Benedict’s choice

By Rose Rappoport Moss

The past few months have marked an irreversible change in the Catholic Church. The credibility of the Vatican is ruined and many structures of the Catholic Church will change.

There are signs that Pope Benedict has undergone a deep change. Visiting Malta in April, he met and wept with survivors of clerical sexual abuse. He came back to Rome and confessed that the Church is wounded and sinful. If he stands by that confession and those tears he could become one of the most important popes in history.  

Just as Mikhail Gorbachev led the Soviet Union out of communism, and FW de Klerk, once seen as a verkrampte leader in the National Party, led South Africa out of apartheid, so it may take the man once thought to be God’s Rottweiler to lead the Catholic Church out of the stranglehold of a bureaucracy claiming it could do no wrong. The alternative is to be the Church’s Richard Nixon, drawn deeper into denial and lies.

Pope  Benedict has given some signs that he may choose to transform the Church rather than drive it into suicidal denial.

His first encyclical, on love, surprised some. His recent defenders have pointed out that he started to take measures to deal with clerical sexual abuse soon after he became pope, having been limited by other curial officials in responding when he was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. It’s still not enough by any means, but there are glimmers. The current crisis may encourage him to admit real daylight. To some believers, that will mean admitting real grace.

The changes the Church needs are profound. The sickness of the Church is deep and worldwide. The scandals in North America, Australia, Canada and Europe have spread to India and Brazil and will soon, no doubt, be revealed in Africa and in other countries in Asia and Latin America.

Few of the scandals revealed so far expose how priests have abused girls and women, but these are also coming to light.

The Vatican may say these scandals have nothing to do with celibacy and blame homosexuality. But who now can believe what the Vatican says? The sickness of the Church goes deeper than its rules and teaching about sexuality.

Until his confession that the Church is wounded and sinful, Pope Benedict seemed to believe that claims of understanding and promises would suffice. But abuse survivors want more. They ask for bishops to be punished, and some have already resigned.

If Pope Benedict follows the path of repentance by demonstrating a real purpose of amendment, he will ask more to resign, and when they resign he will not keep them, as his predecessor did with Cardinal Bernard Law. Cardinal Law resigned as archbishop of Boston after it was revealed to what extent he covered up the abuse of children, and quietly re-assigned abusing priests to parishes where they would abuse again, without warning parents about the kind of priests they were receiving in their communities.

Today, Cardinal Law is lavishly housed in Rome, has been appointed archpriest of one of Rome’s four major basilicas, is a member of several curial dicasteries, and still is entitled to vote for the next pope.

Even dismissing complicit bishops by inviting their resignation will not work and Pope Benedict may know that. Many people are now calling for another Church Council.

Right now, Pope Benedict needs the advice of all the world’s bishops.  A Council has more authority than the Vatican. If Pope Benedict summons a Council, he will answer those who call for him to resign, and surprise those who regard him as a discredited pope heading a shrivelling Church.

He has a chance to lead the Church from its downward spiral to new vigour. If he remains true to his Malta tears and insights about the sin from within the Church which he raised at Fatima in May, he could become one of the most important popes in history.

That, now, is his choice.

Rose Rappoport Moss is a Johannesburg-born auhor who has lived in the United States since 1964. Her most recent book, In Court, was published as a Penguin Modern Classic. She teaches creative writing at the Nieman Foundation and at Harvard Law School.