Well, it’s about time.  I welcome this sort of apology and internal probe, even if it seems long overdue.  For a small nation of just 4 million people to face around 15K complaints of abuse by priests and other church leaders (teachers, etc.) is an incredibly high number.  Just stunningly, sickeningly high.

As we all know, the American RC Church was devastated by the sexual abuse scandals that erupted into such ugly prominent around 2002.  The effects were catastrophic on morale, finances, and the public image of the Catholic Church in this country.  Now it’s 8 years later, and similar scandals are starting to rock the foundations of the Irish RC Church, with the German Church not far behind, and others waiting in the wings.  I hope that genuine change is coming about now, however belatedly.

It’s all very sad and grievous to behold.  When one part of the Body of Christ suffers, we all suffer, whether we’re Catholics or Protestants.  And this being Lent, confession and repentance are especially appropriate right now.

David Handy+

Actually, the effects of the sex scandals on the the Catholic Church in the U.S. are far from, devastating.

First, the Church is rid of a lot of excess money. A rich community is a community at risk of all sorts of the problems of materialism. While protestant myths about the wealthy Catholic Church are exaggerated, they aren’t without some truth.  Moreover, the money isn’t, to my knowledge, coming from social ministries.

Second, the Church is rid of a lot of incompetent and destructive clergy: Abp. Weakland comes to mind. While Bernard Cardinal Law gets more bad press than warranted (he inherited a bad situation from Card. Medieros), he failed to fix the problems and lost his See as a result. The question of clergy with a homosexual orientation is rightly under review. I don’t personally see this as a simple issue, but there has been a problem with homosexualist ideology that is being addressed. The fact is that in most of the Episcopal Church today, homosexualist beliefs are required: both of the new suffragan bishops in LA are homosexualists, though attention is focused on the homosexual Glasspool.  That was effectively true in some Catholic dioceses (as was support for women’s ordination) in the past; anecdotal evidence suggests the problem is being cleaned up. I know the local Catholic diocese has gone through a major cleanup since they got the new bishop.

To my mind, the American bishops failed miserably to address the real problems - materialism with it’s sex components, corporatism, and individualist interpretations of the Faith - in the Dallas Charter, it was something. The bishops should have publicly repented of their dependence on psychology and their affecting the role of corporate CEOs. They didn’t (as a group; of course, many did in their individual ministries) but at least today many Catholics have gained a broad understanding of the problems, and clericalism (another truth that gets some exaggeration) is under serious review. Again, whether a homosexual orientation disqualifies a man from the priesthood can be discussed, but I doubt we will see another Always Our Children.

Finally, the Catholic Church in the U.S., unlike the liberal protestant bodies, continues to grow in numbers, largely as a result of hispanic immigration. Now, to my mind, losing a bunch of cafeteria Catholic white people and gaining faithful hispanics is a net win, but then I don’t think that just going to Mass is a sufficient measure of Faith either. According to a friend who’s a DRE in a heavily hispanic parish, the Mexican immigrants were “sacramentalized” but not taught the Faith. However, their kids are being taught the Faith, which bodes well for the future.  Also, every year she has a number of couples who come to RCIA for the Sacraments: Confirmation, First Communion, and, yes, Holy Matrimony, which is to say the regularizing of civil marriages.

So all in all, the sex scandals were a good thing - not that the abuse happened, but that it came to light. Since we know similar or worse problems exist in the public schools and virtually every institution where adults have access to kids, I count the Catholic Church as fortunate to have this opportunity to clean house.