UNITED STATES
Catholic Whistleblowers
By Patrick Collins
Ten years ago, on my 39th anniversary of ordination, I sent this letter to the bishops of the United States. On this May 31, 2013, my 49th anniversary, I share these words because they remain painfully true in my opinion.
Nevertheless I rejoice today in 49 years of priestly life and ministry. Despite these leadership problems, our faith community continues to deepen and do good works for the Reign of God. And my spiritual life continues to deepen, be enriched and bring me great joy each day.
Dear Bishops,
As I have witnessed men and women committing themselves to the “for better or for worse” in the Sacrament of Marriage, I have often thought: “You really don’t know what you are in for!” And, as I have listened to their marital difficulties unfolding over the years, I realize how correct I was. Only over the years of trying to be faithful to that vow can they come to understand the great difficulties associated with keeping the promises they made on the day of their marriage.
Similarly for me on the day my ordination to the ministerial priesthood. When I placed my hands into those of Peoria, Illinois bishop John Baptist Franz on May 31, 1964, I heard him ask me, in Latin of course, “Do you promise to me and to my successors obedience and respect?” With trust in God and the goodness of bishops, I, without a clue as to the future implications of my response, responded innocently “I promise.” …
Too many in our church leadership have engaged in embarrassing secrecy and complicity in the crisis of clerical sexual abuse. Past systemic forms of episcopal governance have facilitated this. And this not only in Boston. Some bishops continue to protect their brother bishops whom they know to be guilty by not investigating allegations against them for improper handling of cases. Many of us priests know as well of examples in which priests have given incriminating information about other priests to bishops and nothing has happened. In one case I have in mind, the offending priest was even promoted to a prominent position after his bishop was informed of the priest’s inappropriate sexual conduct.
Which is worse, many of us priests are asking: The unspeakable sin and crime of abusing children committed by less than 6 percent of priests in this nation – or the much larger percentage of bishops who have covered up, paid off and lied for the sake of their self-protective behaviors?
In the years prior to the current sexual scandals many bishops seemed to protect the institution of the church and its assets by protecting the violating priests but not adequately respecting and serving the violated. Now it seems they are bending over backwards to make up for those errors by almost failing to honor the due process deserved by the violating priests while being totally dedicated to the violated. There is a noted consistency here, it would seem. The primary driving energy would appear to be to protect themselves and the patrimony of the institutional church. In neither case is the energy primarily about protecting and honoring persons – either the priest or the children and the family. That is sad to realize. Because this is becoming more and more obvious, our leaders are finding diminished respect from more than just the clergy.
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