Let’s face it, when a group of bishops pays this much money to a group of psychologists, you are not going to get a report that fixes the blame on bad bishops and bad psychologists. Yet in my experience, and I have way too much personal experience on this issue than anyone should have, that is where the blame lies.
I was in seminary studies for four years of high school, four years of college (two different colleges), and one year of theology at a seminary connected to a major Catholic university. When I was asked to leave in 1972, both seminary officials and I agreed that I did not fit in. For decades I thought that meant there was something wrong with me. It is only in the last few years that I learned through the official diocesan web site and other reliable sources the following:
Half of the men who were in school with me and were ordained for our diocese have been removed from ministry for abusing young people. Not one of them was a true pedophile. 100% of them were involved in homosexual relationships with teenagers.
The above is not an exaggeration. The 50% figure does not include the young priest two years ahead of me who died in a boating accident while drunk.
It does not include the younger brother of my high school teacher who became pastor of my old parish–his canonical case is still pending since 2003 and he may be innocent, even though the other priest accused by the same victim was convicted in criminal court.
It does not include the man one year ahead of me who was accused many years ago and transferred to another diocese. He was accused again in his second diocese and transferred to a third diocese. His case is still pending and he may be innocent.
It does not include the spritual director for my first two years of college who has about a dozen accusers who were high school seminarians at the time. His canonical case is still pending since 2002 and he may be innocent.
It does not include my classmate who was convicted of federal income tax for not reporting as income the money he stole from the parish collections to remodel the $540,000 home he bought for his mother.
It does not include the former parochial vicar in my home parish who was criminally convicted in two different states. The evidence was very strong because this priest kept videotapes of his conquests that somehow got sold in a garage sale.
It does not include another parochial vicar in my home parish who was accused by an opportunist who was twice convicted in federal court of felony fraud. This fine priest really was innocent.
When I was in the seminary, it never occurred to me that any of my friends would molest children. There was only a very slight indication that any of them was homosexual. I had never met an openly gay person until I was in major seminary and that man was a Protestant seminarian. I felt sorry for him and was surprised how many Catholic seminarians thought he was normal.
Looking back to a time almost 40 years ago, there were two indicators of future trouble for the priests now removed from ministry. They were dissenters from Humane Vitae, and many of them abused alcohol. It is not hard for me to see how this happened. Many priests and even bishops also underplayed or openly denied the truth taught by Paul VI, even though the encyclical was nothing new. It only affirmed more than two thousand years of Judeo-Christian teaching. We were taught in the seminary that the encyclical was the opinion of one man and that it was intellectually lazy to give more weight to it than to the opinion of our seminary professors. Our rector was an alcoholic who had stopped drinking. One of our scripture professors died young from the results of alcoholism. Another scripture professor, who left his order and the priesthood, and now professor emeritus at a major Catholic university, can still be seen on the History Channel explaining that if the bones of Jesus were discovered, it would not affect his faith. I never finished my masters degree, but if the Resurrection never happened it would affect my faith a whole lot.
Matthew Bunson has a new book out about the role of Cardinal Ratzinger in the clerical abuse crisis. It was very telling that when Blessed John Paul II became aware of the problem, he did not appoint his top expert in public relations to handle the problem—he appointed his top theologian. I had a long conversation with Dr Bunson on the problem about six months ago after he appeared on the Catholic Answers radio program. I fully agree with Dr Bunson that the three most important factors to solve the problem of clerical abuse are:
- Fidelity
- Fidelity
- Fidelity
