I mentioned last week: the Cardinal who ordained me lost his right to minister in the Church, owing to an allegation that he sexually abused a minor, well over forty years ago.
No one wants to reflect on such things. But under the circumstances, I have no choice. This is my father in God, the man who received my lifetime promises and ordained me a deacon and a priest. And since Cardinal McCarrick touched many of our lives, perhaps you, dear reader, will benefit from our suffering a bit together, as we think this through.
The man who accused the Cardinal did so because the Archdiocese of New York (McCarrick’s home diocese) set up a process for victims of clergy sexual abuse to come forward. Apparently the Church in New York actively sought to get the problem out from under the rug. Only a reckoning with all the facts can bring peace and reconciliation.
(If you are a victim of sexual abuse reading this, and you have never spoken about it with anyone, please trust someone enough to talk about it.)
The program in New York provided Cardinal McCarrick’s victim with a forum in which to tell his story. The story checked out. So Cardinal McCarrick got treated as any other priest would get treated. Immediate suspension from ministry. (In this case, by order of the pope.)
Let’s remember that the Cardinal has not been found guilty of sexual abuse of a minor. There is no question of a civil legal proceeding, because the alleged abuse occurred too long ago for that. But Cardinal McCarrick has a right to a canonical trial, to vindicate his good name. He says he is innocent.
Or does he? His statement concludes with: “While I have absolutely no recollection of this reported abuse, and believe in my innocence, I am sorry for the pain the person who brought the charge has gone through.”
Now, when someone undertakes to vindicate his good name after a false accusation, and insists, “I believe in my innocence,” and then apologizes… you have to wonder: Is this poor soul losing his mind? Or dealing with alcoholism or drug abuse? Someone of sound mind knows whether or not he sexually abused a minor.
In this case, the someone is 87 years old. Maybe getting a bit senile. But Cardinal McC still has his wits about him, as I am told by a friend of mine who spoke with him recently.
Conclusion: We have to read the Cardinal’s statement as an implicit admission of guilt. Like most accused priests that I know, Cardinal McCarrick likely will never have a canonical trial. The matter will go no farther than it already has. His indefinite pre-trial suspension will serve as his permanent punishment. And justice will never run its full course.
This is one of the great flaws in the system established by the “Dallas Charter” in 2002. It provides for an administrative penalty so severe (indefinite suspension based on an allegation) that the accused loses his basic legal right to self-defense.
But, in this case, there’s more. Rumors of McCarrick abusing his authority with seminarians have circulated for two decades. Last week, when the Archdiocese of New York announced Cardinal McCarrick’s suspension from ministry, two New-Jersey dioceses where McCarrick had served as bishop also made an announcement. Both dioceses had privately settled legal claims against McCarrick for sexual misconduct with adults.
The adults in question are likely seminarians. Apparently the accusations of misconduct came to diocesan authorities in New Jersey after McCarrick became Archbishop of Washington and a Cardinal.
When I was one of Cardinal McCarrick’s seminarians, I never wanted to believe the rumors about his having taken advantage of seminarians in New Jersey. The people who spread those rumors had their own axes to grind. I knew a kind man. But these settlements serve as evidence that there was truth in those rumors that I refused to believe.
So: This week I bit the bullet and rented the movie 2015 “Spotlight.” I had studiously avoided the film until now. It tells the story of the 2001-2002 Boston Globe investigation of sexual abuse of minors by Boston priests.
It is a remarkably excellent movie. It paints a picture altogether too real to ignore.
The movie draws you into the honest, diligent, angry work of the small team of journalists who uncovered something: A long-term conspiracy of silence about sexual abuse of minors by priests in Boston.
The most compelling characters in the movie are 1. the abuse victims, now adults, who struggle to say what happened to them, and 2. the good Boston-Catholic lawyers who have known for years about the extent of the problem, and tried to do right for the victims through confidential settlements, but who feared the damage that a public airing of the whole business would do to the Church.
The movie’s circle of human sympathy excludes one group of people: the men trying to run the Archdiocese. Indeed, the entire narrative thrust of the priest-sexual-abuse story requires that diocesan officials be excluded from consideration as potentially sympathetic human beings. Because the story is about a dishonest conspiracy of silence by those very officials.
The question is: Do the men running the dioceses of the US (and the Holy See, for that matter)–do they deserve to be excluded from the lens of human sympathy, as this movie excludes them? Are the diocesan officials in Boston, or anywhere else, really just villainous foils for the dogged heroes who struggle to bring the truth to light, like the Globe investigative team lionized in this movie?
I know enough about the inner workings of enough Church bureaucracies to say that this total exclusion from sympathetic light does a disservice to the truth. The caricature of predators whispering behind the choir screen has nothing to do with reality.
And not every case of sexual abuse of a minor by a priest should get recounted in the newspaper or on the internet. When Judgment Day comes, some bishops will get vindicated for the discretion with which they dealt with cases that merited such discretion, rather than airing the whole thing on some front page.
So “Spotlight,” as admirable a movie as it is, does not capture all of the reality of this huge mass of pain. But the reality isn’t pretty anyway. In fact, it is now much more maddeningly ugly than it was before.
In 2002, the Church in the US supposedly had a “reckoning” with sexual abuse. Adopted the necessary “policies.”
And the whole time, the man in front of the cameras was Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, a man who had not reckoned with even his own sins.
Today I imagine the man whom Cardinal McCarrick allegedly fondled back in 1971, when he was a 16- or 17-year-old high school seminarian. I imagine that man seeing that priest standing before all the news cameras as the leader of the American bishops’ response to the sex-abuse problem in the hyper-dramatized atmosphere of the spring of 2002.
I think: How many eons of penance will I have to do to help that man’s soul get reconciled to the mystery of Jesus Christ living in His one, true Church governed by the pope and the Catholic bishops in communion with the pope? What miracle of grace would it take for that man truly to come home to Mother Church?
The scandal did not get properly identified in 2002. It has never been properly identified. Pedophilia had very little to do with it.
Good, faithful Catholic people got horribly scandalized because:
A lot of priests took advantage of teenagers (mostly gay priests taking advantage of teenage boys, but plenty of straight priests abused girls, too). And the bishops involved sympathized with the predators instead of the victims. The bishops excluded the victims from the circle of human sympathy.
That was the scandal. It was a bishops’ scandal, not a priests’ scandal.
Lord Jesus said we will always have the poor with us. We will also always have with us priests, teachers, coaches, restaurant managers, uncles, etc., who take sexual advantage of teenagers. It’s a terrible thing. But it ain’t going away anytime soon.
The scandal of 2002 was: The bishops of the Church have no earthly idea how to deal with this perpetual ugly fact of life. They have no clue. They run scared from it, as if from an approaching saber tooth tiger, instead of standing their ground like men and thinking first of the wounded one.
No Church official has ever acknowledged the simple fact that that was the scandal. And none seems likely ever to do so. Makes me mad and sad, and I don’t know which is more painful. But the whole thing sucks.
Father Mark White Blog 
Father, this was sad to read, and I imagine, sadder for you to write. Please know that you are loved and appreciated because you are a chosen one of Christ to bring Him to us. Without you, no Holy Eucharist. Thank you for sharing this article. I have always been taught to pray for priests. You are and will be in my prayers daily.
I wish to extend my sympathy and appreciation for you and your grief, I also pray for you. I had an older priest growing up, he had joined the priesthood after being married and raising children as a single father. He had even served bravely in the navy during WW2 and been decorated. He ran his own business. He said people had never expected more of him in all his rolls than as a priest. He also showed off cute grandchildren pictures in his office. He helped me understand the dichotomy of the human person and reflection of Jesus the priest must be. I have never expected perfection from my priest, only “weak and frail human beings given grace by their vocation.”
Very good blog, Father Mark. There is judgment day – that seems to be the final answer. I remember Mother Angelica saying – you may be surprised who you see in heaven and who you don’t. Continue to pray for our priests.
When I read this well-written and informative blog earlier this morning, I became very upset and angry for a variety of reasons, none of which I choose to list here. Rather than respond then, I went to Kroger where I “talked back” to the self-checkout machine, apologized to the clerk for my irritation when the price sign had been mis-leading (not unusual!), and returned home still upset. Read the blog again, and found the sensible, calm writings of others, which I appreciate. So many thoughts and questions come to mind, which I know I will eventually work through.
At this point, however, I feel like the “whole d**n world s**ks.”
Judy R,
…and the Bishops…actually, very few who capture the original information know how to deal with the concept, let alone the actual act. Entire student bodies, church members , parents, grandparents, and sad to say, other professionals, often side with the abuser/molester, and never accept the statements of the victim. No one is ever able to offer a reason why a young, teen-age, or older child would offer a statement regarding sexual abuse buy a “trusted ” family member/friend , knowing they will not be believed, outcast, and for-e-v-er, cast as the cause of the abuse.
Or the father of a 13 year old daughter who advised me that he wasn’t guilty of sexually abusing his daughter for 3 years, BECAUSE the bathing suits she wore were just too revealing!! On the phone of course, not in person.
Great insight and story, Fr Mark.
Another Great Blog, I seen this happen in my church in Northport Long island N.Y.,The Priest’s name Was Mike Hand’s,They send him to another church in the next county on L.I., He did the same thing, After that, Off to Jail.After doing his time in the big house, he more to up state N.Y. .As a private Citizen.Did the same $hit again.Back too the Big house, Hangs Himself. Just in this year, One more thing about this,I heard about this this happening from the very beginning ??????????????????
This tragedy, a painful reminder of how sinful we can be, illustrates so clearly how our personal sins have far-reaching effects! While many are not direct victims of abuse by those whom we hold to the highest standard of behavior, we are all victims of these crimes even when they are not exposed in the public eye! My intent is not to diminish the suffering of the direct victims, rather, to follow the effects of sin. There are the obvious victims and those who may not be so obvious. In fact, the whole of humanity suffers and will suffer for generations!
“[The Lord] forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin; yet not declaring the guilty guiltless, but bringing punishment for their parents’ wickedness on children and children’s children to the third and fourth generation!” (Exodus 34:7)
How many people have left the church or only practice their faith nominally because of such sins? How many people suffer ridicule for continuing to be faithful in the face of these obvious transgressions or suffer the deep sadness and betrayal at the realization of the weakness of our leaders? How many children have been denied a deeper faith experience because their parents simply could not trust this church which can’t seem to escape the stain of sin? I don’t think we can even begin to know the full effects!
I pray that all Catholics around the world, religious and laity alike are given the gift of holy tears even if only for a few minutes, in reparation for our sins and the sins of the whole world, and for the healing of the victims of abuse!
Please, spare me. You are a lot smarter than this. If you want to help the victim who has to watch his abuser up there in the red robes, as you seem to portray, then just put two and two together. A whole lot about the governance of the Church you are representing makes less real sense than is being let on. This does NOT mean all of it is a fraud. There are have been, and are, many lives given great meaning by the faith you represent. But it strains credulity that you can entertain all of these contradictions in your mind, or soul, and not see the simple writing on the wall about the organization. Some concrete steps to make it a better citizen in the world would do much more for the sanctity of people’s lives than just limiting it to doing penance, as you oddly, intone.