First of all, I find the child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church repugnant and appalling. When the story first broke, my heart broke with it.  I was so shocked and saddened I almost left the church for good. In fact had the church not started taking action and denouncing the deviant behavior of the scum in its clergy pool, I would have left without hesitation. The question I find myself asking now–esp in the face of the Ireland scandal– is this: Is the church doing enough to clean the scum?

Before proceeding I should offer a little background: I am Catholic and I love the church. My mother was a devout Catholic and as a result our family might have missed a total of two or three masses growing up. My siblings and I received all the sacraments, and the ceremonies and receptions for each were as germane to our childhood as the bar/bat mitzvahs are to the Jew’s. We were raised with a strong moral code, and the power and necessity of self denial and agape love were demonstrated to us by example–day in and day out in our home. I credit the church for the order, stability and morality in my home as a kid. Enough said. I don’t question the church. I question the handling of this nightmare spectacle.

It’s not as though the church isn’t doing anything. They are–at least in the U.S. The question is: are they doing enough?  They have paid out tens of millions in settlements, and seven U.S. dioceses have filed for bankruptcy as a result^[i].  Who’s footing the bill? Who else? Parishioners– to the tune of $8 million in the case of this diocese^[ii].   Imagine that: Christ’s followers spending their hard-earned money to bail the church out of a sex-crime crisis.

Strangely, only a handful of bishops have stepped down for what many to believe to be a cover-up of the crimes.  Nowhere is this more prevalent than in Ireland where the latest fire has broken out for the church. The church there–home of 4 million Catholics–is being accused of covering up the crimes of 170 pedophile priests. Only four bishops have stepped down thus far. Two stepped down during Christmas mass this year! “Merry Christmas and God bless. By the way I participated in a cover up that denied justice for hundreds of children whose innocence was robbed in the very place it is supposed to be preserved. I quit.”

I’ve only scratched the surface. You can read all about this horror movie at http://www.bishop-accountability.org/. The good folks there faithfully track the scandal, the payouts, the perps, and so forth. I commend them for what they do. Somebody has to. If the public did not continue to demand the church address these atrocities, they might very well still be happening. I join the legions of voices demanding a FULL ACCOUNTING “for all the records of how abusive priests were dealt with and for bishops to face the canonical and legal consequences of their mismanagement, above and beyond apologies.”

As a steadfast Catholic and defender of the faith I continue to be shocked by the scope of these horrors and I implore the pope and Vatican to cleanse the church of every criminal who participated in or covered up the heinous crimes against children. They are all a DISGRACE to the church and a DISGRACE to its leader,  Jesus Christ.  The apologies and payouts are not enough. I believe a full accounting is necessary.

After the first of the four Irish bishops resigned recently,  David Clohessy (Survivor’s Network) said,

“We hope his resignation will bring some comfort to the thousands of suffering Irish clergy sex abuse victims and hundreds of thousands of betrayed Irish parishioners. But this should only be the beginning of systemic change within the corrupt church hierarchy.”

I’ll drink [a Mountain Dew] to that. And I will add that there are MILLIONS of Catholics worldwide who continue to be embarrassed by this freak show scandal and DEMAND more transparency on the part of the church going forward so this never happens again. We’re also sick of paying for it. To the church: Stop sweeping this under the rug and get it all out in the open so we can purge the criminals from our ranks and move on with the healing and rebuilding process.

Image: Defrocked priest Michael Baker with victim Dominic Zamora–then and now. www.bishop-accountability.org

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1. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/bankruptcy.htm [↩]
2. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2007/11_12/2007_12_29_Stucke_ParishesCollect.htm [↩]