Of the many editorials, op-eds, and other opinion pieces on the sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy scandal that is so troubling to me and many other Catholics, I think I like this Washington Post op-ed by Lawrence Downes the best. I agree with this passage:
I’ll pray and wait for more priests and bishops and cardinals to go to prison, for state legislators to suspend statutes of limitations and throw the courthouses open to civil suits, so survivors can take the attackers and the enablers for all they’ve got.
I will wait for acts of public penitence by the leaders of the church, for them to kneel in front of their victims and beg forgiveness, starting with my own recently retired local bishop, William Murphy.
And I guess I’ll go to Mass. I’ll be there on Long Island on Sunday morning, at 10:30, with my sister-in-law and all us other sinners. Some of us will be listening, waiting for the priest to confront what is surely the worst crisis in this church in his and our lifetimes. We in the pews are all part of the body of Christ, but he is the one up front, God’s representative on Earth and the bishop’s employee , the one with the paycheck and the uniform, the one who runs our weekly meetings, 52 times a year, to celebrate the sacrament and guide us on issues of faith and morals.
It’s his job to lead us through this, to help us understand the church’s failings, to explain what happened and how justice will be done — if it will be done — and to tell this to our faces.
I commend the piece to our attention. It is free of many of the flaws of other pieces.
That is a very good piece.
The part about civil suits bothers me though, because ultimately the faithful parishioners pay the price. Among other things, I feel that this is one thing the laity should demand: full disclosure about past settlements and not one more penny from our offerings to go toward hush money or civil lawsuits. The episcopate must trim their lavish lifestyle and use the budgetary savings to pay these settlements- and it goes without saying, to stop committing crimes that require them to make settlements in the future.
The die is cast on the civil suits. Those are sunk costs at this point. Probably every diocese will end up bankrupt and it’s entirely the clergy’s fault. Francis really needs to step in sooner rather than later.
You have more faith in Francis than I do but I’ll pray that he is up to the task at hand.
My favorite priest, father Guido Sarducci, used to say that even if you were mad at the Church, you should never officially give up your membership. At some point when the Church goes under they are going to sell off all of those old paintings and statues, plus all of the Church properties. That’s got to be worth at least a $1000 per member. Now, if we get a bunch of civil suits, not so sure about that.
Steve
Don Novello’s characterization always reminded me of my high school teachers. Except for the Italian accent. Everything else including the cigarette, the cassock, the cynicism, the wisecracking, and so on is just like my Jebbie high school teachers.