Photo credit: Flickr user mariordo59
Pope Francis in Saint Peter's Square in May 2018
Sexual predators within the Roman Catholic Church whose abuse of children was covered up for decades by a church hierarchy that cared more about protecting itself than protecting children remains one of the most horrific scandals in our lifetime. The damage to the church’s moral authority was well-earned. Major changes in the world outside the church also made many of its rigid, intolerant teachings much less relevant. Many of those changes related to human sexuality, an area where the Catholic Church’s credibility already had been shattered.
An overwhelming majority of Catholic women regularly use birth control to choose for themselves how many children to have instead of mechanically churning out enormous Catholic families. The other dramatic social transformation was the acceptance of gay men and women as ordinary human beings with the same rights against discrimination as anyone else. As more people came out, many realized for the first time they already knew perfectly decent gay human beings.
Not everyone, though. There are always dead-enders fighting furiously against a changing world. The more the world keeps changing anyway, the more furious they become. That’s exploded into an open civil war within the Catholic Church led by a group of extreme conservatives attacking Pope Francis himself for encouraging excessive compassion, understanding and (good Lord!) even love toward LGBTQ Catholics.
A Massive Church Coverup
Shortly after becoming pope, Francis began promoting a positive gospel of compassion and love instead of leading the church into losing social battles against reproductive rights or marriage equality. Francis alarmed church hard-liners simply by expressing compassion and understanding toward gay priests. “If someone is gay, and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis once told reporters.
With those few words, Francis moved the church lightyears beyond his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who had always been quick to judge, denouncing homosexuality as “an intrinsic moral evil.” To those who want to undermine the kinder, gentler papacy of Francis, those were the days. That, of course, conveniently leaves out the massive church coverup of sexual assault that went on for decades under Pope Benedict and his predecessors.
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Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a former Vatican ambassador to Washington, D.C., well known for promoting rightwing causes, is openly calling on Francis to resign. Francis fired Viganò after an incident many may remember. During a papal visit to the U.S. in 2015, Viganò brought Kim Davis, a non-Catholic, evangelical Kentucky county clerk who went to jail for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses, to meet Pope Francis. Francis said he didn’t who Davis was. She just said hello and then used him for publicity, falsely claiming Francis told her to “Stay strong.”
Viganò accuses Francis of failing to enforce sanctions he claims Benedict secretly issued against Cardinal and former Washington Archbishop Theodore McCarrick for allegedly sexually harassing young priests and seminarians. Those sanctions must have been really secret, because the Washington archdiocese says it never received them. An accusing letter by Viganò blamed the coverup of decades of child abuse on “homosexual networks” and demanded that “the seriousness of homosexual behavior must be denounced.”
Rightwing Conspiracy
That kind of sweeping hatred of gays and suspicion of gay conspiracies is a better definition of homophobia than any kind of moral high ground. The fact is that LGBTQ men and women aren’t any more likely to assault children than heterosexuals are. Those horrific acts are committed by an unhealthy minority—regardless of sexual orientation. Secrecy within the church is what enabled crimes against children to continue.
When asked about Viganò’s charges, once again Francis chose to model compassion on the subject of human sexuality. Francis said he would tell any parent whose child came out as gay: “Don’t condemn. Dialogue. Understand. I’ll never say that silence is a remedy. To ignore a son or daughter with homosexual tendencies is a lack of paternity and maternity. You are my son, you are my daughter as you are! I’m your father, mother. Let’s talk!” That really shouldn’t seem like such a radical reform in a church that is supposedly based on love, and acceptance of gays is continuing to happen within the church just as it is in the world outside.
Last December, Father Gregory Greiten stood before his congregation at St. Bernadette Catholic Church in Milwaukee to “break the silence and emerge free from the shackles of shame” and announce he was gay. He said because of the toxic shaming of gays within the church, “there are no authentic role models of healthy, well-balanced, gay, celibate priests to be an example for those, young and old, who are struggling to come to terms with their sexual orientation.” Greiten asked his congregation and his church: “How different, affirming and welcoming would our Catholic Church truly become by simply acknowledging, accepting and supporting each and every gay priest and religious person in their midst?” His congregation, which he continues to lead, answered with a standing ovation.
