Against the background of the still-unfolding sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic church, the Ignatian Spirituality Network offered a workshop last month called Hope Does Not Disappoint: Spiritual Direction in Challenging Times for the Church. This workshop did not – as did a recent missive by former Pope Benedict – address causes and remedies – but rather was aimed to help spiritual directors as they both reflect on their own vocation in light of the crisis and create space for directees to respond during direction sessions.
The two main questions wrestled with in the Ignatian Spirituality’s workshop were these: What is our calling as spiritual directors in the midst of the sex abuse crisis? How do we accompany people who are rightly suspicious, hurt, angry, and grieving by the shocking failure of their beloved church — people who are betrayed by leaders they literally trusted with their souls? The workshop was not necessarily focused on directing either survivors or perpetrators of abuse, although those subjects did come up, but more on how we as directors can understand and carry out our vocation in light of everything that has and continues to happen.
Although I am not Catholic, as someone trained in the Ignatian tradition, I consider myself “Catholic adjacent.” I also have seen firsthand that abuse, willful ignorance, and systemic corruption and institutional failure are not limited to the Catholic church. I won’t go into details here, but it doesn’t take much beyond curiosity and a search engine to confirm that the Protestant church has got plenty of its own problems.
During the workshop several themes emerged:
- Each one of us has a basic calling as a Christian to discipleship. That calling exists within the larger “Christ project” – the redemption of all people and all creation. For directors, our calling as disciples is primarily lived out within the space of direction. We may or may not have a voice within the larger power structure of our institutions, but each of us can live every opportunity we have to take part in Christ’s work to the fullest.
- It’s important to keep our eyes on the risen Christ and the presence and action of God in our lives. Ignatian practices help us continue to discern and stay attuned in the moment.
- One of the speakers explained a revelation he came to, in contemplative prayer, of the sex abuse crisis as a continuation of the crucifixion today. We are standing as witnesses, much as Mary and John did at the foot of the cross, to the suffering of Christ in our time. The abuse crisis, like the crucifixion, is a deliberate rejection of God’s love. This is an especially poignant thought to reflect on at Easter time. It neither minimizes the pain experienced by those victimized – pain that, as both speakers affirmed, will be with them for all of their lives – nor leaves all in desolation. We are journeying, slowly and surely, with God towards the full restoration of all humanity.
- The “bloodletting” among the ranks of priests and bishops is a right and necessary purification of the church.
- As we offer spiritual companionship to those who are rightly struggling with the institution of the church, and who may leave or already have left in response, we can ask a few questions:
- What are the ways you are nurtured by the institutional church and what are the ways that you’re not? Where you are not, where can you go to find nurture? Where can you discern an invitation to deepen your relationship with God even during these times?
- What are you feeling? What is it like for you to feel those emotions?
- What are your interactions with God like? Who is God to you at this moment?
As we accompany those who are hurting and also deal with our own emotions in the space of direction, we continue to look, listen, and pray for the presence, love, and healing of God in our lives and in the life of the Body of Christ.
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*On a much lighter note, while I was writing this blog post — blissfully sipping my warm cocoa oolong bubble milk tea — I overheard the following statement from a black-leather-clad woman talking loudly on her phone:
“Oh, I am much more evil than his exes. He just doesn’t know that yet. He’s about to find out.”
She looked like she could flatten that boy with her hands tied behind her back, using only her pinkie toe and the force of her malice. I hope he’s a better runner than he is a boyfriend.
Find me on Instagram! @ravishedbylight.
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Carrie, I’m taking part of the day to read all your archives. I might mention a couple of resources. The symposium held at Georgetown University featuring the Catholic lawyer Robert Bennett, psychologist Richard Sipe, survivor advocate and priest Thomas Doyle and the members of the Boston Globe involved in the Spotlight investigation is very informative. You can watch the full event on YouTube. Then I would read everything Pope Francis has said on the subject. If you haven’t watched the movie Spotlight then that is a place to start. The real life journalists claim it is accurate. Then the Polish documentary, Tell No One, is also available on YouTube. On Jesus and women disciples I recommend Gospel Women by Richard Bauckham. Give my love to Ryan and the children – we cherish your friendships.
Thanks for your comments and recommendations, Ken! I have been meaning to watch Spotlight for a while and am looking forward to watching it (as much as one can look forward to a film on the sex abuse crisis). I’m reading an interesting book now that has a bit to say on Jesus and his relationships with women, although in a peripheral way. It’s called Christ Actually by James Carroll, and it’s mostly about understanding Jesus’ Jewishness and how doing so affects our understanding of the New Testament and guards against a longstanding pattern, largely unrecognized by most church-goers, of Christian anti-semitism. We are so glad for you and Sue as well! (By the way, can you resend me your poems? I read them a long time ago and meant to write you back about them but accidentally deleted the email. My apologies!)
Hi Carrie,
Sue sent me this blog. I probably need to get directly connected. I’ve been studying the church crisis for the past year, because I am likewise Catholic adjacent. ‘This week all three of my prayer minister partners were wonderful Catholic women. Five out of the ten prayer recipients were Catholic. I meet weekly with a Dominican priest to talk about his life. He is married, still a Catholic, restricted from priestly function, but still a priest. In the Roman Catholic faith, once a priest is a priest, he is always a priest – since the ontological change that happens to priests at Holy Orders cannot be changed or reversed. My friend is heart broken by the abuse scandal, but not surprised. The other thing that prompted my study is that this is the biggest crisis in the church since the Reformation. The full weight of it has not yet been felt worldwide nor in the states. You might be interested in a Polish film released this year that is making a stir in Poland and can be viewed on Youtube – “Tell No One.” I very much like your emphasis and tone. The problem however comes with comparing the crisis to anything else we know. The Protestant church indeed does have problems, but not exactly this problem and not at the same percentages. The culture in general does have problems but not exactly this problem. I’ve concluded that the crisis is not completely about pedophilia, not about evil priests, not about celibacy, not about homosexuality, not entirely about clericalism – though clericalism is what Pope Francis has targeted as a main problem for the cover-up by bishops, maybe so. The crisis is a different thing. Conrad Baars, a psychologist, committed Catholic and close friend of my Dominican priest, did an extensive study of a 1000 priests in 1971 and reported to the American bishops that, “Priests in general – and some to an extreme degree – possess an insufficiently developed or distorted emotional life.” His report so shook the American church that they did their own report- The Catholic Priest in the United States: Psychological investigations. That report stated that, a large proportion of priests do not relate deeply or closely to other people and “use the institution and their status as cover-ups for psychological inadequacy.” Some priests function at a “pre-adolescent or adolescent level of psychosexual growth.” This, in my non-expert opinion, is why most of the cases are really ephebophilia -the priests are relating perversely to someone of their same emotional age with new powerful feelings that they confuse with love. Why many priests were/are emotionally stunted is a complex problem on which there is no consensus agreement within the church. Pope Benedict put most of the blame on Western secular culture. Pope Francis has not followed him down that path. The problem is world-wide in stunning frequency. Those reports by Baars and others were made in 1971 and 1972, and nothing was done to address that problem. One thing that could be important and related to Ignatian Prayer is the idea that experiencing a full range of feelings is not harmful to being in Christ. Much of the church has been at least suspicious of emotions. The Lord was an emotionally dense person and walking with him as an early disciple was also a profound emotional experience. The Lord also had a fully functioning body with a hormonal system, which was not a curse, but a blessing when subject to Kingdom resources and ethics (Sermon on the Mount). Somewhere in the mix of Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and loving our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:30) are manifold feelings. Your blog crystalized a few thoughts for me – thanks.
Hi, Ken! Great to hear from you and thanks for your reply. I agree that the scale and complexity of the Catholic abuse crisis are different than what we’ve seen in Protestant circles. I’m interested in your take on psychosexual stuntedness in priests as a root and historical cause of the crisis, although I have no knowledge at all that would let me evaluate or contribute to it. Anecdotally – although I absolutely agree that the scope and complexity of the problem is very different – I think many Protestant ministers who engage in abusive behaviors (of many kinds, not just sexual) are also compensating for psychological inadequacy, wielding what little power they have (compared to what exists in the massive institutional apparatus of the Catholic Church) to compensate for deep feelings of insecurity, fear, shame, and anger. Something about the power inherent in the mantle of ministry unfortunately draws the people who need the most healing before being able to wield it without hurting those who are under their care. Regarding the church’s suspicion of emotions, I’ve found Protestants are generally comfortable with emotions, particularly in Charismatic or “therapeutic Christian” circles, but only of certain kinds: perhaps those emotions that can be glossed as “spiritual” (weeping in church because of conviction of sin or the presence of the Holy Spirit”) versus “carnal” (which is not the same as sexual desire, but in many churches, you wouldn’t know the difference). And Ignatian spirituality can be very freeing in helping you experience a full range of emotions – your own, but also those of Jesus as you enter imaginatively into his life and experiences through Scripture and prayer. The humanity of Christ is emphasized in a way that ideally opens us up to more fully inhabit our own humanity. I would be interested to know whether orders that emphasize Ignatian spirituality as integral to formation (starting with the Jesuits, of course) are finding themselves less impacted by the crisis.
There is something to be said about the female presence putting the brakes on much bad male behavior or at least curbing it some. I am speaking from personal experience. Just as we can be isolated in idea silos, like we see in politics all the time, I think the same can be said for gender silos. The seven year seminary for priests and possible preparations for it beginning in adolescence has been described to me as something like a gender silo. All I know is second and third hand descriptions so I’m not an expert or judge. Everyone directly involved in the psychological side of the crisis seem to believe it’s in the system. Can imaginative prayer completely substitute for face to face real life experiences? Again Jesus models things way beyond his time and place – a first century Jewish rabbi with female disciples who travel with him and participate in his ministry is rare or nonexistent in his culture. I have never seen the crisis examined according to religious orders.