Church Teaching not to Blame for Sex Scandals

In the light of the pedophila scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston—which is spreading like a wave across the nation — we can expect a torrent of commentary from dissident Catholics who enjoy wide access to the media, including ex-priests, feminist ex-nuns and liberal theologians who see an opportunity to "pile on" to further their case against Church teaching which they see as evidence of all that is wrong with the Church.

In a cliché-ridden rant in his Boston Globe column of February 26, author and ex-priest James Carroll blames the pedophilia problem in the Catholic Church on Pope John Paul II. This, in a word, is crazy.

He takes the usual tack that John Paul II has stifled the promise of the Second Vatican Council, is hung up on sex, authoritarian, that celibacy should be dropped, priestesses should be ordained, etc., etc.

I don't know where Carroll gets his ecclesiology but it is not from the documents of Vatican II, or anything that Pope John XXIII put in motion, as he suggests in his article. There were certainly incidents of sexual abuse by clergy long before John Paul II came along.

John Geoghan was my parish priest when I was growing up in Hingham, Massachusetts, in the 1960s, and Geoghan was well along in his perversion by then. After the victims themselves, it is tragic that many Catholics fail to distinguish acts of sinful priests from the truth of Church teachings, allowing themselves to be robbed of their faith, failing to recognize the Mystical Body of Christ.

However, the euphoria after Vatican II — which had no basis in the actual documents—allowed religious education to go down the tubes. It seems Mr. Carroll put more stock in the euphoria than the texts, which contained not a syllable suggesting that women would be ordained or that priests would marry, or we could have gender irrelevant sex without consequence.

The American bishops have much to answer for in the pedophilia mess, but right behind pedophilia, the bishops will have to answer for the over-indulgence and tolerance of dissent within the Church — of which Mr. Carroll is an ardent promoter.

With all due respect to the bishops, many Catholics are no doubt thrilled to hear that an American bishop has finally declared "Zero Tolerance" on something — after 35 years of bullying and blackmail from those who hold views similar to Mr. Carroll.

As Carroll said in his Globe column of January 22, the "People of the Church" have to take it back. Yes, but they need to take it back from the so-called "reformers" who have relentlessly tried to turn the Body of Christ into the city of man.

Unless we are to believe that had the Church jumped on the sexual revolution bandwagon as critics demand, it would have been less likely to produce a Father Geoghan.

Despite the hyperbole of Catholic dissidents that bishops can't wait to break out the thumbscrews, no one's freedom of speech or academic freedom would be lost were the bishops more aggressive in this arena.

As G.K. Chesterton said, "the only real sin is to call green grass gray." This is what dissent does. It attempts to say things are Catholic which are not, and the Church has the right to say it isn't so. No one is being oppressed. Honest.

Bad theology kills. It killed the young graduate who looked up his college chaplain and said, "I'm dying of AIDS. If you had told me the truth I wouldn't be in this position. At least the encounter led to a conversion for the priest to follow Church teaching in his pastoral work."

There is no connection between Catholic doctrine and this pedophilia. Rather the current crisis is the result of neglect of Catholic teaching, not its proper practice. I don't live up to Catholic teaching, but thank God it is there to be the measure of me and not vice versa.

From Carroll's comments on John Paul II, I can only surmise that either he has not read the Pope's works or he cannot understand them. John Paul II's writings on human sexuality and marriage positively glisten with beauty, truth and love. But it is a vision too large to fit into the narrow confines of an ideology which seeks to reduce everything, including the Church, into a socio-political construct, to which James Carroll's thinking is evidently confined.

Yes, I believe that through Boston's current ecclesiastical meltdown, God (remember Him?) is at work purifying His Church, which need not — must not — bend the knee before the idol of "political correctness," but rather be allowed to be who she really is despite everything: the Bride of Christ.

John Mallon is contributing editor to Inside the Vatican magazine and an editorial consultant and contributor to The Daily Oklahoman editorial page. Read more about John here!