Abandoned Altars

For years, I’ve ranted about how no clerical criminal, no matter how wicked, has ever been formally excommunicated from the Catholic Church for sexual abuse. (Or any other crime, for that matter.)

I knew what I wanted to see — for the fallen priest to be shamefully, publicly, and ceremonially stripped of his priesthood, losing all ecclesiastical powers and privileges, and be turned over to the tender mercies of law enforcement to be dealt with.

It would be an edifying spectacle, like something out of the Inquisition, only without the flames.

Turns out I was all confused.

That’s not excommunication, however. Excommunication is the penalty of exclusion from the Church. It is indeed the worst punishment the Church can inflict (without actual torture), cutting unrepentant evil-doers from the life of the Church. Yet booting the offender out just relieves the Church of all responsibility. And besides, the offenders are probably automatically excommunicated anyway simply by the nature of their crimes.

No, something more symbolic should be done.

And indeed, there’s an ancient form of punishment for the worst offenders that fills the bill perfectly. It is called “degradation“.

Degradation doesn’t dismiss the offender from his sworn obligations of celibacy or reciting his priestly prayers, but he’s stripped of all clerical rank forever, with no possibility of reinstatement. It’s as shameful as as the dishonorable discharge of a coward from an army, and there’s even a wonderfully medieval public rite that involves stripping the guilty party of all his priestly vestments one at a time — before turning him over to the local secular authorities with a plea that blood should not be shed.

This, perhaps, what should be done with Porters and Sylvestres of this world. And on camera for all to see.

Of course, in its mercy, the Church no longer does anything like this — at most they will simply dismiss the offender from the clerical state, as if he’s been laid off for lack of work. From what I’ve read of canon law, it seems that they hesitate to do more because there’s a principle that you can’t punish a person if they’re not fully responsible. If so, this means that the Catholic Church accepts certain responsibility for its priestly rapists and other molesters, even if it avoids accountability like the plague.

Degradation, however, is an eternal brand of disgrace, a mark of Cain. It is something that should only be done to the worst of the worst, but I believe used a few times, it would have a greater healing effect and restore the Church’s credibility more than just about anything else.

It would clearly demonstrate that the hierarchy is actually serious about change. Moreover, as the old Chinese saying goes, “Slay ten to terrify ten thousand,” I believe it would send a signal that would have a most tonic effect on the restoration of clerical discipline.

Of course, this will never, ever happen. Not even by a pope who was the former head of the modern version of the Inquisition. It seems that the Catholic Church thinks disagreeing theologians are far more dangerous to the Mystical Body of Christ than parasites.