Abusing power and powerlessness is a paradox that put the Catholic Church in the crisis it is in today, Timothy Radcliffe told a packed auditorium last night at Boston College.
Radcliffe, Dominican friar of the English Providence, criticized the Church’s policy of unaccountability for sexual abuse cases in his lecture titled ‘The Church of Today: The Crisis of Maturity.’
‘We are at ‘ground zero’ of the Church crisis,’ said Fred Lawrence, director of the Lonergan Society at Boston College, before Radcliffe spoke.
Because sexual abuse is primarily an exploitation of power, Radcliffe argued, ‘it’s not so much about sex.’ The priests committing these acts, he continued, were unable to form relationships with people like themselves and preyed on those whom they could control children.
‘This crisis is basically about power,’ said Radcliffe. ‘It’s a small minority [of priests], and you can’t blame it on celibacy or the high percentage of gay priests; it’s their sexual and emotional immaturity.’
Radcliffe framed his second criticism, ‘the crisis of leadership,’ by asking the audience why the Church hierarchy is not legally held accountable for injustices committed by priests. Attributing it to powerlessness, Radcliffe suggested that a lack of communication intensified an already controversial situation.
‘The bishops seemed paralyzed, caught between the Vatican and the media, and the priests seemed powerless because there was no leadership,’ he said.
An overwhelmed and similarly weak public had no dependable leaders, he added.
While this is ‘the most profound crisis it has ever lived through,’ the Church can only regain its integrity if bishops are held accountable for concealing records of acts of sexual abuse committed by priests, Radcliffe said. Part of this responsibility relies also on members of the Church, he added, to recognize such abuses of power instead of blindly accepting them.
‘There’s no act of Christian power unless there is understanding that is based on asking questions and raising objectives in active learning,’ he said. ‘Passive acceptation of authority is actually intrinsically un-Christian. [Priests] cannot be a class of people who are unanswerable to the people of God.’
Radcliffe said he hoped Christian universities like Boston College would instill these values in their students to prevent similar crises.
‘I would hope somewhere, in colleges like BC, [management] would form its people as responsible. They should be confident enough to speak their minds and listen to others,’ he said.
Radcliffe offered a medium of reform to the Church’s existing hierarchy the internet. Praising the internet’s horizontal distribution of power and hospitality to information, Radcliffe contrasted this to the Church’s ‘monarchical ideas,’ centralization and history of concealment.
‘The World Wide Web offers undistorted communication and information that is not deformed by injustice, domination or exclusion,’ he said. ‘[This idea is] in the stage of creativity; the Church can use it not only for preaching but for contacting different churches and different parts of the Church around the country and the world.’
Some audience members raised concerns about how their voices can be heard in decrying injustices ‘without being part of noisy American culture.’ Radcliffe stressed the importance of accountability for the cleric and the laity.
‘The media reflects a new form of power, public opinion, which calls us all into account. We cannot protest at being called into account,’ Radcliffe said. ‘But we are in a world of total disclosure [in the Church], haunted by silence, denial and unaccountability.’
Those leaving the lecture praised Radcliffe’s words.
‘The man is so integrated, profound and poetic. For me, he really embodies the tradition of the Catholic Church, and is so authentic to me that it’s inspiring,’ said Sister Mary Jane Sullivan of the Religious of the Sacred Heart.
Although Westwood resident Thomas Nee said he had trouble understanding Radcliffe’s English accent, he too praised the lecturer.
‘He was very open, fresh and original,’ Nee said. ‘He would have been right at home in [either] the most anti-Catholic or pro-Catholic audience.’
With words of encouragement, Radcliffe closed his lecture by challenging Christians to act ‘counterculturally’ to reform in the Church’s structure. He stressed that looking at the internal relationships would not be enough; it was up to Christians to ‘always incarnate these questions in the powers of the world in which we live.’
‘It’s very reassuring to see that the Church was born in a crisis of powerlessness at the Last Supper, when it all went to bits. It was in this context that Jesus performed the most powerful gesture in the life of the Church,’ he explained. ‘We don’t need to be afraid of crisis. The Church is renewed, revitalized and rejuvenated by crisis.’