THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE CONTINUING crisis in the Roman Catholic Church in the USA has brought into the public domain the issue of leadership within the church. The major TV stations such as CNN and ABC and the print media such as Time and Newsweek magazines have exposed the depth of the crisis facing the church. They revealed that the church allowed priests to move from parish to parish, despite allegations of sexual abuse against them. Victims are now taking the Roman Catholic Church to court seeking justice for the effects of the abuse that they suffered at the hands of priests when they were minors.
The churches in Jamaica will find this issue to be extremely embarrassing and hope that it will quickly go away. Some may even claim that it is a Roman Catholic sin and is not related to the rest of the Church. Any such claim is engaging in self-delusion and is far from the truth. Homosexuality and paedophiles (sexual love directed towards children by adults) are not unique sins to the Roman Catholic Church. Such deviant behaviour is no respector of any social or religious group. The Roman Catholic Church is in the news because of its size and global influence.
What are the issues that have emerged from this sordid case that will have major implications for all churches? Into the wide-open public the issue of human sexuality and the Church's ministry has been fully exposed. Celibacy has historically being part of the Roman Catholic Church discipline. This disciplined giving of one's self in devotion to God has blessed the world with some of the most gifted, devoted and faithful clergy.
However, this lifestyle has also exposed the downside in which the church has incorporated into its community those with a greater orientation towards homosexual lifestyle. Now all churches must now face up to the issue: Should homosexuality and other forms of human sexuality that veer from the orthodox heterosexual relationship be allowed into the ordained leadership of the Church? What precautions do churches take to check out the psychological maturity and sexual orientation and discipline of candidates for the ordained ministry? What steps do churches take to protect vulnerable members from sexual deviants among their leaders whether they are heterosexual or homosexual?`The crisis has also revealed that a fundamental breach of trust took place between the church leadership, the congregation and the community. The presence of paedophiles among its clergy resulted in the abuse of vulnerable young people. When the church authorities heard of alleged misconduct by the clergy they used their influence and authority to keep it out of the public domain. For these leaders, the clergy and the church are the same reality. Their argument is that if the clergy is damaged then the church is also damaged. They conclude that at all cost the institution of the church must be protected from bad press, even at the expense of the victims who have suffered. Churches believe that certain aspects of their life and work are private and must be kept at all cost away from public scrutiny? Is it that there is a faulty theological understanding of what it means to 'protect the church.'
Are leaders acting justly when they protect the church from wrongs that clergy has committed?
For many years victims of sexual crimes have been pressured to keep quiet and protect the Church's reputation. In any religious culture where institutions threaten the faithful with sanctions if they do not comply with unswerving loyalty then they ultimately cultivate an environment that covers up much wrongdoing and eventually the leaders will become corrupt.
This crisis has also revealed that the Church cannot settle some social issues internally. Sexual wrongdoing, especially when it impacts on children, constitutes a criminal matter that must be dealt with, as a sin that affects the whole community.
This crisis has damaged trust between the clergy, church members and the public. Leaders who made vows to God and the faith community were found to be untrustworthy. People who were already suspicious of secular leaders will now lower their trust of religious leaders. Unlike other professions, when ministers abuse the trust of their congregation it is not an easy task to rebuild that trust.
Like an unfaithful husband or wife, spiritual adultery creates deep scars that are very difficult to heal. If the wounded victim and abuser do not experience healing and forgiveness then in the long-run the pain and guilty will destroy them.
Let the Church without sin cast the first stone. What if the Jamaican faith community were to open their hearts and tell their stories of trust being abused by Church leaders? Which of the Jamaican churches would be without blame? We would be fooling ourselves if we were to believe that the Jamaican churches are immune from the sexual sins that are affecting the Church in the USA. People in our local communities know many stories of young boys and girls who have been abused.
There are over 600 denominations and other religious groupings in this small country. Many of them have little or no system of accountability. The leader has the first and last word. He is both jury and judge. Some of the new religious groups in Jamaica that come from North America practice a type of membership recruitment in which candidates surrender the total management of their lives to their elder/discipler. Every detail about their life must be told and if they decide to leave the organisation the information can be used against them.
All churches must now grasp the opportunity to review the structures of accountability that exist for their clergy and ensure that they are effective to deal with sins of the clergy.
The one-man band that operates in many local churches that results in many pastors being unaccountable to their local congregations or denominations must now be reviewed in order to prevent the risk of abuses in human relationship.
I am, etc.,
Rev. Dr. RODERICK HEWITT
Minister
Hope United Church
221 Old Hope Road
Kingston 6
