The late Father Richard Neuhaus of First Things was upset by my book Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church. He thought that there was no justification for the level of anger I felt. He preferred the detached, scholarly approach that Nicholas Cafardi took in Before Dallas: The U.S. Bishops’ Response to Clergy Sexual Abuse of Children. Cafardi discussed the canonical approaches to handling abuse.
The Irish people are getting a dose of reality as they are learning of the reality of the abuse that archbishops and popes let go on. I have read hundreds of cases like Mary Raferty reports in the Irish Times:
THERE IS one searing, indelible image to be found in the pages of the Dublin diocesan report on clerical child abuse. It is of Fr Noel Reynolds, who admitted sexually abusing dozens of children, towering over a small girl as he brutally inserts an object into her vagina and then her back passage.
That object is his crucifix.
The report details how this man was left as parish priest of Glendalough (and in charge of the local primary school) for almost three years after parents had complained about him to former archbishop of Dublin Desmond Connell during the 1990s.
And Neuhaus wondered why I was angry. Such matters are so distasteful. Matters of public policy are much more refined and suitable to be discussed by clerics who fo not like to be troubled by what has gone on in the church they serve.
I have Irish (and Dutch) roots and go to Ireland every other year. The area I stay is on the west coast and has a high percentage of practising Catholics (something like 80%). When I spoke to friends there last summer they were still cutting the official Church a lot of slack. One wonders at this point how much more slack is left to cut! Jesus made it so clear how the Apostles (and their succesors) were to serve, “Be servants of all”. As a Catholic, never mind a cleric, I’m mad as hell on how these guys in Ireland, the US, and in so many other places, dropped the ball, God’s ball and ours. I feel like throwing up when I think about all this. And yet I see the commitment to the Lord and the holiness of SO many lay people here and in Ireland. They, all of you, restore my faith!
Maybe Neuhaus was so detached because he didn’t want to know the truth. He appears (like many Catholics) to have based his spirituality primarily and fundamentally on denominational identity and theology, rather than on Christ Himself. To such people, the Church (for all intents and purposes) *is* Christ. They might not say that outwardly, nor admit that to themselves inwardly, but their behavior says otherwise. For them to admit that leaders in their Church not only commit heinous sin but fail to do anything about is too much for them to bear psychologically.
In addition, there is an article of conventional wisdom in Christianity that states that *all* anger is evil — which is manifestly false. After all, God gets angry at evil, especially that committed in His name (such as sexual abuse). The people who believe that CV must be some of the most repressed people on Earth, let alone in the Church.
Then again, a lot of people like Neuhaus act like apologists when they don’t need to. Perhaps they need to justify their conversion, especially to themselves.
I read your book long time ago and is excellent.
I aks myself why all this abusers are not in jail?
Just read this post. Thank you for your anger.
Your anger is holy, Dr. Podles. Your book was born of love and this is quite clear all through it.
I often wonder how it is that bishops and other clerics have no visceral response to watching known child rapists say Mass and perform religious ritual all over tarnation. Do they have such little understanding of the nature of prayer that they can ignore this level of evil? Do they honestly believe in an “onotological happening” that allows and approves serial child predators performing sacraments?
AW