| Letter from an L.A. priest
There is a high toll in personal anguish in the Los Angeles
archdiocese among both the laity losing their jobs -- or resigning on principle
because of the financial cutbacks -- and among priests battered by the sexual
abuse crisis and the U.S. bishops’
“one-strike-and-you’re-out” response decided on at the
bishops’ Dallas meeting in June.
For Los Angeles priests, given the archdiocese’s
continuing upheavals, as well as undoubtedly for other priests nationwide, the
toll on their reputations and priestly lives appears very high indeed.
In this letter (from which NCR has permission to quote)
by a Los Angeles priest to his priest friend in another state, the L.A. priest
writes:
I have never been one to fear, but the present situation
has put us all in a condition of constant terror. I now take precautions I
never would have dreamed of before, and I trust no one.
I have always loved my life as a priest, and over the years I
think I have been a good priest and able to touch a lot of people’s lives.
But if I were 18 again, and had to do it all over, there is no way in hell I
would get into this. Not with the way things are now. The only reason I stay is
because my people truly depend on me, and my heart goes out to them.
If there were to be a split between the American church and the
church of Rome, I do not know at this point which I would choose. In fact, I
would probably just get out of the whole thing altogether. The hypocrisy of it
all is appalling.
On the one hand, the American bishops are publicly making
high-handed distinctions between the “good priests” and the “bad
priests” (oh, the follies of Western dualism!), disregarding the fact that
many of these shamed and cast-out brethren were among the finest, most
effective and hard-working priests around; the bishops must shake in their
silver-buckled boots when making such statements, knowing that they themselves
(as indeed every person born) have things in their past that would be very
compromising to reveal.
The holier-than-thou, judgmental pose they have taken is the most
sickening aspect of this whole sordid affair, and if they are so anxious to
cast out everyone who may be a potential financial liability to them (and only
an idiot would fail to see that this is the true motive), perhaps they should
consider resigning themselves -- all of them, except perhaps that brave
Christian remnant who voted against the Dallas charter.
That is the one side. On the other hand, we have Rome, which may
make some sort of gesture now to salvage what is left of the legal rights of
priests and give at least lip service to the cause of Christian forgiveness,
yet continues stupidly and in a typically Roman and anachronistic way to use
the situation to issue still more anathemas against homosexuality (a favorite
crusade of this papacy). They, as always, miss the whole point and will use
anything to push their own frightfully flawed agenda, alienating the very
people who should be finding support and comfort in the flock.
The fact that we now have a feeble pope, and that everyone over
there seems to be taking advantage of that situation, does not help in the
least.
So, we are caught between two fires, really, and neither is very
inviting. Thank heavens God is so much bigger than all of that.
I am not optimistic, but for priests these days realism is
synonymous with pessimism.
National Catholic Reporter, October 11,
2002
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