Ending Clericalism: the Abuse of Sex, Power and Conscience

 Letter of His Holiness Pope Francis to the People of God

"the suffering endured by many minors due to sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated persons"

has inflicted pain not only upon them by also their families, and the larger community of believers, and non believers. 

Francis powerfully identifies the cry of the victims with the Magnificat:

"The Lord heard that cry and once again showed us on which side he stands. Mary’s song is not mistaken and continues quietly to echo throughout history. For the Lord remembers the promise he made to our fathers: “he has scattered the proud in their conceit; he has cast down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty” (Lk 1:51-53). We feel shame when we realize that our style of life has denied, and continues to deny, the words we recite."

He identifies sexual abuse, power abuse and conscience abuse with the betrayal of Christ by his disciples:

"How much pride, how much self-complacency! Christ’s betrayal by his disciples, their unworthy reception of his body and blood, is certainly the greatest suffering endured by the Redeemer; it pierces his heart."

What should be our response?

"A solidarity that summons us to fight all forms of corruption, especially spiritual corruption. The latter is “a comfortable and self-satisfied form of blindness. Everything then appears acceptable: deception, slander, egotism and other subtle forms of self-centeredness, for ‘even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light’"

Who should respond?

 "every one of the baptized should feel involved in the ecclesial and social change that we so greatly need. This change calls for a personal and communal conversion that makes us see things as the Lord does."

"It is impossible to think of a conversion of our activity as a Church that does not include the active participation of all the members of God’s People. Indeed, whenever we have tried to replace, or silence, or ignore, or reduce the People of God to small elites, we end up creating communities, projects, theological approaches, spiritualities and structures without roots, without memory, without faces, without bodies and ultimately, without lives."

"This is clearly seen in a peculiar way of understanding the Church’s authority, one common in many communities where sexual abuse and the abuse of power and conscience have occurred. Such is the case with clericalism, an approach that “not only nullifies the character of Christians, but also tends to diminish and undervalue the baptismal grace that the Holy Spirit has placed in the heart of our people”.³

"Clericalism, whether fostered by priests themselves or by lay persons, leads to an excision in the ecclesial body that supports and helps to perpetuate many of the evils that we are condemning today." 

To say "no” to abuse is to say an emphatic “no” to all forms of clericalism.

I was very involved in the period 2003 through 2008 with Voice of the Faithful in responding to the sexual abuse crises.  Anyone who has spend any time with victims realizes the depth of their suffering. However few Catholics have had that second hand experience, and most did not seek it out. 

Voice of the Faith had as its three objectives: support for Victims, support for priests of integrity (remember 50 priests from Boston had called for Law's resignation), and "structure change in the Church." 

Francis has placed the end of clericalism at the center of the "structure change" that is necessary in the Church.

Ending Clericalism is the great sign of our times. 

We have seen the rejection of organized religion but not spirituality especially among the young people because of the hypocrisy they see among the clergy in their abuse of sex, and power, and their slavery to money and status. The percentage of them rejecting organized religion has risen to almost forty percent. Since they also reject Trump, I suspect future polls will find this rising to fifty percent.