This now famous phrase was coined by Lord Acton, a prominent 19th century British Catholic scholar and sometime politician, in a letter to a Catholic bishop expressing his deep concern over the Church’s doctrine of papal infallability that was adopted by the Vatican Council of 1870.
Lord Acton was dead right then, and his observation about ecclesiastical abuse of power is equally applicable today. Not necessarily in the form of ex cathedra pronouncements from the Pope or a Church council, but in the form of wrong-headed, obtuse behavior by bishops and other members of the church hierarchy, including Vatican spokesmen. Weekly, even daily, we are subjected to inane reactionary statements from Church leaders, usually in response to the priesty abuse scandal or about abortion or gay marriage, the only other two issues they seem to care about.
As a long-time practicing Catholic, I used to be embarrassed, even apologetic, by the official Church’s statements, even willing to believe press coverage often betrayed an anti-Catholic bias in American society at large, but the pathetic reaction by the hierarchy to the priestly abuse scandal changed all that. Now, I am heartened by the news media throwing the spotlight on this idiocy in hopes that the hierarchy will become embarrassed enough seeing its statements in the press to wake up. But, there’s no hope on the near horizon, as far as I can tell.
The latest episode of the Phoenix bishop underscores just how bad things have gotten. In case you missed it, check out Nicholas Kristoff’s Op Ed piece in the May 27 New York Times, which thankfully brings the situation to light for a national and international audience. Basically, the bishop excommunicated a hospital nun, Sister Margaret, because as a member of the hospital’s ethics committee, she assented to terminating the 11-week pregnancy of a woman whose life was in danger if she had continued the pregnancy. As a hospital statement reads, “This decision was made after consultation with the patient, her family, her physicians, and in consultation with the Ethics Committee.”
Why did the bishop single out the nun for “automatic excommunication” when presumably other Cathoics served on the Ethics Committee and also assented to the decision? Because he could. Pure and simple. Nuns have always been the whipping posts of the clergy, abused and treated as second-class citizens. The most recent evidence of this are the two Vatican investigations. One, called an "apostolic visitation," is looking into the quality of life" in sisters' religious communities. The other reportedly targets the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an organization that represents 95 percent of the nation's 59,000 nuns. Both of these investigations were launched, albeit rather quietly and mysteriously, at the height of the publicity over the priestly abuse scandal.
Over the years, no single group in the Catholic Church has distinguished itself and covered itself with more honor than nuns. They are the people quietly going about the work of the Gospel, caring for sick and elderly in hospitals and nursing homes, running first-rate elementary schools in inner cities, serving the poorest of the poor in this country and around the globe.
So, the irony of this misplaced focus by the Vatican couldn’t be more breathtaking in its hypocrisy and moral obtuseness. To paraphrase General Omar Bradley: “It’s the wrong focus, at the wrong time, against the wrong enemy.” For all its presumed learning and knowledge of Ethics and Moral Theology, the Church leadership has still not learned a fundamental step toward honest self-awareness that Pogo taught us many years ago: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
Gerald E. Lavey
No comments:
Post a Comment