Timothy Busch, a devout Catholic who supports the church with his money and his time, has grown weary of waiting for the Catholic hierarchy to institute real reform for the church at large and provide justice for individual victims of sexual abuse by the clergy.
The National Catholic Reporter covered a conference Busch sponsored that was called “Authentic Reform.” It was designed to suggest a path forward for the laity (defined by Wikipedia as: In religious organizations …all members who are not part of the clergy, usually including any non-ordained members of religious institutes).
Busch felt the need for bottom-up pressure is urgent in light of continuing revelations of clergy sexual abuse, “We can't wait around for the leadership of our church to kick this can down the road, hoping we'll forget about it. We're not going to forget about it. We're going to bring them to justice, move them out and restore our church to holiness.”
As decades of unmet calls for reform have proved, Busch’s task won’t be easy.
The over 250 attendees that included businessmen and clergy heard a number of solid recommendations. Busch feels the rapidly accumulating weight of constant sexual scandals has damaged the reputation of the Catholic Church as an institution. “If we don't tolerate this [behavior] in our own businesses, we can't tolerate it in our church.”
Tim Gray, president of the Augustine Institute, agreed. He termed the past few months, “summer of Catholic humiliation.” He thinks it is long past time for Catholics to stop worrying about the church and start the work of repairing the church, “We have a responsibility not simply to complain about the failures of the church, but to fix them.”
Gray also feels that it’s time for “righteous anger” toward the perpetrators of the scandals and that the soft approach of the past toward abusers was a mistake, “mercy to the wolves is cruelty to the sheep.”
Three main recommendations surfaced at the conference. First there was support for urging the church to conduct its finances in a more professional and generally-accepted business practices manner. This might require bringing in outsiders to advise on finances.
Second, clergy that are sexually active, regardless of orientation, be required to either honor their vows and return to chastity or leave the priesthood.
Finally, and this recommendation has the power to force adoption of all the recommendations, donors both rich and poor “[redirect] financial contributions to the poor until desired changes happen” cutting off the flow of money to the Catholic institutions that have failed to listen to the laity in the past.
The sense of the conference was the time for whitewashing and empty public displays of contrition is past. As one attendee was quoted as saying, “I don't want bishops apologizing for me, I want them apologizing to me.”
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker’s bureau. Read more reports from Michael Reagan — Go Here Now.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!)." Read more of Michael Shannon's reports — Go Here Now.