The Ongoing Clerical Abuse Crisis

The word ‘crisis’ in my opinion is one of the most overused words in the English language, largely because of sensationalistic journalists who, in order to sell stories on the news of the day, abandon all sense of time and perspective. Nations, like individuals, all have moments of difficulty. But few such difficulties amount to true crises, or events which form a crossroads, a time of decision, whose effects last far after the presenting challenge has passed.

There is a clerical abuse crisis today, and it presents us with an epochal challenge. But it is not the crisis reported by the media, nor a crisis which anyone can see from casual observation. Its pace is glacial, and like glaciers, its movement carves monumental gorges in the earth. This glacier, largely unnoticed, has a base like that which hit the Titanic: colossal, largely hidden, and dangerous. This is not the crisis of abuse by Priests. It is the crisis of abuse of Priests.

I mean no disrespect to the men and women who have suffered from the sins of the clergy; but I believe that the very system these same victims suffered from is the same one which still purdures, and now is weaponized against Priests. It is gilded with procedure and statistics, with PR departments and carefully worded press releases, but the mechanisms are the same. And it proceeds forth doing harm, unchallenged and largely unnoticed. Unless it is resolved, the Church will continue to run headlong into ruin.

One of the hallmarks of a civilized and free nation is that it possesses relative freedom from corruption, and it does that by upholding the rule of law. The rule of law is meant to be impartial and just. Due process and other juridical procedures give fora in which people can air their grievances and receive satisfaction. When this breaks down, one of the first results is rage. This rage emerges from the fundamental human desire for justice. The presbyterate is full of a lot of rage today. If rage is unaddressed for too long, the results are revolution and destruction.

The late Avery Cardinal Dulles and Father Richard John Neuhaus were famous in the last decade for their prescient words on the destructive power which a ‘Dallas Charter Ecclesiology’ would unleash. They knew, as did several other people, that the Bishops were erecting a system, from which they themselves were exempt, in which the liberty of the Church, which has been a value defended even unto blood for centuries, was sacrificed on the altar of legal liability and risk management. If our ancestors thought the Investiture Controversy was an infringement on the liberty of the Church, they must be spinning in their graves: Bishops now might as well receive their miter from their Diocesan Office of Investigations, their crozier from the Communications Officer, and their ring from the local newspaper editor. Bishops, in the name of accepting responsibility, merely shifted responsibility. In the past, Bishops put their trust in psychologists who told them that very sick Priests could be rehabilitated. Now they put their trust in lawyers, public-relations experts and prosecutors, some of whom would make Nero look like Charlemagne in terms of their love of the Church. Instead of making the Gospel and our theological principles the guiding principles of renewal, we made risk management the primary value of our institutional apparatus and procedures. Abandoning our sacred principles for secular ones has greatly damaged us before. Now, this threatens to do so even more.

Canon lawyers in the Western Hemisphere are completely inundated with complaints on the part of Priests whose rights are being routinely violated by their Bishops, all in the name of the institutional church or other bureaucratic goal. Bishops are having trouble finding pastors to run their parishes, because many Priests feel that being a Pastor today has been completely gutted of sacral and juridical significance, and so are unwilling to take up the task. If they must, some discharge their duty with a minimum of care, so as not to provoke malcontented laity or diocesan authorities. Unofficially, in the eyes of most dioceses, the role of a pastor is not the sanctification and governance of the parish, but to provide services. The person of the Priest is secondary, as are his gifts, strengths and weaknesses: he must fill the personnel hole. Masses must be said, marriages solemnized, confessions heard. No one seems to be asking the more important questions: Is the Gospel being proclaimed? Are people being converted? Is the Priest a man of prayer and virtue?

It is precisely in this atmosphere, which emerged especially in the years after the Council, and is now metastasizing everywhere, that is causing a crisis of the Priesthood’s self-understanding around the world. In the vacuum of a proper spiritual and theological understanding, or in the promotion of false conceptions of Priesthood and ministry, many unhealthy personalities have prospered, and proliferated. The explosion especially of narcissism in the episcopacy is both a cause and effect of this evacuated belief in the Priesthood: Bishops by and large, with few exceptions, do not emerge from the same ‘stock’ as rank-and-file Priests. They had their benefactors and their own hand-carved tracks to success. The contemporary episcopacy: unaccountable, aloof, and possessing absolute control over its presbyterate, is the narcissist’s dream. No Persian Prince or Byzantine Emperor ever could have created a more ideal system for absolute rule.

Of course, there are quite a few good Bishops out there in the world: but even they are constrained by the ‘style’ of governance practiced in most chanceries and in episcopal conferences. Very few as of yet have the courage to break ranks with their confreres to do what in their hearts they know is right.

My experience with Priests across the country and the world is revealing a troubling low level of clerical morale. This transcends ideological and generational divides. Older Priests largely feel betrayed as the Church abandons some of them in their old age. The Church they knew has largely disappeared; being a Pastor today in 2019 is very different than in 1969. Bishops in certain places have used pensions and benefits, upon which older Priests rely, as a means of extortion, or to punish them for perceived bad behavior. Younger Priests, by contrast, tend to judge all older Priests collectively as the architects of the present unhappy state of affairs. Bishops and Curial Officials do not help themselves when they demand certain tasks of young Priests, but refuse to give them true authority. The widespread practice of appointing young Priests to parishes merely as Parochial Administrators, so that they can be pulled at will, is creating tremendous levels of resentment and anger.

Bishops in the United States especially have tied above the head of all Priests a Sword of Damocles: any Priest, at any time, can be denounced and find himself effectively homeless. Bishops are largely immune from such danger, and have absolutely no demonstrated sympathy for their Priests. As any psychologist will say, one of the fundamental needs of a stable and healthy human personality is security. Another is intimacy and loving relationships. The message communicated to most Priests today is the following: Trust no one. Don’t trust your Bishop, or other Priests, or your people. This is the recipe for a mental health disaster. Do your work, provide your services, but truly apostolic zeal and ingenuity are liable to be severely punished. Is it any wonder why so many Priests are now only comfortable with getting up in the morning, saying Daily Mass, and then retreating to their room for the rest of the day? When dealing with people is so fraught with potential dangers, the timid, lazy and pusillanimous can easily retreat into a self-indulgent isolation.

Priests are also being robbed by the current institutional system of a healthy sense of autonomy and self-esteem. Many pastors are constantly at the mercy of chancery officials and other functionaries who incessantly attempt to micromanage their affairs on a level far beyond that demanded by the Law or by good administration. The endless cycle of special collections and diocesan assessments, especially as diocesan bureaucracies grow and benefits and salaries remain low, rightly makes the people, and their pastors, wince. If a Priest proclaims a difficult truth from the pulpit or has to make a difficult pastoral call, he almost never finds a supportive diocese, but almost always a hostile and overbearing one. The core concern of the institution is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but whether a particular Priest and his actions will cause ’embarrassment’ in so far as public opinion is concerned. This is a far cry from salus animarum suprema lex.

In the meantime, the presbyterates are becoming increasingly atomized. One almost never hears of Priests gathering for informal fraternal events. Some Pastors, even if they be five minutes from each other, may only see each other twice a year at a Chrism Mass or a Diocese-mandated Priest Conference. The only time I hear of Priests praying the Rosary or Vespers together is in Oratories. Is this a recipe for camaraderie and an apostolic milieu? In place of the Breviary and the Rosary, Priests turn to the local McDonalds and the bottle. Exceptions exist, but the fraternity of the diocesan clergy is increasingly becoming an absolute fiction. This again is the result of the lack of example from Bishops. I applaud those Bishops who have an open door policy with their Priests, who meet them for informal meals, who pray with them, who listen to them. In some places, Bishops won’t even meet with their Priests except with a lawyer. This is not the behavior of a spiritual father, but a CEO or a Department Head.

This is not even to mention the all-too-routine circumvention or contravention of Universal Canon Law in favor of policies and procedures that are more worthy of a Soviet Politburo than the Holy Catholic Church. The ongoing weaponization of the mental health field against Priests is a scandal of which most people are unaware. Any Priest, at any time, can be deprived of his office(s) and rendered unfit for ministry by a trumped-up declaration of mental instability. The Church-run institutions for ‘mental health’ have very little to do with mental health. They are laundering services for Bishops and Dioceses who wish to develop a casus belli against Priests and Religious who don’t fit on their Procrustean Bed. Most Church-run treatment facilities have wholly ceased running for sexual predators and other criminals. But their nefarious work still grinds on, unreported and unnoticed, and an appalling abuse of men and women. Oftentimes, Priests and Religious find that they arrive at these places for evaluation, only to find that the Diocese has already called the institution with a diagnosis which they want them to provide. Some Priests are pumped full of drugs, many are subjected to polygraph examinations and tests given to convicted criminals, even when they have been accused of no crime whatsoever. These are not therapeutic treatments, but fishing expeditions. These institutions not only violate the human rights of Priests and Religious, but the best practices of the mental health field.

A Priest, knowing that in all likelihood if he does experience a crisis in his Priesthood he will be treated like a criminal or a delinquent, will likely hide this fact until it explodes into public view. The institutional church will then attempt to wash its hands of him in order to avoid embarrassment, and will remain unwilling to admit to having caused the sort of mistreatment which provoked the break. If a Priest has a problem with drinking, or pornography, or other problems, he should be able to seek voluntarily spiritual and psychological assistance from competent professionals without fear of reprisal. He should be able to forge a therapeutic alliance with a professional who works for him, not the diocese or the Bishop. This right is well-known by Canonists, but Bishops and Dioceses routinely take advantage of Priests’ fear, ignorance and willingness to obey. Above and beyond that, Priests know that they are living under a system which presumes guilt and ignores due process, and so in some cases they simply surrender themselves and their vocations under the pressure, rather than be reduced to penury and ignominy.

Not too long ago, I received a call from a young Priest who was brutalized by his narcissistic and mentally unstable Pastor. It took a literal binder of complaints from the people and the curate before the Priest, a friend of auxiliary bishops and other curial officials, was transferred. He called in tears, admitting to me that he was drinking one or two bottles of wine a night, and he was contemplating an affair with a young woman with whom he had a multi-decade friendship. But what he said at the end of his story hurt me the most: “You are the only man I trust with a Roman Collar”. This poor young Priest did not feel he had anyone to whom he could share his very real struggles. His cries for help to the Diocese after being abused by his Pastor were completely ignored, because his Pastor was in favor. I insisted ultimately that this Priest and I have dinner and pray together. I had not seen him in person for almost half a year. He had withdrawn and buried himself in his work and his sorrow. This is all too common. It is intolerable.

I know I have been rather strong in my comments about Bishops, but we Priests bear part of the blame. We cannibalize our wounded and our struggling. Too many Priests use the struggles and falls of their confreres as fodder for gossip than as an incentive for compassionate communication and true fraternal support. In this age of an aloof, apathetic episcopate and a hostile world, who can be our advocates, if we cannot even advocate for ourselves, and each other?

If Bishops want to be more sure that their Priests are in good health of mind and body, they have to ensure to the best of their ability that conditions prevail which are favorable to that end. They can start by actually being present to their clergy, especially in informal settings. They need to inspect their rectories, to make sure they are relatively clean and well-ordered. They need to encourage Priestly fraternity and common life, so that Priests feel fortified and encouraged in their common vocation. If a complaint is made about a Priest because he made a stand in favor of Christ and the teaching of the Church, it should be clearly stated that the Priest will be completely supported. If a Priest in good faith approaches his Bishop with a genuine personal need, his Bishop should be eager to receive him.

The root of so many evils in the institutional church in this point in history is an unaccountable episcopate, which exercises near absolute control over the lives of Priests. Far too many Bishops abuse their power and abuse their Priests. They seem to feel on some level that the rights of their Priests are optional. Rome has no armies, after all, and Canon Law is a dead letter, when they pull the purse strings. Inter arma, silent leges. What Priest living in such a situation would want to promote vocations? What Priest suffering in this way would possess the sort of infectious joy which is the hallmark of a truly and fully lived vocation?

This situation will never change unless Bishops are made to feel its effects themselves. I have yet to hear of a Bishop who is homeless or living on food stamps and charity, as some unfortunate Priests are. Bishops go on retreat or vacation, while Priests go to rehab. Of course I believe in the legitimate role of the Bishop in a fully Catholic Ecclesiology. What I heartily dispute is that his authority gives him carte blanche. I praise and thank any Bishop who thinks that the current state of affairs is harmful, because it is. But who among you has the courage at long last to do what must be done, and unequivocally and without deviation follow the precepts of the moral law and the canons? Be careful, your Excellencies, or I feel that some of you will be very busy staffing your empty parishes on weekends in the near future.