On Monday morning, the Catholic bishops of the United States gathered in Baltimore for their annual general assembly. This year, the normally unremarkable meeting has been keenly anticipated as the church in America reels from the series of sexual abuse scandals that broke over the past few months.
The bishops arrived knowing they had to produce some kind of meaningful response. They badly needed to show they understood the depth of anger in the pews and were ready to act decisively. Preparations had been made. A new code of conduct had been prepared for the bishops to debate and approve, as had plans for an independent, lay-led commission to investigate allegations against bishops.
Neither of these documents was perfect. Even before they arrived in Baltimore, several bishops had expressed concern about the proposed new measures. But these concerns to one side, all the bishops acknowledged that something had to be done.
The bishops also came knowing that they had to avoid — at all costs — turning their response to the abuse scandal into a fight about Pope Francis and his pastoral reforms in other parts of the church.
As the meeting was set to begin, it was generally accepted that the bishops had two jobs: Take home something substantial, and don’t let their response to the sex abuse crisis become about the pope.
Both of those aims were suddenly upended before the conference was even gaveled into session.
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, told a shocked room that there would be no vote and no new measures; late yesterday, he said, the Vatican had ordered the U.S. bishops to stand down.
Instead of devising a substantive response to the still unfolding scandals, the church in America has been told to wait for the results of a meeting in Rome scheduled for February, when Pope Francis will consult with the heads of the world’s bishops’ conferences on the issue of sexual abuse.
In a meeting with the leaders of the U.S. bishops in September, Francis had previously suggested that they postpone or cancel the Baltimore conference and instead hold a spiritual retreat to reflect on the issues facing the church. Given the scale of the crisis and the mounting number of state-led investigations into American dioceses, the decision was made to press ahead, and Rome was kept informed of the preparations. The last-minute intervention to spike the conference’s ability to act decisively came, according to Cardinal DiNardo, “completely unexpectedly.”
At a stroke, Pope Francis has made himself the face of the sexual abuse crisis in the United States and taken personal ownership of the church’s response, or nonresponse, to it.
The decision clearly came as a shock to the bishops, including DiNardo, who struggled to hide his anger and frustration. The American bishops face a serious dilemma; to demand substantive action now is, in effect, to oppose the pope.
As the opening speeches concluded, America’s bishops — liberal and conservative — left the hall visibly baffled at the announcement and wondering what they are supposed to do now.
The one attendee who did not appear surprised by the announcement was Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, who interrupted DiNardo’s announcement to praise the “seriousness” with which Rome was addressing the abuse crisis and to suggest that the bishops carry on with their deliberations as a preparation for the February meeting.
As a body, bishops are bred to prize collegiality and consensus above all else. But before they even arrived in Baltimore, a growing number were already asking if presenting a united front in response to the terrible misconduct of a minority of their number wasn’t further undermining their credibility. Now, even that avenue has been closed to them.
Without the option of taking action as a group, those same bishops are asking themselves if they are prepared to face the faithful back home and defend a response they don’t agree with to a problem they didn’t cause.
If they decide that what is now on offer simply isn’t enough for them, things could be about to get personal.
Ed Condon is a canon lawyer.
