From the WSJ Opinion Archives
HOUSES OF WORSHIP
Cardinal Law, Unto Himself
The last straw: an advocate of man-boy love is commended.
In Boston, when the archbishop enters a room, everyone stands. Long after Kennedy liberalism replaced traditional Catholicism as the dominant local orthodoxy, respect for the office of the Catholic archbishop has endured.
Or it did endure, until this year. Now, in the space of a few short weeks, a scandal involving the sexual misconduct of Catholic priests has reduced the current archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Law, to a target of public outrage. Many believe his resignation to be imminent.
The scandal erupted in January, when the Boston Globe won a court order releasing the documents from lawsuits against John Geoghan, a defrocked priest who was accused of molesting dozens of youngsters during his years of ministry in Boston. The documents showed that Cardinal Law, and his predecessor, Cardinal Humberto Medeiros, had repeatedly given Geoghan new parish assignments even after they became aware of his predatory sexual habits.
That evidence showed a shocking disregard for the welfare of the Catholic faithful. But Cardinal Law's defenders could still argue that he had acted out of a misplaced compassion or had placed too much confidence in the advice of psychologists. So even as the scandal took on frightening new dimensions--more stories of priestly misconduct, more lawsuits--the cardinal could cling to a thread of credibility. He had made mistakes, he admitted. But they were the result of inadequate information.
On Monday, the thread snapped. In a sensational news conference, a Boston attorney released documents showing conclusively that the archdiocese had continued and even advanced the career of the Rev. Paul Shanley despite abundant evidence that the priest was actively involved in pedophilia. Father Shanley had issued public statements and written columns in the gay press advocating sexual relations between adult men and young boys. He had evidently admitted his own involvement with several boys during his years of high-profile ministry as a "street priest" in Boston. Yet once again he was allowed to continue in parish work and even appointed by Cardinal Law to head his own parish, long after his sexual activity was known to chancery officials.
Even after Father Shanley was finally removed from active ministry in Boston in 1990, archdiocesan officials hid his transgressions. Incredibly, one auxiliary bishop of Boston (Robert Banks, now the bishop of Green Bay, Wis.) assured officials of a California diocese that they had no reason to worry about Father Shanley's background. Another (William Murphy, now of Rockville Center, N.Y.) assured the wayward priest that he would not disclose his whereabouts when plaintiffs' attorneys came calling. Cardinal Law himself wrote to Father Shanley in 1996, thanking him for his "years of generous and zealous care." He even recommended him for a position in a New York City home for troubled youngsters.
These revelations battered not only the reputation of Cardinal Law but the morale of ordinary Catholics in Boston. Critics of the church could barely contain their glee, and dissident Catholics called for radical changes in doctrine and practice. But the blows fell most heavily on those faithful Catholics who love the church and embrace its teachings. Dismayed, confused and angry, they wondered whether their outrage should be directed at the relentless media coverage or at the gross episcopal neglect it had seemingly laid bare.
The correct answer: Blame the bishops. The scandal in Boston--like similar stories elsewhere--exposes a grave pattern of institutional corruption. Too many bishops have been serving the interests of their office rather than the needs of the faithful.
The fact that this crisis for Catholicism revolves around sexual misconduct is not coincidental either. For too long Catholic pastors have given lip service to the more controversial Church teachings on sexual behavior while quietly tolerating the violation of those norms. Most prelates have chosen to ignore the abundant evidence that many Catholic married couples use contraceptives and that many Catholic priests are active homosexuals. The gross inconsistency between public teaching and private practice has given rise to a culture of hypocrisy and secret vice.
"I am not ashamed of the Gospel," wrote St. Paul in his Letter to the Romans. And I, for one, am not ashamed of the church's teachings on sexual morality. Like many other Catholics, I am looking for leaders who can say the same.
Mr. Lawler, a Lancaster, Mass.-based journalist, is editor of the Catholic World Report.
