#356: Salt in the Wound

EXCERPT:

The recent news about the involvement of former Boston Archbishop Bernard Law in the investigation of US nuns reflects and typifies the destructive behavior of too much of the Church’s institutional leadership. This behavior is pushing away an entire generation of adults, millions who are calling themselves “former Catholics” not because they doubt their faith, but because they are repulsed by the performance of the hierarchy.

Law, who arguably ranked among the 10 most important prelates in the world, who ran America’s 4th largest diocese, also facilitated some of the worst cases of priestly sexual abuse on record.

…

His resignation brought three public reactions in quick succession: satisfaction led to shock and then to outrage, as Law was consigned not to exile, nor to punishment (let alone prosecution) but to a cushy role as arch-priest in Rome.

Yet now, the outrage turns out to be an under-reaction.

...

Disgraced or not, Law remained a “prince of the Church”--not to be confused with a prince among men. And that is the point.

Precisely as a “prince of the Church,” Bernard Law has become the poster boy for “business as usual” by ecclesiastical authorities who are systematically, albeit (perhaps) unwittingly, alienating millions of Catholics from their own Church. We used to speak of lapsed Catholics as “fallen away”--but now they are not falling at all, they are being pushed.

Now the truth emerges. In 2008, the Vatican congregation overseeing religious nuns and brothers launched a “visitation” to investigate the performance of American nuns. In 2010, three newly-appointed department heads -- US Archbishop William Tobin, Brazilian Cardinal Joao Brazada Aviz and Sister Nicla Spezzati--completed the probe, which largely confirmed the good work of American nuns and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), which represents 80% of US sisters.

But that was not enough, because Vatican politics quickly altered the situation, as longtime Vaticanologist Sandro Magister explained:

This changing of the guard at the top of the congregation for religious was not at all to the liking of the cardinals from the United States residing in Rome at the time.

The cardinals in question were William Levada, who succeeded Joseph Ratzinger as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formally the Holy Office, formally the Holy Inquisition); Raymond Burke, whose hardline views as Archbishop of St. Louis led to his being “kicked upstairs” to the Vatican in 2008; of Bernard law, whose influence in Rome observers now call “widely underestimated.” Boston college theologian Richard Gaillardetz explains:

Until last year when he turned 80, Cardinal Law was active on a number of the Vatican's most influential congregations, and that has allowed him to assert his views on a wide range of church issues.

And Georgetown Jesuit Thomas J. Reese directly links Law’s behind-the-scenes power to his performance in Boston:

He [Law] clearly was in a position to have influence to the extent that anyone would listen to him. And many people at the Vatican felt he got a bum deal and were sympathetic to him.

In short, the ongoing denial about Law’s malfeasance in governing the Archdiocese of Boston has resulted in reward rather than punishment.

Thus the Vatican launched a second, rival investigation in 2009 which has now essentially placed the LCWR and its membership under episcopal receivership. This is widely seen as a “crackdown” aimed at disciplining “liberal” nuns for not wearing habits, prioritizing social justice issues over the fight against contraception, and critiquing official pronouncements and policies. Robert Mickens, Vatican reporter for The Tablet (UK) reports that Bernard Law was the “prime instigator” of this rival investigation.

Whether this interpretation is accurate is beside the point. The main point is this: leaders must lead by getting others to follow. Bishops must earn (and deserve) the compliance of the faithful by convincing them that their moral authority is authentic. But the last 10 years have destroyed the confidence of millions of Catholics in their own bishops’ competence, character, and even integrity.

If “business as usual” includes cover-ups, covert rewards for offenders, and backdoor maneuvers pitting bishops against bishops and Vatican office vs. Vatican office--then “business as usual” will no longer do. Our church’s mission is too important to be jeopardized by the growing belief that its leaders are weak, fearful, self-and-sex-obsessed men bent on perpetuating their own power.

Our Church is wounded. At this point, conducting “business as usual” is like pouring salt in the wound.