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March 05, 2004
What's to Blame?
Interesting article from the UK Tablet on the sexual abuse report, focusing on the flashpoint of some of our discussions here. Personal or systemic sin? Or both?
“PIU difettoso, il migliore,” as they say in Rome: “The worse, the better.” The very awfulness of the report made it, at first, welcome reading within the Curia. If so many parish priests were really violating their vow of celibacy with boys, then a stern reinforcement of clerical discipline from above was all the more necessary. Soon, however, as public outrage became strident, the Holy See backed off, in its usual stately fashion. The Pope suggested that after all only those guilty “as a long-standing practice or with many males” needed be unfrocked; other priests, who had subsequently “curbed their desires” and “atoned for their infamous deeds with proper repentance”, might continue in parish ministry. The author of the report responded furiously, for he maintained that the rot ran deep. Not only lecherous clergy but the “do-nothing superiors of clerics and priests” were “partners in the guilt of others” by permitting “the destructive plague” to continue: the Church must be reformed! Rome turned frosty…The year was 1050, the report was racily entitled Liber Gomorrhianus, its author was Peter Damian, the Pope was Leo IX.
Which of them was right? Peter and Leo are both saints now, yet Peter and Leo were at loggerheads about what to do with pederastic priests, because they were at loggerheads about what the scandal meant: whether it was merely slackness in discipline, or whether it was the sign of a crisis deep in the soul of the Church.
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Comments
Ludicrous. St. Peter Damian's "analysis" began with scripture, namely the scriptural analysis of homosexuality: that it begins with an exchange of the truth about God for a lie, for which the liars are given over to their passions: “by the just decree of God they fall into interior darkness.”16
If they were humble they would be able to find the door that is Christ, but they are blinded by their “arrogance and conceit,” and “lose Christ because of their addiction to sin,” never finding “the gate that leads to the heavenly dwelling of the saints,” Damian laments.17 Not sparing those ecclesiastics who knowingly permit sodomites to enter holy orders or remain in clerical ranks while continuing to pollute their office, the holy monk lashes out at “do-nothing superiors of clerics and priests,” reminding them that they should be trembling for themselves because they have become “partners in the guilt of others,” by permitting “the destructive plague” of sodomy to continue in their ranks.18"
The answer to this is not to post yet another new "orientation", "clerical homosexual child abusers" alongside the ebebophiles, pedophiles and homosexuals, as a pretext for again attempting to deny that the problem is homosexuals, but to actually look at what Peter Damian actually says.
Posted by: al at Mar 5, 2004 9:42:57 AM
You know, this is something that troubles me.
I have heard it said that a great treasure of the Catholic Church is its long institutional memory.
Peter and Leo were having this debate about pederast clergy almost one thousand years ago.
One thing that has been missing, to my ear, in reaction to The Scandal™ is the sense that the bishops (remember them? the guardians of the Deposit of Faith?) actually reflect back and have the thought cross their mitred heads "hmmm... haven't we had this problem before? What did Peter Damian have to say about this? What did Pope Leo IX do? How did it turn out? How does this inform what I should do?"
peace,
Posted by: Zach Frey at Mar 5, 2004 9:53:41 AM
Any discussion of the modern issue should take into
the time and ordination distribution shown
so well in the charts. Younger priests are
being unfairly associated with an older
generation that committed most of the crimes.
Posted by: Fr. Matthew K at Mar 5, 2004 11:57:53 AM
Under the heading, Spots On A Leopard,
http://www.nbc5.com/news/2873328/detail.html
Posted by: Larry Tierney at Mar 5, 2004 1:32:15 PM
Richard Major, the author of the article, is an Anglican priest originally from New Zealand who is currently priest-in-charge (acting pastor) at the Episcopal Church of St. Mary, Staten Island, New York.
More than any Anglican/Episcopal priest I have heard speak, he is an intense admirer of the Roman Catholic Church. As a married priest, he may not be an admirer of celibacy--I really don't know.
http://www.richardmajor.com/mainpage.html
http://www.stmarysi.com/whats_new/index.shtml
Posted by: George at Mar 5, 2004 2:41:32 PM
They will never get rid of this problem as long as the clergy includes a critical mass of homosexual priests. It's all in the numbers, up and down the ladder.
Posted by: caroline at Mar 5, 2004 6:09:56 PM
Richard Major has done an excellent job as the Tablet correspondent in my view. His coverage of the Situation is superior to almost everyone else. If anything his coverage has not been slanted in the slightest in favor of any faction that has sought to capitalize on the mess. I also have heard him preach once at the Church of the Ascension & St. Agnes several years ago.
If he ever crossed the Tiber, he would be a good catch! One can always hope and pray. In fact, I've got a lot of people just like him (both clergy and lay) who are on my little list, (some of whom could be reading this and rightly surmise that they may be one them...)
Posted by: Patrick Rothwell at Mar 5, 2004 8:07:04 PM
