Dear Pope: Off Track Again?
I realize it has been a bad week for you and the Vatican. First, the Belgian police raid the offices of the Belgian Council of Bishops and remove records of sexual abuse investigations. You condemn this action by the police, expressing concern for the confidentiality of victims’ records. With all due respect, is it really the victims’ records you are worried about or the accused priests’ records?
I realize it has been a bad week for you and the Vatican.
First, the Belgian police raid the offices of the Belgian Council of Bishops and remove records of sexual abuse investigations. You condemn this action by the police, expressing concern for the confidentiality of victims’ records. With all due respect, is it really the victims’ records you are worried about or the accused priests’ records?
Then you reprimand Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the archbishop of Vienna and one of the few bright lights in the upper echelons of the Roman Catholic Church, for his frank criticism of church efforts to cover up sex abuse by priests.
And now the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to grant the Vatican legal immunity from being sued by a survivor of clergy sexual abuse in a case brought in 2002. So this lawsuit against the Vatican can go forward in U.S. courts.
All of this combined with the elimination of the Italian soccer team from the World Cup must mean that the guys at the Vatican are pretty depressed.
So let’s review:
- We don’t yet know why the Belgian police raided the Bishops’ office. It does seem a bit heavy handed, but let’s wait and see why they stepped in. Maybe they had a good reason.
- Then your reprimand of Cardinal Schoenborn. Really? By all accounts, this is one church leader who seems to get it and is willing to step up and raise critical institutional issues that need attention. When you reprimand him publicly, it kind of makes you look bad . . . like once again you don’t really want to change anything. Instead I suggest that you consider promoting him to be in charge of the Vatican’s Special Office on Clergy Sexual Abuse.
- Then the U.S. Supreme Court reminds you that the Vatican is not above the law, at least not in the U.S. Specifically, this case alleges that Fr. Andrew Ronan was an employee of the Vatican “acting within the scope of his employment.” This means he was one of yours and you may be responsible for his misconduct.
Just an all around bad week. All I can suggest at this point is why not invite BP CEO Tony Hayward over for a cup of tea. He’ll understand.
Then call me. I’m still available to help out.
Rev. Dr. Marie M. Fortune
FaithTrust Institute
www.faithtrustinstitute.org
yes of course, because it's an institution
A retired Rev. told me this month, "The worst mistake Christianity ever made was when it committed to church buildings" -- because the prime mission then becomes survival, not mission. Christianity is so entrenched in the institutional model that it does not realize that Jesus' message was anti-institution (that is, preaching both a compassion and an understanding of real power, both of which are oppositional to the institution of legal and social laws set by the Jewish leadership and the Roman Empire which perpetuated suffering and persecution of the poor and lower classes), and Christianity also does not realize that the Church is not modeled on the example of Jesus (who never built a church ... he never told Peter to undertake raising a building or an institution: 'Peter ... Feed my sheep.' / 'Peter ... you are a rock and upon such will *****I***** gather my community.').
Given such dysfunctional foundations, it should not be surprising that a religious institution will operate at odds with its own mission message. What is odd is that the majority will not only go along with such dysfunction but defend it even in the midst of the suffering.
Control is not only an illusion but a symptom of mental disruption.