A way forward Luke
Johnson, Timothy
THE LAST WORD A WAY FORWARD Luke Timothy Johnson Each Sunday, we declare in the creed that the church is "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic." Many of us these days find it hard to think of the...
...Resentment at the hypocrisy of leaders-above all bishops-who have preached in one way and acted in another is appropriate...
...Many of us these days find it hard to think of the church as holy...
...Daily exposure to the endless stream of stories in the press and on TV has embarrassed and angered us...
...How should we feel, how should we think, how should we act, in light of these revelations and this continuing injury...
...Finally, it is important that we act prudently...
...The news about the sexual abuse practiced by the clergy and covered up by the hierarchy has sickened us...
...This is a hurt that the church's own ministers have inflicted on the Body of Christ...
...It is not something that will quickly disappear...
...We will be dealing with some aspect of it for the rest of our lives...
...If we want to be healed, we must first acknowledge the ways we are hurt...
...Others are shocked by a reality we could not have imagined...
...It is important also that we think clearly...
...We should turn our fear into mutual awareness and protection for our children...
...We can note that, like rape, the issue here is not really so much sex as it is the abuse of power, in two ways: first, priests who abuse children abuse the authority and trust placed in them...
...Anger and outrage at the hurt done to young children is appropriate...
...They speak the truth about our hearts...
...At the same time, we can also feel sympathy for the many priests who have done no wrong and whose lives have also been inalterably changed by these events...
...Luke Timothy Johnson is the Robert R. Woodruff Professor of New Testament at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University...
...We should turn our grief and sorrow into attitudes of compassion for those good priests, our brothers in Christ, whose lives have become even more lonely than before because of this loss of trust...
...We should turn our anger into the energy to claim the laity's appropriate role of leadership for our own church...
...No good can come from suppressing or denying them...
...I believe that God is always at work, even through hard and hurtful things...
...All of us in the church are grievously hurt...
...We can remember that a very small portion of priests engaged in these crimes-although any number is too great-and that most priests regard such acts with the same horror we do...
...We should turn our outrage into a sustained protest of the hierarchy's systemic abuse of authority, and the sustained will to hold leadership accountable for its actions...
...Above all, we can share the grief and sorrow and bewilderment of the parents and children whose trust was violated...
...But we can also observe that the church's regulations concerning celibacy have helped to create a clerical culture that is removed from the cares and concerns of parenting and, on the evidence, with little understanding of the moral issues involved in these crimes- not to mention a class of ministers that is increasingly cut off from any of the normal bonds of affection available to lay people...
...Negative emotions are not unworthy...
...Can we discern what God is teaching us in this crisis...
...The abusers and the bishops who enabled them not only damaged our children, they also stole the assumption of moral authority from their fellow priests, who must now live under the cloud of suspicion and bear the anger and resentment that rightfully should be directed at others...
...This is not something the church's enemies are doing...
...This is not a small matter...
...It is important that we "own" and express the strong emotions that these hurts have aroused...
...Some Catholics have suspected or known about such patterns of abuse for a long time...
...second, bishops who prefer the reputation of the institution to the safety of children have corrupted their spiritual authority beyond repair...
...They need our affection and support, and, yes, our anger as well, if we are to transform the church into a body that has some of the holiness that we proclaim week by week...
...Fear for our own children is understandable...
Vol. 129 • May 2002 • No. 10
