Indecent haste to beatify John Paul (Contribution)

The child abuse scandal is a huge blot on his papacy. 

He deserves some purgatory.

THE Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, has inadvertently presented another reason that the Catholic Church probably needs a married clergy.

Responding to complaints that the beatification of John Paul II was over-hasty and unseemly in light of the sex abuse scandal that will always be a blot on his papacy, the archbishop did not deny the problem. He simply said that beatification is not a "medal for good management service".

No, archbishop. Letting the office run out of toilet paper is poor management service.

Refusing to see or refusing to act against the rape of children is something else.

 

It is hard to imagine Nichols's Anglican counterpart, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, saying the same thing.

After all, Williams is a father not solely by virtue of ordination - he has two children.

I have listened to parents speak of child abuse, and usually they describe the response they would take as including the possibility of spending time in prison.

I have never heard a parent describe anything related to child abuse as poor management.

Only a celibate of a certain ilk could even dream of such a callous comparison.

It becomes more evident as time goes on that John Paul was informed of cases of abuse, including those perpetrated by Marcial Maciel of the Legionaries of Christ.

But the pope chose to present this serial rapist as "an efficacious guide to youth".

Was John Paul simply clueless? If so, that is a culpable matter for a leader, especially for a pope.

Or was the pope, like so many of the bishops he appointed, more concerned for the public image of the church than for the safety of its children and the proper handling of its sick priests?

In that case, he was complicit in the cover-ups and in the silencing of those abused.

Certainly, if one looks objectively at the papacy of John Paul, there are triumphs.

But, there were also terrible failures that rate at least a bit of purgatory.

Why the rush to call the celestial host to choir practice?

The quick beatification is presented by the Vatican as a response to the voice of the church at large.

Since the Vatican is famously unwilling to listen to that voice in other matters, it is hard to suppress the thought that some hope the affection towards John Paul will fend off investigations and disclosures that would be embarrassing to the entire leadership caste of the Catholic Church.

The beatification may be an attempt to lay a cover of sanctity over the reality of the Augean stables that are the church's leadership. 

It will not succeed because, ultimately, God remains in charge. 

Just as in mythology Hercules diverted rivers to clean out those fetid stables, a river of indignant rage by Catholics who know the difference between children and toilet paper will eventually rise to wash out the church.

Father William Grimm is a Tokyo-based priest and publisher of UCA News, and former editor-in-chief of Katorikku Shimbun, Japan's Catholic weekly.

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