The Sex Scandal

Children were brought to Jesus

that he might lay his hands on them and pray.

The disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said,

"Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them;

for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

After he placed his hands on them, he went away.

There is something about a child that we all recognize as different than their adult counterparts.  A child is an open book whose pages are bright white and ready to be written upon and what we write there will last their lifetime.  They look up to the adults in their life.  They instinctively know that information that will contribute to their survival will come from the people that have lived longer than they have.  

The parents are the source of much of the information that will get them started.  The mother and the father are the traditional fonts of life lessons.  We all learned from them that fire was hot, we don't touch the stove.  We learned how to tie our shoes, how to put on our clothes, how to speak in an indoor voice and when to keep silent.  We learn that we have our family to fall back on and ideally we learn that no matter what trouble we find ourselves in Mom and/or Dad will be there to help us figure out a solution. 

We learn that there are other adults that will help us learn. We enter school and there we meet the first adults that we are not related to and we learn the ways of the world from them.  They are experts in subjects that our mom and dad are not.  

If we are a Catholic family and our parents are in touch with their spiritual selves, we will have been introduced to the Church and to Jesus and will have been set upon the road that leads to the ultimate happiness of being with God in heaven for eternity.  Here we meet a man who has studied, who is spiritual, who has given his life to Christ in a very special way and has become an ordained priest.  There is nothing better than a pastoral priest.  He spends his life in service to his people.  Would that all priests be pastoral.  Some are not but they still fill the need of someone to administer the sacraments to us and they do help us understand the Word of God better, but for them, it is a nine to five job, nothing special.  

Jesus warned us of wolves in sheep's clothing.  It is this kind of priest that has done huge amounts of damage to children, young people, and even young men entering the seminary. These men, while ordained, are not even as good as the nine to five priest because they are dangerous.  They are filled with lusts that they give full reign to and they abuse those that they are supposed to protect.  They are truly the scum of the earth and a special place awaits them when they leave this world. 

There is worse.  What can be worse?  Over several decades the bishops would find out about a case of child abuse and the priest would be sent for a counseling session and sent back out into the filed.  No mention of his love of little boys would be provided to the new parish.  More often than not, the predator priest would offend again, and again, and again. Each time the story would be covered up by bishops and the offender would be transferred to another parish where he would have a fresh crop of children and young men to abuse. 

Some of these bishops that transferred the offender rose through the ranks and became cardinals.  They used their influence to keep the wraps on the situation until one day it the news broke and the Church was in turmoil.  In the meantime, knowing that the Church has deep pockets, "victims" came out of hiding and accused priests of these horrible acts and the Church paid out handsomely.  To be honest, many of the claims against the Church were most likely true but some were bogus.

In the year 2000, the magisterium came up with the idea of forming a committee to investigate the issue of predatory priests and the cover-up.  This committee would be made up of lay people, independent of the Church.  It was a good idea except that they had no power.  A diocese could provide the evidence requested by the group if they chose to.  Self-preservation was the name of the game and no documents that could be considered smoking guns were ever disclosed.

In the meantime, bishops who engaged in the cover-up were promoted and took seats of power in the Vatican.  There they controlled the "truth" and saw to it that as much as possible the grim details of pastoral abuse remained hidden underneath their cassocks.  

Praise God that He allowed the situation to mature and today we find out just how high this has gone.  A kingmaker, a cardinal with lots of power, Cardinal McCarrick was a mover and shaker.  Credible evidence has surfaced that he abused a fourteen-year-old altar boy when he was a priest serving in New York forty-seven years ago.  One has to believe where there is one, there must be others.  McCarrick has been stripped of his title of Cardinal, placed into seclusion by Pope Francis and will stand trial to see if he should be removed completely from ministry and laicized.  

The storm clouds are once again gathering because the Church did not do enough when this situation first reared its ugly head.  We will now pay the price for the prideful and sinful actions of men who should have known better.  

Will the Church survive?  Yes, a thousand times yes.  The plot of ground has many weeds right now.  They need to be rooted up and cast into the fire.  Forgiveness?  Of course, it is available to any Catholic who confesses their sin and makes an effort to change.  But, this forgiveness does not mean the restoration of their ministry as they cannot be trusted, their presence as representatives of the Church would be knowingly putting them back in harm's way.

It is time for Pope to deal with this situation firmly and with a view to exposing the muck that has been moldering in the darkness for all of these years.  The Pope needs to appoint a committee with plenipotentiary powers to go anywhere to examine any and all documents in the archive of any diocese in the world.  One committee, of course, would not be enough. This committee would be able to appoint others with the same powers that they have.  This committee would be overseen by no one except the Pope.  They would answer to no one and what they discover would be brought into the light for all to see.  This scandal must be brought to a head and it must be dealt with today.  Pope Francis, the ball is in your court.  Will we see action or will you sow the seeds of another cover-up?