What the crisis is not

As reports of alleged sexual abuse against minors by clergy became known across various parts of North America, a number of theories have surfaced about the cause of this behaviour. Those who are entrusted with the task of addressing this issue must be clear on what it is about as well as what it is not.

Some of the misunderstandings about the roots of this crisis are:

A belief that it was caused by the Church's rule about celebacy for priests

Every man who is ordained for service as a priest in the Roman Catholic Church makes a promise to live out his vocation in the state of celebacy. Those entrusted with the priest's formation testify as to his ability to commit to this and to the other responsibilities he accepts with Ordination, but it is ultimately the candidate himself who comes forward to make this promise before the Church, represented by the Ordaining bishop and the community that is gathered for the celebration.

The crisis of sexual abuse by clergy does not involve those who are 'faithful celebates, but men who ... failed to live the vows they made'. (Courage, p. 37)

In the present-day culture which is experiencing some of the highest rates of marital breakdown, and in which sex seems to be something experienced primarily for pleasure, it is perhaps difficult to fathom the possibility of living one's entire life committed to celibate chastity.

'Read through the lens of the sexual revolution, celibacy is peculiar at best and pathological at worst ... (from this point of view) celibates might be believed to be especially prone to sexual predation because they are maladjusted psychologically and require some for of release ... for their sexual tension.' (Courage, p. 38)

In reality, those priests who have been accused, tried and found guilty of sexual abuse are in the minority compared with the vast number of others who live their lives committed to prayer and service of God's people.

A belief that the Church is authoritarian in it's structure

Some would believe that this crisis is a result of an authoritarian approach to the administration of the Church. In reality, this could not be further from the truth.

The Holy Father is the Bishop of Rome, and does indeed carry the responsibility of Pastor of the Universal Church. However he exercises his ministry in communion with all other bishops throughout the world. Despite the belief that the Pope is somehow an overseer of the pastoral activity of the bishops of particular dioceses, it is in fact the bishops themselves who are entrusted with full pastoral responsibility for the administration of their local churches.

Priests who have been assigned as pastors of parishes exercise their ministry in collaboration with their local bishops. Their authority to lead is given to them by the local bishop as an extension of his pastoral responsibility for the well-being of souls committed to his care.

If anything, priesthood is not about authority but about service.

A belief that this is a crisis of 'pedophelia'

The clinical definition of a pedophile is one who abuses children, but 'pedophile priests - in the classic sense of men who habitually abuse prepubescent children - are not the majority of clerical sexual abusers; they are in fact, a small minority ...' (Courage, p. 47)

In fact, the majority of cases being reported in the United States involve teenaged boys or young males, and not pre-pubescent children.

All abuse of minors, in fact abuse of anyone is abhorent, but reporting about the situation should be as acurate as possible.

A belief that this is a response to the Church's sexual ethic

Some critics who were quick to venture opinions about the source of the problem tried to portray this as a resonse to the Church's 'medieval' sexual ethic, but the fact is that 'sexual abusers are manifestly and unmistakably not living the Church's sexual ethic. On the contrary, they are doing what the Catholic Church condemns' (Courage, p. 54)

Throughout a series of Wednesday audiences delivered early in his pontificate, John Paul II outlined what has become known as the 'theology of the body'. According to this teaching, 'the Catholic sexual ethic holds that sexual love is a matter of self-giving, not self-assertion - as indeed all genuine love is a matter of self-gift, not self-assertion'. (ibid)

The Church's sexual ethic is therefore meant to affirm and celebrate sexual love, in the context of the Sacrament of Marriage and with the aim of cooperating with God in the act of creation. Sex should never be used as a source of power for to do so is to abuse the gifts we have received from the Lord.

Against the backdrop of a society which is increasingly tolerant of sex for the sake of entertainment, the Church is countercultural in proclaiming the message of sexuality as a God-given gift which should be celebrated in the context of fidelity since the One who has first offered it continues always to be faithful (1 Thes 5:24).