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Greed Isn't the Cure for Damaged Faith
01/08/2004

It's a commonplace to suggest that research inevitably "discovers" the need for further research. Well, the American Catholic Church's audit of dioceses' activities with respect to child abuse has found — guess what — the need for larger and more pervasive auditing!

That, of itself, would be worth little more than a chuckle. Until we're ready to address the moral corruption at the heart of every facet of the scandal — from the abuse itself to seminarian hothouses to the hierarchical shenanigans to the lackluster force that most Americans bring to their morality and their theology — I suppose we'd best keep a sharp lookout. However, before you read this, you might be well advised to support your jaw:

At issue is a proposal put together by the [Providence] diocese's seven-member lay review panel as a recommendation to Bishop Mulvee. The diocese would offer that all those who had lost their right to sue because of the statute of limitations be offered therapeutic counseling for as long as they live, and a sum of $25,000 each or, as an alternative, arbitration that could raise the compensation to as much as $90,000.

Former Attorney General Dennis J. Roberts II, chairman of the lay advisory panel, said he thought the proposal was a "gift" since it would be going to people who no longer have any legal claim. He said that in offering money to such victims, "we have to be mindful that we can't give away the store."

[Victims' lawyer] DeLuca said the proposal was inadequate, put forward without any real consideration of his clients' needs or what had happened to them. He said some of his clients had been institutionalized and only recently have had the strength to bring their complaints forward.

"They [the diocese] made a cookie-cutter offer, and it's not fair," he said. "To come to the conclusion as to what's to be done without talking to them about the pain in their lives, short-circuits the whole process."

My moral compass may need some tuning, but I'm pretty confident that it is safe to suggest that temporarily sated greed will not cure somebody who is still in spiritual anguish about alleged abuse at the hands of a long-dead or -retired priest. Apparently, "the whole process" being short-circuited is the process of securing DeLuca another "new, black Volvo -- with tiny DVD screens in the headrests facing the backseat."

In the post to which that link goes, I wondered whether the lawyers would call off their suits if the Church acted as, in one of the lawyer's words, "a church, any church, should behave." Well, now we have an answer, and there's a reflected lesson to be learned by it.

Even when they are, as a practical matter, on the side of right, such people act from less-than-laudable motivation. In the opposite way, representatives of the Church ought to ensure that they are acting from the most-laudable motivation for a Church — fidelity to God — even if, by some secular standard, that manifests in ways that might seem wrong as a purely practical matter. I can't shake the feeling that, underneath all of the specifics and pain and accusations, it is passive theology that is inviting attack from wolves who howl falsely to the tune of human sympathy and fairness.

Yes, Mr. DeLuca, let's assess each victim on his (or her) own merits. That way we can ensure that the "compensation" takes the right, most productive, form. And for those whose suffering is either long past or affected their longer lives only minimally... well, surely you'll agree that it is only fair that they get less. Nothing, even.

ADDENDUM:
Just to clarify, by "passive theology," I don't mean theology that encourages passivity, although that's dangerous in excess, too. Rather, I used the term to indicate a theology that is made subservient to other areas of thought, mostly secular — allowing politics or psychology or legality or even fashion to determine one's theology. To be sure, such things ought to inform theology (except fashion) or be considered during the practical application of it, but understanding of God and that which He would have us do must be primary.

Posted by Justin Katz @ 12:17 AM EST