Dear Mr. Shea,
Your piece explaining the Stockholm Syndrome that's creeping into our parishes across the nation is very informative and eye-opening. When my husband and I read it, it came to me that there's a silent, condoning partner to the bishops and priests who perpetrated or turned a blind eye to the abusers, and that is the laity.
Geoghan, who was just murdered in his jail cell was responsible for “hundreds” of cases of rape against children, and no one in the laity knew? No one kicked in his door when he had a boy in his room? No one called the police?
We don't understand how a pedophilic priest can move throughout a parish, slithering in his new hunting ground seeking prey, and no one is suspicious. There are signs to those types of crimes, there are methods of operation.
There's no question that many people have suffered at the hands of cunning and perverted hunters of children. But I wonder how much of the outrage and suffering is guilt by the laity at large that they did nothing.
That there is a great need for Catholics to get back to their “first Love”, which is Jesus, it comes with the responsibility to the laity to also apologize to all the victims of the abominal hunters that oozed and infiltrated into the priesthood for choosing to do nothing, for turning a blind eye to the crimes that were happening under their noses, for never calling the civil authorities to report one of the most heinous crimes known to mankind.
My husband and I would also be lashing out casting blame everywhere if we'd had a suspicion for years that something wasn't right, and in hindsight knowing that our silence and inaction did nothing more than feed more victims and prey to the hunters. Perhaps many of the laity justify the guilt they share with each pedophile, each sexual abuse case because they were protecting the reputation of the Catholic Church. Pathetically ironic isn't it? Choosing to protect the organization at the expense of it's members?
Stay on 'em Mr. Shea, keep shouting and promoting our Lord Jesus to the laity, it's time for a old time revival within the hearts and minds of the laity! You, (and Catholic Exchange) have our full support.
Peace be with you,
Roger and Sheila Darisse
Dear Roger and Sheila:
Thanks for your kind words.
The current Scandal is a joint effort with priests and bishops taking the lead and laypeople playing their important part in screwing things up too. I want to emphasize that the crimes that were committed were not the fault of the victims, nor do I wish to add to the burden of the families who believed the lies of bishops that it would all be taken care of. They were, as far as they knew, pursuing the matter through proper channels. At the same time, I think it a very good thing that laypeople are now much less likely to simply sit on their hands and “wait for padre/bishop to fix it.”
If somebody hurt one of my kids, I would now go directly to the cops. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. One of the silver linings of the Scandal is that it has driven a stake through the heart of a certain sort of clericalism that seemed to paralyze laypeople from obeying their common sense even when it became evident that the bishop had no intention of fixing
a thing. At that point, it should have been plain that the bishop is to be ignored and the cops called. But, as with all major disasters, it sometimes takes a while for people to grasp what is happening. That bishops could lie and cover up this way boggles the mind, and so it is natural for people to think, “There must be some mistake. I'll wait.”
I do think your point is well taken that it wasn't *just* bishops who have
made excuses for priest predators — particularly when they are gay. The case of Paul Shanley is, again, very instructive in this regard. Lots of Bostonians flew cover for the guy for a *very* long time because, hey, homosexuality is hip and cool and you don't want to be a homophobe. Our culture celebrates sexual license in greater and greater perversity every year. To do that is to necessarily create an environment toxic to childhood. And the creation of that culture is larger the work of laymen, not clergy. Show me a culture that despises virginity and I'll show you a culture that despises children. For children are virgins. The bishops who perpetrated this calamity, in all their spineless and gutless glory, are pretty much what we want them to be: men who affirm us in our Imperial Autonomous okayness but who had better keep their noses out of our sex lives or else. We American laity have demanded nothing else for 40 years and now we're stunned when we get the spineless ciphers we so ardently wanted and they treat their priests as gutlessly as we demand they treat us.
We will get better when we really want better. But that has to start at home.
Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange
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