How Big are the Earthquakes?

by Sue Rakoczy · March 27, 2010

Two earthquakes are shaking the Vatican these days. The first is Pope Benedict�s response�or lack of it�to the sexual abuse scandals in Europe. The second concerns his lack of action on sexual abuse cases as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, both as the Archbishop of Munich and as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Are these earthquakes 4? 6? 8? on the Richter scale of scandal?

The Irish abuse scandal has now cascaded into many countries in Europe, including the Pope�s native country, Germany. The Vatican can no longer deride the sexual abuse scandal as the result of American sexual liberalism. While it is true that the Pope has spoken strongly about the scandals, even apologizing to some American survivors in 2008, other factors make it clear that he does not yet �get it�. Why is Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, the archetype of a bishop who protected priests who abused young people, still the arch-priest of St Mary Major, one of the four major basilicas in Rome? Why is Law still a member of the Congregation of Bishops, helping to name bishops in the United States? Why hasn�t the Pope accepted the resignations of the three Irish bishops who were complicit in the Irish scandal?

Clericalism, an ideology and a structure of social sin, has infected the Church at all levels, from Rome to local parishes. Clericalism sets bishops, priests and deacons apart from religious and the laity and insulates them as special. The concept of servanthood is far from their horizons and life-styles.

While the Pope�s spin doctors have earnestly tried to distance him from the scandal in Munich when an abuser priest was coming into his diocese and he was transferred to another parish without any restrictions, the minutes of a meeting at which Cardinal Ratzinger was present tell us differently (New York Times, 26 March). In the 1990s, when several American bishops pleaded with Ratzinger to take action against a priest who had abused many boys at a school for the deaf, officials of the CDF which he headed said he should do penance, but took no canonical action against him.

In the Gospels, Jesus has some strong words to say against those who cause scandal. Reports of these huge scandals fill the media day after day. The Pope and the Church are derided in cartoons, editorials and blogs. And still the Vatican �doesn�t get it�.

But suppose one day Pope Benedict �woke up� to the scandals he and many other bishops have caused. What if he publicly apologized to the People of God not only for his omissions but for all the scandal? And what if he imposed a penance on himself, such as opening an issue such as celibacy for diocesan priests for discussion? Well, we can pray, can�t we?