Whereas Girard has shown us the role of the scapegoat in resolving mimetic envy-chaos-violence;
Whereas Satan is the Accuser but the Holy Spirit is the Advocate;
Whereas I love to champion the pariah
...I will defend him.
I deliberately call him "bishop" although he has been stripped of all status and privilege because by his three-fold ordination (deacon, priest, bishop) he has on his soul an indelible seal that nothing can ever erase; not his sins, not the Pope, not the archangels. This could be a problem for him: if he does not repent that mark will doom him to a deeper place in hell.
It is just over three years since the scandal erupted and we fell into the catastrophic summer of 2018. Time to take a deep breath and consider him and his place in our Church. At the very beginning of that summer Bill McGurn of opined in the Wall Street Journal that he might become for our time what jpreacher Johann Tetzel O.P. was for the age of Luther: the spark that started a forest fire. At that point I agreed with my friend, esteemed theologian Father Tom Guarino, who took a calmer approach: that such scandals are common throughout Church history and it was wise not to overreact. By Labor Day I was convinced McGurn was right. The Vigano testimony that ended that summer was, in my view...notwithstanding questionable elements and his sad, subsequent decline into rightwing lunacy (dementia? stress?)...credible and NOT convincingly contradicted by the Vatican's whitewash of a report.
But for me it was much more than McCarrick that made 2018 the Summer from Hell. The Pennsylvania Attorney General's report was released and traumatized many. Not myself so much because I sensed it was prosecutorial in an overly hostile manner and not fair to the Church. Worse was the trajectory of the Francis pontificate: his dismantling of the John Paul Institute for the Family made evident his renunciation of the legacy of that sainted pope; he betrayed the persecuted Chinese Church and handed control to the diabolical, tyranical state (a development with which McCarrick strangely involved himself); he high-handedly changed Church teaching on capital punishment with an incoherent, convoluted statement that besmirched our prized Catechism. McCarrick became the symbol for our ecclesial decadence not because he practiced homosexuality with adult seminarians, but because he rose to the pinacle of power and prestige even as the Vatican received a steady flow of credible reports. By Labor Day it was evident our Church was sicker than any of us could have imagined.
First of all, he was not a serial pedophile. There is at least one highly credible allegation of abuse, over the years, of a child-then-adolescent. This is morally inexcusable and despicable; horrifically damaging; and indicative of psychological pathology and moral depravity. It does cry out to heaven for vengeange. However, over the decades, this was not his M.O. He practiced homosexuality with adult males, seminarians in their mid-to-upper 20s. The moral gravity comes from his use of power and authority to exploit the younger, vulnerable men. As all predators, he groomed the more insecure, less confident as his victims. The priest-bishop relationship is especially delicate as the prelate is far more powerful than a boss: he is more like a superior who is also your uncle or father and the untouchable, trusted and esteemed patriarch of the family. Nevertheless his victims were adult, intelligent, gifted men who were training for the priesthood. They were not powerless, pathetic or passive and not candidates for our pity. Furthermore, it is probable that he did practice sexual acts but most of what he did seems to have been sharing a bed without intercourse. This is what was well circulated for many years. I remember reading about it and thinking: "Weird. But not immoral in an obvious, grave way. Some sort of fetish. Who is perfect?" This may be part of the reason this behavior was widely rumored and tolerated. As a sexual predator, Bishop McCarrick was not a heavy-hitter, in the league of, say, Fr. Maciel. Mostly he practiced a mild form of adult-male-consensual homosexuality, something increasingly adovcated as wholesome within the Church.
Secondly, as part of the "lavender mafia" his secrecy was implicitly an acceptance and affirmation of Catholic teaching on homosexuality. To this day he does not admit to it. Clearly, he sees it as wrong. Indeed, the fact that this covert culture remains so well hidden is itself a testimony to the correctness of the moral disapproval of the lifestyle. By contrast, what we are facing today is a fierce, militant campaign by the lieutenants of Pope Francis to morally approve of homosexual acts. We might assume that they (Cupich, Tobin, etc.) are living impeccably chaste lives; nevertheless their shameless, even scandalous promotion of sterile, non-unitive sex is more toxic for the Church than McCarrick's hiddens sins since it blatantly contradicts the moral law. It may lead many more of the little ones into sin than did our disgraced ex-Cardinal. McCarrick was on the whole faithful to the doctrinal/moral tradition of the Church. A cynic will view that as his careerist instincts under the conservative pontificates. I am not a cynic.
Thirdly, while fully acknowledging his moral depravity in this area, we cannot entirely nullify the good that he did. Yes, a man can be deeply evil in one arena and still do great good in another. Martin Luther King comes to mind. It is puzzling! I lean to believe that he loved Christ and the Church, sincerely. He did an immense amount of good work, fully using his extraordinary energy and ability. This cannot be erased. I know of priests to whom he showed much kindness. Perhaps his awareness of his own failings softened his heart with mercy to others.
Lastly, we do well to consider the depth of his jpathology, the split in his person, and avoid judgment of his heart. His homosexual urges seem to be rooted in a deep father-wound. He came of age well before we had treatment, therapy and 12-steps, for sexual addiction. He had no hope for recovery. His was a split personality: a gifted, pious, accomplished priest...and a pervert. There was no bridging of that abyss. He had to live in denial. It is unspeakably tragic. It seems that to this day he is incapable of honesty, contrition, openess to mercy. We can hope that he has reconciled to God in the confidentiality of the inner forum and confession. But his conversion seems at best incomplete.
We need to pray for Bishop Ted McCarrick!
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