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A Sermon by Donel
McClellan
A Sermon by Donel
McClellan
Hot Topic #1
LET US PRAY
Let the words of my mouth and the
meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength
and our redeemer. Amen.
Each morning when I sit down to
breakfast and open the newspaper, an old Beatle’s song pops into my head. It
is from Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, my favorite album,
and it begins, “I read the news today, oh boy.”
I am trying to remember a time when
reading the morning news was so depressing and dispiriting.
We have grown used to reading about
war. Nations and tribes hate one another. So the news covers firefights and
bombings, raids and ambushes with all the attendant killing and maiming. To
some degree we have come to expect that from a world in conflict.
“I read the news today, oh boy.”
And it doesn’t alarm us much, that
politicians are caught misusing funds, or selling influence, or unfairly
attacking their opposition. We aren’t too surprised because we know that
politics can be a shady business.
“I read the news today, oh boy.”
Nor are we astonished to read about
crime, drug deals, swindles, robberies, car thefts. We know that there is, in
our society, a criminal element.
“I read the news today, oh boy.”
It is quite another thing, however,
to read that upstanding and wealthy American citizens, brilliant business
people, respected community leaders have cooked their books to the extent that
their companies implode, throwing thousands of workers out of well paying
jobs, and bilking large and small investors out of billions of dollars.
If that had happened one time it
would be a grave moral blow to the country. The fact that it seems to be
happening weekly, with a series of huge corporations, accounting firms, and
investment houses, erodes any sense of a common ethic in our wealthy society.
On the other hand we have been cautioned over the years that there is no
altruism inherent in the structure of a corporation. We can’t look to business
for moral leadership.
“I read the news today, oh boy.”
So, where do we look for moral
leadership? At one time the society looked to its clergy. No longer is that
the case. The morning headlines these days suggest that your chance of getting
an ethically damaged priest or minister is a lot greater than your odds at
winning at Lotto.
“I read the news today, oh boy.”
The issue of the moment is the
sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests. This isn’t a new concern
however. The independent and progressive National Catholic Reporter
noted in 1985:
In cases throughout the
nation, the Catholic Church is facing scandals and being forced to pay
millions of dollars in claims to families whose sons have been molested by
Catholic priests.[1]
In 1988 the newspaper pleaded for
the U.S. Bishops to act and in 1992 suggested that the problem was acute,
saying,
A potentially crippling rift
is growing between U.S. lay Catholics and their clergy, and the issues involve
sex and authority in the church.
And, in 1997 published a pointed
editorial stating that,
Twelve years have passed
since NCR revealed to the wider world that some Catholics priests were
betraying their priesthood in the most heinous way, by sexually abusing
children.
One might reasonably expect
that by now the scandal would have been subdued, that church leaders would
have done everything necessary to rekindle the trust of the everyday Catholic
and to reclaim the church and the priesthood for the pursuit of holiness.
Instead, we have had 12 years
of bishops and others, with a few notable exceptions, doing what was minimally
required, too often driven by legal and financial imperatives rather than by
justifiable outrage at the violation of innocence and by heartfelt pastoral
care for the victims.
Granted, the National Catholic
Reporter is not part of big media America. It took a major
establishment paper, The Boston Globe to focus national attention on
this particular problem. A year ago in June, Cardinal Bernard F. Law, Roman
Catholic archbishop of Boston filed a document in court which contained a
startling admission. Seventeen years earlier, Law had appointed The Rev. John
J. Geoghan to a rather cushy position as vicar of an affluent suburban parish.
The appointment was made two months after Law had been notified that Geoghan
was accused of molesting seven boys.
Over the period of a year the
Boston Globe investigated this and other inconsistencies in the Boston
archdiocese. In January of this year the paper reported that Cardinal Law’s
diocese had a demonstrated pattern of moving priests accused of sexual
molestation to other parishes and paying the victims to maintain their
silence.
Since January a string of
accusations have been made and according to The Economist more than 200
priests out of just over 46,000 in the United States, have either resigned or
been removed from their ministries. Several bishops have resigned for the same
reason. By one estimate, 10% of the active priests in the Boston archdiocese
are under investigation for sexual improprieties.
This is a tragedy for the whole
church and especially for the vast majority of clergy who have done no wrong.
Avis Clendenen, Professor of Moral Theology, Catholic Theological Union speaks
from inside the church,
It’s hard to be one of the
nation’s 61-million Roman Catholics as the whole world watches the proverbial
elephant in the living room finally being noticed and named. It’s hard because
it is just so horrible, heart wrenching, and enraging on multiple levels. It
is also a relief. I am speaking of that kind of relief a family feels when
together they finally confront the dysfunction that is destroying them from
within; when they tell the truth and break the stranglehold of the secret. It
is our secrets that make us sick.[2]
The response of the Roman Catholic
Church, as a whole, has not been so open or comforting to the victims of
abuse.
The first volley of a counterattack
came in the pages of Avvenire, the weekly newspaper of the Italian
bishops. The paper is closely tied to the Vatican. The article denounced what
it portrayed as a legal climate in America which sought to win high damages in
lawsuits at any moral cost. Roman Catholics were becoming easy legal prey in
the United States, it suggested.
The newspaper then observed that it
was ironic that the scandal had received such attention “in a society
that spoils children in every way possible but at the same time is aware that
it has little respect for them”.
Avvenire
said while child molestation by priests was “very grave”, one
had to ask what role “the behavior of a legion of lawyers in a campaign
unleashed against the church” had played in the developing scandal.
The crossfire has begun. Church
circles blame the press, the victim’s families and the increasing numbers of
homosexual priests. Some lay groups claim the problem is rooted in a celebate,
unmarried, and male priesthood.
I think they have all missed the
point. This problem is not with the press, the families of victims, homosexual
priests nor is it centered in celibacy and a male priesthood. The problem, in
my opinion, lies in power and accountability—and it isn’t limited to the Roman
Catholic Church. The problem of sexual abuse and misconduct affects all
denominations and all faiths. Every congregation, every pastor and every
employee needs to be vigilant to protect the church from those who would harm
its members.
Paul’s Letter to the Romans reminds
us of the power of sin. Paul was probably addressing sexual immorality in
particular. That power can be can be overcome by the power of God who frees us
from sin through Jesus Christ. But Paul doesn’t stop there. He claims the
Christian community as a body of accountability. In Paul’s view, we are
responsible to God through the church which strengthens and directs us.
A leading national expert on clergy
sexual abuse is our own Marie Fortune, a United Church of Christ minister in
Seattle and founder of the Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic
Violence. In an editorial in the Dalles Morning News Marie defines the problem
and its solution with characteristic clarity and economy,
No one expects clergy and
religious leaders to be perfect. No one expects that clergy are different from
teachers, coaches, therapists, etc., in having sex offenders in their ranks.
But people do expect and deserve that when someone in leadership in their
church engages in conduct that harms people and breaks trust, their church
will act quickly and carefully to remove that person from a position where
they can harm others and will respond to victims with compassion. It's a
simple expectation. Meeting it is the only way the church's credibility will
be restored.[3]
The tragic fact is that the church,
all too often, has treated sexual abuse as a public relations rather than an
ethical problem. The church has encouraged confidentiality, praying that
sexual offenders will be healed through prayer and therapy. It has tried to
silence victims with payments. And it has refused to accept responsibility for
oversight of clergy and for its failure to stop abuse when it first learned of
it.
As I said, I believe the problem is
rooted in power and accountability. Although it is hard for some ministers to
believe, their position conveys great power upon them. Like other
professionals—lawyers, teachers, and doctors—ministers possess a great deal of
authority. That means that in any professional relationship they have the
greater portion of power. With that power comes an enormous responsibility not
to misuse it. Pedophile priests and predatory protestant ministers use their
power to coerce others into relationships that are harmful for them. That is
the basic sin of their misconduct.
Because of that power there must be
some system of accountability. In the Roman Catholic Church that
accountability must come from bishops and cardinals because the church is a
pure hierarchy. And if the hierarchy misuses its great power, then the sin is
compounded and the church is wounded.
In the protestant church
accountability is more often the responsibility of local congregations or
regional associations which must hold their clergy to high standards of
ethical conduct. Most often those standards are contained in policies
established by the church.
I propose that all clergy be
subject to a zero tolerance policy on sexual abuse. If proven to have been
involved in sexual abuse of any kind, clergy must be removed from their
ministry and their standing as clergy must be revoked. In a society which is
confused and ambivalent in its views about sexuality, the church must have a
clear and unequivocal standard for its leadership.
You may be encouraged to know that
this has been the standard for the United Church of Christ for several
decades. We have clear policies and procedures for responding to charges. If
accusations of sexual misconduct against a UCC minister are sustained,
ministerial standing in the United Church of Christ will be revoked. This has
happened several times in the past five years in our conference. None of these
cases, in my knowledge, has involved children.
The primary responsibility of the
Christian church is to be a safe and welcoming place in a rather confused and
abusive society. In order to do that we have to use our collective power to
protect the most vulnerable members of our community. If any are victims, then
they must become our first and highest concern. The church exists not for
itself, but as a vehicle of God’s love and grace for others.
As we pray for our sisters and
brothers in the Roman Catholic Church, let us learn from their experience, and
allow the Spirit of the whole church to be our teacher and guide.
Amen.
NOTES:
[1].
Web site of the National catholic Reporter,
http://www.natcath.org/crisis/
[2].
Avis Clendenen, Reflections from a Catholic Moral Theologian, Chicago
Theological Seminary Bulletin, Volume III, Spring 2002, p.3
[3].
Marie M. Fortune, Guest Column: Sexual abuse in the church is far more
than a PR problem, Dalles Morning News, 03/09/2002 |