Introduction
The revelation that there are credible charges sexual against someone who managed to become a cardinal and the discovery that some bishops concealed cases of sexual abuse instead of reporting them to the proper authority was shocking. Those bishops brought harm to individual victims and their families. Moreover, despite doing so to protect the “good name of the Church” they actually failed to achieve that: if the bishops had promptly done what they were morally obligated to, the brief embarrassment over the publicity of turning predators over to the proper authorities would have been outweighed in the long run by establishing the credibility of the Church as protecting the victims. Now that stain will last for decades, if not centuries.
However, despite the anger and disgust over this mishandling of the sexual abuse crisis, we need to keep some facts in mind if we are to have a just response. None of these points should be seen as trying to “explain away” the evil done. Rather they are aimed at reflecting on things constantly repeated on social media and mentioning things that I think we should remember.
1) Sexual abuse is not exclusively a Catholic sin
The Catholic Church is singled out for the predator priests. But the percentage of priests who abuse is roughly the same as sexual abuse in non Catholic churches and non Christian institutions. Statistically speaking, the greatest source of abuse are the public schools. That’s understandable. Predators seek out positions of trust that give access to their victims. If that position is so respectable that people would immediately think the victims are lying, then they can do a lot of harm without being detected. Because nobody believes the victim, patterns that should have tipped off those in authority are ignored.
But we can’t say that if the Catholic Church didn’t exist, we wouldn’t have any abusers.
2) The fact that it’s not excusively Catholic doesn’t excuse us
A victim won’t feel comfort over the fact that it was just as likely to happen elsewhere. The fact is it shouldn’t have happened here at all. Yes the numbers are statistically small. But even one case in 2000 years would be shameful. Even if the the world ignores everybody but us, we still have an obligation to fix our part in it.
3) Statutes of Limitstions have mostly run out
Why aren’t McCarrick and the priests named in the Pennsylvania report facing criminal charges? Because there is a time limit on how long the state has to press charges. While the limitations vary by state, few crimes have no limits. Murder is one of them. Others vary widely depending on the state. So, crimes dating from the 1940s to the 1980s (probably later than that) can’t be prosecuted.
One thing that gets brought up is why don’t the bishops support extending the statute of limitations? The problem is, under criminal law, extending the statute of limitations violates the Constitutional ban on ex post facto laws. Apparently the state can extend the statute of limitations on civil lawsuits. The problem is, the proposed laws excludes state run institutions. Public schools, the institutions with the highest rates of abuse, have been consistently been protected.
4) Vatican City can’t arrest and prosecute for crimes committed outside Vatican City
If McCarrick had committed his crimes in the Vatican, he could very well have been prosecuted there (like the Vatileaks). But they can’t prosecute him for crimes he committed elsewhere. All they can do is hold a canonical trial imposing Church sanctions. The problem is, if a person refuses to follow the sanctions, the Church can’t do anything except excommunicate him. If such a person doesn’t care about that penalty, the Church can only leave such a one to God.
5) Just because “everybody knows” something that doesn’t always mean the authorities know
A few weeks ago I was listening to a NPR news story about sexual abuse from a school team doctor. The former student said that when he talked it over with fellow teammates, the general reaction was that this was something that the freshmen went through. It was treated like a big joke...but nobody reported it to authorities.
That came to mind when I heard the “everybody knew about it” regarding Catholic scandals. People may widely talk about it among themselves, but it doesn’t mean that they included the police among those they spoke to. It doesn’t mean that bishops were given usable information that they could act on.
I’m not saying this explains everything. There are reports of bishops who did knowingly try to hide the problem. Those bishops will need to have their actions addressed.
6) Not all bishops were involved in a deliberate coverup
We know some bishops preferred to conceal the truth and move predator priests around. But not all did. Some seem to have thought that such behavior involved a fixation with a specific person and moving the priest away from the victim would end the crime. Some followed the advice of psychologists and had the priest treated, believing the experts when they said the problem priest was “cured.” Others became bishop after the problem was in place and were surprised to learn when a laicized priest under their authority made the news. Finally, we had the bishops who took action when they discovered problems.
Each of those cases involve different levels of culpability and how they are treated should reflect that.
7) One of the major problems seems to have been communication
There are numerous stories going around about complaints being made that went nowhere. Whether they went to the right place but lacked actionable information, whether they got diverted en route, or whether there was another reason, it seems like problems in a country’s Church tended to be kept in country. In the Barrios case in Chile, the Pope seemed to sincerely believe that there was no credible evidence against him. Once he found out otherwise, he acted swiftly.
I’m of the view that, whatever reforms are made, we definitely need one that gets complaints to where they need to be with no possibility of being misdirected, concealed, or lost.
8) In some countries, there seems to have been mistrust over involving the state
In the 19th and 20th centuries, relations between Church and state were strained. There was mistrust against what the state might try to do if involved. The result was some bishops preferred to keep the state out. I have read that Ireland’s bishops decided not to report to the government because canon law did not require them to...something that needs to be corrected.
Yes, some governments exceed their rightful authority. Australia’s attempt to abolish the seal of confession is one example. Yes, the Church does have a right and responsibility to protect herself from that. But the Church does need to set out rules on cooperation with the state on reporting crimes that apply no matter what level of hostility the state has.
9) Real Reform takes time
We live in a society that demands instant results. But often the instant results we demand turn out to be unjust once we have more information. We now know that certain procedures didn’t work and need to be reformed. But making good reforms without exploits will take time: time to investigate how things went wrong, time to investigate how to make them right, time to turn them into canon law. If we don’t do that, we’ll have to deal with more problems down the line.
10) The Church still must carry out the Great Commission and deal with other problems
When the Pope issues statements pertaining to issues other than the abuse scandal, some Catholics get angry. “He should focus on this and nothing else until it’s solved!” But that doesn’t work. The Church exists as Our Lord’s ordinary means of bringing salvation to the world. That means she must address other evils that endanger people’s salvation and teach us on things that we wrongly think are “unimportant” based on our ideology.
It means we must not drop important issues. For example, I think that archbishop Chaput is a good bishop for the most part. I found his Render unto Caesar very helpful in dealing with Church and state. But I disagree with his call to set aside the upcoming synod on youth and replacing it with a synod on bishops. Yes, we do need a synod on Bishops. But such synods take time—usually 2 years—to set up (see #9 above). In the meantime, the Pope realizes the need for a synod on youth, to keep them in the Church and out of the “nones” category. That’s a real issue that won’t go away while we work on the scandal.
Yes, people inside and outside the Church may accuse us of “ignoring” the abuse issue or “having no credibility now.” But the Church has to deal with these issues regardless of what scandals arise.
Conclusion
Nothing in what I write should be interpreted as supporting “business as usual” or not caring about the scandal. If someone believes I do, they have grossly missed my point.
But with all the anger out there, it seems that many on social media are not thinking things through. They assume the worst of the Church. Whoever does not say what the critics want them to say are “lying” or “stonewalling.” This article reflects my combox debates with angry people who seem to see only part of the issue.
Yes, let’s work for just reform according to the rights and responsibilities of canon 212.
But let us also be aware of things that the Church cannot ignore or neglect in carrying out reform.
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