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Michael McCarthy: How could Catholics do such a thing?
Saturday, 27 March 2010
enlargeExpressions of outrage concerning the child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church grow superfluous, but even though our primary focus must of course remain on the victims, and their abusers, and the cover-ups, there is nonetheless another way in which these events are profoundly troubling, to which I have seen as yet no reference whatsoever.
They are distressing to Catholics themselves, certainly to practising and sincere Catholics, for they concern the spirituality which is at Catholicism's heart, and its betrayal – once entirely unthinkable, but now quite clearly widespread.
To understand instinctively the full terrible power of this betrayal, one probably needs to be a Catholic oneself, or at least to have been brought up a Catholic, as I was, more than 40 years ago; so for an age which has grown ever more secular, perhaps some background information should be supplied. The spirituality of Catholicism is what is there when the Church and all its appurtenances, its altars, priests and cathedrals, are stripped away; very crudely, it is a mode of apprehending an eternal entity which we might call Love. This has been written about down the centuries. For Dante it was there in the final line of his quest, in the Divine Comedy: he called it "the Love that moves the sun and all the stars". For T S Eliot it was there in the final passage of Four Quartets: he called it "a condition of complete simplicity, costing not less than everything".
Catholicism offers access to and union with this entity, to this Love, if you like, through prayer and meditation, through the story of Christ and his passion, but most tangibly through the Mass and its central event: the sacrament of Communion, which is the physical reception into one's own body of the consecrated host (the wafer of bread). This commemoration of the Last Supper is treated by Protestantism as just that, but Catholicism has treated it as far more: as the miraculous transformation of the host into the body and blood of Christ, which is known theologically as "the Real Presence".
To receive the host in communion, there was always an utterly indispensable condition; one had to be in a State of Grace – forgive the capitals, but old habits die hard – which meant that one had to be free from Sin, the other pole around which Catholicism revolves. This was the reason for the parallel sacrament of Confession: one's soul could be cleansed in advance of communion by confessing one's sins to a priest and receiving absolution for them. The idea of receiving the host without having been so cleansed was unimaginable. Indeed, it is hard to express the horror of the idea in the Catholicism in which I was brought up; it was the greatest moral transgression which could possibly be thought of, worse than murder, worse than anything.
This was illustrated with real force in one of the 20th century's great novels, Graham Greene's The Heart of the Matter, where Scobie, the fallible colonial policeman, is eventually forced by circumstance into taking communion when not in a State of Grace, and kills himself as a result, as he thinks there is no hope for him. (The book's epigraph from Charles Péguy – "The sinner is at the very heart of Christianity" – implies that there is.)
Among Catholics, it was unthinkable, then, for people such as you and me to go up to the altar on the occasional Sunday morning and receive the sacrament, while in sin. But if it was unthinkable for you and me, it was even more unthinkable for priests, who did not just receive the host on the odd Sunday, but every single day, during the daily mass which it was their duty to say. Every day of the year, every day of their working lives, priests needed to be in a State of Grace, fit to receive the body and blood of Christ into their own bodies; and they understood what was at stake in this, spiritually, better than anybody. That they were such people was the whole foundation of their spiritual and moral authority.
How then can it be, that in recent decades there have been hundreds, or as it now seems, thousands of priests across the world who have continued as priests, and continued to consecrate and consume the host – daily saying the miraculous transforming words, Hoc est enim corpus meum, "for this is my body" – while raping children? How can they have done both things? How can they have continued living for years with the condition which to practising Catholics was the ultimate anathema, which caused Scobie, experiencing it once, to kill himself?
What was going on in their souls?
If they had lost their faith, then why did they not leave the church? They surely cannot have believed that the violating of the innocence of a child was morally neutral. It was a sin, surely? They were the experts in sin. So how does a priest who has violated more than 200 deaf children, as in the case highlighted this week, continue, as he did so, to consecrate and receive the host? Through absolution? What, absolution from a fellow confessor-priest for violating children – 200 such absolutions, and more? What, then, has happened to the moral compass of the absolver?
The crisis affecting the Catholic Church is currently being treated as the failure of an arrogant institution, a sort of colossal religious Watergate, and indeed it is that, but we are starting to see that the trouble runs even deeper, right into the church's spiritual heart. Some sort of terrible worm has got into the bud of Catholicism; its crisis is only beginning.
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Just want to correct Ian about if men can forgive sin's. It was Christ himself who gave this authority. Look to John chapter 20:21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." 22* And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23* If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." he said this to his disciples who became his priests, thought I would like to let you know this.
Posted by Tony | 02.04.10, 03:50 GMT
Not all Catholic Priests are paedophiles. A minority have brought disgrace and shame upon the church and have severely abused their position of trust. They have caused immense pain and suffering to innocent children. I know that in England the accurate statistic remains, that 75% of child abuse takes place within families. I think it is now time to put everything in perspective and realise that among the millions of clergy throughout the world - only a small percentage have been guilty of these vile crimes. It is not fair to demonize the rest.
Posted by Ed | 30.03.10, 00:16 GMT
When will people learn to never ever ever ever leave your children with anyone? For as long as I can remember the church has molested children so why do catholics still leave children with these people? Someone please explain it to me.
Posted by Mike Belfast | 29.03.10, 22:11 GMT
still, where's my original comment?
Funny that some "journalists" here are above criticism
Posted by conor | 29.03.10, 20:58 GMT
I know many thoroughly good and decent priests who have probably led exemplary lives but are now held in suspicion by many. It is an unfair burden that has been placed on their shoulders. I cannot comprehend how any priest or anyone can turn a blind eye to the abuse of innocents.Many catholics are more angry by the cover ups than anything else. We dont expect our clergy to be saints but have justifiable expectations that they do not abuse and should never cover up abuse.
Catholicism has endured many problems over the centuries and will no doubt endure more in the years to come but it does not only consist of paedophiles and abusers. We need to embrace more openness and to ensure that abusers are treated with the same contempt as any other paedophile, deserving of lengthy prison sentences and immediate removal from their ministries as appropriate.
Posted by HC | 29.03.10, 17:03 GMT
As a non-catholic I am deeply saddened for those catholics who have committed their lives to their faith, only to be told that they have to be sinless, whilst those who in authority, continue to lead within a church where crimes are committed
against children. It has been the practice for decades to simply move a priest to another parish rather than removing them from their position. The continued ignorance of the Vatican may be the downfall of the catholic faith.
Posted by David | 29.03.10, 15:00 GMT
Why should roman catholic priest paedophiles operate any differently from other paedophiles? The truth is that these people are clever and manipulative and will place themselves in positions where they can both access children and abuse them. I am not convinced they can ever have had any real religious commitment or belief.
Posted by LS | 29.03.10, 14:46 GMT
where's my comment?
Posted by conor | 29.03.10, 13:50 GMT
they are all roman catholic priests and should be put in jail for life.
not sent to a damn "retreat" for counselling. they molested thousands of irish children for gods sake.!!!!! stop trying to change history by now using Catholic Church it has always been the Roman Catholic Church . the pope is as bad as all the rest who tried to cover it all up, yet he still made "Pope"
Posted by billy | 28.03.10, 22:41 GMT
Good point: if the rest of us were so thoroughly indoctrinated then why were the priests not similarly afraid of going to hell? Is the whole thing a lie? Is there no God to fear? Is that the final truth?
Another point: I am mortified that my non-Catholic friends may think I knew about the scandals years ago. I didn't.
Only about the beatings and the Magdalene Laundries...
This is so utterly awful it feels like a bad dream. I am actually in despair of the Vatican now they seem to be turning on the commentators and accusing them of a conspiracy!!!
No. Each new revelation is news to me!!!
Posted by Sharon Owens | 28.03.10, 20:07 GMT
An excellent article. However, priests have not daily said 'Hoc est enem corpus meum' for more than forty years, since the Latin Mass was scrapped, except as an occasional thing and only then with special permission.
Posted by Eleanor | 28.03.10, 19:41 GMT
Where does this leave those married, baptised or shriven of their sins by priests who were not in a State Of Grace ?
Posted by Ivan | 28.03.10, 07:34 GMT
I think what has happened , in the Catholic church, is that a few priests (a few dozen out of thousands and thousands) have betrayed other peoples trust. Thats it! Theories of a widespread policy of hiding criminals is just not true. Perhaps less than a thousandth of a percent of priests ahve committed abuse. Maybe even less than a millionth of a percent. In fact it's ahardly even worthy of news. What is more worthy of news is how anti-social behaviour goes unconfronted in todays society. Why feral youths run riot across our towns and people hide in doors in fear!
Posted by Barry the Baptist | 27.03.10, 22:22 GMT
jeeeeeeez....now its just catholics. i wonder what ever happened to the "roman".....one way of pretending the vatican knew nothing about any of it. lmao! old cardinal ratzinger himself transferred a pedophile ( known child molesting priest) to an unsuspecting parish. that was his job, that is what he did.he kbew allll about it.
Posted by billy | 27.03.10, 21:17 GMT
Michael..
Your articles mentions the service protestants hold where they have a simple service of rememberance..
In the rest of your article..you have struct at the very core of what is the difference(s) between the reformed faith and Catholicism...namely the role of the priest, confession and the Mass. How can a man, involved in these sinful acts - be deemed holy enough to turn a wafer into the body of Christ (when he says the words), offer it to others for their sins..hear their confessions and grant them forgiveness?? How can it be?
The answer - despite the sincerity of both parties, despite the look and the appearance of the priest and the service.. it cannot be right.
Posted by Colinr | 27.03.10, 20:49 GMT
Michael does not understand that the sin of sexually abusing a child is not one that another Priest can 'forgive!'. Under Canon Law, a Bishop is the only one who can forgive such a sin. Conditional on such forgiveness is the requirement to stay outside 'the occasion of sin'. That may make the situation in many peoples minds more insidious.
Posted by Malachy McAnespie | 27.03.10, 17:15 GMT
Religion was created by 'man',therefore the corruption . The messages delivered by most religions are to do with how mankind may live in peace with one another,and if one is successful one receives a reward after death! The 'mumbo-jumbo' that goes with each religion is far removed from Christ's teachings in the case of the Christian Churches.
Posted by RMS | 27.03.10, 15:05 GMT
as a victim of child sex abuse i find the contaversay about the catolic church a little confusing in the handlind of multiple disclosures.anyone who conducts themselves in a way that makes a child uncomfortable or displays non appropriate sexual behaviour towards a child is to be copletele abhored and condemned.anything less is in itself a form of abuse.to deny the victims legitamitsly is unacceptable,if there is allegations of abuse they must be investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice not covered up in the guise of robes and religion,if a child discloses inapproptiate behaviour towards them should we as adults,parents not investigate,not move on to another area to smash up more lives.a phodephille is the same underneath,even under robes of white.strip it all away and underneath they are all the same,predators abusing their privialge of trust and godly respect.expose them for what they are,perverts of our society preying on innocents in the name of god.
Posted by gail | 27.03.10, 15:00 GMT
One then has to wonder about the activities of those "priests" that forgave the sins of the sinners.
However I have never believed any man can forgive sins, Christ alone has the authority to do that, and maybe that is the problem for the Roman Catholic church, they have put a man in charge in Rome who believes has the authority to authorize the forgiveness of sin, where as only the head of the church, Christ Jesus, can truly forgive sins!
Posted by Ian | 27.03.10, 08:32 GMT
How can the do it, well it's called hypocrisy. Jesus knew all about it, he called the priests of his day whitened sepulchres. Gleaming bright in the sun but full of corruption and filth.
Christianity was a new church, new religion, new priests, but same old whitened sepulchres.
Posted by Sam | 27.03.10, 08:23 GMT