Sex Scandals: Cuts That Only Zeal Can Heal

FROM SCANDAL TO HOPE

by Father Benedict J. Groeschel, CFR

OSV Publishing, 2002

216 pages, $9.95

To order this TITLE:

(800) 348-2440

or www.osv.com

If the events usually described as the “clergy sex-abuse scandal” remain a whirlwind for you, this little book will go a long way toward putting the matter in a hopeful and realistic — that is, Catholic — perspective. Designed to be a cat's lick treatment of a complicated set of problems while they are still top-of-mind, this book does its job admirably, especially for those who are not Church insiders.

Father Groeschel hopes that the events of 2002 will be the touchstone of a major reform built on devout prayer and personal conversion to Christ. “The bell is ringing in the Church,” he writes, “and remarkably, those who can lead the reform are the young.”

Though still ignored by many, it is becoming increasingly obvious, he writes, that “a whole army of fervent young Catholics” has emerged in the ecclesial movements, Catholic colleges, seminaries and in religious communities such as his own Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. “Practically a theological miracle,” he argues that this cadre forms “the greatest single sign that the Church will recover from the present disaster.”

Father Groeschel does not back away from the many and sordid issues associated with the scandal that are, for him, familiar problems, given his apostolates as seminary professor and spiritual director to priests. Despite the often-bleak subject matter, he also maintains a sense of humor, even wondering if Voltaire merits being named the patron saint of seminary personnel. His motto: “Anything but zeal.”

It may surprise some readers that Father Groeschel faults some bishops in the exercise of their teaching office — not for improper supervision of those below them, or for not being appropriately empathetic to the victims of abuse. He holds that the failure to correctly promote and defend the faith at various levels in the Church has served as the foundation for the current “moral mess” with scandal a natural result.

Though far from an exhaustive treatment of such issues as discipline and fidelity, Father Groeschel's book conveys much about the failure to love that occurs when priests, theologians and the laity are not called to account for their active or passive dissent. How much damage has been done by not caring enough to intervene? Though he recounts the story with little comment, one of Father Groeschel's anecdotes makes the point quite well. He describes how a young priest one Sunday pointed to the Eucharist and said, “This is not the Body of Christ. We are the Body of Christ.” This, by the way, was the teaching of Huldrych Zwingli, founder of the Reformed Church.

Perplexed, “many of the parishioners complained to the pastor, who said that he couldn't do anything,” reports Father Groeschel. “So they went to the bishop. The bishop also said he could do nothing, so nothing happened.”

If a priest could think and preach so far beyond the bounds of Catholic doctrine and spirituality, isn't it fair to wonder how far might he stray in the living of Catholic morality? And, did “nothing” really happen in the story of the young priest who lost his way, or who was never properly prepared for his journey?

He — and his parishioners, no doubt — may be a few more of the “victims” whom, we pray, only a reformed and ever-reforming Church can reach and heal.

Joe Cullen writes from New York.