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Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

The Cost of the Abuse Scandal

Philip Jenkins reflects on the cost, or — depending on your point of view — the (tragic) benefit of having the influence of a key American institution obviated by scandal. He points out that the loss of the US Catholic Church’s political and cultural influence has been tremendous. Excerpt: One great “might have been” involves […]

Philip Jenkins reflects on the cost, or — depending on your point of view — the (tragic) benefit of having the influence of a key American institution obviated by scandal. He points out that the loss of the US Catholic Church’s political and cultural influence has been tremendous. Excerpt:

One great “might have been” involves same-sex marriage. In light of present realities, it is hard to recall just how fringe and even bizarre an issue this seemed just a decade ago, and a large section of the American public is still uncomfortable about legalization. A critical turning point occurred in 2004, when Massachusetts’s Supreme Judicial Court found it unconstitutional to restrict marriage to heterosexuals.

Would the politics surrounding the issue conceivably have been the same if the Boston Archdiocese had not been so overwhelmed by ongoing abuse scandals that its public voice was all but silenced? Would not other Catholic leaders in other states and cities mobilized a much more effective defense of traditional morality, perhaps making it a visible issue in presidential campaigns? In such circumstances, could gay marriage have won?

In 1996, my book Pedophiles and Priests appeared, with a rather odd blurb from Richard John Neuhaus. He was happy to commend my work, but insisted on adding the preliminary phrase, “While [Jenkins] may overestimate the long-term effects of the malfeasance he examines…” Through the years, Father Neuhaus did me so many acts of kindness that I’m reluctant to point out that in this one case, he really was wrong.

The abuse crisis has been a religious and social revolution, and it has not finished yet.

Read it all. We’ll never know for sure, but this makes sense.

For me, the most revolutionary effect of the Scandal has been to make it very difficult to trust religious authority — not just Catholic authority, but all religious authority. It has not made me a Protestant; even if I were a Protestant, I would be no less suspicious of religious leadership. The question has to do with the state of vulnerability into which one puts oneself and one’s family when one trusts pastors, priests, bishops, et alia, with one’s spiritual care. As a matter of theological conviction, I absolutely believe we have to have priests and bishops for the sacramental life of the Church. But that is not the same thing as trusting them in all things. I hate being this way, but I have seen too much up close to have the same kind of basic trust that I used to have. Perhaps I’m wrong.

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