What is truth?

 

During this past Good Friday, the Passion of Our Lord according to the Gospel of St. John was proclaimed in many Catholic churches across the world. The Gospel contains an exchange between Jesus who states that he “came into the world, to testify to the truth” and Pilate. A skeptical Pilate responds with the question: “What is truth?”

As I heard the words this exchange on Good Friday, I thought about many things concerning the truth and truth claims in a variety of contexts. Like many others, I have been overwhelmed by the media blitz led by some principal news outlets about Pope Benedict and various sexual abuse cases and claims. What is the truth about these important reports?

Not much if anything was said about one aspect of the truth of sexual abuse in these media presentations: in addition to being a crime in many instances, it is also a sin. Moreover, it is a sin that infects and tempts some members of the clerical state, but it is also a sin that runs through and infects the membership of the human race. Fr. Frederico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, tried to convey this idea when he was quoted in The New York Times on March 9 comparing the number of abuse cases in Austria involving Catholic institutions (17) versus other areas of Austrian society (510) during the same period.

Another dimension of the truth surrounding the recent reporting of sexual abuse cases by the media during March and April of this year was that virtually all of the attention was on cases involving Catholic institutions. Other commentators have made similar remarks about the limited extent to which this sinful and criminal action was reported over the past several weeks. I then wondered if some more research were done, what other truth might be encountered regarding sexual abuse claims.

I thus went to the website of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and examined their 2008 Annual Report which is posted online. As I examined the website and the 2008 Annual Report, I saw that the SNAP organization’s interests and concerns about sexual abuse extend to other denominations and other organizations and is not restricted to the sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholics only. Moreover, the Annual Report for 2008 has a somewhat larger group of non-Catholic cases that “made news in 2008” than the Catholic cases. My use of the term “case” here refers to the fact that individuals—mostly men, but also some women—have been targeted by SNAP as persons responsible for the sexual abuses cases listed in the organization’s report. Is this fact not relevant to the truth about what has been reported concerning only the Catholic Church these past several weeks?

In addition, is there not more truth that has gone unreported about sexual abuse of minors since public and private institutions not affiliated with religious organizations and faiths have also been the place where sexual abuse has occurred on a large scale? Why have these truths been absent from the discussion?

Perhaps one plausible reason is that a major motivation for reporting on the sexual abuse of minors is not reporting the abuse per se but, rather, on targeting a particular institution whose members have abused others. The Catholic Church has clear teachings about sin and the sexual abuse of others, but it also has other teachings that are not popular with the contemporary culture. Is it plausible, then, to suggest that an important truth about the recent media interest that has been appearing these past several weeks is not so much on the sins of Catholics as it is on embarrassing the Church so as to silence her? I, for one, think that the sexual abuse scandal of the vulnerable has gone on for too long. But I also think that this scandal is not restricted to sinful members of the Catholic Church. That, I am confident, is the truth of sexual abuse.

It appears that there is much about the truth surrounding the sexual abuse of minors that remains to be published. Until the time that the truth about this plague is fully reported and understood by us all, I fear that the sins and crimes that are at the heart of the sexual abuse of minors will continue. What will have greater difficulty in continuing is the Church and her proper mission in this world. And, isn’t that a part of the truth about what has been going on?

We have just celebrated once again the extraordinary gift leading us to the truth about the repentance and forgiveness of sins. A part of this truth is that sexual sins are not restricted only to those of us who are Catholics.

 

RJA sj