{"id":257,"date":"2010-05-01T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2010-05-01T00:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=257"},"modified":"2021-11-27T11:30:00","modified_gmt":"2021-11-27T03:30:00","slug":"8-reflections-on-the-current-clerical-sex-scandals-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=257","title":{"rendered":"7. Unfair Media Denigration of the Catholic Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reflections on the current clerical sex scandals [I]<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou shall not bear false witness against your neighbo<\/strong>r<\/span><\/em><\/span>\u201d [Exodus 20:16<\/span>; Deuteronomy 5:20<\/span>].<\/p>\n

\"Image\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fr Adriano Pelosin, PIME missionary, with street children of Thailand<\/span><\/p>\n

Sexual abuse is a heinous crime present throughout society. It is a terrible disservice to the victims when we forget or ignore that, and let other sectarian interests become our prior concern.\u00a0Across many parts of the western world, priest sexual abuse cases haunt Catholic parishes.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A few years before his passing in 1998, Fr. Bernard Haring, the renowned and venerable moral theologian, suggested to Pope John Paul II to invite Amnesty International to come into the Catholic Church to clean up the mess of abuses. His reason was as frank and insightful as it was stunning in simplicity. “Because<\/strong>,” he said, “the Church is unable to correct itself<\/strong>.”<\/span><\/p>\n

We would like to think that the reason Fr. Haring was not “excommunicated” for making such a seemingly “outrageous” claim was a combination of his stature and old age, and the Pope’s magnanimity!<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet the truth, we all know from life, is usually very simple. And this simple truth courageously spoken by a great son of the Church to its supreme leader of the time is worthy of serious meditation by all who love the Church.<\/span><\/p>\n

To be sure, Fr. Haring\u2019s practical suggestion is not without Scriptural precedence. In Scriptural accounts, God often used even pagan nations to bring judgment and correction upon His people when they strayed from their calling as God\u2019s chosen people and holy nation \u2014 when they engaged in cult idolatry, arrogance and every manner of sexual perversion, and mistreating the most vulnerable, widows, orphans, strangers and the least in society.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Church is unable to correct itself<\/strong>.\u201d Structures are too entrenched and for too long. Reform is long overdue. Too much is at stake; there is simply too much of the vested interests to protect. But did Jesus emerge from his cleansing experience in the wilderness – a necessary exercise to take by all who wish to minister in His name\u00a0– to steadfastly live and preach God\u2019s kingdom all the way to Calvary, or did he try to uphold sectarian human interests regardless?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Church is unable to correct itself<\/strong>.\u201d So we can feel a sense of gratitude to the journalists. For thanks to them, they have challenged a stubborn world of church-politics and were instrumental in pushing it towards justice. And thanks to them, the Spirit has been aided precisely in their relentless work to uncover and expose the evils of sex scandals in the Roman Catholic Church as well as elsewhere. That dimension of the media\u2019s contribution towards truth and justice in society cannot be gainsaid, but ought to be duly credited.<\/span><\/p>\n

That said, the current spate of the news media\u2019s target-specific and relentless attacks on the Catholic Church alone has in turn brought discredit to the media, or at least some sectors of the media bent on such an exclusive slant. Whether intentional or otherwise, an exclusive slant tends to distort the over all picture. Even more, as some publications went overboard in this regard, they have unwittingly persuaded many in society, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, to conclude that they are excessive, vindictive, anything but fair, and even malicious in intent. When a news report lacks objectivity, it places its trustworthiness in serious jeopardy, its contribution to society in doubt, and society as a whole pays for its false witness.<\/span><\/p>\n

To be sure, there is no question that the Church must face directly any instance of the heinous crime of sexual abuse of minors perpetrated by a member of the clergy or other church personnel or volunteer. It is strategically wrong, in our view, to shun any light directed upon the Church, however much we may be tempted to do so. For by now, nobody can possibly argue against the need<\/em> to reach out to the victims and learn from any past mistakes, instead of focusing exclusively on protecting the alleged \u201cgood name\u201d of the perpetrators and of \u201cthe church\u201d (we will also need to seriously think what \u201cthe church\u201d means in a future post) as was done before. We are only talking about practical needs; true repentance, though, is something else, and is a very complicated thing..
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

What is often missing from recent news media reports is a proper perspective. Can we Catholics learn something \u2013 some broader issues \u2013 in this media onslaught, before we move on to deal with some major intra<\/em>-Church issues which we, as a faith community, seriously need to do, for our own see-judge-act?<\/span><\/p>\n

For a start, the following five guidelines appear to us to be some objective principles, amongst others, useful to keep in mind when we read any media reports or commentaries from any source:<\/span><\/p>\n

[1] Know where the author is coming from…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In recent months, news reports and media comments on clerical sex scandals have been raining down on us like a plague in Egypt of Moses’ time. For ourselves, to maintain a measure of objectivity when we read the myriad reports and reactions, it is helpful to keep in the forefront of our consciousness where the authors are coming from and where they are going. Every piece of writing, from a theological reflection to a political speech, from a news report to a historical analysis, embodies a position and an attitude. To be clear about their starting points goes a long way towards comprehending their end points – where they intend to take us to – and thereby be better able to objectively assess their positive and negative slants.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2] Exclusive focus on one group is unjust reporting<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

For the light cast by the media to truly be of benefit to victims, to their families and to society as a whole, we must insist upon media-objectivity. We need to discount their objectivity when authors repeatedly focus attention upon a single group, as some patently do on the Roman Catholic Church, without balancing their reporting through directing equal attention on all organizations in the society that deal with children or vulnerable populations. This is “unjust reporting” because it very unjustly makes the Roman Catholic Church out to be the singularly “evil religious institution”, “not a force for good in society” and so on. As the Chinese would put it: “Don’t catch a crook by bamboo-whacking the entire boat!”<\/span><\/p>\n

[3] Failure to give the larger picture exaggerates what is reported<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Pedophilia is not a Catholic problem; it is a problem across the whole spectrum of society. It is a scourge in society and, precisely because of its infliction in the Catholic Church, exposes it as an institution which is all too human, like everyone else. Still, we in the Church must acknowledge that to their credit, those predators in secular organizations did not pretend to be doing God\u2019s work!<\/span><\/p>\n

In her April 8 issue of Newsweek, Pat Wingert states that the scourge of sexual abuse of children \u201cincludes priests and ministers and rabbis, of course, but also family members, friends, neighbours, teachers, coaches, scout leaders, youth-group volunteers, and doctors. According to federal studies, three-quarters of abuse occurs at the hands of family members or others in the victim’s ‘circle of trust.’\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Even more telling, she cites sources and data to show the kind of false witness in media reports. She writes:<\/span><\/p>\n