21/02/02
Thomas Cahill: `Psychological sickness' in the priesthood
By Julia Keller
Tribune cultural critic
Copyright (c) 2002, Chicago Tribune
With the kind of timing that smacks of divine intervention, Thomas Cahill's new book is about the recent history of the Roman Catholic Church -- an institution rocked in recent weeks by a widening scandal involving pedophile priests.
Cahill, author of the best-selling "How the Irish Saved Civilization" (1995) and religious histories such as "Desire of the Everlasting Hills: Before and After Jesus" (1999), penned "Pope John XXIII" (2002) as part of the Penguin Lives series of brief biographies. It celebrates the pope who, before his death in 1963, "transformed the office" of the papacy, Cahill said.
Cahill, a Catholic, has thought a great deal about the current state of the powerful but embattled institution. The church is still reeling from reports late last week that the Boston archdiocese has provided prosecutors with the names of more than 80 former and current priests accused of sexually abusing children over the past four decades. During a recent visit to Chicago, Cahill reacted to the news. The following is an edited transcript:
Q. Accusations of child abuse against Catholic priests are increasing. What's going on?
A. There is a psychological sickness at the heart of the American Catholic priesthood. This has to do with a change in the society that was never registered within the church. In the society I grew up in -- the 1940s and '50s -- nobody talked about sex. There's a real shift in consciousness now. People are willing to talk about sex. It's no longer stuffed under a rug. People are always interested in it. More and more, we have a sexualized society. It's everywhere. There are things that are just a part of our culture that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. I checked into a local hotel and I have three different choices for movies in my room: first-run movies, some other movies and adult entertainment.
Q. How does that affect priests?
A. Priests live in the same world that we live in. When they check into a hotel, they also get access to pornography. In the world of the 1930s and '40s, you still had priests like the Bing Crosby character in [the 1944 film] "Going My Way." They offered up their sexuality on the altar for the greater good. There were people like that in that period who were priests and nuns. They're not there anymore. The reason they're not is that no one thinks they should offer up their sexuality for a lifetime of greater good. I don't care who they are, they don't believe that anymore.
It's simply a form of double-think on the part of the official church to pretend that there are still such people. There's no one going into convents. Surprise, surprise.
Q. What kind of men are becoming priests?
A. The psychological profile of the typical seminarian is somebody sexually infantile and narcissistic. What that means is, they don't see other people as real human beings; they see other people as part of their movie. Because they are infantile and narcissistic, they go in the direction of altar boys.
Q. What should happen to Bernard Law, cardinal of the Boston archdiocese, who has admitted that he transferred priests such as John Geoghan from one parish to another, knowing about allegations of abuse against them, and also secretly settled lawsuits against the church by the parents of abused children?
A. To force Law's retirement is a good move. I think he should retire. I think all the higher-ups in the church who have been part of this cover-up should be forcibly retired. We'd need a completely new set of managers because most of them would be gone.
Q. What will happen next?
A. This is not going to go away. It's going to get worse. There are any number of dioceses that will go bankrupt [from settling claims against priests brought by parents of abused children]. It's going to have to be taken over by the laity. It's the laity who has to protect these children, not these priests. There has to be a change. Or else people will walk away in droves saying, "No, I'm not interested in this anymore. I'll be a Methodist or whatever, or pray to God in the privacy of my home. I don't need to be a part of this nonsense."
Q. What should the change be?
A. The response that's needed is a true reformation, which would include making celibacy optional. To create a different kind of clergy, which is desperately needed.
Q. Could that really happen?
A. Sure. It could happen tomorrow afternoon. As I point out in the book ["Pope John XXIII], the clergy were not always celibate. It's not part of doctrine.
Q. Why haven't church officials stopped the abuse of children?
A. The higher clergy, the bishops, those charged with setting policy in the church, have taken the ostrich route. They simply will not look at this for what it is.
Q. Why not?
A. They're part of the problem. I'm not saying that they're active pedophiles. But they came out of the same circumstances as these priests. They have blinders on. One of the great political plays of all time is Sophocles' "Oedipus." Oedipus says to the people of Thebes, "I am going to get to the bottom of this, this contagion." He is the source of the contagion and he doesn't know it. He doesn't know it until almost the last words of the play. Of course he's not going to get to the bottom of it. The one thing he can't see is himself. That's exactly the dynamic that's going on with these bishops.
Q. You've said the laity must get involved. What can they do?
A. The only way the laity can take charge is by manipulating the one lever they have under their control: contributions. . . . And if the actual church decides to rise up, they can do it tomorrow afternoon.
Q. Why do church authorities insist on celibacy?
A. I think the real reason is that a celibate clergy is far more under their thumb than a married clergy would be. If the pastor of the church has a wife and children, he has a lot of considerations other than just obeying his bishop. It's a question of control. In Protestant churches, the pastor is afraid of his congregation, which can fire him. In the Catholic churches, the clergyman is afraid of his bishop, who can remove him. Unfortunately, neither situation is ideal, because both situations encourage the supression of courage. They encourage docile human beings.
Q. And the result of that will be what?
A. That's a much larger question for Christianity as a whole. Are we stamping out the role of the prophet by the way we organize our churches?
Q. Is the Catholic Church at a crucial crossroads in its history?
A. Yes. There are always choices -- the good choice and the bad choice. But Christianity is always at a crisis, always at a turning point. Try to find the moment in Christian history when everything was quiet. I don't know where the moment is. There's always a big crisis.
Q. What do you say to those who claim that the church, despite the present controversy, has lasted a long time doing things its own way?
A. That is the knee-jerk reaction over and over again: Well, that's the way we do it. So whatever stupid thing we're doing, we have to continue it.
Subject: NIGHTLINE: Sins of the Fathers
Thursday, February 21, 2002
TONIGHT'S SUBJECT: The Catholic priest in Boston that we reported on about a month ago was just sentenced to nine to ten years in prison for assaulting a young boy. That was just one of the many cases that he has been accused of. In the meantime, the diocese has given authorities the names of about 90 current and former priests who have also been accused of assaulting children.
----
I have been sitting here at my keyboard for a while, trying to figure out what to say about tonight's broadcast. I have just watched the sentencing of the priest on television. As you probably remember from our last broadcast, the Church has faced mounting criticism over how these cases have been handled. As part of its response, the diocese said it would turn over to authorities the names of other priests who had been accused of molesting children over the past several decades. They came up with a list of about 90 names. Now the authorities have complained the information is vague and incomplete. But 90 names.
Now that raises questions about what has been happening in other diocese around the country. A few, in the New England area, have begun to come forward with the same type of information, but clearly there is a much larger problem here. And why wasn't this information brought out long before today?
For victims of molestation, the physical trauma is bad enough. But when the perpetrator is someone who is respected in the community, someone who is spoken of in glowing terms, it makes things worse. A sense of betrayal is added to the already horrific pain of the act itself. And I think that is true whether the person is a priest, a teacher, a coach, or whatever. If the allegations aren't taken seriously, or nothing is done, the psychological impact can be devastating, and long-lasting.
In the case of this one priest, today's sentencing is one step towards justice. But I keep going back to that number 90. What of the victims in those cases, when there was no justice? What can possibly be done now to make this right?
These are difficult questions, and we'll try to address them tonight. Correspondent Ron Claiborne will report on today's developments, and what has been happening since the last time we covered this story, and Ted will interview a contributing reporter for the newspaper The National Catholic Reporter who has helped to break these stories, and former Boston Mayor and ambassador to the Vatican Ray Flynn, an advisor to the diocese.
Leroy Sievers
Executive Producer Nightline Offices Washington, D.C.
Do the Maths
63,000,000
divided by
40,000
U.S. Catholics Top 63 Million
There are 63,863,030 Catholics in the United States, 23% of the population, according to statistics released by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The nation's faithful represent 6.2% of the world's 1.01 billion Catholics.
The United States has 46,041 priests: 30,655 diocesan clergy and 15,386 vowed to a specific order.
Seminarians number 4,917, including 3,400 in formation for the diocesan priesthood. Permanent deacons number 13,348. Vowed religious comprise 79,462 sisters and 5,565 brothers.
In Catholic education, 7,061 elementary schools have 1.94 million students;
1,596 high schools have 680,947 students. The 235 Catholic colleges and universities educate 705,059 students.
40,000 wonderful priests
from
Statement of Bishop Wilton D. Gregory
President, United States Conference
of Catholic Bishops
February 19, 2002
I want to say a word about the more than 40,000 wonderful priests in our country who get up every morning to give their lives in full service to the Church as witnesses to Jesus Christ in our midst. I am very saddened that the crimes of a few have cast a shadow over the grace-filled and necessary work that they do day-in-and-day-out for society and for the Church. The Priesthood is a unique treasure of our Church, and I give you my assurance that we are doing everything to ensure that we have worthy and healthy candidates for the Priesthood and to strengthen the many priests who faithfully fulfill their ministry on behalf of all of us.