Church’s Apology for Abuse Still Rings Thin

Chicago Sun-Times
January 25, 2014

http://newssun.suntimes.com/opinions/25139038-474/churchs-apology-for-abuse-still-rings-thin.html

The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago said “we’re sorry” one more time this month for decades of covered-up sexual abuse of children by priests.

But those conversant with Catholic theology will recognize the tenor and depth of the apology.

The church identifies two levels of apologies for sin. There’s the much-preferred “perfect act of contrition” in which the penitent is sorry because what was done offended God. That recognition advances the soul’s cleansing.

The second type — “the imperfect act of contrition” — acknowledges sorrow because failing to be sorry risks Hell. In essence, you’re sorry because failing to be sorry involves punishment down the road.

The 6,000 released pages of internal documents identifying the diocese’s role in hiding, moving and nurturing pedophiles constitutes the most “imperfect” apology because they were produced under duress. The diocese hid the documents, and came clean only as part of civil trial settlement that has taken eight years.

The diocese said “we’re sorry” with its arm pinned behind its back by an attorney that fought for dozens of local victims.

Had the diocese not agreed to release internal letters, memoranda and files, the cases taken to jury trials would have cost the church and its local faithful millions of dollars. The documents would have come out.

Telling the truth was an investment driven by risk-benefit analysis, but it was feeble spiritual purging.

The sordid conduct — both by priests and those who protected them — extended into Lake County.

One of the most notorious abusers was Robert Mayer who was stationed at St. Mary’s in Lake Forest through 1982.

Documents alleging his abuse contributed to two young boys’ suicide was part of the diocese record in 1989, but he still was reassigned to three other parishes. A youth director at St. Mary’s told the diocese that Mayer had control over boys that rivaled Charles Manson over his cult.

What the documents reveal is an evil, inhuman pattern. Now the diocese has apologized. But even the church’s principles impose the inescapable question: Are you sorry enough?