DURING HIS VISIT TO Great Britain this week, Pope Benedict issued statements on the clerical sex abuse scandal, including comments to reporters during his plane trip, and met with victims. This meeting and his statements, while filled with compassion and understanding, were deeply troubling. The Pope’s emphasis was on healing for victims. There was no forceful statement by the pontiff on disciplining bishops and Church officials who overlooked or covered up sex crimes. Until those who aided and abetted offenders are removed from positions of power, the Church’s efforts at repentence are inadequate. The reckoning is stalled. It is not enough to express sorrow.

According to the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, “never in the church history has the Vatican disciplined, demoted or defrocked a bishop for mishandling clergy sex cases.” A small number of bishops have voluntarily resigned for either committing or concealing child sex crimes, most recently in Brussels.

The Pope also said regarding sex crimes:

We know that this is an illness, that free will does not rule where this illness is present, and that we must protect these persons from themselves and find a way to assist them and to protect them from themselves and exclude them from access to young people.

England is, of course, home to the world’s most aggressive and articulate atheists and the Pope’s visit there has occurred against the backdrop of extreme anatagonism and a barrage of adolescent tantrums in the press. One would think it was the height of the Inquisition for all the power that is attributed to the Church by addled atheists. Protesters have marched against the Church’s stance on homosexuality and on the ordination of women, as if these positions were compulsory on society at large and as if the refusal to allow women priests were comparable to putting all women behind bars for life. It is not enough to its opponents that feminism and homosexuality are accepted and embraced by the world. The Church must not even espouse certain beliefs. It must not dare to think certain thoughts.

In July, the Vatican made the ordination of women priests punishable by excommunication. (Why then can it not make the cover-up of sex crimes punishable?) Nevertheless, Pope Benedict yesterday shook hands with a female Anglican priest at Westminster Cathedral and bowed his head in a prayer offered by her.  He also listened while another woman offered a prayer that referred to God as a woman.

                                                                                 — Comments —

Nora writes:

Your post reminded me of this opinion piece that appeared in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year.

The piece interested me because the author noted that Church punishments for pedophile priests have not always been so lenient (pedophile priests were publicly flogged in the 4th century), but became that way when the new sciences of psychology and psychiatry were developed in the 20th century. Given the emphasis in the Church on forgiveness and rehabilitation of sinners whenever possible, I can understand why bishops might have been all too eager to believe that these doctors really could deliver on their promises, and erred by relying too much on the doctors’ judgments. While plenty of media attention has been trained on those bishops who accepted these “rehabilitated” priests back into service (and deservedly so), I haven’t seen very much media attention investigating the psychological and psychiatric professions, which assured the bishops that the priests were cured.

Laura writes:

The Church has an entirely different ethic from the psychology profession; its moral theology equips it to recognize sin and to resist the idea that strong compulsions are not sinful or deserving of penalty. The psychology profession cannot be blamed because the Church’s moral philosophy preceded it. Also, if the Church had been so heavily psychologized, it would have more readily recognized the psychological danger to children. It seems that the psychological view was one-sided and coincided with the desire to avoid bad publicity.

By the way, I originally wrote in this entry, “In July, the Vatican made the ordination of women priests punishable by excommunication. (Why then can it not make the cover-up of sex crimes punishable by excommunication?)” What I intended to write was, “Why then can it not make the cover-up of sex crimes punishable?” and I have since made the editing change. I do not believe bishops or priests should be excommunicated. 

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