DON'T TOUCH ME, PRIEST!

The News of scandals about the Clergy, Bishops and Cardinals are rocking the Catholic Church big time these days. How should w feel about it? What's wrong? What's happening? I am not offering answers, but points for us to reflect upon.

As the Catholic Church faces the many cases waged against clerics, Bishops, and even Cardinals, many of its Dioceses around the world have become bankrupt. In 2018 alone, and in United States alone, majority of the ecclesiastical jurisdictions have lost resources to the cases of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, among others. The Diocese of Tucson has filled bankruptcy and is continuing to pay at least 22 Million US Dollars in settlements alone, and so had to sell its assets.

In August 2018 in Pennsylvania, 300 clergy were reported which found more than 1,000 children had been abused. In June 2018, a former Vatican diplomat was sentenced to five years in prison for child pornography offences. These and more cases continue to rock the Catholic Church. This scenario presses the alarm button to the entire Church as such scandals have never rocked the Catholic Church to this gravity in the recent years with their surfacing now. There had been considerable amount of cases in the past, but it has become more serious today in as much as many priests are getting involved.

The country with highest number of clerical abuse remains the United States. The Study John Jay Report which was commissioned by the United States Catholic Bishops Conference, indicated that some 11,000 allegations had been made against 4,392 priests in the USA alone. This number constituted approximately 4% of the priests who had served during the period covered by the survey (1950–2002).[1] Of the abused, 81% were male, and 19% were female, 22% were younger than age 11, 51% were between the ages of 11 and 14, and 27% were between the ages of 15 and 17 years when first abused. Within the youngest age group, 64% of abused children were male, while within the older age groups, 85% were male.[2] 2,411 of the priests had a single allegation made against them, while 149 priests had 10 or more allegations made against them.

To put it more spiritually, the touch of Jesus which brought healing to the sick (Matthew 3:8), sight to the blind (Matthew 20:32), raised the dead (Luke 7:14), repelled demons (Mark 1:21-27), and multiplied loaves and fishes (Matthew 13:14-21) among many other miracles, are carried out supposed to be in the touch of the priest. Priests, being men of Christ in the world, are given the singular privilege to administer to his Sacraments, and Sacraments heal (confession and anointing of the sick), Sacraments give life (Eucharist), Sacraments unite (Baptism, Confirmation and Matrimony), Sacraments sanctify (Matrimony and Holy Orders). The command of Jesus to do this in my memory is a command to touch. Just as Jesus transformed the Bread and Wine into his Body and Blood, so the priest transforms the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus. He alone can do it by the virtue of his calling, training and ordination.

Unfortunately sad today, the touch of the priest can be, and for many cases have been infested with malice. The touch of the priest which was supposed to be the soothing and comforting touch of Jesus to the broken world, the touch that is supposed to dry tears and embrace the sorrowing, is now associated with pedophilia, homosexually and all other sexual connotations which furthers the brokenness of the world. The sheep cannot be found, cannot be saved, cannot be carried off the shoulders of the Shepherd if the touching aspect becomes vague and becomes abusive.

We ask seriously, What made these clerics do such crime?

I don’t know.

Let me sound….well….Catholic at this point.

I believe Pope Francis was right in blaming Satan, the great accuser in “attacking Bishops” and “tries to uncover the sins so they become visible in order to scandalize the people.” Satan have always wanted to tear down the Church which Jesus founded, to eradicate the community where we become united with the Trinity through Him. It may sound pathetic to blame someone else for these scandals, but the devil is not someone. He is an event, an event of darkness and suffering. Hell is not a place but a state, a state of eternal death, caused by the event.

We have to know Satan in his entirety before we can have the faith that his work is to divide. Diablo or Diabolein in Greek means to divide. He divides the priests’ attention and away from Jesus, divides their humanity, separates and splits them apart from their priesthood and right mind so that priests live double lives. Of course these concerned priests have the culpability. They are ultimately responsible. They are guilty. However, unless we understand the role and activity of Satan in our faith, and in the entire economy of salvation, all bad thing remain on the level of human choice, and had no chance to go deeper than that. Remember, Satan and his deceptions is part of our Christian Faith; being the enemy of it.

Nevertheless, the questions on how they have come to such situations and how the Church is being affected so much lies in reality far beyond our vision. Why so many of the priests do it? Why are some cases the same? Why are do these cases have semblances? I hope people will see that the cases as mentioned in the second paragraph give us idea that cases have semblances. First, the cases involve young people of both genders. Second, the priests do it with people who have been previously abused. Third, priests do it with penitents or patients. In short, the devil uses human vulnerability, human weakness, to feed on potential scandals.

How do we avoid such scandals in the Church in the future? There are many answers. While we certainly have to face the vast number of recent scandals, we have to make a resolve to avoid such happenings again, and protect the Church from these abuses. I believe the Church have advanced in figuring things out in realm of Seminary formation, the realm where it all can start. Candidates can be potential abusers, and homosexuals. It is therefore right to guard this stage of formation. Pope Benedict XVI made the right call when he exhorted all Seminaries and Dioceses to ban Homosexuals into the Seminaries. This has promoted the Church’s crusade against abuses, for there can never be certainty that homosexuals are helped changed by the limited offers of Seminary formation.

The second measure that the Church needs to accomplish on the Diocesan level is the formulation of canonical protocols in cases of abuses or scandals. Concrete ways must be figured out. I am not sure how specific one must get, but Priests must not attach themselves too much privately to one or few people. Intimacy begins with exclusivity at all times. The clausora or the enclosure must be revived. Monks were separated from the world by a fence or what we call cloister. May be it is time to bring back this culture to priests working outside monasteries; not literally but symbolically. Priests must set parameters in the Parish convents which are exclusively for priests and religious alone. Grills may not necessarily be needed, but the convent must not be so accessible just like a marketplace but a cloister.

Priests and religious must have healthy relationships with their workers and parishioners. He must have coordinators to all the sectors of the parish so that he would not be dealing with people directly especially the youth. His pastoral touch is needed, but at a distance. They must be busy at all time. I cannot understand Priests who are not busy. Priestly life is supposed to be busy; paying attention to the concerns and needs of the Parish. A lazy priest, one who lives in his comfort zone is vulnerable too. Lastly, the ultimate guard from abuses is when one lives a life of holiness. In this way, we focus only to the work our vocation singularly entails, -to proclaim Jesus Christ in words and deeds.

Proposing such guidelines are extremely important but by then, they already presuppose a precedent case. Avoiding it from happening at all is always the ideal choice worth working on. While the scandal is multifaceted as it involves children, young male, adult male, young female and adult female and many other more, it must be addressed basically on one ground: the dealing of Seminarians with doubtful tendencies seriously. And for priests and religious, to undergo further formation when such improper desires arise, and here should be a sense of healthy relationship in the community; promoted by every member. I believe that such scandals are to be blamed in the person, the very character he/she conceals during formation years. On the other hand, I also believe that unhealthy situations in the fields give rise to them.

I read an article about how these abuses came in one Bishop in America. I am no longer familiar with the details, but it was an interview with the accused Bishop. When he was asked what influenced him to do it, he responded about his lack of contact with his flock. Because he lived in a regal Bishop’s Palace, he lost contact with other people and lost his prayer life to watching pornography. He was basically alone with all the amenities, and there was no one to share his struggles and joys with. He lived in 7 hectares of land, on a Palace which there only live himself and some other 3 staff. So he started getting unhealthily close with young males which ended up in bad situation.

Priests are supposed to live among their flock. The priesthood is made precisely for service, and the primordial service is to represent Jesus Christ to people. How could a priest represent Jesus when he is at his comfort zone? And in his comfort zone, he loose himself not to Jesus but…to himself in the midst of the materiality of the office. Priests are supposed to live with people because priestly life is not normal as it defies normal familial relationships which all human being ought to have. But priests find normalcy from the flock, the families they serve. We become normal human beings when we share in the normal life of the flock.

In this dark times of abuses, we are all victims. The Church, the Pope, the good Cardinals, the Faith, the Seminarians, the Priests, the Religious, the Lay, Men and Women Baptized in the Catholic Community, the victim themselves, you and me; we are all victims.

It may sound silly, but let us pray for these aggressors and their victims. They are in need of prayer. Let us pray for healing and forgiveness.

Most importantly, we pray for the Clerics, Bishops and Cardinals who are living faithfully. May they be guarded by God's righteousness.

Lastly, pray for the Church, may her sons and daughters learn humility and forgiveness.

We therefore, implore Mary, the Immaculate Conception, the Mother of God, in these times. May the touch of Jesus be restored once more for the flock, with nothing malicious but with pure touch of divine and brotherly affection. May she guard her Son’s Church and her sons and daughters from the promptings of the devil. May she always be our inspiration of purity and faithfulness.

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CITATIONS:

[1] "A Report on the Crisis in the Catholic Church in the United States".

National Review Board. February 27, 2004.

[2] Eberstadt, Mary (June 17, 2002). "The Elephant in the Sacristy".

Weekly Standard. Retrieved July 24, 2018.