. Gullibility is baked into religion, any religion. It’s called faith.
I really think there is a flaw at the heart of Catholicism. It has to do with the attitude towards men, this blind acquiescence to the idea that a man is more worthy, somehow closer to the model of God. That is a terrible thing to project onto a religion as it diminishes everyone else, thus making their concerns less central to the business of faith. I grew up Catholic, all the way through college, leaving the Church in my twenties after feeling suffocated and dismissed as a girl and then a woman.
The only way out of the mess is to take men out of the center, off the pinnacle and re-establish a faith that see all beings, all genders as worthy of priesthood.
9
Thank you for pointing out the training of priests and their selection is "deeply flawed." Reform has to begin at the bottom.
2
Several people in the comment section have noted that clergy rape and sexual abuses has been going on for decades. I actually think males raping children has been going as long as adult males were given complete moral supremacy over children, which is basically since the dawn of mankind.
3
Every last property, painting, gold chalice, plate and object owned by the Catholic church needs to be sold and distributed to the victims as reparations. This is a completely corrupt organization that does not to deserve to survive as is. Catholics can take back their worship and gather together in his name without the bloated infrastructure of the church. I was adopted through Catholic Charities, received all of the sacraments, was educated in convent school and left the church decades ago.
How about a memorial to the victims in every church where the abuse took place?
4
Time to smash the icons and rebuild. Embrace women as equals, ye old dudes in Rome. Allow married priests, ye old hypocrites in Rome. The sexual abuse is so ingrained, so systemic that the church needs to totally clean house.
1
In all humility, I would suggest to my Roman Catholic friends that your Church would be healthier with the ordination of married men, as well as women, both married and single. I believe that this alone would be a sufficient answer to the sexual abuse crisis. It would also remedy any current shortage of people going into the priesthood.
1
These are violent crimes motivated by prejudice...when are prosecutors finally going to realize that child molestation is a hate crime? The overwhelming majority of the victims here were male however, and there is very little sympathy for male victims of hebephilies, this is why the Catholic Church felt no compunction about covering this up. This is also why so few men talk about their victimization as children. In my experience even many in the gay community tended more towards blaming the victims as well, though that is changing. I do wonder how many of these abusers actually were repressed gay men that were forced into the clergy by societal expectations and then sickened by an unhealthy environment. I feel no sympathy for them though, if there is any way they should be prosecuted they should be.
1
The news stories and comments stress the guilt of those bishops and cardinals who shielded the guilty priests and moved them elsewhere. There are few mentions of the possibility or probability that those higher-ups themselves are sexual abusers and are shielding each other or themselves. This would explain why the reform from within the institution has been so late and so insufficient.
One commenter here implied that teenage pedophiles may have been attracted to the priesthood because of stories that filtered out. If so, have the shaken faithful considered the possibility that not a minority, but the majority of the clergy are pedophiles?
1
Breast beating and lachrymose appeals for "forgiveness" and self serving bible quotes simply don't cut it.
Here is what works: any pedophile in the church should be tried and, if convicted, do hard time. Anyone who covers up the crime, who is party to moving one of these horror priests around to avoid the consequences of their actions is obstructing justice at the very least. They may be an accomplice and RICO might even apply.
Waive the statue of limitations in Pennsylvania (guess who is against that) and get a special prosecutor and get busy.
Why are we still talking about this? These are felonies. You can be darn sure that if these priests were inner city black men, they'd be long gone.
1
To borrow a line from a man who shall remain nameless the Pope could shoot people in the middle of the street and millions of Catholics would continue to blindly support the church.
Does anyone really think there is one single priest out there who doesn’t know this abuse is occurring every day across the country and likely around the world?
Holiness still exists in the Catholic Church? Please.
3
Crimes of this magnitude are not isolated to Pennsylvania. These criminals in holy garb were moved around and across state and international lines, greatly multiplying the number of victims. When those who faced possible prosecution and incarceration for rape and assault, or for covering up those crimes, could flee to the Vatican, they did, where they were protected.
I hope by reform you include the following:
1. Have the FBI and the US Justice Department explore the most effective legal means to bring justice, including applying the RICO laws for organized crime.
2. Immediately revoke the RCC's tax exempt status in the USA.
3. Remove the statute of limitations in sex crimes in every US state, OR extend them to the age of retirement or 80, whichever is longer. It can take decades for victims to process pain and gather the courage to reveal what happened to them.
4. Demand that the Pope come to speak to the American people, perhaps addressing Congress, and admit all, and cooperate with US authorities to make full restitution.
5. Consider at least temporarily cutting off all diplomatic ties to the Vatican, especially if they won't comply with extradition.
6. If the U.S. government does not seize assets and prevent RCC operations within its borders, American Catholics must divert all money and other financial help from the RCC organization indefinitely until it fully complies with American law enforcement and agrees with binding legal authority to make full restitution.
8
"Tuesday’s grand jury report about clerical sexual abuse in Pennsylvania has changed my mind."
A good place to start in coming to grips with the horrors occurring in the Catholic Church would be for its members, leadership and the media to drop the benign sounding euphemism "sexual abuse" for the more accurate and honest description of what it is: CHILD RAPE.
7
I cannot look back at my time in the Catholic school system and find holiness, fond memories, or any lasting friendships. In 1958, what is now regarded as physical and psychological abuse was widely considered to be good discipline. Kids are kids, naturally lighthearted; but always, just below the surface, there was a pervasive terror. If a nun slapped, punched, or struck you with a stick, you took it, along with the ridicule of your classmates. No one would think of complaining to their parents; that would, for many, mean a second punishment at home. Fearful awe was the proper norm. And priests? We were taught from age 6 that you don't question a priest's authority. You obey! Only priests were ordained by God to transmit the Eucharist and the other Sacraments. Without the Sacraments, the soul is lost.
Priests were powerful and aloof; if a priest favored you, it meant that they could see in you a rare quality, a specialness...
To people outside the bubble, this all sounds crazy and begs litigation. But it is the foundation mindset for many of the world's Catholics. Think: this has gone on for ...only 70 years? Really?
2
Our Pope Francis is the only true Christian in the catholic family. He did not support Trump and the GOP in fact he told him talk at all costs to prevent war . Pope Francis is for saving our environment . He recently said at a meeting with oil men when you use coal and oil you are harming the environment so you are harming humanity. By following Trump and his GOP the Catholic community is against all what the Pope is for and needs to do lots of soul searching.
4
I'm not catholic, but something is definitely very rotten in the church and has been for a long time. I don't understand how any organization could tolerate such abuse for so long.
2
Power, sex and money. The same symptoms that we suffer as a nation so does thr Catholic Church. It is silly to believe that some miraculous reset could somehow fix the church. Ask ANYONE who has done 12 years in parochial school as I did in Westchester NY and they will have known someone who was party to abuse. As was reported in the grand jury findings there was a plan of action for hiding abuse, it would be naive to believe that was the only dirty trick in their playbook. I have been done for a long time.
The Catholic Church's function was and is to control the masses and create wealth. There is no reason to impose celibacy on priests other then to keep any off spring of a priest from inheriting any money or property. That is why the pope imposed that rule almost 1200 years after the death of Jesus, to create more wealth for the church and thus more power to him. There is no redemption from this. Wealth, power and control were more important than the raping of children to these "holy" men.
I have a relative by marriage who systematically sexually abused his nieces for years, terrifying them into silence starting at the age of 2 years old. When they became old enough to try to tell adults about their abuse this man then became a priest to hide away and more than likely to find new young victims. The church knew about the abuse and accepted him as a sinner wanting redemption. He has successfully hidden himself away as any type of search I try to find him fails, no death record either so I know he is out there somewhere.
I have come to believe the catholic church is more evil than good, this is more evidence.
1
Female priests, the availability of marriage for priests, and the election of bishops by the faithful in each diocese would go a long way in saving the Church.
There is a shortage of clergy. Time for female priests and soon a female pope. Marital status should not be the business of a church. Not too long ago, women had to give up their employment if they married. I was told by my employer that I could not teach school after six months pregnancy. Male celebacy positions of power with access to children is attractive to pedophiles. Time for changes.
3
Agree that the table needs repurposing. Total New tabletop. Current leadership can step back as their watch is over. Yes, start with baptism rather than ordination as seats in the round. Deleat those using porno, those addicted to innocence and those who use power to harm rather than heal. Pardon the sinners, but don’t leave them in charge. Civil courts should determine terms of containment. This makes the Protestant reformation look like a skimpy first draft. Serious change is required now.
3
Enough with the nonsense about the 'sins' of priests and of the church. These are violent crimes against vulnerable individuals. There are an awful lot of people, including bishops and cardinals, who deserve prison. Sadly, most of them will get away with their crimes.
2
I grew up Catholic and graduated from a Catholic high school, and I do not understand why good people choose to identify with an institution that is so plainly evil and corrupt. Being Catholic is a choice. Catholics can choose a different church. Most Catholics I know believed priests transform bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ only when they were children—when they were most vulnerable to the lies of priests. The Catholic Church derives its power from the people who fill its pews on Sundays. They can join the other Christians who fled the Church when they realized it would never reform itself—they're called Protestants.
4
Why anyone would be a Catholic in the modern age is beyong me. The sexual abuse, the mysogany, the coverups, the punishment of those who go public, and the financial corruption has been going on for centuries. What would Jesus do? Probably distroy the whole church. But it is not just the Catholic Curch, The Protistant Churches have the same problesm but apparently not neary as widespred of serious at the Catholic Church. I beleive in Jesus but I don't beleive in the Christian churches.
6
Let's just step away from the roles of the 'The Church" and "The Pope" for a moment and discuss the basics of law and order. Why aren't these priests in prison? Why are priests allowed to walk free--and continue their predation-- while investigations drag on for years?
Any other citizen accused of raping children would be tried, convicted and sent to prison. Once in prison, these convicted monsters would receive the justice they deserve in spades by their fellow inmates.
Seriously, at this point I really don't care what the Pope has to say or what "actions" the Church will recommend. We are governed by the Rule of Law-- not by the whims of the Pope or the Church. I want to see each and every one of these priests--and their conspirators--be treated like any other person in society. They should be afforded all the legal rights and counsel available to members of society--and then suffer the consequences as dictated by the laws and constitutions adopted by a free society.
2
"Dr. Cummings is a historian of Catholicism." So she knows how dogma and ideology grew as encrustations on the simple message of Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus said nothing to affirm the Genesis story of six days of creation, he didn't claim that his mother was a virgin, he didn't foresee gilded marble edifices occupied by silk robed "celibate" claimants to the apostolic succession.
He did, reportedly, set the table for transubstantiation. He did, apparently, believe in personal survival of death but that was a common belief before we knew that human consciousness is a function of a living brain.
Dr. Cummings is an exemplar of childhood indoctrination. She's an intelligent person who clings to the fatuities of sacraments and hocus pocus (hoc es corpus) in which she was immersed as an innocent, pre-critical child.
If she wants truth, she needs neither to get a place at the table of religion nor to reset it. She needs to do some hard work getting a fact based, critical understanding of scientific reality. Wine and wafers don't help us get at the truth. Testing of hypotheses and recording of results does.
11
I am a faithful, practicing Catholic. But I beleive it is time for a total overhaul of the Church hierarchy. Any priest, bishop, or cardinal (or Pope) who, even in teh slightest fashion, enabled, hid, or allowed these terrible criminals to continue to their perverted life, should be removed from their office, defrocked, and if possible, charged with criminal acts. The Middle Age model no longer works. It is time to bring the Church and its leaders into the 21st century. Married clergy, female priests, a more active lay leadership at the highest level...the time has come!
469
Mr. Fennelly, I would go even further: a radical de-clericalization of the Church. Priests should be about liturgy and ritual. Other than that, they should have a day job. Governance should include large numbers of theologically qualified lay people at all levels, including the Vatican.
@Bill Fennelly And I honestly believe if the church were ever to make these changes, women and the married clergy would bring about a revitalization upon which they would save the dying church.
1
@Bill Fennelly,
They would have to defrock all of them. Every Bishop knew of pedophile priests. They alone held the secret files. These were passed to Cardinals depending on the gravity. They are all complicit and they all have known of some depravity but chose to protect the Church.
"People will say that there is still holiness in the church, that there are many priests and bishops with good and pure hearts, and they are right."
Sure. But just because there are good people within the organization doesn't mean it hasn't been eroded by evil.
There's plenty of holiness outside the church, too, and people with good, pure hearts whose goodness is not stained and made suspect by the evil within the church.
Excellent opinion piece.
I left the Catholic church many years ago (for a variety of reasons, ranging from loss of faith to frustration with the sexism regarding women) but remain interested as I have close family members who stayed loyal. Now even some of those "forever Catholics" are distraught over the disclosures and rethinking their loyalty.
The silver lining around the cloud of this devastating report, and others like it, is that change may take place. Can, and will, the Catholic Church change? We shall see.
2
Based on the title, I expected more from the author's recommendation to "hurl the china against the wall." She wants the current crop of individual leaders to confess and resign, which certainly is warranted, but they are just the latest individuals populating a 1500-year-old system. Yes, sin is an individual choice, but it is also cultivated and made far more likely by top-down, opaque organizational structures that literally endow individuals with the power to transubstantiate bread and wine into body and blood. The author points at clerical education as a culprit, but seminary education is but one aspect of Clericalism, the uniquely Catholic system that the author hints at when she talks about putting Father on a pedestal. It is Clericalism itself—and the entire reinforcing, self-sustaining, and self-healing bureaucracy that supports it, starting in Rome—that must be done away with. The problem is that this basically rips out everything uniquely Catholic about Catholicism. A Church governed by its laity? Been there, done that—become a Presbyterian... and no offense, but the mainline Protestant churches are withering away, because making a church a democracy seems to mean fragmentation, loss of any meaningful doctrines or sacraments, and ultimately, death. So maybe that is what is in store for the Catholic church—a slow death. For a time, it seemed that the Church was rebounding. I'm sad to say, but it seems like that was a temporary illusion.
Prayer and a campaign to root out the bad actors among the clergy is not going to solve the problem. The Church is slowly sinking under the weight of dogma that has eroded lay confidence in the clergy. Getting rid of the bad apples, and moving on without reforms is not an answer. Priests need to be free to marry, women need to be ordained, layity need to have a stronger voice in the governance of local congregations.
6
As opposed to opening doors to the light of day the Church has elected to use payoffs and non-disclosure agreements much as the current President does. I am a former Catholic acutely aware what happened in a state near Pennsylvania. I have seen lives ruined and silence bought. I cannot speak freely but I can attest to the perverse use these NDAs. They ultimately protect the guilty.
7
I believe I'm correct in noting the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was not included in the grand jury's Pennsylvania findings. If that huge body was added to the inquiry the numbers would probably be much larger.
1
A grand jury report related to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was released in 2005:
https://www.bishop-accountability.org/reports/2005_09_21_Philly_GrandJur...
How did these Priests get so much opportunity to be alone with these kids? I was an alter boy and went to catholic school. When I was serving mass as an alter boy I do not think I was ever alone with the Priest. If I was alone it was for 10 minutes before mass and 5 minutes after. My parents trusted the Priests in our parish but no way would they have allowed them to be alone with me for the day. When I hear of abuse I often think of neglect. I would always wonder about the motivation of any adult, Priest, teacher, doctor that wanted to be alone with my children and I would never allow it.
8
What needs to be added to that statement is something to the effect that the highest leaders complicit in cover ups need to spend a long time in prison. Only there could they truly learn the meaning of humility.
It's the same as with CEOs of corporations--for just one example, the banksters who crashed the economy in 2008 are at it again, and there will be another crash soon.
Until those at the top are sent to prison, the same bad things will happen again.
15
The Church has always been an authoritarian organization. Authoritarians use power to control. Power corrupts and absolute power is just too dangerous.
Americans need to study all of our institutions to root out the evils of authoritarianism. America believes in democracy, the belief that all power should reside with the people. That is the fundamental principle upon which our nation was founded.
Democracy is what we believe and support around the world. We Americans need to do a better job of practicing what we preach.
9
So far as I'm concerned no-one under the age of 18 should be allowed anywhere near any Catholic church or its programs unless that church is regulated at least as strongly as the most well-regulated day care center. And the churches should be required to pay the full cost of the INDEPENDENT administration of such regulation and oversight.
There is every reason as a society that we should do all we can to prevent institutionalized child abuse as has been enabled, fostered, and covered-up by the Catholic Church with impunity for decades. And there is every reason NOT to allow them to handle this internally. Our children must be protected; that is one of our fundamental duties as citizens and adults. If we ignore doing this we are complicit in the abuse of our children.
11
Way back when, in the midst of the horror show that was our involvement in the Vietnam War, many of us were sickened at the notion that “we had to destroy the village in order to save it.” In that context, that idea was indeed monstrous. Here, I believe it is true. I speak as one deeply committed to my own Protestant denomination but as one for whom many of the social teachings and the deep sense of mystery borne by the Roman Catholic Church have deep resonance. This institution must be saved. And if it is to be saved, this incarnation of it must be largely destroyed. The rot goes to the core of the Church. The worship of the Church as an institution, and its teaching that priests, upon ordination, become ontologically different, both of which teachings have their roots in the Church’s ecclesiology, must be abandoned. The same holds true for its teachings on the role of women in the Church. Reform is not possible. Burn the thing down and begin again, while preserving the great traditions of spiritual formation and social justice evident in the Church’s true practice.
6
As a Catholic, I too would like to be able to protest the disgraceful abuse of children and adults in the church and call for change. To whom do I address these concerns? Most likely not the parish priest or local bishop--I think-- perhaps unfairly, but I doubt it-- it will go nowhere. To whom should I write, call or speak to? I see headlines that Catholics are calling for change--e.g. they opinion today in the Times. but for others like me how are they getting their messge thorough. The situation is dire and abhorrent and my voice is small, but it is a voice.Thank you.
14
@Mary Shay McGuire Perhaps some old time activism? Don’t give money. Pass out leaflets. Have a campaign to boycott catholic schools. Perhaps take over parishes, running masses without priests. A protest march. Vigils outside churches.
Best of all- don’t go back.
@Mary Shay McGuire You can only protest with your feet. This has been going on in the Catholic Church for centuries. Even writing to the Pope won't change a thing,. All the Pope ever does is to move the pedophile priest to soe third world country wher he can continue without being held accountable.
The Pennsylvania report is terrible yes, but we all know that the whole society is steeped in sin. I hate to see how the Catholic church is singled out for sexual sins and crimes again and again as if it is the only place such things go on. If you should look for child sexual molestation in families and other institutions in Pennsylvania over that same period they certainly are hundreds of times more. The church has already had a lot of gradual reform to quash that culture of cover up which was part of society before and which built a conducive space for these unfortunate incidents to continue. The first Pope that has recently pronounced himself very firmly and clearly over the whole issue is Pope Benedict XVI. While every single act is terrible indeed the church should be looked at in the light of the rest of the society and not be judged so harshly.
60
@joan ...ENN is not saying it’s an excuse, but one should certainly point out that the problem is not nearly as pervasive as it has been made out to be. In a massive institution, the numbers are large (and absolutely horrifying, to be sure). But the Church is also being absolutely singled out to advance a variety of anti-Church agenda as well.
@ENN It's not the sexual sins and crimes, which you refer to as "unfortunate incidients," that are singled out. Those are on the consciences of the individuals. It's the systematic enabling and cover-up engaged in by and for the institution that is, and must be, judged so harshly.
6
@ENN --- When the church starts handing these abusers and their enablers over to the police (with all the supporting evidence their hiding), maybe the we can consider them in a different light. Until then, harsh judgement is all there is.
8
As a person raised in a Catholic family (whose confirmation was in 1962, so I am a generation older) I have grown up believing that I could simply pray to the Blessed Virgin to avoid temptation. The as I reached my middle teens, I learned that I could not. The notion that any large group of men (our priests) can live long lives without sex is simply nonsense. Nor can Catholic families avoid birth control and have the large broods that they once had. My mother married in her 30s in 1947 and still had 5 children.
The church needs to give women a presence equal to that of men. And celibacy simply creates liars. We can not longer accept a church that treats real life and especially married life as something less than the life of men who play eunuchs for the public (but who are in reality sexually active).
524
@Terry McKenna: Equating pedophilia with celibacy is a false equivalence. Child sexual abusers are child sexual abusers regardless of their attraction to adults, either male or female. Celibacy is a ridiculous notion, yes, but please, it has nothing to do with sexually violating a child.
Dear Terry McKenna,
"The notion that any large group of men (our priests) can live long lives without sex is simply nonsense." Sex is not exactly the same as air or water (which our modern habits are destroying) and it can be controlled. However, if one is raised in our sex-saturated society, probably not.
@Terry McKenna I sincerely doubt that having a wife would satiate the despicable needs of these perverts. Rather, like all other criminals, they need to be prosecuted along with the hierarchy that concealed their crimes. This is known as CONSPIRACY and applies to the hierarchy as well as Trump.
Unfortunately, pedophilia is about the assertion of power and control over vulnerable children and young people. As the survivor of severe sexual child abuse, not by a priest but by a faculty member at a university, I can tell you that the perpetrator feels enormous sexual surge of potency and great pleasure from dominating, from the domination of vulnerable youth. Looking back, I think of my abuser as addicted to domination, and triggered by the vulerabilities he identified and manipulated when he spotted me, his prey.
Married pedophiles are no different than single pedophiles. Marriage isn't going to stop this scourge. Rigorous oversight, on-going vigilance by layers of third parties might curb this behavior. But we all know that long standing organizations change slowly. Cardinals elect Popes. We all might be better off if the entire community of the faithful elected cardinals and also when time, the pope. Lets cloud source the grace we need to elect our spiritual leaders. I strongly suspect that is the only way this badly decayed male-dominated ancient institution riddled with pedophilia right now is ever going to be reformed.
142
@Vince Luschas, Thank you for an excellent and insightful comment.
The Catholic Church is like a putting your finger in a marshmallow. A scandal erupts and there is a big dent in the marshmallow. In time, it returns to its original shape. Nothing ever changes. Organizations like Voice of the Faithful have pushed back for many years but only as a protest, not as a mechanism of reform. The great Catholic historian, Garry Wills, in his book, “Why priests?” points out that some Catholic traditions reserved to priests were not part of the original church practice, e.g. confession. But, the faithful have been indoctrinated to believe that priests are “above us.” They are not. We have all fallen short in the eyes of God. The church will never really acknowledge this except when caught red-handed. Then it will go back to business as usual.
6
I've been saying this for decades: when a boy grows up in the Roman Catholic Church, especially in a devout household, where his parents view homosexuality as a personal failing and a terrible sin, and his mother makes it known that her fondest dream is to have a son become a priest, and then realizes that he's attracted to boys, he may well, in desperation, deny his sexuality and flee into the organization that enjoins celibacy. That is not a person with a true "calling" but a person in torment, with potential to destroy lives, as we see far too often.
9
@Thomas: Excuse me? It seems tht you are saying that it is homosexual priests that are molesting children. No, it is pedofile priests. Homosexual priests can easliy find adult men to hav sex with.
Your reform talk sounds good, until it gets to specifics. All you've got there is having the current bunch resign. Feeble, and ineffective. So allow me to suggest a way forward.
Having years ago seen this behavior close-up, the first step is to change canon law to allow greater lay control, and to help efface the current hard line separating clergy from the laity (in other words, make real the "people of God" talk some years back, rather than have it yet another relic of hypocritical cant).
Either the Catholic church dismantles its clerical establishment as a secretive, hierarchical organization that prizes internal loyalty above all else (sound familiar?), or it will fragment and evaporate in countries that don't prize authoritarianism. This is the environment that breeds abuse of power and cover-ups. Unless it's addressed, this sort of stuff will continue ad infinitum.
Then it will be time to address the issues of clerical celibacy, and of women as priests.
7
Everyone talks about reform from the pope or from the laity demanding change.
What about the parish priests? Let them turn in the abusers that they know are hiding in their midst.
We have a right to expect more courage from them.
9
My family was very catholic. I did not have a good experience growing up in the Catholic church. The messages of guilt and shame did a number on my self-esteem. It too me years to recover from that. I left the church decades ago and haven't looked back. For me, there is a difference between churchianity and Christianity. I know that one can have a connection to something greater without having to join a church or belong to any religion. If the church will ever survive as a relevant institution, it will have to reform. I wonder if Pope Francis has the courage to do it. We shall see.
2
I am not Catholic. If I were, I would leave without regret. They have covered up, lied, and deceived the congregations.
4
If the Pope is for the victims, then why doesn’t he act to order the end of celibacy as a required sacrament instead of an optional one, and allow women priests? Maybe because he’s not THAT for the victims? Change denominations!
3
How can readers compare these crimes to society at large? Priests, and there superiors, base their authority on their own lack of sin, their own "holiness". (Though they may dissemble.) Their own "goodness". The Church's correctness. The hypocrisy is immense. The Catholic Church must do major triage and revolution or it loses the last vestiges of respect it deserves (if it ever did).... Start with turning ALL that money and treasure locked up in the Vatican holdings into a fund for the poor. Sell all those fancy vestments, etc. ...The shame of the Church is bottomless. Not just historically. Now.
3
" Some feminists seek a place at the table; others want to reset the table. "
How about looking for a different table? In my state and denomination, people don't have to ask the bishop to take the position of women seriously. The bishop IS a woman. The hierarchy can't threaten to deny communion to dissidents, because access to communion is considered a right and none of the clergy's business .
But the Times keeps focusing on sexist, repressive denominations like the Catholics and the evangelicals, and leave their readers ignorant that other alternatives even exist.
23
@Charlesbalpha
How about flipping the table over, which is what I suspect Jesus would do.
This is so frightening and pervasive that I am not sure that it can ever be fixed. I am only glad that my grandmother who actually valued the church and wore her gold cross with pride is not alive to see this. She would be sickened to learn that it was used to denote boys (and probably girls) who had been groomed by the priests for sex and were"ripe" for the picking. I left the church decades ago and have never looked back....best move I ever made!
1
We have had enough apologies and breast beating. The Church's commission on child abuse has heard from countless victims. The only woman on the commission resigned in disgust at the lack of action. The Church leadership refuses to act. By all means those leaders who enabled, whether directly or indirectly, these abuses to go on should immediately resign, not just for show, but give up their power. Cardinals would no longer be eligible to vote for the next pope. But that is not enough. The Church should immediately eliminate the requirement that priests must be celibate, and embrace women into the priesthood. Only when the Church ceases to be an exclusive men's club with all its rights and privileges and monarchical trappings will the Church truly be fit to serve the People of God.
7
There are major shifts today in the religion business; the fundamentalist, prosperity and hate programs of American evangelicals are the most startling, and probably the most likely to damage our country and millions of lives. The fundamentalist ascendency in the Mideast, rotting into grotesque sectism and so forth. The troubles of the Catholic Church are neither new nor easily fixed. All that happens is that educated folk who believe in gender equality, medicine and responsible global environmental action, will leave the Church, which seems to have shifted it’s attention to the third world, and may be content to take losses in other sectors.
An historian of religion should be especially uneasy with knowing about the political and venal origins of the complex dogma that lingers. A person of, say, faith, should be absolutely torn by the inconsistency of it all. The rest of us are just beginning to admit that we’ve had enough, and want our secular country back.
6
Now is the time for all good women to come to the aid of the church; a paraphrase of an old typing phrase, but one that makes much sense in the church of today. Women should be admitted as priests. This alone would greatly help diminish the sexual preying so prevalent and the power vs. the powerless that continues in the church. Many, many women want to fully participate and are ready, willing and able to do so. It's time.
3
@marian passidomo
Women should be 'admitted' as priests? No!! Women should walk up onto that altar and exercise their right to be a part of the hierarchy and celebrate the Mass and the sacraments. The people have waited too long, women have waited, submissively, too long. Seize the day. Celebrate Mass.
@farhorizons Right! I agree
Well said! How can the Church ever recover while it continues to be governed exclusively by men who have taken a vow of celibacy? So much of their thinking and behavior is influenced and distorted by this clerical obligation and by the inevitable failure of so many to live it successfully. Two important consequences: 1-Their vow makes natural human sexual activity sinful for them, thereby effectively minimizing the important distinctions between it and other practices that may offer sexual gratification. 2- Celebrating celibacy implies a weakness in those who enjoy natural human sexual activity. This has historically fortified the authority of the clergy, establishing them as stronger, more virtuous, better than the faithful. And so it has tended to support and justify their damaging interference with the sex life of the faithful, married as well as unmarried.
3
I left the Catholic Church years ago. I cannot count myself as a card-carrying member of a religious organization that not only considers me spiritually inferior, but disdainfully so. It has also been a secret society for the most despicable of humans, if you can even call them that. Yes, there are good people in the church, and even good priests, but the system of cover-up amounts to a system of sanctioned and encouraged abuse. Consider it’s horrendous history- distant and more recent. I’m not convinced there isn’t still evil lurking in its ranks. It’s time for a complete overhaul, although I am not confident the male powers that be will allow it, lest they lose their firm grip on power.
7
A lovely long drink of koolaid.
We no longer tip the cap to Aztecs as having had a great idea with a few small bad practices woven in. We dismiss human sacrifice and it's octopus of related mumbo-jumbo nonsense as a sort of social psychosis having overtaken a people misled by their fellow mammals. This no doubt upsets the odd practitioner today, but we do that in the interests of truth and progress. Nobody writes articles defending the bloodletting as in need of fine tuning within the Aztec cosmology. Whether the approach is due to distance or reason, it's the right one. Some things are just not worth defending, and the Holy Roman Catholic & apostolic Church is one.
9
Requiring Priests and Nuns to be Celibate is probably a contributor to abuse by Priests. Little is publicized about abuse by Nuns. The Church should also allow Women to be ordained as Priests. Priests and Nuns should be allowed to marry, and if so inclined, to be in same sex relationships. Humans are sexual animals whether some want to accept that or not.
1
@John Warnock: As reasonable as your suggestions may be, none of them address the issue of pedophilia. Something more needs to be done about that.
I quit the catholic church as a teenager over 50 years ago.
The church does not consult governments on values or actions. It goes by its own teachings and the pope. This passively challening the government is applauded when the church operates a sanctuary from communism, dictatorships, etc. The Church also has its own views visa-vis democratic governments (see abortion.)
When the bishops first encountered priests who sinned by sexually engaging young people and/or children - how did they respond? -- confess your sins, do a penance - and you are forgiven. Go back to your duties and don't do it again.
But the forgive and stop did not work, and the issue grew - over generations. I am sure they felt attacked by the devil, but kept doing the forgive and pray - and I am sure that the abusing priests felt bad about what they were doing, but couldn't stop - and their behavior was reinforced by nothing bad happening to them - and they keep getting forgiven by an increasingoly distressed Church, who cannot figure out a way out of this mess. The Church always forgives in God's name - and they certainly would apply this forgiveness to their own faithful.
They did not know what to do; they could not reject the priests given the forgiveness to the faithful doctrine. They should have pulled those priests from circulation - and that is their failure -- but they were trying to handle a terrible quandry in a way consistant with their values.
2
@john cunningham: They had values that let them get away with anything and they consistently acted like that. There's no quandary to it.
3
From a young age I--like many people--have observed religion to be pretty immoral: it's plainly a means to extract money from and exert power over people by promoting fairly-tales.
But as I've gotten older, I've realized that many (perhaps most) people are simply incapable of behaving in a moral way (especially when no one is looking) without some threat of punishment. Also, I just plain *wish* I could believe, because it makes me more and more sad every day that I'll never see my friends and family ever again as they die.
That said, any religion that extracts money, exerts power, tells fairy-tales AND doesn't even provide a moral framework for its participants is just worthless.
It's past time to dump this garbage fire.
7
One would think that a devout Catholic who tithes a penny to the Roman Catholic Church is far more "complicit in sin" than one who refuses to sign a piece of government paper merely asserting—truthfully—that that devout person sincerely believes allowing someone else to rely on contraception is somehow an intrinsic evil (see, e.g., the Little Sisters of the Poor).
2
I am a 70 year old practicing Catholic and am ashamed and disturbed by this report. I was an alter boy in my youth, attended Cathlic grammar school, high school and college and never saw any evidence of inappropriate sexual conduct in all that time.
Having said that; the sexual assaults, coverups and lies noted in the PA report, scream for better control, criminal prosecution , greater oversight and transparency. The Catholic Church clergy has a high moral standard that they failed to live up to based on this report. Blind obedience is a dangerous concept.
In my opinion, the church is making itself irrelevant to today's younger adults by its actions and/or lack thereof. It needs to open up and allow married clergy, allow ordination of women , better screening of religious vocation candidates and return to its mission of spreading Christ's message. As an active Catholic, I call on the Vatican and the Pope to step up and take responsibility for fixing this ugly, unfortunate mess.
My heart goes out to all of the victims. May they get the justice that they so clearly deserve.
Going forward, I will not be contributing to my diocese and to any appeals by the Catholic Bishops. Money talks big in the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, the loss of money income will probably do more than the moral obligation owed to these innocent, defenseless victims.
This is a wake up call to the Catholic Church ,no different than the Protestant reformation.
9
This institution has no moral authority left. It cannot be reformed. It is in wreckage, as evidenced by the fact that more than a third of those in the U.S. born as Catholics have renounced it (even more in western Europe, where the church is dead except as a ceremonial vestige) and most of the remaining don't go to Mass weekly or follow church laws on matters like birth control. Few would trust a child unsupervised in the presence of a priest. To quote Monty Python's dead parrot sketch, it has " rung down the curtain and joined the bleedin' Choir Invisibile."
7
I have read that the future growth of Catholicism is in the "Undeveloped World". If it has taken all these years, after Boston in 2002, for this PA terror to come out, what must be happening in these "markets of opportunity" for the church? Who is watching there?
9
@Jack Frederick I was raised in the African catholic church (won't say which country) and I guarantee you it is happening there too. How do i know? because I was abused by a priest as a 12 year-old girl. And while i am still in the church (the Eucharist keeps me there), I know. know this is happening. except it's to little girls (probably boys too) but mostly girls who do not have the power to fight back and who are told that they are the "wives". It is known by the priest, the bishops and sometimes the families.
1
Cummings has reached her Spotlight moment. Glad to see it....
2
Faith without reason usually results in perverse patriarchy.
Can any religious business reform itself, especially one that relies on superstition and patriarchal, white male power trips?
If there were a God, one could just walk away and understand that God's judgement would serve the good and the evil as they deserve. But of course, there is no such mythic creature, and supporting the Church of Zeus or Apollo makes as much sense as bending a knee to the Catholic Church.
Krishnamurti had it right when he walked away from the church the religious profiteers were building for him, saying it was all rubbish.
All Empires fall, usually, because they internally, stop listening to the people and only listen to those of great wealth and power. Thus passes the Catholic Empire, as apparently, is the American Empire falling.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
7
Dear Kathleen: I cannot reach inside myself to find empathy with your story. Did it never occur to you; e.g., at any point after childhood, that the American Catholic Church was a empowered social institution relying on unquestionable obedience to retain it's exalted place? Did you not learn that the Church had existed as such in Western Civilization using the same tools for millenniums? Did you not see that any and all pleas for change and reform were crushed by such responses as, "How dare you ask!", "You do not understand the Mystery!" or "Be silent and have faith!"? As a Christian I have sympathy for you (Different than empathy). I'm more encouraged by the fact you've finally woken up.
5
The time to rip off the tablecloth happened long ago. Many, many progressive, feminist Catholic women have created a quiet revolution with thier feet, simply walking away from an ossified corrupt institution, seeking to nurture their faith with other communities and refusing to be complicit in the ongoing criminal, sick, and essentially unjust organization.
20
Much of the evil in the Catholic Church is rooted in the way that priests were ordained in the 20th century.
Young men as young as 13 were chosen and isolated throughout their teens during their postulancy. They were obviously too young to decide to become priests. Sex was both rampant and deeply shameful in seminaries, and it twisted these men up for the rest of their lives.
Their families and communities held them up as special, divine even, but inside they knew they were sinners. These young men were kept apart from women and were formed to believe that females are irrelevant or valuable only as servants.
Several generations of priests (at least!) were formed this way. What could go wrong?
4
All male Roman Catholic church leaders from Pope to parish priest have lost their legitimacy to proclaim Christ's teachings and God's will here on Earth.
Church dogma that claims that we all suffer from Original Sin from the time of Adam and Eve and that they, the church leaders, hold the keys to our salvation, does not stand up to the light of public exposure of an organized systemic pattern of clerical abuse and coverup in crimes against those who placed their faith and their loved ones in their hands.
We should not wait for Judgement Day to see Justice.
The Roman Catholic Church has a "sex problem."
Its religious doctrines about sexual behavior, sexual orientation, sexual abstinence, priestly celibacy, homosexuality, the inferior role of women, birth control, family planning, abortion, prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, and the treatment of women and children in their institutions are falsehoods.
The Biblical claim that God gave Man dominion over the Earth and all its creatures needs revision in light of human-induced climate change and human induced mass extinction of other species.
A modern Church Reformation is long overdue. Previous abuses of indulgences lead to the Luther's Protestant Reformation. The Church's rejection of Galileo's science continues today in what we have since learned about human beings and the DNA, RNA, we share with all creatures on this planet. A new paradigm is needed.
"Thoughts and prayers" and "faith alone" are not enough.
15
Ok gang, let's go over it again, what history has taught us.
1-Marx got it right, religion is a drug, or at least a form of a drug.
2-When taken in small doses it is like a glass of wine, very nice, makes you feel good.
3-When you go over the limit you get the dark ages, torture, sexual predators etc.
4-Like any group public or private that have leaders with God like authority there should be outside checks on them to monitor abuse.
5-Last but not least, it may take 50 yrs. or 500 yrs., but sooner or later religion will be acknowledged as a form of a drug and minors will be not allowed to participate in it till age 18 like is now with cigs, drinking, driving etc.
7
@Paul ok gang, how about some corrections?
1. Marx got so many things wrong that I don’t see why we should assume that he got this one right.
2. There isn’t a single human culture that doesn’t have a religion or some form of transcendental belief. This includes communist societies based on Marx’s teaching.
3. Not all sexual predators are religious and not all religious people are predators. No causation and hardly any correlation.
4. You can outlaw alcohol for minors but are you going to outlaw books as well? If not, how are you going to outlaw knowledge of religion? No Dante, Shakespeare, Dickens or Greek mythology for you until you are 18?
5. Incidentally, I’m an atheist. I just don’t like ignorance.
Yesterday the pope finally made a comment regarding these instances of abuse. I believe he proudly stated that there has been a drop off in abuse related conditions after 2002. It would appear to me that he is saying the clergy has found new and better ways to hide their pedophiles and rapists. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Jesus weeps.
17
I´ve lived in a predominately Catholic country for years which is also reeling from sexual abuse revelations and cover-ups, and this has been going on for years without resolution, allowing more victims to be harmed. Thanks to Papa Francisco´s visit to Chile, the lid on this can of worms has finally come off and the light of truth is being shined for all to see. Don´t ever underestimate the power of a male hierarchy trying to protect their way of life, and power. These people have long ago left the teachings of Jesus. Hit them where it hurts--leave the church.
4
Execution by hanging cannot be gradually improved by using velvet covered ropes. Tilting the heads sideways while apologizing or any similar action will hurt those who are still suffering the damage even more. What kind of messengers of God are these priests and what message are they bringing?
The many individual apologies and sounding ashamed are all akin to velvet covered noose.
3
I started reading this article hoping for something new, radical and implementable. However Ms Cummings ends up with the same old prescription. Lets study what is wrong and invite all participants to address us …. we are listening.
Another 10 years will pass. Balderdash. I would rather take some risks immediately. 1. Women can be ordained priests. 2. Priests may be married 3. Some portion of the immense wealth of the church will be distributed to the harmed.4. Bishops earnings/wealth will be somehow restricted to be more in line with biblical requirements. I am tired of the Bishop living in the most expensive surroundings in town. and yes 5. Do all that the author recommends.
3
Would any other institution in this country still exist if they had the record the Catholic Church has?
3
Professor Cummings misses the the conclusion that logic would seem to dictate: The Catholic god is either impotent of evil. A system rooted in superstition and magic is not sustainable in the real world. This piece reads like a case study in cognitive dissonance.
6
We all know what the problem is. Lifelong celibacy is like a life spent in strong sunlight. One is admired for the golden tan, but that's an illusion. The truth is the disease and damage that such a life is doing under the surface.
Let's get the Catholic clergy off the beach and declare celibacy a failed theology. And soon.
1
I first had problem with doctrine when I was about 16yrs. As a college freshman, the priest at Newman Club recommended that I put the unreasonable doctrine in brackets and continue to attend. He later left the priesthood and married. That was not unreasonable.
While I've always bristled at their view and treatment of women, their irrational view of birth control, their antediluvian view of a celibate priesthood which allows and attracts men who would abuse children came to a head one weekend when a priest from the Pontifical College Josephinum stood in for the parish priest and would not allow the pastoral associate, a nun, on the altar during mass. This, followed by the Supreme's Hobby Lobby decision in July 2014 put the lid on it. I haven't been to church since and think I was far too patient far too long.
I've often wondered how the church would fare if women quit doing the work.
I will not support a hypocritical men's club, willing to go to any length, to protect a corrupt institution.
21
The Catholic Church has been steadily losing parishioners the last couple of decades and with this new revelation on sexual abuse and the Pope's stand on capital punishment I'm afraid they will be losing still more.
Having grown up in a strict catholic environment I can understand the struggle to remain a catholic. I suppose I'm still a catholic in spirit, but not in practice and I regret believing some of the things I was taught in my youth.
1
More than anything though, as the author points out here, the Church remains the place where the Mystery of Christ is present in the flesh throughout the reality of the world. Yes to all of the assertions here that atonement must be made, but let's be careful not to disparage the entire Church because of human evil. Jesus is still viably present in it for the salvation of the world, and the worst thing we could do right now is doubt that because of the horrific magnitude of this problem (this is not the first time in history that that Church was a cesspool, yet God had persisted in using it as His instrument.) The point is, we all need to focus on the Mystery of God, and not put our hope in other human beings--Christ never intended that, and this problem serves to show all of us that the idolatry of reducing what should be our relationship with Jesus to clerical power is precisely that: idolatry, a worshiping of the Church and her forms, over the actual Christ. In this sense, the Protestant Reformation has a lot to teach Catholics, in that it attemped, for all of its own errors, to put Jesus before priests, hierarchy, and forms.
My family is not a religious one, but I was fortunate to have my daughters attend a wonderful Catholic high school, St. Pius X. I volunteered for many school functions and sat on several parent boards. At one of the board meetings, the other parents were horrified by my ignorance of the new requirements for Catholics who volunteered among "Vulnerable Persons", including high school students. I needed to inform the Archbishop's office so that a full criminal background report - at my expense - could be immediately performed. In addition, I had to present my financial records and my driving safety record for the past 5 years. I had to have specific training, watch a video and take a test. Only then should I have unsupervised contact with the students such as helping at rehearsals or in a language lab.
I agreed to do these things, but as I looked at the earnest faces of the good and dedicated people on that board I could not help but ask why the Archbishop required this of parents when it was the priests who committed the crimes. The result was silence and embarrassment for all.
As long as the Church pretends that its clergy are holy representatives of God and therefore above civil oversight, that sin is something for the laity to commit and the clergy to forgive, that women and children are subservient vessels, that the priestly boys' club is capable of meaningful reform, and the faithful support these lies, nothing will ever change.
45
@Shar: Too many people accept the misbehavior of government officials because the US is "under God".
The whole idea of post-mortal judgment by an immortal superhuman is a blatant lie enabling the worst kinds of criminality.
Kathleen, Your subtitle reflects a fundamental obstacle to reform. Calling these actions 'sin' constrains the subsequent response within a framework that only expects confession, repentence and so on. These actions are violent crimes that merit criminal indictment, trial, consequence in civic contexts. This church has intentionally constrained the narrative within their preferred frame, and the courts deferred. Please use crime as your technical definition, not sin.
16
I was an active member of my community's Catholic Church until the Sunday morning in 2002 when I came home to read The Boston Globe piece on Father John Geoghan. I haven't set foot in a Catholic church since that day.
What disturbed me most deeply is that the good people of the Church - and there are many - all remained, and still remain, part of the organization that is so clearly corrupt at the core.
How many inspiring homilies did I hear urging those of us who work in the private sector to take a stand against bad business practice and unethical behavior? Why have we seen no stories of priests leaving the Church in protest?
16
"Will we hear statements like these?"
No. It's the priestly caste, the entrenched notion of "a priest forever".
(The Marines think that way too, but if a Marine commits treason, he's a dead man if other Marines find him first. But apparently there's no such thing as priestly treason.)
Most Catholics now live inside their own parishes. They're pretty sure of their own priests, and the good, smart priests are careful to do nothing that gives the slightest impression of scandal.
Alec Guinness described something that happened to him while he was filming "Father Brown" in Burgundy. He was in costume as Chesteron's detective priest, and a French boy came up to him while he walking, took his hand and started talking to him. The boy didn't notice that Guinness didn't understand him, but went on talking, stopped, left and waved goodbye. The boy's friendly confidence in a strange priest so impressed Guinness that it started his own conversion to the faith. Sad to think that probably couldn't happen now.
1
Suggestion number one: open the clergy to women as well as men, yes, gay and straight! It goes without saying that the option to marry and be true to ones God-endowed orientation be as welcome to the clergy as to any of ‘the people of God’. As as reformed Catholic, aka a current catholic (read;universalist), ‘secular humanist’ , Episcopalian, I participated in an often painful transition that has left our Church in this century, looking forward and not backward to a history that fearfully and selfishly applied the brakes to the best of the Enlightenment..I believe we are far better placed to serve generations to come, rather than suffer the gradual attrition of scandal, anger, remorse and irrelevance, which is the Vatican’s current lot. This is a tragically missed opportunity in a world that cries out for moral leadership..
We’ve all heard the retort that liberal faiths have lost members and funding, which is the case for all secular humanistic faiths for a complexity of reasons that have to due with the dynamics of the more liberally inclined ‘people of God’. But what constitutes and promotes virtue is not up for plebecide...If the Church cannot function as a magisterium and lead, then it has lost its meaning, and its members will vote with their ‘feet’ directed out the doors!
The depths of evil that this two thousand year old, hierarchical, patriarchal organization has sunk to is almost beyond belief. It seems to this never-Catholic woman that the Roman Catholic Church exists not for the glory of God but for its very own self. My heart cries for the damaged children, for the damaged adults they have become, and even for the damaged adults who carried out these atrocities and hid them. I know many Catholics long for the beauty of the Mass, for the tradition running through their lives and family history that they never could imagine giving up. I know that these evils happen everywhere. It happened with a Boy Scout leader who also served as a youth adviser at my own mainstream Protestant church. But this RCC institution seems to loom largest in its hypocrisy of power and tradition over humble service and care. Repentance, always such a handy go-to solution, is not enough. It's time to kick the serpent out of the garden for good.
4
Excusing nothing in the Catholic Church, we should also explore why so many victims declare that they or their parents informed the police and still nothing was done.
I am sure it is because the Bishops exerted power with the police, but the civil authorities are also complicit in letting that happen.
7
Money is power. Withhold it and things will change. Those who continue to financially support this criminal institution are culpable. One cannot buy salvation. Give your charity to others more worthy.
2
This following statement appeared in the Times' morning Briefing: "Pope Francis has faced mounting criticism that he had a blind spot in dealing with the abuse of minors by clergy." How appropriate!
If the Vatican continues to be unresponsive to these charges, continues to waffle, then the courts of law need to step in with a vengeance.
One after another, Bishops are being accused and forced from office. That is clearly not enough. Punishment must be worthy of the crime committed enough to appease those who have been abused.
Next, the inclusion of women into the priesthood, allowing priests to marry, ridding the demand for celibacy, in other words, a thorough modernization of priesthood is a first priority.
If the Catholic Church is supposed to speak for God, let them act that way. Right now they are disgraceful.
7
It is my opinion that forced celibacy is at the root of the problem. The time is way overdue to give priests the option to marry, or not marry if they so choose. Over the last several decades, our Diocese has lost some of its best clergy because they wanted to marry and have a family. What makes me think celibacy is the root is that I don't hear much about pedophilia being a problem in male religious orders where men have freely chosen to take a vow of chastity.
Excellent opinion piece! When is the Catholic Church going to wake up and realize that its boys' club structure and celibacy are at the root of its priests' frustration and subsequent sexual deviance? Allowing priests to marry and thereby live normal and healthy family lives and more fully integrate into communities, and opening up the clergy to women, should be the starting points of the Church's much-needed reform.
Sadly the failure of leadership is not limited to the Catholic Church. It is the case in local, state and federal government in the US. Failure of leadership is obvious in private corporations that pay their CEO's 350 times as much as their average workers. Universities' leadership is impoverishing students with outlandish tuition and fees. Airlines are treating passengers like cattle-because they can. Their is a fundamental failure at the root of the culture and society of the US that is largely a result of greed, selfishness and the pursuit of pleasure, wealth, and security.
5
I believe that the time has come to recognize a great fallacy in the Order of Priests, Celibacy and the Vow of Chastity, since this has unfortunately attracted many people with enormous psychiatric disorders, who have seen the priesthood as an opportunity and refuge under the mantle of protection offered by the church itself. If we open the possibility of including women and married people to the priesthood of our church, not only will the Catholic Church be revolutionized according to the sincere demand of the majority of its faithful, but it will also restore faith and the confidence that it requires to recover our church The Catholic Church owes this reform to the memory of our savior, Jesus Christ.
I still don't get the fervent defense if the church by the faithful. If those were my kids, or nephews, cousins, whatever, I would be very, very upset. It appears that for the past 15, maybe 20 years, they've been lying to their members, the victims, the courts, and protecting these child molesters, and trying to keep this all hushed up. I just love the transparency of the church. And they still tried to keep the recent results quiet.
2
Indeed there is holiness in the Church; however, it is now impossible to respect the current leaders with the exception of Pope Francis. All active Cardinals, especially Timothy Dolan must be vetted for complicity. A total cleaning house is the only way to resume any level of credibility.
1
To me celibacy is mastery over the animal impulses we all have. This includes sexual urges, angry outbursts, greed, sloth, and so on. This mastery is achieved through practicing restraint to begin with, struggling with our primitive desires, but later is refined through understanding and reorientation. This process should be modeled by spiritual teachers and taught to the young. Celibacy should be a stage we all strive for and not just for male clergy. It shouldn’t mean absence of all sex, for example, it should mead conscious, appropriate sex. If looked at it from this orientation, there need not be just male clergy. Marriage should be no problem. The Church got it wrong when it required men to “marry” the Church. Ideally we should all strive to not let our primitive impulses be our god.
I too have a lot to be thankful for to the Catholic Church. I received an outstanding education that sustained me throughout my life. I have also met those who I consider gifts from God who selflessly serve other for nothing more that the good of it. I wish that my belief as a child that the clergy were God's own representatives was true but sadly it is not. In fact, many who we all thought were Jesus' Disciples were in fact the minions of Lucifer. How anyone could stand at the altar and profess Jesus' teachings while secretly abusing and raping children for their own twisted desires is beyond my understanding. There were so many who used their perceived power to prey on others, one has to ask if that was their intent when they joined the clergy in the first place. More troubling are those members of the Church who were not engaged in the abuse but enabled it. I agree that there needs to be a wholesale reorganization of the Church. Firstly, the ban on marriage for priests is ridiculous and is historically wrong. The Church imposed such a ban to prevent members properties from devolving to their heirs instead of the Church. The first Pope was married and so were most of the clergy. In addition, women should be allowed to become priests. Inspiration, faith has and a close relationship with God has no gender. There are many Sisters that I have known who would have made awesome priests. As of now, I cannot go into a Catholic Church until it is holy in reality.
7
Saying "but my church does good things, too" is like an abused person saying "but my abuser does good things, too." Every single Catholic must demand zero tolerance for abuse, total transparency on investigations, a stop to the efforts to thwart increasing the statute of limitations for victims and accountability for the identified abusers. Otherwise, Catholics are enabling and abetting horrific human rights violations. The Catholic Church would have no power to abuse if it weren't for Catholics' participation and support. Silence is complicity. And that goes for all religions whose leadership normalizes and enables human rights violations.
15
Absolutely, Kathleen! The transformation comes from the implosion that is happening and people like you who remind us of the authentic power we have to propel a hurting church into something once again credible. It won’t be the clerical club that lead the charge. In fact, they need to get out of the way, listen, and be a witness to the spirit of change that tired Catholics like ourselves bring about.
The church is only as strong as its priests. It can no longer recruit and retain enough good ones. The denominations that allow marriage have their own problems with infidelity, but are able to deal with them. Most are still afflicted with sexism, though. Christians after all are programmed for two millennia to put their faith in males. Name one televangelist who is a woman.
There will never be a Pope Frances, but maybe the men of the church can solve their staffing needs with greater use of technology. Video services, and altar robots.
“People can point out, and they surely will, that the Catholic Church has not cornered the market on sexual abuse of children and young people. Yes, I realize that.”
Really?? It actually does seem to have cornered that market rather well. A steady stream of victims supplied plus immunity for transgressions..... Sounds like a corner on the market to me. This statement is way too forgiving. If there exists other institutions embroiled as such in child abuse they need to be called out as well.
1
For ex-Catholics, Public Relations Is No Longer An Option
Each time another sickening cover-up by this tax-exempt cabal is revealed, I am reminded of gun massacres, in the aftermath of which pious hypocrites offer their thoughts and prayers. And then there's another one. Rinse and repeat.
Until his recent death, Bernard Law continued to have a job within the basilica of Catholic goodness. A nice one, from what I hear.
What other organization could knowingly do such societal harm, protect multiple miscreants, only to emerge unscathed from any and every revelation of that corruption?
Assuming that the straight-faced assurances of my catechism teachers about the Founder are true, how can any adherents of the subsequent malevolent distortion of his simple loving precepts imagine that He would regard them with anything but revulsion?
The time for a root canal, if ever, to save this archaic charade was when Luther pinned his theses to the church door. Although the edits Luther and Calvin came up with were anything but an improvement.
Remember, in the Western world we elevate our medicine men to divine status and then look determinedly the other way when they turn out not to be touched by the divine after all. We dub them holy, and then we are shocked. Shocked.
So, until next time ... we offer our thoughts and prayers.
1
In 2002 I found brochures supporting the War in Iraq in my pew at my local Catholic Church. I left and have never returned. The church is corrupt from inside to out and politics have won the war for souls. Catholics serve on the Supreme Court, as Governors, and Senators and Representatives. They use religion to gain power and care less about morality. The priests are then protected from the law, and the people go along with the reprehensible behavior. Close the church and start over.
I’ve always disliked the word “sin.” In this piece, it is especially inappropriate and inadequate. It should be more accurately replaced by “crime” or “institutional degeneracy” or, “mental illness.”
2
We can talk all we want about change within the Church, but unless there is fundamental change, it is just talk. Fundamental change is not a vow to do more to protect children and to remove abusive clergy. Change is ending the system where clergy are uniformly male, celibate and unmarried. If the Church of Rome, my Church from birth, needs an example showing this can work, it need only look to the Church of England in America, the Episcopal Church, which calls its priests that celebrate the mass - yes, the same mass celebrated by Roman Catholics - ‘Father’ ... and ‘Mother’. Most Episcopal clergy have, unlike their Roman counterparts, held their own child moments after birth and so know first hand how precious that child is. They do not need a vow to better protect children, they are living exemplars. And in the Episcopal Church, ironically, bishops (the only hierarchy that exists) have no power. The congregation calls and dismisses its priests. Once discovered, an abusive priest has few if any protectors. And since Episcopal priests need not be celibate and may marry (with the same marriage equality enjoyed by all Americans) it is far less likely they will seek out the vulnerable to satisfy their needs. Pope Francis: you know what you must do to save our Church. Please. Please.
5
Kathleen, Peace. You have conveyed strong feeling and insightful arguments. As a refugee from the Catholic culture, I have found that deep genuine faith is when we have the courage to seek the Holy Spirit outside of the corrupt institution. Child abuse and rape are pervasive in all religious institutions; over 55 years of adult life, I have seen it in all religious institutions. The darkness is in all of us. But the Catholic Church objectively speaking is, in ways we do not understand, amplifying this darkness. The seductions of music, art, beautiful vestments, alluring rituals, words that cloud our rationality, myths that are poisoned, again, in ways we do not understand corrupt. Catholic culture at least offer a tip of the hat to the "Mother of God" to blunt the demeaning of the feminine. Yet look at the narcissism of opulent spending on itself; priests driving top of the line luxury cars, living in luxury homes, feasting daily to gluttony and alcoholism, living a life of luxury....not all, but too many. History tells us that there is rot in the RCC not only because of our rotten nature but because, again, it amplifies that rot. My friends who have been destroyed by sexual abuse by Priests will never recover. It is the Church's elevation of these humans to priesthood and beyond to such a high level that the abuse and betrayal destroys souls. My overall perspective is that a healthy psyche thrives outside of institutions that poison love and but magnify evil.
4
@John
I like your phrase, "refuge from catholic culture."
It is over, isn’t it? Victimizers seek a secret complicity from the public, don’t they? Inaction now can only be interpreted as acceptance, won’t it? This was the agency that they sought, wasn’t it? So they will just have to do it again, won’t they? The cold aligning of the particles of self
which can only be defeated by an explosion of anger is the realization that it will happen again. Won’t it? The collective anger I read about.
I bet that is the anger that the victims use when the cold separation finds them. The anger that gets them kicked out of schools. That ruins their marriages. That makes them the problem. Now the whole community is the problem. We can stop it here, can’t we?
1
What do the Catholics, the Sunnis, the Shiites or the orthodox Jews have in common?
All of them have distorted the views of their beloved Prophets and the very essence of faith.
Jesus, Mohammed and Moses have never said a single word about the Catholicism, the Sunnism, the Shi’ism or the Orthodoxy.
Who created it? The people who lived many decades or centuries after those history-changing events. In the same way today’s politicians proclaim that their personal views represent the entire nation, the ancient clergy declared in the identical manner that they represent the Almighty here on the Earth and that their words are identical to God’s will.
What did they actually accomplish in such a way?
They misconstrued their local ancient cultures for the faith.
The Prophets knew perfectly well that the principles of faith are eternal. In order to be universal and permanent, those principles should have been free from any local ingredients, customs, habits and dogmas, meaning in those specific cases from the ancient Jewish, Roman, Greek or Arabic culture.
The people are killing each other on large scale not because they believe in different God or have different system of values but because they have different clergy, personal names and alphabets.
That’s not the essence of faith and it will never be.
The true faith is never anachronous, rigid or conservative but just the human understandings from the Old Age...
Add to your fantastical and impossible, though lovely, end-statement, "And we will abolish the celibacy requirement", and "promise to hand over to the police any known offenders effective immediately, even if it results in the closure of thousands of parishes around the world."
1
This isn't a "Catholic" problem. This is a national problem. We as a society are left to pick up the pieces of these shattered lives who need therapy and medical assistance. We are responsible for the victims who turn to drugs and alcohol to ease their pain. We are forced to address the cycle when the victim becomes an abuser. Enough. Pull the tax exempt status of the Catholic church. and use the money to conduct state by state investigations of every parish and priest. Publish the findings. Prosecute when necessary. Thousands of children in one state have been abused. And the Catholics continue to dither.
4
@Kristine
I'm beginning to think that no organization--not churches, not nonprofits, none of them should be tax exempt. Churches now have enormous endowments managed by fund managers; they are no longer charity cases.
4