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	Blackburn: Offer Penance, Not Excuses: Scandal Doesn't Ruin This Journalist's Faith. By Tom Blackburn Palm Beach Post April 12, 2010 http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/columnists/blackburn-offer-penance-not-excuses-scandal-doesnt-ruin-551786.html As a Catholic and part of the media, I am condemned to spend my life trying to explain one to the other. When people ask how I can be associated with such a rotten institution, I always have to ask which one they mean. It has been an especially bad few weeks. As a Catholic, I know what media folks never quite grasp: that the leaders of my church have nowhere near as much power or influence in the modern era as non-Catholics think they do. As a media type, I know that when a story gets big, the religion writers are replaced by investigative bulldogs who are innocent of theology and know the comic-book version of religious history. The Vatican has never loved the media, and it shows. St. Paul was all things to all men, but the Vatican is Roman to all. It expects everyone to think and speak like a Roman. The Romans then get irritated when they are not understood, as happens not infrequently. During Holy Week, some things were said, the meaning of which was clear but not edifying. It began with the archbishop of New York comparing the plopping of The New York Times on the pope's doorstep to the placing of the crown of thorns on the head of the Savior. After that brush with blasphemy, the pope's personal preacher ignorantly compared negative stories in the media with what Jews have undergone through the ages. Absurdity followed. The Vatican spokesman said the preacher's words were not "an official statement" of the church. If you can't hear an official statement of the church at the Vatican on Good Friday, when can you hear one? Finally, on Easter, a senior Vatican functionary was permitted to address the pope and tell him to ignore "the petty gossip of the moment." "Gossip" is not an apt word for documented cases of child abuse. I can't explain any of that. No justification is possible. If the Vatican can't avoid feeling sorry for itself when it reads the papers or turns on the television, it can't credibly defend itself. There are things to be said for it, but they don't add up to exoneration. When the Vatican is forced to admit child abuse and coverups, it cannot possibly follow the admission with any clause that starts with "but." There is no room for "but" after a confession of persistent, facilitated abuse of children. Only penance is in order, not excuses or mitigation. If the penance is sincere and prolonged, someone else will offer the "but" for them. Not immediately, but in time. The faithful were told, first, that it was only an American problem. When the truth broke out in Ireland, it was said to be a problem affecting only English-speakers. Now the problem is also German. And Norwegian. Wherever there is a free press and an independent judiciary, they will seek and find the problem. Telling the truth before the summons server is at the door is one thing that would help the church. Another would be an effort to find the roots of the problem. The cardinal archbishop of Vienna, who is quite conservative, called for a wide-ranging inquiry into a number of areas of church life that might have bearing on the problem. In his long list was celibacy. An abrupt barrage of rockets from the Vatican told him he couldn't mean that. He "clarified," and the rest of his well-intentioned proposal died in his recantation. This is leadership that listens only to its own echo. The human leadership of my church is embarrassing. If the leadership cared what I think, it might blame my chagrin on a lifetime in the media with its presumed individualism. If that were true, I wouldn't care about all of this. Actually, everything I said here — and what I left out for reasons of space — I learned from the Catholic Church, its sacraments, history, theology and its members, living and dead. I am hurt by its transient leadership, but the faith I find there is enduring. If I walked away, I would have no place to stand. Contact: tom_blackburn@juno.com
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