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Let there be no pretense. The Catholic hierarchy has not provided moral leadership in the sexual crises confronting us. They have not championed the causes of responsibility and honesty, let alone transparency or accountability.

Folks in the pews recognize that any institution that cannot tell the truth about itself has nothing worth listening to.

Four forces have combined to draw attention to the crisis of abuse by clergy.

The persistence and courage of abuse victims blazed the trail. The press (notably the Boston Globe) defied the wrath of gargantuan powers to report the extent and dynamic of Church complicity. Lawyers--mostly Catholic lawyers--have dedicated themselves to the service of justice for victims of ecclesiastical rape. Law enforcement, traditionally reverent toward Catholic clergy, and often cautious to the point of toadyism in the investigation and prosecution of bishops and clergy, has been responsive to the evidence provided by victims.

This shift is epic; it will not go away. Groups like the Voice of the Faithful are a manifestation that these forces for leadership will no longer stand alone. The Church will be heard --regardless of the reticence and even opposition of the hierarchy. Corruption has proceeded from the top down; reform is progressing from the bottom up. This is the pattern of Church history.

Conventional wisdom has it that a new Pope will make a difference. Yes, any new Pope will make "A" difference, but will not make THE difference. The current challenges besieging the Church are more important than any one person and bigger than all of us put together. Remember that Pope Paul III who called the first session of the Council of Trent in 1546 had a mistress and fathered three sons and a daughter. His successor, Pope Julius III who called the second session of the reform council in 1552 was scandalously infatuated with fifteen-year-old boy (he named him a cardinal). The power or the sanctity of a Pope will not reform the Church. It never has. The Church reforms when a sufficient number of men and women demand integrity and honesty from themselves and force transparency and accountability from those who aspire to serve and lead. It has always been so.

There is no question. The Catholic Church is in a reform mode. The core issues are sexual. Witting or not we are part of the history of transition.


Beyond Crisis: VOTF voice of the faithful, Fordham University October 24 & 25, 2003 Lecture

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