The Silence We Keep: A Nun's View of the Catholic Priest Scandal (25 page)

In fearing the worldwide insubordination of women, the king issues an “irrevocable decree” so that “all women will henceforth bow to the authority of their husbands, ensuring that each man might be master in his own house” (1:20–22). The oppression and exploitation of women finds expression in the notion of “irrevocable decrees,” infallible laws and teachings that cannot be changed no matter who they oppress. We can see that any law or teaching that seeks to oppress out of fear of “endless disrespect and indolence,” or seeks to silence and eliminate all who
challenge the “divine authority” of Church Fathers, is revealed in the Book of Esther as a divine invitation for creative acts of disobedience. As a matter of fact, divine activity peaks at the height of its power when such abusive voices are disobeyed. When the Gods appear still and silent, the holy disobedient voices of women appear to speak powerfully on their behalf.

As women in the Catholic Church (and in the world) become wakened fully to the divine call of sisterhood and the holy power of disobedience, then and only then can the mountains of clerical abuse and deception be leveled. What we experience now as a crisis of faith in the “divine authority” of Church Fathers signifies the exhausted end of something evil and oppressive, and the painfully slow beginning of something as universally liberating as that of a Second Pentecost, a new priesthood, a new sisterhood, and a rebirth of Catholicism the likes of which we haven’t known in two thousand years.

9
The Rebirth of Catholicism

S
O WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
? Is this the end of the Catholic Church? Is this curtains for Catholicism? When we look at the response of the Church Fathers to the sex crimes and scandals that continue to surface and horrify the world, we have every indication that these “men of God” have no intention of revealing the whole truth. On the contrary, every effort is being made at the highest levels of church authority to ensure that the whole truth will never be revealed. Given the papal blessing of the Vatican, and superiors of men’s religious congregations (like Jesuits, Benedictines, Franciscans, etc.) who insist on handling abuses internally, we find Church Fathers continuing to hide behind their canon laws, statutes of limitations, and the privileged privacy of incriminating documents. Regardless of what the new guidelines and papal apologies intend for us to believe, the lying and evasive actions of church leaders continue to speak much louder than any of their pious and repentant words.

The Church Fathers with the most to hide and the most privilege to lose are likely to consider then pursue the escape route of bankruptcy (moral, spiritual, and financial) as the only way out of the mess they created. Filing for Chapter 11 would suspend action in hundreds of civil suits and protect the most scandal-ridden archdioceses from new lawsuits being filed against them. Filing for bankruptcy also means that clerical accomplices would no longer to be subject to answering questions in pretrial depositions, or, like Phoenix Bishop Thomas O’Brien, would do so only if granted full
immunity from prosecution. Escaping the truth is what we see. While spokespersons for the Archdiocese of Boston call reports of bankruptcy “speculative and premature,” no thinking Catholic believes that for a moment. Already declaring morally and spiritually bankruptcy filing for Chapter 11 appears to be a natural next step. Minimizing the scandals and doing everything in their priestly power to make it go away is all that matters to the Church Fathers. That’s why we see nothing but matters getting worse.

In Springfield, Massachusetts, for example, the church still supports convicted pedophile priest Father Lavigne, a primary suspect in the murder of one of his victims. In a November 17, 2002, article in the
Springfield Union News
, staff writer Bill Zajac writes:

Two former officers who helped investigate the 1972 slaying of a Springfield altar boy say Springfield Roman Catholic Diocese officials knew 30 years ago that a priest who was the prime suspect was believed to be a sexual abuser….

The retired officers’ comments are in direct contrast to church officials’ statements that they did not receive the first accusations of abuse against Lavigne until 1986.

…The diocese has revealed 168 of the 699 pages in Lavigne’s file. Diocesan lawyers claim the rest of the documents are protected by several privileges, including priest-penitent privilege.

Though convicted of sexual molestation charges in 1992, Lavigne received no jail time and ten years of probation. One can only wonder how many clerical aiders and abettors it took to orchestrate that deal. Protected by ordained privileges, the Church Fathers demonstrate no intention of telling the whole
truth, not even when it involves murder. Not even the suspected murder of a child by one of its priests provokes the outrage of these “men of God.” That’s how entrenched and deeply rooted the Church Fathers are in criminal thinking. If murder fails to move them, then how can there be hope for priestly reform? Is this the end of the Catholic Church? To a priesthood of privilege and their criminal ways, millions of Catholics pray every day that it is, indeed, the end.

In Los Angeles, the daily news is no more hopeful. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles considered challenging a new law in California effective January 1, 2003, which lifts the statute of limitations on molestation cases in which the abuser is knowingly kept on the church’s payroll. In a letter read to all parishioners throughout California, the bishops in California complained that because some of the allegations were so old it would be impossible to determine the truth. They also explain that their pastoral intent is to prepare the people for the financial drain on church resources that the new legislation would cause, so much so that they warn of even further cuts in educational and social services. This is the archdiocese that just built and dedicated a $190 million cathedral, with operating costs the archbishop estimates at $10,000 per day. Even so, the bishops portray themselves as not at all devoted to the accumulation of wealth, but simply the humble stewards of the financial assets that really belong to the people in the parishes. What nearly everyone but the bishops see is another shameless and calculated public relations effort by the archdiocese to gain public support for the church at the expense of the victims. In other words, absolutely nothing has changed in Los Angeles. Matters have only gotten worse.

In parishes and dioceses across the country, news continues to surface of the sexual misconduct of priests that goes unpunished despite the bishops most recent commitments to zero tolerance. In
a November 30, 2002, article in the
Washington Post
, “Catholics Question Gray Areas of Abuse,” staff writer Alan Cooperman reported that Bishop Frank Rodimer of Paterson, New Jersey, newly restored a suspended priest to active ministry after a review board (five lay Catholics and three priests) concluded unanimously that though the priest’s behavior was “inappropriate,” it did not meet the definition
sex-abuse
adopted by the bishops and the Vatican.
¹

The alleged victim told the board that the priest touched his genitals in bed at the priest’s private home in the early 1970s, according to the victim’s lawyer….“Granted my client had his underwear on at the time, so the touching was on top of a thin layer of clothing,” said the lawyer, “but it’s incredible to me that they decided it was merely ‘inappropriate.’”

What victims and nonvictims fear happening is indeed happening. The letter of the law has already killed its Spirit. Those priests who are onetime offenders or “simply” accused of lewd and lascivious conduct will be put back in ministry. Regardless of what deviant priests do, their priesthood remains untouched. Once a priest, always a priest.

Cooperman reported also of a Milwaukee priest repeatedly charged by police with indecent acts, “including a 1989 arrest for engaging in sexual activity with a 34-year-old truck driver and a 1999 charge of ‘prostitution-masturbation’ for which the priest paid a $1000 fine.” In giving the priest a parish assignment (which parishioners protested), a spokesman for the archdiocese defended the church’s action, noting that none of the charges involved a minor. “I’m not saying it doesn’t matter. I’m just saying he’s never been accused of sexual abuse by a minor, and
the charter that was adopted in Dallas and modified in Washington only deals with minors.” Hard to believe? Not anymore. The letter of the law has already killed any goodwill that may have been intended. Once again, all we see and hear, loud and clear, is that nothing has changed in the criminal thinking and privileged behavior of the Church Fathers and those who support them. The blind are still leading the blind.

From coast to coast it appears as though all we will continue to find with church leaders is nothing but a defiant refusal to admit the truth, much less reveal the truth. Nothing so far, not even the agony and death of victims, has moved the hardened hearts and empty souls of those “men of God” who have no regard for the sacredness of truth. When the law of the land and the dissenting voice of people fail to force Church Fathers to see the truth, it’s not likely that anything will, not even their own self-destruction. Only criminal minds are that immune to the truth, and criminal minds are what we see protecting the Catholic Church’s priesthood of privilege.

We can, however, even in these darkest days of Catholicism, take comfort in the voices of the faithful, liberal and conservative, which cannot and will not accept under any circumstances sexual depravity and promiscuity in its priesthood. We can also take comfort in the ancient wisdom of the
I Ching
, the Book of Changes, which reveals that all the evil these “men of God” continue to heap upon Holy Mother Church will only continue to undo them one hundredfold.

Here the climax of darkening is reached. The dark power at first held so high a place that it could wound all who were on the side of good and light. But in the end it perishes of its own darkness, for evil must itself fall at the very moment when it has wholly overcome the good, and thus consumed the energy to which it owed its duration.
²

Is this the end of Catholicism? We have good reason to believe that it is when every day now we see so many in its highest priesthood perishing from their own darkness. To ending the destruction of Holy Mother Church by its priesthood, the faithful pray every day, “Let it be.” Let the kind of Catholicism created by these “men of God” end right now. While the priesthood of privilege at its highest levels of authority sees no problem with a clerical culture of sexual depravity and promiscuity, the priesthood of the people do, and they’ve seen enough.

The greatest comfort we can take lies in the most infallible truth of all: In the end always lies a new beginning. While the priesthood continues to serve its own undoing, something else is happening in the community of the faithful. For those who believe in resurrections, every ending holds the divine promise of a new beginning, and from what I see happening in the Catholic Church, this is one new beginning that has only just begun. What I see happening among Catholics, in and out of the pew, is nothing other than a new beginning—a new priesthood and sisterhood in the Catholic Church, the priesthood of the people and the sisterhood of all women. There already is a rebirth of Catholicism unlike anything we’ve seen since the first century. And now, just as in the beginning, the disciples are leading the way.

It’s Catholics in and out of the pew, awakened so rudely, who are demanding a full and truthful account of all the priestly abuse, lies, and cover-ups. It’s the priestly people (good nuns and priests included), who are the only true church Catholicism has left. And just like the Jesus Movement resurrected, the priesthood of the
people are all Catholicism needs to return to its divine beginnings. All the signs of the time point to a growing resurrection of the priesthood among Catholics. And even though Church Fathers continue to ignore and silence the voice of the faithful, nothing can stop the rebirth of Catholicism fully under way. Catholics have changed more in the past year than they have in the past two thousand. The Church Fathers and their loyal supporters may not have changed, but millions of Catholics have. All over the world Catholics are rising from the dead silence they’ve kept for centuries and are wakened to their own priesthood. We are already witnessing a rebirth of Catholicism among millions of Catholics, another miraculous resurrection that’s only just begun, but even in its beginning, the divine voices of the people can be heard loud and clear.

We Catholics are now hearing voices we’ve never heard before. Voices that have been silenced into submission for thousands of years are beginning to speak, and in doing so find that they will never keep that kind of deadly silence again. Voices of the faithful. Voices of victims. Voices of women. Voices of liberals and conservatives speaking for the first time as one. Voices of abused nuns breaking the silence. Millions of Catholic voices are being heard now, all of them revealing divine truths the Church Fathers can no longer condemn in silence. Even voices of the ordained are daring to speak. Priests brave enough to break the silence of their own priestly privilege are beginning to speak out, regardless of the personal cost.