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Set bishops free with the truth (E. J. Dionne, 6/20/2003)

[The Catholic Church faces] a problem of spiritual leadership. "We're in month 18 of the most serious crisis in the history of the American Catholic Church," says Scott Appleby, a Notre Dame professor of religious history who addressed the bishops last year. "And we have yet to hear from leading figures in the church about how we should make moral, ethical, theological and spiritual sense of what happened."...

The truth may not protect bishops from lawsuits, but, as the New Testament says, it could make them free.

E.J. Dionne delivers a fine column, and Appleby hits the nail on the head. Christianity is about character and sin, about how we need to live and how we need to respond to failings to live rightly. The bishops have failed to forthrightly discuss questions of right and wrong, have failed to acknowledge their own sins and those of fellow bishops, and have failed to repent, ask forgiveness, and make amends.

The bishops seem to hoping that we will forget their sins, or at least pretend they didn't happen. They hope for cheap grace. But real grace comes to the broken-hearted: "Rend your hearts, not your garments." St. James was said to have thick callouses on his knees, for he was always on them. That is a fitting stance for America's bishops today.

MORE: The Phoenix bishop (John Allen, National Catholic Reporter)

[M]any in the Vatican believe that the heart of the American crisis lies in bishops failing to do their jobs. It is conventional wisdom in Rome that the American bishops did not need a new charter and norms to combat sexual abuse, that the Code of Canon Law gave them every tool they needed if they had been serious about confronting this behavior. The problem was not law, but will....

Hence seen through Vatican eyes, the solution is not for America’s bishops to "pass the buck," whether to independent advocates or national boards, but to step up and do the job that bishops have been ordained to do for 2,000 years.

This is true; but the Vatican should be looking at two things. First, the selection process for bishops is failing if 60% of those promoted to bishop are unwilling to do the job faithfully. Second, Judeo-Christian morals teach not only that decision-makers should resist temptation, but that others should strive to remove temptation from them. (Indeed, Jesus taught us to pray, "Lead us not into temptation," not, "Help us resist temptation.") The structure of the Church gives sole power to bishops, without checks or balances from other authorities and without sharing information with anyone. This structure made sense in the Middle Ages when it was extremely costly to travel more than a few miles and involve others in decision-making; but it tempts bishops to conceal embarrassing acts. It is long past time for canon law to introduce greater information-sharing, review of episcopal actions, and checks upon episcopal authority. The bishops would still retain their apostolic authority to lead, preach, and sanctify; but they would be less likely to sin.

Posted by Paul Jaminet at June 20, 2003 11:24 AM