Scandle in the ChurchScandle in the ChurchHeadlines were captured in February by the tragic reports that as many as seventy priests in the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts, allegedly have abused young people whom they were consecrated to serve. In the wake this news, allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic priests have sprung up nationwide. It is a huge scandal, one that many people who dislike the Catholic Church because of its moral teachings are using to claim that the Church is hypocritical and that they were right all along. Many people have come up to priests like myself to talk about it. I imagine many others have wanted to but have refrained out of respect or from not wanting to bring up bad news.
In 2008, a priest at a Catholic high school in Connecticut was caught on tape raping a teenager in 2004. He told a woman that he “stole his virgin son’s semen with a belt.” Other stories, however, emerged that the accused priest had made some changes, as reported by The New York Times. These included:
“The sexual abuse did not stop there. As the victim testified against him, at one point the priest pushed his shoulders against her, then grabbed her crotch, shoved her back against a wall, and grabbed her hand as well.”
“Another time the priest grabbed her and put it in his mouth like it was a knife.”
“One of the victims described what happened to him.”
“It was a horrific act and he took the victim and left. He has spoken to several church leaders who have come to his defense and expressed concern and expressed remorse for his actions.
“It was the best night ever, but I never wanted to go home again”
“One church member told me a little at the beginning of the night that was ‘you had to tell God you were raped.'”
“I was scared for the life of me that day and told myself I could not go with my fiance because it was clear he was involved. When the priest arrived, there was no one there to ask him questions.
“There was a lot of pressure there. In the following days of the abuse allegations, the priest contacted me multiple times, and told me that he was angry because he felt he was “stealing” a valuable and important piece of my life.”
“It was so difficult coming to terms with how much I have been raped in my life in terms of my life with no one to help me in any way.”
“It’s been so bad. My parents were devastated I just went out to church and got to see things.”
“I couldn’t come to church because I couldn’t tell anybody. I was afraid to go anywhere that did not have public spaces in many places. One of my neighbors who lived next door saw me coming outside of my family when I went out. I said, ‘Oh my God, is she going to be okay?’ and she said, ‘I’ve never met a person like that before.'”
The allegations had no legal basis whatsoever, and many young people were left without hope and with no support at all. While many Church leaders, including a priest whose name is unknown, had reached for help, few families came forward. Despite the fact that not even the archbishop, who met with church leaders throughout the day on Friday morning, could talk or understand one Catholic priest’s response to the crisis, thousands of young families and others had nowhere to go. Those who spoke to BuzzFeed News
We need to tackle the issue head-on. We cannot pretend it doesnt exist, and I would like to discuss what our response as faithful Catholics should be to this terrible situation.
The Judas syndromeThe first thing we need to do is to understand this scandal from the perspective of our faith in the Lord. Before he chose his first disciples, Jesus went up the mountain to pray all night (Luke 6:12). He had many followers at the time. He talked to his Father in prayer about whom he should choose to be his twelve apostles-the twelve whom he would form intimately, the twelve whom he would send out to preach the good news in his name. He gave them power to cast out demons. He gave them power to cure the sick. They watched him work countless miracles. They themselves worked countless others in his name.
Yet one of them tuned out to be a traitor. One who had followed the Lord-who had seen him walk on water and raise people from the dead and forgive sinners, one whose feet the Lord had washed-betrayed him. The gospels tells us that Judas allowed Satan to enter into him and then sold the Lord for thirty pieces of silver, handing him over by faking a gesture of love. “Judas,” Jesus said to him in the garden of Gethsemane, “would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” (Luke 24:48).
Jesus didnt choose Judas to betray him. But Judas was always free, and he used his freedom to allow Satan to enter into him, and by his betrayal Jesus was crucified and executed. But God foresaw this evil and used to accomplish the ultimate good: the redemption of the world.
The point is, sometimes Gods chosen ones betray him. That is a fact that we have to confront. If the early Christians had focused only on the scandal caused by Judas, the Church would have been finished before it even started to grow. Instead they recognized that you dont judge a movement by those who dont live it but by those who do. Rather than focusing on the betrayer, they focused on the other eleven on account of whose work, preaching, miracles, and love for Christ we are here today. It is on account of the other eleven-all of whom except John were martyred for Christ and for the gospel they proclaimed-that we ever heard the saving word of God, that we ever received the sacraments of eternal life.
We are confronted by the same scandalous reality today. We can focus on those who have betrayed the Lord, those who abused rather than loved the people whom they were called to serve. Or we can focus, as did the early Church, on those who have remained faithful, those priests who are still offering their lives to serve Christ and you out of love. The secular media almost never focuses on the good “eleven,” the ones whom Jesus has chosen who remain faithful, who live lives of quiet holiness. But we the Church must keep the terrible scandal that we are witnessing in its true and full perspective.
Great saints of scandal bornUnfortunately, scandal is nothing new for the Church. There have been many times through the ages when things were much worse off than they are now. The history of the Church is like a cosine curve with many ups and downs. At the times when the Church hits its low points God raises up tremendous saints to bring the Church back to its real mission. Its almost as if in those times of darkness the light of Christ shines ever more brightly. I would like to focus on a couple of saints whom God raised up in such difficult times, because their wisdom can guide us during our own difficult time.
Francis de Sales came along after the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation was not principally about theology-although theological differences came later-but about morals. Martin Luther, an Augustinian priest, lived during the reign of perhaps the most notorious pope in history, Alexander VI. This pope never taught anything against the faith-the Holy Spirit prevented that-but he was a wicked man. He had nine children from six different concubines. He put out contracts on the lives of those he considered his enemies.
Luther,