[net-gold] RELIGION: CHRISTIAN: CATHOLIC: Crisis in the Catholic Church
- From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Mon, 21 May 2012 14:21:37 -0400 (EDT)
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RELIGION: CHRISTIAN: CATHOLIC:
Crisis in the Catholic Church
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Crisis in the Catholic Church
Published May 18, 2012
By Tony Coady
Practical Ethics
Ethics in the News
University of Oxford
http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2012/05/
crisis-in-the-catholic-church/
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A shorter URL for the above link:
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http://tinyurl.com/6mo5xja
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In the early years of Queen Victorias reign, the famous Protestant
historian Thomas Macaulay wrote admiringly of the Church of Rome and the
Papacy commending their ancient lineage and current vitality. He saw no
signs of decline and speculated that the Church may still exist in
undiminished vigour when some traveller from New Zealand shall, in the
midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge
to sketch the ruins of St. Pauls.
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Today, Macauleys assessment seems unduly optimistic. Scandals about
clerical sexual abuse of children and the associated official evasion of
responsibility as well as inflexible attitudes to so many of the values
and dilemmas of the contemporary world have combined to undermine to a
large extent the confident self-image and apparent cohesion that helped
sustain the durability and vigour that enchanted Macaulay. Following a
series of alarming revelations about the extent of clerical sex abuse in
Ireland and the gross inadequacy of the hierarchys responses to it,
coupled with the Irish Prime Ministers strong denunciation of the official
Churchs record on the matter, the recent BBC program The Shame of the
Catholic Church (broadcast 2/5/12) added further fuel to the blaze.
Although the broadcast was primarily concerned with the abuse and evasion
of church authority it also indicated the depth of the wider crisis in the
Church.
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The program concentrated on specific instances in the Irish clerical
establishments disgraceful failures to detect, acknowledge and prevent the
wave of sex abuse by Irish priests over at least the last 50 years. It
highlighted the role of the present Primate of Ireland, Cardinal Sean
Brady in a 1975 inquiry into allegations of child abuse against the man
who proved to be a serial sex offender, Fr. Brendan Smyth. There have been
calls for the Cardinal to resign over the inquirys several deficiencies,
including a failure to inform parents of the allegations their children
made and a failure to deal adequately with Smyth who continued cheerfully
on his depraved ways while being moved around the country. It is yet
another case adding to the pile of evidence from many countries that the
official Church put its reputation and standing far above the safety of
the children in her care and the respect due to their parents. A
consequence of this has been a marked culture shift away from the
instinctive trust, deference and respect for priests and bishops which was
traditional in Ireland. In other places where clerical sex abuse has been
inadequately dealt with a similar shift can be observed, though the change
is a move away from an initially less respectful position.
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But although the facts of the ghastly epidemic of clerical sex abuse of
minors and of the hierarchical failures in reporting or dealing with the
abuses have been major factors in the dramatic decline in clerical
authority and respect over the past 40-odd years, there have been many
other factors undermining that authority. The papal encyclical Humanae
Vitae of 1968 reasserting the standard ban on artificial contraception has
been confirmed by the passing of the years as a crucial turning point in
the Churchs grip upon the obedience of Catholics, since it is clear that a
vast majority of Catholic laypeople disregard the ban with no compunction
and that hardly any clergy in the industrially advanced world advert to it
in their preaching. But loss of authority on this matter has simply
reinforced the determination of church leaders to hold the fort on a range
of disciplinary and doctrinal issues that the reforms of Vatican Council
II opened the way to review.
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The Vatican Response
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The Vatican response to the spread of critical questioning from within has
been to exercise what power it has to suppress ruthlessly any signs of
dissent, even the mildest. Since the laity is these days largely immune to
ecclesiastically imposed sanctions, the primary focus for the exercise of
brutal power has been on the clergy (with occasional less effective forays
against politicians).
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Additional Topics Discussed in This Article:
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An Australian Case
Those Troublesome Nuns
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As is commonly the case in organizations dominated by men, the Churchs top
officials are especially apprehensive about the thoughts and conduct of
the women in the ranks, especially the nuns. The case of Sister McBride
discussed below is instructive, but even more significant is the recent
Vatican move against the United States Leadership Conference of Women
Religious (USLCWR). Since the liberalizing winds of Vatican II, the
various orders of nuns have been in the forefront of new thinking and
fresh policies in religious life. The Vatican had been investigating the
feisty American ladies for some time and the result is that their major
organization has now been placed under the guidance and oversight of,
guess what, a MAN, the Archbishop of Seattle.
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Policing the Ban on Abortion
Church and State issues
The Resistance to Change and its Future
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In the era of Pope Benedict XVI (and for that matter his predecessor) the
hope for such turbulent renovation may seem very dim. I would certainly
not be confident of an early transition, but there are several factors
that make for a small degree of optimism. One is the great decline in
vocations to the priesthood and religious in the industrialised world
indicating that, outside the poorer, largely pre-modern regions of the
world, the incumbent image makes little appeal. Another is the battering
that the idealised holy Mother Church has received from the treachery of
the sex abuse scandals; this betrayal of trust, though not directly
connected with doctrinal matters, did show up the degree of hypocrisy
associated with much of the public clerical stance on sexual matters (some
of the worst abusers were loud in their denunciation of condoms and in
promotion of family values). In fact, the insensitivity and confusion of
the hierarchys attitudes to clerical child abuse was highlighted by the
recent Vatican document revising canonical rules for dealing with the
matter. The revised list of rules also treated attempts to ordain women
priests as a grave crime suggesting that it was somehow in the same
category as brutal raping of a child. Vatican spokesmen denied this
implication, describing the attempt at female ordinations as a sacramental
crime rather than an egregious violation of moral law, but the damage had
already been done (See Vatican Revises Church Law on Sex Abuse, National
Catholic Reporter, July 15, 2010). A third concerns the fact that not only
are very many laypeople who still describe themselves as Catholic
alienated from or indifferent to official teachings on the morality of
sex, abortion, euthanasia, the role of women and much else to do with
personal morality, but a great number of theologically literate clergy and
laity are impatient with the rigidity of what one theologian has called
Vatican theology. Rome wasnt built in a day and it wont be reformed in a
day, but massive, top-down political structures have a way of unexpectedly
collapsing under the weight of their own incapacity to adapt to changed
environmental forces, as we saw with the demise of the Soviet Union. The
Catholic Church may well prove as vigorous and durable as Macaulay
anticipated, but that is likely only if the edifice is subject to
extensive repair.
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The complete article may be read at the URL above.
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Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jwne@xxxxxxxxxx
http://workface.com/e/daviddillard
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