A Time to Heed the Prophets - Part One of a Series on the Present Crisis

I

Over the last month or so the daily readings at Mass have been dominated by selections from the prophets, (beginning this week we've switched to selections from St. Paul) which has also been true of the Office of Readings (a part of the prayers known as the Divine Office priests and most religious are required to pray daily). For a good part of August we heard specifically from Ezekiel. He was prophet during the time of the Babylonian exile. He had a hard message for the Israelites separated from their homeland. They were told that they were in this particular situation because of their collective sins, and in spite of the dire situation that they found themselves in, they still hadn't learned their lesson.

Ezekiel was a prophet who taught by symbolic actions as well as word. In one instance he was told by God that his beloved wife would die, but that he was not to go through the normal mourning rituals. He was to act as if everything was normal. When pressed by the people about why he wasn't following the regular routine for when a loved one died, he answered it was because the remnant left in Jerusalem would be slain and the Temple destroyed by foreign enemies. They were not to mourn, though. They were to abandon the idea of a speedy return home. They were to establish themselves in Babylon - start families and be good examples for the native population. Their time of trial and purification was to go on longer than they had anticipated. 

Ezekiel also wrote extensively of evil shepherds who did not follow the Lord's ways. They didn't shepherd the sheep, but were instead looking after themselves and their own needs first. They had grown comfortable, allowing the weak and struggling to go astray without helping them. He predicted destruction for those negligent shepherds.

II

In early 2002 the Catholic Church, mainly in the United States, suffered a first wave of the sex abuse crisis. It really wasn't a new issue, but because of a series of investigative articles in The Boston Globe, what had been sporadically reported incidence of child sex abuse by Catholic clergy came together into one narrative of abuse and cover up. After The Globe ran its stories, The Dallas Morning News began it's own investigation. From there the story ran like wildfire through the media. 

The first five or six years after the scandals broke were particularly hard. A new normal settled in, at least as far as the Church in the US was concerned. We grew accustomed to background checks, yearly audits of records, safe environment training, getting fingerprinted. Many were afraid to wear clerical clothing in public because of confrontations that some priests suffered for just dressing like a priest. I never had that happen to me, but I did feel self conscious when out on the street or in an airport. I always wondered if passers by were looking at me out of devotion or scorn. I felt like people would see me and walk the other way, especially if they had children with them. While I'm sure there was some psychological projection going on on my part, I'm also sure my suspicions of bad feelings were true, at least some of the time. 

The pressure has never gone way (and I'm not sure it should), but I would say that over the last few years I've felt it lightening at bit. People are more likely to approach me in public than before, and almost universally the interaction is positive. I never abandoned the wearing of the collar in public, but for a while I made the conscious choice to travel in "civvies" more times than not. I've since reversed that practice. It seemed like finally we had reached a point where the new normal of greater accountability felt, well, normal, with the public's trust being regained little by little. 

Then June 20, 2018 happened. That was the day it was revealed that then Cardinal Theodore McCarrick had been credibly accused to child sex abuse, offenses that happened many decades ago. Along with that there were reports of payments made related to the more recent sexual harassment of adult men - mainly seminarians. This part of the scandal was handled as more of an inside Church matter. The secular press reported on it, but didn't pursue it too much. It isn't my desire to go into the details of the affair - there's plenty out there in the Catholic press and blogosphere. Just to say it the first stirrings that a return to the bad old days of 2002 were making themselves known.

Then came August 14, and the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report. I was on retreat, but in this age of smart phones it has hard for me to resist following what was going on. I only read the introduction of the 800 plus page report, but those first 24 pages were enough to make me want to vomit. Now the spirit of the Long Lent of 2002 was officially back with us.

We usually speak of two shoes falling, but this week a third boot hit the floor in the form of a self described testimony by former Papal Nuncio to the US, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò. In the 11 page document he accuses the Pope of knowing about McCarrick's misdeeds and covering them up. He also claims that McCarrick had undue influence over who was named bishops or which bishops got promoted to larger sees or the College of Cardinals. The testimony exposed fissures that have existed in the Catholic Church in the US for a long time, but were often covered over. We have bishops and cardinals openly taking sides either for or against the veracity of Viganò's account. No prelate I've seen has joined the former nuncio in calling for Pope Francis to step down, but some Catholic media figures have.

The scandals here in the States are part of a larger crisis that has unfolded in the past months in Latin America. At one time the Church overseas saw this an "America" problem, but now the scandal is clearly understood to be international in scope, which it should have always been. 

III

So what is the link between the readings we have been pondering these weeks from the Old Testament prophets and the current scandals we are suffering through right now? I'll offer two possibilities.

First, the shepherds of the Church have been too busy shepherding themselves and their agendas instead of shepherding the flock. There are too many clerics who see the priesthood as a career choice instead of as a vocation. I believe most begin their vocational journey listening to the voice of the Lord calling them to serve in the spirit of the Apostles, but something goes off the rails along the way. Most priests don't get rich, by any means. But there can be such a preoccupation with days off, vacations, retirement planning and the like, it makes me wonder where the fire to evangelize went. I'm heart broken, for instance, when I hear that a parish has canceled daily Mass because it's the priest's day off. 

Are there priests who routinely skip days off or don't use all the vacation time due them because of their dedication to the mission? Sure. I knew a dedicated pastor from the Bronx who spent most of his vacation time running a summer camp for boys and otherwise lived more simply than a Franciscan. And there is nothing wrong with taking time to recharge the batteries, both physically and spiritually. I'm not condemning days off or vacations. But as a priest is anything more important than celebrating the Eucharist for the people? I mean, you'll have the rest of the day to unwind and engage in whatever legitimate diversion you wish. 

There can also be a careerist mentality involved with priests vying for particular parishes based on the Sunday collection or judging the assignment based on the living quarters more than on the mission possibilities. The goal is too often personal promotion instead of mission advancement.

I've hesitated to "go after" the bishops here, because I'm not one. I have no idea of the pressures that they face, and pray to God I never will. But bishops are chosen from among priests, so it's not a stretch to say that this careerist mentality is promoted with some of them into the episcopate. Most bishops I've known are sincere men who are trying to fulfill their duty the best they can. There is a temptation for them though to adopt the ways of the chief executive or politician. The preoccupation is more with protecting the brand than leading the flock into all truth. There is a creeping political correctness that keeps them from proclaiming the entire Gospel for fear of offending people. Maybe one sees himself as a progressive, so he'll down play the Church's teaching on human sexuality, so as not to fall out with his "party." Maybe he's a self styled traditionalist or conservative, so he'll proclaim the truth about abortion and the nature of marriage, but will neglect the social doctrine. We are called to proclaim the whole truth, not just the part of it that makes us comfortable, or wins us the "right" friends.

My second point may be a bit more controversial. Ezekiel reserved his harshest words for the shepherds, but he had a strong message for the flock as well. They were exiled because corporately they had strayed from following the commandments of God. It is in this spirit I offer this part of the reflection.

Both clergy and laity are guilty, to one degree or the other, of building a wall around the Sixth Commandment in order to find all sorts of excuses for why it doesn't really mean what it means. No one would try to find ways of excusing theft, murder, slander or lying the way we do sins against chastity. In this present PC culture that places so much emphasis on what people say or think, it's as if coveting is a graver offense than the actual committing of adultery, fornication or sodomy. Catholics have accepted the contraceptive and divorce culture along with the rest of society. Instead of standing apart, we have gone with the flow. Much of the clergy has enabled this drift into a secularized mentality when it comes to sex and marriage, but the laity by and large were happy to go along for the ride. 

We should have been at the vanguard of the Counter Sexual Revolution, but instead we gave token resistance and have just gone along to get along. Is it any wonder that there are priests and bishops, who are chosen from among the faithful, who grew up in this culture, who are quite frankly soft on this issue. And there are even those who see the Sexual Revolution as a positive good. So in formation programs too often proclivities are over looked, red flags are ignored, and candidates are promoted who should been sent home. 

Let me be clear though - it's not just the clergy who have softened on this issue, it's the entire Church. God is calling us back to the purity He intends for us. This isn't about witch hunts, but its about honesty. It's about recognizing that we have strayed as a people and need to once again follow the entire Gospel - the Gospel of peace and justice, and the Gospel of purity and self control, because they are one Gospel, not two political platforms. 

It's the whole community that has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but it is the shepherds who bear the greater burden. Reform starts with us. We need to be renewed in our hearts, rededicated to the chastity that sets us free. We are celibate (meaning unmarried in the antique definition) continent (not sexually active) and chaste (faithful to our calling in life) in imitation of Christ and as a sign of the Kingdom of Heaven where there will be no marriage or giving in marriage. If we really don't live this call faithfully, in mind as well as action, the faithful will see it and act accordingly. They will either feel justified in their own sins, scandalized to the point of leaving the Church, or stay but not respect us all that much. 

It is now that we heed the call of the prophets to rend our hearts, not our garments. For bishops and priests it's the time to reignite that early love in our hearts that led us to follow our vocation to begin with - to be renewed in the spirit. To not be conformed to the fads and trends of now, but be transformed by the eternal truth of God. To not be afraid to let go of status and influence as the world understands it, but live the truth of the entire Gospel with pure hearts.

We are still suffering as a Church because we haven't learned the lessons of 2002. We have changed or strengthened procedures, but he haven't really changed our hearts. We still believe we can make peace with the spirit of the world and live as disciples of Jesus Christ. Because of this failure the spiritual exile continues, and may be extended for longer than we imagined. 

I have admittedly side stepped a discussion on the thornier issues at work here (the veracity of Vignò's letter, the response of the Holy Father and the role that homosexuality plays in this scandal). As the title indicates, this is intended to be the first of a series. But this is the foundation from which I will begin. I will have more in the future.