A few people have blamed the crisis on power and corruption. I disagree. Here’s my analysis:
in the 1940s and 1950s, it was unconscionable that a priest would do these things, so it was swept under the rug. It was so far beyond comprehension that it was ignored.
By the 1960s, people learned that authority could be questioned. Freedom of thought, freedom of conscience became a growing realization in society. We fought against racism, protested the Vietnam war, experienced the sexual revolution, and survived even Vat II. People started to think more for themselves, and became increasingly distrustful of authority figures.
The Church responded with fear. The social upheavals created huge threats to the authority of the Church. The hierarchy was petrified that abuse scandals would further erode what had been chipped away. So they buried their heads in the sand and handled the cases internally, doing their best to pretend lots of prayer and contrition would heal the sinners. It wasn’t power that drove them. It was fear.
By the 1990s, as the Information Age dawned, it became impossible for the Church to hide behind its vestments. But the damage has been done. It’s too late now, folks. Rather than show conviction, fortitude, courage, and strength, they played shell games, obfuscated, and crossed their fingers and rubbed their lucky rabbit’s foot in hopes that no one would notice their systemic, institutional, foundational failures to abide by the most basic sense of morality.
As someone wrote once, “I set the bar so low, I set it on the ground. I even trenched it in a little so it wouldn’t roll away.”
That’s where OUR leadership is now–trying to convince us that it hasn’t been hiding under that bar.
