Where Does the Catholic Church Go from Here?

The grand jury report on Pennsylvania Catholic clergy stuns us not just for the excruciating details of sexual and physical abuse against more than 1,000 children by 300 priests over seven decades, but for a greater significance it holds. This is the beginning of the end of the Catholic Church.

The report signals that sexual abuse by clergy occurred, and occurs still, everywhere in the world; and church leaders, from the Vatican to the parish house, knew and have always known. How could they have not known?

“We believe that the real number – of children whose records were lost, or who were afraid ever to come forward – is in the thousands,” the grand jury states in the report’s introduction. “As a consequence of the coverup, almost every instance of abuse we found is too old to be prosecuted. But that is not to say there are no more predators. This grand jury has issued presentments against a priest in the Greensburg diocese and a priest in the Erie Diocese, who has been sexually assaulting children within the last decade. We learned of these abusers directly from their dioceses – which we hope is a sign that the [C]hurch is finally changing its ways.”

This is a crushing reality for the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics not blinded by the unquestioning obedience that allowed the Church to control the faithful for centuries. Catholics are torn about a faith most were born into, live and love. The allegations, the accusations and, in very few cases, convictions, have divided the Church. 

Vatican City in 2017

Some conservative Catholics are unable to accept that once trusted men with immense power over their ordinary parishioners chose to abuse that power. They seek comfort in the belief that the devil is at work, but evil is solely the work of men, and in this case, the men of the Church. 

Some moderate and liberal Catholics are in search of ways to correct the abject failures of the institution; some have decided to simply leave the Church, their sense of community shattered. 

The years of sexual abuse, and the victims’ accompanying emotional and mental anguish, have taken their toll. The years of Church leader denials that followed nearly every accusation; the years of cover-up, of moving abusing priests from one parish to another, letting them damage lives from one parish to another; the years of quietly paying off victims for their silence using hard-earned money dropped in the Sunday collections plates by unwitting parishioners. The years of struggle for victims tortured by guilt and shame, unable to reconcile their faith and their abuser. The years, the years … 

The latest revelations in the grand jury report come after years of revelations from Boston to Ireland to Chile and so many, many more dioceses. The revelations have exposed the corrosive acid that long ago seeped into the Catholic Church’s now crumbling pillars. The Catholic Church today is in the throes of death, corrupted thoroughly. I do not speak carelessly here. As a lifelong Catholic, I’ve watched for nearly 40 years the degradation of the Church that began many decades, if not centuries, earlier. The Church became too powerful; Church leaders deluded in the belief that the Church, and thus they, are infallible – they can do anything, God willing, and, indeed, when it came to children, anything is what they did, claiming God’s will, no matter who it hurt. 

Since the release of the grand jury report, more abusive priests have surfaced; more victims have come forward; more states have started their own grand jury investigations into clerical sexual abuse, which means more horrors to come. Despite the grand jurors’ optimism, “that the Church is finally changing its ways,” the Church, with its wealth and power, is not changing. 

Yet, despite that wealth and power, the Church, as it is currently organized, cannot withstand what is coming. A sign of the future is what occurred last week in deeply Catholic Ireland, where not too long ago the Church ruled with an iron fist. A mass protest greeted Pope Francis’ visit, where he apologized and asked forgiveness for the horrific years of sexual and physical abuse by clergy. Many were unconvinced. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Ireland’s protests, and its recent landslide vote to legalize abortion, means the Church’s grip is no more.

The same has long been occurring in the United States. The archdioceses in Boston,Philadelphia,Pittsburgh,New York, Chicago,Washington D.C., Los Angeles and elsewhere are closing parishes and schools because the faithful no longer trust them, no longer believe the dogma and doctrine behind which individual priests, the leadership, and the institution abused children, abetted the abusers, and covered it up – evil in the name of God.  

Turmoil now reigns in the Church. The Church’s princes are turning on each other, driven by ideology and opportunity instead of Christ-like spirituality. Rather than address the problem of clerical sexual abuse, they exploit the problem in a struggle for political power. Conservative Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano accused liberal Pope Francis and senior Church officials of knowing about the abuse and the cover up. 

In pure political terms, this is an opportunity to remove an opponent. If Pope Francis knew of the abuse – again, how could he not? – then Archbishop Vigano did, too. There’s just no question. 

Can the Catholic Church survive? Yes, with fundamental reforms. While priests should marry and women should serve as priests, the real reform requires the Church to relinquish control; to re-examine Church dogma and doctrine, particularly infallibility, sin and the sacrament of matrimony; and to accept and embrace the faithful long shunned – those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and transgender.  

To be relative in the 21^stcentury, the Church should drop its 16^thcentury thinking; minister to the faithful’s spirituality rather than to their sexuality. The Church was never in a position to lecture anyone about sex. Unless it changes, the Church will not survive before century ends.