Shepherd Indicted by Flock

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While the title of this post may appear a bit confusing at first, its meaning will become plain quickly enough.  For it seems that a Grand Jury in Jackson County, Missouri (Kansas City), at the urging of the County Prosecutor, has handed down a misdemeanor indictment for Bishop Robert Flynn, as well as the Diocese of Kansas City - St Joseph, MO for failure to report suspected child abuse.  

It seems that Bishop Flynn failed to report the suspected child abuse activities of one of the priests in the diocese, Rev. Shawn Ratigan; who is now facing federal child pornography charges.  After apparently hundreds of images of this child pornography were found on the good Father's computer, the Bishop had Father Ratigan reassigned away from parish duties that might bring him into contact with children, but failed to report the situation to police for a period of some five months. The Bishop also apparently failed to read a memo submitted by the principal of the Catholic school where Father Ratigan worked in May of 2010, some seven months before the items were discovered on the computer and a year before authorities were informed.

The December 2010 time frame is coincidentally the time when I had previously written a piece on the Church's position on accepting responsibility for the actions committed by these priests, "Suffer The Little Children".  I wondered then whether someone in authority would be held accountable:

"If the Catholic Church were to be judged like any other multinational corporation, a good faith effort at atonement would require that they would terminate not only the offenders, but any of those in management (Monsignors, Bishops, and Cardinals) involved with the cover up of illegal activities at the very least."    

It appears that being held to that standard was not as long in coming as I would have suspected.  Of course Bishop Flynn and the Diocese are likewise named in a number of civil suits relating to this situation that will likely take years of legal wrangling to resolve.  The calls for Bishop's Flynn's resignation have likewise been surfacing regularly since May when Ratigan's situation first came to light, but the Bishop appears not to be giving serious consideration to accepting his own responsibility in this situation (other than to issue apologies), to be under no pressure from the Vatican to do so, and is in fact pursuing a full schedule of appearances.  The Holy See for its part, is remaining purposefully silent on the situation, claiming on the surface at least to be attempting to avoid the appearance of interference with the local legal proceedings.

Perhaps the Pope and the rest of the Church authorities fail to realize that it is this very silence that has stirred the righteous indignation of the faithful, both in Kansas City and elsewhere.  Even the most devout recognize that not only is it far past time that the Catholic Church stopped trying to cover for those who violate its most sacred trusts; but accept responsibility for what some might call being an accessory after (and in some case before) the fact for these criminal acts. 

Forgiveness is one of the core tenants of the Catholic faith; but such forgiveness is not achieved without making a Confession, following through with a true act of contrition, and the performance of a penance.  While certainly no one believes that those higher in the Church hierarchy 'committed' these sins, the Church has long recognized 'sins of omission' which those in authority certainly appear to be guilty of by their failures in protection of their flock and to turn over the perpetrators to the proper authorities.  The failure of those in the Church to protect those in its care that are most vulnerable is inexcusable. The apparent belief that those in authority need not share some of the guilt for the damage done when they fail not only to prevent this when they could, but to report it when they knew of it is unconscionable.  The idea that members of the clergy might be above the law because of their position is intolerable.

Until Church leaders too step forward, perform more than a simple 'mea culpa', and accept responsibility and penance for these detestable deeds, I'm afraid that this won't be the last time that what was once a loyal flock seeks to indict its shepherd.


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Suffer The Little Children

They say that one should never speak about politics or religion in polite society. Since I have long violated the former however, I see no reason not to occasionally violate the latter. (Besides, it could easily be argued that any blog of mine has nothing to do with polite anything.) 


Having survived a good many years of Catholic education at the grade school, high school, and college level with help and support of a number of priests and nuns; and very seriously considered entering the priesthood myself at one point, I feel that I have enough background and knowledge from which to so comment.  


So I am discomfited to say the least, by the recent pronouncements of the Catholic Church on the continuously growing scandal over child abuse by priests (for which the term least seems unfortunately appropriate). How in fact, are we to reconcile the recent end-of-the-year speech to the church hierarchy that Pope Benedict XVI made on December 20th with the behavior of those in question? Certainly we can all be encouraged by him saying, 


"We must ask ourselves what was wrong in our proclamation, in our whole way of living the Christian life, to allow such a thing to happen." 


We might be concerned about the sincerity of his message however, when this example of papal eloquence apparently seeks to blame the Church's handling of priestly child abuse by saying that the scandal of such behavior must be seen in historical social context. While accepting blame in a general way for acts that are both illegal and immoral, he appears to in some part blame society for the actions of a few priests: "In the 1970s, pedophilia was theorized as something fully in conformity with man and even with children."

If we are to believe the sincerity of the Pope's concern (and I certainly have no reason to question it), this appears to be some twisted form of admitting guilt and accepting responsibility by blaming society. Nowhere in any part of this mea culpa, does there appear to be a true acceptance of responsibility by the Church for the illegal actions of these priests. Neither does there appear to be a condemnation of the Church's hierarchy for consistently covering up these crimes while shuffling these pedophiles from one parish to another to keep their actions from being discovered or prosecuted. There likewise appears to be no self-condemnation by an organization which ostensibly assumes the moral high ground, but was more than willing to trade money for silence over the years to protect its reputation. 


If the Catholic Church were to be judged like any other multinational corporation, a good faith effort at atonement would require that they would terminate not only the offenders, but any of those in management (Monsignors, Bishops, and Cardinals) involved with the cover up of illegal activities at the very least. And while I am not calling for the current pontiff to step down, it would certainly not be out of line to expect the CEO of such a organization to step down, or at least to condemn the actions of his predecessors for failing to take a more principled stand and more forcible action where the offenders were concerned. 


This behavior is reminiscent of the stand that the Catholic Church took during the Middle Ages, when the Church held itself above any and all secular law and refused to have churchmen judged by anything other than its own Ecclesiastical courts. And while secular courts have often proved to be less than perfect (as proved by the example of Thomas Becket during that period), attempting to consistently protect its members from judgment and from justice hardly seems in keeping with the teachings of the New Testament. 


We read in Luke 18:16: "But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God." It also says in Matthew 18, "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." 


In light of the former quotation, it seems indefensible that those tasked by their spiritual leader in their holiest of books for the protection of innocents, should apparently abandon them in the very hour of their need. In light of the latter quotation, it seems more than contradictory that those who committed these heinous crimes brought were brought neither before a secular court nor that of the Catholic Church for the justice (if not the retribution) they deserved. In fact these loathsome malefactors were offered a form of complicit protection, and their reprehensible acts against young victims were swept under the rug by those who are supposed to represent what's best in humanity. 


While new guidelines have recently been written for dealing with future examples of these abhorrent acts, until the Church can reconcile its far too lenient treatment of the despicable perpetrators, their own pathetic enabling behavior over the years, and the complicity of those in power in cover-ups and buyouts with the Scripture that it uses as its defining document; I fear that the only suffering being done will remain that of the little children involved and their families.