Of mind, heart, and Tron

Sometimes, when we really want something to go away we do our best to sweep it under the rug.  We try to rationalize, draw comparisons, and generally try to avoid things that are extremely painful for us.  In the end, we’d prefer not to suffer.  Even Christ Himself, when faced with the Cross, asked the Father to take this cup from Him.  But thankfully for us and the entire world, He submitted Himself to the will of the Father and took His Cross.  This gives us a model for our life – we must too take our crosses.  No matter how hard.  No matter how bitter.  But the good news for us is that we have a God who has been down that road.  Who sweat BLOOD over the decision to take His cross, a cross that was bigger than ours ever can be – and still took it.

Unfortunately when we try to brush our crosses off, when we try to rationalize them away, we tend to not receive all the grace that God has for us.  We tend to not unite ourselves fully to Christ.  And we fail our testing.

It pains me to say that many bishops are going this course when it comes to the sex abuse scandal.  When you get right down to it, who wouldn’t want to put it behind us?  Who doesn’t want to just make it go away?  It’s a natural instinct, but it’s an immature move.  In his latest blog post, Archbishop Timothy Dolan is trying to do just that.  And the results are disastrous.

Archbishop Dolan is trying to address those who would leave the Church due to the absolutely disgusting witness of sexual abusers in the presbyterate.  This, obviously, is an important pastoral concern.  There are many barriers to faith – and the sex abuse scandal is a large one. The pastoral heart of Abp. Dolan shines through for those who are scandalized by the overwhelming ineptitude of the hierarchy to snuff out this problem.  But, in focusing on those who would leave the Church due to the scandal, Abp Dolan does what a pastor should never do – he reduces the suffering of those who have actually been affected by the abuse first hand.   Certainly Archbishop Dolan probably didn’t mean to do so, but it’s clear that he does.

This type of reductionist language is tantamount to putting your hand over your ears when you hear something you don’t like and yelling “nah nah nah nah I can’t hear you.”  It may be effective short term, but in the long run you just kind of look really silly.  It pains me to say that archbishop Dolan comes off as incredibly silly in this blog post.

Here Abp. Dolan compares the witness of the early disciples who scattered at the arrest of Jesus with the failings of sexually abusive priests and “lax” bishops who reassigned these priests and caused more damage.  But is this really an apt comparison?  Can we really compare cowardice with sex abuse?  Do we really want to make such a comparison?  Furthermore, does Abp. Dolan not really know better?  This man is the president of the USCCB and is described as the “American pope.”  Surely he knows the difference between men who cowardly tried to save their own life when it appeared they may suffer the same execution that their rabbi would, and men who raped scores of children, shattered their souls, and then were reassigned into areas where they could continue the same carnage.

This comparison is absolutely preposterous when you think about it.  Yes, priests are human.  Yes, priests will fall.  And yes the GATES OF HELL WILL NEVER PREVIAL AGAINST THE CHURCH.  But please, do not talk to the people of God like they are some two-bit nitwits.  They happen to be learned professionals.  They are intelligent, deep thinkers.  They are, to put it bluntly, adults and they see right through blog posts like this.

This “priests are only human” shtick works for the anecdote Abp. Dolan closes his post with.  Sure there’s priests who rub you the wrong way, who might not lead the way you want, who might not say the right things, or who forget your name.  Yes, they are fallible.  Yes they are human.  Yes they will let you down.  This comparison works just fine in cases like this.  But please do not tread so lightly on the souls of those who have been destroyed by sexual abuse.  Do not walk away from their cross, or minimize it by reducing it to “human fallibility.”   Do not trivialize the fact that men and women have had to live parts of their lives looking at the hands of consecration while remembering them as hands of molestation.  It simply is not fair to those who have been so damaged by such a great evil.

In our time we need bishops who are courageous against evil.  We need bishops who will stand with those who are hurt.  Who are an advocate for the suffering.  Who give us hope for our ability to carry our crosses  Not men who simply wish the crosses away.  There’s no grace there – and this is the exact line of thinking that got us into this mess in the first place.  Archbishop Dolan I must respectfully disagree with you.  This problem is not solely due to fallible humans and “lax bishops.”  There’s something bigger going on here.  Each and every serious Catholic and, indeed, the ENTIRE CHURCH has been handed a cross through the absolute wretchedness and corruption of the system that allowed this crisis to spiral out of control.  We need bishops who are less concerned about minimizing the damage and more interested in discerning for the people of God “why, and how Lord, did we get here?  And how Lord do we carry such a cross?”   Anything less, and we fail this test.  Anything less and we walk away from our cross.  Anything less and we are doomed to fall so miserably again.

UPDATE: The Vatican has clarified its position here

A while back I posted on the Pope’s comments regarding Aids, Africa, and Condom use.  By now you’ve probably read that the Pope has “softened” the stance on condom use for sexual relations between two people where the risk of HIV infection can occur.  I could go on to talk about how this really, in no way, changes Catholic moral theology on contraception.  I can note the nuance in the Pope’s argument considering he was using the example of a male prostitute when calling condom use an option.  But I’m not going to touch on the theology.  I want to talk about the staggering and unacceptable deficiency of the Church in regards to communicating with their faithful, and the world at large.

As Pope Benedict has declared, one of the first roles of the Church is to Proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ.  If this is the case, can we go as far as calling the Vatican’s inability to properly communicate in this new age of media as sinful?   Look at the websites of the major dioceses in this country (or even the Vatican’s site) to show that the Church simply doesn’t get it when it comes to new media.  This ineptitude has real consequences for the image of the Church, but most importantly, for the effectiveness of the Gospel of Christ from being shared to this and future generations.

This HIV / condom issue is an excellent case study on the Church and its inability to handle the media.  Why must the faithful, and even connected people in the Church, hear about the Pope’s comments from the Associated Press?  And how could the Vatican be so obtuse as to not realize the media storm that these comments would create?  What is it?  Is it staggering ineptitude?  Is it unacceptable ignorance?  Or is it, as I fear, a stubborn and haughty arrogance?  ”We’re going to do and say as we want, consequences and your perception be damned.”  This is the conclusion that many in the media, the watching world, and even some of the faithful have come to and to a certain extent I can’t blame them.  There really are only two conclusions to be drawn: complete incompetence or total arrogance.  I genuinely hope and pray that it’s the former.  Whatever the reason is, it needs to change, and now.  I, for one, am getting sick and tired of sticking up for the Church in this regard.  It’s becoming tiring and is taking us away from the important things, like bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a sick and hurting world.

Come, Holy Spirit, Come.