UNITED STATES
Egregious Twaddle
Joanne K. McPortland
September 1, 2012
Why are we so shocked when priests go rogue? After all, holiness isn’t applied with chrism.
In the same week that a good part of the Catholic blogosphere was convening in Texas for the Catholic New Media Conference, and the Republicans were convening in Tampa for whatever it is they were convening for, and Hurricane-then-Tropical-Storm Isaac was convening to make the folks of the Gulf even more miserable, my external and internal news feeds filled up with reaction to two stories of priests, well, losing it. Pleading vacation time with the Awesome Grandson and attendance at the Dodger game honoring the Awesome Vin Scully, I was going to skip posting on these stories. But I got to wondering, and I need to share my wonder.
When Priests Go Bad, Case #1
You’ve probably heard more than you want to about the story that broke a couple of days ago concerning author, psychologist, and EWTN TV personality Fr Benedict Groeschel. Interviewed by the EWTN-owned National Catholic Register on his life’s work, the 78-year-old former Capuchin and founder of the diocesan community called the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal dropped something of a public-relations bomb in mid-column. In response to a question about the clergy abuse scandals, Fr Groeschel—who has worked in treating those removed from ministry due to charges of abuse—made comments that seemed quite clearly to express sympathy for those accused of abuse and, just as clearly and even more problematically, to blame the victims for being “in many cases” the seducers. Deacon Greg Kandra, whose post at The Deacon’s Bench was the first I heard of the Register interview, quite rightly yelled “INCOMING!” The predictable pickups of the story by the National Catholic Reporter, the HuffPost, the NY Times, et al. triggered the usual sh*tstorm from the usual combox denizens, who can be (to my mind) forgiven for behaving as trolls will behave when we chum the waters this thoroughly for their feeding-frenzy pleasure.
The story took some twisty turns when the staff at the Register (possibly reacting in a panic in the absence of their editor, though of course there were the dire hints that the paper was reverting to the kind of we-protect-our-own-at-any-cost tactics practiced under its former owners, the Legionaries of Christ) simply pulled the interview. Damage done, of course, because cached copies of Internet articles have a longer shelf life than Twinkies, but still. Then we got disclaimers from Fr. Groeschel’s community, from the Archdiocese of New York (as a society of diocesan right headquartered in New York, Fr. Groeschel’s community reports to Cardinal Dolan as its superior), from (belatedly) the National Catholic Register’s editor, and finally from Fr. Groeschel himself. All pleaded age and infirmity—Fr. Groeschel has suffered a stroke in the past and was said to be recovering from a recent fall—for the lack of clarity that led the remarks to give such an uncharitable, incorrect, and scandalous impression.
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