The Silence We Keep: A Nun's View of the Catholic Priest Scandal (21 page)

In ancient religions, those called to priesthood by God and the people are given special responsibilities for the life of the church. Called to serve as leaders and ministers of the community at worship, they become keepers of the mysteries of God, guardians and trustees of the church’s sacred rituals, traditions, and teachings. And they are recognized and received by the community as spokespersons of God, mediators between God and the people, those chosen to help us discern the will of God. In every church, its truly ordained priests are those in constant contact with God. They are the ones we turn to when we are in need of divine
intervention. The most sacred and important responsibility of any priest is that of remaining close to God. Like the vestal virgins, they are to keep a constant eye on the sacred fire burning within their own soul and that of the church. In failing to do so, like some vestal virgins, they are as good as being buried alive. They become far worse than good for nothing because
in persona Christi
they begin to use lies to proclaim the truth. In the Gospel of John, Jesus reveals that Satan is among us as the one who lies. “Lying speech is his native tongue,” Jesus says. “He is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). A frightening thought given what we know about the secrets and lies of the fathers.

Given the most sacred responsibilities in the church, the truly ordained priest emerges above all as one touched by God’s Holy Spirit in an extraordinary way, one so close to God and so in touch with the people that he is ordained by both to exercise priestly leadership in the church. Those closest to God become chosen naturally to lead God’s people because only they know how to do so. Only they understand and can be understood. Ordained or not, it’s only closeness to God that can make a priest. There is no such thing as being a priest without it. In the mind of everyone but the Church Fathers, a bad man cannot be a good priest; one’s character and morality have everything to do with the holiness of the sacraments we receive. That’s why we hear such outrage from Catholics over pedophile priests remaining in the priesthood. Without an extraordinary closeness to God, those who assume the sacred responsibilities for the church are doomed to far more than personal failure. Not only do such priests deceive and betray the God in whose name they do everything, but so, too, do they deceive and betray the People of God as well, destroying the truth they are chosen to guard and protect as sacred.

When any priesthood fails in its divine responsibilities to God and the people, as so many Catholics now believe the Church
Fathers have, what happens in the community as a result is divine intervention with and without them. What we see happening today in the church is how clearly the Holy Spirit inhabits the soul of the people. Rising to meet the devastating consequences heaped upon Catholics by sins of its fathers, it’s the priesthood of the people who are beginning to take upon themselves the responsibilities as community builders, ministers of prayer, guardians of sacred truths and traditions, and spokespersons of God. By the divine power of everything that looks like a Second Pentecost, the priesthood of the people is rising as ministers of a new kind of Catholic Church, a new kind of priesthood re-created in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ.

The priesthood of the people appears full of a Holy Spirit the likes of which we haven’t seen since the first Pentecost. It’s the priesthood of the people who appear most capable now of helping restore divine life to a church badly broken and betrayed by its Holy Fathers. By the power of what looks like a Second Pentecost, it’s the people who’ve become the most understanding, the most inclusive, and the most understood. And it’s the voice of the faithful that sounds most priestly, most like the voice of God.

While Jesus never claims the title of priest for himself and invites everyone to participate in his ministry of service, so, too, does the priesthood of the people. Without ordination, and inclusive of everyone, a new priesthood is already being created by a divine intervention very much like that of a Second Pentecost. With all the divine power of a “strong, driving wind” sweeping across this country, the People of God are already building what looks like a new priesthood, a new church, a new understanding of church laws, and a new relationship between God, priesthood, and the
people. Calling on one another to exercise our priesthood in rebuilding the Catholic Church is the first sign we see that the priesthood of the people, like that of Saint Paul in the early church, is moved in a divine way “to serve God in newness of Spirit” (Rom. 7:6). A Second Pentecost is already sweeping through the darkest corners of the Catholic Church, and nowhere is its Holy Spirit more alive than in the priesthood of its people.

What is the
priesthood of the people
and how is it different from that of the Church Fathers? From what I see, profound differences can be found in every important way. First and foremost, what I see among Catholics today is not a priesthood of privilege, and clearly not a people who believe that they are a divine law unto themselves. Perhaps the greatest scandal is how meticulously the Church Fathers have created a self-serving priesthood in which all Catholics (and the whole world) are expected to defer to their authority as divine, and comply with every request as though it comes directly from God. In a letter from a theologian who teaches seminarians, I was told:

The biggest scandal, frankly, is the clerical culture of privilege. I see it even in our youngest seminarians. They have the attitude that because they are going to be priests, all things should be handed to them. Unfortunately, society often obliges!!! That is our “mea culpa”!!! It’s that “privilege” that has allowed them to behave so badly and so secretively. They don’t think there is any law bigger than themselves. Frankly, this is the most frightening evil of all.

Apparently that’s the kind of priesthood the Catholic Church exercises, safeguards, and attracts. One in which the whole world
is at their service with bowed heads, bended knees, and open pockets. One in which the whole world must believe that they are
in persona Christi
, acting as the person of Christ. They alone are like unto God, and the one and only true God at that. To this day the Church Fathers proclaim that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church and its teachings, while the rest of the world now sees very little salvation in it. That’s how disconnected the priesthood of privilege has become from that of the people. The Church Fathers have all but lost touch completely with the people they’ve been ordained to serve.

Unlike the priesthood of privilege, which is the only priesthood the Catholic Church has known, what I see emerging in the Christian community (good priests included) is a priesthood of service inspired by that of Jesus who reveals, “I am in the midst of you as one who serves” (Luke 22:27). Nowhere does Jesus establish a caste of rich, powerful, privileged men. Nothing could be further from divine truth. Serving and not being served is the essence of Jesus’ “priesthood,” and the Gospels are full of what it means to be a servant of God. Repeatedly we are shown how service of God excludes worship of anything else, “privilege” in particular, and everything that comes with it, especially money and the accumulation of wealth.

Jesus is clear in naming money and privilege as the biggest obstacles standing in the way of serving God. No one can serve those two masters at the same time. We cannot serve both God and a rich, privileged life in the mind of Jesus. Regardless of how hard we may try to use one to sanctify and justify the use of the other, Jesus reveals simply, “If you love one, you hate and despise the other” (Matt. 19:21). So much so that those who cling to and worship their privileged status have as much chance of getting close to God as a camel trying to stuff itself through the
eye of a needle. In other words, fat chance. The priesthood of the people seeks service, not privilege.

The second striking difference between the priesthood of the people and the priesthood of privilege is that of inclusiveness. An essential part of every privileged group is the right it reserves as holy to exclude anyone and everyone unlike it. Privileged groups of men all over the world will go to their graves doing everything in their power to exclude women and minorities, excluding everyone not made in their image and likeness, anyone who may threaten all that they hold sacred and secret. While the ordination of women is inevitable in the Catholic Church, in the vehemently angry words of the Church Fathers, that will happen only over their dead bodies. Even so, it will happen, and given the average age of the Church Fathers, it’s likely to happen a lot sooner than they believe. If death is what it takes for the Holy Spirit to be reborn again in the Catholic Church, then that will happen by the grace of God.

Exclusiveness has become a divine law in Catholicism’s priesthood of privilege, an essential part of the sacrament of Holy Orders. It’s not a matter at all, the Church Fathers proclaim, of not wanting to ordain women, it’s just that God won’t let them. It’s God who, for some mysteriously divine reason, does not intend for women to exercise their priesthood in the Catholic Church. They say that excluding women is not their priestly idea, it’s God’s divine revelation. No women allowed. Ever. Like all exclusive societies who become laws unto themselves, so, too, do the Church Fathers become laws unto themselves in demanding an exclusively male priesthood; and so, too, do they identify their sexist beliefs as the infallible will of God.

Even so, few Catholics believe in a sexist God, and most Catholic theologians are revealing that the God of Jesus Christ had no such exclusively sexist intent at all. There is nothing divine in the revelation of the Church Fathers that women must be banned from priesthood. That is one church law of their own making and keeping, and clearly contrary to the Spirit of Christ revealed in Saint Paul’s letter to the Galatians:

All of you who have been baptized in Christ have clothed yourself with him. There does not exist among you Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus. Furthermore, if you belong to Christ you are the descendants of Abraham, which means you inherit all that was promised. (Gal. 3:27—29)

The priesthood of the people I see emerging in the Catholic Church is just as adamant about its God-given inclusiveness as the Church Fathers are of their God-given exclusiveness. With all the mysterious power of a Second Pentecost, the priesthood of the people includes everyone called to the Christian life, and its decisions become ordained by acclamation, accepted as true by the voice of the faithful. Once priesthood stands in the midst of its community as one who serves, inclusiveness becomes its divine law and guiding principle. All are included because all bear within them a Holy Spirit and all speak to one another with the voice of God. In a priesthood of service it becomes the privilege of everyone to speak of the God they know, and the privilege of the Christian community to discern the voice of God they hold in common. As a result, no one becomes oppressed by the superior will or voice of another. All are liberated soulfully because that’s what happens when all are treated as one. That’s what happens when God is with us.

Because there is no secrecy in a priesthood of service, no one is bound by silence from speaking the truth. On the contrary, speaking the truth is what just gave birth to the priesthood of the people, and speaking the truth is the most divine law this new priesthood knows. With all the mysterious power of a Second Pentecost, the priesthood of the people appears guided by the Holy Spirit, demanding relentlessly of the Church Fathers nothing less that the whole truth. The victims of abuse who’ve been bound and battered by years of silence are embraced by the priesthood of the people, as is the painful truth they’re beginning to reveal. The voice of everyone is treasured as sacred. No one is excluded, least of all women and children. All are welcome in the priesthood of the people because what binds them as one is not privilege and power, but heartfelt love and concern for one another. That’s how we know any priesthood comes from God. Jesus reveals, “This is how all will know you for my disciples, by your love for one another” (John 13:35).