As we move back into the liturgical season of Ordinary Time, we want to take this opportunity to present a series of blogs on the issue of the Church abuse scandal. It breaks our hearts that this topic would be “ordinary” business for us, but so it is.
There are so many facets relating to the widespread clergy abuse scandal and its cover-up.
We do not intend to cover them all. We do not pretend to have correct answers to the problems that have hurt the Body of Christ so horrifically. But, we do want to be voices for constructive thought. . .and, most importantly, hearts that respond to the evil in this world with faith, hope, and love.
The power of these theological virtues (Faith, Hope, and Love) is that they do not come from us, but from God. The Catechism explains that they are the foundation of all Christian moral activity. For all of our work and thought, any truth that will spring from anything we have to offer is rooted in God.
We are acting in the hope of God working His goodness through us.
A big motivation in beginning the Bellator Society—indeed, in even naming it—was our deep desire to aid in the healing of the Body of Christ through the courageous contribution of the laity. We love our clergy. We love our holy bishops, priests, and all the religious who have given their entire lives in the service of Jesus and His Bride. But, we also see that this war against evil is our fight, too. We are Bellators, after all.
1 thought on “Into the Ordinary: Church Scandal Series”
I think we should all remember as we talk about this horrible sin, both the actions and the cover-up, in our church that the Catholic Church is not the only place this has occurred.
I was a reporter in Lonoke, AR for three years in the 1980s. While there one of my regular people to interview was Jack Walls. He was an older attorney, a member of the County Quorum Court, and a civic leader for years. His entire family served the town in some office or another. There were some whispers of someone in town covering up something but nothing definite. After we moved away, it was revealed that Jack’s only son, Charles, had been abusing boys in the Boy Scout troops there for years. His cousin said it would take the town generations to recover. Charles had been accused before and his father defended him. He just couldn’t believe his son would do that. Charles is in jail on a life sentence. It ended when the mother of one boy found them in bed together. Charles convinced the boy to kill his entire family to cover up the crime. That brought out the truth. Jack was an honorable man who died with a broken heart.
Those in the Catholic hierarchy who did not know and did not believe what was told them, I can understand some because of Jack. Those who had credible accusations against a priest and covered up, I don’t understand except that it was the philosophy of a generation, psychologists, therapists as well as bishops that this was something that was a problem that could be solved with therapy. They did not see the sin. When the abuser said they were healed, the abuser was believed. As all theories do, the theories today have changed. Most of the actual abuse is in the past. It is the cover-up that is in the present.
I believe the questions we have to address that are central to this: Why didn’t the Bishops see the mortal sin? Why did they just see this as a character flaw that cold be taken care of with counseling.? Why is the discussion mainly about very young boys and leaves out the seminarians and adult sex? Why do we talk about pedophilia, when young children were rarely involved? Why can’t we talk about the elephant in the room?