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The chilling headlines have been all too frequent in newspapers across America over the past decade. Catholic priest accused of sexual misconduct. Pregnant nun forced to leave church. Former altar boy comes forward with shocking tale of abuse.
While the causes behind the myriad of problems besetting the Catholic Church are many, one simple change in philosophy would go a long way toward providing a solution to all of them -- allow priests to marry.
Try some of these facts and figures on for size.
Between 1984 and 1992, 400 Catholic priests in North America were reported for molesting children. The number unreported is estimated to be much higher. To date, the church has spent nearly $1 billion to resolve cases of molestation and impropriety.
Currently, some 2,000 parishes have no resident priest. That number is predicted to decline another 45 percent by 2005.
In the United States, 42 percent of priests resign their positions within 25 years of ordination, leaving an aging priesthood in danger of becoming extinct. Catholic vocations in the United States have decreased from 40,000 in 1965 to a little over 6,000 today.
According to a report in the "National Catholic Reporter," sexual abuse of nuns by priests is a serious problem. The report states that priests afraid of contracting AIDS sometimes turn to young nuns, who are seen as "safe" sexual partners. In response to the report, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls acknowledged that there were isolated cases of priests sexually abusing nuns but said the problem is "restricted to a limited geographic area."
A 1990 "Study of Health, Faith and Ethics" by Park Ridge Center found that 10 percent of American ministers admitted having an affair with a member of their congregation. Moreover, 25 percent admitted to some form of sexual contact with a parishioner.
Certainly, not all men of the cloth can be painted with the same broad brush. There is no doubt that the majority of Catholic priests are selfless, kindhearted individuals who give their energy back to the community. That said, there is no running from the fact that the percentages of molesters and sexual offenders are higher in the Catholic clergy than in the general population. Is it such a stretch to think that being denied intimacy -- from the sweetness of a passionate kiss to the sublime delicacy of an erotic interlude -- is what causes this blip in the statistical norm?
It would be much easier to accept if the laws and tenets of the Bible called for celibacy in the clergy, but they do not. The reason behind the edict of abstention for Catholic priests comes from the ranks of man and, ironically enough, from what the church has targeted as the root of all evil -- money.
In the early days of the church, a priest could either be married or single. Many of the Apostles' families traveled with them on their sojourns. While having a family kept a priest connected to the laity, it did nothing to help the church maintain control of its wealth.
A publication by members of St. Aloysius Parish offers this breakdown of the motives behind enforced celibacy: "Often kings, lords or landlords controlled church lands, church buildings and church collections. Celibacy restored church control of the cleric by Rome and by implication the spiritual control of church goods by the church authorities. The church's official justification was that celibacy frees a priest for service with an undivided mind, but that also included and insured an undivided collection plate and gradually the accumulation of real estate."
This mindset led the Council of Elvira to issue the following edict in 306 AD: "Bishops, presbyters, deacons and all other clerics having a position in the ministry are ordered to abstain completely from their wives and not to have children. Whoever, in fact, disobeys this edict will be expelled from the clerical state."
Despite this, priests continued to marry and stay sexually active for many centuries, causing the Second Lateran Council to take drastic action in the year 1139. All marriages of priests were ruled invalid. Married priests were forcibly separated from their spouses. If a priest failed to cooperate, he was dismissed and he and his family were sold into slavery.
The feudal system of the Middle Ages has long passed and, along with it, so too have the archaic rules and principles of government that caused the church to take such radical action to control the private lives of its clergy.
What this has left us with in the 21st century is a population of priests that is ever-dwindling, with an alarmingly high number of sexual infractions lodged against its brotherhood. It seems unfair to ask married couples to seek counseling and guidance for sexual and matrimonial issues from a man who cannot possibly relate to their problems. It seems unfair to ask priests to be community leaders when, by edict, they lead a lifestyle far removed from the norms of society. And it seems especially unfair to ask parents to entrust their sons and daughters to moments alone with members of such a red-flagged group.
I grew up with a good friend who was an altar boy at a local Roman Catholic Church. One of the priests, a man in his early 30s, took an unnatural interest in my friend -- one that even his 12-year-old mind knew was inappropriate. The priest began to pressure the young boy to ask his parents if he could join him for a weekend alone at his cabin in the woods. My friend attempted to ignore the priest's requests, but the cleric only intensified his attempts. Knowing that there was no way that he was going anywhere with the priest, my friend withdrew first from his duties as an altar boy, and secondly from the church altogether.
The young priest was soon quietly transferred to another parish out-of-state. Whether he had succeeded in convincing another of the altar boys to make the trip to his cabin is unknown. What is known is that it was common practice in the 1970s for the Catholic Church to "pass on" deviant priests to out-of-town parishes -- where they often began anew to prey upon the innocent.
"I think he really would have hurt me if I had gone to that cabin," my friend later told me. "They really need to change the system before more kids are irreparably harmed."
From his lips to God's ears.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | February 26 2002 |