Deliver Us from Evil

During my recent trip to France, I interviewed both the former and current vicars general of the diocese of Nanterre (Paris’s western suburbs). They wanted to know how American church life was going in the wake of the clergy sex-abuse scandal, especially in the places hardest hit. After listening to my observations, they both had the same reaction: “Things have been difficult for the Church in France for a long time, but even so I’m glad I’m here and not there.”

Many American priests can understand what they mean, because they are enduring tough times. For one thing, the scandal is far from over. This week’s Dallas Morning News report on “Runaway Priests” claims more than 200 cases of church officials moving priests from one country to another to elude sex-abuse charges. But even as that scandal threatens to go global, the condition of US priests is a matter for growing concern.

A national picture includes many variations, of course. This past year I saw vastly different pastoral circumstances in San Diego, Miami, Boston, and North Carolina. Even within dioceses, one sees some parishes touched by scandal or abuse or priest shortages or parish closings, while other parishes thrive. Yet some factors are general enough to mention as national concerns.

The Impact of the Scandal. We still have no consensus explanation of why sexual abuse has been so common among clergy, averaging 4% of all priests nationwide and up to 7% in some places. Andrew Greeley’s latest book, Priests: A Calling in Crisis, uses recent Los Angeles Times survey data to counter both conservative claims that homosexual priests were to blame and liberal opinion that celibacy was the key cause. But whatever the explanation, the effect on good clergy is obvious: they must now cope with a wide range of troubling emotions (embarrassment, sadness, fear, anger) while also shouldering the burden of restoring lay people’s confidence and trust. This burden will be lighter in some US dioceses and heavier in others, but it is unwelcome everywhere.

The Impact of the Priest Shortage. This too is more acute in some places and less in others, but in general the term “shortage’ describes a national phenomenon. Greeley’s book argues that priests are not unhappy because they are celibate (most unhappy priests just don’t like their work). But he admits priests are fewer because they are celibate—“It may be the main reason that men don’t become priests.” And that shortage harms both priestly workloads and priestly morale. This can become a vicious cycle: if being too few makes priests unhappy, that only makes recruiting harder. In any case, current church policy locks in a shortage: all evidence shows there are men who experience a calling to priesthood but not to celibacy; imposing celibacy excludes them, and guarantees fewer priests.

Generation Gap. Several studies since the mid-1980s have shown a “u-shaped curve” in data among priests, whereby priests at the ends of the age spectrum (older than 75 and younger than 35) share many common views, in sharp contrast with their brothers in the middle of the spectrum (aged 35-75). So new priests are more like the (retired) priests ordained before Vatican Council II than like the active priests trained in the Council’s agenda for renewal. This generation gap cannot be good for the priests or for those they serve. In any profession, the incoming “rookies” should receive their professional formation primarily from the established “veterans,” but the data suggest many rookie priests resist this. In some extreme cases, younger priests have been indoctrinated with the mission of “cleaning up the mess” their elders made after Vatican II! Facing this, some veteran clergy have begun labeling these younger extremists “Hitler Youth.” This is hardly the recipe for priestly solidarity, or for unified pastoral leadership.

Clergy-Lay relations. Greeley’s analysis reveals that, while priests are generally satisfied with their work, lay people give them low performance grades: “seminaries are failing to turn out successful profession clergy.” My work gives me regular contact with well-educated, competent, professional Catholics hobbled by an immature faith due, in part, to years of preaching that failed to form them and years of leadership that failed to inspire them. Now, given the priest shortage and the hierarchy’s scandalous fall from grace, priests and laity will need each other more than ever. But it’s not at all clear that most priests acknowledge this need to reach out to laity—or know how to do it. “Very few priests,” says Greeley, “seemed to sense that the laity are massively dissatisfied with the quality of priestly ministry.”

Hierarchical Leadership. In many dioceses, the gap between priests in parishes and diocesan officials has also grown alarmingly. The sex-abuse scandal contributed to this gap, because it forced bishops to take action against priests, some of whom were innocent—but also because the bishops’ previous inaction tainted all clergy as part of a cover-up. Moreover, too many bishops have been too quick to press "doctrinally correct” positions on issues like washing women’s feet, denying communion, and same-sex marriage without thinking first of the impact on their priests. Massachusetts bishops, for example, recently distributed legislative “scorecards” on same-sex marriage to all parishes, leaving priests caught in a classic “no-win” situation: if they distribute the scorecards in the parish, they’ll be accused of playing partisan politics; if they don’t, they’ll be accused of disloyalty. Caught between an increasingly cynical laity and a persistently unresponsive hierarchy, many priests feel more pressured and isolated than ever.

When we add it all up—abuse scandal, priest shortage, generation gap, laity dissatisfaction, hierarchical mismanagement—we get the unpretty picture of a band of dedicated men who may love their work but nonetheless face horrendous working conditions. Analysts may argue whether the solution is more, happier, holier priests—but no organization can attract such recruits under these conditions.

No, the conditions themselves must be acknowledged and addressed—if not by the hierarchy, then by priests themselves, hopefully with help from key lay people. We need not agree that altering priests working conditions is the solution to their problems; we need only agree that it is the foundation for any other solutions.

Send Your Comments and Questions to bfswain@juno.com