Church Scandal and how to talk to people about it

[cmac2]

I was the recipient of a rude awakening this morning when I got a text from a person I used to hang out with. At 8 in the morning, he wanted to know why I don’t talk to him anymore. I explained as politely as I could that some of the things he said I found disturbing. Talking a little more, we got into a debate about the Vatican, especially since I returned to the Catholic Church. He once stated that he hated the Vatican and by extension the pope because of, you guessed it, Church scandal.
In the debate, he called the Vatican, and presumably the Church as a whole, a ‘refuge for abusers’ and ‘den of pedophiles.’ He then said that idolizing the pope was contradicting Christ, which is an odd statement from someone who is a former-Christian agnostic. After I explained why he was wrong and said that we are not be able to change each other’s mind, I blocked him. Not because the difference of our opinion but because I did not see any fruitful interaction in a friendship with him as long as we held out on our stances.
It got me thinking, though. I recognize that the Church is not without scandal. There are bad and good priests out there, although the media seems to make it clear that they believe we harbor pedophiles in the clerical ranks. In spite of this bias, I believe that there needs to be more reforms. How do we handle the Church in her current crisis? How do we talk to people about the scandals without coming off as ‘worshiping the pope’ as some have accused me of? And finally, what can we do to curb this seeming tidal wave of priests who commit these horrible acts? Is it even possible for laypeople to help reform the Church from within? It kind of makes me wonder what some of the saints would say or do in times like these. Like what would Catherine of Siena do? Or Francis of Assisi. Peter and Paul. Or Teresa of Avila.

 

[sudy]

I think it’s important not to try to defend the behaviour of those priests involved in abuse. Abusers will always seek ways to abuse… you’ll find them in schools and childrens’ homes too, unfortunately. The Church and Pope were established by Christ, so that’s all the defence needed. The Church has already been, and still is being, reformed in the sense of weeding out these abusers… we must remember that these are historical cases being dealt with. I’m not saying it can never happen again because it always could… but the Church is asking for people to come forward and to speak out to bring everything to light. As to the Church being for sinners, that’s sort of true… we’re all sinners.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I’d simply say:

1. The Church is a large institution and it is going to contain some bad apples, like any large institution, including the government, school systems, and other large religions. It also contains a great many good people, such as me, you, and the vast majority of priests we know, who are just trying to do the best that they can, aren’t abusing children, and would promptly report any such abuse or cover-up they saw.
2. The media emphasizes misdeeds, corruption and bad news because that is what sells. You’ll never hear about the vast majority of priests who aren’t abusers or otherwise corrupt and just go about their business.
3. Having said all that, the Church has made mistakes and mishandled this situation in the past, and is working to correct those mistakes. The Church has already implemented a lot of new child-protection policies since the 1980s, and when a priest commits abuse nowadays he is promptly removed from his post and investigated, not just shifted to a different parish or diocese. Most of the scandal currently in the news involves old cases and in some cases the abusers are long dead.
4. We also don’t base our being part of the Catholic Church on whether the clergy are sinful or not. There have always been some grievously sinful clergy and there always will be. Some humans sin. Some humans sin seriously. Priests and bishops are not immune. We are part of the Catholic Church because we believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist there (and there only) and because we believe it to be the church founded by Jesus Christ. Also, “The Church” is not a bunch of bishops in a room somewhere, “The Church” is all the people in the church…which includes a lot of good people.

I would ONLY go into this much of an explanation if the person was a really good friend and open-minded enough that they’re not going to just continue ranting “bunch of pedos, blahblahblah”. Your “friend” sounds like the kind of tone-deaf person with a hangup that no Catholic needs for a friend, because he apparently thinks it’s okay to insult your religion and won’t listen to your reasonable explanation or try to see your side of it. He doesn’t value your friendship. Most people who go off on these rants are similar. The friendship is not as important to them as their own opinion. In some cases where the person has been personally touched by sex abuse in their life, either as a victim or a family member of a victim or similar, I understand, but I also accept that they may be emotionally incapable of looking at this situation logically, and hence they aren’t a good friend for me.

 

[Dlee]

And a credible reason to remove a priest during the investigation means that abuse could have taken place. No witnesses present.