The Wounded Body of Christ: Toronto Theological Colloquium on the Catholic Sexual Abuse Crisis (Part 2)

THIS IS PART TWO. TO GO BACK TO PART ONE, CLICK HERE

Clericalism

Boston College’s Mary Ann Hinsdale began her lecture by going back to the Vatican II theologian Edward Schillebeeckx (one of my theological heroes) to draw pertinent lessons for formulating an ecclesiology that can speak to aspects of this abuse crisis. Again, some of my random recollections and impressions:

·         Ministry as Too “Sacerdotalized”   Ordained ministry in the church has become too “sacerdotalized,” that is, it has been conflated too closely with being ordained a priest. That, in turn, has been explained in ontological terms in which the priest (“sacerdos” in Latin) undergoes an ontological change into a character that enables the priest to preside over a community and have, as one of his most important roles, the duty to “confect” (manufacture) the Eucharist. This, one can argue, lies at the root of the exaggerated sense of importance that priests have of themselves (that’s my own take).

·         Women in the Church  Schillebeeckx thought that as long as women are effectively left out of real decision making in the church, there can be no real liberation for women (I hope I’m paraphrasing this fairly). My addition: I’m convinced that the real liberation is not only for women but for everyone in the church. In short, sharing real power and authority in the Church with women is the only way for us Catholics to have a balanced church!

·         Clericalism  … can be described as the protection of rights of clerics even to the detriment of non-clerical members of the church. This is a seriously dysfunctional element that has to be remedied through the improvement of seminary education, among others. Evils such as sexual abuse should be dealt with through restorative justice.

Some Other Noteworthy Matters

·         “Policing Oneself” is Wrong!  In the last session, lawyer Simona Jellinek dropped some pretty intense remarks: First, allowing an institution to police itself is just wrong! Hey, isn’t that Catholicism 101? The whole of the RCC’s polity, as Sr. Nuala also remarked, is “up-down.” There is no “down-up” way to make the church accountable. In effect, there are no effective “checks and balances” in place.

·         First Things First   Another noteworthy point (from Simona), the priority now in the Church should be, first, help the healing of those who were abused. This is the most urgent task. Then and only then can you fix the church. But justice and healing for the victimized should be the priority.

·         Where’s the Clergy?  I heard a lot of voices saying that there should have been more clergy (especially clergy with real power and authority in the church) present in this colloquium because it is this group that has to hear the message most urgently

My (Preliminary) Concluding Thoughts

·         Share Authority!  There is a fake (although insightful) Albert Einstein quote in which the brilliant physicist is supposed to have claimed, The mentality that created a problem cannot solve the same problem it created. The sexual abuse crisis, although devastating for everyone in the church, (I think it is fair to say) has been created by the dysfunctional and unjust hierarchical structure of the church and perpetrated mainly by the members of the hierarchy. But then, who has real authority and power in the Roman Catholic Church? Despite Vatican II and its encouragement to the church to be the people of God, (as they say in the Catholic Church), the church ain’t no democracy! Let’s be honest, the only ones who have real authority and power in the church are bishops and priests. And, as the fake Einstein quote says, they will not be able to solve a problem that they themselves have created and are part of. Unless authority and power in the Catholic are shared in a real way outside the circle of <ordained, male, celibate>, I’m afraid nothing substantial will change.

·         My Personal Context  A remark on personal context is called for here. I myself was a religious order priest (Salesian of Don Bosco) for 10 years. Before ordination, I trained for the priesthood for an even longer period of time. In 2005, I finally decided that, in conscience, I could no longer remain a member of the hierarchy because I came to the conclusion that this select clique of <male, celibate, ordained> persons was, ethically speaking, “uncondonable,” deeply dysfunctional and—I thought then—incapable of reforming itself. Yes, I know that everyone and everything is flawed. But the level of being flawed can reach a state which can no longer be tolerated and I thought that the Catholic hierarchy was that 14 years ago when I resigned as a priest and religious. This makes me a jaded wimp and, sadly, I’ve also been treated sometimes as a “traitor.” But I very simply concluded then (after years of intense discernment and prayer) that “institutional church” was overrated and that working for reform in the church was—in the words of theologian Matthew Fox—like standing in front of an oncoming train. And so, I thought, I had better, more important things to do in life. Fast forward … when I hug my wife and daughter today, I somehow have a sense of the most important things in life. I have never looked back although I still self-identify as Catholic (as well as ecumenical) and, more importantly, I still deeply love the Catholic tradition (with this important qualification) as a critical grown-up child of the tradition (and we all know how complicated those relationships can be!)

Why do I feel that there has been no substantial change today? I walked away from the colloquium with deeply mixed feelings. I still feel that the only real ones who can actually solve the problem (because only they have real authority) cannot and, sadly, just don’t have the real will to solve the problem. I repeat, this will happen only when we open up real authority in the church to transcend the <male, ordained, celibate> group!

The “Grain of Wheat” Must Die   At the very end of the colloquium, a survivor (who was not one of the panelists), took the microphone and said (words to the effect of), “Here we are talking of rebirthing the church. Why? The church in the form it is now should die! We should think about what has to come out after that death.”

That remark has remained with me. We cannot fix this problem with Band-Aid solutions. Something more radical is needed. Perhaps, Jesus’ words in John 12:24 should be radically applied to the church (sorry, I’m a New Testament prof), “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit”

I’ve also written down other thoughts elsewhere if you’re interested:

A biblical-theological reflection on the Catholic Sexual Abuse Crisis where I advocate a spirituality of brokenness: https://www.catholica.com.au/gc4/jkk/014_jkk_121118.php

My thoughts on the Vatican Summit on Sexual Abuse:

http://spiritual-notandyet-religious-jkk.blogspot.com/2019/03/my-thoughts-on-recently-concluded.html

Sorry for seemingly throwing cold water on the whole enterprise. Let’s end on a hopeful note: Sr Nuala pointed out that, for all the imperfections that could be pointed out about Pope Francis, he seems to display an awareness of this ecclesiological pathology that lies at the heart of this crisis. Now that is a clear sign of hope. I got deeply disillusioned with the institutional church during the John Paul II and Benedict XVI years. I’m pleasantly surprised that I am much more hopeful now under Francis! I savor and cherish that! I really, really hope that things will turn around. I’ll try my best to do my part to contribute to that.

Thank you very much, Jim (Dr. James Ginther-Dean of St. Mike’s theology department), and your collaborators, for hosting this important and urgent colloquium!

Peace and healing to all!

The Wounded Body of Christ: Toronto Theological Colloquium on the Catholic Sexual Abuse Crisis (Part 1)

(held in Toronto, March 14-15, 2019 at the University of St. Michael’s College, Faculty of Theology, co-sponsored by The Centre for Advanced Research in Catholic Thought, King’s University College, London, ON)

As director of our King’s Centre for Catholic Thought, I, together with Profs. Mark Yenson, Andrea DiGiovanni, Carolyn Chau (as official representatives of our College), attended this event held on March 14-15, 2019 in Toronto. Here is my very cursory and random summary of the event (hurriedly written in this crazily busy time of the year).

Disclaimer: the account of the event and of the thoughts expressed by the speakers are all filtered through my own subjective lens.

Believing in a Sinful and Holy Church

Dr. Brian Flanagan from Marymount University in Virginia started the event with a public lecture. He emphasized that Sin and Sanctity are dual realities that make up the Church and we have yet to develop an adequate theology to deal with these two realities in tandem. We might need some kind of “affirmative action” in speaking about ecclesial sin because we, as a church, just lack practice in doing so. 

When we speak of “sin” in or of the church, we are speaking at four levels: (1) individual sins; (2) individual sins are, in actuality, “sins of the church” since we are the church!; (3) collective church failure; (4) social and structural sin – We should keep in mind that structures take on the results of past sinful actions. So, how do we go about developing a theology of a sinful church yet, at the same time, maintain hope in the same breath? This is a key question to answer and a goal to reach. One possible way forward: Let us recover an eschatological worldview with regard to the church, particularly, by keeping in mind that the church is a migrant community, i.e., we are still on the way to fullness. God is with us; holiness is also present in the church (particularly, as evidenced by the presence of holy people—both past and present—in this community). At the same time, the church is also deeply, deeply flawed; there is evil and sin in the church.

A very lively Q&A session followed Dr. Flanagan’s talk, one of the best I’ve seen after a theological lecture. There were, I estimate, around 100 people who came. This shows how urgent this topic is.

March 15: Theological Colloquium. (I think also 80-100 people turned out at various moments during the day)

 The full day colloquium was composed of two morning sessions: (1) Voices from Survivors: Mark Hawkins, Leona Huggins, and John Swales; (2) A Lecture by Dr. Nuala Kenny: Diagnosing Spiritual and Ecclesial Pathology Manifested in the Clergy Sexual Abuse Crisis. The afternoon also had two sessions: (1) A Lecture by Dr. Mary Ann Hinsdale: Clericalism: Roots, Relevance, and Remedies; (2) A Roundtable chaired by David Byrne involving all the speakers and lawyer Simona Jellinek to discuss the topic of the colloquium.

I will share below my own (subjective) recollections of and thoughts on the colloquium.

The Devastation of Sexual Abuse

The most powerful experience I had at the colloquium was undoubtedly the testimonies of the survivors of sexual abuse. As they recounted their particular stories, I was able to put concrete faces to the phenomenon of sexual abuse. Yes, I’ve read a lot about the abuse, but when someone shares his or her own very painful experiences in an eloquent way in front of you, you just become existentially more aware that sexual abuse is a real evil and that it wreaks destruction in the lives of the abused at so many levels. The abused have to live with these deep scars for the rest of their lives. I really am thankful to Mark, Leona, and John for sharing their stories with us.

Some concrete messages from them were indelibly etched in my mind and heart.

Leona continually emphasized that the sexual abuse is not only her story. No, IT IS OUR STORY. Let’s not consider this problem as outsiders but as insiders who are truly and really impacted by it. I was really saddened to hear that when she came out with her story, she was dismissed from her job at a Catholic school --- the victim is victimized all the more!

I was shocked to learn from Mark that although he had talked about his painful and intense experience in front of other Christian denominations, it was the first time that he was sharing his story with a Catholic audience. This is, first of all, very sad. It means Catholics have not really been keen to hear the stories of our hurting brothers and sisters. On the other hand, at least now he has talked to a Catholic audience. Hopefully, this is the first of more.

John explained that sexual abuse affects not only the survivors, but also their family and friends, the church, the laity, society as a whole and the perpetrators themselves! So true! He also reminded us hauntingly that although their stories are painful, the very fact that they are now standing in front of us, able to share their stories with us, means that they are the lucky ones … many more of the abused did not make it up until today because they could no longer go on in their painful states. John also said that if we do not walk away from the gathering scathed and scarred by what we heard, there is just something wrong with us. I want to say, John, that I really walked away from that gathering bearing deep pain in my heart for my suffering brothers and sisters …

Ecclesial Pathology Revealed by the Abuse Crisis

Sr. Dr. Nuala Kenny gave a powerful and enlightening talk on this topic. Some random recollections and impressions of mine:

·         Rooting Oneself in the Experiences of the Victims   You cannot help the healing process unless you root yourself in the experience of the victims. Nuala offered a unique perspective coming from her long experience as having dealt as a medical doctor with the victims of sexual abuse.

·         Root Causes  Besides, real healing cannot even begin if only symptoms are treated. One has to go to the root causes of a problem. In the case of sex abuse, causes involve beliefs, practices, relationships, etc.

·        Spiritual Power   Lord Acton (Catholic historian) famously said, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” If we apply that to the sex abuse crisis, “spiritual power corrupts spiritually.” Let me add my own take: Absolute spiritual power (the one many churchmen are led to believe that they possess) is the most insidious and damaging kind of dysfunctional conception of power because God is understood (mistakenly of course) as being on the side of the one who purportedly has spiritual power.

·         Septic Shock   One metaphor that could be used to describe the crisis is that in this present (2018-19) resurfacing of the sexual abuse crisis, we might be dealing already with a kind of “septic shock.” A septic shock begins as a localized medical problem but because it is left untreated, it becomes bigger and more powerful and it leads the different crucial body parts to shut down. Aren’t we experiencing some kind of ecclesial septic shock now?

·         Diagnosis – not Simple   For this crisis, a single, simple diagnosis has to be treated with caution (e.g., “homosexuals are the cause of this crisis.” That’s untrue and unfair). When we get sick, we have the tendency to want a short, snappy answer (treatment) to speedily solve our problems. This crisis is NOT something that can be dealt in that way. There are many causes that demand a careful, thorough diagnosis and an equally careful, thorough, long-term treatment.

END OF PART ONE. GO TO PART TWO HERE

Didymus Judas Thomas - "the Twin" and Its Profound Implications

We’ve been discussing The Gospel of Thomas in our Censored Scriptures class. What struck me this time in my re-reading of different sayings and my review of different aspects of The Gospel of Thomas is the meaning of the name "Thomas." In Aramaic, "tūmā" means "twin." John's gospel (11:16) and Thomas make reference to Thomas' being "the twin." 

(beginning of the gospel) These are the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke and which “Didymus Judas Thomas” wrote down

"Becoming" or already "being" Jesus' twin seems like a significant matter because it suggests becoming "like" Jesus, or even, a mystical union with the person of Jesus, which is, after all, the goal of the transformative way in Christianity. This is strongly echoed in saying #108 where Jesus says,

He who will drink from my mouth will become like me. I myself shall become he, and the things that are hidden will be revealed to him.“

What does that imply? Another book also found among the Nag Hammadi writings called The Book of Thomas the Contender spells out its implications in an insightful way:

• "Now, since it has been said that you are my twin and true companion, examine yourself, and learn who you are, in what way you exist, and how you will come to be. Since you will be called my brother, it is not fitting that you be ignorant of yourself. …
• “…And I know that you have understood, because you had already understood that I am the knowledge of the truth. So while you accompany me, although you are uncomprehending, you have (in fact) already come to know, and you will be called 'the one who knows himself'. For he who has not known himself has known nothing, but he who has known himself has at the same time already achieved knowledge about the depth of the all. So then, you, my brother Thomas, have beheld what is obscure to men, that is, what they ignorantly stumble against."

The dominant thought in the above lines is contained in the injunction "Know yourself!"  I interpret that to mean: the image of God, the image of Christ is already embedded and embodied in our deepest core, in our authentic selves. When we go past the superficial levels of our personhood and delve into our innermost core (e.g., Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle), there we come upon the presence of God and the image of Christ. 

This teaching of Thomas then is profoundly mystical. It is furthermore echoed in the various teachings of the mystics (Christian or otherwise) and implied in various spiritual exercises such as Centering Prayer. 

It can also have a potentially active dimension. If our identity as Christians can be described as “being a twin of Christ,” that also implies that as we go out into the world, we are like “other Christs” because we are his twin-siblings. We therefore should be agents of compassion, forgiveness, inclusivity, and (distributive) justice in the world, just like our twin brother Jesus.

My Thoughts on the Recently Concluded Vatican Summit on Sexual Abuse

There have been lots of news and opinions on the web and in the media lately about the recently concluded Vatican Summit on Sexual Abuse held in Rome, Feb 21-24, 2019.

I've found a number of helpful online commentaries on the event.

Here is The Washington Post's story about the just-concluded event. It highlights Pope Francis' call for an "all-out battle" against sex abuse in the Catholic Church

Theologian William Lindsey's different links and commentary are also very useful. From his blog Bilgrimage.


Other significant matters connected with the sexual abuse crisis are the following:

Cardinal Pell was convicted of sexual abuse in Australia.

I also wrote some biblical reflections on the sexual abuse crisis published in Catholica in November 2018. I think that this is a time for Catholics to basically follow Jeremiah's injunction to the people of his time to "bow down to Babylon."

Jason Berry, a frequent Catholic "whistle-blower," points out in his article at NCR that "structural mendacity" (in short, an endemic and systemic habit of lying in the Catholic Church) lies at the heart of this sexual abuse crisis.

Paul Collins, author of Papal Power and Absolute Power, writes in this blog piece that the last 12 months have simply been Catholicism's "year from hell."

Finally, Pope Francis presents 8 points on which the church will focus to combat sexual abuse.


Now here are some of my dominant thoughts on this occasion:

1. Abuse of Power.  Clerical sexual abuse is at its core an abuse of power. The “sexual abuse” crisis is the tip of what is a more gigantic iceberg - the abuse of power and authority. When all power is concentrated in a select caste (men, celibate, ordained), the temptation to abuse this "absolute" power is just too strong for normal humans. I would go so far to say that keeping such an absolute authority structure in place without the proper checks and balances just ensures that some unscrupulous or even warped people will succumb to it. Hence the continuous toleration of this system is itself unethical! 
2. Checks and Balances.  It is better not to tolerate such a system; better even, it seems to be imperative not to make such a system even possible. How? What we need are more proper "checks and balances." Any organization needs healthy checks and balances in place so that no single person (be he a pope), no single caste, no one cabal can claim some sort of absolute and unchecked power and authority for himself or itself. For the Catholic Church, to correct the grossly unbalanced authority structure centered around the exclusive male-celibate-ordained caste, it urgently needs to set up checks and balances that counter the exclusivity of its present authority structure. 
3. Invoking God to Support an Unjust Absolute Power.  Claiming or invoking God as the source of power and authority in an absolute manner is unethical because one "uses" God in an improper way. The truth of the matter is that the claim of divine authority (e.g., as it is done in many areas of the Catholic Church) is by and large just hyperbole and exaggerated. There is a sense in which the supposed divine bestowal of authority (as claimed in Catholicism) is, at a profound level, simply untrue. For people to realize this, a careful study of the historical origins and development of the Catholic tradition is necessary. Historians and theologians, therefore, play a crucial role in this.
4. Hubris.  Jason Berry has made reference to "structural mendacity" in his article. I would add: at the heart of this sex abuse crisis, aside from the abuse of power (point #1 above) and (2) (Jason Berry's) structural lying, we must also consider a third factor - (3) a deep institutional hubris. This hubris is tied intimately with point #3 above. The deep-seated hubris is expressed in an exaggerated claim of divine authority for itself. This institutional hubris is extremely difficult to eradicate because those having power, especially absolute power in their hands, will fight tooth and nail to preserve it to the bitter end. What is worse is that some of these people are convinced that God is actually on their side! Hence, we often need an external agent, some sort of "avenging angel," if you will, in order to coerce those inordinately clinging to power to finally relinquish it. This is what I meant when I said in the Catholica article that Catholics should take to heart Jeremiah's injunction to "bow down to Babylon." The external agents in this present Catholic sexual abuse crisis can be several things. It can be the state which is actively forcing the Catholic Church to become more accountable and transparent and to come clean of its crimes. It can be the people (laity) themselves who (at least in Western countries) are leaving the church, voting with their feet in droves. It can be the young who no longer care about the Christian heritage of their culture or "just don't give a damn anymore" about such a dysfunctional church. It can be a pope who is sincerely trying to reform the system like Francis.
5. Renewal Possible?  Brian Coyne at Catholica asked, "Can this institution renew itself?" Hmmm... There is a fake Albert Einstein quote (which, nevertheless, is very insightful!) in which Einstein is supposed to have said, "A problem cannot be solved by the same consciousness that created it."  If we apply that to the Catholic Church, then we can say, the clerical system and the mentality behind it which has created this problem is simply not capable of solving it.

Now, if you think that all these reflections come from an “outsider” looking in, then I'll have to disclose that I was an active Roman Catholic priest for 10 years before my resignation which was motivated not only by personal reasons of conscience but more so by my inability to continue being a member of an exclusive hierarchical echelon of an institution that, I concluded, is flawed in ways my conscience could no longer tolerate. For me, the hierarchical church's flawed state reached the "uncondonable" level (yes, I know that everything/everyone is flawed but there are just some "flawed" states that should no longer be tolerated). I trained for the priesthood for even longer than the time I spent as an active priest. I've been educated in the center of the Catholic Church (Rome) and have seen the institution and its most intimate workings at close quarters ... I hope that gives a bit more weight to my personal opinions on this matter.

I also want to say that I still consider myself in a deep way as Catholic and that I actually love the tradition deeply and dearly, but, for my salvation and those dear to me, I try to keep a distance from the toxic aspects of the institutional expression of Roman Catholicism.