No Easy Resurrection

By now it should be clear to the Holy See that, even if the media really are out to get you, playing the victim in the abuse crisis is unwise. It simply invites variations of the sarcastic response, 'Oh, we thought that it was children who were the victims'. An online comment put it thus: 'First they spend years blaming the victims, now they are the victims?'.

A recent Vatican media disaster of this nature was an unfortunate comparison between attacks on the Church and anti-semitism. This succeeded in simultaneously enraging the Jewish community and abuse victims. A Jewish online commentator wrote acidly: 'They're sitting in the papal palace, they're experiencing a little discomfort, and they're going to compare themselves to being rounded up...and sent in cattle cars to Auschwitz? You cannot be serious.'

There is no early or easy recovery from the diminishment the Church is currently experiencing. How could there be given that these are crimes against children which have been covered up? More 'death and dying' is therefore all too likely, including in Africa, as Archbishop Buti Tlhagale reminded us on Holy Thursday. This 'dying' will include the acceptance of terrible truths, a humiliating fall from grace and the letting go of old habits and comforting presuppositions about our Catholic moral high ground.

And real, painful change. The Church in the UK has shown the way forward here by opening itself to the scrutiny and advice of secular outsiders. The Vatican has commended this move, but will other local churches follow suit? And could the Vatican itself permit independent, outside examination and follow the advice given?

As the media battles continue the danger is of becoming focussed on defensive defensive damage-control and public relations at the expense of public responsibilities particularly the safety of future generations of children. To shoulder these properly more knowledge is needed. Research on how child-abusers get into the priesthood and religious life and what triggers their destructive behaviour is clearly required. We also need to know if it's true that paedophiles seek out the priesthood or religious life as places in which they erroneously believe they can lock away their destructive sexuality. And do they also naturally seek out communities of celibates where they will be accepted and respected? A further question concerns power and its abuse and whether a sense of impunity comes with the elite, male, celibate, clerical status.

If such psychological hunches are indeed true we may have to acknowledge that abusers can subconsciously 'hide out' in the priesthood and religious life, using them as a kind of 'camouflage'. A really difficult question which this raises is whether the celibate lifestyle is inherently attractive to abusers? And if so what does this mean for the selection and formation of men for the celibate life? These are hard questions and the institutional Church's instincts are not to face them; but she must. We need the answers in order to build in effective safeguards.

However, while facing up to the sinfulness and humanity of the Church, the Christian has also to hold onto the truth that she has the promise of the Lord's abiding presence with her 'until the close of the age'. This crisis will eventually pass and resurrection will arrive. But the signs are that this generation will have to wait for it in deep humility, ruthless soul-searching and great patience.