Phil Brennan
Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2002

How in the name of all that's holy could a prince of the Roman Catholic Church and assorted bishops have conspired to cover up some of the most sickening crimes it is possible for a human being to commit against another human being?

That's a question that vexes most Catholics and outrages most non-Catholics. The very idea that men ordained to serve God and his people could either sin so grievously against their parishioners, or protect those who did so, is a concept so alien that the average Catholic mind at first rejects the possibility.

But it has happened, and in the Archdiocese of Boston it happened repeatedly over the years, both prior to Cardinal Law's time as archbishop and during his long reign.

It's easy to react with rage, to condemn Law and those of his subordinates who cooperated in the cover-up. The demands that he resign, that the legal authorities make him account and pay for his lapses, while legitimate, fail to address the underlying problem.

While I'm not the least bit interested in making excuses for this much-besieged cleric, on reflection I can understand how it happened. Not why, but how.

To understand how the Church came to this sorry pass it is necessary to understand the nature of the Roman Catholic clergy as it exists here in America, and for all I know, throughout the world.

The first factor that has influenced the behavior of Cardinal Law and other members of the hierarchy is the status of that clergy. Simply put, it is an elite. And elites always exhibit certain traits that can, and often do, lead them into deep waters.

When I say an elite, I mean in the sense that police departments and the United States Marine Corps are elites. And elites, because they stand outside the ordinary societal structures to which they consider themselves superior, will go to great lengths to protect their members. It's always an us-against-them thing.

With the police, for example, there is the notorious "blue wall" – the unwritten code that demands police officers close ranks and shelter their fellow cops whenever they are attacked by those outside the force. The cover-up is a standard defense.

The same is true with Marines. I can recall actions taken to protect fellow Marines in trouble. One specific case I remember involved a Marine who had gotten a woman pregnant. His commanding officer protected him against the consequences of his transgression by transferring him and putting him beyond the reach of the distraught mother-to-be.

In the case of the Church hierarchy, their blue wall exists not only to shelter fellow clergy but also primarily to avoid giving scandal – long seen as a grave consequence in the eyes of the Church. When a member of the clergy commits an act capable of giving scandal that reflects on the mystical Body of Christ, church authorities have traditionally closed ranks and attempted to deal with the problem internally.

Moreover, the ecclesiastical blue wall automatically closes around a member of the clergy whatever his offense. As a member of the elite he's entitled to be protected from having any consequences imposed on him from outside the ranks of the priesthood – such as civil penalties. The attitude of the elite – we'll deal with this ourselves, thank you – swings into action and the ranks close around the offender.

In most cases, the hierarchy simply takes what it sees as the appropriate measures, such as getting the offender away from the scene of his offense, sending him to a monastery for penance and reflection, or simply banishing him from their ranks in extreme cases.

It cannot be emphasized enough that the Roman Catholic Church is a church made up of sinners – a description that fits all of us, Catholic or non-Catholic. We are required to forgive the sins of others. And we are forbidden to judge others "lest [we] be judged."

Assuming sincere repentance and a resolve to go forth and sin no more on the part of an offending cleric, the matter of the offense is considered closed. After all, a priest is a brother priest and as such deserves the utmost compassion. It's a matter of "there, but for the grace of God, go I."

The cases of sexual abuses against the faithful, however, fall into a category far different from any of the other offenses with which the hierarchy has dealt. And herein lies the rub – until very recently the Church was unaware that certain sexual disorders such as pedophilia are simply incurable obsessions.

Dealing with this in the traditional way of the elite cannot and does not work. Unaware of this, the hierarchy fell into the grievous error of accepting the assurances of a bunch of psychiatric witch doctors, who continued to proclaim they had waved their Freudian wands and that Father child abuser had been treated and cured and could safely be restored to his parish assignments. Which he was, repeatedly, and with tragic consequences.

Moreover, the hierarchy simply turned a blind eye toward the presence of homosexuals in their ranks, apparently accepting the assurances of the American Psychiatric Association that homosexuality is no longer considered abnormal behavior. And as many have pointed out, the overwhelming majority of sexual abuse cases involved homosexual priests having sex with teenagers.

All of these factors helped create the scandal now rocking the Church, but at its real roots has been a century-long drift of the hierarchy in America away from their roots and the stern discipline that has protected the Church for 2,000 years.

The bishops have made peace with the world – the world that crucified Jesus Christ and continues to crucify his mystical Body. They have striven to go along to get along with the corrupt powers of the world. And they have accepted the easy morality of the age that finds multiple psychological excuses for all excesses of human behavior.

A hierarchical body that cannot bring itself to censure public figures who publicly support the slaughter of the unborn, or those who promote the practice of unnatural sexual practices, can scarcely be expected to properly discipline those within their own ranks who outrage decency and morality by engaging in those very practices.

A hierarchical body that has allowed the sacred liturgy to be openly abused by dissident clergy who have turned the holy sacrifice of the Mass into some kind of liturgical hoedown can scarcely be expected to rein in those members of their clergy who celebrate sexuality of the most aberrant kind as if it were a recreational pastime instead of a sacredly ordained ritual restricted to the marital state.

If the Church in America is an elite, it damned well ought to act the way an elite such as those cited above – the police and the Marine Corps – act, and stand up for the bedrock beliefs, principles and standards that have been the Church's throughout its 2,000-year history.

Elites don't run for cover. They don't conjure up alibis. They stand and fight.

Faugh 'a Ballagh

Phil Brennan is a veteran journalist who writes for NewsMax.com. He is editor & publisher of Wednesday on the Web (http://www.pvbr.com) and was Washington columnist for National Review magazine in the 1960s. He also served as a staff aide for the House Republican Policy Committee and helped handle the Washington public relations operation for the Alaska Statehood Committee which won statehood for Alaska. He is a trustee of the Lincoln Heritage Institute.

He can be reached at phil@newsmax.com

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