Abstract
This substantial book has its origins in an important theological conference held at the Milltown Institute in Dublin in April 2011. It is a serious theological reflection on broken lives, broken faith, and a broken Catholic Church because of the horrific sexual abuse of children by clergy and religious in Ireland and inadequate institutional responses. Before the conference, there had been three State enquiries: Ferns (2005), which investigated the responses of Church and civil authorities to allegations in the Diocese of Ferns, Ryan (2009), which inquired into child abuse in industrial schools, and Murphy (2009), which examined the way allegations of the abuse of children in the Archdiocese of Dublin from 1975 to 2004 were handled by the Church and civil authorities. Ferns found that the diocese had failed to report allegations to the civil authorities and was also critical of the police and local health authorities. Ryan revealed a shameful catalogue of abuse and neglect over 35 years. And Murphy concluded that the Dublin Archdiocese’s principal preoccupations, until the mid-1990s, had been the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the Church’s reputation, and the preservation of its own assets. Shortly after the conference, the Cloyne report (July 2011) would lead the Taoiseach to severely criticize the Vatican for what he called its dysfunction, disconnection, elitism, and narcissism, and to declare that the relationship between the Church and the Irish State could never be the same again.
The excellent introduction to this book, by co-editor Patrick Claffey, surveys the horrendous scène de crise for Irish Catholicism as depicted in these State reports. The first part of the book then listens to the narratives of the victims. The second part recognizes that theology on its own is unable to probe and analyse the depths of the crisis and draws therefore on psychology, history, and sociology. And the third and final part offers some hope through a number of theological reflections on how the community of the Church might move forwards despite the obviously enormous difficulties.
The narratives begin with ‘a cry from the depths’ by Patrick McCafferty. Despite his despair at a Church that doesn’t listen to him, McCafferty finishes on a note of hope and derives some comfort from Benedict XVI on Christ’s descent to hell. In another narrative, Bernadette Fahy tells of how she was subjected to inhumane treatment in the ‘care’ of Goldenbridge industrial school where, according to Ryan, physical punishment was pervasive, unpredictable, and arbitrary.
Ryan concluded that the deferential and submissive attitude of the Department of Education towards the Congregations running the reformatory and industrial schools compromised its ability to carry out its statutory duty of inspection. In his contribution, historian, Dáire Keogh, provides an expert analysis of the complex Church-historical, social, and political factors which led to this situation. Apart from the Church itself, medical officers were negligent, education inspectors and the Gárdaí turned a blind eye, and intellectuals failed their people, while a supine judiciary collaborated in the institutionalization of hopeless and helpless children. This criminal neglect, Keogh concludes, on the part of the Church, the State, and Irish citizens is a stinging indictment of an entire society. The American journalist and Vatican-observer, John L. Allen Jr, doubts if the crisis will have the same devastating impact on the Church in non-Western cultures and he wonders if, in the long run, it will be remembered as another chapter in the decline of Catholicism in the West and the passing of the torch to the southern hemisphere. Another co-editor of the book, systemic psychotherapist, Marie Keenan, who has since authored a significant volume on child sexual abuse and the Catholic Church, provides a multi-layered perspective on the problem. It is Keenan’s view that sexual abuse by Catholic clergy is a product of the social world, cognitive understandings, and the organizational context in which the men live and work. In keeping with her systemic paradigm, she concludes that preventing and responding adequately to child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy is dependent on structural, theological, and ecclesiological reform, as well as on individual transformation. An interesting philosophical–sociological chapter by Michael Cronin of Dublin City University claims that we have inherited new states of fear that are profoundly dehumanizing and destructive. But Cronin thinks that by breaking with its past representations, the Church can form part of a new coalition of hope. Psychologist Lynn M. Levo makes the case for a revision of our understanding of being sexual and for alternative and inclusive models of leadership in Church and society. Geraldine Smyth, known for her work on reconciliation, draws on insights from Northern Ireland’s way of dealing with its troubled past to suggest hope for truth in the Church, but without recourse to cheap grace or premature closure. And there is a very good theological deconstruction of the problem of clericalism by theologian Tom Whelan, who opens a theological conversation on the causes and expressions of privilege and self-protection which resulted in the Church’s failure to reach out to victims.
In the final part of the book, which looks to the future, Scripture scholar Kieran O’Mahony turns to St Paul as a mentor for a recovering Church. Ecclesiologist Gerard Mannion sees the sexual abuse crisis as an acute symptom of a much deeper malaise and, rather than a ‘retreatist’ mentality, he calls for a new period of ecclesial catharsis. Gerry O’Hanlon, from the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, proposes inclusive consultation and dialogue, given the loss of trust in the Church’s leadership in Ireland and the failure of the communio ecclesiology of Lumen gentium to be implemented. If a new vision of the Church is to be realized, he stresses that there will have to be more openness to structural conversion. And, finally, underlining the book’s subtitle, another co-editor, Joe Egan, traces trajectories towards healing and wholeness, truth and reconciliation. While it is little wonder, as Egan puts it, that faith mirrors the brokenness of people, visibly disheartened by hypocrisy, double standards, and manifold failures in discipleship and leadership, he still has the courage to believe in ecclesial renewal and that the journey continues under the guidance of the one who sustains us in hope.
This book is essential reading for everyone with a stake in the Church after decades of revelations of sexual abuse and institutional failure which have been devastating for both victims and the Church’s social credibility. While it is based on the proceedings of a conference, the co-editors are to be commended for its being well put together, readable, challenging, and constructive.