(Shaw is a freelance writer from Washington, D.C. You can email him at RShaw10290@aol.com and purchase his books by clicking here.)
It was like watching the stylized gestures of Japanese kabuki.
Flawed and plainly in need of correcting was the policy adopted by the bishops last June at their troubled meeting in Dallas. The problems included defining sex abuse in terms far too loose, ignoring the statute of limitations in the code of canon law (10 years from the victim's 18th birthday), and — overall — adopting under media pressure an undifferentiated “zero tolerance” policy that made it impossible to judge different cases differently.
Fortunately, these faults presumably have been remedied by the American-Roman commission established for this purpose. Moving with commendable speed, the commission completed its assignment in time for the bishops' meeting in Washington next week. With luck, the bishops will sign off on the revised policy, the Vatican will quickly approve, and that will be that.
And then? Then, perhaps, it will be possible to get to work trying to put the badly shaken Church in the United States back on its feet. There is a great deal to do.
Among the issues that conspicuously need to be addressed is the question of homosexuality in the priesthood. The Vatican is said to be weighing a policy that would ban ordaining homosexuals. A new Los Angeles Times poll says many American priests perceive a homosexual subculture in their ranks and 15 percent report being homosexual or leaning that way. Are we headed for a witch hunt or for much-needed reform? Either thing seems possible, neither is certain. But the issue can no longer be ignored.
On a related topic, nothing has been heard for months about the new apostolic visitation — investigation, that is — of American seminaries announced last April. This silence is not reassuring. In the wake of the sex abuse scandal, leaders at all levels promised “transparency” in the conduct of Church affairs, but here the old opaqueness seems to have set in. Where does planning for the visitation stand at the moment? Who will head it? What instructions will he have? The answers are important to the entire Church. It would be good to have some.
Another item of unfinished business — on the bishops' agenda first of all, but inevitably on the agenda of American Catholicism — is the proposal for a new plenary council for the United States. Currently supported by more than 100 bishops, the idea is to promote the spiritual renewal of bishops and priests and the teaching of orthodox doctrine, with benefits presumably accruing to the Catholic community as a whole. The bishops are supposed to get a committee report at their meeting and then discuss the question, but not vote at this time. And after that? That remains to be seen.
Here and there one begins to hear it said that, God willing, the sex abuse scandal in the long run will redound to the benefit of the Church. That could be. God, after all, is known to write straight with crooked lines. But just now the lines look very crooked indeed, and their straightening-out is in our hands. Getting a sound policy on sex abuse in place after months of trying will be an important first step. Many steps remain.
