Since 2002, the Church has been rocked by one hideous scandal after another, it seems, mostly involving pedophile priests. Just this year (2010), Ireland was shocked when news of a sex scandal going back over 40 years erupted, and most recently Germany has been hit with the same news. This is simply awful. These sins would be heinous enough were they to involve adults of any walk of life; that priests were at the center of these crimes only makes them more treacherous.
What’s worse, numerous times in the past these events were swept under the rug, priests being shuttled off to another diocese to continue their violence against children. That the Church is now dealing with these matters in a direct and forthright manner, at long last, is cold comfort to the victims and their families.
If the reader was expecting a defense, I’m sorry to disappoint. There is no defense—as such, anyway; certainly no excuse. These were crimes—sins which cry out to Heaven for vengeance (and they will be avenged, make no mistake about that), and have badly damaged the Church. First America in 2002, and now that Europe is affected as well, many Catholics are faced with questions that beg a very pained response.
We would all do well to remember, however, that the Church is both human and divine. Because it’s divine, it will exist until the Parousia, but it was entrusted to humans, and humans are fallen creatures. There are good and bad people everywhere, including even (unfortunately) among our clergy. The Church contains both sinners and saints.
Nor is it much comfort to remember that scandals have always been with us, and continue to this day in every denomination: financial crimes and perverted sex scandals have plagued everyone from televangelists to the preacher across town. These grievous sins neither put the lie to various Protestant theologies, nor do they vindicate guilty Catholic clergy.
Our Lord knew that evil and good would exist side by side, and made that point clear in the parable of the wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13:24-30):
Another parable he proposed to them, saying: The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seeds in his field.
But while men were asleep, his enemy came and oversowed cockle among the wheat and went his way. And when the blade was sprung up, and had brought forth fruit, then appeared also the cockle.
And the servants of the goodman of the house coming said to him: Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? whence then hath it cockle? And he said to them: An enemy hath done this. And the servants said to him: Wilt thou that we go and gather it up?
And he said: No, lest perhaps gathering up the cockle, you root up the wheat also together with it. Suffer both to grow until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers: Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn, but the wheat gather ye into my barn.
Fast forward to verses 40-42, where Our Lord is very blunt:
Even as cockle therefore is gathered up, and burnt with fire: so shall it be at the end of the world.
The Son of man shall send his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all scandals, and them that work iniquity. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Many have suggested that the Catholic discipline of priestly celibacy is to blame for these horrendous crimes, that if only the Church allowed Her priests to marry, this wouldn’t happen. But this logic falls flat when one considers that people from all walks of life—including schoolteachers—abuse their authority. Most abuse cases, in fact, involve a trusted relative.
People don’t get caught up in sex scandals because they’re not allowed to marry, but because they fail God. Just as we don’t judge marriage by those who are unfaithful to their spouses, so we should not judge the discipline of celibacy by those who break their vows.