By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
Two very significant events happened last week for the life of the Church and both are connected by the shattering crisis of the sexual abuse of minors. There are deeper roots that underlie these phenomena, whether admitted or denied, but the two events are the conviction of George Cardinal Pell on charges of sexual abuse of minors and the meeting of the heads of the world’s conferences of bishops with Pope Francis at the Vatican for three days of discussions on the matter.
By the way, it was announced immediately after the sexual abuse summit that next October the Holy Father is going to meet for three weeks with the Synod on the Amazon, while the abuse of minors, a much more important issue for the universal Church, merited a whopping three days.
Always underlying any discussion of this issue is the related matter of homosexuality which Rome refuses to publicly discuss or acknowledge. A majority of victims were male and not all were minors. The Vatican spokesmen insisted that the meeting discussion be limited to protection of minors. There are many opinions as to why this may be the case. I surmise that it may be that the cost of condemning the homosexual behavior involved in abuse of those who are coming of age as teenagers may entail too high a cost for a Vatican that is deeply compromised on the issue of homosexuality.
There are many in powerful positions who do not want to pay the price for condemning homosexuality, with the consequences that it may entail for them.
The desire to curry a favorable opinion with the world may also be a powerful deterrent to full disclosure. What this means for the Church is a less than thorough housecleaning. The Pell case is a warning of the consequences. If we cannot police ourselves, then the world will do it for us.
In the court of public opinion, you’re sometimes guilty as charged. When you’re a Catholic priest or bishop, justice may be even harder to get. In the Pell case, it proved nearly impossible. The charges were ridiculous. He was accused of committing abuse in broad daylight immediately after a Mass in the sacristy of the cathedral with the usual presence of concelebrating priests, sacristans, and servers, in the midst of all the usual activity, such as sacristans shuttling items back and forth between the altar and the surrounding areas. The details of the case are abundantly available elsewhere. The preposterous nature of the charges based on what most Catholics know happens in a church immediately after Mass with a bishop makes it shocking that he was found guilty.
A cardinal of the Church is, of course, a big target. Are they simply angry and out for blood? Pell is a big prize for anyone on a hunt for a Catholic sacrificial victim.
Canonist Ed Peters on Twitter responded: “I have served HUNDREDS of public Masses from fifth grade through law school. Not once was the sacristy empty of MULTIPLE people (priests, servers, lectors, ushers, ministers, collection checkers, musicians, people dropping off and picking up stuff, etc.) after Mass. Not once.”
In an increasingly unchurched society with no firsthand knowledge of practicing faith, perhaps people are willing to believe more and more preposterous lies told about Catholics. Or maybe hatred of Catholics is so visceral that they’ll do whatever they can to crucify them.
I recommend George Weigel’s article “Why the Case Against Cardinal George Pell Doesn’t Stand Up” in National Review for his list of why the charges against the cardinal simply don’t hold up.
@EduardoBaston provided a slightly different take on Twitter: “Not a kangaroo court by any means, though that doesn’t protect it from making a grave error. Vatican not bowing reflexively, just starting the slow machinery of a canonical review. Pell will appeal, and one hopes justice will prevail in confirming or overturning the decision.”
No matter how righteous one’s anger in the face of abuse of human beings of any sort, justice must be sought dispassionately. All abuse is to be condemned, especially of minors: Remember the Lord’s own teaching about scandalizing the weak and the “little ones.”
Pell could, of course, be guilty. There is always that chance.
So, while many were poring over the details of the trial of Cardinal Pell and finding it a very weak case for conviction, we witnessed Pope Francis meeting with the bishops and his rather milquetoast summary at the abuse summit’s end. It did not call for a particularly strong response. Among other proposals, bishops will receive a guidebook telling them what to do. How do men who don’t know what to do when they see or know of something wrong become bishops in the first place? Did anyone ask that question? Were they allowed the freedom to do so? We do know that the bishops were infantilized and insulted by the Vatican, told as they were not to talk to the press until the final documents were issued and statements uttered.
But it was Ines San Martin of Crux who asked the most telling question at the final press conference of the summit, as reported by LifeSiteNews February 24:
“San Martin continued in her question to Scicluna, saying: ‘We know that there’s a bishop in Argentina, Zanchetta, who had gay porn in his phone involving young people.’
“ ‘How can we believe that this is in fact, you know, the last time we’re going to hear “no more cover-up” when, at the end of the day, Pope Francis covered up for someone in Argentina who had gay porn involving minors….I mean, can we actually believe that this is going to change now?,’ she asked.”
She referred to Pope Francis’ own suspect example of scandal in which he sheltered his longtime friend Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta from Argentina at the Vatican, creating a job for him even after knowing of his wrongdoing. Porn on his phone seems to be the least of the charges against him, as he left a trail of accusations of sexual abuse of seminarians behind him in Argentina. Is this a case of the innocent being convicted while the guilty go free in the Church?
We can still count on the integrity of a few bishops, such as Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., who publicly barred pro-abort Sen. Dick Durbin from receiving Communion. Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, has promised to do penance for his brother bishops, especially his former confrere in the episcopacy Theodore McCarrick.
How many more souls are to be scandalized, and perhaps lost, by a lack of integrity that may go all the way to the top? Perhaps Flannery O’Connor can help us find a way forward: “The only thing that makes the Church endurable is that it is somehow the Body of Christ and that on this we are fed. It seems to be a fact that you have to suffer as much from the Church as for it.”
Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ now and forever.
@MCITLFrAphorism
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