They Still Don't Get It

(2 of 2)

And they still don't get it. Yes, Cardinal Law has formally apologized. But his reckoning was carefully parsed. "In retrospect," Law said in his formal statement, the "response of the archdiocese to the grave evil...was flawed and inadequate." In retrospect? By what conceivable moral argument could ignoring child abuse be deemed at any time acceptable? "In retrospect," he also said, he had put children in danger, "albeit unintentionally." How can a church demand moral responsibility of its members if its leaders cannot do so when unmitigated evil is standing right in front of them?

This is not a liberal or conservative issue. Sure, liberal Catholics see the scandal as another indicator of the sexual dysfunction at the heart of the church. And they have a point. Celibacy is an onerous burden that can easily distort a person's psyche. Moreover, many sexually conflicted men gravitate to the priesthood precisely because it promises to put a straitjacket on their compulsions and confusions. Alas, that straitjacket can often come undone. The absence of women in the higher reaches of the church further distorts the atmosphere; and the presence of large numbers of gay priests--forced to preach against their very identity and fight against their own need for love--only intensifies the psychological pressure of the priesthood. But conservatives are just as outraged. The abuse of children rightly provokes horror among traditional Catholics, and they have been admirably reluctant to close ranks behind the corrupted hierarchy. Besides, the most devout and trusting have often been the most victimized. "After he molested me, he would bless me," a former altar boy, abused in the Los Angeles diocese, recently told the Los Angeles Times. "It's very confusing. I was in the center of my mother's life--the church--and she thought I was doing constructive things by being with the priest. After we did these things, he'd put his hand on my head and make the sign of the cross."

This isn't a failing of the church; it's an attack upon its integrity--by its own clergy. Until this evil is rooted out--and until the culpable bishops and cardinals who tolerated it resign--it will surely be hard for American Catholics to trust or love their church again.