By Fr Mathew Thankachen O.Praem.
The Church is in agony and ecstasy — the agony of diminishing ‘practicing Catholics”, ‘decreasing priestly vocation and increasing sexual abuse on the one hand in the world over and ecstasy of growing church in the Afro- Asian continents on the other.
The Unholy Side
According to BBC, in the previous year alone, Germany reported 300 sex abuse, Netherlands 200, Switzerland 60 (in 15 years) and Austria 5 priests were suspended from the same monastery. Someone remarked, “It’s like Tsunami”. Psychotherapists and counseling centers are digging out cases starting from 1940 or so and are flourishing in their business. Ireland is said to be “rocked by the abuse of minors” and Pope Benedict XVI had written to the Irish Catholics, asking forgiveness for the pedophilic abuse by priests to help in the process of “repentance, healing and renewal”. Pope Francis too had to take many a hard decision in dismissing even Cardinals from the Church. And now he promulgated the document against paeidophlia by priests known as ‘Vademecum’ (July 2020) in the light of both the Eastern and the Western Canon Law.
Even in India, some of the priests are under the iron bar for life while the case of a bishop is pending in the civil court. It’s a warning if the priests of the Church are not “faithful to Christ,” although Christ is faithful, Church as an Institution will wither away as did the Communism from the world. The laity too has a great role to play to foster ‘healthy family’ where the seed of prayer, faith and faithfulness is sown and grown.
The failure of the Church is the failure of the nation for faith in God, Christ and Church holds the family, society together as one nation. Now what the West do is sitting on the branch and cutting down the stem. They forget they are what they are today because of the Church, despite many shortcomings could be pointed out in the officials of the Church which might be true and valid. It is better to remember when there are one or two scandalous priests, how many holy Catholic priests live their life in prayer and penance, to the extent of ready to die for Christ even in the West.
Vocation is not an ‘isolated event’ in the life of an individual; rather the ‘family upbringing’ has a great role in the life and motivation of the priests/ religious. If they have sexual deviation, the priest alone cannot be totally blamed, yet such behavior of the priests can neither be condoned nor go unpunished.
Close Encounters of Different Kinds
Today, media and counseling centers bombard news and blows it out of proportions. Besides, the criteria of the measuring code of sexual abuse differ from time to time and from countries to countries. For instance, in 1940, the boarding children might have been treated with strict physical punishments like canning to discipline a notorious boy, of course with good intention. However, his youth and later life, he grew as a ‘mentally troubled boy’. When that man is counseled in 1970, any look, physical touch (fondling and peddling) etc. is already interpreted as “sexually motivated”. The moral value existed in 1940 comes into conflict with that of 1970 and the teacher / priests could be trapped.
For instance, until two years back, any teacher in the Indian school could punish a girl or a boy by canning or pinching. Nobody called it “sexual or immoral”. But today, the court forbids it. In India, if a boy puts his hand over the shoulder of another boy, seldom anybody will brand it as “homosexual” rather, the society very much restricts the act if a boy behaves the same with a girl.
As the culture changes, values, morality and behavior pattern changes. Today, we have a generation growing with no pain, no cross, no punishment, no syllabus (open syllabus), no teacher (IT aided), no exams (all promotions with grades). As both parents are working, they have neither any family relation nor any teacher –pupil’s relations. Such ‘hedonists’ finding their ‘sexual deviation’ as an outlet from the childhood in an open, sex – free society, admitting neither parental nor teachers’ authority (they might shoot a teacher or parents if they are a block to satiate their passion) and when they in one fine morning decides to become a priest or nun for reasons known to them alone (for a psychological screening of motivation alone cannot help), one will be only surprised, if such deviation is not shown in them.
Eroding Morality
Due to the cultural mobility and ‘mobile culture’, the moral base of every nation is eroding gradually. Herein lays the significance of the role of ‘Religion’ and ‘family’ to hold together relationship, unity with God and neighbor, the basic unit of relationship and personal integrity. A society, nation, Church centered on ’secularism’, this worldly as the prime occupation, (existentialism) cannot hope for something better (eschatological) and hence, no question of ‘sacrifice’. Love is in sacrifice.
“No love is greater than a man lay down his life for his friend,” St. Augustine said, “love and do anything you want”, for you can never do anything wrong if you love, for love always seeks the welfare of others. It is an inner dynamism of “altruism”. This “sacrificial love” cannot be experienced in the families of today because the parents need no more sacrifice and the children no more experience the same from the parents in the abundant, material affluence of the family and society of the consumerist culture. Here, Christ’s sacrificial love on the Cross at Calvary for the redemption of mankind remain merely a theory and will never touch the heart. A priest’s life ought to be a “sacrifice” in order to offer sacrifice at the altar. The vow of celibacy is a means to achieve this goal of greater sacrifice to the service to the humanity.
In a family and society where one has no time for the other, and the child growing up with ‘auto player’ and ‘closed door’, he cannot imbibe balanced ‘Emotional Quotient from the mother or ‘rational/ moral IQ. from the father. As a matter of fact, there will be no coordination between the Emotional and Rational Quotient. They will run parallel, causing emotional turbulences, leading to ‘immature and sneaky” behavior.
In a normal man, the affective mind will be intervened and screened by the rational mind and vice versa. In the words of St. Paul, “The whole creation is groaning for redemption”. Sexual deviation is the result of a sum total of complex factors like family, society and religion etc.
Jesus said, “the kingdom of God belongs to the little children” and to those followed Him, he said, “unless you are born again”. This is the basic orientation of being “born eunuch”. “Purity of heart”, bearing “the heart of a child” but never can afford to be “childish”.
The act of pedophilia is a childish act, a basic breach of trust, affecting the reputation as the “guardian of morality” not only individually, but for the whole Church. Sexual deviation, hence is a “perverted act”. It is a mental deviation like any other psychical illness like suicidal tendencies, homo sexuality or alcoholism. Proper counseling and treatment may do some good.
The ultimate malice is “not experiencing love from the parents, parishioners and own community” that has a root deep within the family and social background. “When you love one another, they will know you are my disciples”. Love is relational, a capacity to reach out. In the words of St. Paul, “Love does not rejoice in wrong, but in right, not boastful, seeks other’s welfare”.