A Yearlong Plan |
Parish councils can help rebuild trust in the church by studying parish efforts to safeguard children and by recommending to pastors ways to strengthen those safeguards. |
The Competence of Councils |
The church teaches that parish councils are competent to investigate pastoral matters (such as diminished trust in the face of scandal), reflect on them, and recommend practical responses. |
In Dallas this summer, the U.S. bishops drafted their "Charter for Protection of Children and Young People" and proposed national and diocesan initiatives to repair breaches of trust in the church stemming from sexual misconduct. They announced an intention to respond to abuse allegations, to inaugurate a national Office for Child and Youth Protection, and to establish diocesan review boards. But their Charter does not propose any parish initiatives. It does not say how parishes should respond to national and diocesan initiatives. What can parishes do to rebuild trust eroded by clergy sexual abuse scandals?
Many parishes have already begun to discuss this question, which belongs squarely on the agenda of parish pastoral councils (PPCs). Such councils exist in three-fourths of 19,000 U.S. parishes and are a ready-made vehicle for dialogue and planning. The search for wisdom leading to sound decisions is the fundamental purpose of parish pastoral councils. Such PPCs, by answering practical questions about how parishes can respond to the scandal, help to reach the spiritual goal of rebuilding trust in the church.
Some will object, however, that sexual abuse is beyond the scope, competence and authority of councils. These reservations betray a superficial understanding of them. The proper scope of PPCs, according to official documents, is practical parish matters. Pastors are free to consult councils about these matters -- including responses to sex abuse -- as they choose. Doubtless, PPC members are not experts. But if they are chosen well, their wisdom and prudence are sufficient to reach common sense conclusions. That is where their competence lies. And though their vote is only consultative, councils are obliged to do what the church has expected of them since Vatican II, namely, to investigate pastoral matters, reflect thoroughly, and draw sound conclusions. In short, the practical consequence of clergy sexual misconduct lies well within the scope of PPCs. It requires the competence of wise and prudent lay people. And it deserves to be treated by councils, where it can have an effect on parish decision-making.
How should councils broach the topic of clergy sexual misconduct? How does it fit within their charter? These are abstract questions, and every parish will answer them differently. A parish whose pastor has been replaced for allegations of abuse needs one kind of approach. A parish whose pastor's conduct is above reproach will require another. Pastors consult PPCs in a variety of ways, according to what the pastoral situation demands. Today's pastoral situation demands a lot. We can sketch the main lines of council approaches under the following three categories.
1. Information Gathering. Pastoral councils need to be well informed if they are to serve the parish. Discussing a parish response to the crisis is meaningless if council members are insensitive to the allegations reported in the press, unaware of the U.S. bishops' "Charter for Protection," and ignorant of their own diocesan policies regarding sexual abuse and the protection of minors. Studying the parish situation is also fundamental. PPCs want to know what policies are in place and how the sexual misconduct scandal is affecting Mass attendance, morale, participation in religious education, enrollment in the RCIA, youth ministry, the weekly collection, etc.
2. Reflection and Prayer. If councils are to gain wisdom about the sexual abuse crisis, they need to reflect and pray about it. By this I do not mean primarily that they should recite prayers or engage in pious devotions. No, I mean that PPCs should undertake a serious and sustained dialogue, a search for meaning in light of the gospel. This dialogue ought to take place within the context of faith. Councillors need to listen to parishioners and one another as bearers of the gospel, appreciate what people say, synthesize and weigh different viewpoints, develop proposals, and subject them to parish scrutiny.
3. Decision-Making. A parish can respond to the crisis in countless ways. The council's job is to plan and recommend the best ones. Its success lies in parish decision-making and action. Good PPCs help pastors develop wise responses to whatever situation the parish faces, including sexual misconduct. They help them make practical decisions so that the parish can be a more faithful Christian community. If a pastor's decisions are better grounded and more effective thanks to the council, then the PPC is performing well.
Gathering information, reflecting, and making decisions -- these are the principal ways that councils can help parishes rebuild trust in light of the present crisis. PPC members are not meant to function as psychologists, mediate disputes, or represent chancery officials. Their purpose is not to assess allegations of abuse, review cases, or make parish policy independently of the pastor. Rather, he consults them because he seeks wise counsel. If the pastor is himself an abuser and has been removed from ministry, the PPC should meet with the person to whom the bishop has entrusted the parish.
How can parishes respond to sexual misconduct? They can publish their own guidelines for safeguarding minors in a religious education handbook, create training programs for adults who work with children and youth, form support groups for victims and survivors, strengthen policies regarding transparency and openness, and develop liturgies for reconciliation and healing. There is no end to the list of possible responses. The PPC's task is to consider them all and help make the right choice for the parish.
Clergy sexual misconduct may not be just a matter for the small circle of PPC members. It has parish-wide interest and importance. Pastors and councils may want to facilitate a parish-wide "Town Hall" meeting. Such meetings invite parishioners to express their feelings about the crisis, share information about how other parishes are responding to it, and voice their hopes for an effective resolution. Although PPC members may never have served as facilitators (and may need support and training in this area), the experience of hosting such a meeting would be invaluable. It would broaden their understanding of the crisis and invite the entire parish to help solve it.
To be most successful, parish town hall meetings ought to fit within an overall parish strategy of response to sexual misconduct. Developing such a response to the crisis requires more than a one-time meeting at which parishioners ventilate their feelings, priests apologize for past mistakes, and diocesan officials announce new policies. A parish town-hall meeting is only one part of a response, which ought to include extensive preparation and follow-up. The pastoral council needs to plan for the town-hall meeting, to reflect on it afterwards, to develop proposals, and to report on these proposals at a second town hall prior to their adoption.
Pastors and councils may well want to make the development of a response to the sexual misconduct crisis a yearlong project.
The timeline shows how town-hall meetings form an integral part of a parish-wide response to clergy sexual misconduct. The town halls allow people to share their faith and express their feelings. They generate ideas for possible responses to the crisis, responses which the PPC refines and develops. A second town hall in March reports on the PPC's work and invites parish reaction. Parishioners see that their participation is having concrete results.
The search for concrete results, however, is not an end itself. It is a means to a spiritual goal -- the goal of rebuilding trust. Catholics generally presuppose this trust. It is the glue that holds the community together. When scandals threaten it, pastors and parishioners rightly want to defend themselves. They seek accurate knowledge about the scandals, want to pursue various safeguards, and desire to apply the safeguards appropriately to their own communities. Scandals damage the trust, but it is fair to say that they do not completely destroy it. If Catholics had no trust in the church, they would not be outraged about sexual misconduct or the attempts to cover it up.
In a situation of damaged trust, it is tempting to accuse or blame. But pointing or wagging fingers do not help. Parish meetings ought to begin not with a recitation of problems but with a recollection of faith. This is the principle of appreciative inquiry, first developed by David Cooperrider of Case Western Reserve University. A parish search for a wise response to sexual misconduct ought to begin by appreciating the faith that has built the community in the first place. Parishioners come to town hall meetings and participate in the PPC not only because of the problems they face, but also because of the faith they share. It has made them a people and it gives them hope for the church.
Therein lies the importance to the meeting of prayer. Prayer should begin with Scripture and invite people to reflect on it with their neighbor. The presider should pose questions about the Scripture passage: "Why have we committed ourselves to Christian faith?" "As I hear the Word of God, what gives me hope?" "How has the love of God motivated me to attend this meeting?" Such questions recall the community's strength. Prayer begins the meeting by celebrating the divine resources that enable it to go forward. Inevitably, discussions of sexual misconduct will prompt people to ventilate their fear, disappointment, and anger. These feelings deserve to be expressed. But it ought to be within a context of faith, faith in the God who can bring good out of an evil situation.
A parish pastoral council cannot solve the problem of sexual misconduct or rebuild damaged trust by itself. But it can do the job for which it was designed -- the job of understanding the parish situation and responding to it. This practical task, undertaken in concert with the rest of the parish, can yield concrete results, such as establishing parish guidelines, training those who work with youth, forming support groups, communicating better, and reconciling and healing. These results ought to be reported to the bishop and publicized within the wider community. Achieving tangible results can repair intangible realities like faith and trust.
It is scant comfort to read that pedophiles among the general population of Catholic clergy number between 1.6 and 2.0 percent (Stephen J. Rossetti), or 1.8 percent (Philip Jenkins), or between 0.2 and 5.0 percent (Peter Lechner). Although no one really knows for certain, nevertheless clergy pedophilia appears no more common than among any other group of males. This conclusion, however, offers cold comfort to American Catholics. Instances of sexual misconduct have cast a shadow of suspicion that threatens the unity of the Church. What can safeguard this unity and rebuild trust?
Parishes have hosted town-hall meetings to discuss the scandals, and these are a good start. The meetings enable pastors and parishioners to express their feelings and they publicize diocesan policies. My own parish is hosting its second meeting next week. What can be done, however, beyond the sharing of feelings and policy statements? Pastors and parishioners ought to study the matter in depth, consider the many ways that it affects them, and develop responses appropriate for their own parish. This offers more than a general ventilation of feelings. It moves the parish into the realm of practical wisdom. It asks how the parish ought to respond
Is the parish pastoral council the appropriate vehicle for this more focused effort of study and reflection? Should pastoral councils deal with clergy sexual misconduct? I believe that this topic lies squarely within their scope. Moreover, such councils exist in three-quarters of 19,000 parishes in the U.S. They are a vehicle for dialogue that is already in place. Above all, the fundamental purpose of pastoral councils is to seek practical wisdom. This search is essential if Catholic communities are to dispel suspicion and rebuild unity.
Dispelling suspicion and rebuilding unity are spiritual matters. They depend on the trust that exists between pastors and parishioners. Catholics generally presuppose this trust. Parishioners assume that their pastors love them and serve them in the name of Christ. Pastors assume that the participation of their people indicates a well-placed faith. When scandals threaten this trust, pastors and parishioners rightly want to defend themselves. They seek accurate knowledge about the scandals, want to pursue various safeguards, and desire to apply the safeguards appropriately to their own communities. Parish pastoral councils are admirably equipped to do this. By undertaking these practical goals, councils can contribute to the spiritual work of rebuilding trust.
Some will object, however, that sexual abuse is beyond the scope, competence, and authority of pastoral councils. Their proper scope is practical matters, some will say, and sex abuse is a moral and legal issue. Lay people constitute the majority of council members, it will be argued, and technical questions about sex abuse are beyond their competence. Pastoral councils are consultative bodies without clout in canon or civil law, still others will maintain, and lack the authority needed to treat such serious matters. In light of these objections, it might seem ludicrous to ask pastoral councillors to examine clergy sexual abuse. Better to keep them busy with the parish festival.
Such objections betray a superficial knowledge of the origin and intent of the pastoral council, a body with which the Church now has had more than 35 years of experience. A closer examination of the scope, competence, and consultative nature of councils will show that there is nothing in Church teaching to prevent them from considering the parish consequences of sexual scandals. Indeed, there are excellent reasons why a pastor would want his council to confront these matters directly.
Consider, for example, the scope of the pastoral council. Such councils were first recommended at the diocesan level in the Vatican II Decree on Bishops, and the pastoral council idea was extended to parishes in 1973. Most U.S. bishops mandate their existence. From the very beginning, the threefold task of such councils was clear. They are to investigate pastoral matters, ponder them, and recommend appropriate conclusions to pastors.
The problem phrase is "pastoral matters." What do they include? The Church's documents are more clear about what they do not include: doctrine, moral teachings, and law. No pastoral council can change them. But practical parish matters are a wide-open field. Efforts to exclude administrative matters from the pastoral council agenda have not been successful. To be sure, some have argued that pastoral matters comprise spiritual (as opposed to temporal) topics, or require a prayerful (as opposed to parliamentary) style. The scope of the pastoral council, however, is not defined by its subject matter or group dynamic. It is defined by a relationship. It includes all that pertains to the practical work of the pastor. The Church gives him the freedom to consult about any practical parish matter he chooses, including those with administrative consequences.
A pastor may choose not to consult the council about clergy sexual misconduct. That is his prerogative. But if he does consult, he should have realistic expectations. He should not expect parishioners to speak in terms of moral theology or canon law. That is beyond the council's scope. More realistic is the expectation that councils can reach common sense conclusions about parish practices. A wise pastor might well invite his councillors to study diocesan and parish policies designed to protect children from sexual abuse. He might well ask them to identify the safeguards in place for parochial schoolchildren, religious education pupils, altar servers and boy and girl scouts. And he might well request that councillors evaluate what the parish is doing in this area and recommend how it could improve. These requests are clearly within the council's scope.
So pastoral councils may treat the practical consequences of sexual misconduct. But are council members competent to treat it? This is a tricky question, because official documents say little about the qualifications of the pastoral councillor. To be sure, council members are to be in full communion with the Church, states canon 512, and "of proven faith, good morals, and outstanding prudence," but this does not shed much light on their capacity for treating sexual misconduct.
Of the few official criteria for pastoral council membership, the most important is prudence. Both Aristotle and St. Thomas define this as a form of knowledge about how to act in a concrete situation. The prudent pastoral councillor is the one who is able to undertake the threefold task of pastoral councils, the task of investigating and pondering pastoral matters and reaching conclusions about them. So when the Church says that councillors should be prudent, that word carries a lot of weight. It means that councillors should be able to discuss parish policies, including the parish's response to scandal. The ability to dialogue, to listen, to synthesize various opinions, and to reach a common point of view -- that is the competence of the pastoral councillor.
The knowledge we call prudence is not necessarily that of the expert. To be sure, prudent generalists study what the expert has to say. They do so, however, not in order to become experts themselves. Their aim is rather to apply the insights of the expert to the parish situation. So pastoral council members need not be moral theologians or lawyers in order to consider how their parish might respond to clergy sexual misconduct. The councillor's competence is not expertise but the capacity to reach the truth of practical matters in dialogue.
Deliberating a parish response to scandal, then, is within the scope and competence of the pastoral council. But such councils are consultative bodies without juridical standing. They do not legislate for the parish or implement policies on their own. They can never be the independent Sexual Misconduct Boards that certain dioceses have established to form, implement and review sexual abuse policies. Someone might well object that pastoral councils should not treat the matter of clergy sexual misconduct because they lack the authority to do so. What is the authority of the council?
Two words, consultative and representative, define the authority of councils. Official Church documents say that councils should be representative. They are representative, we read, but not in a juridical sense. Their vote does not trump the pastor's. They do not represent the sovereignty of the people. Even though most pastoral councillors are elected, their primary purpose is not to represent a demographic profile, culture, or viewpoint. They are representative, the Church hopes, in that they "make present" the wisdom of the People of God. They do so by studying the pastoral situation, discussing it thoroughly, and drawing practical consequences. It is for these abilities that councillors ought to be chosen. That is where their authority resides.
This becomes clearer in Canon Law. It states that pastoral councils are consultative, i.e., that pastors consult them. Unfortunately we too often think that the word "consultative" means only that the pastor is not obliged to accept the council's advice. Although this is true, it is not the whole truth. The act of consultation implies a relationship with rights and obligations. When a pastor consults his council -- about the parish consequences of sexual abuse, for example -- he is asking it to do what the Church wants councils to do. He is asking it to investigate and reflect on the matter so as to arrive at sound conclusions. That is the council's proper function.
The authority of a council waxes or wanes in proportion to how well it performs that function. The council has the right to do its job. The pastor is morally obliged to take it seriously. If a council, after studying the matter of sexual abuse, recommends stricter guidelines about adult supervision in the religious education classroom, the pastor ought to listen. If he does not accept the council's conclusions, he should explain why. A pastor who appears to consult, but who does not allow the council to do its job, makes it dysfunctional. The functional council investigates thoroughly, reflects clearly, and concludes wisely. The good pastor heeds it because it has the authority of wisdom.
At the beginning of this article, I said that dispelling suspicion and rebuilding unity are spiritual matters. They depend on the spirit of a community, that is, on the degree to which the members trust one another. Knowledge can strengthen trust and unity. Such prudent knowledge is the business of the pastoral council. It can make a spiritual difference by discharging its function, that is, by studying and deliberating practical matters. The council's study and reflection alone cannot dispel suspicion and rebuild unity. But the council's work can lead to deeper knowledge about what the parish ought to do in the face of sexual misconduct. Reaching such knowledge can yield not only sound advice but also the spiritual benefits of greater trust and unity.
Those who object that sexual abuse is beyond the scope, competence, and authority of pastoral councils are wrong. The scope of councils is practical parish matters, and sex abuse certainly falls within that scope. To be sure, councillors are lay people and generally lack the competence of experts. One does not have to be an expert, however, to reach common sense about practical parish matters. That is the competence of good councillors. Their recommendations undoubtedly lack juridical authority. But if they represent common sense and wisdom about what the parish ought to do, they have an authority that pastors would be foolish to reject.
| Questions? Mark Fischer would love to hear from you. Send him email! MarkFischer@adelphia.net |
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