Cardinal McCarrick was born in 1930. Blaming his behaviour, or that of Fr Maciel (born 1929), Fr Cunningham (born 1931), Fr Shanley (born 1931) or many other serial predators on a culture which is accepting of sexual deviance and promiscuity is looking at the 1950s through the lens of a sexual revolution that arrived much later. That revolution is no doubt behind many other pastoral problems in the Church. . . . But I think paedophilia and the sexual coercion of those in subordinate positions is a perennial human problem.My correspondent is pretty clearly referring to the John Jay Report's 2004 conclusions on what might be called the "First Crisis" in the Church, the systematic protection of pedophile priests that culminated in Cardinal Law's 2002 departure from Boston for Rome, as well as a subsequent study released in 2011, also by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. A typical summary of the 2011 report reads,
The rise in abuse cases in the 1960s and 1970s was influenced by social factors in society generally,” said the independent report. The study found that some priests were unprepared for the pressures brought on by the social upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s, especially the influence of the sexual revolution. The study specifically rejected claims that the sex-abuse problem was fueled by clerical celibacy or by homosexuality within the ranks of the clergy.However, we're now looking at what's sometimes being called a "Second Crisis" of sex abuse in the Church, and this is leading to a redefinition of the problem. For instance, at about 42:00 in this video, Bp Morlino of Madison, WI discusses the need for the US bishops to have the authority to investigate allegations against Cardinal McCarrick "and so much more".
He goes on to say, "I'm much more concerned now about situations that might be continuing, than I am about that one which has been stopped."
My immediate reaction to the Pennsylvania grand jury report that was issued in August was that it was basically rehashing the same issues that had been addressed in the John Jay studies, and which the Church had already moved substantially to correct via the Virtus program and increased vigilance by bishops.
But the focus of the current crisis -- less than two months old, if we cite the August 14 Pennsylvania report as its start -- quickly changed with the testimony of Abp Viganò on August 25, in which he raised allegations against Cardinal McCarrick not just of child abuse, but of active sexual predation against adults, which in turn was tacitly tolerated and covered up by the Vatican.
The problem Bp Morlino is referring to isn't one of child sexual abuse. At about 50:00, Morlino and Raymond Arroyo move to the more central question: the cases of child sexual abuse have been litigated and resolved, and they were actually less prevalent than in other institutions. The ongoing problem is same-sex conduct among adults -- Arroyo uses the term "consenting", but Morlino points out that "we're going to lose seminarians" if it continues. It's just a version of the casting couch, if we extend Morlino's implication, and if the culture is so widespread, it isn't really consent that's involved.
I can't remember where I first read this, but now and then I've seen references to the idea that the John Jay reports, funded as they were in large part by the US bishops, were a deliberate misdirection. The reports themselves, in fact, were careful to tread around the question of whether there was a "gay problem" rather than a "pedophile problem". In the "Second Crisis", I think were being forced back to a question of whether it's in fact a "gay problem". But as I've said here before, it's going to take more than one pope and more than one saint to work it through.
