As has been widely reported, including here at NewGathering, within the next two weeks the Catholic Church will initiate a worldwide synodal process, which will culminate in a synod of the bishops of the world in 2023. The topic of this synodal journey is synodality itself. It seems Francis's hope is that, through this journey, the church will discern a synodal way of making decisions. The synodal way will involve consulting with the whole people of God, carefully listening, and trying to discern the will of the Holy Spirit. In these ways, it is profoundly in the spirit of Vatican II.
In June, 1985, National Catholic Reporter broke the story of sexual abuse of minors committed by Rev. Gilbert Gauthe of the diocese of Lafayette, LA. Since then, stories have been broken periodically from virtually every region and corner of the church. This week, in 2021, news continues to break - most recently in France. This period of 36 years (so far) of breaking bad news covers virtually the entire span of my adult life.
It has been abundantly clear, for many years now, that the church authorities are not able to get ahead of this story. There are many reasons for this, some of them rooted in the nature of bureaucracy, some of them in the nature of church culture, organization and structure, some of them due to bad decisions and poor judgment. Much of it is an attempt, perhaps misbegotten, to avoid lawsuits and their attendant devastating publicity and ruinous payouts.
What we have witnessed over the last three+ decades is one failed attempt after another by church authorities and their advisers to control the story of the sexual abuse of minors. It's past time to conclude that these stories are not manageable. The bad news of clerical sexual abuse is too toxic to be contained. The sex abuse story is an untamable dragon.
Francis's proposal to establish a synodal way offers the church a fresh way to try to address the problem of sexual abuse which has occurred in its past. A synodal way would be, in some ways, the opposite of the control-and-conceal managerial approach which has failed so spectacularly until now. A synodal approach would require that church authorities meet with victims, and then try to discern what to do about their testimony. It would require that the authorities listen to the entire people of God about the problem. And it would require them to be open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
A synodal path doesn't guarantee that the church finally will get in front of the story of the sexual abuse of minors. But all the other ways the church has tried so far have failed. Why not give synodality a try?
"But all the other ways the church has tried so far have failed. Why not give synodality a try?" Yes, it is worth trying. And while we're at it, the things tried by the victim organizations and the legal system; lawsuits and money payouts; are failures too. "When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."
ReplyDelete"And while we're at it, the things tried by the victim organizations and the legal system; lawsuits and money payouts; are failures too."
DeleteI think it's kind of a two-edged sword. On the one hand, advocacy on behalf of victims, including lawsuits and the bringing about of adverse publicity to embarrass and shame the church authorities, certainly has started the ball rolling to bring to light much that otherwise would remain hidden.
On the other hand, the desire to avoid lawsuits and adverse publicity is a powerful incentive for church authorities to cover up, minimize, blame the victim and so on. The relationship between church and victims becomes adversarial and dysfunctional.
Jim, I added a comment to the thread on the French abuse report. Based on my personal anecdotal knowledge of a case of abuse, (my friend), an open attempt at abuse ( my brother), and what I eventually came to believe was a systematic grooming of my son (and of me) - none of which were reported to anyone- I think the reported cases are a considerable undercount of actual cases and attempted abuse.
ReplyDeleteThe original John Jay report was riddled with problems, the most flagrant being that the researchers were not given full access to the files by Bishops. They received only what the bishops allowed them to see.
The bishops hired two well known people in a row to head the investigation. Both quit in utter frustration, one of whom compared the bishops to mob bosses because of their behavior and efforts to hide the truth. The official result was that it was the same percentage of abuse as is found elsewhere - among school staffs, families, etc. No worse. But when Boston, Philadelphia, and other prosecutors finally managed to get their hands on the files through legal action, the per cent of abusing priests in the dioceses was double that reported by the John Jay report. Someone wrote a book about the history of sexual abuse in the church - it is longstanding, going back centuries. I’ll try to find the name and author.
Right now I don't think that most dioceses, and/or episcopal conferences have the enough experience in walking together with the laity let alone with victims to be able to use a synod to improve things.
ReplyDeleteThe whole synod on synods is designed to get us experience so that we become better at walking together.
I think that reporters, victims and even lawyers have done a better job at improving things than the bishops, clergy and Catholic laity.