Not long after the Irish government's report on the Cloyne diocese
smashed into the public eye, the Irish Prime Minister delivered an
eloquent speech before the Irish Parliament in which he decried "the
dysfunction, disconnection, elitism … the narcissism that dominate the
culture of the Vatican to this day."
The Vatican's response is delayed.
It seems the pertinent Vatican officials are on vacation.
You can't make this up.
Yes, it is summer, and Rome is a company town.
But the core of the
suffering church in Ireland is not tripping off to the Amalfi coast or
back "home" from Catholicism's command and control center.
The people of Ireland are stuck there, wondering how years of
malfeasance percolated in John Magee's episcopal residence overlooking
Cork Harbor in Cobh, from which the ancestors of so many of their
American cousins sailed.
Bishop Magee sat there for nearly 23 years.
He's now retired, living at -- this is true -- Convent Hill in
Mitchelstown, Co. Cork.
The street is adjacent to the Mitchelstown Golf
Club.
It is more than an outrage.
We are talking about children here.
We
are talking about systemic cover-up of the most serious abuses at the
highest level within the Irish hierarchy.
We are talking about a
421-page document centering on a quarter-century of abuse and cover-up
that is both a page-turner and a stomach-turner.
The bishop responsible is living next to an upscale golf course?
And the Vatican is on vacation?
Here's a news flash: the Irish economy is so bad that people are
having trouble meeting their mortgage payments, let alone plan a
holiday.
Here's another news flash: "the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism …
the narcissism" of the clerical caste is not restricted to the Vatican.
Scratch a man fully involved in clericalism and you'll likely find an
undercoating of self-importance beneath a thin black veneer.
Criticize
him, or anything about the church, and you'll get a dose of his
narcissistic rage.
But don't mention narcissism -- he'll say you're not
competent to use the term.
I am not a psychologist, and I know the American Psychiatric
Association may drop the category "narcissistic personality disorder,"
but to me the Prime Minister's non-clinical use of "narcissism" is
correct.
Psychologists say when you assault a narcissist's inflated ego,
you'll be belittled, mocked, even laughed at.
The narcissist will sneer:
Who are you to criticize the "superior" individual? Who are you to
criticize the "powerful" one? Who are you to criticize the church?
From country to country we've seen a constant devaluation of the
accusers.
For the most part, official reactions have been wholly
self-referential.
Like a true narcissist, the church reacts as the
offended party, and questions the truth of every statement. If you
muddle through the weeds of some depositions you'll find a lot of
"gaslighting" -- denials, presenting of false information -- all aimed
at destroying the accusers' perceptions of reality.
Both hypersensitive
and incapable of envy, the narcissist only argues his private truth.
Yes, it is enough to drive you crazy.
Aren't professional ministers
supposed to be "other directed"? What is "church" about? I keep thinking
they're doing things in alphabetical order, and "golf" comes before
"Gospel."
The fact is, the Vatican is looking more and more like the
dysfunctional, disconnected, elitist and, yes, narcissistic operation
the Prime Minister says it is.
He has bluntly pointed out the very large
elephant beneath the Catholic carpet: it is all about them.
And the church -- the people of God -- are reacting.
Healthy people
walk away from narcissists.
Catholics are leaving the church in droves.
It is not a pretty sight.