Acasă Escortelux Ipocrizia, nu represiunea, provoaca scandaluri de abuzuri sexuale catolice

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Ipocrizia, nu represiunea, provoaca scandaluri de abuzuri sexuale catolice

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Theodore McCarrick a fost arhiepiscop si cardinal, unul dintre cei mai puternici barbati din Biserica Catolica Americana. El a ajutat la scrierea politicilor bisericii menite sa protejeze tinerii impotriva abuzurilor sexuale. Acum este acuzat ca a abuzat de copii. McCarrick si-a dat demisia din functia de cardinal si i s-a poruncit Papei sa duca o „viata de rugaciune si penitenta” – semn ca Biserica poate crede ca este vinovata.

Catolicii s-au confruntat cu scandaluri sexuale de nenumarate ori in ultimele decenii, dar vechea atentie a fost pusa pe preoti individuali, de obicei jos in lantul alimentar, pe care ierarhia s-a bucurat sa-l picteze ca infractori izolati. De data aceasta, toata lumea este supusa controlului, iar autoritatile seculare nu sunt interesate doar de abuzatori, dar care ii protejeaza si care nu au raportat. Rusinea este la nivel mondial. Pe 9 august, ancheta independenta a Marii Britanii va publica un raport despre evenimentele din doua scoli asociate cu Biserica Catolica din Anglia. Prevad ca reputatiile vor fi complet distruse.

Pentru Biserica, in general, pot vedea lucrurile pe doua cai. In primul rand, va exista o cerere de reforma a invataturii Bisericii. Sunt convertit la catolicism si am pierdut numarul de oameni care mi-au spus (cei mai multi catolici) ca problema este ca preotii nu au voie sa se casatoreasca, ca teologia noastra este periculoasa represiva.

Asta e scufundare. Aceasta implica faptul ca pedofilia este o forta a circumstantelor, uita ca multi pedofili sunt casatoriti si trece cu vederea prezenta pedofiliei in organizatii care nu au reguli in privinta casatoriei: cercetasii, scolile etc. Anglicanii permit casatoria si totusi acest lucru nu a impiedicat crimele din Episcopul Peter Ball, un barbat care, la fel ca McCarrick, era considerat sfant.

Cu toate acestea, uitandu-ne la viata secreta a ambilor barbati, se gasesc probe slabe ale influentei crestinismului – destule pentru lipsa acestuia. Daca este vinovat, McCarrick nu numai ca a incalcat legile societatii civile, dar a sfidat invataturile lui Hristos. Al doilea mod, mult mai bun de a face catolicii, de a aborda criza abuzurilor este de a se intreba cat de des se produce o asemenea tradare in Biserica – si de ce.

McCarrick’s story isn’t just about sex allegations. One of the details of his case I can’t get over is that he had access to a beach house. Apparently, the church in New Jersey purchased it at his request in 1984, and that’s where he would take seminarians for food and beer and where, allegedly, he would invite someone to share his bed, urging the unfortunate nominee to consider his future career. It sounds like the alleged modus operandi of Harvey Weinstein, and the eagle-eyed can spot not just one sin allegedly committed by the bishop but several: manipulation, vanity, abuse of power.

McCarrick is only the first cardinal to resign since 1927. The fact that it’s so comparatively hard to bring down a cardinal illustrates the pecking order in a Church founded on hierarchy. One reason many lay Catholics are so angry about the McCarrick affair is that we all know a lowly priest who has been accused of something and immediately suspended and sent into exile – only to be cleared a few months later and returned to ministry, confused and damaged, without so much as a “sorry”. It’s one rule for the parish priest, another rule for the princes of the church. So there’s another sin to tally: hypocrisy.

Pope Francis talks about it a lot. He has criticised the “rigidity” of some Catholics, the tendency to value outward appearance over getting on with doing good. This has always been an issue: around 1050 AD, St Peter Damian, a monk, wrote a scathing account of clerical hypocrisy, sexual abuse and cover-up, and begged the Pope to do something.

But a problem particular to the contemporary Church is a lack of conviction. Not only has it been slow to recognise the errors in its midst, but reluctant also to articulate one obvious answer: Catholic moral theology. It’s hard to live up to (I’m not going to pretend to have succeeded) but I look upon its rules as helpful common sense, written in awareness of what a creative and destructive force sex is.

This year happens to be the anniversary of Humane Vitae, a letter published by Pope Paul VI in 1968, which predicted that the sexual revolution would lead to infidelity, a loss of respect for the individual and abuse of power. All of this is true. All of this is as relevant to the clergy as to the laity.

All of this is pertinent right now – and yet the anniversary has been greeted anxiously by parts of the Church, nervous perhaps about how its forthright morality will sound to modern audiences. Maybe that timidity is itself a product of the abuse crisis: the Church is embarrassed about lecturing to others when its own house is a mess. Either way, a key element of the Church’s rigidity is its polite silence about sex.

I see a parallel with Islam. We often hear that Islam encourages violence, and that’s inaccurate. Muslims who kill are inevitably the most ignorant of their own religion, twisting it to suit personal fantasies about power. Likewise, what the Catholic Church needs is not less dogma but better understanding of it, and better attention to what it has to offer. Namely justice for the hurt, sackcloth and ashes for the guilty.

Ipocrizia, nu represiunea, provoaca scandaluri de abuzuri sexuale catolice

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