Angry American Catholics have a choice to make. We have seen how justice for abuse victims is thwarted by the deaths of perpetrators, by statutes of limitations, even by the manipulations of bishops. The only thing we are left with is a frustrated anger.
Moving forward, we can either play the part of the mob, raging at abusive priests, the bishops who enabled them and even at Pope Francis. Or we can choose to forgive, using our pain and suffering for the salvation of the Catholic Church in the United States.
The way of anger brings grave dangers. For starters, there is the risk of false accusation. As the furnace inside grows hotter, we forget that the Pennsylvania grand jury report is not a collection of proven facts but of allegations. The big picture of abuse and cover-up may all be true, but we should be wary of targeting outrage at particular priests or bishops. (Recent cases in Spain and Indiana prove the point.)
As American Catholics, we are committed to the principle that every accused priest deserves a fair trial and the chance to clear his name. The fact that some trials might never happen doesn’t mean that we are free to treat allegations as facts or to ruin reputations pre-emptively.
There is also the danger of scapegoating. Archbishop Theodore McCarrick may be guilty of sins against chastity and abuses of power, but he is also a man made in God’s image. And he is not responsible for the hundreds of abuses committed in Pennsylvania, nor for the worldwide abuse crisis. Also worth pondering: No punishment visited upon the archbishop or anyone else could ever return the stolen innocence of anyone abused. Only God can perform such a miracle.
The archbishop’s fate should be determined by the particular facts of his case. Our part is to resist the temptation to hate him, a grave sin that violates Jesus’ command: “Love your enemies.”
Then there is Pope Francis, whom the American church has been passive-aggressively ignoring for some time. His message that all members of the people of God are called to preach the Gospel has barely penetrated our hearts. We haven’t heeded his warnings against the dangers of factions and divisions, political, spiritual or otherwise.
With his bombshell “testimony,” Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò gave our anger a ticket to ride straight to the top. This is dangerous spiritual territory. For one thing, Viganò’s “facts” may prove false, in which case we will have allowed ourselves to wage war against the vicar of Christ.
When Pope Francis asks us to respond to this crisis by prayer and fasting, we take offense and demand “action.” But our own words condemn us, as this is a tacit admission that we don’t really believe that prayer and fasting count for much. Pope Francis tells us that we must begin our quest for justice by coming face to face with God, who sees all. If we skip the prayer and jump straight to venting our anger, we risk wildly missing the mark.
We are in no position to judge Pope Francis’s soul. When it comes to the abuse crisis, the pope has already admitted serious mistakes. One thing is certain. The pope is in no way responsible for abuse cases like the ones in the Pennsylvania report, which were occurring in the United States while he was busy smuggling innocent people out of war-torn Argentina.
Frustrated by Francis’ spiritual silence, by the impotence of our criminal justice system, and by the failures of our bishops, we bring our unrequited anger to the state and beg for a remedy. We are now entering into an odd moment of agreement between American Catholics and the worldly power that mercilessly executes criminals, locks up the poor for sentences of unjust lengths, and has made the slaughter of unborn innocents into a secular sacrament. Is this worldly power qualified to judge the church?
When God uses worldly power to chastise his people, it is brutal. See the story of the siege of Jerusalem in 2 Kings. Is this really what we want? New government investigations will not bring justice. They will only stoke the furnace of our anger, and they may well topple the teetering church in the United States.
The most important point is this: the state cannot save the church in the United States. Only Jesus can.
Our Lord wants justice where justice can be had. He also calls us to forgive — to forgive abusers and enablers, priests, bishops, and popes alike. As he bled and suffocated on the cross, the God of all creation did not even require repentance from the angry mob that had put him there. He cried out, “Father, forgive them.”
That cry continues. Consider a story told by Father Philip Endean about a prayer found “wrapped round the body of a dead child in Ravensbrück, the concentration camp outside Berlin:
“O Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not only remember the suffering they have inflicted upon us. Remember the fruits we have bought, thanks to this suffering: our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, our courage, our generosity, the greatness of heart which has come out of all this; and when they come to the judgment, let all the fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness.”
Instead of playing the part of the mob hastening our own destruction, Catholics in the U.S. can flip the script and play the role of saints, of innocent ones who use personal suffering for the salvation of others. This is the part Jesus chooses. We can choose it too.
Sean Connolly is a lay Catholic, a husband and father of four who lives in South Bend, IN. His Twitter handle is @sconnoll.
