It had been my intention to take a break from the subject of clerical abuse of children for the sake of you, my readers, as well as for myself.  Then, I had a look at the Thursday, February 16th issue of the Chicago Tribune, and decided otherwise.

There, with a two-column spread on the right-hand side, was the headline: “Outsider to examine abuse cases.”  The sub-head  read: “Church invites auditors to study why problems keep occurring.” Todd Lightly and Dan Mihalopoulos reported the story.

Think about it.  The Chicago Archdiocese is going to hire an outside consultant “to probe its classified procedures for handling abuse claims to determine why Rev. Daniel McCormack and Joseph Bennett stayed in ministry while investigators of allegations against them stalled.”

Let’s save the Archdiocese a bundle and offer free advice for the future:  When a nun, led by the Spirit to protect children from molesters, arrives at the Chancery Office door to hand-deliver a letter quoting chapter and verse about clergy abuse of a child, as did the principal of Holy Family with regard to McCormack,  invite her to take a high place at the conference table. Call in the Chancellor, Jimmy Lago, Cardinal George, a secretary to make notes, and a butler to serve tea and crumpets.

Then, after a prayer for wisdom and humility, let everyone listen to the good Sister, really listen, with respectful attention, and careful note-taking. She will be speaking for children, children’s parents, and for every member of the Archdiocese.  Thank her for her help.  Send her home in the limo reserved for dignitaries.  Follow up with a dozen roses and a catered dinner for all at the convent.

By nine o’clock the next morning, call and let her know the job for advisor to Jimmy Lago, at double his salary, is hers for the taking, beginning immediately. End of problems.  The nun and her Sister assistants  will bring order out of chaos,  and peace out of self-serving malingering. Nothing like hard work to get a job done in a chancery office or the local bakery.  No excuses accepted.

Such reassurance that the job will get done is of paramount importance for the people of God, considering the fact that the Catholic faithful are a pretty silent group. It’s a cultural thing, especially when it comes to the clergy: “Touch not the Lord’s anointed,.” our mothers reminded us, while failing to teach us that all are God’s anointed.

No one can measure the unexpressed rage, hurt, anger, sadness, and disillusionment behind the silent lips and pain-filled eyes of the people as they contemplate the state of their Church today.

Yet, there is more at stake here than disillusionment. We’re talking about the threat to the faithful’s peace, threat to their faith.  The faith that keeps them connected to God and one another; the faith that sees them through sleepless nights, with a child sweating through a 104 temperature; or a teenager addicted to drugs, alcohol or both; or young, Catholic couples who are considering another religion for their families, with fewer spiritual upheavals, but without the familiar, cherished beliefs of their growing years. Their faith is their God-given heritage, and those who, through scandal, weaken it and confuse the people, will look in vain for sophisticated spin doctors to make them right with the Lord. No matter how many inches of print are generated, nor how much of the budget is devoted to public relations, our God is not mocked, nor should anyone ignore his judgment on those who would scandalize one of his children...something about better that a stone be placed around his neck and he be drowned in the sea. Sounds serious to me.

Eventually, I think every concerned Catholic asks the question: How did we ever get to this point, where, on the part of some, the abuse of children became a right of the powerful over the powerless?

For the past week, I have been thinking about the sexual abuse of Sisters in Africa by African bishops and priests, addressed in last week’s column.  Eventually, I began to connect the dots between that abuse and what we have been experiencing in the United States with the abuse of children.  All led to the resistance by Vatican officials to lance this cancer on the Body of Christ, this cavalier attitude toward the degradation of women and their most cherished possession, their children.

It is my theory that keeping women silent is at the basis of much of the abuse, along with many others, such as clerical ambition for recognition, power, privileges, etc.  Silent women are invisible and, therefore, can be subjected to any injustice because invisible women are mere robots to be picked up, used, and tossed aside with impunity; they belong not to God, but to a church of the clerics’ own making.

Think of this: Father Don Cozzens, in his book, Sacred Silence, tells us that in November 1998, Missionaries of Our Lady of Africa, Sister Marie McDonald, presented a paper titled “The Problem of the Sexual Abuse of African Religious in Africa and Rome” to the Council of 16 delegates from the Union of Superiors General, an association representing men’s religious communities based in Rome; the International Union of Superiors General, an organization representing women religious and the Vatican Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life Sr.

The reality of the abuse was first raised in 1994, and acknowledged in a March 20, 2001 public statement by the Vatican spokesperson, Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls.

Just contemplating such accusations being heard by those bodies of theologians in Rome, who did nothing about them, leaves most of us in a state of disbelief.  Alice in Wonderland, except it’s not a fairy tale, but one of evil in the center of Christianity.

Cozzens wrote: “I mention it here because of the silence with which it was met.”  He goes on to state that he thinks such silence arises out of a misguided concern for the perceived harm church authorities feel would follow upon negative, scandalous reports of clergy misconduct, and that we still haven’t learned that secrecy and denial only tend to exacerbate the harmful effects of inappropriate and scandalous behaviors ... and insult the intelligence of parishioners and people in general when we believe they cannot distinguish between the two. (Cozzens credits The National Catholic Reporter, March 16, 2001, for much of the information on the subject.)

Both Maura O’Donohue and Marie McDonald have suffered stinging criticism for their confidential reports to appropriate authorities about the abuse of their sisters by priests, and a mother general in Malawi was publicly removed from her post by her archbishop after she reported to him that 29 nuns in her community had been made pregnant by priests, a fact well documented.

An archbishop so insensitive should have been removed from his post by Rome as soon as word of his cruelty reached headquarters.

We need to stop here and give credit to the thousands of generous, holy, priests, who respect women in all walks of life, pray with and for them and their families, and help them in ways large and small.  If they could not get along without us, neither could we without them. Together, with God’s grace, we shall build the Church anew.

What opened my eyes to the suffering of women in the Church world-wide was a book published by Ave Maria Press, by Sr. Francis Bernard O’Connor, C.S.C., Like Bread, their Voices Rise!

On p. 49, the writer alludes to the woman in the gospels who came out of the shadows to touch Jesus’ garment, and was cured of her blood disease. 

In reaching out her hand, the gospel woman becomes the symbol of all the women who, conditioned and habituated to insignificance, still find in themselves a small flame of unexplainable hope that things may be different, and reach out towards what they recognize in some way as the fire which has lighted their flame.

Peace, and a quiet joy in the Christ who will lead us out of this darkness.

Amen.               

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