By Virginia Jones
Garden of Roses: Stories of Abuse and Healing
January 7, 2010
http://web.me.com/virginiajones/Compsassionate_Gathering/The_Garden_of_Roses/Entries/2010/1/7_The_Church_is_the_People.html
Good Day, Good People!
We have a problem in that Church leadership is too afraid of lawsuits and too insular to do the right thing by survivors of clergy abuse. On the other end of the spectrum, there are many survivors who are so wounded and so caught in their wounds that they are not able to move forward, We lay people of the Catholic Church have a valuable place of standing in between, independent of the Church and yet of the Church, recognizing that Church leadership is human and afraid of criticism and negative consequences no matter what they do. And because they are acting from their fears, they are not able to do the right thing. But we, the people of the Church, can still do the right thing.
When I converted to Catholicism, I converted because I was inspired by Catholic saints not because I was inspired by Pope John Paul ii or Archbishop Vlazny. The Archbishop is a big cipher to me. From my perspective working with survivors, I'd say that he hasn't done nearly enough for healing. However, when he came to Ascension a month ago for the rededication of the Church he spoke Spanish and had a good sense of humor. Nice, but not enough to inspire me to be Catholic. I have much more positive things to say about Pope John Paul II, who was pope when I converted to Catholicism. He did some really good things. I think apologizing for the Church's sins such as the Inquisition and the Crusades was wonderful. On clergy abuse he made some not very smart moves such as protecting the head of a religious order — Fr. Maciel— who had many accusations of child sex abuse against him. I need to note that Pope Benedict removed Fr. Maciel shortly after becoming Pope because of these accusations. And Pope Benedict moved to apologize to some survivors in person. One of those survivors was Olan Horne. I've never met Olan in person, but I have spoken to him on the phone. I trust Olan when he says that he felt that the Pope's apology was sincere. I also trust Olan Horne when he said after the Pope's apology that lay people had to carry the work forward because the bishops were not following in Pope Benedict's lead.
 |
Unfortunately, the leadership of the Catholic Church has had this tendency to go off in the wrong direction. In the 12th and 13th centuries a heresy plagued the Church in northern italy and in France — Catharism. The Cathars had some really odd ideas, but they had some pure ones too. Their purer ideas set them in stark moral contrast with Church leadership of their day. The Cathars believed that love and power were incompatible. Jesus seemed to believe the same thing. He said things like it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven and whoever is first on this earth is last in the kingdom of heaven and whoever is last on earth is first in heaven. Because the Cathars really embraced these ideas, their priests, called Perfecti, lived ascetic lives at a time when the Church leadership in Rome lead increasingly opulent lives. Rome sent out legates to Languedoc in France to persuade the people to abandon their Cathar heresies. However, Rome was tone deaf to the circumstances in which they were operating. Their legates often traveled in luxury with large retinues. To the ordinary peasant they encountered, these legates were not nearly as holy as their own Cathar Perfecti. These legations usually failed to persuade many people to abandon their heresies, and Rome resorted to something else that people in power often do — violence — the Albigensian Crusade. Rome's forces slaughtered between 7,000 and 20,000 men, women and children in the Cathar town of Bezeirs in 1209. This is probably one of the things Pope John Paul II apologized for.
When asked by those under him what they should do with the people of Bezeirs, the Cisterician Abbot who commanded Church forces supposedly said, "Kill them all: the Lord will recognize His own."
That was certainly a low point in Church history
However, there was priest who went on these legations to Cathar territories who saw why Rome was failing. His name was Dominic and he founded the Dominican Order, one of the preaching orders. Dominic was studying theology at a time when Spain was undergoing a terrible famine. He sold all his possession and used the money to feed the poor.
When his friends asked him how he could sell his theology books he asked, "Would you have me study off these dead skins when men are dying of hunger?"
Dominic started going to Cathar territories to reconvert the people. When he traveled, he traveled simply and without retinues of servants. He had much more success in reconverting people back to Catholicism than previous papal legates.
Unfortunately even good stories can have unhappy endings. The pope had so much respect for Dominic, he put Dominic's order in charge of the Inquisition.
One of Dominic's contemporaries was a somewhat younger guy who lived in Assisi, Italy, named Francesco di Bernadone. Francesco's father was a rich cloth merchant who wanted his son to continue his opulent lifestyle. At first, Francesco wanted that too. He loved to party all night long with his friends, and he wanted to be a knight. However, he wasn't very good at being a knight, got captured by a neighboring city with which Assisi was a war and spent a year in prison. That year changed Francesco's life. Lets be honest. The guy was a little bit crazy. He took to hanging out in an old church that was falling down — San Damiano. One day while he was praying there, the Jesus who was on the Church's crucifix spoke to Francesco.
"Go rebuild my Church, " Jesus said.
"Francesco thought that he was supposed to literally rebuild the church so he did. He spent a few years restoring, stone by stone, the church of San Damiano and a couple other churches as well.
Later on he realized that what Jesus meant was this His whole Church was falling down spiritually and that Francesco needed to rebuild the whole Catholic Church.
I like nuts like Francesco. Some people say that I am a nut. It is because of Francesco that I became Catholic. I liked Francesco long before I became Catholic. You may know him better as St. Francis of Assisi. You know, he is the saint who people have statues of in their gardens, the guy with the birds sitting on his arms. I used to be a field biologist, and I helped to band a few dozen birds. I really like people who get along with birds. The picture below was taken of me in 1980 when I was a Wildlife Intern with the Bureau of Land Management. I am holding pair of Red Tail Hawk chicks.
Unfortunately the popes ended up liking the Franciscan Order a bit too much and also gave them authority to carry out the Inquisition.
Birds and saints aside, why do I remain Catholic when I think this Church is so flawed? Because God keeps sending teachers to set His Church straight.
While I am talking about Church flaws, I can't leave out what the Church did to Galileo Galilei. Now that was really arrogant and stupid.
Although the sun going around the earth is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible, it was official Church theology for a very long time. Galileo was not the first astronomer to notice that his mathematical calculations of planetary orbits did not conform to official Church doctrine. Copernicus held the same views a generation earlier. But Copernicus was a member or a Catholic religious order and was reluctant to openly confront the Church on the issue. However his books on astronomy ended up being banned by the Church after his death.
Galileo, who was not a cleric, was less reticent in telling people about what he knew to be true. During his life he was tried by the Inquisition, found guilty of heresy and forced to live the last ten years of his life in penury and house arrest.
More than 350 years later, when John Paul II was Pope, the Vatican formally apologized to Galileo.
Why did it take them so long?
And who can forget Joan of Arc, who claimed to have visions of St. Michael, the Archangel who is considered the protector of the Catholic Church. In 1429, Joan took an arrow on the battlefield, took it out, got back on her horse and carried the French standard. Her visions gave her the strength to cope with her pain. Her actions inspired the dispirited French army to defeat the English at the city of Orleans in France, ultimately giving France the energy to push the English off French territory to end the Hundred Years War between France and England.
Joan made it clear that she did what she did because the peasants of France were suffering from constant conflict.
A couple years after the victory at Orleans, Joan was burnt at the stake for heresy by Bishop Cachon, who was allied with the English.
Twenty four years later the King of France persuaded the Vatican to examine Joan's conviction, and she was declared innocent. Almost 500 years later, in 1925, she was sainted.
While I am at this history of saints stuff, who can forget John of the Cross who was Pope John Paul II's favorite saint? John of the Cross advocated that the clergy embrace a life of poverty and prayer. He wrote on prayer extensively. His most famous writing is about how the "Dark Night of the Soul" — when we find ourselves struggling profoundly with our faith — brings us closer to God.
Many survivors feel like they live through the "Dark Night of the Soul" for years, maybe their whole lives.
Apparently other members of the clergy didn't like being told they needed to live more simply and pray more. John of the Cross was imprisoned by his own religious order and died in obscurity. After his death people read his writings and discovered that what he had to say about poverty and prayer was really powerful. In the long run, he was not only sainted but made a Doctor of the Catholic Church.
So what is obedience to authority? What authority? God or the flawed humans who represent God on this earth? Do we have to be blindly obedient to these human representatives of God or is it possible for us to ask questions and act of our own conscience sometimes, doing the work of apology and penance for abuses and listening to and supporting the wounded when Church leadership isn't getting it right?
The priest who baptized me Catholic, who may not be the best authority on obedience because he abused children, told me that the obedience to authority is not broad but is narrowly drawn to specific issues — such as the sanctity of life.
Of course, abuse really violates the sanctity of life.
(Supporting survivors of abuse is a pro-life act. Do you know how many survivors commit suicide?)
But when the Church leadership is really struggling with doing the right thing, is it wrong for us lay people to lead the way gently and lovingly?
St. Francis remained a lay preacher his whole life because he never wanted to have authority. The authority he had was through his moral presence, not through any title that anyone bestowed on him. St. Francis is the most widely respected Catholic saint. During his own life he came to be considered a living saint. Even my fundamentalist Protestant friend who is a veterinarian likes him. How could a veterinarian not like a guy who talks to animals?
Perhaps the moral authority of the Catholic Church lies not so narrowly in the human leadership who are struggling to do the right thing along with the rest of us. Perhaps the moral authority of the Catholic Church lies in all of us — in St. Francis of Assisi, Joan of Arc, Anthony of Padua, Mother Theresa, Catherine of Sienna, Elizabeth of Hungary, Clare of Assisi, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Maximillian Kolbe, Dorothy Day, in Fr. Armando who believed me and supported me and supported survivors with me, in Paolo, Ascension Catholic Church's maintenance supervisor who spends many nights sleeping in the church's homeless shelter so that homeless families can have a safe place for the night, in Kim Petros, Ascension's Youth Minister, who endures the misbehavior of preteen boys while trying to teach them the values of their faith by taking them to homeless shelters and facilities that house severely disabled children.... Does the moral authority of the Church lie in my friend Mary, who does not want to be fully named because not everyone she knows approves of this work, but she has walked many a mile with me on the Walk Across Oregon to raise awareness about the issue and support survivors of abuse? Does the authority of the Church lie in Sharon Burke who does what her Multiple Sclerosis allows her to do, that is she listens compassionately to the wounded?
Perhaps the moral authority of the Catholic Church lies in Ann Czuba, the sweet Catholic Grandmother who read newspaper articles about survivors who were angry at the church and thought that it was her responsibility to do something to help heal their wounds.
Does the moral authority of the Catholic Church lie in late Father E.B. who believed in Ann's ideas and who supported her in doing the thing she felt must be done?
Vatican II did say that the Church is the people.
And for those people who don't like me airing so much of the Church's past dirty laundry, St. Teresa of Avila was known for her irreverence. Along with John of the Cross, she revolutionized Catholic prayer. She must have had a running conversation with God going on in her head.
Once she was thrown from her horse cart into a muddy, pot hole filled road as she traveled to evangelize and inspire others.
God said to her, "This is how I treat my friends."
St. Teresa retorted, "And that is why You have so few."
Perhaps the greatest reverence we can have for God is being open and honest about our flaws while being able to laugh at our imperfections.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.