In the newspaper business there are blockbusters and then there
are Blockbusters. Jack Sullivan’s story in the story in the April
13 Boston Herald fell into the latter category. Sullivan,
along with Tom Mashberg and a gaggle of other Herald
staffers, disclosed that Cardinal Bernard Law had tendered his
resignation to the Vatican, which had in turn rejected it and told
Law to stay right where he was.
After the decision was handed down by the Vatican, Sullivan and
company reported that Law dispatched a letter to priests in his
diocese promising to stay in his post “as long as God gives me the
opportunity” and blaming — I am not making this up — a clerical
error for the transfer of child-molesting priest Paul Shanley. The
article had plenty of other interesting nuggets, the most grotesque
of which was that “Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who sources
have said has provided advice to Law in recent weeks, issued a
strong statement that stopped short of urging the cardinal to
reconsider staying.”
In addition to providing more grist for the scandal mill, the
decision threw a monkey wrench into the normal calculus of many
conservative Catholics, who are often inclined to see church
problems in terms of the Pope and the True Faith versus the corrupt
American hierarchy.
On her website, Kathy Shaidle
wrote of the Vatican’s decision to reject the resignation, “Yeah,
can’t have that… It might… LOOK BAD!” (ellipses hers).
National Review’s Rod Dreher wrote a lengthy
column in which he drew on Barbara Tuchman’s analysis of six
corrupt popes who triggered the Reformation. Amy Welborn penned a few words
of advice to fellow Catholics that are as poignant as they are
desperate:
“Start praying. Now. Say rosaries. Make holy
hours. Stop by the church on the way home. Tonight, contemplate the
beauty of God’s night sky and pour out your heart to the Creator,
through Christ whose Body this is. Pray for open hearts. Pray for
openness to the Spirit. Pray for COURAGE. Pray that blinders may be
removed and the gravity of this crisis may be understood. Call in
St. Catherine, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Ignatius Loyola, St.
Charles Borromeo, St. Theresa of Avila and all the great reformer
saints. Pray, pray, and pray again,” she wrote.
The target of the advised prayers is a change of heart by John
Paul II. Commentators from Dreher to Peggy Noonan expressed
disappointment that the pontiff’s annual Easter letter to the
priests of the world didn’t go far enough in addressing the
problem. While the letter condemned child-molesting priests using
strong language, it “seemed both necessary and, sadly,
insufficient,” said Noonan. She hoped that “the pope’s letter was
only a beginning, only a prologue to action more grave and
definitive.”
But, on the face of it, the opposite of decisive action has
occurred. Cardinal Law has offered his resignation only to be
rebuffed by the pope or his underlings. The reported cause of this
is that the Vatican fears a “domino effect” in which the heads of
diocese across the Eastern Seaboard are felled by evidence of past
mismanagement of priest sex scandals.
From one perspective, this is an understandable hesitation. The
priest sex scandal has moved out of Boston and engulfed much of
America. In a recent column, Michael Kelly offered the alarming
statistic that “as many as 2,000 priests have by now been formally
accused.” Lop one large head off and the media and trial lawyers
will thrash about looking for more blood, probably harming many
innocent priests in the process.
But there is also the undeniable fact that the pope, as the
absolute head of his church, is going to have to do
something concrete about this. Too much trust has been
lost. Too many people, Catholic and Protestant alike, are tossing
about the word “Reformation.” Many critics — mostly liberals, but
that could change — are openly challenging John Paul II’s fitness
to deal with this crisis and suggesting that he step aside if he
can not. In short, we’re heading for some kind of a moment, in the
epic sense.
It may arrive tomorrow. The pope has taken the extraordinary
step of calling all of the American cardinals to Rome for a talk on
Saturday. The subject has not been announced but it us easy to see
that the sex scandal will be the sword of Damocles dangling over
the discussion. Whatever the decision reached, it will likely have
ramifications that will reverberate far into the next papacy and
beyond.
Any readers who care about the Church might want to heed Mrs.
Welborn’s advice: Pray, pray, and pray again.
