Next steps: Because we are the church
Emily Reimer-Barry / Associate Professor and Chair / Department of Theology and Religious Studies / The USD Vista
On Nov. 5, Bishop Robert McElroy hosted the eighth and final listening session in the diocese. At each event, attendees posed questions for the bishop, who spoke candidly about the reforms he would like to see implemented at the local and national levels in light of the clergy sexual abuse crisis. Those in attendance on Monday morning at the listening session here on our campus witnessed a range of questions and comments posed to the bishop. His answers were thoughtful and respectful. It was a good step in the right direction. But so much more must be done. I’d like to offer some constructive criticism and some concrete steps we could take to keep this dialogue going and initiate substantive reforms in our local church.
1. Speak up: The importance of truth-telling and transparency:
First, I urge Bishop McElroy and other leaders to stop calling sexual abuse “unspeakable,” as he did in his August 26 press release and again in his opening remarks at the listening session. Calling sexual crimes “unspeakable” can imply that we should not speak about them. We need to develop our capacities for speaking about sexuality more broadly and sexual abuse in particular, but we must be able to speak about them.
Our first step as a campus community during this crisis must be to recognize the unique role we have as an institution of higher education dedicated to the pursuit of truth. In this context, we must not shy away from our obligation to provide opportunities for survivors to tell their stories. If in this process our campus community uncovers examples of priests who abused their power and engaged in coercive sexual relationships while affiliated with the university, we should not be afraid to disclose those publicly. We need to keep asking questions and keep seeking answers. There can be no rush to discussion of reconciliation or healing until we first engage in truth-telling.
2. Be careful where you place your faith:
It has been widely reported that some church leaders covered up sexual abuse in an attempt to prevent “scandal.” The technical meaning of scandal in canon law is leading someone into sin or causing someone to question their faith. What the church has learned is that the attempt to prevent scandal has instead contributed to scandal, as many readers of the July 27, 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report would explain. When I read the report, I alternated between crying into a box of tissues, screaming aloud, and wanting to punch the wall. I don’t know if any Catholic can read that report without having their faith in the institutional church shaken.
Questioning one’s faith is an appropriate response. Blind faith in institutions can be easily manipulated by those in power. Bishop McElroy told those gathered at the listening session at St. Charles Parish on Oct. 5 that “our faith is not in the church but in Jesus.” But for many, the church has been their access point to their faith in Jesus. We are grieving as we realize how broken and sinful our church really is.
3. Don’t trust the numbers:
Bishop McElroy has consistently referred to two different time periods in this story: pre-2002 and post-2002. He celebrates the structural reforms initiated after 2002 (even though the implementation of these reforms has been uneven nationally). I too celebrate the incremental reforms of 2002 and the relatively few numbers of cases of clergy sexual misconduct Bishop McElroy has seen reported since he arrived in San Diego. But sexual abuse is consistently underreported.
According to reporting by RAINN (Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network), the majority of sexual assaults are not reported to the police. Survivors give a variety of different reasons for choosing not to report, including fear of retaliation, the belief that the police would not do anything to help, the belief that it wasn’t important enough to report, and the desire not to get the perpetrator in trouble. Survivors of sexual violence are sometimes retraumatized in the reporting process as they are forced to relive their experiences as they retell it for each new investigator.
It is far too early to celebrate low numbers of reports of clergy sexual misconduct; we should focus on encouraging victims to report even if the numbers go up, and work to address fears survivors face when they consider reporting.
4. Consider whose voices shape decisions:
Finally, while these listening sessions provided important opportunities for Catholics to learn about the crisis and listen to the bishop, it is also clear that bishops simply hold too much power. There must be structural reforms that implement checks on the power of the bishops. Lay people continue to ask why bishops seem to have immunity in these cases. No American bishop has been jailed for his role in covering up and enabling child sexual abuse. When Cardinal Law resigned in Boston he was appointed to a post in Rome and died there in 2017, after continuing to influence church politics for over a decade.
The Catholic Church continues to suffer from a diagnosis of clericalism which will be fatal if left untreated. In this worldview, “Father knows best” and priests receive special privileges by virtue of their ordination status, a status not open to women and married men. For too long, lay people have been told to pray, pay, and obey. But perhaps now there is a new opportunity for lay leaders to emerge. There are many theologically-trained and pastorally-sensitive lay leaders who would be well prepared to step into leadership roles in local parishes and in the diocese. We need to ask whose voices are at the table of decision-making. The Pennsylvania report has made it abundantly clear that patriarchal power structures are designed to safeguard those in power, not hold them accountable. But accountability is what is needed now, and urgently so.
The U.S. bishops convene at their General Assembly in Baltimore next week. Bishop McElroy will likely be among the few strong voices championing additional reforms to protect minors and vulnerable adults and create structures through which lay people can hold bishops accountable. I am grateful for his leadership in these difficult times. At the same time, I am frustrated by the slow pace of ecclesial reforms and the moral blindness of so many in the episcopacy.
Dorothy Day once wrote, “I never expected much of the bishops… I never expected leadership from them. It is the saints that keep appearing all through history who keep things going.” Our church is in need of saints. For changemakers who want to make a difference in the life of the church, the time is now.
References:
1. Bishop McElroy begins his press release of August 26, 2018 with the claim: “I am writing to the entire Catholic community of San Diego and Imperial counties this week to speak about the unspeakable.” https://www.sdcatholic.org/
2. https://www.rainn.org/
3. Robert Ellsberg, Ed., All the Way to Heaven: The Selected Letters of Dorothy Day (Image Books, 2010).