Does Ireland Reflect the Catholic Church's Future?

The New York Times has a lengthy article on the state of the Catholic Church in Ireland - full blown free fall isn't off the mark - and speculates whether the downward spiral of the Church's credibility and power is a precursor of the Church's future in other developed and educated nations. And for Catholics who continue to endeavor to keep their heads stuck firmly in the sand (like some in my own family), the article re-emphasize the full extent of the sex abuse scandal and just how systemic it is and how management of the conspiracy to protect sexual predators tracts right to the Vatican. Change is desperately needed, yet given the Church's feudal structure of governance, the likelihood that such change will occur - absent huge declines in membership or large scale governmental investigations and/or criminal prosecutions - seems remote. I recommend a full read of the article - particularly by would be apologists for the morally bankrupt Church hierarchy. The article definitely reinforces my decision that leaving the Church was the only moral thing I could do. Here are some highlights:
*
Of the various crises the Catholic Church is facing around the world, the central one — wave after wave of accounts of systemic sexual abuse of children by priests and other church figures — has affected Ireland more strikingly than anywhere else. And no place has reacted so aggressively. The Irish responded to the publication in 2009 of two lengthy, damning reports — detailing thousands of cases of rape, sexual molestation and lurid beatings, spanning Ireland’s entire history as an independent country, and the efforts of church officials to protect the abusers rather than the victims — with anger, disgust, vocal assaults on priests in public and demands that the government and society disentangle themselves from the church.
*
This past December a fresh bout of fury was touched off by the publication of the investigation into perhaps the worst clergy sex offender: the Rev. Tony Walsh, who raped and molested children while serving as a priest in Dublin and who was shielded by the Vatican even after Irish Church officials wanted him defrocked. Yet another large-scale report will be released shortly. And a 1997 letter — in which the papal nuncio to Ireland told Irish bishops that the Vatican had “serious reservations” about a plan for mandatory reporting of clergy sex-abuse cases to the police — came to light last month, causing further anger.
*
Ireland’s move away from the Catholic Church began before the reports were released. Between 1974 and 2008, regular Mass attendance dropped by some 50 percent. The situation today highlights a problem that is looming for the Vatican, especially in the West, as the global sex-abuse crisis, coupled with the increasingly conservative rule and top-down control that have prevailed since the 1970s, is contributing to the departure of populations the church once considered foundational. “Ireland is a prime example of what the church is facing, . .
*
The changes taking place in Ireland have global ramifications for the Vatican, which has been beset by controversies. Some could be traced back to Pope Benedict XVI himself and his tough conservative style, which has struck many Catholics as insensitive and out of touch, including his suggesting in a speech in 2006 that Islam is inherently violent; his reinstatement of an excommunicated bishop who denied the Holocaust; and his decision to bring back into usage a prayer for the conversion of the Jews.
*
But the global sex-abuse scandal is of a different order entirely. Americans may be inured to the saga; . . . But for other parts of the world, the story is newer, and it is seen as being less about sex than about the church hierarchy’s ideas of holding and wielding power. Last year, the scandal swept across Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. There have been highly publicized cases in Britain, Italy, France, Malta, Switzerland, Austria, Mexico, New Zealand, Canada, Kenya, the Philippines, Australia and other countries. Nearly all involved systemic efforts to cover up the abuse and protect abusers. Last March, the scandal pointed toward the pope himself, . . .
*
Ireland is the first country to bring the force of its federal government to bear against the church, according to Thomas Doyle, a Dominican priest who was once a canon lawyer for the Vatican embassy in the U.S. and later represented sexual-abuse victims and also served as an expert consultant to the Irish investigations. . . . there is intense interest in what is going on in Ireland. Quebec has now begun an investigation. There are signs of it beginning in the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Spain and France.” Ireland, then, provides a model for investigative legal action on a host of fronts.
*
The Rev. Donald Cozzens, an American priest who is one of the most-respected moderate voices on Catholic issues, outlined the church’s wider problem in these terms: “I’m not aware of any major diocese in the world that has not had a sexual-abuse scandal, and I believe part of the problem lies with the very structures of the church.
*
The interests of church officials “were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the church and the preservation of its assets,” the [Murphy] report concluded. “All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities.”
*