Cardinal Sodano’s words and actions at the recent Easter liturgies at the Vatican shed much light as to why the Church is now engulfed by the sexual abuse crisis and the deeper ramifications of this growing evil.Of course it was bad enough that the numerous actual acts of abuse around the world, and the complicity in these crimes by a hierarchy intent upon maintaining the ‘good name’ of the Church above all consideration of compassion and justice, were arrogantly dismissed by the Cardinal as “petty gossip”, and as “the chatter of the moment”, but what first appears as a disturbing disconnection from the actual experience of the Church , in a growing number of countries, later reveals as the very reason why this crisis has developed.
Such a siege mentality shows clearly that the maintenance of the centralised authority structure of the Roman Catholic Church, even in the face of the actual suffering and disillusion of the same ‘People of God’ rhetorically summoned as allies of a supposedly beleaguered Pope, is the priority, as it too often has been.
The very reason why we are all engulfed in this evil was refashioned by Cardinal Sodano, to the cheers of the Church Remnant, into a defiant rallying cry of the faithful.
Such hairy chested beating, ugly tribalism and appeal to paranoia will no doubt resonate with some, the deep psychological need for identity at no matter what the cost can always be relied upon by the opportunistic, but let’s explore one of the many deeper ramifications of this approach, and it is one which does not appear obvious, at first glance, in the current harsh light of willing conflict and bravado.
There is a crisis of confidence not just in the way that the priesthood defines itself, but the relationship between priesthood and its larger understanding within sacramental theology and relationship generally.
This is not to revive some type of variation of the ancient Donatist heresy, this is not an issue of rigorous clerical purity or sacramental efficacy, perhaps if static notions of clerical purity had not been so prevalent we may not be in this crisis.
Rather, what is happening now is much more subtle and pervasive, and therefore dangerous, because given how intimately priesthood has been self-defined in relation to the sacraments it is no longer a matter of abstract efficacy but of trust in the entire sacramental relationship.
If the clerical structure as currently self-realised is now so willing to protect and legitimate itself, as shown clearly in Cardinal Sodano’s words and actions, then how does this taint the sacramental life of the Church, the life that clericalism has intimately wrapped itself within?
Owing to the peculiar manner in which sacraments have been identified with priesthood, the sacramental life of the Church stands or falls depending on how the sacramental administrators respond to the crisis. If in an excluding, defiant, and cabalistic manner, calculatingly using a constructed ‘people of god’ as shield against scrutiny, then how can the actual People of God not be confused and disheartened when this same structure of self interest offers the sacramental relationship?
Alternatively, if in sorrow, compassion, and in the recognition of weakness and fault, forgiveness is begged for, self sufficient pride and stale respectability flung into the mud, then what can this say about the healing and reconciling nature of the sacraments? It is one approach or the other.
This is not about the ‘good name’ of a clerical elite in privileged separation from the People of God, but about the very sacramental life of the Church and the integrity with which it is able to sacramentally reveal the healing and love of the Kingdom of God to a broken world.
SIC: CTHAUS