Tuesday, April 6, 2010
The Church as Victim in Abuse Scandal
I agree with Peggy Noonan that the Church should be thankful for the media coverage that provided the motivation to take the priest sexual abuse crisis seriously -- indeed, perhaps even to begin viewing it as a "crisis" in the first place. I also agree with observers who point out that at least some of the media coverage is shaped by a not-too-subtle desire to discredit the Church. Witness, for example, Get Religion's helpful comparison of the AP report of an Indian priest's alleged sexual abuse in Minnesota with the New York Times' coverage of the same allegations. It has been troubling, though, that at least some Church leaders seem to be focusing their concern on the unfair media coverage, rather than on the events that put the Church in the position of having to deal with unfair media coverage. It gives support to critics who say that the primary objective of Church leaders has always been defending the public perception of the Church, and that this mindset, as seen in the "blame the media" strategy, also contributed to the scandal itself.
Now to jump into some murky ecclesiological waters that are undoubtedly over my head, one of my concerns when I became Catholic was the extent to which my Catholic friends sometimes struggled to talk about their relationship with God, rather than their relationship with the institutional Church. There are different dynamics going on here, I know, but I wonder if they stem from a common tendency to view the Church as the ultimate end of the Christian life, rather than as a body that "places herself concretely at the service of the Kingdom of God." (Compendium para. 50) If Church leaders began with the questions, "What is the mission of the Church, and how have the Church's failings compromised that mission?," I wonder if the conversation would be any different than it is today.
https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2010/04/the-church-as-victim-in-abuse-scandal.html
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The institutional church, going back to the apostles, has been made up of weak, fallen, sinful, human individuals. Whatever the nature of the believer's relationship with God, one should not base his religious faith on the assumption that church leaders are incapable of unethical or sinful conduct. If a person's faith is shaken by learning that priests, bishops and popes are capable of such conduct then maybe that person's faith deserved shaking. I detest every aspect of the sex abuse scandal and I encourage the church to admit the facts, take responsibility, do everything possible to correct the problem and punish the wrong doers, and to care for the victims. Having said that I have to admit that the church has made considerable progress in these areas in recent years. Nevertheless the church has a problem. It has no recourse in the event that a false or misleading story is published in the media. When anyone on behalf of the church tries to correct inaccuracies and distortions in the press the general response is that the church is acting defensively and blaming the victims. It bothers me when individuals who have a personal interest (such as rich trial lawyers who have an admitted agenda to take their claims to the Vatican) promote false information regarding the church. I don't like to see the church chastised for correcting false information even though I know it will be criticized for doing so. My hope is that people who read these stories will be inspired to check the facts for themselves. I'm probably not being very realistic in this hope.