Drawing Good From Evil
by Fr. Roger J. Landry - May 26, 2006
The sexual abuse of minors by members of the clergy is simply one of the most painful things with which most in the Church have ever had to deal. Words are not adequate to express the pain it has inflicted on those who have suffered the abuse and their families. It has devastated many parishes where abusive priests were assigned. It has shaken the faith and the confidence of millions of Catholics, young and old, in the essential goodness and holiness of the Church Christ founded and in those whom he has ordained to serve it. It has brought profound sorrow and shame to good priests, who sense in thousands of little ways others' suspicion about whether they will harm rather than love children entrusted to their pastoral care. It has brought perhaps even greater pain and heartbreak to good bishops, who weep regularly over the suffering of victims, the iniquity of some priests and the sins of omission of several of their brother bishops. For priests falsely accused of abuse — and there have been many — it has made it very difficult to prove their innocence or, later, to remove the toxic stigma and restore their reputation. While people have suffered in different ways and to different degrees, no one in the Church has remained untouched and unaffected by it.
The Lord, however, always wishes to draw good from evil. One of the good things that has come from the wickedness of the clerical sexual abuse of children is a Copernican shift in the Church's priorities and practices. While in the past there was greater attention given to trying to help heal a priest with demons, to preventing scandal and to protecting the Church's financial assets, now there is a clear recognition that priority must be given to protecting the Church's real treasure, the people, young and old, for whom Christ died and entrusted to the Church's care. While in yesteryear many Church leaders, based on favorable psychological recommendations and hope in the possibility and power of redeeming grace, erred on the side of giving an abusive priest another chance, now they err on the side of protecting the children of God, lest a priest with even a minimal chance of recidivism (such as one who abused a single child decades ago) harm a child again. While in the past accused priests were considered innocent until proven guilty and often would remain under watch in assignments until determinations were made, now priests, even falsely accused ones, are removed from assignments while investigations of credible allegations are pending. Church leaders have recognized that the greatest scandal occurs not when priests, out of a spiritual and psychological malady, commit horrible sins against young people, but rather when other Church leaders, who do not suffer from those illnesses, do not do all in their power to denounce and stop the harm.
This shift was fully on display at the highest levels of the Church last Friday, when the Vatican released a communiqué detailing the resolution to the allegations of sexual abuse of minors made against the 86 year-old founder of the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi, Fr. Marcial Maciel. The Legionaries are one of the fastest growing male religious congregations in the Church, with 650 priests and 2,500 seminarians. Regnum Christi, a lay movement seeking holiness through extending Christ's kingdom on earth, numbers about 50,000.
As can be read on page three of this edition, on May 19th, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) concluded a lengthy investigation of several accusations by former teenage seminarians from the 1940s through 1960s against Fr. Maciel. With the explicit approval of Pope Benedict, the CDF decided to drop the canonical process against him upon his agreement to live a "reserved life of prayer and penance, renouncing all public ministry." He will still be allowed to celebrate Mass privately, but all public preaching and teaching, so much a part of his priestly and religious life up until now, is a thing of the past.
Fr. Maciel has strenuously and continuously denied the allegations against him, and, as a message released by the Legionaries on Friday said, "following the example of Christ, [has] decided not to defend himself in any way." In a 2002 written statement, he declared, "Before God and with total clarity of conscience I can categorically state that the accusations brought against me are false." Such actions on his part, if he is innocent, would testify to a faith and holiness in him even greater than his spiritual sons and daughters have long believed. It is hard to fathom, though, that the members of the CDF would have acted in this manner unless they considered the allegations demonstrably accurate.
This action by the CDF shows that no one, including the founder of one of the most successful and favored religious congregations and lay movements of the last century, is "above the law." Against all naysayers, it also evinces just how seriously the Church at the highest levels, out of love for victims, takes even the oldest allegations of the sexual abuse of minors.
The Lord wishes to draw good out of this evil, too — be it the evil of the sexual abuse of minors by a man who has also been a palpable instrument of God, or, the less likely alternative, the evil of a conspiracy of falsified allegations against him. The Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi released a statement saying that they hope to be instruments of that good. "With a profound spirit of obedience and faith," they said, they were renewing their commitment "to live [their] charism of charity and extend the Kingdom of Christ serving the Church." At this tremendously hard time for them, the whole Church should pray that God will bless those good and holy commitments.
Father Roger J. Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, MA and Executive Editor of The Anchor, the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River.
