Editorial: Criticism of Pope's Handling of Abuse Crisis Reveals Division and Cultural Collision

George Weigel refers to Augeas, known for his stables. The stables had never been cleaned, one of the twelve deeds which was later assigned to Hercules.The stables of our culture need to be cleaned. Perhaps this cleansing will require herculean effort by the Pope, all his bishops and other leaders. However, when the Church is the Church; when Bishops, priests, deacons, and religious are committed to their vows and virtue; when the teachings of the Church are no longer considered optional by practicing Catholics; the Church will not just be a safe place for men, women and children - they will thrive there.

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - In the weeks leading up to Easter, the abuse scandals in the Church were once again featured prominently in the news. Only this time they were accompanied by vehement criticism directed specifically against Pope Benedict XVI and his handling of the situation, both before and since he assumed the Chair of Peter.

Among those who responded was highly regarded Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan. She wrote about the issues revolving around the abuse crisis referring to what she appears to think is a monolithic culture within the Church. Noonan, an active Catholic herself, wrote the book,"John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spiritual Father,"  in 2005.

"There is an interesting and very modern thing," she wrote, "that often happens when individuals join and rise within mighty and venerable institutions. They come to think of the institution as invulnerable—to think that there is nothing they can do to really damage it, that the big, strong, proud establishment they're part of can take any amount of abuse, that it doesn't require from its members an attitude of protectiveness because it's so strong, and has lasted so long.

"And it happened in the Catholic Church, where hundreds of priests and bishops thought they could do anything, any amount of damage to the church, and it would be fine."

Lisa Miller, NEWSWEEK's religion editor, weighed in as well. She referred to the Church as a "men´s club" which she contends needs to act more like a business. Shecontends that the Church´s commitments reveal a cultural clash with contemporary progressives who, she believes, have more compassion for the individual.

In a recent edition, she wrote, "The problem—bluntly put—is that the bishops and cardinals who manage the institutional church live behind guarded walls in a pre-Enlightenment world.

"On questions of morality, they hold the group—in this case, the church—above the individual and regard modernity as a threat. We in the democratic West who criticize the hierarchy for its shocking inaction take the supremacy of the individual for granted.

"They in the Vatican who blast the media for bias against the pope value ecclesiastical cohesion over all. The gap is real. We don't get them. And they don't get us.

"But in the Roman Catholic corporation, the senior executives live and work, as they have for a thousand years, eschewing not just marriage, but intimacy with women and professional relationships with women—not to mention any chance to familiarize themselves with the earthy, primal messiness of families and children."

While Noonan apparently believes the Church doesn´t care and Miller believes the Church doesn´t understand; both seem to indicate that the Church somehow needs to "catch up" with the times, to modernize its methods and its mindset.

Noted theologian, author and commentator George Weigel, a Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, DC, disagrees. He takes strong exception to those who want some kind of new reformation of modernity or post-modernity. In fact, he believes that the answer lies in the opposite direction. He contends that these problems are best solved when the Catholic Church becomes more the Catholic Church.

In an essay for NEWSWEEK he noted, "...some observers suggested that this crisis was the byproduct of some distinctive features of Catholic life: a celibate priesthood, a church governed by male bishops, a demanding sexual ethic. "Modernize" the church by changing all that, they argued, and these horrible problems would abate, even disappear.

"Sexual abuse is indeed horrible, but there is no empirical evidence that it is a uniquely, predominantly, or even strikingly Catholic problem. The sexual abuse of the young is a global plague. In the United States, some 40 to 60 percent of such abuse takes place within families—often at the hands of live-in boyfriends or the second (or third, or fourth) husband of a child's mother; those cases have nothing to do with celibacy.

"The case of a married Wilmington, DE, pediatrician charged with 471 counts of sexual abuse in February has nothing to do with celibacy. Neither did the 290,000 cases of sexual abuse in American public schools between 1991 and 2000, estimated by Charol Shakeshaft of Virginia Commonwealth University.

"And given the significant level of abuse problems in Christian denominations with married clergy, it's hard to accept the notion that marriage is somehow a barrier against sexually abusive clergy. (Indeed, the idea of reducing marriage to an abuse-prevention program ought to be repulsive.) Sexual abusers throughout the world are overwhelmingly noncelibates."

Weigel makes his case that sexual abuse is not a "Catholic-only" issue. It is a global scandal that touches all areas of life and all parts of the world.

He acknowledges that some church leaders "failed to grasp the drastic measures required to address the sexual abuse of the young—that's obvious, and has been admitted by the bishops of the United States and two popes."

However, Weigel counters Ms. Miller´s contention that women need to be more involved, saying that they already are.

"Nevertheless, it should also be noted that the U.S. church's handling of abuse and misgovernance since 2002 has been immensely strengthened by the insight and professional expertise of many women—just as we also ought to recognize that laywomen, single and married, are usually the teachers who make today's Catholic schools safe and successful.

"Moreover, women are the great majority of the volunteers and paid staff who make Catholic parishes both safe and vital. The notion that women don't have anything to do with how the Catholic Church operates confuses the Catholic Church with the higher altitudes of "the Vatican," and ignores how Catholic life is actually lived in America and Europe."

Weigel contends that the answer for the Church´s problems lies in being more Catholic not less. In that claim, he is absolutely correct. He writes:

"John Paul II's ´Theology of the Body´ proposed an understanding of faithful and fruitful human love as an icon of God's inner life. That vision is far nobler, far more compelling, and far more humane than the sex-as-contact-sport teaching of the sexual revolution, the principal victims of which seem to be vulnerable young people.

"Those who are genuinely committed to the protection of the young might ponder whether Catholicism really needs to become Catholic Lite—or whether the Augean stables of present-day culture need a radical cleansing."

In reference to Weigel's use of Greek mythology as an analogy, Augeas was a king and one of the Argonauts. He is best known for his stables, where he housed the greatest number of cattle in the country. Ironically, the stable had never been cleaned, one of the twelve deeds which was later assigned to Hercules.

Truly, the stable of our culture needs to be cleaned. Perhaps this cleansing will require herculean effort by the Pope, all his bishops, priests, deacons and other leaders. However, when the Church is the Church; when Bishops, priests, deacons, and religious are committed to their vows and virtue; when the teachings of the Church are no longer considered optional by practicing Catholics; the Church will not just be a safe place for men, women and children - they will thrive there.It will also become the force for true change in a culture that has lost its moral compass.

That is the commitment of this Pope.He deserves our prayer, our solidarity and our help.

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Randy Sly is the Associate Editor of Catholic Online. He is a former Archbishop of the Charismatic Episcopal Church who laid aside that ministry to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

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