October
3, 2002, 9:00 a.m. Theological
Malpractice
The roots of
scandal.
By Father Matthew
Lamb
he coverage
of the Catholic-abuse scandals in the media seems second only to the coverage
of the war on terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11.
No adequate diagnosis
of the contributory causes of the Catholic-priest-abuse scandals can overlook
the role of dissent among theologians. I am afraid that we theologians
have failed to acknowledge our own failures and the lies, to use St. Augustine's
strong language, which we have been communicating in our teaching and
writings.
To what extent, for
example, have we been responsible for students losing or weakening their
Catholic faith and moral, virtuous practice? Our society does not force
one to belong to a particular religion. When theologians claim to be Catholic,
while dissenting from important Church teachings, they are living a lie.
They hold theological positions that might be espoused in another Christian
denomination, but instead of honestly joining that denomination, they
claim they are still Catholic.
Surveys and studies have for some time been charting the sorry consequences
of this schism in the soul of Catholic theologians. Graduates of Catholic
schools are woefully ignorant of basic tenets of the faith, worship, and
morality. Dissent thrives in this ignorance as it seeks to rationalize
the prejudices and preferences of disordered minds, hearts and lives.
The vibrant light of divine faith and holiness that shines so clearly
in the lives of the saints — think of someone like Mother Teresa
— is jeopardized by ignorance and darkened by dissent.
How many of the priests and bishops who have brought such suffering to
minors and scandal to the public were encouraged by teachers and theologians
to cut corners and dissent from this or that truth of Catholic faith and
moral teachings? Many priests and future bishops read articles dissenting
from Catholic sexual ethics in the 1960s and 70s.
The book was severely
criticized by the Committee on Doctrine of the United States Catholic
Conference of Bishops in 1977, and censored by the Vatican Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1979 for its "erroneous principles"
and distortions of Catholic teachings. Despite these authoritative censures,
the Catholic Theological Society of America did not demand that the authors
of the study rework the book, nor has the society in any way ever publicly
repudiated the book's flagrant dissent from official Catholic teachings.
In the same year
that the book was first censored by the Committee on Doctrine, then-Fr.
Shanley echoed its dissent and erroneous principles when he maintained
that "homosexuality is a gift of God and should be celebrated,"
and said there was no sexual activity that caused psychic damage, "not
even incest or bestiality" (October 1977 speech). In the year the
book was censored by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Shanley
co-founded the North American Man-Boy Love Association. The Catholic Theological
Society of America has few assets. If it had the kind of assets large
dioceses do, one wonders if lawyers for the victims of abuse would be
filing theological malpractice suits against the society.
When the history
of this tragic scandal is written, the role of dissent on the part of
Catholic theologians will play a central role, as it already has in George
Weigel's The
Courage to Be Catholic and in the reports on the scandals by Fr.
Richard Neuhaus in First
Things. They show that the present crisis is rooted in the infidelity
of Catholic clerics and laity to Catholic doctrinal and moral teachings.
No amount of spin to justify dissent will do justice to the sufferings
such infidelity and dissent has wrought on so many.
—
Father Matthew L. Lamb is a professor of theology at Boston College.
he coverage
of the Catholic-abuse scandals in the media seems second only to the coverage
of the war on terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11.
