Abandoned Altars

During the clergy sexual abuse crisis, the Roman Catholic Church was confronted with the one thing it dreads the most: scandals. Jesus himself had warned his followers that scandals involving children would inevitably come. It’s just really too bad the disciples only picked up on the part about how awful scandal was and not his sayings about honoring, protecting, and saving children. A little humility would also have been good.

When the Church finally realized that victims could no longer be intimidated by the prestige of the priesthood, threatened with hell, or placated by soothing but meaningless promises of the bishops, it became desperate. For in the Catechism of the Council of Trent, they had taught the faithful that:

Bishops and priests being, as they are, God’s interpreters and ambassadors, empowered in His name to teach mankind the divine law and the rules of conduct, and holding, as they do, His place on earth, it is evident that no nobler function than theirs can be imagined. Justly, therefore, are they called not only Angels, but even gods, because of the fact that they exercise in our midst the power and prerogatives of the immortal God. (Emphasis added)

Yet now, the secret lives of the clergy were at risk of being exposed. The laity would discover that there was no special magic that made these men more than human. That in fact, a small number among them were truly monsters, wolves in shepherd’s clothing.

Even those few might cause the simple believers to doubt the entire system. Who would believe that consecrated hands had blessed them if those same hands had held down their children while they were raped? Who would trust the moral teachings of men whose lives were shown to be empty frauds? More importantly, who would give money and obedience to bishops if it were known that they used those gifts to conceal and perpetuate the most unspeakable sins against the flesh and spirit of innocents?

It was intolerable, and had to be fought this time as hard as it had been fought before when the Protestant Reformation brought the identical issues to the fore. The Church had survived then through violence, propaganda, and applying the Inquisition. Physical violence was not an option anymore, but since the modern arena was to be in secular courts, many shady legal tactics were available. And propaganda hadn’t failed them yet.

However, to dispute in open court would bring about the very scandals that so terrified the hierarchy. How to deal with such a dilemma? The Catholic Church opted for stonewalling, co-opting, and with supreme cynicism, further corrupting the victims of its crimes.

First of all, it fought hard against the release of any information at all. They appealed to the separation of Church and State, blamed victims, claimed certain information was confidential, even attempted to bury it in secret archives or send it to the Vatican. The publication of depositions was fought tooth and nail. In the case of Archbishop Sanchez, the first high prelate to resign in public disgrace, the fight lasted for over two and a half years, going all the way to the state Supreme Court. And major portions of his testimony were still not released due to “privacy concerns.”

The Church would take up the cause of accused priests if only to keep them from going to trial. Again, in New Mexico, the only priest who ever faced a criminal trial did so because he was caught red-handed at the very beginning of the scandals when his young male victim escaped the rectory and ran to the police station. And for that the priest was given five years on probation. The few other criminal cases were thrown out either for lack of evidence or the statute of limitations.

Secondly, victims were enlisted to help clean up the mess. Hot lines were established so they could report the offenders to the Church and not to the police. Review Boards were set up with victims and the parents of victims as minority members. Since they were sworn to confidentiality, their service in good faith also helped keep the secrets safe. The only names ever released would be those of pastors or others prominent in the public eye that had to be dealt with publicly.

The Church would even pay for counseling. There were only a few strings attached to this seemingly caring and appropriate pastoral offer. Usually, it would be limited to approved therapists, who would report the progress of their patients back to the Church, supposedly to make sure the money wasn’t wasted. But it would only be for those victims who weren’t suing the Church. And so compliant victims told their stories only to psychologists who would never publicly repeat the details, never mind what the therapists might tell their paymasters.

Finally, and most contemptuously of all, the Church offered generous financial settlements. The victims’ attorneys approved of this for a number of reasons. They did not want to put these injured and often fragile people through the ordeal of even a civil suit. This was not just for the sake of the victims, but also out of fear. There was a risk that the strain might cause them to crack and lose the case.

Also, the lawyers were well aware that civil suits were easier to win than criminal (just ask O.J. Simpson). They knew that money would be the closet thing to justice many would ever see. And of course, getting 40% or so of any monetary settlement was a powerful incentive to not bother to mention criminal options to their clients – and to avoid a civil trial, too.

So, often the Church would sweeten the deal with more cash, if the lawyers would simply drop their irritating demands concerning liability and most importantly, keep it all confidential. Not only the amount of the faithful’s donations spent would be kept secret, so would the stories of the victims.

And the ploy worked. Though it drove some dioceses bankrupt or nearly there, overall it was a good investment. For instance, not a single lawsuit out of the several hundred claims filed ever went to trial in New Mexico. And the same tactics were employed over and over elsewhere, with the same gratifying success.

When they were young, clergy sexual molestation victims had been made to carry the secrets. It happened again to many of those who were awarded secret settlements. The only difference was that now they had been paid for it.

Thus, many victims were abused again in a much subtler way. But few if any ever realized that just like Eve accepting the apple, they had been turned into accomplices of toxic evil, too. Most just wanted to get on with their lives and forget about the whole thing anyway.

Nobody cared that in 2001, Rome secretly reinstated the Inquisition’s authority over clergy sex crimes even more strongly than it had ever been before. The faithful in the pews were just happy that the scandals were finally over, and assumed some sort of moral reform had taken place.

Nothing could have been further from the truth. The Church had not even attempted any real internal reform. Like Pilate, it merely washed its hands of the worst offenders. It would still transfer or punish priests as it always had, only now covertly in defiance of secular law if need be. And best of all for the Church, by shining up its image again, the people would continue to donate their money to allow the institution to keep getting away with it all.

In so doing, the Roman Church made a mockery of the words of Jesus:

But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! (Matt. 18:6-7 NIV)

Hell, it is said, has a special place for such men. One can only hope so.