‘FIXING’ CATHOLIC SEX ABUSE

Last week, the New York Times reported that Vatican officials “did not defrock a priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys, even though several American bishops repeatedly warned them that failure to act on the matter could embarrass the church.”  Rev. Lawrence Murphy worked at a Wisconsin school for the deaf, where he molested boys from 1950 to 1974, but later died in 1998.

In Brazil, an 82-year-old priest was caught on videotape having sex with a teenage alter boy.

And in Germany (the pope’s home country), more than 300 Catholic sex abuse victims have come forward in recent weeks, prompting Chancellor Angela Merkel to call the scandal “a major challenge for our society.”

Instead of going away, abusive sex scandals within the church are coming back, and they seem to be challenging Pope Benedict himself.

In the case of Murphy, several of the molested boys said he would call them to his bedroom in the school, or visit them in their dorm beds late at night, masturbate them and leave. Sometimes when the boys saw him molesting other boys in the dorm room, they would cover their heads with their blankets, hug themselves tightly and weep. At times, he would take their confession in a second floor walk-in closet in the boy’s dorm and molest them.  Pope Benedict (then known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) headed the Vatican office that should have heavily reprimanded Murphy and had him removed.  But instead, Ratzinger (the Pope) and the Vatican did what most celebrity PR reps do everyday in a scandal: issued a one-sided statement via press release, put its best face forward with what it believed to be a reasonable excuse, then sat back and hoped for the best.  The statement read, “In light of the facts that Father Murphy was elderly and in very poor health, and that he was living in seclusion and no allegations of abuse had been reported in over 20 years, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith suggested that the Archbishop of Milwaukee give consideration to addressing the situation by, for example, restricting Father Murphy’s public ministry and requiring that Father Murphy accept full responsibility for the gravity of his acts.”  The statement also added that Murphy “died approximately four months later without further incident.”  Hmmm…

Instead of helping the situation simply blow over, this statement actually represents what’s wrong with the Catholic Church:  It is bureaucratic, self-serving, and boldly out of touch to even believe we should feel compassion for this priest because he was “elderly” and “in very poor health.” How condescending!  If a priest and a regular man were both equally accused of molesting young boys, should one really be given preferential treatment and no conviction simply because he is a priest?

Pope Benedict recently apologized for the molestations of  Rev. Murphy, saying he was “deeply ashamed” of abusive priests who had “betrayed” their ministry. But although this was a step in the right direction, apologizing for the shortcomings of one individual priest just doesn’t cut it. The church has been reluctant to speak plainly and openly about the heart of its problem, and in doing so, sadly it has put self-protection first. The long standing (so-called) solution of moving a pedophile priest from one location with kids to another location with kids is not a solution. The church needs to show it understands its own internal flaws by examining its own conscience.  It also would do itself a favor by removing the multitude of lawyers and PR specialists whose jobs have been to continuously cover-up and protect.

If the Catholic Church really wants to “fix” itself, Pope Benedict must be willing to throw in all the chips and take a risk. He must be willing to submit the church to institutional self-examination, painful public honesty, and true contrition.  He must be willing to admit to the faults of the church as a whole — by putting a stop to cover-ups, excuses and justifications.  He must be willing to accept that the church is rampant with pedophiles who can’t be cured by simply shifting them from one location to another. And he must be willing to stop seeing priests as holy beings who are immune to the law, but rather as flawed human beings who should be held accountable to the law just like everyone else.  Of course he must also admit that he personally failed the church and its membership by overlooking years of abuse and not taking a more active role to stop it.  Only then can the church find true redemption, renewed respect and forgiveness from its congregate.