tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/priests-40672/articlesPriests – The Conversation2024-01-18T13:27:58Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2210762024-01-18T13:27:58Z2024-01-18T13:27:58ZNicaragua released imprisoned priests, but repression is unlikely to relent – and the Catholic Church remains a target<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569921/original/file-20240117-20-1jrits.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C1%2C1017%2C656&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A priest and Catholic worshippers pray in front of an image of 'Sangre de Cristo,' burned in a fire on July 2020, at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Managua.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/priest-and-catholic-faithful-pray-in-front-of-an-image-of-news-photo/1242786617?adppopup=true">Oswaldo Rivas/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Bad news has been the norm for Catholics in Nicaragua, where clergy and church groups have been frequent targets of a wide-ranging crackdown for years. But on Jan. 14, 2024, they received a happy surprise: The government unexpectedly released two bishops, 15 priests and two seminary students from prison and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/14/nicaragua-bishop-rolando-alvarez/">expelled them</a> to the Vatican.</p>
<p>Those released included <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/religious-prisoners-conscience/forb-victims-database/rolando-alvarez">Bishop Rolando Álvarez</a>, a high-profile political prisoner who was detained in 2022 for criticizing the government and then sentenced to 26 years in prison for <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/nicaraguan-bishop-rolando-alvarez-receives-26-year-sentence/">alleged treason</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/dictatorship-banishes-monsignor-rolando-alvarez-and-18-other-religious-political-prisoners-to-the-vatican/">They also included</a> priests <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-arrests-four-more-priests-intensifies-crackdown-catholic-church-2023-12-30/">detained by</a> President Daniel Ortega’s government in late December 2023 <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2024-01/priest-arrested-in-nicaragua-following-mass-on-new-year-s-eve.html">for expressing solidarity</a> with Álvarez and other political prisoners. Days later, Pope Francis <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/01/world/europe/nicaragua-pope-francis-church.html">criticized the regime</a> in his New Year’s message and then <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/pope-francis-reiterates-concerns-about-crisis-in-nicaragua/">called for</a> “respectful diplomatic dialogue.”</p>
<p>Nearly six years after <a href="https://infobuero-nicaragua.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/PUBLICADO-200908.-FUNIDES.-Nicaragua-en-movimiento-2016-2020-SEI_2020_01-2.pdf">mass protests erupted</a> against Ortega and then were brutally repressed, these prisoner releases offer some hope to Nicaragua’s opposition. As <a href="https://www.global.ucsb.edu/people/kai-m-thaler">my research</a> <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003197614-16/nicaragua-rachel-schwartz-kai-thaler">has shown</a>, however, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IICx95ZZzKjfHqiU-oVEityK70vwBv5f/view?usp=sharing">the Ortega regime is unrelenting</a> in trying to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2022.0023">retain power</a>, which suggests this is not necessarily a turning point. In fact, the government reportedly <a href="https://confidencial.digital/nacion/dictadura-secuestra-al-sacerdote-ezequiel-buenfil-tras-el-destierro-de-19-religiosos/">took yet another priest into custody</a> on Jan. 16.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Several rows of people seated in church pews, all looking ahead." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Nicaraguans attend mass in San Juan de Oriente on June 24, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-attend-a-mass-during-celebrations-in-honour-of-san-news-photo/1259026822?adppopup=true">Stringer/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Why target the church?</h2>
<p>Ortega first led Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, after his left-wing revolutionary organization, the Sandinista National Liberation Front, or FSLN, spearheaded the overthrow of dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle. In the 1980s, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.16993/ibero.38">FSLN clashed with the Vatican</a> and church hierarchy over the group’s socialist politics, even as many <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3712105">poorer Nicaraguan Catholics embraced them</a>.</p>
<p>When Ortega took office again in 2007, however, he did so <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20788575">with the blessing of Christian leaders</a>. During the 2006 elections, he had turned to <a href="https://doi.org/10.16993/ibero.38">alliances with Catholic</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s41603-017-0005-6">Protestant elites</a> to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2017.0032">return to power</a> in exchange for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X08326020">adopting</a> conservative social policies like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61545-2">banning abortion</a>.</p>
<p>Over the next decade, <a href="https://doi.org/10.5129/001041522X16281740895086">Ortega remained popular</a>, presiding over economic growth in collaboration <a href="https://doi.org/10.15517/aeca.v43i0.31556">with business leaders</a> and developing new public infrastructure and services.</p>
<p>Yet he and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2010.00099.x">FSLN party he controlled</a> were also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/lap.2019.64">consolidating power</a> and <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/regimen-de-ortega-una-nueva-dictadura-familiar-en-el-continente/oclc/967515148">governing in an increasingly authoritarian</a> manner. Ortega won <a href="https://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/peace/americas/nicaragua_2011_report_post.pdf">reelection in 2011</a> and then retained power in <a href="http://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2017.0032">fraudulent elections</a> in 2016. Opposition candidates were disqualified, and Ortega’s running mate was his wife, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/31/world/americas/nicaragua-daniel-ortega-rosario-murillo-house-of-cards.html">Rosario Murillo</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3917/pal.112.0083">Unexpectedly</a>, Ortega’s popularity and his relationship with the church came crashing down in April 2018, when the government announced cutbacks in social security benefits for retirees. Nicaraguans from <a href="https://doi.org/10.5129/001041522X16281740895086">all backgrounds</a> <a href="https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=7549585">took to the streets</a>, and Ortega and Murillo responded with a <a href="https://gieinicaragua.org/#section04">furious crackdown</a>, unleashing police and pro-government paramilitaries <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr43/9213/2018/en/">armed with military-grade weapons</a>.</p>
<p>Cathedrals and churches <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/bishops-journalists-attacked-church-nicaragua">tried to</a> <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/41597a7a2b9356e668ff2b579dc7cb1d/1">offer refuge</a> to protesters, but <a href="https://www.oas.org/en/iachr/jsForm/?File=/en/iachr/media_center/preleases/2021/302.asp">over 300 people were killed</a>. Church leaders facilitated a national dialogue between the government and an opposition coalition, <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/nicaraguan-bishops-end-role-mediators-national-dialogue">but withdrew</a> as <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/06/nicaragua-aumenta-la-violencia-y-la-represion-estatal-a-pesar-de-los-multiples-esfuerzos-de-dialogo/">repression continued</a>.</p>
<p>When popular Catholic leaders <a href="http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/38768/">criticized violence</a> against protesters, the regime began viewing the church <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/22/world/americas/nicaragua-protests-catholic-church.html">as a rival</a> threatening Ortega’s waning legitimacy. Police, paramilitaries and FSLN supporters started <a href="https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-12-23/exiles-arrests-and-740-attacks-nicaragua-redoubles-its-persecution-of-the-catholic-church.html">harassing and attacking</a> clergy and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-religion-arson-rosario-murillo-latin-america-82bb721aa3ec25e4af34a26e75568599">Catholic institutions</a>.</p>
<p>In 2019, the pope <a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-9016f14a1a9b476ab5cb1d61397fc273">recalled Silvio Báez</a>, the auxiliary bishop of Managua and a prominent critic of Ortega, from Nicaragua. Yet other bishops and priests still found themselves <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/nicaraguan-president-daniel-ortega-goes-catholic-church-latest-effort-rcna44618">in the regime’s crosshairs</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two people in baseball hats hold posters with pictures of a man in clerical robes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Nicaraguan citizens in Costa Rica demonstrate in front of the Nicaraguan Embassy in August 2022 to protest the detention of Bishop Rolando Alvarez.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nicaraguan-citizens-hold-a-demonstration-in-front-of-the-news-photo/1242597067?adppopup=true">Oscar Navarrete/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Some <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nicaragua-catholic-priests-exile-ortega-f5ae508a4295f7ae5b359f96064eea46">fled into exile</a> or were blocked <a href="https://confidencial.digital/nacion/sacerdote-desterrado-silencio-de-los-obispos-no-ha-detenido-la-persecucion/">from entering</a> Nicaragua if they traveled abroad. Others who stayed were kept under surveillance. Priests who expressed support for political prisoners or continued to criticize the regime, even in vague terms, could be <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/catholic-clergy-report-surveillance-beatings-amid-nicaraguas-crackdown-2023-07-07/">arrested or beaten</a>. </p>
<p>The government expelled 12 formerly detained priests to the Vatican <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-sends-catholic-priests-rome-after-talks-with-vatican-2023-10-19/">in October 2023</a> after what the regime called “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-sends-catholic-priests-rome-after-talks-with-vatican-2023-10-19/">fruitful conversations</a>.” But Álvarez, the highest-profile political prisoner, was still held by the government and was stripped of his citizenship after <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-united-states-government-caribbean-daniel-ortega-rosario-murillo-c7930c6340472867148ca7e79e09f1eb">refusing to go into exile</a> in February 2023.</p>
<h2>Broader patterns of repression</h2>
<p>Attacks on the church <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/2022/10/nicaragua-crackdown-religious-actors-further-imperils-return-democracy">are a symptom</a> of the Ortega regime’s absolute intolerance for dissent.</p>
<p>With <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/country-chapters/nicaragua">over 3,000 nongovernmental organizations</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/nicaragua-has-kicked-out-hundreds-of-ngos-even-cracking-down-on-catholic-groups-like-nuns-from-mother-teresas-order-190222">shut down</a> since 2018, the church has become Nicaragua’s only <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/23/world/americas/nicaragua-catholic-church-daniel-ortega.html">major nonstate institution</a> with nationwide reach. </p>
<p>In a country where <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/Nicaragua/#report-toc__section-1">over 40% of the people</a> identify as Catholic, many normally turn to the church in times <a href="https://popolna.org/realidades-municipales-presentadas-en-informe-de-red-local/">of need</a>. Suppressing Catholic institutions means Nicaraguans must turn to the state for aid, which <a href="https://www.divergentes.com/nicaragua-un-espia-en-cada-esquina/">monitors citizens</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/pol.2013.10">has been accused of denying</a> services for perceived disloyalty.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.vozdeamerica.com/a/universidad-de-jesuitas-en-nicaragua-suspende-operaciones-tras-ser-acusada-de-ser-un-centro-de-terrorismo-/7227873.html">At least 27</a> Catholic and <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/news/2023/09/group-experts-nicaragua-finds-escalating-persecution-against-dissent-and-crackdown?sub-site=HRC">secular universities</a> have also <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/17/nicaragua-seizes-catholic-university-accused-of-being-centre-of-terrorism">been closed or seized</a> by the government, as have <a href="https://latamjournalismreview.org/news/daniel-ortegas-war-against-journalism-54-media-outlets-have-been-shut-down/">more than 50</a> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-shuts-catholic-radio-stations-led-by-bishop-critical-regime-2022-08-02/">media outlets</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="T-shirts with pictures of a man in a blue jacket making a 'V' sign with his fingers, and shirts that say 'FSLN,' hang on display outside." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">T-shirts depicting Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega for sale in Managua in July 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/shirts-depicting-nicaraguan-president-daniel-ortega-are-news-photo/1539099812?adppopup=true">Oswaldo Rivas/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The government’s decision to expel clergy on Jan. 14 is also in line with its tendency to either <a href="https://www.articulo66.com/2022/09/29/estos-son-los-nicaraguenses-desterrados-por-el-regimen-ortega-murillo-en-lo-que-va-de-2022/">block opponents’ reentry</a> into Nicaragua or force them <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/husband-and-son-of-former-miss-nicaragua-director-expelled-and-banished/">into exile</a>. In many cases, Nicaragua has then revoked critics’ citizenship, as when it expelled 222 political prisoners <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/09/nicaragua-frees-222-political-prisoners-flies-to-us">in February 2023</a> to the United States.</p>
<p>When imprisonment or threats have not shaken critics’ resolve, Ortega and Murillo appear to have decided that <a href="https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/nicaraguas-political-repression-will-continue-despite-prisoner-release">keeping them abroad is best</a>. Not only does this reduce the risks of anti-regime action in Nicaragua, but it may diminish international scrutiny of <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/10/government-critics-languish-nicaraguan-prisons">political prisoners’ mistreatment</a>.</p>
<h2>Cautious criticism</h2>
<p>Since 2018, repression in Nicaragua has come in waves, with the brutal violence that repressed the protests shifting toward <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/country-chapters/nicaragua">an environment</a> of <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/five-years-of-police-state-in-nicaragua-ban-on-assembly-protests-free-speech-and-elections/">constant surveillance</a>, legal actions against independent institutions and opponents, and periodic arrests. Moments of seeming calm, however, have often been followed by <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr43/4631/2021/en/">harsh crackdowns</a>, such as <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/09/20/nicaragua-trumped-charges-against-critics">a slew of arrests</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2022.0023">ahead of the 2021 elections</a>.</p>
<p>Even as repression has mounted, the Vatican has <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/pope-worried-about-nicaraguan-bishop-s-prison-sentence-/6959873.html">been cautious</a> about criticizing Ortega and Murillo, and some Nicaraguans and <a href="https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/why-is-pope-francis-quiet-about-nicaragua">Catholics abroad</a> <a href="https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-americas/2022/08/nicaraguan-ngos-urge-pope-francis-to-speak-out-on-oppression">have urged the pope to do more</a>. Yet the Vatican’s restraint has not appeared to decrease <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/ortega-represses-151-priests-and-nuns-imprisonment-banishment-and-exile/">threats against clergy</a> or limits on activities <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-police-ban-catholic-procession-church-crackdown-2022-08-12/">like religious processions</a>.</p>
<p>In January 2024, however, Francis pointedly <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/pope-francis-reiterates-concerns-about-crisis-in-nicaragua/">called attention to the crisis</a> during two speeches, days after <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-arrests-four-more-priests-intensifies-crackdown-catholic-church-2023-12-30/">a dozen priests</a> were arrested. One week later came the release of Álvarez and his colleagues – free to leave Nicaragua, but not to come back. </p>
<p>Catholic leaders remain Nicaragua’s <a href="https://confidencial.digital/nacion/obispos-alvarez-brenes-y-baez-con-mas-alta-opinion-favorable-en-nicaragua/">most popular figures</a>, according to independent polling. This makes them a continued threat to Ortega and Murillo’s quest for <a href="https://confidencial.digital/nacion/ortega-a-nicas-en-redes-sociales-si-publican-contra-mi-van-presos/">total control</a>. Ezequiel Buenfil Batún, the priest detained Jan. 16, belonged to a religious order <a href="https://confidencial.digital/nacion/dictadura-secuestra-al-sacerdote-ezequiel-buenfil-tras-el-destierro-de-19-religiosos/">whose legal status was revoked</a> that same day, along with several other nongovernment organizations.</p>
<p>As many Nicaraguans <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/luis-haug-nicaraguans-feel-they-are-hitting-rock-bottom/">lose hope</a> of conditions improving and dozens of political prisoners <a href="https://confidencial.digital/nacion/dictadura-mantiene-tortura-a-presos-politicos-que-realizaron-huelga-de-hambre-en-la-modelo/">remain jailed</a>, any positive news like the priests’ release is welcome. But it holds no guarantees of broader change ahead.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221076/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kai M. Thaler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When President Daniel Ortega returned to power in 2006, church figures supported him. Violent repression after the 2018 protests has soured the relationship and made clergy targets for intimidation.Kai M. Thaler, Assistant Professor of Global Studies, University of California, Santa BarbaraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2176562023-12-13T20:53:51Z2023-12-13T20:53:51ZI’m your man: How Leonard Cohen’s life, poetry and song make him a prophet of love in a particularly dark midwinter<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/im-your-man-how-leonard-cohens-life-poetry-and-song-make-him-a-prophet-of-love-in-a-particularly-dark-midwinter" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Leonard Cohen is hardly the first name that comes to mind as a spokesperson for “the true meaning of the holidays.” </p>
<p>As a religious studies scholar <a href="https://theconversation.com/life-of-brian-terry-joness-legacy-of-a-surprisingly-historical-jesus-130582">specializing in the history of earliest Christianity</a>, and a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2279666243993">Cohen fan from a Christian background</a>, I recognize that “festivity” is simply not a word that sits with Cohen — who was always more slyly depressing than holly jolly.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/a-conversation-with-matthew-r-anderson/id1650272494?i=1000637487270">the beloved and late Jewish poet, novelist, and singer-songwriter from Montréal does talk about light, and profoundly so</a>. His words bring a certain bitter-sweetness to the shortest, darkest days of the year in the northern hemisphere, days which coincide with religious festivals involving light. </p>
<h2>Exterior, interior darkness</h2>
<p>Despite wide differences in their celebrations and what they commemorate, <a href="https://theconversation.com/hanukkahs-true-meaning-is-about-jewish-survival-88225">Hanukkah</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/apocalypse-booze-and-christmas-an-ancient-abc-172014">Christmas</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/yule-a-celebration-of-the-return-of-light-and-warmth-218779">Yule</a> and earlier in the year, <a href="https://theconversation.com/diwali-a-celebration-of-the-goddess-lakshmi-and-her-promise-of-prosperity-and-good-fortune-191992">Diwali</a> all feature candles and twinkling lights. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-blaze-of-light-in-every-word-vale-leonard-cohen-68690">A blaze of light in every word: vale Leonard Cohen</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>Whether or not these festivals were made for this purpose, they help people cope with short days, exterior darkness and even increased <em>interior</em> darkness accompanying <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/sad-science-why-winter-brings-us-down-but-won-t-for-long-1.2981920">seasonal affective disorder (SAD)</a> and other stresses as the nights get longer headed towards winter solstice.</p>
<h2>This year feels gloomier</h2>
<p>However, while violence never ceases, this year feels even gloomier, with a sharp rise in <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/hate-crime-record-levels-toronto-1.7037413">hate crimes</a>, <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/03/controlling-misinformation">polarizing disinformation</a> — some spread by <a href="https://www.routledge.com/American-Evangelicals-for-Trump-Dominion-Spiritual-Warfare-and-the-End/Gagn/p/book/9781032415680">“Christian” nationalists who deny democracy</a> while seeking to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-christian-rights-efforts-to-transform-society-120878">remake North American society in their image</a> — <a href="https://theconversation.com/violent-and-disturbing-war-images-from-the-mideast-can-stir-deep-emotions-a-ptsd-expert-explains-how-to-protect-yourself-and-your-kids-from-overexposure-216405">and with war</a>. (Now we’re starting to sound more like Cohen.)</p>
<p>In reaction to the Israel-Hamas war and its global effects, instead of embracing festivals of light, some are choosing to downplay them. The city of Moncton, New Brunswick <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/moncton-city-hall-menorah-hanukkah-francis-weil-1.7046813#">decided not to display their traditional menorah and nativity scene</a>. But the decision provoked a strong negative response <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/moncton-menorah-mayor-dawn-arnold-statement-1.7048461">across Canada and globally, occasioning a speedy reversal</a>. </p>
<p>Cohen’s frequent mentions of failure, regret, suffering, violence and mortality make him far more <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6WnnZRSKYs">blue, than Christmas</a>. But I can identify at least four ways Cohen’s life and poetry make <a href="https://www.mqup.ca/prophets-of-love-products-9780228018643.php">him a prophet of love</a> who illuminates these dark times, based on my recent research on religious imagery in his poetry and music.</p>
<p><strong>1. Cohen wasn’t afraid to lean into the fact that, worldwide, people are religious, and religious symbols have power.</strong> Remove religious allusions from Cohen’s writing and you’d lose most of his work. His book titles, from the first <em>Let Us Compare Mythologies</em> (1956) to final <em>The Flame</em> (2018), show just how aware of <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2016/11/leonard-cohen-the-christ-haunted">the near universal symbolic currency of religion</a> Cohen was. </p>
<p>Religion was a handy way for Cohen to talk about sex. But equally true is that sex offered a device for him to talk about religion. For him, these insights were entwined with the sense that each person reflects the Divine. He observed, “I think that everybody leads a spiritual life… in touch… <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Leonard_Cohen.html?id=s8RbAgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">with their own deep pools of divine activity</a>.”</p>
<p><strong>2. Cohen never caricatured religious traditions. He pointed to the richness of many faiths while stating his own positionality.</strong> Cohen knew that understanding others starts with understanding oneself. “<a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Leonard_Cohen.html?id=s8RbAgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">I would never say anything else but that I am a Jew</a>,” he repeatedly insisted. Cohen’s maternal grandfather was a noted scriptural scholar and his paternal <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9707000/shaar-hashomayim-celebrates-century-in-westmount/">great-grandfather helped found Montréal’s Congregation Shaar Hashomayim</a>. Yet as deeply rooted as he was in Judaism, Cohen’s knowledge of other faiths was both profound and wide-ranging. </p>
<p>In my research I show <a href="https://atlanticbooks.ca/stories/im-your-saint-cohen-and-st-paul-studied-in-prophets-of-love/">how important Jesus was to Cohen</a>, without making the mistake of claiming he was Christian. I explore the profound impact of Catholicism on his childhood. I also note how interwoven through Cohen’s corpus is his decades-long practice of Zen Buddhism, his readings in Sufi mysticism and his study of Hinduism. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/oct/17/how-leonard-cohen-mined-sacred-texts-for-lyrics-to-his-songs">Jewish tales from the Mishnah and Talmud</a>, <a href="https://www.heyalma.com/leonard-cohens-rabbi-reveals-the-jewish-theology-behind-the-music/">kabbalistic philosophy</a>, ancient Christian legends, poetry from Federico Garcia Lorca and Rumi, and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2016/10/21/498810429/leonard-cohen-on-poetry-music-and-why-he-left-the-zen-monastery">Zen reflections on longing</a>, attachment and nothingness all combine in his work. </p>
<p>As a poet, writer and thinker Cohen abhorred cliché, while leaning into religious complexity and diversity.</p>
<p><strong>3. Cohen respected faith and spirituality but called out religious hypocrisy.</strong> In 1984 he remarked: “<a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Leonard_Cohen.html?id=s8RbAgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">There’s always the possibility of mystification and manipulation</a> …. There are evil forces in the world ready to imperialize religion but I’m confident the forces of good are stronger.” </p>
<p>These words seem optimistic for the man who also wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Give me Stalin and St. Paul / I’ve seen the future, brother / It is murder” (“The Future,” from Stranger Music). </p>
</blockquote>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Leonard Cohen’s ‘The Future.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cohen himself was not immune to abusing the power that comes with being revered. He was fortunate in successfully transforming his <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20201211115215/https:/www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/article-leonard-cohens-tales-of-seduction-look-different-through-a-metoo/">seemingly misogynist relations with women</a> into lyrics rather than litigation, partly by the complicated and disarming ways he wrote about regret, apology and forgiveness, and partly <a href="https://sharpmagazine.com/2018/11/06/how-do-we-come-to-terms-with-leonard-cohens-legacy-in-the-metoo-era/">through age and death</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/marianne-and-leonard-a-new-film-tells-us-little-about-the-woman-fixed-in-the-role-of-musicians-muse-128112">Marianne & Leonard: a new film tells us little about the woman fixed in the role of musician's muse</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>4. Most importantly, Cohen used religious stories and images to find common cause with and give courage to others in dark times.</strong> His most famous lines are perhaps from his song <em>Anthem</em>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Ring the bells that still can ring / forget your perfect offering / There is a crack in everything / that’s how the light gets in.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Harry Freedman, in <em><a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/leonard-cohen-9781472987273/">Leonard Cohen: The Mystical Roots of Genius</a></em> finds multiple Jewish religious references behind <em>Anthem</em>. I’ve discovered even more. Cohen took on the mantle (importantly, for him a <em>biblical</em> mantle) of recognizing and lifting up the light that can be discovered in, despite, and through human suffering. As I have written elsewhere, “<a href="https://www.mqup.ca/prophets-of-love-products-9780228018643.php">A crack in everything means especially a crack in human beings</a>.”</p>
<p>In his last years Cohen lived into his name <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/cohen">of cohen (priest)</a>. Friends and colleagues of mine who attended his final concerts, some religious, but many <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-it-mean-to-be-spiritual-87236">“spiritual but not religious,”</a> described them as sacred spaces.</p>
<p>Cohen’s lyrics dwell on human failure, regret and violence. Yet according to his musical collaborator Sharon Robinson, <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/sharon-robinson-reflects-on-touring-with-leonard-cohen-194281/">touring became “a type of meditation” for Cohen</a>, and his final concerts ended with him blessing the crowd. Typically for Cohen, who never let a line have only one meaning, the title of the album <em>You Want It Darker</em> refers to both his fans and his God. There is <a href="https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/2315/darkness-and-light-leonard-cohen-and-the-new-cantors-a-playlist-for-the-high-holidays/">both a challenge to the Divine, and acceptance of an end</a>, in it.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Leonard Cohen’s ‘You Want it Darker.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Cohen’s ominous passing, ongoing relevance</h2>
<p>Cohen’s 2016 death on <a href="https://lithub.com/cohen-dies-trump-wins-and-we-will-sing-about-these-dark-times/">the eve of a sharp turn toward hate politics when Donald Trump was elected</a> seems doubly ominous seven years after the passing of the <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/leonard-cohen-remembering-the-life-and-legacy-of-the-poet-of-brokenness-192994">poet of brokenness</a>. </p>
<p>Knowledgeable of many faiths, but observant above all of the human condition; daring the Divine to answer humanity’s sorrows: this is what makes Cohen an unlikely but fitting spokesperson for another dark midwinter season. </p>
<p>My own vote for a <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/douglas-todd-leonard-cohen-may-help-us-find-hope-in-today-s-holy-broken-world/ar-AA1izeLe">Cohen holiday favourite</a> might be <em>Come Healing</em>. It’s why Cohen, a man about whom surely no Hallmark festive movie will ever be made, just might be this year’s answer to the darkness: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“And let the heavens falter / Let the earth proclaim / Come healing of the altar /
Come healing of the name.”</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217656/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Robert Anderson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Leonard Cohen, a man about whom surely no Hallmark festive movie will ever be made, dared the Divine to answer humanity’s sorrows.Matthew Robert Anderson, Adjunct professor, Theological Studies, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2137222023-10-02T12:29:39Z2023-10-02T12:29:39ZPope Francis has appointed 21 new cardinals – an expert on medieval Christianity explains what it means for the future of the Catholic Church<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551264/original/file-20230930-19-qn921n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C0%2C5964%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New cardinals at St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Sept. 30, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXVaticanNewCardinals/55e2e1150801420ca3e91bb06eab2313/photo?Query=Pope%20Francis%20created%2021%20new%20cardinals&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=12&currentItemNo=1">AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Sept. 30, 2023, Pope Francis swore in <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-07/pope-announces-consistory-for-creation-of-new-cardinals.html">21 clergymen as new members of</a> the College of Cardinals. The College is an important part of the church’s governance structure – each new member <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatican-news/pope-francis-names-21-new-cardinals-including-vaticans-ambassador-us">takes a formal oath</a> during a ritual ceremony in the presence of present members of the College. </p>
<p>This assembly of cardinals, <a href="https://slmedia.org/blog/consistory-2023">known as a consistory</a>, is the ninth that Francis has held to create new cardinals since 2013, when he succeeded the retiring Pope Benedict XVI. </p>
<p>The new appointments will take the <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/documentation/cardinali---statistiche/elenco_per_eta.html">membership of the College from 221 to 242</a>, including retirees. Francis has ensured that the College includes clergy from around the world and is <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2023/07/09/pope-francis-new-cardinals-conclave-245656">representative of the diversity</a> within Catholicism. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/joanne-pierce">specialist in medieval Christianity</a>, I have studied the complex history of the College of Cardinals. Shaped by past challenges, it is a crucial institution – for its members will elect the next pope and help develop the policies the Catholic Church will follow in the future.</p>
<h2>Early church leadership</h2>
<p>During the Roman Empire, when Christianity was illegal, Christians would meet secretly. These meetings were often held <a href="https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/biblical-archaeology-sites/when-did-christianity-begin-to-spread/">in private homes called house churches</a> – domestic buildings that were later <a href="http://historyofchristianart.com/files/Origins_Program_Dura_Europos_A.pdf">adapted solely for worship</a> by members of the local Christian community. </p>
<p>It was during this time that leadership of these communities developed into three main orders of ordained clergy: <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+3&version=NRSVCE">Overseers became bishop</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+5%3A+17-22&version=NRSVCE">elders became priests</a>, and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+3%3A+8-13&version=NRSVCE">ministers became deacons</a>. </p>
<p>After the legalization of Christianity in the early fourth century, Christians were free to build large, more elaborate public buildings for worship, which often expanded some of these original house churches. New churches were also built in various sections of Rome, as well as in seven areas surrounding the city — like suburbs – <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14324a.htm">called the suburbicarian churches</a>. </p>
<p>By the sixth century, key members of the clergy staffing many of these Roman and Italian churches, especially the older ones, were referred to as cardinals, from the Latin word referring to a hinge, or a central joint. Leading deacons, senior priests and prominent bishops serving these parishes were all called cardinals. </p>
<h2>Papacy as a political prize</h2>
<p>Over these later centuries, Christianity also spread more widely north of the Alps, and the numbers of Christian churches and clergy expanded. However, because of ongoing warfare, conquest and political turmoil, Christianity in western Europe entered a more turbulent period. Popes came to exert political as well as spiritual power, leaving the office of the papacy vulnerable to the influence of competing secular powers, as well as powerful local Roman families and foreign rulers. </p>
<p>This became such a problem that in 769, under Pope Stephen III, <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14289a.htm">a council held at one of the central churches in Rome</a> – St. John Lateran – ruled that no layperson could be elected pope or influence the election of anyone to the papacy; only candidates holding the title of cardinal could be elected pope.</p>
<p>This requirement improved the situation for a time, but also contributed to the increasing political power of cardinals, traditionally the popes’ closest advisers.</p>
<p>In the later ninth and 10th centuries, however, the papacy again became a political prize for prominent Roman families and Italian nobility. This period, called the “<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Age-of-Faith/Will-Durant/The-Story-of-Civilization/9781451647617">nadir of the papacy</a>,” produced a series of unworthy popes, including Pope Stephen VI, who put the corpse of his <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/the-cadaver-synod-putting-a-dead-pope-on-trial/">predecessor on trial</a>; and Pope John XII, at 17 the youngest pope ever elected, who <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08426b.htm">spent his papacy in the mid-10th century</a> in drinking, gambling and debauchery.</p>
<p>However, many changes took place during the next two centuries, supported by reform-minded clergy and rulers in what is now France. </p>
<p>Several popes, notably Popes Leo IX and Gregory VII, brought organizational improvements to the bureaucratic structure of the Catholic Church in the <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780195396584/obo-9780195396584-0131.xml">11th and early 12th centuries</a>; many individual cardinals came to direct administrative departments. </p>
<p>In 1059, Pope Nicholas II declared that <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/papalel.asp">a pope could only be elected</a> by members of the College of Cardinals, and a <a href="https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum11.htm">special election consistory</a> was mandated in 1179.</p>
<h2>Vatican II and other developments</h2>
<p>In the following centuries, cardinals in the Catholic Church continued to assume important roles in Rome as curial officers, diplomats – called papal legates – and experts in the <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib2-cann330-367_en.html#CHAPTER_III">Catholic legal system, the canon law</a>. Others served as advisers to rulers in Catholic countries or directed groups of bishops in their local pastoral ministry.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551016/original/file-20230928-17-tc7ng6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white image showing a large number of people seated in pews." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551016/original/file-20230928-17-tc7ng6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551016/original/file-20230928-17-tc7ng6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551016/original/file-20230928-17-tc7ng6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551016/original/file-20230928-17-tc7ng6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551016/original/file-20230928-17-tc7ng6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551016/original/file-20230928-17-tc7ng6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551016/original/file-20230928-17-tc7ng6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pope Benedict XV, cardinals and others pray for peace in Europe at St Peter’s (San Pietro) on Feb. 7, 1915, at the Vatican.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pope-benedict-xv-cardinals-and-faithfuls-praying-for-peace-news-photo/872464604?adppopup=true">DeAgostini/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Several popes made more substantial changes in the number and selection of cardinals in the 20th and 21st centuries. The requirements for a cardinal candidate were narrowed. In 1917, Pope Benedict XV <a href="https://guides.library.utoronto.ca/c.php?g=251196&p=1673402">promulgated a universal Code of Canon Law</a>. In it, the office of cardinal was restricted to priests and bishops, and deacons were excluded.</p>
<p>Later, on the eve of the Second Vatican Council, held from from 1962 to 1965, Pope John XXIII declared that <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/john-xxiii/la/motu_proprio/documents/hf_j-xxiii_motu-proprio_19620415_cum-gravissima.html">all cardinals must be ordained bishops</a>. Subsequently, John Paul II – pope from 1978 until his death in 2005 – dispensed certain exceptional priests, often elderly theologians, from this requirement. The first so honored in 1983 was the <a href="https://aleteia.org/2021/09/04/remembering-the-life-of-henri-de-lubac/">French theologian Rev. Henri de Lubac</a>, and the first American, named in 2001, was <a href="https://www.fordham.edu/academics/faculty/endowed-chairs/mcginley-chair/avery-cardinal-dulles-biography/">Rev. Avery Dulles, S. J.</a>.</p>
<p>In addition, popes at this time, <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/it/speeches/1946/documents/hf_p-xii_spe_19460220_la-elevatezza.html">stressing the universality of the church</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180523005422/http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2018/cardinal-stats-pope-makes-college-more-international-not-much-younger.cfm">added several new cardinals</a> from countries around the world.</p>
<h2>A larger College of Cardinals</h2>
<p>Partly because of this stress on diversity, the size of the College of Cardinals increased dramatically. During the later medieval period, popes and councils set the maximum number of cardinals who could serve at one time, varying from 20 in the 14th century to 70 in the 16th century. That limit remained in effect until the 20th century, when John XXIII <a href="https://cardinals.fiu.edu/consist-58.htm">expanded the College</a> to 88 cardinals, which his successor, Pope Paul VI, expanded to 134 – less than half the size of the College today. </p>
<p>The duties expected of individual cardinals have also changed. During his papacy, Paul VI set out rules for the retirement of all bishops and priests, as well as cardinals: All were expected to submit a letter of intent to retire when they reached the age of 75. </p>
<p>He also set another age limit: After reaching the age of 80, cardinals would not be eligible to vote in a papal election, although they <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/it/motu_proprio/documents/hf_p-vi_motu-proprio_19701120_ingravescentem.html">kept the title of cardinal</a> for the remainder of their lives. Even before the September 2023 consistory, almost half of the total number of cardinals were over 80, and so <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/documentation/cardinali---statistiche/elenco_per_eta/distribuzione-per-tipo.html">were barred from voting</a> in future papal elections.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551015/original/file-20230928-15-xqp6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Clergymen in green robes seated in the pews." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551015/original/file-20230928-15-xqp6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551015/original/file-20230928-15-xqp6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551015/original/file-20230928-15-xqp6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551015/original/file-20230928-15-xqp6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551015/original/file-20230928-15-xqp6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551015/original/file-20230928-15-xqp6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551015/original/file-20230928-15-xqp6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The College of Cardinals at the Holy Mass, presided over by Pope Francis at the Vatican Basilica, on Aug. 30, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-cardinals-at-the-holy-mass-at-the-end-of-the-consistory-news-photo/1419592930?adppopup=true">Grzegorz Galazka/Archivio Grzegorz Galazka/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Cardinals and the future of the church</h2>
<p>During his pontificate, Francis’ selections have continued to shape the composition of the College of Cardinals in several ways. </p>
<p>Many believe that with his appointments, Francis has tried to ensure that his vision of the church’s future will continue after his death; he is 86 years old and in failing health. </p>
<p>Given the fact that the vast majority of cardinals under 80 are Francis appointees, some commentators have noted that the <a href="https://religionnews.com/2023/09/25/pope-conclave/">pope has “stacked</a>” the College with cardinals who are inclined to agree with his more liberal focus on inclusivity and social justice issues, rather than Benedict XVI’s stress on doctrinal orthodoxy and traditional values. Francis’ latest round of cardinal appointments have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/09/04/pope-wars-against-american-bishops/">further underscored this tension</a>.</p>
<p>Some more conservative Catholic bishops and cardinals have criticized the pope’s statements and actions as increasingly divergent from Catholic traditional teaching. The late Cardinal George Pell from Australia, who served over a year in prison until his conviction for child sex abuse was overturned in 2020, <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2023/01/17/commentary-cardinal-pells/">called Francis’ pontificate a “catastrophe</a>” in an anonymous letter sent to other cardinals in 2022. </p>
<p>Other bishops and cardinals disagree. For example, <a href="https://www.archchicago.org/about-us/cardinal-blase-j-cupich">Cardinal Blase Cupich</a>, archbishop of Chicago, <a href="https://www.archchicago.org/about-us/cardinal-blase-j-cupich">has publically approved</a> of the pope’s determination to “situate the church for its future” by <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/cardinal-cupich-francis-giving-new-life-vatican-ii-reforms">emphasizing a more collaborative approach</a>, and praising Francis’ <a href="https://www.archchicago.org/statement/-/article/2020/10/04/statement-of-cardinal-blase-j-cupich-archbishop-of-chicago-on-pope-francis-encyclical-letter-fratelli-tutti-">stress on inclusion</a> rather than division.</p>
<p><a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/by-stacking-the-odds-in-his-favour-does-pope-francis-risk-splitting-the-vote-at-the-next-conclave/">Whatever the outcome</a> of the next papal election, members of the College of Cardinals, as bishops in active ministry, diplomats, intellectuals and papal advisers, <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2023/07/17/pope-francis-cardinals-conclave-245695">will have a profound role</a> in shaping that future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213722/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne M. Pierce does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The College of Cardinals is an important part of the church’s governance structure. Its members elect the next pope and help develop future policies for the church.Joanne M. Pierce, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2115872023-08-23T12:26:21Z2023-08-23T12:26:21ZNavigating the intersection between AI, automation and religion – 3 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542839/original/file-20230815-23-3fs34t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">AI is slowly becoming part of the religious sphere. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/rosary-prayer-online-holy-mass-conducted-online-royalty-free-image/1221601837?phrase=religion+and+technology&adppopup=true">robertprzybysz/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a era marked by rapid technological advancement, we are seeing everything from artificial intelligence to robots slowly seep into our everyday lives. But now, this technology is increasingly making inroads into a realm that has long been uniquely human: religion. </p>
<p>From the creation of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/germany-church-protestants-chatgpt-ai-sermon-651f21c24cfb47e3122e987a7263d348">ChatGPT sermons</a> to <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/robots-are-performing-hindu-rituals-some-worshippers-fear-theyll-be-replaced">robots performing sacred Hindu rituals</a>, the once-clearer boundaries between faith and technology are blurring. </p>
<p>Over the last few months, The Conversation U.S. has published a number of stories exploring how AI and automation are weaving themselves into religious contexts. These three articles from our archives shed light on the impacts of such technology on human spirituality, faith and worship across cultures. </p>
<h2>1. Prophets come to life</h2>
<p>As one of the most prominent religious figures in the world, Jesus has been continually reinterpreted to fit the norms and needs of each new historical context, from <a href="https://theconversation.com/panama-celebrates-its-black-christ-part-of-protest-against-colonialism-and-slavery-122171">Cristo Negro</a> or “Black Christ” to being depicted as a Hindu mystic. </p>
<p>But now the prophet is on Twitch, a video live-streaming platform. And it’s all thanks to an AI chatbot. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A bearded white man wearing a brown hooded jacket has a halo around him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543072/original/file-20230816-17-mzi6vx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543072/original/file-20230816-17-mzi6vx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543072/original/file-20230816-17-mzi6vx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543072/original/file-20230816-17-mzi6vx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543072/original/file-20230816-17-mzi6vx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543072/original/file-20230816-17-mzi6vx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543072/original/file-20230816-17-mzi6vx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">AI Jesus provides insight on both spiritual and personal questions users ask on his channel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.twitch.tv/ask_jesus">Twitch user ask_jesus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Presented as a bearded white man wearing a brown hood, “AI Jesus” is available 24/7 on his Twitch channel “<a href="https://www.twitch.tv/ask_jesus">ask_Jesus</a>” and is able to interact with users who can ask him anything from deep religious-in-nature questions to lighthearted inquiries. </p>
<p>AI Jesus represents one of the newest examples in the growing field of AI spirituality, noted Boston College theology faculty member <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/joseph-l-kimmel-1441171">Joseph L. Kimmel</a>, and may help scholars better understand how human spirituality is being actively shaped by the influence of AI.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-chatbot-willing-to-take-on-questions-of-all-kinds-from-the-serious-to-the-comical-is-the-latest-representation-of-jesus-for-the-ai-age-208644">A chatbot willing to take on questions of all kinds – from the serious to the comical – is the latest representation of Jesus for the AI age</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. Robotic rituals</h2>
<p>A unique intersection of religion and robotic technology has emerged with the introduction of robots performing Hindu rituals in South Asia. While some have welcomed the technological inclusion, others express worries about the future that ritual automation could lead to. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LH5yqpCWKqs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A robotic arm performs “aarti” — a Hindu practice in which light is ritually waved for the veneration of deities.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many believe that the growth of robots within Hindu practices could lead to an increase in people leaving the religion, and question the use of robots to embody religious and divine figures.</p>
<p>But there is another concern: whether robots could eventually replace Hindu worshippers. Automated robots would be able to perform rituals without a single error. This is significant because religions like Hinduism and Buddhism emphasize the correct execution of rituals and ceremonies as a means to connect with the divine rather than emphasizing correct belief. </p>
<p>It’s a concept referred to as orthopraxy, according to Wellesley College anthropology lecturer <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/holly-walters-1406163">Holly Walters</a>. “In short, the robot can do your religion better than you can because robots, unlike people, are spiritually incorruptible,” she explained. “Modern robotics might then feel like a particular kind of cultural paradox, where the best kind of religion is the one that eventually involves no humans at all.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/robots-are-performing-hindu-rituals-some-devotees-fear-theyll-replace-worshippers-197504">Robots are performing Hindu rituals -- some devotees fear they'll replace worshippers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>3. AI preachers</h2>
<p>According to College of the Holy Cross religious studies scholar <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/joanne-m-pierce-156953">Joanne M. Pierce</a>, preaching has always been considered a human activity grounded in faith. But what happens when that practice is taken over by an AI chatbot? </p>
<p>In June 2023, hundreds of Lutherans gathered in Bavaria, Germany, for a service designed and delivered by ChatGPT. But many are cautious about using AI to conduct these religious practices. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xmXghWi2lf8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">St. Paul’s Church in Fürth, Bavaria was packed with over 300 Lutherans who attended a church service generated almost entirely by artificial intelligence.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In their sermons, preachers not only offer advice, but “speak out of personal reflection in a way that will inspire the members of the congregation, not just please them,” Pierce said. “It must also be shaped by an awareness of the needs and lived experience of the worshiping community in the pews.”</p>
<p>For the time being, it seems as though the inability to understand the human experience is AI’s biggest flaw within the preaching sphere. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-chatbots-write-inspirational-and-wise-sermons-208825">Can chatbots write inspirational and wise sermons?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211587/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The merging of technology and faith is sparking a transformative shift in redefining spirituality and religious practices.Meher Bhatia, Editorial Intern, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2088252023-07-06T12:28:14Z2023-07-06T12:28:14ZCan chatbots write inspirational and wise sermons?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535891/original/file-20230705-22346-guktbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=62%2C44%2C5892%2C3910&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">AI-created sermons have proved controversial for some religious leaders.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/june-2023-bavaria-f%C3%BCrth-visitors-and-attendees-during-the-news-photo/1258555134?adppopup=true">Daniel Vogl/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When several hundred Lutherans in Bavaria, Germany, attended a service on June 9, 2023, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/germany-church-protestants-chatgpt-ai-sermon-651f21c24cfb47e3122e987a7263d348">designed by ChatGPT</a>, the program not only selected hymns and prayers, but also composed and delivered a sermon, delivered by an avatar on a big screen. </p>
<p>Indeed, programs like ChatGPT, that can produce a sermon in seconds, might seem attractive to busy clergy. But several religious leaders, including rabbis serving Jewish congregations as well as Christian Protestant pastors, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-artificial-intelligence-kentucky-religion-65822bf1c46de7630d3441e9ff4ff41a">have conflicting feelings</a> about utilizing chatbots in preparing sermons. </p>
<p>There may be several reasons for being cautious. From my perspective, as <a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/joanne-pierce">a specialist in Catholic liturgy and ritual</a>, the most important critique has to do with true intent of preaching – to offer insight and inspiration on the human experience of faith.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xmXghWi2lf8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">More than 300 people attended an experimental Lutheran Protestant church service almost entirely generated by artificial intelligence in Germany on June 9, 2023. (AP video: Daniel Niemann)</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Historical practice</h2>
<p>In the early centuries of Christianity, <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07443a.htm">preaching was largely reserved for bishops</a>, considered to be the successors to Jesus’ apostles. During the Middle Ages, priests were also allowed to preach, although their chief responsibility was to say the Mass – ritually consecrating the offerings of bread and wine – especially on Sundays. </p>
<p>In some religious orders, priests <a href="https://www.op.org/history/">became famous traveling preachers</a>, although much of the time they were preaching in other settings, not during Mass. <a href="https://brill.com/display/title/15499">The Franciscan</a> and <a href="https://exhibitions.lib.cam.ac.uk/dominicans/case/medieval-preachers-and-teachers/">Dominican</a> orders, for example, would send priests to preach on the streets and in city centers, traveling from town to town in fulfillment of this ministry. </p>
<p>During the next few centuries, preaching brief sermons or homilies became increasingly important during the celebration of Sunday Mass. The Second Vatican Council, convened in 1962, <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2022-10/vatican-ii-council-60th-anniversary-video-history-background.html">took a fresh look at all the church’s rituals</a> and stressed the role of preaching at worship, especially at Mass. </p>
<p>These principles have been <a href="https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20140629_direttorio-omiletico_en.html#I._THE_HOMILY">reaffirmed in more recent documents</a> that guide Catholic preachers when writing a sermon. In essence, preaching was always believed to be a human activity grounded in faith. </p>
<h2>Insight and inspiration</h2>
<p>Preaching as a human activity has a special meaning for Catholics – and most Christians – because they believe that Jesus Christ is the incarnate Son of God, who <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1J.HTM">came into human life to save all of humanity from their sins</a> and gave his <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+16%3A15&version=NRSVCE">apostles the commandment to preach the gospel</a> about this “good news” to people of all nations. </p>
<p>In the decades since Vatican II ended in 1965, preaching in the Catholic tradition has been emphasized as a “<a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19651207_presbyterorum-ordinis_en.html">primary duty</a>” of all priests. </p>
<p>The sermon is meant to <a href="https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20140629_direttorio-omiletico_en.html#I._THE_HOMILY">inspire people</a> in their ordinary lives of faith. The preacher must spend time in preparing the sermon, but this does not just mean compiling theological quotes or doing research on the history of the Bible. </p>
<p>A good sermon is not just a classroom lecture. In fact, several contemporary popes have stressed that the language of sermons should avoid technical or obscure terminology. In 1975, Pope Paul VI wrote that the language of preaching should be “<a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_p-vi_exh_19751208_evangelii-nuntiandi.html">simple, clear, direct, well-adapted</a>” for the congregation in the pews. And in 2013, Pope Francis echoed these same words in his observation that “<a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html#_ftn125%5D">simplicity has to do with the language we use</a>.”</p>
<p>But preaching is not just about offering pious mottoes or generic religious formulas. The preacher’s experience, insights and emotions all come into play when composing the homiletic text.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Black and white photo of Billy Graham preaching to a packed audience. Graham stands at a lectern in front of many onlookers, with his hands raised above his head" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535893/original/file-20230705-26-esx3zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535893/original/file-20230705-26-esx3zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535893/original/file-20230705-26-esx3zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535893/original/file-20230705-26-esx3zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535893/original/file-20230705-26-esx3zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535893/original/file-20230705-26-esx3zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535893/original/file-20230705-26-esx3zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Evangelist Billy Graham reached millions who were attracted by his charisma and preaching style.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/evangelist-billy-graham-preaches-to-a-crowd-of-21-000-in-st-news-photo/515575744?adppopup=true">Bettmann / Contributor via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The preacher is not simply offering good advice, but speaking out of personal reflection in a way that will inspire the members of the congregation, not just please them. It <a href="https://www.mccrimmons.com/shop/homilies/preaching-as-paying-attention--theological-reflection-in-the-pulpit/">must also be shaped</a> by an awareness of the needs and lived experience of the worshipping community in the pews. </p>
<h2>Use with caution</h2>
<p>In practice, chatbots might help clergy save time by finding sources and compiling relevant facts, but the results would need to be <a href="https://mashable.com/article/microsoft-bing-ai-chatbot-weird-scary-responses">checked for errors</a>. Chatbots have been known to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/feb/09/ai-blunders-google-chatbot-chatgpt-cause-trouble-more-firms">make some factual blunders</a> or <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/lawyer-who-cited-cases-concocted-by-ai-asks-judge-spare-sanctions-2023-06-08/">invent sources completely</a>. </p>
<p>Above all, I believe chatbots, as of now, are not capable of preparing a text suitable for being offered as a sermon. From what we know about chatbots, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ai-isnt-close-to-becoming-sentient-the-real-danger-lies-in-how-easily-were-prone-to-anthropomorphize-it-200525">they cannot know</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/it-takes-a-body-to-understand-the-world-why-chatgpt-and-other-language-ais-dont-know-what-theyre-saying-201280">what it means to be human</a>, to experience love or be inspired by a sacred text. </p>
<p>Perhaps Baptist pastor Hershael York, Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has put it best. He has noted that the ultimate failure of a chatbot’s sermon lies in the fact that it “lacks a soul.” Without that empathetic consciousness, a chatbot-composed sermon cannot include genuine insights based on personal spiritual experience. And without that essential element of embodied human awareness, true preaching is simply not possible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208825/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne M. Pierce does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Not quite, writes an expert on Christian worship. Chatbots do not have human experience of love – and, above all, they lack a soul.Joanne M. Pierce, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1975042023-03-08T13:40:23Z2023-03-08T13:40:23ZRobots are performing Hindu rituals – some devotees fear they’ll replace worshippers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513699/original/file-20230306-18-wqvorn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C831%2C422&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A robotic arm (below on right) is used to worship by maneuvering a candle in front of the Hindu god Ganesha.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1pwR5yABnY&t=4s">Monarch Innovation</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It isn’t just artists and teachers who are losing sleep over advances in automation and artificial intelligence. Robots are being brought into Hinduism’s holiest rituals – and not all worshippers are happy about it.</p>
<p>In 2017, a <a href="https://patilautomation.com/">technology firm in India</a> introduced a robotic arm to perform “aarti,” a ritual in which a devotee offers an oil lamp to the deity to symbolize the removal of darkness. This particular robot was unveiled at the Ganpati festival, a yearly gathering of millions of people in which an icon of Ganesha, the elephant-headed god, is taken out in a procession and immersed in the Mula-Mutha river in Pune in central India.</p>
<p>Ever since, that robotic aarti arm has inspired several prototypes, a <a href="https://www.monarch-innovation.com/ganesh-aarti-with-robotic-arm-technology/">few of which</a> continue to regularly perform the ritual <a href="https://www.deccanchronicle.com/technology/in-other-news/140918/techno-artistic-ganesha-watch-lord-ganesha-levitate-robot-conduct-aa.html">across India today</a>, along with a variety of other religious robots <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/rrcs/7/1/article-p120_120.xml?language=en">throughout East Asia</a> and <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-cow-in-the-elevator">South Asia</a>. Robotic rituals even now include <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/india/kerala-temple-elephant-robot-peta-b2291054.html">an animatronic temple elephant</a> in Kerala on India’s southern coast.</p>
<p>Yet this kind of religious robotic usage has led to <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/all-that-matters/hindu-epics-are-full-of-ai-robots-legend-has-it-that-they-guarded-buddhas-relics/articleshow/68648962.cms">increasing debates</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/meenakandasamy/status/1577242445913370624">about the use of AI</a> and robotic technology in devotion and worship. Some devotees and priests feel that this represents a new horizon in human innovation that will lead to the betterment of society, while others worry that <a href="https://doi.org/10.4000/assr.27792">using robots to replace practitioners</a> is a bad omen for the future. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jUOo9sXdU2g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Ganesha aarti being done by a robotic arm.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=d_8EGoUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">anthropologist who specializes in religion,</a> however, I focus less on the theology of robotics and more on what people actually say and do when it comes to their spiritual practices. My current work on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxfYcSC-MRY">religious robots</a> primarily centers on the notion of “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/717110">divine object-persons</a>,” where otherwise inanimate things are viewed as having a living, conscious essence. </p>
<p>My work also looks at the uneasiness Hindus and Buddhists express about ritual-performing automatons replacing people and whether those automatons actually might make <a href="https://www.globalbuddhism.org/article/view/1285">better devotees</a>. </p>
<h2>Ritual automation is not new</h2>
<p>Ritual automation, or at least the idea of robotic spiritual practice, isn’t new in South Asian religions. </p>
<p>Historically, this has included anything from special <a href="https://www.hindu-blog.com/2012/09/symbolism-in-water-pot-above-shivling.html">pots that drip water continuously</a> for bathing rituals that Hindus routinely perform for their deity icons, called abhisheka, to <a href="https://rubinmuseum.org/collection/artwork/wind-powered-prayer-wheel-20.406">wind-powered Buddhist prayer wheels</a> – the kinds often seen in yoga studios and supply stores. </p>
<p>While the contemporary version of automated ritual might look like downloading a <a href="https://appadvice.com/apps/hindu-prayer-apps">phone app that chants mantras</a> without the need for any prayer object at all, such as a mala or rosary, these new versions of ritual-performing robots have prompted complicated conversations.</p>
<p>Thaneswar Sarmah, a Sanskrit scholar and literary critic, <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/69030981">argues that the first Hindu robot</a> appeared in the stories of King Manu, the first king of the human race in Hindu belief. Manu’s mother, Saranyu – herself the daughter of a great architect – built an animate statue to perfectly perform all of her household chores and ritual obligations. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513705/original/file-20230306-22-u4zgsi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A male figure wearing a crown and holding a red bag in one hand." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513705/original/file-20230306-22-u4zgsi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513705/original/file-20230306-22-u4zgsi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=745&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513705/original/file-20230306-22-u4zgsi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=745&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513705/original/file-20230306-22-u4zgsi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=745&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513705/original/file-20230306-22-u4zgsi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=936&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513705/original/file-20230306-22-u4zgsi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=936&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513705/original/file-20230306-22-u4zgsi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=936&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Visvakarman, considered to be the architect of the universe in Hindu belief.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1880-0-2021">British Museum</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Folklorist <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Mayor.html">Adrienne Mayor</a> <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691183510/gods-and-robots">remarks similarly</a> that religious stories about mechanized icons from Hindu epics, such as the mechanical war chariots of the Hindu engineer god Visvakarman, are often viewed as the progenitors of religious robots today.</p>
<p>Furthermore, these stories are sometimes interpreted by modern-day nationalists as evidence that ancient India has previously invented <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/all-that-matters/hindu-epics-are-full-of-ai-robots-legend-has-it-that-they-guarded-buddhas-relics/articleshow/68648962.cms">everything from spacecraft to missiles</a>.</p>
<h2>Modern traditions or traditionally modern?</h2>
<p>However, the recent use of AI and robotics in religious practice is leading to concerns among Hindus and Buddhists about the kind of future to which automation could lead. In some instances, the debate among Hindus is about whether automated religion promises the arrival of humanity into a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Digital-Hinduism/Zeiler/p/book/9781032086484">bright, new, technological future</a> or if it is simply <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0037768616652332">evidence of the coming apocalypse</a>. </p>
<p>In other cases, there are concerns that the proliferation of robots might lead to greater numbers of people leaving religious practice as temples begin to rely more on automation than on practitioners to care for their deities. Some of these concerns stem from the fact that many religions, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2018/06/13/young-adults-around-the-world-are-less-religious-by-several-measures/">both in South Asia</a> and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/33489?login=false">globally</a>, have seen significant decreases in the number of young people willing to dedicate their lives to spiritual education and practice over the past few decades. Furthermore, with many families living in a diaspora scattered across the world, priests or “pandits” are often serving smaller and smaller communities.</p>
<p>But if the answer to the problem of <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/why-not-rituals-with-robotic-precision-/articleshow/60214893.cms">fewer ritual specialists is more robots</a>, people still question whether ritual automation will benefit them. They also question the concurrent use of robotic deities to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-019-00553-8">embody and personify the divine</a>, since these icons are programmed by people and therefore reflect the religious views of their engineers.</p>
<h2>Doing right by religion</h2>
<p>Scholars often note that these concerns all tend to reflect one pervasive theme – an underlying anxiety that, somehow, the robots are better at worshipping gods than humans are. They can also raise inner conflicts about the meaning of <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/122339/the-religion-of-technology-by-david-f-noble/9780307828538">life and one’s place in the universe</a>. </p>
<p>For Hindus and Buddhists, the rise of ritual automation is especially concerning because their traditions emphasize what religion scholars <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-3881.2011.00188.x">refer to as orthopraxy</a>, where greater importance is placed on correct ethical and liturgical behavior than on specific beliefs in religious doctrines. In other words, perfecting what you do in terms of your religious practice is viewed as more necessary to spiritual advancement than whatever it is you personally believe.</p>
<p>This also means that automated rituals appear on a spectrum that progresses from human ritual fallibility to robotic ritual perfection. In short, the robot can do your religion better than you can because robots, unlike people, are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0037768616683326">spiritually incorruptible</a>. </p>
<p>This not only makes robots attractive replacements for dwindling priesthoods but also explains their increasing use in everyday contexts: People use them because no one worries about the robot getting it wrong, and they are often better than nothing when the options for ritual performance are limited.</p>
<h2>Saved by a robot</h2>
<p>In the end, turning to a robot for religious restoration in modern Hinduism or Buddhism might seem futuristic, but it belongs very much to the present moment. It tells us that Hinduism, Buddhism and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-019-00753-9">other religions in South Asia</a> are increasingly being <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4623070">imagined as post- or transhuman</a>: deploying technological ingenuity to transcend human weaknesses because robots don’t get tired, forget what they’re supposed to say, fall asleep or leave. </p>
<p>More specifically, this means that robotic automation is being used to perfect ritual practices in East Asia and South Asia – especially in India and Japan – beyond what would be possible for a human devotee, by linking impossibly consistent and flawless ritual accomplishment with an idea of better religion. </p>
<p>Modern robotics might then feel like a particular kind of cultural paradox, where the best kind of religion is the one that eventually involves no humans at all. But in this circularity of humans creating robots, robots becoming gods, and gods becoming human, we’ve only managed to, once again, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197549803.013.3">re-imagine ourselves</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197504/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Holly Walters does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The use of AI and robotic technology in worship is raising profound questions about its long-term consequences. Will it lead to the betterment of society or replace practitioners?Holly Walters, Visiting Lecturer in Anthropology, Wellesley CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1866972022-07-18T12:25:51Z2022-07-18T12:25:51ZShinto religion has long been entangled with Japan’s politics – and Shinzo Abe was associated with many of its groups<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473990/original/file-20220713-9316-i1xsus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C25%2C4247%2C2780&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People line up to pay their respects before the funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on July 12, 2022, at Zojoji Temple in Tokyo.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Japan/23bee50a27e14cb68997309edebd0398/photo?Query=shinzo%20abe&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=14402&currentItemNo=37">AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s alleged shooter, Tetsuya Yamagami, <a href="https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/6b0e33d621afef8e8a889b570426786d22ed69d3">told the police</a> that he was motivated by Abe’s connections to the messianic new religious movement known as the Unification Church. </p>
<p><a href="https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/6b0e33d621afef8e8a889b570426786d22ed69d3">Yamagami explained</a> that his mother had made a “huge donation” to the group, and he blamed the church for bankrupting his mother and ruining his family. In a press conference on July 11, 2022, the president of the Unification Church’s Japanese branch <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/07/11/national/crime-legal/abe-assassination-unification-church/">confirmed</a> that Yamagami’s mother was a member, though the suspected killer and Abe were not. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Unification-Church">Unification Church</a> was founded in 1954 by the late Korean religious leader <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sun-Myung-Moon">Sun Myung Moon</a>. Moon claimed to have been sent by Jesus to save families and achieve world peace. His followers are colloquially called “Moonies.” </p>
<p>Aside from his religious activities, Moon was very involved in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/sun-myung-moon-dies-at-92-washington-times-owner-led-the-unification-church/2012/09/02/001b747a-f531-11e1-aab7-f199a16396cf_story.html">international business dealings</a> and conservative, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1983/08/28/moons-cause-takes-aim-at-communism-in-americas/75dc776e-95ee-497b-b580-f78e8770c43b/">anti-communist politics</a>. </p>
<p>The Abe family’s <a href="https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220712/p2a/00m/0na/002000c">political connections to the Unification Church</a> go back three generations, including his maternal grandfather, <a href="http://moderntokyotimes.com/killer-of-shinzo-abe-and-the-moonies-link-in-his-mind-anti-communism/">Nobusuke Kishi</a>, and his father, <a href="https://shingetsunewsagency.com/2022/07/10/the-crime-that-killed-shinzo-abe/">Shintaro Abe</a>. Shinzo Abe appeared as a <a href="https://www.upf.org/resources/speeches-and-articles/9944-s-abe-address-to-rally-of-hope-vii">paid speaker</a> at Unification Church-related events as recently as 2021. </p>
<p>The possible motive behind the shooting surprised many people who view Japan <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2017/11/Religion20171117.pdf">as one of the least religious countries</a>. As a <a href="https://www.ugoretzresearch.org">scholar of Japanese religion</a>, I know that Abe and his political party, the ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party, have <a href="https://www.conversationsix.com/p/kQJJmEsD9WDWQnJTZ">connections with several religious traditions </a> and <a href="https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2021/12/03/the-hidden-power-of-komeito-on-japanese-politics/">religious political parties</a>. Yet somehow Abe’s deep connections with Shinto religion rarely make the news. </p>
<p>Shinto has long been a part of Abe’s politics and continues to be so for the LDP.</p>
<h2>What is Shinto?</h2>
<p>Shinto is one of Japan’s two major religions, along with Buddhism. <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/shinto-9780190621711?cc=us&lang=en&">Like many religious traditions, Shinto can have different meanings for people</a>. For some, it is the <a href="https://www.jinjahoncho.or.jp/en/shinto/index.html">central faith of the Japanese people</a>. Others do not see it as a religion at all.</p>
<p>Shinto is typically translated as the “Way of the Gods.” Simply put, Shinto is a collection of ritual traditions that focus on the worship of deities called “Kami.” These powerful deities are believed to be responsible for many things, like helping crops to grow and protecting people’s health.</p>
<p>A certain group of Shinto deities is known for <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/social-history-of-the-ise-shrines-9781350081192/">connections to the imperial family</a> of Japan. In particular, the sun goddess Amaterasu is revered as the ancestor of Japan’s emperors and empresses and protector of the nation. She is worshiped at the Grand Shrines of Ise, often characterized as the holiest site in Japan.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474017/original/file-20220714-20-y2xxc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A ritualistic procession showing men dressed in black suits walking in a single line." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474017/original/file-20220714-20-y2xxc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474017/original/file-20220714-20-y2xxc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474017/original/file-20220714-20-y2xxc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474017/original/file-20220714-20-y2xxc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474017/original/file-20220714-20-y2xxc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474017/original/file-20220714-20-y2xxc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474017/original/file-20220714-20-y2xxc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former Japanese Emperor Akihito leaves the outer shrine of Ise Jingu Shrine in Ise in the central Japanese prefecture of Mie on April 18, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/japans-emperor-akihito-leaves-the-outer-shrine-of-ise-jingu-news-photo/1137831124?adppopup=true">Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Shinto rituals are performed by priests at shrines around Japan – <a href="https://theconversation.com/japans-shinto-religion-is-going-global-and-attracting-online-followers-174924">and the world</a> – on behalf of the deities and the local communities of people under their purview. The emperor of Japan also <a href="https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2019/11/fa3309a74441-in-photos-daijosai-rite-by-japanese-emperor-naruhito.html">performs Shinto rituals</a> yearly for a good harvest and at the time of his <a href="https://japan-forward.com/emperor-naruhito-performs-the-daijosai-the-imperial-ascensions-last-major-ceremony/">enthronement</a> – and, sometimes, <a href="https://religionnews.com/2019/04/18/emperor-performs-ritual-to-report-abdication-to-shinto-gods/">abdication</a> – on behalf of the nation.</p>
<p>For some, participating in rituals is a sacred and spiritually uplifting experience. For others, visiting a Shinto shrine is simply a matter of tradition or national pride.</p>
<h2>Entanglement with politics</h2>
<p>Shinto has a <a href="https://youtu.be/TgbIhdvviBU">long and complex history</a> of entanglement with politics and the state. The earliest surviving Japanese texts recalled the mythical deeds of the gods from whom the emperor and court officials claimed to descend, legitimizing their rule. </p>
<p>In his book “<a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo36844848.html">Faking Liberties</a>,” <a href="https://rels.sas.upenn.edu/people/jolyon-thomas">scholar Jolyon Thomas</a> shows how Shinto was at the center of a centurylong debate over what constitutes religion in modern Japan. Until the 19th century, <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo13657764.html">there was no concept in Japan</a> of what is considered in the West as “religion,” and there was no word in Japanese for it. But when the 1889 Meiji Constitution included the right to religious freedom, the government had to decide what traditions and groups were or weren’t religious.</p>
<p>At that time, Shinto was officially split. Rituals concerning the emperor and his divine ancestors were categorized as nonreligious civil ritual – sometimes called “State Shinto” – and other matters of personal belief and practice as private religion.</p>
<p>After World War II, the Allies led by the United States formed an occupation government in Japan and <a href="https://d-museum.kokugakuin.ac.jp/eos/detail/id=8852">separated all of Shinto</a> from the postwar state by categorizing it as religion. But, like other religions, Shinto continued to be involved in Japan’s politics.</p>
<p>One key group in Japan is the <a href="https://www.sinseiren.org">Shinto Association for Spiritual Leadership</a>. The SAS was founded in 1969 as the political arm of the Association of Shinto Shrines, an umbrella organization for around 80,000 member shrines.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473993/original/file-20220713-17579-4ivxxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three men in black suits walk through a hallway with a priest ahead of them and three others bowing to them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473993/original/file-20220713-17579-4ivxxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473993/original/file-20220713-17579-4ivxxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473993/original/file-20220713-17579-4ivxxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473993/original/file-20220713-17579-4ivxxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473993/original/file-20220713-17579-4ivxxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473993/original/file-20220713-17579-4ivxxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473993/original/file-20220713-17579-4ivxxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shinzo Abe, then deputy secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, follows a Shinto priest after offering prayers for the country’s war dead at Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 15, 2005.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/shinzo-abe-deputy-secretary-general-of-prime-minister-news-photo/53388857?adppopup=true">Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to scholar <a href="http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n88047898/">Mark Mullins</a>, the nationalist group’s aims include <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/221183412X628442">promoting the power of the emperor, revising the constitution and implementing Shinto moral education in schools</a>. They also support government officials’ visits to Tokyo’s <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-19987251">Yasukuni Shrine</a> – a controversial space that represents Japan’s past militarism. In this shrine, spirits of war dead – including colonial subjects and war criminals – are enshrined as Shinto deities. </p>
<p>Abe and his administrations worked closely with the SAS for decades. <a href="https://apjjf.org/2016/21/Mizohata.html">In 2016</a>, 19 of the 20 members of Abe’s Cabinet were affiliated with the SAS. Fourteen were members of the Japan Conference, “Nippon Kaigi” in Japanese, which is another right-wing nationalist group with ties to Shinto groups such as the Society to Defend Japan, or “Nihon wo Mamoru Kai.” Abe served as a member and special adviser to the Japan Conference. </p>
<p>Abe and his family have also been associated with other right-wing religious projects outside of government. In 2017, Abe and his wife were involved in a corruption scandal concerning an ultranationalist private <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/japans-shinzo-abe-could-be-brought-down-by-kindergarten-corruption">Shinto elementary school</a>. The Abes cut ties with it, and plans for the school were abandoned, when questions arose around the government’s <a href="https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14176077">massive discount</a> for the land acquisition.</p>
<p>Apart from nationalism, Abe helped politicize other aspects of contemporary Shinto, such as environmentalism. In 2016, he invited the G-7 leaders to visit the Inner Shrine of Ise in Mie Prefecture, where Amaterasu is worshiped. The visit included a tree-planting ceremony. Scholar <a href="https://www.hf.uio.no/ikos/english/people/aca/japanese-studies/tenured/aikepr/">Aike Rots</a> has written about how Abe used the event to <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/shinto-nature-and-ideology-in-contemporary-japan-9781474289948/">acquire legitimacy and promote Shinto</a> as a form of national public spirituality.</p>
<p>During his time as prime minister and even after, Shinzo Abe was a leader and a model for Shinto politics for a generation of conservatives, nationalists and adherents. This legacy lives on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186697/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kaitlyn Ugoretz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar of Japanese religion explains the connections that Japan’s political parties have with several religious groups and how religion is tied in with the legacy of Shinzo Abe.Kaitlyn Ugoretz, PhD Candidate, East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa BarbaraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1804892022-05-06T20:50:46Z2022-05-06T20:50:46ZThe Catholic saint who dedicated his life to a leprosy colony in Hawaii – and became an inspiration for HIV/AIDS care<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461138/original/file-20220504-20-mhvgtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C21%2C976%2C659&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The headstone of Father Damien, a Catholic saint who was canonized in 2009.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/news-photo/1081384530?adppopup=true">Richard A. Cooke III/Corbis Historical via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Jan. 3, 1865, the Kingdom of Hawaii, then a sovereign state, <a href="https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2021/bills/SB697_CD1_.HTM">enacted “An Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy</a>.” Any person suspected of having the ancient disease – which is mentioned <a href="https://theconversation.com/quarantines-have-tried-to-keep-out-disease-for-thousands-of-years-130680">as far back as the Bible</a> – would be inspected and, if deemed incurable, permanently exiled to a peninsula on the island of Molokai.</p>
<p>More than 8,000 people with leprosy fell victim to this policy of permanent segregation over the next century. Native Hawaiians renamed leprosy “ma'i ho'oka'awale ‘ohana”: <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-separating-sickness-mai-hookaawale-ted-gugelyk/1114591870">the sickness that separates family</a>. Surrounded by steep cliffs and treacherous ocean, the peninsula served as a natural prison and soon gathered a reputation as a de facto death sentence.</p>
<p>But in the Catholic Church, May 10 commemorates the day one man moved to Molokai willingly: Father Damien. Born <a href="https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/2009/ns_lit_doc_20091011_de-veuster_en.html">Jozef De Veuster</a> in Belgium, he came to Hawaii as a young Catholic missionary and spent the last 16 years of his life <a href="https://www.nps.gov/kala/learn/historyculture/damien.htm">voluntarily living in the leprosy colony</a>, before contracting the disease himself and dying in 1889.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/homilies/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20091011_canonizzazioni.html">Canonized as a saint</a> in 2009, Father Damien was designated the patron saint of people with leprosy, or Hansen’s disease.</p>
<p><a href="https://divinity.uchicago.edu/directory/mark-lambert-1">My research</a> focuses on how Christian theology views socially stigmatized diseases, such as leprosy. Since the HIV/AIDS epidemic began in the 1980s, Damien has also become linked with the virus and inspired many Catholic groups that care for patients. His legacy
illustrates the church’s complicated, often harmful views on HIV/AIDS – but has also helped people see those who suffer from stigmatized diseases with more agency and dignity.</p>
<h2>Joining the community</h2>
<p>Damien <a href="https://www.damien-hs.edu/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=2177609&type=d&pREC_ID=2182501#:%7E:text=I%20">landed at Molokai</a> on May 10, 1873. In a now famous letter to his brother, he wrote that he would make himself “a leper with lepers,” to “gain all to Christ.”</p>
<p>For over 2,000 years, “care” for people with leprosy has often been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/344062">reduced to segregation</a>. This was the case <a href="https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/kalaupapa-a-collective-memory/">in Hawaii</a>, where the Board of Health offered bounties to those who turned in suspected patients. The widespread belief that leprosy was an advanced stage of syphilis added an air of moral condemnation to the policy.</p>
<p>According to accounts such as “<a href="https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/kalaupapa-a-collective-memory/">Kaluapapa: A Collective Memory</a>,” which documents residents’ experiences in the colony, Damien employed his carpentry skills to build two chapels, new shelters for the residents, and a multitude of coffins. He provided rudimentary medical care, secured a fresh water supply, and established an orphanage. At a time when fear of being near people with leprosy was the norm, the priest also ate with residents from the same pot, and shared his pipe with them.</p>
<p>By the beginning of 1885, Damien began to show signs of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824865801-017">having contracted leprosy</a>, and in 1886 the priest formally became known as Admission #2886 to the settlements. Three years later, he succumbed to the disease. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black and white photograph shows a small group gathered in front of a church in front of a misty mountain." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461143/original/file-20220504-23-u8dw70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461143/original/file-20220504-23-u8dw70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461143/original/file-20220504-23-u8dw70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461143/original/file-20220504-23-u8dw70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461143/original/file-20220504-23-u8dw70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461143/original/file-20220504-23-u8dw70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461143/original/file-20220504-23-u8dw70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Father Damien stands with patients outside his church on Molokai Island.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/father-damien-stands-with-patients-outside-his-church-on-news-photo/615231942?adppopup=true">Corbis Historical via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>Patron saint</h2>
<p>Damien’s ministry garnered an international audience, elevating him to something of a celebrity, and his death prompted an immediate response. The future king of England, Edward VII, <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-spirit-of-father-damien-jan-de-volder/1123972273?ean=9781586174873">proposed</a> to erect a monument to Damien on Molokai, to establish a ward devoted to leprosy in a London medical institution and to fund research on leprosy in India. Damien’s example inspired the creation of several other organizations devoted to the study and treatment of leprosy, from <a href="https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/222066044">the U.S.</a> and <a href="https://damiaanactie.be">Belgium</a> to Congo and Korea.</p>
<p>In 1967, the French journalist and humanitarian Raoul Follereau presented the pope with <a href="http://fides.org/en/news/23980-EUROPE_FRANCE_Raoul_Follereau_Foundation_rejoices_at_the_canonization_of_Belgian_missionary_Fr_Damien_De_Veuster_Apostle_of_the_Lepers">a petition</a> signed by almost 33,000 leprosy patients, calling for the beatification of Father Damien. In 1977, Pope Paul VI declared Damien “venerable,” the first <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-becomes-a-saint-in-the-catholic-church-and-is-that-changing-81011">step toward canonization</a> – which eventually occurred <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/homilies/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20091011_canonizzazioni.html">in 2009</a>, under Pope Benedict XVI.</p>
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<img alt="Three women wearing flowers in their hair and dressed in yellow smile at the camera." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461141/original/file-20220504-19-kn49f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461141/original/file-20220504-19-kn49f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461141/original/file-20220504-19-kn49f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461141/original/file-20220504-19-kn49f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461141/original/file-20220504-19-kn49f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461141/original/file-20220504-19-kn49f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461141/original/file-20220504-19-kn49f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hawaiian pilgrims attend a 2009 ceremony at the Vatican to canonize five new saints, including Father Damien.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/hawaian-pilgrims-attend-pope-benedict-xvis-a-new-saints-news-photo/527601302?adppopup=true">Alessandra Benedetti/Corbis Historical via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>From leprosy to HIV/AIDS</h2>
<p>But how did <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/father-damien-aid-to-lepers-now-a-saint/">the patron saint of people living with leprosy</a> become, informally, a patron saint of people living with HIV and AIDS? Given the Catholic Church’s traditional stances against homosexuality, condoms and extramarital sex, the notion can seem paradoxical.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/28/magazine/when-fear-conquers-a-doctor-learns-about-aids-from-leprosy.html">Comparisons between the two diseases</a> were made from the early days of the AIDS crisis: Both were considered mysterious and frightening and severely stigmatized, with sufferers often viewed as “dirty” or “sinful.” Many caregivers were afraid to even touch AIDS patients. </p>
<p>Invoking Father Damien’s example became a way for religious organizations to legitimize their HIV/AIDS outreach in the eyes of the church and to emphasize their concern for patients’ social stigma – even if the Catholic Church itself was helping to perpetrate that stigma, and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/12/01/783932572/how-the-catholic-church-aided-both-the-sick-and-the-sickness-as-hiv-spread">arguably the disease itself</a>.</p>
<p>In 2003, for example, Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, <a href="https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/family/documents/rc_pc_family_doc_20031201_family-values-safe-sex-trujillo_en.html">wrote that</a> “the use of condoms goes against human dignity. Condoms change the beautiful act of love into a selfish search for pleasure – while rejecting responsibility. Condoms do not guarantee protection against HIV/AIDS. Condoms may even be one of the main reasons for the spread of HIV/AIDS.”</p>
<p>Even in 2009, the year Damien was canonized, Pope Benedict <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60627-9">remarked</a> that the AIDS epidemic “cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms; on the contrary, they increase it” – an attitude out of touch with <a href="https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/06/19/Poll-says-Catholics-support-female-priest/8826708926400/">most U.S. Catholics’ views</a>, not to mention <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/hiv-prevention/condoms.html">medical science</a>. The pope’s statement provoked <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbmo.2011.02.007">such outrage</a> that the Belgian Parliament even <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/belgium-condemns-pope-over-condom-issue-bk3kzgzbnrb">condemned it</a>.</p>
<p>But many in the Catholic Church <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/after-the-wrath-of-god-assistant-professor-of-religion-and-womens-gender-and-sexuality-studies-anthony-m-petro/1132140644?ean=9780190064778">responded to the AIDS crisis</a> with empathy. In 1985, for example – just a few years after the disease <a href="https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2021/06/420686/40-years-aids-timeline-epidemic">had been identified</a> – the New York Archdiocese <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/22/nyregion/aids-helps-rescue-ailing-hospital.html">opened a treatment facility</a> at St. Clare’s Hospital, the state’s first specialized AIDS unit.</p>
<p>A number of ministries turned to Father Damien as inspiration for AIDS-related work, years before the church officially made him a saint. Likely the oldest is <a href="https://damienministries.org/">Damien Ministries</a>, founded in 1987 “to serve the poorest of the poor living with HIV and AIDS, as inspired by the life of the Blessed Father Damien.” The Washington, D.C.-based ministry adopted a solidarity approach modeled after Damien’s ministry on Molokai, citing parallels between leprosy and HIV/AIDS.</p>
<p>Other Damien-inspired organizations include the <a href="http://www.albanydamiencenter.org/our-history.html">Albany Damien Center</a>, <a href="https://damien.org/about/our-history">the Damien Center of Indiana</a> – founded as a collaboration between Catholics and Episcopalians – and <a href="https://saintdamienhospital.nph.org/history/">St. Damien Hospital in Haiti</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A tapestry with a colored border depicts a portrait of Father Damien, wearing a hat and glasses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461144/original/file-20220504-13-wdr2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461144/original/file-20220504-13-wdr2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461144/original/file-20220504-13-wdr2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461144/original/file-20220504-13-wdr2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461144/original/file-20220504-13-wdr2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461144/original/file-20220504-13-wdr2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461144/original/file-20220504-13-wdr2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A tapestry depicting Father Damien, born Jozef De Veuster, hangs from the St. Peter Basilica facade during a canonization ceremony at the Vatican.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/HIYEYearender/81db85f170ae4bbc9579419ffd9ee866/photo?Query=father%20damien&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=16&currentItemNo=9">AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Damien serves as what <a href="https://history.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/affiliated-faculty/robert-orsi.html">religion historian Robert Orsi</a> calls an “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691127767/between-heaven-and-earth">articulatory pivot point</a>”: a way people – HIV/AIDS patients, in this case – can use their faith to reshape their experience and gain agency, even as that same religion stigmatizes them as powerless “others.”</p>
<p>As a canonized saint, Damien is embraced by the highest levels of the church. Yet as a man who embraced those the rest of society had rejected, joining them and even dying for them, he also represents people at the margins.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark M. Lambert does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Father Damien’s legacy has inspired health providers and humanitarians for over a century.Mark M. Lambert, Teaching Fellow, University of ChicagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1749242022-02-09T13:19:01Z2022-02-09T13:19:01ZJapan’s Shinto religion is going global and attracting online followers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445197/original/file-20220208-24-3zxrlw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C2%2C743%2C493&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Shinto priest performs a ritual at an altar.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/52182314@N00/3732812367">Leo Laporte/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>American Kit Cox, 35, works as an electrical engineer and enjoys biking and playing piano. But what some might consider surprising about Cox, who was raised as Methodist, is that she practices the Japanese religion known as Shinto.</p>
<p>While Cox’s interest in Shinto was originally sparked by her love for Japanese popular culture and media, Shinto practice is not just a phase or fad for her.
For over 15 years, she has venerated Inari Ookami, a Shinto deity or “kami” connected to agriculture, industry, prosperity and success. </p>
<p>After several years of study, Cox received a great honor from <a href="http://inari.jp/en/">Fushimi Inari Taisha</a>, one of Japan’s most popular Shinto shrines. She was entrusted with a “<a href="http://www.greenshinto.com/wp/2014/03/29/inari-okami-in-the-us/">wakemitama</a>,” a physical portion of Inari Ookami’s spirit, which is now housed in a sacred box and enshrined in her home altar.</p>
<p>What’s more, <a href="http://www.greenshinto.com/wp/2014/05/27/international-inari/">Cox has emerged as a leader</a> within a relatively small but growing community of Shinto practitioners scattered around the world. Her goal: to help Japan’s “indigenous” religion go global.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://eastasian.ucsb.edu/people/students/kaitlyn-ugoretz/">anthropologist of Japanese religion</a> studying the spread of Shinto around the world, I met Cox where most non-Japanese people interested in Shinto do – online. Over several years of studying social media posts, participating in livestreams and conducting surveys and interviews, I’ve heard many people’s stories of what draws them to practice Shinto and how they navigate the difficulties of doing so outside of Japan.</p>
<h2>What is Shinto?</h2>
<p>Shinto has many faces. For some, it is a <a href="https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/enduring-identities-the-guise-of-shinto-in-contemporary-japan/">reservoir of local community traditions</a> and a way of ritually marking milestones <a href="https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295975009/a-year-in-the-life-of-a-shinto-shrine/">throughout the year</a> and in one’s life. For others, it is an institution that attests to the Japanese <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/shinto-9780190621711?cc=us&lang=en&">emperor’s divine status</a> as a descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu or <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/shinto-nature-and-ideology-in-contemporary-japan-9781474289948/">a life-affirming nature religion</a>.</p>
<p>But at its core, Shinto is about the ritual veneration of kami.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442118/original/file-20220124-21-6sfni3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C1024%2C666&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Fox statue standing against background of Shinto shrine" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442118/original/file-20220124-21-6sfni3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C1024%2C666&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442118/original/file-20220124-21-6sfni3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442118/original/file-20220124-21-6sfni3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442118/original/file-20220124-21-6sfni3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442118/original/file-20220124-21-6sfni3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442118/original/file-20220124-21-6sfni3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442118/original/file-20220124-21-6sfni3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A statue of a fox messenger at the Grand Shrine of Fushimi Inari in Kyoto, Japan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/89054436@N02/15782888772">WKC/flicker</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These myriad deities can take different forms. Many are associated with features of the natural world, like lightning and the sun, while others look after human concerns, from marital relationships to acing one’s college exams.</p>
<p>One of Shinto’s primary concerns is the management of spiritual impurities through ritual purification. <a href="https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/shinto-the-way-home/">According to Shinto thought</a>, impurities accumulate simply as a product of living in this world, as well as through contact with sources of impurity, such as death or disease, and committing inappropriate acts. Because spiritual impurities offend the kami and are capable of threatening social order and people’s well-being, Shinto priests must purify them regularly through ritual.</p>
<p>Besides purification, Shinto also provides what contemporary Japanese religion experts <a href="https://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/persons/ian-reader/">Ian Reader</a> and <a href="https://www.thehawaiiherald.com/2020/05/05/honoring-the-legacy-george-tanabe-jr/">George Tanabe Jr.</a> call “<a href="https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/practically-religious-worldly-benefits-and-the-common-religion-of-japan/">practical benefits</a>.” These innumerable benefits include good health, prosperity and safety. </p>
<p>At Shinto shrines and in other sacred spaces, both priests and regular folks from all walks of life perform rituals to express gratitude for the deities’ protection and pray for their continued blessings.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444187/original/file-20220203-25-xiqlgi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Small wooden boards hanging on red threads with messages to deities written on them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444187/original/file-20220203-25-xiqlgi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444187/original/file-20220203-25-xiqlgi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444187/original/file-20220203-25-xiqlgi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444187/original/file-20220203-25-xiqlgi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444187/original/file-20220203-25-xiqlgi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444187/original/file-20220203-25-xiqlgi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444187/original/file-20220203-25-xiqlgi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Petitioners write messages to the Shinto deities on wooden prayer boards.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/t4PkYWVjD40">Jelleke Vanooteghem/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why do people choose Shinto?</h2>
<p>While Shinto is often characterized as the “indigenous” religion of Japan, it is not limited by geography, nationality or ethnicity.</p>
<p>Non-Japanese people have received certification as Shinto priests, and Shinto shrines can be found <a href="https://www.digitalshinto.com/mapping-project">around the world</a>, including in the United States, Brazil, the Netherlands and the Republic of San Marino.</p>
<p>Global practitioners stress that, unlike many organized religions, Shinto has “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shinto">no founder, doctrine, or sacred texts</a>.” The majority identify as “spiritual but not religious,” a growing category of people who define spirituality as “<a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199931002.001.0001/acprof-9780199931002">personal, heart-felt, and authentic</a>,” as opposed to the hierarchy and dogma of institutional religion.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hu1q3QYBulE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A Shinto shrine outside Seattle. Researched by Kaitlyn Ugoretz and co-written by Ugoretz and Andrew Mark Henry.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1683478X.2019.1592816">For people of Japanese descent</a>, Shinto rituals often provide a way of maintaining relationships with ancestors and a connection with their cultural heritage. As I found during my field research, non-Japanese practitioners find Shinto particularly appealing for a number of reasons. </p>
<p>First, Shinto reflects their values: a positive perspective on life, a focus on gratitude and harmony, care for the environment and compatibility with other traditions. Members find the community welcoming to people of diverse gender identities, sexual orientations and abilities.</p>
<p>Second, they appreciate Shinto’s focus on ritual. Cox jokes that if she were to be a Christian, she would probably be a Catholic for the rituals. Shinto practitioners describe rituals as an opportunity to reflect, reconnect with the divine and renew or refresh their own spirit.</p>
<p>Third, Shinto provides a way to engage more deeply with Japanese culture. Many practitioners first encountered Shinto through anime, video games, martial arts or tourism. Some Shinto priests even use popular culture as a teaching tool, performing rituals and giving lectures at cultural events and fan conventions.</p>
<h2>What does the online Shinto community look like?</h2>
<p>Much to my surprise when I began my digital research, I found that online Shinto communities have existed since the birth of the internet as we know it today.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/the-bloomsbury-handbook-of-japanese-religions/case-study-4">In 2000</a>, the “Shinto Mailing List” was created on Yahoo Groups (now defunct) as a space for over 1,000 people to discuss Shinto with like-minded individuals. Fast-forward 20 years, and Shinto communities include some six to 10,000 members hosted across several Facebook groups, other social media platforms and even <a href="https://www.digitalshinto.com/post/shinto-second-life">virtual worlds</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/the-bloomsbury-handbook-of-japanese-religions/case-study-4">As my research shows</a>, Shinto priests and lay practitioners use social media to talk about their experiences and ask questions. The most frequently posed questions by new members are “Is it okay to practice Shinto as a non-Japanese person?” and “How exactly do we practice Shinto outside Japan?” They also create and share resources, such as guides for ritual practice at home, recommended books and other media, and instructions on how to contact and support Shinto shrines.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444202/original/file-20220203-27-krpsq2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graphic showing a Shinto priest in religious attire on a laptop screen" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444202/original/file-20220203-27-krpsq2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444202/original/file-20220203-27-krpsq2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444202/original/file-20220203-27-krpsq2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444202/original/file-20220203-27-krpsq2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444202/original/file-20220203-27-krpsq2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444202/original/file-20220203-27-krpsq2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444202/original/file-20220203-27-krpsq2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some Shinto priests are very active on social media.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.irasutoya.com/">Kaitlyn Ugoretz</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While internet-based religion is considered taboo by the majority of Shinto shrines in Japan, some overseas shrines, such as <a href="https://tsubakishrine.org/">Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America</a> and <a href="https://shintoinari.org/">Shinto Shrine of Shusse Inari in America</a>, have created their own vibrant online shrine communities. They share news on upcoming events and livestream monthly and yearly rituals and festivals. They both have active social media presences, and Shinto Shrine of Shusse Inari in America is even exploring alternative forms of fundraising via <a href="https://www.patreon.com/ShintoInari/">crowdfunding sites like Patreon</a>.</p>
<h2>A day in the life</h2>
<p>Since most practitioners outside of Japan do not live near a Shinto shrine, their everyday ritual practice focuses on venerating the Shinto deities in their home at an altar called a kamidana or “kami shelf.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442120/original/file-20220124-27-k5278v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graphic showing a Shinto altar that consists of a small cupboard on which are displayed articles of veneration." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442120/original/file-20220124-27-k5278v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442120/original/file-20220124-27-k5278v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442120/original/file-20220124-27-k5278v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442120/original/file-20220124-27-k5278v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442120/original/file-20220124-27-k5278v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442120/original/file-20220124-27-k5278v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442120/original/file-20220124-27-k5278v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Illustration of a typical Shinto home altar (kamidana).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">https://www.irasutoya.com/</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the morning, Cox greets Inari Ookami with a series of deep bows and claps. She recites prayers called “norito” and puts out traditional offerings of rice, water and salt in gratitude for the kami’s blessings.</p>
<p>In the evening, she removes the offerings and consumes them. This practice is meant to bring humans and divinities closer together by sharing the same meal. It’s also a great way to avoid wasting food.</p>
<p>Some offerings can be <a href="https://classicalideaspodcast.libsyn.com/ep-215-transnational-online-shintoism-and-educational-youtube-wkaitlyn-ugoretz">hard to come by outside Japan</a>. In these cases, Shinto practitioners may offer similar, local substitutes, such as oats instead of rice. They may also make creative additions to their altars, personalizing the space and their relationship with the kami.</p>
<p>Others have difficulty sourcing the materials required to set up a Shinto altar, especially the sacred “ofuda” talisman, which must be received from a shrine. They may build their own altars or pay their respects at <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kamidana/id1231920500">a digital altar in an app</a>.</p>
<p>What’s most important, according to Cox, is respect for tradition and the sincerity of one’s intentions and actions. Slowly but surely, as <a href="https://religiondatabase.org/browse/1071/#/">Shinto spreads around the world</a>, practitioners are making it their own.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140K">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174924/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kaitlyn Ugoretz received support for her dissertation research on the globalization of Shinto in 2021 from the Social Science Research Council's International Dissertation Research Fellowship, with funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. </span></em></p>An anthropologist of Japanese religion met followers of Shinto religion online and found how they were building a community and sharing instructions on practice.Kaitlyn Ugoretz, PhD Candidate, East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa BarbaraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1754302022-01-21T17:36:37Z2022-01-21T17:36:37ZPope Benedict accused of mishandling sex abuse cases: 4 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441854/original/file-20220120-9596-uwbjln.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=119%2C0%2C4550%2C3087&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI sits in St. Peter's Basilica Dec. 8, 2015. A long-awaited report on sexual abuse faulted his handling of four cases.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Germany%20Church%20Abuse/7c5686fae1ce465db291417e735c83d8?Query=benedict&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=17139&currentItemNo=4">AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When <a href="https://theconversation.com/popes-resignation-is-a-recognition-of-human-frailty-in-an-ageing-world-12148">Pope Benedict XVI resigned in 2013</a> – the first leader of the Catholic Church to do so in more than half a millennium – the sexual abuse crisis had already roiled the church for years. </p>
<p>During the conservative theologian’s papacy, the church <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704178004575350551503573886">revised canon law</a> and <a href="https://www.deseret.com/2010/11/20/20154678/vatican-issuing-guidelines-on-sex-abuse-to-bishops#pope-benedict-xvi-delivers-his-message-to-cardinals-he-summoned-for-a-day-of-reflection-at-the-vatican">announced new guidelines</a> in an effort to respond to clergy abuse.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-pope-benedict-xvi-reinhard-marx-germany-europe-c75f721f469f969d05348703c093e53d">a new report</a> accuses Benedict of having mishandled at least four cases of sexual abuse when he was an archbishop in Munich, Germany, in the 1970s and 1980s. The investigation, which covers abuse in the diocese from 1945 to 2019, concluded that the former pope failed to properly act on claims or punish priests – claims Benedict has rejected.</p>
<p>The accusations against a living, if retired, pope underscore how dramatically the sex abuse crisis has shaken the church. Here are some of The Conversation’s many articles examining the crisis over the years – both its roots and the potential routes for reform.</p>
<h2>1. Years of scandal</h2>
<p>High-profile reports have consistently put the crisis in headlines for the past 20 years, particularly <a href="https://www3.bostonglobe.com/metro/specials/clergy/">The Boston Globe’s famous “Spotlight” investigation</a> in 2002 and the film it inspired in 2015. </p>
<p>But the paper trail documenting patterns of abuse – and cover-ups – <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-churchs-grim-history-of-ignoring-priestly-pedophilia-and-silencing-would-be-whistleblowers-102387">goes back to at least the 1950s</a>, according to <a href="https://artsci.case.edu/faculty/brian-clites/">Brian Clites</a>, an expert on clergy sex abuse. That’s when U.S. bishops began referring priests to church-run treatment centers, rather than reporting abuse to independent authorities. “Hush money” payouts followed.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239512/original/file-20181005-72100-1a4uyg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239512/original/file-20181005-72100-1a4uyg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239512/original/file-20181005-72100-1a4uyg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239512/original/file-20181005-72100-1a4uyg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239512/original/file-20181005-72100-1a4uyg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239512/original/file-20181005-72100-1a4uyg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239512/original/file-20181005-72100-1a4uyg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Victims or their family members react after a Pennsylvania grand jury released a report on clergy sex abuse in 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Pennsylvania-Dioceses-Sex-Abuse-Investigation/c201adfa98774d4588df745e59c49e53/9/0">AP Photo/Matt Rourke</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By the 1990s, as lawsuits mounted, “the national outcry forced dioceses across the country to create public standards for how they were handling abuse accusations,” Clites writes, “and American bishops launched new marketing campaigns to regain trust.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-churchs-grim-history-of-ignoring-priestly-pedophilia-and-silencing-would-be-whistleblowers-102387">The Catholic Church's grim history of ignoring priestly pedophilia – and silencing would-be whistleblowers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. Speaking up – and out</h2>
<p>Two barriers to bringing abusers to justice, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-catholic-churchs-hierarchy-makes-it-difficult-to-punish-sexual-abusers-89477">many experts argue</a>, are the church’s hierarchy and canon laws, which regulate the church and its members.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2019/12/17/191217b.html">in 2019</a>, Pope Francis modified the “Rule of Pontifical Secrecy,” which required that sensitive information about the church be kept confidential. Over the years, <a href="https://cruxnow.com/february-abuse-summit/2019/02/no-secret-that-pontifical-secrecy-is-taking-a-beating-at-popes-summit/">critics alleged that the policy allowed officials</a> to withhold information about sexual abuse cases, even from victims or legal authorities. Francis’ announcement lifted the rule for three situations: sexual abuse of minors or vulnerable persons, failure to report or efforts to cover up such abuse, and possession of child pornography by a cleric.</p>
<p>Even with this change, however, transparency may prove elusive, argues law professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wI3ku0oAAAAJ&hl=en">Christine P. Bartholomew</a>. She <a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-ends-a-secrecy-rule-for-catholic-sexual-abuse-cases-but-for-victims-many-barriers-to-justice-remain-129434">outlines other practices</a> that can be used to conceal information and work around mandatory reporting requirements. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-ends-a-secrecy-rule-for-catholic-sexual-abuse-cases-but-for-victims-many-barriers-to-justice-remain-129434">Pope ends a secrecy rule for Catholic sexual abuse cases, but for victims many barriers to justice remain</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>3. Celibacy controversy</h2>
<p>Other analysts trying to understand the roots of the sex abuse crisis focus on the rules of the priesthood itself – especially that priests be male and celibate.</p>
<p>But it hasn’t always been that clear cut. <a href="https://neareasternstudies.cornell.edu/kim-haines-eitzen">Kim Haines-Eitzen</a>, an expert on early Christianity, outlines how views on marriage <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-views-on-priestly-celibacy-changed-in-christian-history-102158">have shifted</a> ever since the first century. The early Christian leader Saint Paul seemed to endorse marriage “reluctantly,” she writes, as “an acceptable choice for those who cannot control themselves.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The French Baroque painting ‘Saint Paul writing his Epistles.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Probably_Valentin_de_Boulogne_-_Saint_Paul_Writing_His_Epistles_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg">Valentin de Boulogne/Museum of Fine Arts, Houston</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Attitudes toward sex and marriage continued to cause controversy for centuries, contributing to schisms between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church, and later the Protestant Reformation. This is still the case today, as some Catholics advocate that <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-ap-top-news-international-news-germany-europe-c3cd8c5c7a4b4811b9cc3ba4452a9963">married men be allowed to become priests</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-views-on-priestly-celibacy-changed-in-christian-history-102158">How views on priestly celibacy changed in Christian history</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. Change is possible</h2>
<p>Changing a 2,000-year-old institution is hard, but not out of reach.</p>
<p>As a scholar of religious change, <a href="https://sociology.sas.upenn.edu/people/melissa-wilde">Melissa Wilde</a> pinpoints moments when the Catholic Church <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-resists-change-but-vatican-ii-shows-its-possible-102543">changed course</a>. Chief among them was Vatican II, the seminal church council in the 1960s that made significant reforms to worship, such as conducting the Mass in parishioners’ own language, rather than Latin. </p>
<p>With the church mired in crises, “the church needs more than reflection,” she argues. “It needs another council.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-resists-change-but-vatican-ii-shows-its-possible-102543">The Catholic Church resists change – but Vatican II shows it's possible</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives. It is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-sex-abuse-crisis-4-essential-reads-169442">an article</a> originally published on October 7, 2021. It has been updated to include the January report accusing Pope Benedict of mishandling sex abuse cases.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175430/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
A German report accused retired Pope Benedict XVI of mishandling several cases of sexual abuse in the 1970s and 1980s. Here are a few of our related articles on the Catholic Church’s crisis.Molly Jackson, Religion and Ethics EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1707672021-11-04T12:26:03Z2021-11-04T12:26:03ZNetflix’s ‘Midnight Mass’ joins a long line of horror that plays with Catholic beliefs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430046/original/file-20211103-25-13tp80n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=43%2C16%2C3486%2C2376&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A still from the Netflix series "Midnight Mass."</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eike Schroter/Netflix</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Horror and Catholicism have walked hand in hand on screen for almost a century. From <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0013257/">Benjamin Christensen’s 1922 film “Häxan</a>” to Mike Flanagan’s 2021 Netflix series “<a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81083626">Midnight Mass</a>,” scary films and television shows have portrayed the Catholic religion in both reverent and shocking ways. </p>
<p>“Midnight Mass” incorporates both approaches. </p>
<p>Set in a small, mostly Catholic community, the series gives a detailed depiction of everyday Catholic life. It also suggests an uncanny side to some elements of the religion, particularly the central sacrament of the Eucharist, or Communion, in which participants are understood to partake of the literal body and blood of Christ.</p>
<p>For many believers, Catholic ritual is meant to evoke a sense of wonder. For others, it can call up distrust of the religion’s overt mystical and supernatural claims and <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/ct-dfr-blaser-catholic-church-tl-0906-story.html">anger at the ongoing scandals</a> within the Church. </p>
<p>In my experience as a <a href="https://www.fordhampress.com/9780823297900/giving-the-devil-his-due/">scholar of religion in film</a>, horror movies can offer a complex picture of Catholic belief, ritual and daily experience.</p>
<h2>Demon-fighters and exorcism</h2>
<p>Many horror films depict Catholic ritual as a means of fighting evil, especially demonic possession. </p>
<p>For instance, “The Conjuring,” a horror film franchise, fictionalizes the experiences of Ed and Lorraine Warren, a married couple, who are self-professed demon hunters and lifelong devout Catholics. <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/franchise/the_conjuring_universe">In the films</a> – “The Conjuring,” its two sequels, and the prequels “Annabelle” and “The Nun” – the Warrens employ the instruments of their faith, including prayer and sacramental objects such as rosary beads, to free possessed people. </p>
<p>In other films, often with the words “exorcist” or “exorcism” in the title, Catholic clergy are the heroes in the fight against evil. These movies often depict priests as martyrs whose sacrifices may even absolve them from violence they commit during the ritual. </p>
<p>In the 1973 film “The Exorcist,” which centers around the possession of 12-year-old character Regan MacNeil, two priests give up their lives in an <a href="https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/exorcist">attempt to expel the demon</a>. The film has also been criticized for representing physical violence in a way that it appears necessary for <a href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/the-terrifying-power-of-girls-and-second-wave-feminism-backlash-in-the-exorcist">saving the young female protagonist</a>. </p>
<p>Similar violence is questioned within the 2005 film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0404032/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">The Exorcism of Emily Rose</a>.” In it, a priest is found guilty of homicide after the titular character dies during an exorcism. The movie’s narrative ultimately absolves him of moral, if not legal, guilt for her death because he believes himself to be acting according to the will of God. </p>
<h2>Catholic symbols and the fight against evil</h2>
<p>Screen heroes often don’t have to be priests, or even Catholic, to fight evil with Catholic ritual and symbols. In horror television and film, vampire hunters employ religious symbols like the Christian cross, but also specifically Catholic elements such as holy water and the consecrated Communion wafer. Francis Ford Coppola’s “<a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/328942">Bram Stoker’s Dracula</a>” leans heavily on such Catholic symbols. </p>
<p>Still, not all screen vampires fear the emblems of Catholicism. Many narratives make a point of the inefficacy of sacramental objects. <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2009/11/why-vampire-movies-always-break-all-the-vampire-rules.html">These films and series</a> include “The Strain,” “Interview with the Vampire” and even the “Twilight” franchise. </p>
<p>More importantly, many vampire narratives make use of the Catholic doctrine that the bread and wine consumed during Mass are the literal body and blood of Christ. Such stories connect Catholic rituals and vampirism. In fact, “Midnight Mass” creator <a href="https://ew.com/tv/midnight-mass-ending-mike-flanagan-postmortem-interview/">Mike Flanagan has stated</a>that Catholic ritual and vampirism are “explicitly linked. You are dealing with a mythology that is steeped in blood ritual and resurrection.” </p>
<p>Other types of screen horror subvert or dismiss Catholic ritual and symbolism altogether. According to scholar Jana Toppe, modern zombie stories <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Roman_Catholicism_in_Fantastic_Film/AtALOnale4QC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">represent the opposite of Catholic belief</a> regarding eternal life. </p>
<p>Toppe suggests that zombie narratives have come to “satirize” the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist. In most zombie films, the eating of flesh does lead to a resurrection of a body, but one without a soul. </p>
<h2>Gothic Catholicism</h2>
<p>For every horror film that sees the rituals of Catholicism as instruments in the fight against evil, another portrays the Church itself as evil.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430025/original/file-20211103-25-ud62p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A priest blesses the young girl who is a in a possessed state, in the 1973 film, 'The Exorcist.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430025/original/file-20211103-25-ud62p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430025/original/file-20211103-25-ud62p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430025/original/file-20211103-25-ud62p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430025/original/file-20211103-25-ud62p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430025/original/file-20211103-25-ud62p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430025/original/file-20211103-25-ud62p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430025/original/file-20211103-25-ud62p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Swedish-born actor Max Von Sydow blesses actress Linda Blair as she lies in a possessed state in the film ‘The Exorcist.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/swedish-born-actor-max-von-sydow-blesses-actress-linda-news-photo/2703168?adppopup=true">Warner Bros./Courtesy of Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This representation dates at least back to horror’s roots in the 18th-century Gothic novel, which <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/213080618.pdf">dramatized the Enlightenment distrust</a> of the irrational in general and the supposedly occult and uncanny nature of Catholicism in particular. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.uwp.co.uk/book/the-gothic-and-catholicism/">Gothic’s use of Catholic tropes</a> – ruined abbeys, lecherous priests, nuns walled up in convents and so on – created a picture of the religion that could be both repellent and fascinating to readers. </p>
<p>According to scholar <a href="https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=8aM9LzwAAAAJ&hl=en">Susan Griffin</a>, in England and in 19th- and early 20th-century North America, Catholics – usually from countries outside the English-speaking world – were often portrayed as a “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/literature/american-literature/anti-catholicism-and-nineteenth-century-fiction?format=HB&isbn=9780521833936">racialized other</a>” in Gothic as well as early horror. </p>
<h2>Horror’s critique of Catholicism</h2>
<p>For years, horror film and television have also critiqued the Church’s secular and political influence, as well as the moral failures and sins of its adherents and hierarchy. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-44209971">Horror narratives often reflect</a> the Church’s reluctance to recognize or acknowledge the evil in its own midst. This has <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2021/06/30/native-american-boarding-schools-catholic-church-investigation-240950">tragic relevance</a> both in light of the child sex abuse crisis and its cover-up, as well as revelations about the <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2021/06/30/native-american-boarding-schools-catholic-church-investigation-240950">treatment of Indigenous children</a> in boarding schools administered by Catholic religious orders, among other groups. </p>
<p>Horror can call up historical abuses. The 2018 film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6793280/">The Devil’s Doorway</a>” is a supernatural film inspired by the abuse experienced by women at Ireland’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/06/world/europe/magdalene-laundry-reunion-ireland.html">Magdalene Laundries</a>, where the so called “fallen women” were confined and subjected to hard labor. In another example, the 2015 Polish film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4935158/">Demon</a>” combines Catholic characters with the Jewish mythological figure of the “dybbuk,” a spirit of the dead, to interrogate <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/collections/bibliography/christianity-and-the-holocaust">Catholic complicity in the Holocaust</a>. </p>
<p>Other narratives critique the institutional church while treating faith respectfully. In the television series “Evil,” for example, a Catholic psychologist and an atheist raised in the Muslim faith <a href="https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/evil/">investigate supernatural occurrences</a> for the Vatican alongside a tortured but devout Catholic seminarian. In doing so, they address issues within the church such as abuse, racism, misogyny and clericalism, or the privileging the clergy over everyday believers. </p>
<h2>Complexities of Catholicism and horror</h2>
<p>The representation of Catholicism in horror is varied and complex, and emphasizes the narrative and aesthetic creativity, as well as the subversive nature, of a genre so often undervalued as merely shocking and violent. Flanagan’s show is a case in point. </p>
<p>“Midnight Mass” exposes religious intolerance, including the othering of the community’s Muslim sheriff, which recalls representations of Catholics in the Gothic novel. The show also decries false piety and draws attention to the evil that can result from blind religious belief. </p>
<p>At the same time, the series emphasizes the possibility of redemption, as well as the complexity and authenticity in each character’s religious experience. </p>
<p>In “Midnight Mass” and other narratives, screen horror’s evocations of Catholicism parallel the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/13/world/europe/francis-the-activist-pope.html">intricacies and contradictions</a>, along with the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/07/opinion/the-argument-catholic-church-gay.html">good and the evil</a>, within the Church itself, and perhaps within all powerful institutions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170767/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Regina Hansen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar of religion in film explains the varied representation of Catholicism in horror. In some films, it is used in the fight against evil, while others show the Church itself as evil.Regina Hansen, Master Lecturer, Rhetoric, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1694422021-10-07T12:26:00Z2021-10-07T12:26:00ZThe Catholic Church sex abuse crisis: 4 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425124/original/file-20211006-21-171j69a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=160%2C53%2C6993%2C5030&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People pray for the victims of child sex abuse during a special service at a Catholic church outside Paris on Oct. 5, 2021. A new French report estimates that more than 200,000 children were abused by clergy since 1950.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/FranceChurchSexAbuse/070e55348b9d4601a1cbcd8c285a4cb8/photo?Query=%22sainte%20jeanne%22&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=4&currentItemNo=1">AP Photo/Michel Euler</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Revelations about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church have been emerging for decades. But in the seemingly never-ending stream of investigations and accusations, some stand out.</p>
<p>That will likely be true of <a href="https://www.ciase.fr/rapport-final/">the report</a> released Oct. 5, 2021, which estimates that more than 200,000 children have been abused by clergy in France since 1950. </p>
<p>The authors of the French study <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/world/europe/france-catholic-church-abuse.html?searchResultPosition=1">spent three years</a> reviewing testimony from nearly 6,500 people. They then came up with their overall projection based on broader demographic data, and made dozens of recommendations: from case-by-case compensation to more sweeping reforms, such as that French bishops consider ordaining married men and giving women a louder voice in church decision-making.</p>
<p>The French report’s specific findings may be new, but the underlying issues are not. Here are some of The Conversation’s many articles examining the Catholic sex abuse crisis over the years, both its roots and the potential routes for reform.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239509/original/file-20181005-72130-131u9un.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239509/original/file-20181005-72130-131u9un.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239509/original/file-20181005-72130-131u9un.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239509/original/file-20181005-72130-131u9un.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239509/original/file-20181005-72130-131u9un.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239509/original/file-20181005-72130-131u9un.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239509/original/file-20181005-72130-131u9un.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Vatican has known about priestly pedophilia for many decades.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Italy-Vatican-Cardinal-Law/d96c6b3b78f242a5894e6ef8151f1e93/10/0">AP Photo/Andrew Medichini</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>1. Years of scandal</h2>
<p>High-profile reports have consistently put the crisis in headlines for the past 20 years, particularly The Boston Globe’s famous “Spotlight” investigation in 2002 and the film it inspired in 2015. </p>
<p>But the paper trail documenting patterns of abuse – and cover-ups – <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-churchs-grim-history-of-ignoring-priestly-pedophilia-and-silencing-would-be-whistleblowers-102387">goes back to at least the 1950s</a>, according to <a href="https://artsci.case.edu/faculty/brian-clites/">Brian Clites</a>, an expert on clergy sex abuse. That’s when U.S. bishops began referring priests to church-run treatment centers, rather than reporting abuse to independent authorities. “Hush money” payouts followed.</p>
<p>By the 1990s, as lawsuits mounted, “the national outcry forced dioceses across the country to create public standards for how they were handling abuse accusations,” Clites writes, “and American bishops launched new marketing campaigns to regain trust.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-churchs-grim-history-of-ignoring-priestly-pedophilia-and-silencing-would-be-whistleblowers-102387">The Catholic Church's grim history of ignoring priestly pedophilia – and silencing would-be whistleblowers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. Speaking up – and out</h2>
<p>One major barrier to bringing abusers to justice, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-catholic-churchs-hierarchy-makes-it-difficult-to-punish-sexual-abusers-89477">many experts argue</a>, are the church’s hierarchy and canon laws, which regulate the church and its members. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2019/12/17/191217b.html">in 2019</a>, Pope Francis modified the “Rule of Pontifical Secrecy,” which required that sensitive information about the church be kept confidential. Over the years, <a href="https://cruxnow.com/february-abuse-summit/2019/02/no-secret-that-pontifical-secrecy-is-taking-a-beating-at-popes-summit/">critics alleged that the policy allowed officials</a> to withhold information about sexual abuse cases, even from victims or legal authorities. Francis’ announcement lifted the rule for three situations: sexual abuse of minors or vulnerable persons, failure to report or efforts to cover up such abuse, and possession of child pornography by a cleric.</p>
<p>Even with this change, however, transparency may prove elusive, argues law professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wI3ku0oAAAAJ&hl=en">Christine P. Bartholomew</a>. She <a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-ends-a-secrecy-rule-for-catholic-sexual-abuse-cases-but-for-victims-many-barriers-to-justice-remain-129434">outlines other practices</a> that can be used to conceal information and work around mandatory reporting requirements. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-ends-a-secrecy-rule-for-catholic-sexual-abuse-cases-but-for-victims-many-barriers-to-justice-remain-129434">Pope ends a secrecy rule for Catholic sexual abuse cases, but for victims many barriers to justice remain</a>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The French Baroque painting ‘Saint Paul writing his Epistles.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Probably_Valentin_de_Boulogne_-_Saint_Paul_Writing_His_Epistles_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg">Valentin de Boulogne</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Celibacy controversy</h2>
<p>Other analysts trying to understand the roots of the sex abuse crisis focus on the rules of the priesthood itself – especially that priests be male and celibate.</p>
<p>But it hasn’t always been that clear cut. <a href="https://neareasternstudies.cornell.edu/kim-haines-eitzen">Kim Haines-Eitzen</a>, an expert on early Christianity, outlines how views on marriage <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-views-on-priestly-celibacy-changed-in-christian-history-102158">have shifted</a> ever since the first century. Saint Paul seemed to endorse marriage “reluctantly,” she writes, as “an acceptable choice for those who cannot control themselves.” </p>
<p>Attitudes toward sex and marriage continued to cause controversy for centuries, contributing to schisms between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church, and later the Protestant Reformation. This is still the case today, as some Catholics advocate that <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-ap-top-news-international-news-germany-europe-c3cd8c5c7a4b4811b9cc3ba4452a9963">married men be allowed to become priests</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-views-on-priestly-celibacy-changed-in-christian-history-102158">How views on priestly celibacy changed in Christian history</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. Change is possible</h2>
<p>Changing a 2,000-year-old institution is hard, but not out of reach.</p>
<p>As a scholar of religious change, <a href="https://sociology.sas.upenn.edu/people/melissa-wilde">Melissa Wilde</a> pinpoints moments when the Catholic Church <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-resists-change-but-vatican-ii-shows-its-possible-102543">changed course</a>. Chief among them was Vatican II, the seminal church council in the 1960s that made significant reforms to worship, such as conducting the Mass in parishioners’ own language, rather than Latin. </p>
<p>With the church mired in crises, “the church needs more than reflection,” she argues. “It needs another council.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-resists-change-but-vatican-ii-shows-its-possible-102543">The Catholic Church resists change – but Vatican II shows it's possible</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169442/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
A French report on the scale of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy is the latest revelation in the crisis, but its roots go back decades – or more. Here are a few of our many related articles.Molly Jackson, Religion and Ethics EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1651432021-07-30T12:21:46Z2021-07-30T12:21:46Z‘Outing’ of priest shines light on power – and partisanship – of Catholic media<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413756/original/file-20210729-23-b75arx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C15%2C5176%2C3456&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The pope is big news, and provides plenty of column inches in the US.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/on-21-june-2018-the-world-council-of-churches-receives-a-news-photo/1132276780?adppopup=true">Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It had all the hallmarks of a sensationalist tabloid sting.</p>
<p>On July 21, 2021, an <a href="https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/pillar-investigates-usccb-gen-sec">article appeared alleging</a> that a senior U.S. priest, Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, had used the hook-up app Grindr, with data from the app placing him at a number of gay bars. Burrill, the now former General Secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/07/20/bishop-misconduct-resign-burrill/">promptly resigned</a>.</p>
<p>But the report was not published by an outlet that many Americans would associated with such sex “exposés.” Indeed, most would have never have heard of it at all. It was The Pillar, a <a href="https://www.pillarcatholic.com/about">small newsletter founded in early 2021</a>, that makes up just a tiny part of the Catholic media landscape in the U.S.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://americanstudies.nd.edu/faculty/peter-cajka/">scholar of American Catholicism and culture</a>, I take a keen interest in Catholic media. My recent book, “<a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo77932169.html">Follow Your Conscience: The Catholic Church and the Spirit of the Sixties</a>,” draws upon dozens of articles in the Catholic media as primary sources for historical analysis. While many Americans may be familiar with evangelical outlets like <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/">Christianity Today</a> or the <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/">Christian Post</a> – not to mention the hundreds of evangelical radio stations across the nation – the Catholic media seems to have less prominence on the national stage. </p>
<p>But as The Pillar’s reporting on Burrill shows, Catholic journalism can nonetheless be influential – and can split opinion in just the same way as media with a wider audience. </p>
<h2>A newspaper for every diocese</h2>
<p>The Catholic mediascape is made up of a series of publications at the local, national and global level. Almost <a href="http://www.ourcatholicneighborhood.com/faith/evangelization/media/newspapers/u.s.-diocesan-newspapers">every diocese has its own newspaper</a> that covers local events like first communions – when a Catholic receives the Eucharist, the bread and wine transformed into Christ’s body and blood, for the first time – or the construction of a new school gym.</p>
<p>But many Catholic readers also like to be informed on the bigger picture of Catholicism, and notably the Pope. In 2014, the Boston Globe, with the help of journalist John Allen, <a href="https://cruxnow.com/">founded Crux</a> to report on the Vatican for an American Catholic audience. </p>
<p>Catholic journalists not only report on the church itself, they aim to offer a Catholic perspective on broader American stories. That was the founding premise behind important Catholic <a href="https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/">magazines like Commonweal</a>, founded by laypeople in 1924, and <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/">America, a monthly publication</a> run by Jesuits in New York City. </p>
<p>Increasingly, like the secular media, Catholic outlets have been polarized and drawn into the culture war. They too have taken positions that <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/24/like-americans-overall-u-s-catholics-are-sharply-divided-by-party/">divide readers and win constituents</a> with particular worldviews. <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/">National Catholic Reporter</a>, in the spirit of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2012/10/10/162573716/why-is-vatican-ii-so-important">the Second Vatican Council</a> – the meeting of the world’s bishops 1962 to 1965 that introduced changes like Mass in the vernacular and a new respect for the religious liberty of members of other faiths – is a liberal outlet that cut its teeth on criticism of the Vietnam War and continues to promote social justice. </p>
<p>Its counterpart, the <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjwo4mIBhBsEiwAKgzXODmopvSLuybqeOEoP_SY9efcHkArwWf6CAa87lbegATtskNEeH8CxRoCqTkQAvD_BwE">National Catholic Register</a>, prefers the moral clarity and conservative positions offered by Popes like John Paul II and Benedict XIV, particularly on matters of gender, sexuality and politics. Its readers overlap with viewers of the <a href="https://www.ewtn.com/">Eternal Word Television Network</a>, a network critical of the more liberal Pope Francis.</p>
<p>On the issue of homosexuality, Catholic media similarly expresses a variety of views. America magazine consistently features the writings of <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/voices/james-martin-sj">Father Jim Martin</a>, a Jesuit priest who has encouraged the church to treat the gay community with more dignity. The periodical <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/">First Things</a>, meanwhile, delights in offering readers searing critiques of secular modernity by Catholic conservative writers. </p>
<h2>Ethical concerns</h2>
<p>Into this partisan media mix emerged The Pillar in 2021 and its recent report on Burrill. The investigation prompted ethical <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/07/25/reporting-that-outed-catholic-priest-reveals-data-is-not-private/">concerns over the use of data privacy</a> – The Pillar’s report relied on geolocation data from the Grindr app that it legally bought. There were also complaints that the reporting appeared to <a href="https://religionnews.com/2021/07/20/the-pillar-investigation-of-monsignor-burrill-is-unethical-homophobic-innuendo/">conflate Burrill’s apparent homosexuality with the child abuse scandal</a> in the Catholic church.</p>
<p>The ethics of The Pillar’s article aside, the reporting does tap into a tradition of Catholic media shining a light on church issues and elevating it to national attention.</p>
<p>A generation ago, Catholic media reporting was crucial in helping expose the sexual abuse of children by priests.</p>
<p>On June 7, 1985, an article by investigative journalist <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/authors/jason-berry">Jason Berry in the National Catholic Reporter</a> exposed not only the <a href="https://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/catholic-church/betrayed-by-silence/ch1/">pedophilia of priest Gilbert Gauthe</a>, but also the church’s complicity to cover it up. Berry, a practicing Catholic who covered the case initially for a local Louisiana paper, detailed for a national readership how Gauthe had abused dozens of children in the Diocese of Lafayette starting in 1972. He charted the local hierarchy’s efforts to keep the case out of the public eye and how church officials ignored reports of the abuse. Berry’s article ran for several pages, replete with headlines like “PEDOPHILE PRIEST: STUDY IN INEPT CHURCH RESPONSE” and “MANY KNEW OF FATHER’S PROBLEM BUT NO-ONE STOPPED HIM.” </p>
<p>The national press picked up the story only after it appeared in National Catholic Reporter.</p>
<p>The publication of Berry’s writings on Gauthe marked the beginning of a new, vigorous mode of national criticism in the Catholic press of church hierarchy for allegedly covering up sex abuse scandals.</p>
<h2>Reporting on scandals</h2>
<p>Without journalists like Jason Berry, the exposure of the clergy abuse crisis may have played along very different lines. To put it simply, it moved the interpretation of the crisis away from a “bad apple” paradigm – it which individual priests were to blame – towards a much more systemic approach which looked at a Catholic culture that facilitates abuse.</p>
<p>The Pillar has tried to frame its investigation of Burrill in a similar light. It implies that Burrill’s use of hookup apps might further develop a culture of abuse in the church. The Pillar’s article quotes <a href="https://dunwoodie.edu/people/fr-thomas-v-berg">moral theologian Father Thomas Berg</a> and the late psychological and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/nyregion/aw-richard-sipe-a-leading-voice-on-clergy-sex-abuse-dies-at-85.html">clergy sex abuse expert Richard Sipe</a>, both of who argue that there is a connection between a cleric violating his vows of celibacy with other adults and a potential abuse of adolescents. The suggestion is that it encourages “networks of protection and tolerance among sexually active clerics,” as The Pillar suggests.</p>
<p>But this argument requires a fine dance that risks falling into the trap of connecting the act of homosexuality with pedophilia. <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/pillar-investigation-monsignor-burrill-unethical-homophobic-innuendo">Not everybody is convinced</a> that The Pillar’s article drew this line sufficiently.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, it has rekindled a debate over the role of Catholic media.</p>
<p>In his 1996 book, “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/pedophiles-and-priests-9780195145977?cc=us&lang=en&">Pedophiles and Priest</a>,” <a href="https://www.baylor.edu/history/index.php?id=87862">historian Philip Jenkins</a> criticizes Berry’s landmark reporting for making it appear as if everyone in Louisiana Church structure, from the bishops to fellow priests, were at fault for Gauthe’s prolific abuse. Jenkins argues that the June 1985 article provided a formula for future reporting: first a journalist details some rumors, then he or she writes about how the allegations troubled parents, then the reporter mentions a transfer of a priest to a new parish and, finally, the investigator quotes an expert who comments on the structural nature of the crisis. In this way, Jenkins suggested, journalists make abuse appear more pervasive than it is. Although Jenkins book was written in the mid-1990s, his analysis, while problematic, remains important.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>The abuse crisis is not the only challenge the Catholic Church faces – it is currently in the midst of struggle between <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/opinion/pope-francis-catholic-church.html">conservative and more progressive elements</a>. In <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/pillar-investigation-monsignor-burrill-unethical-homophobic-innuendo">tying to draw a connection between Burrill’s apparent homosexuality and his potential future complicity</a> in the clergy abuse crisis, The Pillar, one of the newest entrants in the Catholic media landscape, has waded into the church’s culture war and placed itself among the outlets that will be reporting on it in the months and years to come.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165143/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Cajka does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An article that used geolocation data to place a priest at gay bars raises questions over journalistic ethics, and shines a light on the Catholic media landscape.Peter Cajka, Professor of American Studies, University of Notre DameLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1567382021-03-10T13:34:30Z2021-03-10T13:34:30ZUS army chaplain Emil Kapaun advancing toward sainthood<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388600/original/file-20210309-13-1wl3m3i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C22%2C5038%2C3382&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Army chaplain Emil Kapaun helps a soldier on the battlefield during the Korean War in 1952.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/photograph-of-captain-emil-kapaun-helping-another-soldier-news-photo/566448641?adppopup=true">Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://news.holycross.edu/blog/2019/10/16/new-book-gives-voice-to-history-of-jesuits-on-campus/">At the end of a small cemetery</a> on the campus of the College of the Holy Cross, the Jesuit college where I teach, is the <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8202759/joseph-timothy-o'callahan">grave of Joseph O’Callahan</a>, former professor of mathematics. O’Callahan is one of the few Catholic military chaplains to have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, for his heroic actions during World War II. </p>
<p>Only <a href="https://aleteia.org/2020/08/09/these-5-catholic-priests-earned-the-medal-of-honor/">five Catholic priests</a> have received this highest American military honor. Two of them are in the process of being considered for the highest honor recognized in Catholicism: <a href="https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/these-two-medal-of-honor-winners-could-be-the-first-american-servicemen-to-become-saints/">becoming a canonized saint</a>. They are <a href="https://www.milarch.org/father-capodanno-bio/">Vincent Capodanno</a>, a Navy chaplain killed in Vietnam while assigned to a Marine unit in 1967, and Emil Kapaun, an Army chaplain who died in a prison camp during the Korean War in 1951 – and whose remains were <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/after-70-years-pentagon-identifies-remains-korean-war-chaplain-who-n1259777">recently identified</a> by the Pentagon. </p>
<p>What interests me as a specialist in <a href="https://oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-84">medieval liturgy and worship</a> is the connection between military bravery and spiritual heroism. </p>
<h2>Christian pacifism and military service</h2>
<p>Kapaun was captured while ministering, unarmed, to wounded and dying soldiers in active battle. His fellow soldiers <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/after-70-years-pentagon-identifies-remains-korean-war-chaplain-who-n1259777">lauded the way in which he continued</a> to assist other prisoners before dying of pneumonia in the prison. He was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously in 2013. </p>
<p>Kapaun’s spiritual heroism was also noted by those he served. A preliminary evaluation of his sanctity, or “cause” for canonization, was <a href="https://catholicdioceseofwichita.org/father-kapaun/">accepted by Pope John Paul II in 1993</a>, and he was proclaimed “Servant of God.” It is not unusual for decades to pass before this approval; in fact, a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27140646">mandatory five-year waiting period</a> has become a first step in the formal process of becoming a saint. </p>
<p>After this, officials in the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas, Kapaun’s home, spent several years conducting a thorough investigation into his life and ministry. A final report, called a “positio,” was <a href="https://www.kansas.com/news/special-reports/father-kapaun/article85629157.html">accepted and approved by Vatican officials in 2016</a>. Now the pope must decide on declaring Kapaun “Venerable,” the third step toward canonization. </p>
<p>It might seem unusual to associate priestly ministry with the violence of war. In the early first century, Jesus himself <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205%3A9&version=NRSV">preached peace</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A+41&version=NRSV">nonviolence</a> <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%206%3A27-36&version=NIV">instead of retaliation</a>.</p>
<p>In some early Christian communities during the second and third centuries, soldiers <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=cg6aBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA56&dq=nicene+apostolic+tradition+military&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi3vKra0KDvAhXhdM0KHVGzAloQ6AEwAXoECAAQAg#v=onepage&q=nicene%20apostolic%20tradition%20military&f=false">could be accepted as candidates for baptism</a>, the ritual immersion in water necessary for becoming a member of the church, only if they <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Reconstructing_Early_Christian_Worship/FnWpAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=bradshaw+apostolic+tradition+soldier&pg=PT65&printsec=frontcover">refused to kill other human beings</a>.</p>
<p>In addition, Christians who wanted to become soldiers would be rejected by some Christian communities. However, this was not a universal practice, and in other Christian communities, Christians did enter military service in the Roman imperial legions. In fact, by the end of the third century, Roman emperors <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/diocletian-persecution">would attempt to purge</a> the army of all Christian soldiers.</p>
<p>Christianity as a religion was illegal in the Roman empire during these early centuries. However, at the beginning of the fourth century, Constantine, a military commander, became emperor and legalized Christianity throughout the Roman Empire. By the end of that century, Christianity had become the official religion of the empire. </p>
<p>But a Christian empire still needed to wage war and spill blood to survive. During this time, the theologian Augustine began to develop what came to be called the “<a href="https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20131011_2.htm">Just War Theory</a>.” </p>
<p>In the 13th century, theologian Thomas Aquinas <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/summa/3040.htm">provided further explanation</a> of how ordinary lay Christians could, under certain conditions, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zbygjxs/revision/1">engage in warfare</a>. A war had to be declared for just reasons and conducted by the appropriate authorities. The “legitimate” killing of enemy combatants was <a href="https://www.medievalists.net/2018/10/medieval-church-military-power/">accepted</a> by Christian bishops and the popes for several more centuries.</p>
<p>However, the role of bishops, priests and other ordained clerics in warfare was less clear, because actual practice did not always reflect theological ideals.</p>
<h2>Conflicting practices</h2>
<p>During the Middle Ages, this Just War theory was not always followed in the heat of combat. Before the 12th century, it was <a href="https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2016/06/03/battling-bishops-of-christendom/">not uncommon for armed bishops</a> to lead troops personally into battle and fight themselves. </p>
<p>Priests, too, could be called into military service. However, the decrees of local Christian councils <a href="https://www.history.udel.edu/content-sub-site/Documents/duggan/The%20Evolution%20of%20Latin%20Canon%20Law%20on%20the%20Clergy%20and%20Armsbearing%20to%20the%20Thirteenth%20Century.pdf">continued to forbid clerics</a> from carrying weapons and shedding blood.</p>
<p>Even in the later medieval period, the question of bishops and clerics serving in the military was muddled. Priests did accompany Christian armies to provide moral and sacramental support. But certainly, priests and monks, like the influential abbot and spiritual author <a href="https://www.ccjr.us/dialogika-resources/primary-texts-from-the-history-of-the-relationship/bernard-of-clairvaux">Bernard of Clairvaux</a>, took active roles in preaching in support of wars against heretics and Muslims as well. </p>
<p>These religious wars, the Crusades, took place between the 11th and 15th centuries. Popes such as <a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/urban2-5vers.asp">Urban II</a> and <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/Albigensian_Crusade/">Innocent III</a> would call for Crusades to the Holy Land or areas of Europe led by dissident secular rulers. </p>
<p>Aquinas himself offers two apparently contradictory opinions on the role of clergy in wars. He concluded that they could not fight as soldiers because they <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/summa/3040.htm">would be obliged to shed blood</a>, but elsewhere he defended the founding of religious orders of soldiers <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/summa/3188.htm#article3">who would fight to defend the church and the poor</a>. Most members of these orders did take religious vows but were unordained laymen.</p>
<h2>Patron saint of military chaplains</h2>
<p>Even in pre-Christian times, religious figures accompanied armies to the battlefield and offered <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1030/p25s01-usmi.html">sacrifices and blessings for their victories</a>. This continued to be true in medieval and modern Europe, and later, in the United States.</p>
<p>Catholics already <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-are-patron-saints-and-why-do-catholics-venerate-them-148508">venerate one saint</a> as the patron saint of military chaplains. He is St. John of Capistrano, a 15th-century lawyer and politician who became a Franciscan friar and a famous preacher. </p>
<p>Nicknamed the “<a href="http://faith.nd.edu/s/1210/faith/interior.aspx?sid=1210&gid=609&calcid=53508&calpgid=61&pgid=16743&crid=0">Soldier Saint</a>,” he personally led troops into battle at the city of Belgrade in an effort to stop the advance of a Muslim Turkish army into Europe. </p>
<p>However, John of Capistrano is also hugely controversial. His assumption of a military role was criticized because some found it <a href="https://www.loyolapress.com/catholic-resources/saints/saints-stories-for-all-ages/saint-john-of-capistrano/">inappropriate for a priest</a>. His constant campaigning <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/capistrano-john-giovanni-of-x00b0">against the Jews</a> reinforced existing hostility, leading to legal restrictions, anti-Semitic violence and forced exile for many Jewish communities in parts of Germany and Poland. </p>
<h2>Kapaun as patron saint?</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388602/original/file-20210309-23-yien2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="U.S. medal of honor award ceremony in 2013" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388602/original/file-20210309-23-yien2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388602/original/file-20210309-23-yien2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388602/original/file-20210309-23-yien2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388602/original/file-20210309-23-yien2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388602/original/file-20210309-23-yien2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388602/original/file-20210309-23-yien2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388602/original/file-20210309-23-yien2e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Rev. Kapaun was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously in 2013 for his service.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/army-officer-holds-the-medal-of-honor-for-us-army-chaplain-news-photo/166334328?adppopup=true">Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the contemporary American military, regulations require that <a href="https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-trending/what-chaplains-do-on-battlefield/">chaplains go unarmed into combat</a>; international law states that <a href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v2_rul_rule27">they may not be treated as prisoners of war</a> if captured, but must be treated with respect and released.</p>
<p>Apart from actually using weapons against enemy forces, military chaplains share the experiences of other soldiers. Many come under fire themselves, risking their own lives on active battlefields to minister to the dying and rescue the wounded. Their service is to all personnel regardless of differences in faith or religion – for example, in conducting funeral rites. </p>
<p>For many Catholics, Kapaun’s selfless actions during combat and imprisonment would demonstrate extraordinary heroism, not just in fighting the armed enemies, but also in what the Vatican calls “<a href="http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_letters/documents/papa-francesco-lettera-ap_20170711_maiorem-hac-dilectionem.html">offering of one’s life</a>” for other human beings.</p>
<p>With the <a href="https://catholicdioceseofwichita.org/father-kapaun-remains/">recent official identification</a> of Kapaun’s remains, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-becomes-a-saint-in-the-catholic-church-and-is-that-changing-81011">next few stages</a> to sainthood may proceed more quickly. Diocesan officials note that part of the process <a href="https://www.kansas.com/news/special-reports/father-kapaun/article249718938.html">involves exhuming and securing the candidate’s body</a>, which had not been possible for Kapaun until the return of American POW remains from their mass graves.</p>
<p>For the moment, perhaps his work as a Catholic chaplain could offer a resolution to a centuries-old paradox: the pragmatic goals of military service and the Christian call to a life of ultimate peacemaking. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156738/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne M. Pierce does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In early Christianity, soldiers could be baptized only if they refused to kill other human beings. While this changed over the years, tensions linger over Christian goals.Joanne M. Pierce, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1485072020-10-28T12:23:16Z2020-10-28T12:23:16ZAn Italian teen is set to become the first millennial saint, but canonizing children is nothing new in the Catholic Church<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365821/original/file-20201027-19-1nw6ht3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=64%2C0%2C5256%2C3432&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The ceremony for the beatification of Carlo Acutis, an Italian boy who died in 2006 of leukemia, is held Oct. 10 in front of the St. Francis Basilica in Assisi, Italy.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ItalyTeenBeatification/ab6eac9a939f4b388534c5642956b57d/photo?Query=Carlo%20AND%20Acutis&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=27&currentItemNo=13">AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Oct. 10, 2020, a young Italian named Carlo Acutis was <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54507064">beatified</a> at a special Mass in the city of Assisi, putting the late teenager just one step away from sainthood. It allows Catholics to venerate him as “Blessed Carlo Acutis.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/carlo-acutis-millennial-candidate-sainthood-draws-41000-assisi-church">Acutis died of leukemia</a> in 2006, at the age of 15. Like other boys his age, he was avidly interested in computers, video games and the internet. He was also a devout Catholic who went to Mass daily and persuaded his mother as well to be a regular attendee. One of his pet projects was designing a webpage <a href="http://www.miracolieucaristici.org/en/liste/list.html">listing miracles across the globe</a> associated with the bread and wine consecrated at Mass, believed by Catholics to be the body and blood of Christ.</p>
<p>After his death, townspeople <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/carlo-acutis-millennial-candidate-sainthood-draws-41000-assisi-church">began to attribute</a> miracles to his intercession, including <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/mom-of-carlo-acutis-says-son-led-her-back-to-the-catholic-faith-34118">the birth of twins to his own mother</a> four years after his death. His case was submitted to the <a href="https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/csaints/documents/rc_con_csaints_pro_20051996_en.html">Congregation for the Causes of Saints</a>, one of the offices that make up the papal administrative structure – the Curia – of the Catholic Church. It initiated the process of his official canonization in the Roman Catholic Church. </p>
<p>To non-Catholics, bestowing potential sainthood on one who died so young might seem puzzling. As a scholar of <a href="https://college.holycross.edu//faculty/jpierce/">medieval liturgy and culture</a>, I know that there has been a long history of including children among the saints approved for official recognition and veneration.</p>
<h2>Who becomes a saint</h2>
<p>For the first thousand years of Western Christian history, there was no formal process in Rome for declaring deceased persons as saints. In antiquity, Christians who became martyrs or imprisoned as confessors during persecutions <a href="https://www.orderofstignatius.org/files/Letters/Ignatius_to_Romans.pdf">were venerated after their deaths</a> because of the strength of their beliefs. They were considered more perfect Christians because they chose to die rather than give up their faith. </p>
<p>Because of this, the martyrs were believed to be closely united with Christ in heaven. Individuals would pray at their tombs, asking the martyrs to intercede with Christ for help with spiritual or material problems, like healing from an illness. </p>
<p>Miracles were attributed to their intervention, since Christians believed that the <a href="https://www3.dbu.edu/mitchell/saints.htm">tombs of the martyrs were holy places</a> where they could access the healing power of God’s grace.</p>
<p>After Christianity spread throughout Europe, other Christians who led lives of unusual holiness were also venerated in the same way. These included bishops and priests, monks and nuns and other laypeople of exceptional virtue.</p>
<p>All of these saints were venerated locally, with the approval of the local bishop. However, the first saint to be <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=PBGzh1JK2gUC&pg=PA29&dq=butler+lives+of+the+saints+ulrich+augsburg&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiIuZniwcnsAhVSG80KHW-gCtYQ6AEwAHoECAQQAg#v=onepage&q=butler%20lives%20of%20the%20saints%20ulrich%20augsburg&f=false">officially canonized</a> by a pope – Pope John XV – was St. Ulrich of Augsburg. Ulrich had served as the bishop of Augsburg for almost 50 years, building churches, revitalizing the clergy, and helping the residents resist a siege by invaders.</p>
<p>His canonization took place in A.D. 993 after the local bishop requested that the pope make the declaration. </p>
<p>From that time on popes would preside over the canonization process, and a set procedure for investigating potential candidates was established as part of the papal bureaucracy in Rome. After the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-resists-change-but-vatican-ii-shows-its-possible-102543">Second Vatican Council</a>, held from 1962 to 1965, called for a new vision of the church’s role in the world of the 20th century, <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-becomes-a-saint-in-the-catholic-church-and-is-that-changing-81011">the process was updated</a>.</p>
<p>Today, proposed candidates are given the title “Servant of God.” If they were martyred or killed “in hatred of the faith,” they move to the next-to-last stage – beatification – and receive the title “Blessed.” Non-martyrs, if shown to have lived lives of “heroic virtue,” are given the title “<a href="https://www.usccb.org/offices/public-affairs/saints">Venerable Servant of God</a>.” </p>
<p>Proceeding to beatification requires clear evidence of a miracle, often a healing, that is understood to have resulted from a direct prayer to the Servant of God asking for help. Claims of healing miracles are <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-becomes-a-saint-in-the-catholic-church-and-is-that-changing-81011">closely examined</a> by a panel of medical experts. A second miracle is required for canonization. </p>
<h2>Why child saints?</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365836/original/file-20201027-24-bxe991.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365836/original/file-20201027-24-bxe991.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365836/original/file-20201027-24-bxe991.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365836/original/file-20201027-24-bxe991.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365836/original/file-20201027-24-bxe991.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365836/original/file-20201027-24-bxe991.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365836/original/file-20201027-24-bxe991.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365836/original/file-20201027-24-bxe991.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Holy Innocents and St. John.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/5299649924/">Lawrence OP/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over the centuries, several children have been proclaimed “Blessed” or “Saint.” </p>
<p>One group of child saints was venerated from late antiquity onward because of their mention in the gospels: <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=u32OUS4-yd0C&pg=PA216&dq=butler+lives+of+the+saints+holy+innocents&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjcv_etlsjsAhUQLKwKHSF1DMkQ6AEwAHoECAMQAg#v=onepage&q=butler%20lives%20of%20the%20saints%20holy%20innocents&f=false">the Holy Innocents</a>. In the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A16-18&version=NRSV">Gospel of Matthew</a>, King Herod, threatened by rumors of the birth of a new king, sends soldiers to Bethlehem to kill all male infants and toddlers. These children became known as the Holy Innocents.</p>
<p>Because of their connection with the story of the birth of Jesus, sometime in the fifth century the commemoration of the Holy Innocents was set during Christmas week, Dec. 28 in the Western Church. This day is <a href="https://www.catholicsandcultures.org/feasts-holy-days/holy-innocents">observed by all Catholics</a> even today. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365914/original/file-20201027-17-6uilip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365914/original/file-20201027-17-6uilip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365914/original/file-20201027-17-6uilip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365914/original/file-20201027-17-6uilip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365914/original/file-20201027-17-6uilip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365914/original/file-20201027-17-6uilip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365914/original/file-20201027-17-6uilip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Memorial plaque for the 120 Martyr Saints of China at St. Francis Xavier Church in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Martyr_Saints_of_China.jpg">Fayhoo/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sometimes child saints have been canonized as part of a larger group of martyrs. For example, among those martyred in China for their Christian faith are <a href="https://aci.archchicago.org/asian-icons/120-martyrs-saints-china">120 Chinese Catholics killed between 1648 and 1930</a>. Members were recognized for their unswerving dedication to the Catholic faith during several periods of intense persecution. </p>
<p>They were <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/02/world/pope-canonizes-120-killed-in-china-and-one-american.html">canonized by Pope St. John Paul II in 2000</a>. <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/2000/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20001001_canonization.html">In his homily</a> on that day, the pope made special mention of the heroic deaths of two of them: 14-year-old <a href="https://ace.nd.edu/images/ACE-ENL/Multicultural-Saints/stannawang.pdf">Anna Wang</a> and 18-year-old <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/120-martyrs-of-china-533">Chi Zhuzi</a>, both of whom died in 1900. </p>
<p>Other child saints were canonized as individuals. One modern example is <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-maria-goretti-530">Maria Goretti</a>, an Italian peasant girl murdered in 1902. Only 11 years old, she was alone at the home her impoverished family shared with another family when she was attacked by the young adult son of that family. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365839/original/file-20201027-17-1pf373c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365839/original/file-20201027-17-1pf373c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365839/original/file-20201027-17-1pf373c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=666&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365839/original/file-20201027-17-1pf373c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=666&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365839/original/file-20201027-17-1pf373c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=666&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365839/original/file-20201027-17-1pf373c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365839/original/file-20201027-17-1pf373c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365839/original/file-20201027-17-1pf373c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Beatification ceremony for Maria Goretti in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, April, 27, 1947.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BeatificationofMariaGoretti/3416d3dfcd1a44f18339166c71fc2365/photo?Query=maria%20AND%20goretti&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=147&currentItemNo=1">AP Photo/Jim Pringle</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He attempted to rape her and stabbed her when she fought him off. Maria died the next day in a hospital after stating that she forgave her attacker and prayed that God might forgive him, too. </p>
<p>News of this spread quickly across Italy, and stories of miracles followed soon after. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ZHnM1a1NTugC&pg=PA309&dq=butler+maria+goretti&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjuz_O9q8rsAhWBJ80KHZUiDP0Q6AEwAHoECAUQAg#v=onepage&q=butler%20maria%20goretti&f=false">Maria was canonized in 1950</a> and quickly became a popular patron saint for young girls.</p>
<p>A few child saints were deemed to have demonstrated heroic virtue in other ways. In 1917, three peasant children from the town of Fatima in Portugal <a href="https://apnews.com/article/9df80314be754c4aa3de4403cd5ecced">claimed to have received visions</a> of the Blessed Virgin Mary. News of this spread widely, and the location became a popular pilgrimage site. The oldest child, Lucia, became a nun and lived into her 90s; her cause for sainthood <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/fatima-nun-has-15000-pages-of-evidence-for-beatification-cause-64905">is still in process</a>.</p>
<p>However, her two cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, died young of complications from the Spanish flu: Francisco in 1918 at the age of 10, and Jacinta in 1919, age 9. The two were <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=LM3tKD5nAJEC&pg=PA298&dq=butler+jacinta+marto&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjl1dC_scrsAhWBAp0JHf8NB1YQ6AEwAHoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=butler%20jacinta%20marto&f=false">beatified</a> in 2000 by <a href="https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/travels/2000/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20000513_beatification-fatima.html">Pope St. John Paul II</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/pope-francis-canonizes-children-behind-three-secrets-fatima-n758531">canonized by Pope Francis</a> in 2017. </p>
<p>They were the first child saints <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/05/13/pope-francis-makes-history-and-canonizes-jacinta-and-francisco-two-child-saints">who were not martyrs</a>. It was their “heroism” and “life of prayer” that was considered to be holy. There were other child saints too who were <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=B3G7R_8kI7EC&pg=PA88&dq=butlers+dominic+savio&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjdi4mExdXsAhXOVs0KHfdlAlYQ6AEwAHoECAUQAg#v=onepage&q=butlers%20dominic%20savio&f=false">canonized for reasons other than being martyrs</a>, yet led lives considered exemplary.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>But there were also those who were dropped from the official list of saints because of details that were later revealed. One such case was of a <a href="https://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/35619#:%7E:text=It%20took%20almost%20300%20years,buried%20in%20an%20unknown%20place">2-year-old Christian boy Simon from Trent, Italy</a>, whose body was found in the cellar of a Jewish family in 1475. Simon’s body was on display and miracles were attributed to him. It was 300 years later that the Jews of Trent were cleared of murder charges. In 1965 his name was removed from the Calendar of Saints by Pope Paul VI. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, this long history shows that sanctity is not limited to adults who lived in the distant past. In the eyes of the Catholic Church, an ordinary teenager in the 21st century too can be worthy of veneration.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148507/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne M. Pierce does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Italian teenager Carlo Acutis, who died at the age of 15, is on the path to becoming a saint. A scholar explains the long history of child saints in the Catholic Church.Joanne M. Pierce, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1264042020-01-22T16:12:27Z2020-01-22T16:12:27ZRoman Catholic priests have been celibate for a thousand years – but this could change<p>For almost a thousand years, Roman Catholic priests have been required to be celibate. But this age-old practice is now under fire, with the suggestion that the rules should be relaxed for the Latin American Catholic church. </p>
<p>In response to such rumblings, a <a href="https://www.ignatius.com/From-the-Depths-of-Our-Hearts-P3550.aspx">new book</a> sets out a vigorous defence of priestly celibacy against the “fashionable errors” of its detractors. The book is particularly notable: it is co-authored by Cardinal Robert Sarah and the former pope, Benedict XVI, who since <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/pope-benedict-in-retired-seclusion-looms-in-the-opposition-to-pope-francis/2018/09/02/f4d262b2-aaca-11e8-9a7d-cd30504ff902_story.html">his resignation in 2013</a> has avoided public intervention in the time of his successor, Pope Francis (Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Benedict’s secretary, has since asked that Benedict’s name and signature be removed from the book).</p>
<p>The book’s publication is evidence of the divisions that exist within the church. The relationship between the two popes is already very much in the public eye following the release of a <a href="https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80174451">fictionalised biography</a> about them. The publication of the book coincides with an expected response from Pope Francis to the recommendations made at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synod_of_Bishops_for_the_Pan-Amazon_region">synod</a> – church council – held in the Amazon region in October 2019.</p>
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<p>Within Protestant congregations and the Eastern Orthodox church, the ordination of married men has long been accepted. But for the best part of a millennium, celibacy has been required of priests in the Roman Catholic tradition. Any decision to ordain married men to the priesthood would be a highly visible and controversial break with the disciplines and traditions of the church.</p>
<p>The Amazon synod opened the door to high-profile discussions of the place of celibacy in the modern Roman Catholic priesthood. For the first time, an open statement was made in favour of the ordination of married “<em>viri probati</em>” (men of proven virtue) as priests. Although Pope Francis has yet to accept the Synod’s recommendations, he has made known his sympathy with problems faced by the church in the Amazon.</p>
<p>So far, the ordination of married men has been presented as a solution to an acute shortage of priests in the Amazon region. The synod recognised the value of celibacy as a “gift of God” but suggested that the pressures faced by the church in the Amazon, justified a “legitimate diversity” in practice. </p>
<p>But any precedent established in the Amazon will raise further questions about the future of the compulsory celibacy of the Roman Catholic clergy in other parts of the world. The final document made clear that many participants of the synod were in favour of broadening the scope of its recommendations to the rest of the Roman Catholic church. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310458/original/file-20200116-181625-ptganj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310458/original/file-20200116-181625-ptganj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310458/original/file-20200116-181625-ptganj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310458/original/file-20200116-181625-ptganj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310458/original/file-20200116-181625-ptganj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310458/original/file-20200116-181625-ptganj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310458/original/file-20200116-181625-ptganj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Cathedral Sao Sebastian, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rio-de-janeiro-brazil-june-19-129493349">Wideweb/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Celibate for a millennium</h2>
<p>The universal requirement to celibacy was imposed upon the clergy with force in 1123 and again in 1139. But those decrees reflected a much longer tradition in the Church in which the self-imposed discipline of asceticism – including sexual continence, poverty and abstinence – became the defining characteristics of piety, and of the priesthood.</p>
<p>This view was first challenged in the 16th century with the rise of Protestantism. The Protestant church’s markedly different view of the priesthood – and rejection of priestly celibacy – allowed both the ordination of married men and the marriage of those already in holy orders. </p>
<p>Whatever their views on the rest of Protestant theology, those priests who chose to take wives were making a visible statement against the discipline of the Catholic church. That statement was not always welcomed by more conservative congregations, for whom a married priest was an unwelcome symbol of religious change. The legalisation of clerical marriage in England in 1549 did little to protect clergy wives from being denounced in the street as whores and concubines. Martin Luther, the founding father of the German Reformation, wrote that his <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/10/martin-luther-wife-protestant-reformation-500/">much satirised marriage</a> to a former nun “made the angels laugh and the devils weep”.</p>
<p>The reassertion of compulsory clerical celibacy in the Catholic church at the Council of Trent (1543-1563) established the issue as a permanent marker of the divisions within Christendom. These decrees still possess a symbolic value in the context of modern debates. Isabelle de Gaulmyn, editor-in-chief of La Croix, has <a href="https://international.la-croix.com/#">argued</a> that the recommendation of the Amazon synod statement on celibacy marks the “end” of the Roman Catholic Church as it was defined at the Council of Trent.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310461/original/file-20200116-181598-6r00ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310461/original/file-20200116-181598-6r00ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310461/original/file-20200116-181598-6r00ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310461/original/file-20200116-181598-6r00ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310461/original/file-20200116-181598-6r00ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310461/original/file-20200116-181598-6r00ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310461/original/file-20200116-181598-6r00ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Council of Trent, Pasquale Cati, 1588.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/e5e7788d-c938-4f95-bc77-436df2017c17">jimforest/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>But if the recommendations of the synod are accepted, this would not be the first time that a local exception has been made to the discipline of celibacy in the Roman Catholic church. </p>
<p>Those married priests who left the Church of England after its decision to ordain women in 1994, for example, were permitted to be ordained as Catholic priests without making any commitment to celibacy. By 2014, former Anglican clergy accounted for up to <a href="https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/1028/new-figures-show-almost-400-catholic-priests-were-anglicans">one in ten</a> English Catholic priests, and in the United States, more than 100 married former <a href="https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pope-married-priests-2017-story.html">Episcopal clergy</a> have been ordained in the Catholic church. </p>
<p>Such precedents hammer home the importance of the distinction between the marriage of priests and the ordination of married men to the priesthood. It is important to note that, as in these cases, the synod’s recommendations on the ordination of “<em>viri probati</em>” do not make celibacy voluntary for the rest of the ordained clergy. Instead, the recommendation is presented as a direct response to the needs of the Amazon region, and the shortage of priests to serve its communities. </p>
<p>But days before the Amazonian synod opened, the Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, argued that married priests cannot be seen as a quick a solution to pastoral problems in Latin America <a href="https://www.sophiainstitute.com/products/item/friends-of-the-bridegroom">and beyond</a> The publication of this new book – and the furore around it – is a warning that watering down the requirements of celibacy for priests is not universally accepted as a positive response to the needs of the church.</p>
<p><em>Correction: this article was amended on January 28 to clarify that Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s secretary, requested the removal of Benedict’s name from the book From the Depths of Our Heart, not Benedict himself.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126404/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Parish receives funding from Arts and Humanities Research Council and The Leverhulme Trust.</span></em></p>The age-old practice of priestly celibacy is now under fire, with the suggestion that the rules should be relaxed.Helen Parish, Professor in History, University of ReadingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1286002019-12-16T13:42:40Z2019-12-16T13:42:40ZCatholic activism, not repentance for sexual abuse, is what forces clergy to resign<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306640/original/file-20191212-85391-1k184l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, at a news conference on Nov. 5, 2018, in Cheektowaga, New York. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Clergy-Abuse-Buffalo/4d4609c1577447a7a3da35ad0a56f318/6/0">AP Photo/Frank Franklin II</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Roman Catholic bishop of Buffalo, New York, Richard Malone, became the seventh U.S. bishop since 2015 to be <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/04/us/bishop-malone-resigns/index.html">forced out of power</a> for his role in covering up clergy sexual abuse cases. Malone resigned on Dec. 4, <a href="https://www.buffalodiocese.org/documents/Communique/BpMaloneStatement12419.pdf">stating</a> that his departure stemmed from a recognition that “the people of Buffalo will be better served by a new bishop who perhaps is better able to bring about the reconciliation, healing and renewal that is so needed.” </p>
<p>By comparison, during the prior 35 years, only three U.S. bishops had resigned because of the scandal, even though there were <a href="http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/child-and-youth-protection/upload/The-Causes-and-Context-of-Sexual-Abuse-of-Minors-by-Catholic-Priests-in-the-United-States-1950-2010.pdf">more than 10,000 cases</a> of clergy sexual abuse reported to the American bishops during that time.</p>
<p>In my research, I have found that this increase in bishop accountability is due not to an improvement in the Vatican’s protocols, but rather to
the <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479879229/catholic-social-activism/">activism</a> of local <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=VTJHDQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">Catholic reform</a> groups. </p>
<h2>Start of survivor-advocacy groups</h2>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=JRrX5fAAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">I study</a> how survivors and their advocates have exposed the problem of clergy sexual abuse. </p>
<p>Survivors first went public with their stories of abuse <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-survivors-of-clergy-sexual-abuse-who-finally-pushed-the-vatican-to-recognize-the-problem-110873">in the 1980s</a>. But other Catholics did not begin forming survivor-advocacy groups until 2002, when <a href="https://www3.bostonglobe.com/arts/movies/spotlight-movie/">a series of reports</a> detailing how Cardinal Bernard Law, then the archbishop of Boston, had protected more than 230 abusive priests.</p>
<p>Energized by the Boston Globe’s investigation, Boston parishioners founded <a href="https://www.votf.org/">Voice of the Faithful</a> in 2002, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting clergy abuse survivors and increasing transparency in the Catholic Church.</p>
<p>Within months, Voice of the Faithful had grown into a national movement of 50,000 members organized into <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/20631760/2005_05_EO%2F02-0631760_990_200405">220 local chapters</a>. It was through their public protests and petitions that Cardinal Law was forced <a href="http://archive.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse/law_resigns/">to resign</a> in December 2002.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306641/original/file-20191212-85386-1daeb8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306641/original/file-20191212-85386-1daeb8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306641/original/file-20191212-85386-1daeb8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306641/original/file-20191212-85386-1daeb8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306641/original/file-20191212-85386-1daeb8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306641/original/file-20191212-85386-1daeb8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306641/original/file-20191212-85386-1daeb8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Voice of the Faithful erected a sign at a Denver hotel on June 15, 2004, where more than 250 U.S. Catholic bishops were meeting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-Colorado-United-/d3bba4ff86e4da11af9f0014c2589dfb/66/0">AP Photo/Ed Andrieski</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Seeking reforms, not revolutions</h2>
<p>Voice of the Faithful’s rapid ascension came in part, sociologists have concluded, because their leaders were <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/faithful-revolution-9780199380268?lang=en&cc=us">highly educated professionals</a> with a proven track record as activists. </p>
<p>Founding Voice of the Faithful president James Muller, for example, was a recipient of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the <a href="https://www.ippnw.org/history.html">International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War</a>, which joined Soviet and American doctors during the Cold War. With Muller and other accomplished professionals in their leadership, Voice of the Faithful was able to quickly attract national media attention and financial support.</p>
<p>Most Voice of the Faithful members remained active Catholics, and they often used <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo41210790.html">parish halls and Catholic campuses</a> for their meetings and events.</p>
<p>Although some bishops <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20058118?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">decried Voice of the Faithful</a> as radical, many Catholic intellectuals and priests discretely <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674034884">welcomed the movement</a>. These priests <a href="https://litpress.org/Products/3018/Faith-That-Dares-to-Speak">opened their parishes’ doors</a> to Voice of the Faithful members, but they didn’t sign petitions or write op-eds criticizing the bishops in their own diocese.</p>
<p>The group was never declared schismatic, and the top archbishops and cardinals in the United States met with its leaders from the very start. Several bishops also <a href="https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2007-03/people">openly supported</a> the group.</p>
<p>Its motto, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/593284/keep-the-faith-change-the-church-by-james-e-muller-and-charles-kenney/9781623362300">“Keep the faith, change the church,”</a> indicates how Voice of the Faithful worked toward specific reforms <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/faithful-revolution-9780199380268?lang=en&cc=us">without upending</a> the broader institutional framework of the Catholic Church. For example, they stressed the value of women’s leadership, but they did not demand that the Church begin ordaining women priests. </p>
<p>For Catholics who felt betrayed by their bishops – even if they were not sexually abused – Voice of the Faithful provided a <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo41210790.html">mechanism to voice their dissatisfaction</a>. Through listening sessions held in dioceses across the country, Voice of the Faithful provided more direct access to the cardinals and bishops. These sessions offered Catholics a glimpse of democratic participation, and they also helped shape the American bishops’ new <a href="http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/child-and-youth-protection/charter.cfm">policies to protect children</a>. </p>
<h2>Local Catholics and their role</h2>
<p>Voice of the Faithful was unable to recruit <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/millennial-missionaries-9780190875961?cc=us&lang=en&">“millennial” Catholics</a> into its group, and its membership has declined as its baby-boomer base has aged. But new <a href="http://www.paulistpress.com/Products/4934-6/the-rising-laity.aspx">Catholic organizations</a> continue to emerge.</p>
<p>In Buffalo, New York, a community of affluent and highly educated Catholics formed the <a href="https://movementtorestoretrust.org/">Movement to Restore Trust</a> in 2018. The group is <a href="https://movementtorestoretrust.org/leadership/">led by executives</a> in business, law and education, and they were the most powerful of several Catholic organizations in calling on Bishop Malone <a href="https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/special-reports/diocese-in-crisis/movement-to-restore-trust-calls-on-bishop-malone-to-resign/71-275b848f-e5d3-4b8b-a1f4-a9b22a742ee2">to resign</a>.</p>
<p>Other Catholics in Buffalo staged protests and created an <a href="https://www.change.org/p/request-the-resignation-of-bishop-richard-j-malone">online petition</a> demanding Malone’s departure. Borrowing a strategy that Catholic survivors <a href="https://youtu.be/TEVf9bqNjsY?t=2629">began using in the 1990s</a>, some parishioners <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/10/us/buffalo-diocese-embattled-catholic-bishop/index.html">placed protest notes</a> instead of money into the weekly collection basket. The notes said they were withholding donations to the church until Malone stepped down. </p>
<h2>Priests join groups in supporting survivors</h2>
<p>Like Voice of the Faithful, the Movement to Restore Trust and other Catholic survivor-advocate groups in Buffalo have tried to work within the Church, maintaining close ties with clergy. </p>
<p>These strong relationships allowed Buffalo Catholics to eventually win the public support of their local priests. </p>
<p>At the Vatican <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-popes-upcoming-summit-needs-to-do-a-full-accounting-of-the-cover-up-of-sexual-abuse-111136">abuse summit in February</a>, former priest and survivor James Falfaluszczak appealed to Pope Francis to remove Malone from office. Falfaluszczak was trained alongside many of Buffalo’s accused abusers <a href="https://www.wkbw.com/news/i-team/buffalo-diocese-seminary-blamed-for-sexual-culture-among-priests">when he was a seminary student.</a></p>
<p>In September, the Rev. Bob Zilliox, head pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in the Diocese of Buffalo, recruited 12 New York priests to sign a <a href="https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/only-on-4-clarence-priest-drafts-no-confidence-letter-for-bishop-malone/">letter of no confidence in Malone</a>. Several days later, <a href="https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/special-reports/diocese-in-crisis/father-ulrich-calls-for-malone-resignation/71-ae75b4f2-225c-4fe1-b53e-28d108985447">additional priests in Buffalo</a> signed onto another campaign asking Malone to resign. </p>
<h2>The courage of whistleblowers</h2>
<p>These priests and survivor-advocates in Buffalo were also empowered by whistleblowers from Bishop Malone’s own staff. </p>
<p>In March 2018, Bishop Malone issued <a href="https://www.buffalodiocese.org/news/article/current/2018/03/20/100049/diocese-releases-list-of-priests">a press release naming</a> 42 sexually abusive priests in the Diocese of Buffalo. In the following months, his executive assistant, Siobhan O’Connor, <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2018/11/confessions-of-a-catholic-whistleblower">began leaking documents</a> to journalist <a href="https://twitter.com/Charlie_Reports?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Charlie Specht</a>, including <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/whistleblower-says-buffalo-bishop-left-names-list-allegedly-abusive-priests-n929576">the bishop’s full list</a> of 117 suspected abusive priests. O'Connor also revealed that Malone had <a href="https://www.wkbw.com/longform/7-i-team-buffalo-bishop-malone-returned-priest-to-ministry-after-allegations-involving-a-child">returned at least one</a> suspected predator back into the diocese. </p>
<p>In September 2019, a second key whistleblower emerged in Buffalo. Malone’s priest secretary, the Rev. Ryszard Biernat, <a href="https://www.wkbw.com/news/i-team/the-malone-recordings">leaked audio recordings</a> in which the bishop admitted to hiding a suspected abuser in order to protect his own reputation.</p>
<h2>Holding bishops accountable</h2>
<p>After O'Connor leaked diocesan files to the media, the FBI and the New York attorney general initiated <a href="https://apnews.com/864ee3ec6c744a0f9dde706468d96cb3">their own investigations</a> into Bishop Malone, adding to the pressure for him to resign.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306648/original/file-20191212-85422-2hszs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306648/original/file-20191212-85422-2hszs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306648/original/file-20191212-85422-2hszs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306648/original/file-20191212-85422-2hszs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306648/original/file-20191212-85422-2hszs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306648/original/file-20191212-85422-2hszs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306648/original/file-20191212-85422-2hszs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Two sisters from Pennsylvania, Patty and Lara, are suing the Archdiocese of Newark and the Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Sex-Abuse-Lawsuits/2cb077924c0b4c36bc1ea45b0f052d50/3/0">AP Photo/Seth Wenig</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This year, there has been an avalanche of new lawsuits filed by survivors across the country. Lawmakers in nearly half of the country’s 50 states reacted to the 2018 <a href="https://theconversation.com/catholic-church-sex-abuse-the-difference-a-pennsylvania-grand-jury-made-in-lives-of-survivors-122105">Pennsylvania grand jury report</a> by changing their state’s laws for child sexual abuse. </p>
<p>In February 2019, legislators in New York enacted the <a href="https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2019/s2440">Child Victims Act</a>, which extended the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse to age 55. The new legislation also opened a one-year window for survivors of any age to file suit if they were abused prior to the new law taking effect.</p>
<p>Within the Diocese of Buffalo alone, the Child Victims Act resulted in <a href="https://buffalonews.com/2019/11/29/buffalo-diocese-facing-221-clergy-abuse-lawsuits-from-237-plaintiffs/">more than 200</a> new clergy sexual abuse lawsuits filed by victims who were unable to seek justice under the prior laws. </p>
<p>Bishop Malone’s resignation represents the dramatic increase in Catholic support for survivors since 2002. No longer alone in their calls for bishop accountability, survivors now have the support of fellow Catholics, whistleblowers, their parish priests, state lawmakers and federal prosecutors. </p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128600/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian J Clites does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Seven US bishops have been removed for covering up clergy sexual abuse since 2015 after decades of no accountability. An expert explains how Catholic movements and whistleblowers forced this change.Brian J Clites, Instructor and Associate Director, Case Western Reserve UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1218692019-08-15T03:08:58Z2019-08-15T03:08:58ZThe Melbourne archbishop said he’d rather go to jail than break confession confidentiality. A new bill could send him there<p>Yesterday, Victorian Parliament finally debated a <a href="https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/ensuring-better-protections-for-all-victorian-children/">bill</a> on whether religious ministers should be forced to disclose child abuse admitted in confidence to a priest. </p>
<p>The Victorian <a href="https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/ensuring-better-protections-for-all-victorian-children/">Children Legislation Amendment Bill 2019</a> follows the <a href="https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/final_report_-_recommendations.pdf">recommendation</a> of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2017, which revealed the many failures of churches to report allegations of child abuse. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/should-priests-be-made-to-report-child-abuse-revealed-in-confession-103234">Should priests be made to report child abuse revealed in confession?</a>
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<p>But the proposed law reform has sparked strong opposition from some religious ministers. Melbourne Archbishop <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6327363/vic-wants-to-force-clergy-to-report-abuse/?cs=14231">Peter Comensoli</a> said he would rather go to jail than report a person who confessed committing child sexual abuse. He <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/vic-govt-pushing-for-laws-forcing-priests-to-report-child-abuse/11415902">said</a>: </p>
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<p>I will speak to the person there and then about how they will need to, one, go to the police about this […] and two, I’d be asking at the end of the confession to then repeat what they said outside of the seal so that I can then act. </p>
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<p>And Child Protection Minister <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/vic-govt-pushing-for-laws-forcing-priests-to-report-child-abuse/11415902">Luke Donnellan</a> told the ABC this morning that even the Melbourne Archbishop, the state’s most senior Catholic, is not above the law. He said: </p>
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<p>If people break the law they would be prosecuted. </p>
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<p>Several <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/church-can-protect-children-confession">Australian state governments</a>, including New South Wales and South Australia, have already passed laws legally obliging religious leaders to report confessions of child sexual abuse. Victoria will be following their lead if the law passes through both houses.</p>
<p>The bill proposes several changes to strengthen the protection of children, on top of the proposed amendment of making it mandatory for religious ministries to report child abuse to protection authorities. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-causes-of-paedophilia-and-child-sexual-abuse-are-more-complex-than-the-public-believes-94915">The causes of paedophilia and child sexual abuse are more complex than the public believes</a>
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<p>This includes limiting the right of appeal of those whose Working With Children Check application has been rejected if they have been charged with, or convicted of, certain criminal offences. But unlike the amendment for religious ministries, some of these changes are unlikely to attract opposition.</p>
<h2>What are Victoria’s mandatory reporting laws?</h2>
<p><a href="https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/mandatory-reporting-child-abuse-and-neglect">Mandatory reporting</a> refers to the legal requirement for selected professionals to report suspected child abuse to protection authorities. </p>
<p>Under <a href="http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/LTObject_Store/ltobjst10.nsf/DDE300B846EED9C7CA257616000A3571/174AC0FB77A1D247CA258427001CB9C8/$FILE/05-96aa109%20authorised.pdf">Victorian law</a>, mandated reporters must report child abuse if, in the course of practising their profession, they hold a reasonable belief a child has been harmed, or is of significant risk of harm. The harm may be physical or sexual abuse. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/royal-commission-recommends-sweeping-reforms-for-catholic-church-to-end-child-abuse-89141">Royal commission recommends sweeping reforms for Catholic Church to end child abuse</a>
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<p>Mandatory reporters must disclose their suspicion as soon as possible after forming the belief. If they fail to report, then the penalty is currently 10 penalty units, which adds up to a maximum fine of A$1652.20.</p>
<p>Failure to report can also be a criminal offence. Under the Victorian <a href="http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/LTObject_Store/ltobjst10.nsf/DDE300B846EED9C7CA257616000A3571/4CF1A75A67370057CA258448000795CD/$FILE/58-6231aa287%20authorised.pdf">Crimes Act 1958</a>, a person who doesn’t disclose a sexual offence committed against a child under 16 can be imprisoned for up to three years.</p>
<p>Under the <a href="http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/LTObject_Store/ltobjst10.nsf/DDE300B846EED9C7CA257616000A3571/174AC0FB77A1D247CA258427001CB9C8/$FILE/05-96aa109%20authorised.pdf">Children, Youth and Families Act</a> (Vic), the main group of professionals listed are doctors, midwives, nurses, police officers, principals, early childhood workers, teachers, youth justice workers, and registered psychologists. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/media-files-investigative-reporter-louise-milligan-on-cardinal-pell-and-redactions-in-the-royal-commissions-report-117981">Media Files: Investigative reporter Louise Milligan on Cardinal Pell and redactions in the Royal Commission's report</a>
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<p>A notable profession missing from this list are members religious ministries, but that might soon change if the Children Legislation Amendment Bill 2019 is passed.</p>
<p>The new bill is controversial because it effectively breaks the so-called “confessional seal”.</p>
<h2>What is the confessional seal?</h2>
<p>The confessional seal is fundamental to the Catholic faith. It’s where a person can ask a priest, in confidence, to forgive them for their sins. </p>
<p>The sacrament is <a href="https://www.catholicscomehome.org/your-questions/what-is-the-sacrament-of-confession/">believed</a> to wash sinners clean from their sins and reconcile with their Lord and the Church.</p>
<p>Breaking the seal is forbidden under <a href="https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=56176">canon law</a> – the special rules governing the Catholic Church. And a priest who discloses a confession faces punishment, such as <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05678a.htm">ex-communication</a>.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-father-frank-brennan-on-israel-folau-and-religious-freedom-119821">Politics with Michelle Grattan: Father Frank Brennan on Israel Folau and religious freedom</a>
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<h2>Religious liberty vs child protection</h2>
<p>Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli is just one of many <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/australian-priests-willing-to-go-to-jail-rather-than-break-confessional-seal-95237">priests</a> who said they are “willing to go to jail” rather than break the seal.</p>
<p>Others, however, have shown support for the law. Child Protection Minister <a href="https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/ensuring-better-protections-for-all-victorian-children/">Luke Donnellan</a> said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s pretty simple: if you think a child is being abused, you have to report it. And we’re committed to driving this cultural change to make Victoria safer for our children. </p>
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<p>But the response from some priests has shown that reporting confessions is not that simple. Some <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/catholics-vow-end-to-abuse-cover-up-but-refuse-to-break-seal-of-confession-20180831-p500y8.html">refuse</a> to break the seal, seeing the law as an attack on religious freedom. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/women-priests-could-help-the-catholic-church-restore-its-integrity-its-time-to-embrace-them-118115">Women priests could help the Catholic Church restore its integrity. It's time to embrace them</a>
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<p>Attorney General <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6302450/catholic-anger-at-tas-priest-abuse-laws/">Jill Hennessy</a> has rejected the “<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/catholic-church-won-t-break-seal-of-confession-on-abuse">religious liberty</a>” argument, claiming: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I don’t think in contemporary and mainstream times, knowing what we know now, that we can do anything other than say the rights of children trump anyone’s religious views.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-14/melbourne-catholic-archbishop-petrer-comensoli-on-confessional/11409944">Chrissie Foster</a>, an advocate for anti-abuse, actively has publicly welcomed the proposed law. Her two children were sexually abused by a Catholic priest, and she has described the proposed law as a “breakthrough” and says politicians backing the law should be “congratulated”. </p>
<p>Arguably, if priests had not been exempted from mandatory reporting laws, many sexual abuses could have been prevented. </p>
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<p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-is-headed-for-another-sex-abuse-scandal-as-nunstoo-speak-up-111539">The Catholic Church is headed for another sex abuse scandal as #NunsToo speak up</a>
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<p>For instance, consider the case of <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/church-must-lift-seal-of-confession-to-help-protect-children-20180615-p4zlmv.html">Michael McArdle</a>, who confessed to 30 priests he had sexually abused children up to 1,500 times. </p>
<p>Complying with the confessional seal, the priests did not report the abuses and instead allegedly advised McArdle to “<a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2018/06/14/confession-child-abuse-royal-commission/">pray more</a>”.</p>
<h2>Only time will tell</h2>
<p>Far too many children have suffered sexual abuse while in the “care” of religious institutions and change is necessary. The <a href="https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/ensuring-better-protections-for-all-victorian-children/">Labor government</a> claimed these new laws will “better protect Victoria’s children”. </p>
<p>But how can such a law protect children in the future if religious minsters choose to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/15/south-australia-catholic-church-to-ignore-law-on-reporting-confessions-of-abuse">ignore</a> it?</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/after-pell-the-catholic-church-must-undergo-genuine-reform-112511">After Pell, the Catholic Church must undergo genuine reform</a>
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<p>With the Catholic Church <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-priests-be-made-to-report-child-abuse-revealed-in-confession-103234">accounting for</a> 61.8% of sexual abuse allegations made about religious institutions investigated by the Royal Commission, the proposed legislation seems pointless without the Catholic Church’s support. </p>
<p>For now, the future of the proposed law and its effectiveness remains uncertain. The bill is expected to pass both houses of Victorian Parliament because it has <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:%22chamber/hansardr/4fa4c3cb-5541-4547-98c1-81b998c56718/0260%22;src1=sm1">bipartisan support</a>. But only time will tell whether the proposed law passes and whether it will achieve its purpose. </p>
<p>Only one thing remains certain: the victims and survivors of child abuse will remain in our prayers and thoughts. </p>
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<p><em>A previous version of this article stated the confessional seal is fundamental to Christian religions. This has been updated to clarify that the confessional seal is fundamental to the Catholic faith.</em></p>
<p><em>The article also stated the Catholic Church accounted for 61.8% of sexual abuse allegations investigated by the Royal Commission. This has been updated to clarify that the figure accounts for sexual abuse allegations made about religious institutions investigated by the Royal Commission.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121869/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Al-Alosi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The new bill will make it make it mandatory for priests to report suspected child abuse admitted in confidence.Dr Al-Alosi, Lecturer, School of Law, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1172242019-05-22T12:39:55Z2019-05-22T12:39:55ZThe Catholic Church is tightening rules on reporting sexual abuse – but not swearing off its legal privilege to keep secrets<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275736/original/file-20190521-23848-1gl01dr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pope Francis recently made it mandatory for clergy to report sexual abuse to church superiors. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Vatican-Pope-Bishops-Conference/c27cae7c6a2c42a7bfc16511f651ad3b/8/0">AP Photo/Andrew Medichini</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pope Francis recently <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/05/catholic-church-sex-abuse-pope-francis/589243/">changed the Catholic Church law</a>, making it mandatory for clergy to report sexual abuse to church superiors. In the past, such reporting was left to the discretion of a priest or nun. </p>
<p>Pope Francis’ proposal is an effort to address gaps in the regulatory process of the church, which has been accused of shielding clergy sexual abuse. It provides a process to report allegations up the pipeline.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wI3ku0oAAAAJ&hl=en">scholar of law</a> I worry that it fails to address what the church will do with that information. </p>
<p>To date, religious organizations, such as the Catholic Church, have adopted inconsistent positions on whether, and to what degree, they should share information necessary for legal action. </p>
<p>Clergy across various religions, ranging from Christians to Catholics to Muslims to Jews, are willing to share evidence in cases of violent crimes, such as murders. But when the evidence pertains to clergy misconduct, namely sexual abuse, the tide changes. </p>
<p>Clergy privilege plays a key role in what information is shared.</p>
<h2>What is clergy privilege?</h2>
<p>Every state in the U.S. <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&context=articles#1020">recognizes a clergy privilege</a>, which shields clergy from forced disclosure of confidential spiritual communications. This protection extends to confessions but also to conversations that provide solace, comfort and aid.</p>
<p>Often, courts rely on clergy to decide whether the requirements of the privilege apply in a given case. In my research, <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&context=articles">I reviewed</a> more than 700 judicial decisions addressing clergy privilege in a variety of cases, ranging from murder to sexual abuse. </p>
<p>These decisions show how clerics decide to testify on a case-by-case basis. In doing so, they share confidences that are protected under broad clergy privilege statutes. </p>
<p>Particularly in cases involving violent crimes, clergy often apply their own narrow definitions of what is privileged. In <a href="http://www.tncourts.gov/sites/default/files/cartmelldeonlamontopn.pdf">State v. Cartmell</a>, for example, a chaplain testified about a communication with the defendant in a murder case. </p>
<p>According to the defendant, he and the chaplain were praying together during this communication, which could be viewed as a spiritual activity covered under the clergy privilege statute. It was during this time that the defendant allegedly confessed to the murder. </p>
<p>The chaplain contended before the court that the confession was not spiritual and thus not covered by clergy privilege. He said the defendant was only “trying to make peace, sense of what had happened.” </p>
<p>In another such case, <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp2/154/706/2429366/">Morales v. Portuondo,</a> a Catholic priest received a murder confession. The murderer was not convicted. Rather, two others were sentenced. The priest struggled for years over whether to break the seal of confession. With the assistance of officials at the diocese, he opted to disclose. </p>
<p>The priest revised his characterization of the communication from sacramental confession to a “heart-to-heart.” With this minor reframing, the priest unilaterally decided he could share the confession with officials. </p>
<p>In short, when clergy want to testify, they find ways to remove the shroud of confidentiality. </p>
<p>In divulging these communications, clergy are not necessarily acting unethically. Rather, clergy have <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Confidentiality_and_Clergy.html?id=f3crAQAAIAAJ">numerous duties</a> that compete with canonical obligations of confidentiality – duties to protect their congregation, advance justice and to help wrongdoers down a path of repentance. </p>
<h2>A different stance on clergy abuse?</h2>
<p>Notably, though, my research shows this trend often reverses when the communication involves clergy abuse. </p>
<p>In many church sex abuse cases, churches have asserted privilege to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1988/08/28/suit-to-test-sanctity-of-confessional/d2f301b3-9af5-426e-be0e-9bc6d710fd27/?utm_term=.71798a2f1dc7">shield communications</a> by alleged perpetrators to their superiors and fellow priests. In some lawsuits for alleged abuse, clergy claimed virtually every document between a cleric and superior was inviolably protected. </p>
<p>For example, in <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/pa-supreme-court/1203421.html">Hutchinson v. Luddy</a>, the plaintiff, an alleged victim of sexual assault by a Catholic priest, sought documents relating to the church’s investigation of wrongdoing. These documents included reports of alleged sexual involvement with minor male children by priests in the diocese. </p>
<p>The church categorically refused, claiming privilege to shield this information.</p>
<p>This protectionist approach appears across many denominations in church sex abuse cases. This includes cases involving <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&context=articles#1055">Methodist, Episcopalian and Roman Catholic clerics</a>. Rather than sharing information about alleged wrongdoing with law officials, <a href="https://buffalonews.com/2019/05/19/why-buffalos-child-molesting-priests-werent-arrested/">members of the church</a> allegedly <a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/news/catholic-church-release-names-texas-clergy-accused-sexual-assaulting-minors/">covered up the accusations</a>. </p>
<p>A grand jury report revealed the scale of the problem when it found last year that bishops and other leaders in six of Pennsylvania’s eight Catholic dioceses had covered up child sexual abuse by more than 300 priests over a period of 70 years. Some dioceses still <a href="https://buffalonews.com/2019/04/11/leaked-diocese-document-reveals-names-of-more-accused-priests/">shield the names of alleged abusers</a>.</p>
<h2>Only a starting point</h2>
<p>In my view, the <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&context=articles">last 200 years of clergy privilege decisions</a> show the need for external oversight to avoid this selective approach. </p>
<p>Clergy elect when and how much information about alleged wrongdoing to divulge. When the alleged wrongdoer is one of their own, the tendency, I would argue, may be toward less transparency, not more.</p>
<p>Pope Francis’ new law is a step in the right direction. It urges more information sharing and more oversight. But the church needs to be careful not to play both the judge and the jury.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117224/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christine P. Bartholomew does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pope Francis is trying to address gaps in the regulatory processes of the Catholic Church. But clergy can still decide whether, and to what degree, to share information.Christine P. Bartholomew, Associate Professor of Law, University at BuffaloLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1128302019-04-10T10:49:00Z2019-04-10T10:49:00ZA thousand years ago, the Catholic Church paid little attention to homosexuality<p>Pope Francis has spoken openly about homosexuality. In a recent interview, the pope said that homosexual tendencies <a href="https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/04/01/pope-francis-says-homosexual-tendencies-are-not-a-sin/">“are not a sin.”</a> And a few years ago, in comments made <a href="https://www.newwaysministry.org/resources/pope-francis-lgbt-issues/">during an in-flight interview</a>, he said, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, the pope has also <a href="https://www.hrc.org/resources/stances-of-faiths-on-lgbt-issues-roman-catholic-church">discouraged homosexual men</a> from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/02/gay-people-should-not-join-catholic-clergy-pope-francis-says">entering the priesthood</a>. He categorically stated in another interview that for one with homosexual tendencies, the “ministry or the consecrated life is not his place.”</p>
<p>Many gay priests, when interviewed by The New York Times, characterized themselves as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/17/us/it-is-not-a-closet-it-is-a-cage-gay-catholic-priests-speak-out.html">being in a “cage”</a> as a result of the church’s <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=A8qfobm2BOwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Catholic+Homosexuality&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi39rXY753hAhWSrJ4KHb44B1Y4ChDoAQgtMAE%20-%20v=onepage&q=Catholic%20Homosexuality&f=false">policies on homosexuality</a>.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8S1ydcsAAAAJ&hl=en">scholar</a> specializing in the history of the Catholic Church and gender studies, I can attest that 1,000 years ago, gay priests were not so restricted. In earlier centuries, the Catholic Church paid little attention to homosexual activity among priests or laypeople. </p>
<h2>Open admission of same-sex desires</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268209/original/file-20190408-2905-1q9okyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268209/original/file-20190408-2905-1q9okyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1216&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268209/original/file-20190408-2905-1q9okyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1216&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268209/original/file-20190408-2905-1q9okyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1216&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268209/original/file-20190408-2905-1q9okyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268209/original/file-20190408-2905-1q9okyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268209/original/file-20190408-2905-1q9okyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">St. Aelred.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saint.Aelred.jpg">Alexander Penrose Forbes</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the church’s official stance prohibiting sexual relations between people of the same sex has <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=hKxLDwAAQBAJ&dq=Catholic+Homosexuality&source=gbs_navlinks_s">remained constant</a>, the importance the church ascribes to the “sin” has varied. Additionally, over centuries, the church only sporadically chose to investigate or enforce its prohibitions. </p>
<p>Prior to the 12th century, it was possible for priests – even celebrated ones like the 12th-century abbot and spiritual writer St. Aelred of Riveaulx – to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=3kzgCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=John+Boswell+Christianity+Homosexuality+Tolerance&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwinysqrz6XhAhUKuZ4KHWqdCzEQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=John%20Boswell%20Christianity%20Homosexuality%20Tolerance&f=false">write openly</a> about <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=A8qfobm2BOwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Catholic+Homosexuality&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi39rXY753hAhWSrJ4KHb44B1Y4ChDoAQgtMAE%20-%20v=onepage&q=Catholic%20Homosexuality&f=false">same-sex desire</a>, and <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=1ha9GgWNmy0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=James+Neill,+The+Origins+and+Role+of+Same-Sex+Relations+in+Human+Societies,+2009,+p335&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjEkuaesbThAhXI5lQKHR5iBZcQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q&f=false">ongoing emotional</a> and <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=3kzgCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=John+Boswell+Christianity+Homosexuality+Tolerance&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwinysqrz6XhAhUKuZ4KHWqdCzEQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=John%20Boswell%20Christianity%20Homosexuality%20Tolerance&f=false">physical relationships with other men</a>. </p>
<h2>Biblical misunderstandings</h2>
<p>The Bible places as little emphasis on same-sex acts as the early church did, even though many Christians may have been taught that the Bible clearly prohibits homosexuality. </p>
<p>Judeo-Christian scriptures rarely mention same-sex sexuality. Of the <a href="http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/OT-Statistics-NAB.htm">35,527 verses</a> <a href="http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/NT-Statistics-Greek.htm">in the Catholic Bible</a>, only <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/religion/news/2010/12/08/8822/what-are-religious-texts-really-saying-about-gay-and-transgender-rights/">seven</a> – 0.02% – are sometimes interpreted as prohibiting homosexual acts. </p>
<p>Even within those, apparent references to same-sex relations were not originally written or understood as categorically indicting homosexual acts, as in modern times. Christians before the late 19th century <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=DwkYO9KveeEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Michel+Foucault&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjhzsHoz6XhAhWDqZ4KHZFuBJYQ6AEIOjAD#v=onepage&q=Michel%20Foucault&f=false">had no concept</a> of <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/656077?mobileUi=0">gay or straight</a> identity. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+19&version=NRSVCE">Genesis 19</a> records God’s destruction of two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, by “sulphur and fire” for their wickedness. For 1,500 years after the writing of Genesis, no biblical writers equated this <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=cNvZCwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Matthew+Vines+God+and+Gay+Christian&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiOsuHC0aXhAhXNv54KHQqVCPEQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=Matthew%20Vines%20God%20and%20Gay%20Christian&f=false">wickedness with same-sex acts</a>. Only in the first century A.D. did a Jewish philosopher, Philo of Alexandria, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=JZRtwgEACAAJ&dq=Philo+of+Alexandria+on+Abraham&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZwtjOu7ThAhUNHHwKHclwAk8Q6AEIKDAA">first mistakenly equate Sodom’s sin with same-sex sexuality</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268215/original/file-20190408-2901-1igds2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268215/original/file-20190408-2901-1igds2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268215/original/file-20190408-2901-1igds2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268215/original/file-20190408-2901-1igds2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268215/original/file-20190408-2901-1igds2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268215/original/file-20190408-2901-1igds2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268215/original/file-20190408-2901-1igds2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Depiction of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Martin_-_Sodom_and_Gomorrah.jpg">John Martin</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It took centuries for a Christian consensus to agree with Philo’s misinterpretation, and it eventually became the accepted understanding of this scripture, from which the derogatory term “sodomite” emerged. </p>
<p>Today, however, theologians generally affirm that the wickedness God punished was the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+16&version=NRSVCE">inhabitants’ arrogance and lack of charity and hospitality</a>, not any sex act. </p>
<p>Religious scholars have similarly researched the other six scriptures that Christians in modern times claim justify God’s categorical condemnation of all same-sex acts. They have uncovered how similar <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=3kzgCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=John+Boswell+Christianity+Homosexuality+Tolerance&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwinysqrz6XhAhUKuZ4KHWqdCzEQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=John%20Boswell%20Christianity%20Homosexuality%20Tolerance&f=false">mistranslations, miscontextualizations, and misinterpretations</a> have <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=cNvZCwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Matthew+Vines+God+and+Gay+Christian&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiOsuHC0aXhAhXNv54KHQqVCPEQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=Matthew%20Vines%20God%20and%20Gay%20Christian&f=false">altered the meanings</a> of these ancient scriptures to legitimate modern social prejudices against homosexuality. </p>
<p>For example, instead of labeling all homosexual acts as sinful in the eyes of God, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=cNvZCwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Matthew+Vines+God+and+Gay+Christian&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiOsuHC0aXhAhXNv54KHQqVCPEQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=Matthew%20Vines%20God%20and%20Gay%20Christian&f=false">ancient Christians were concerned</a> about excesses of behavior that might separate believers from God. The apostle Paul criticized same-sex acts <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+1&version=NRSV">along with a list of immoderate behaviors</a>, such as gossip and boastfulness, that any believer could overindulge in. </p>
<p>He could not have been delivering a blanket condemnation of homosexuality or homosexuals because these concepts would not exist for 1,800 more years.</p>
<h2>Gay sex, as such, usually went unpunished</h2>
<p>Early church leaders didn’t seem overly concerned about punishing those who engaged in homosexual practice. I have found that there is a remarkable <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=3kzgCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=John+Boswell+Christianity+Homosexuality+Tolerance&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwinysqrz6XhAhUKuZ4KHWqdCzEQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=John%20Boswell%20Christianity%20Homosexuality%20Tolerance&f=false">silence about homosexual acts,</a> both in theologies and in <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/227706">church laws</a> for over 1,000 years, before the late 12th century.</p>
<p>When early Christian commentators such as John Chrysostom, one of the most <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/23085.htm">prolific biblical writers</a> of the fourth century, <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/210204.htm">criticized homosexual acts</a>, it was typically part of an ascetic condemnation of all sexual experiences. </p>
<p>Moreover, it was generally not the sex act itself that was sinful but some consequence, such as how participating in an act <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=VTElDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Mazo,+Karras,+Ruth.+Sexuality+in+Medieval+Europe&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiPgKCdz6XhAhUFsp4KHbUADFUQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=Mazo%2C%20Karras%2C%20Ruth.%20Sexuality%20in%20Medieval%20Europe&f=false">might violate social norms</a> like <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=4aCsv-E3joEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Halperin+How+to+Do+the+History&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjyiZaE06XhAhUHuJ4KHfLRDYcQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=Halperin%20How%20to%20Do%20the%20History&f=false">gender hierarchies</a>. Social norms dictated that <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=cNvZCwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Matthew+Vines+God+and+Gay+Christian&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiOsuHC0aXhAhXNv54KHQqVCPEQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=Matthew%20Vines%20God%20and%20Gay%20Christian&f=false">men be dominant and women passive in most circumstances</a>. </p>
<p>If a man took on the passive role in a same-sex act, he took on the woman’s role. He was “unmasculine and effeminate,” a transgression of the gender hierarchy that Philo of Alexandria called the <a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/yonge/book29.html">“greatest of all evils.”</a> The concern was to police gender roles rather than sex acts, in and of themselves. </p>
<p>Before the mid-12th century, the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=3kzgCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=John+Boswell+Christianity+Homosexuality+Tolerance&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwinysqrz6XhAhUKuZ4KHWqdCzEQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=John%20Boswell%20Christianity%20Homosexuality%20Tolerance&f=false">church grouped sodomy</a> among <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=VTElDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Mazo,+Karras,+Ruth.+Sexuality+in+Medieval+Europe&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiPgKCdz6XhAhUFsp4KHbUADFUQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=Mazo%2C%20Karras%2C%20Ruth.%20Sexuality%20in%20Medieval%20Europe&f=false">many sins involving lust</a>, but their penalties for same sex-relations were <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=3kzgCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=John+Boswell+Christianity+Homosexuality+Tolerance&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwinysqrz6XhAhUKuZ4KHWqdCzEQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=John%20Boswell%20Christianity%20Homosexuality%20Tolerance&f=false">very lenient</a> if they existed or were enforced at all. </p>
<p>Church councils and penance manuals <a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/pwh/lgbcathbib1.asp">show little concern over the issue</a>. In the early 12th century, a time of church revival, reform and expansion, prominent priests and monks could <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=3kzgCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=John+Boswell+Christianity+Homosexuality+Tolerance&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwinysqrz6XhAhUKuZ4KHWqdCzEQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=John%20Boswell%20Christianity%20Homosexuality%20Tolerance&f=false">write poetry and letters</a> glorifying love and passion – even physical passion – toward those of the same sex and not be censured. </p>
<p>Instead, it was civil authorities that eventually took serious interest in prosecuting the offenders. </p>
<h2>The years of hostility</h2>
<p>By the end of the 12th century, the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=3kzgCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=John+Boswell+Christianity+Homosexuality+Tolerance&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwinysqrz6XhAhUKuZ4KHWqdCzEQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=John%20Boswell%20Christianity%20Homosexuality%20Tolerance&f=false">earlier atmosphere of relative tolerance began to change</a>. Governments and the Catholic Church were growing and consolidating greater authority. They <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=9KMfvrRWYhMC&dq=Moore+Formation+Persecuting+society&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjl6ObX1KXhAhWX4J4KHRzWDL0Q6AEILjAB">increasingly sought to regulate</a> the lives – even private lives – of their subjects. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum11.htm">Third Lateran Council of 1179</a>, a church council held at the Lateran palace in Rome, for example, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=VTElDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Mazo,+Karras,+Ruth.+Sexuality+in+Medieval+Europe&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiPgKCdz6XhAhUFsp4KHbUADFUQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=Mazo%2C%20Karras%2C%20Ruth.%20Sexuality%20in%20Medieval%20Europe&f=false">outlawed sodomy</a>. Clerics who practiced it were either to be defrocked or enter a monastery to perform penance. Laypeople were more harshly punished with excommunication. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268210/original/file-20190408-2918-syz8ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268210/original/file-20190408-2918-syz8ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268210/original/file-20190408-2918-syz8ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268210/original/file-20190408-2918-syz8ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268210/original/file-20190408-2918-syz8ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1171&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268210/original/file-20190408-2918-syz8ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1171&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268210/original/file-20190408-2918-syz8ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1171&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thomas Aquinas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carlo_Crivelli_007.jpg">Carlo Crivelli</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It might be mentioned that such hostility grew, not only toward people engaging in same-sex relations but <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=9KMfvrRWYhMC&dq=Moore+Formation+Persecuting+society&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjl6ObX1KXhAhWX4J4KHRzWDL0Q6AEILjAB">toward other minority groups</a> as well. Jews, Muslims and lepers also faced rising levels of persecution.</p>
<p>While church laws and punishments against same-sex acts grew increasingly harsh, they were, at first, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=VTElDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Mazo,+Karras,+Ruth.+Sexuality+in+Medieval+Europe&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiPgKCdz6XhAhUFsp4KHbUADFUQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=Mazo%2C%20Karras%2C%20Ruth.%20Sexuality%20in%20Medieval%20Europe&f=false">only sporadically enforced</a>. Influential churchmen, such as 13th-century theologian and philosopher Thomas Aquinas and popular preacher Bernardino of Siena, known as the “Apostle of Italy,” disagreed about the severity of sin involved. </p>
<p>By the 15th century, however, the church conformed to social opinions and became <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/24720593">more vocal in condemning and prosecuting homosexual acts</a>, a practice that continues to today. </p>
<h2>Priests fear retribution today</h2>
<p>Today, the Catholic Catechism <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=vERbLEjcX8wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Catholic+Homosexuality&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiVpvL_6p3hAhUMsp4KHS4pBxEQ6AEINDAC#v=onepage&q=Catholic%20Homosexuality&f=false">teaches</a> that desiring others of the same sex is not sinful but acting on those desires is. </p>
<p>As the Catechism says, persons with such desires should remain chaste and “must be accepted with respect and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.” Indeed, Catholic ministries such as <a href="https://www.dignityusa.org/">DignityUSA</a> and <a href="https://www.newwaysministry.org/">New Ways Ministries</a> seek to serve and advocate for this population. </p>
<p>Yet gay priests are in a different category. They live and work under <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-views-on-priestly-celibacy-changed-in-christian-history-102158">mandatory celibacy</a>, often in same-sex religious orders. Pope Francis I has encouraged them to be <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/signs-times/pope-gay-priests-be-celibate-or-get-out">“perfectly responsible”</a> to avoid scandal, while discouraging other gay men from entering the priesthood. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/17/us/it-is-not-a-closet-it-is-a-cage-gay-catholic-priests-speak-out.html">Many fear retribution</a> if they cannot live up to this ideal. For the estimated 30-40% of U.S priests who are gay, the openness of same-sex desire among clerics of the past is but a memory.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112830/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa McClain does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pope Francis has discouraged homosexual men from entering priesthood. Prior to the 12th century, even celebrated priests could write about same-sex desires and the church paid little attention.Lisa McClain, Professor of History and Gender Studies, Boise State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1022232018-08-28T10:38:31Z2018-08-28T10:38:31ZWhy the Catholic Church is so slow to act in sex abuse cases: 4 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233713/original/file-20180827-76003-jsje7g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Members of Chile's bishops conference, in May 2018, who say they are open to whatever Pope Francis proposes to overhaul the Chilean church devastated by a clergy sex abuse and cover-up scandal. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Vatican’s retired ambassador to the United States, Carlo Maria Vigano, <a href="https://religionnews.com/2018/08/26/former-vatican-envoy-pens-jaccuse-letter-in-mccarrick-case/">has accused</a> Pope Francis and other officials of covering up that they were aware of sex abuse allegations against Theodore McCarrick, a former archbishop of Washington. </p>
<p>The accusation follows a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/08/14/pennsylvania-grand-jury-report-on-sex-abuse-in-catholic-church-will-list-hundreds-of-accused-predator-priests/?utm_term=.545f18ac788d">grand jury report</a> in Pennsylvania that revealed a long and shocking scale of sex abuse in the Catholic Church. Francis, who accepted McCarrick’s resignation last month, after an investigation <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/sexual-abuse-allegation-against-cardinal-found-credible-1529506643">found the allegations to be credible</a>, has <a href="https://religionnews.com/2018/08/27/pope-on-mccarrick-claims-i-wont-say-a-word-about-it/">refused to comment</a> on Vigano’s letter.</p>
<p>Scholars writing for The Conversation have pointed out the complex challenges facing the Catholic Church today and why, as a result, it has been hard to address the issue of clergy sexual abuse. Here are four highlights.</p>
<h2>1. Canon laws</h2>
<p>An “important but poorly understood” issue, says Arizona State University’s Carolyn M. Warner, is <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-its-so-hard-to-hold-priests-accountable-for-sex-abuse-101947">church canon law</a> that originated in the early Christian community. These laws govern the church as well as its theology. </p>
<p>Although there have been changes over the centuries, canon law imposes many conditions on punishing priests including, for example, an emphasis on avoiding scandal. Warner, explains, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“If a bishop, for example, were to make known that a priest had sexually abused children in his diocese, the bishop, and not just the priest, would be guilty under canon law of causing scandal – because information about the abuse might cause Catholics to question their faith – as indeed, it often has.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Furthermore, priests can only be punished if there is no possibility of “reforming” them. She does, however, also argue, that as head of the Roman Catholic Church the pope has the power to change the laws.</p>
<h2>2. Hierarchy of the Catholic Church</h2>
<p>Another challenge facing the Catholic Church, as Holy Cross’ religion scholar Mathew Schmalz argues, is its <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-catholic-churchs-hierarchy-makes-it-difficult-to-punish-sexual-abusers-89477">hierarchical structure</a>, which often gets in the way of justice. There is a long history, as Schmalz writes, “of protecting highly placed Catholic leaders from charges of sexual abuse.” </p>
<p>Superiors are given nearly “absolute obedience,” he notes, “which makes the threshold for acting against them high.” They can also often end up protecting offending priests.</p>
<h2>3. ‘Devil made me do it’</h2>
<p>Wesleyan University’s Elizabeth McAlister points out how in some strands of Catholic thought demonic temptation is to blame for priests abusing children, which means they are not accountable for their actions. <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-some-catholics-it-is-demons-that-taunt-priests-with-sexual-desire-101935">As she explains</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Under this belief system, in the battle for souls, demons can establish relationships with people who open the door to them through sin and disobedience to God. If someone masturbates, for example, which is a mortal sin, they are opening the door wider to demons of more serious sexual perversion.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She gives the example of one church, where a role-play of “hissing demon impersonators” is used as a way to govern priestly conduct. While clarifying that this is only one documented example, she argues that it nonetheless points to the Church’s preoccupation with evil spirits.</p>
<h2>4. Civil lawsuits for accountability?</h2>
<p>Finding justice through Church processes has been not been easy.</p>
<p>Timothy D. Lytton, a legal scholar at Georgia State University says that in the past bishops <a href="https://theconversation.com/civil-lawsuits-are-the-only-way-to-hold-bishops-accountable-for-abuse-cover-ups-101699">have quietly referred priests</a> to treatment programs and transferred them to other parishes. It was only successive waves of civil lawsuits that pushed the clergy sex abuse scandal into national headlines. </p>
<p>The change, as he explains, started in the mid-1980s, and was most dramatic, in 2002. Church leaders have lobbied to defeat such legislation. He writes,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Whether the Pennsylvania grand jury report will generate the necessary pressure to convince legislators to extend or suspend the statute of limitations and open up the door to more civil litigation is not clear. But the only realistic path to holding bishops accountable is through that door.”</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102223/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Pope Francis has been accused of a cover-up in the sex abuse scandal involving Theodore McCarrick, a former archbishop. Experts explain why it’s hard for the Catholic Church to hold clergy accountable.Kalpana Jain, Senior Religion + Ethics Editor/ Director of the Global Religion Journalism InitiativeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/865142017-10-30T22:51:06Z2017-10-30T22:51:06ZThe preacher who changed Europe: Reformation at 500 years<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192470/original/file-20171030-18683-11f8bds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4037%2C2693&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther, a professor and preacher, published the 95 Theses, a list of debating points on the Christian religion which sparked the Reformation movement.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Jonathan Schoeps/Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Five hundred years ago, on the eve of All Saints Day, 1517, an obscure professor and cleric at an upstart university in Electoral Saxony published a lengthy list of scholarly debating points over the theology of indulgences. </p>
<p>The “Ninety-Five Theses,” as they came to be called, catapulted Martin Luther into the centre of a controversy that would soon affect all of Europe in staggeringly diverse ways — from great wars and religious persecution to massive educational renewal and marriage reforms. </p>
<p>Luther did not treat the “Ninety-Five Theses” with anything remotely resembling the importance that we attach to them today. Neither he nor his contemporaries looked to them as “the beginning” of the Reformation. </p>
<p>But that doesn’t mean that we can’t use this anniversary to re-examine Luther, theology or ideas about God. We can recall how from the “Ninety-Five Theses” onward, these ideas affected modern European civilization and beyond. </p>
<p>This anniversary could serve to remind us about the importance of theological ideas. Christian disputes over divine justification 500 years ago affected many fundamental aspects of modern civilization and culture that today seem far from their theological origins. </p>
<p>Historical scholarship doesn’t always keep Reformation ideas about God in focus. Secular histories tend to downplay or ignore the theology of the Reformation in favour of culture, identity or the economic modes of production.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, religious scholars — confessional historians (from within various church denominations) — tend to skew Reformation history in favour of their own denomination, thereby making the very consideration of theology seem suspicious. </p>
<p>The histories that purposely skew or ignore debates about the nature of God end up giving us an odd picture of the 16th century. Under these accounts, Luther became known in the 20th century as a proto-fascist or nascent classical liberal, a radical rebel or archconservative. </p>
<p>These accounts made him hardly recognizable as a pastor and preacher of the word of God. But his theology changed Europe. </p>
<h2>Education for all believers</h2>
<p>Luther’s ideas directly impacted the overhaul of 16th-century education. His theological insistence of the “priesthood of all believers” was the idea that, under the saving power of God’s grace, there was no distinction in the righteousness of the peasant or priest, beggar or bishop. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192487/original/file-20171030-18725-1sd9otf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192487/original/file-20171030-18725-1sd9otf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192487/original/file-20171030-18725-1sd9otf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192487/original/file-20171030-18725-1sd9otf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192487/original/file-20171030-18725-1sd9otf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192487/original/file-20171030-18725-1sd9otf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192487/original/file-20171030-18725-1sd9otf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A video installation displaying Luther’s nailing of the theses in the exhibition ‘95 Treasures‚ 95 People’ in the Augusteum in Wittenberg, Germany. The focus of the exhibition is on Luther’s nailing of the theses on the door of the Castle Church. The exhibition lasts until Nov. 5, 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Jens Meyer)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For Luther, the monasticism of the time directly opposed the “priesthood of all believers,” in at least implying, if not explicitly claiming, that monastics led holier, more righteous lives than everyone else. </p>
<p>Luther thereby called for the complete dissolution of monasteries. With this enormously disruptive policy, a disastrous effect on education soon arose. Monasteries were the primary centres of education in the early 16th century and most children were taught in a monastery or cathedral, a tradition going back 700 years to the Carolingian Renaissance. </p>
<p>Luther and the evangelical reformers were forced to rebuild the entire educational system — and they did it at a time when expanding trade and commerce, encouraged by imperial expansion and growing monarchies, made education seem useless for most ordinary people. </p>
<p>Over his career as a reformer, Luther consistently put forth one basic theological reason why education so greatly mattered: An ignorant people were susceptible to spiritual darkness. All people — boys and girls, men and women — needed God’s grace and all needed to be educated to understand the scriptures. All preachers needed to be educated to expound them. </p>
<p>A tyrannical and apostate church had flourished because of ignorance. Therefore, Luther and evangelical reform, on the basis of theological commitment, pursued universal education, which included literacy and basic catechesis, wherever their reforms went.</p>
<h2>Reconciling government and gospel</h2>
<p>Consider also Luther’s political and social thought. Luther argued that God had ordained “two kingdoms,” one spiritual (inner) kingdom, and one temporal (outer) one. For Luther, there was never any true conflict between the two kingdoms — between the demands of government and the freedom of the gospel. Instead, the apparent conflict was due to the limits of human understanding and to the sinful abuse of them. </p>
<p>His two kingdoms idea helped Christians discern their duties to God and to their neighbours in the often confusing and clashing claims that authorities demanded of them. </p>
<p>For the peasant, Luther’s two kingdoms offered comfort in the harsh demands of worldly duties. For the magistrates, Luther settled consciences over the need to enforce and coerce, which appeared to conflict with the command to love one’s neighbour. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192507/original/file-20171030-18720-ij7boy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192507/original/file-20171030-18720-ij7boy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192507/original/file-20171030-18720-ij7boy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192507/original/file-20171030-18720-ij7boy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192507/original/file-20171030-18720-ij7boy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192507/original/file-20171030-18720-ij7boy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192507/original/file-20171030-18720-ij7boy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In order to defend his ideas, Luther used short and approachable pamphlets. In this treatise from 1520, he sought to refute the Roman Church’s claims that only the pope could interpret Scripture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://publications.newberry.org/dig/rcp/luther-pamphlets?path=luther">(courtesy of the Newberry)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To the peasants (for example, during the rebels in 1525), Luther warned against violent revolt; to the princes, he warned against abuse of power. Each station had its purpose in the temporal kingdom. Each person was called to the gospel. </p>
<p>In one fell swoop, Luther’s theology affirmed the spiritual equality of bakers and bishops, princes and priests, all the while defending each or their ranks as a divine service to their neighbours.</p>
<p>In Luther’s view, the “two kingdoms” were derived from biblical truths that, in his view, could not be explained other than as binding truths for all Christians. Government was instituted by God and thus must be generally honoured and obeyed, as the apostles Peter and Paul had taught about the Roman emperors. </p>
<p>Christians must also heed the pivotal teachings of Jesus to turn the other cheek, love one’s enemies, give over one’s cloak and give no resistance to an evildoer. Neither the injunctions of the apostles nor the teachings of Jesus could be ignored or rejected. So Christians, Luther thought, had to figure out how to do both.</p>
<h2>The depth of Biblical study</h2>
<p>In our age and context, when the role of the Bible as a general cultural, spiritual and civilizational focus has been removed, the power of Luther’s theology to teach human beings how to live with seemingly clashing biblical imperatives is easily overlooked. </p>
<p>Luther insisted that the Bible provided its own interpretation, and that most people could begin to understand it. Though he also warned how unruly theological ideas could be.</p>
<p>Many past histories of the Reformation, particularly Catholic and secular ones (though for opposite reasons: the first to vilify, the second to praise) pointed to Luther as a progenitor of individualistic or personal interpretation of the Bible. This seems very far from the truth about Luther’s theology, beginning with its first public appearance in the “Ninety-Five Theses.” It helped open the door to the depth of biblical study, not its abandonment. </p>
<p>To be sure, in the 19th century, in the wake of “higher criticism” and others, it may have appeared then to some Christians as though the Reformation’s effects upon biblical studies were ultimately destructive. </p>
<p>But consider Luther’s own view: He held that the Bible was so profound that a sufficient understanding of scripture required much more than one lifetime, and that theology founded upon it would be deeply unsettling for everyday lives. </p>
<p>This was certainly true for the effects of his theology upon the world in the aftermath of the publication of the “Ninety-Five Theses:” 500 years ago, European society was unsettled and transformed by the ideas of a monk/professor turned reformer. The effects live on to this day.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86514/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jarrett Carty received funding from Fonds québecois de recherche sur la societé et la culture (FQRSC). Project title: Luther et la réforme politique. Funding period: 2011-2014.</span></em></p>Historical accounts of Martin Luther skew or ignore debates about religion and make him hardly recognizable as a pastor and preacher. But his theology changed Europe.Jarrett Carty, Associate Professor, Liberal Arts College, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/824912017-08-15T04:16:09Z2017-08-15T04:16:09ZRoyal commission provides a vital blueprint for justice for sex abuse victims – now it’s time to act<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182024/original/file-20170814-17442-10f3k6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Debates over whether priests should break the confessional seal if they hear reports of abuse in confession are largely symbolic.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Adult survivors of child sexual abuse have long complained about police disinterest in so-called <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-does-it-take-victims-of-child-sex-abuse-so-long-to-speak-up-46412">“historical” sexual abuse complaints</a>: when a report is made years after the alleged offence. The experiences of child and adult complainants in child sexual abuse trials have also been inconsistent. Often, they are <a href="http://www.criminologyresearchcouncil.gov.au/reports/eastwood.pdf">alienating and retraumatising</a>.</p>
<p>Against this backdrop, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse’s <a href="http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/policy-and-research/our-policy-work/criminal-justice">report on criminal justice</a> has powerfully reasserted the rights of survivors to pursue and obtain a criminal justice response. The report recognised this benefits survivors individually and as a group, and is in society’s best interests.</p>
<h2>The confessional</h2>
<p>The recommendation from the report that has received the most attention is that priests should be obliged to report to authorities information about child sexual abuse they receive during confession.</p>
<p>The royal commission recognised the religious significance of confession practices in many faiths. However, the evidence presented to it indicated that children have disclosed their abuse in confession, while clergy and other offenders have used the confessional to exculpate themselves of guilt.</p>
<p>For this reason, the commission argued the failure to report knowledge about child sexual abuse gained in the confessional should be a criminal offence. It is calling for the creation of a new offence of <a href="https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/getattachment/aa9249f1-b490-4b26-9772-a1ddb36e85d4/Failure-to-report-offence">failing to report sexual abuse in institutions</a>. </p>
<p>The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has responded by declaring the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-14/royal-commission-into-child-sexual-abuse-recommendations/8804040">inviolability of the confessional seal</a> a matter of “freedom of religion”. It thus framed the expansion of its child protection obligations as a form of religious oppression. And Melbourne archbishop Denis Hart <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/aug/15/melbourne-archbishop-says-hed-rather-go-to-jail-than-report-child-abuse-heard-in-confession?CMP=share_btn_tw">has said</a> he would rather go to jail than report a sexual abuse allegation arising from confession.</p>
<p>But given the declining popularity of confession, and the likelihood that perpetrators will avoid disclosure if confession is not confidential, debates over this issue are largely symbolic. </p>
<p>However, this particular recommendation’s prominence should not overshadow the substantive changes the commission proposed to the culture and process of criminal justice intervention into child sexual abuse. This is particularly so in relation to “historical” cases.</p>
<h2>Improving police responses</h2>
<p>The royal commission has understood the critical importance of a respectful response from police from the moment of an initial report of child sexual abuse. </p>
<p>Police act as the “gatekeepers” of the criminal justice system. They can formally or informally obstruct survivors from pursuing complaints in several ways. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/documents/criminal-justice/personal-submissions-responding-to-issues-paper-8.pdf">Submissions to the commission</a> suggested there has been a general reluctance within police to investigate historical complaints of child sexual abuse. Survivors described police discouraging them from making a formal statement, telling them it was unlikely their allegations could be proven in court. </p>
<p>Survivors flagged issues with policing culture, and described situations in which police told survivors they were culpable for their abuse and should “get over” it. </p>
<p>Survivors felt that some abuse complaints were not investigated due to disbelief, while others were only investigated after sustained pressure and repeated inquiries from survivors. </p>
<p>The commission noted an apparent improvement in police responses to abuse reports over the past 15 years. However, it recommended police develop clear standards that lay out what adult survivors can expect when they approach police, with a focus on ensuring consideration and respect.</p>
<p>Importantly, the commission suggested increased police accountability and outcome reporting for child sexual abuse investigations.</p>
<h2>Criminal justice culture and processes</h2>
<p>Perhaps the report’s most consequential recommendation is in relation to tendency and coincidence evidence – that is, evidence of other acts of misconduct – and joint trials. </p>
<p>When an offender has abused multiple children, the charges relating to each child are frequently heard in separate trials. Corroborating testimony from other alleged victims is often not admitted at trial, and juries may not be informed if the defendant has prior convictions or charges relating to child sexual abuse.</p>
<p>These exclusions significantly decrease the likelihood of successful prosecution.</p>
<p>In response, the commission has recommended law reform to facilitate the admission of tendency and coincidence evidence at trial, and to increase the number of joint trials. </p>
<p>These changes will provide judges and juries with vital contextual information related to the alleged offending, and improve – not prejudice – decision-making.</p>
<p>Another valuable recommendation is that adult survivors of child abuse should be understood as vulnerable witnesses in the criminal justice system. They should gain access to provisions such as the pre-recording of their full evidence, including cross-examination and re-examination. </p>
<p>These provisions have previously only been available to children or adults with a cognitive impairment.</p>
<h2>Improving continuity and communication</h2>
<p>Reporting child sexual abuse to police, and any subsequent investigation or trial, is a time of profound instability for victims and their families. </p>
<p>What may appear – to police, prosecutors or criminal justice staff – as the justice system’s normal operations can be entirely new and disconcerting for victims and allies. </p>
<p>The commission has highlighted the importance of providing accessible information and educational resources to survivors about police and justice processes, and training police and prosecution staff in the nature and impact of child sexual abuse.</p>
<p>This is why a non-judgemental approach to the mental health effects of abuse is vital to promoting a culture of respect and shared understanding.</p>
<p>The recommendations also emphasise the importance of staffing continuity and communication throughout the investigation and prosecution process. Survivors would be regularly in contact with the same representatives, keeping them up-to-date with their case. Key decisions in the direction of an investigation and prosecution need to be transparent and accountable.</p>
<p>After decades of feeling marginalised by policing and justice processes, survivors of child sexual abuse now have a document that not only articulates their key concerns, but maps out a practical and achievable strategy for addressing them. The question now is whether governments will act.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82491/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Salter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Reporting child sexual abuse to police, and any subsequent investigation or trial, is a time of profound instability for victims and their families.Michael Salter, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/806612017-07-13T01:53:38Z2017-07-13T01:53:38ZHow the Catholic Church’s hierarchy makes it difficult to punish sexual abusers<p>A report released on Tuesday, July 18, found <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/07/18/world/europe/ap-eu-germany-church-abuse.html">“a high degree of plausibility”</a> that hundreds of boys at a prestigious Catholic boys’ choir in Germany were <a href="http://religionnews.com/2017/07/18/report-hundreds-of-boys-abused-at-german-choir-school/">physically or sexually abused</a> between 1945 and 1992. The choir was led at the time by Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI’s elder brother, Georg Ratzinger.</p>
<p>Just over a week ago – on July 10 – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/world/australia/cardinal-george-pell-australia-scandal-catholic-church.html">Cardinal George Pell</a>, a top adviser to Pope Francis, returned to his native Australia to face <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/28/asia/cardinal-pell-australia/index.html">criminal charges</a> related to sexual assault. While the specific allegations and names of the accusers have not been made public, Cardinal Pell maintains that he has been a victim of “<a href="http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2017/06/29/george-pell-cardinal-sexual-assault-charges-statement-sot.cnn">character assassination</a>.” His case will be decided by an Australian court.</p>
<p>These are not the first times the Catholic Church has been rocked by charges of sexual abuse. While <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/10-years-after-catholic-sex-abuse-reforms-whats-changed/2012/06/06/gJQAQMjOJV_story.html">reforms in the Catholic Church in the United States</a> have made it mandatory for priests to report instances of sexual abuse, there still remains much work to be done in the Catholic Church worldwide.</p>
<p>From my perspective as a Catholic scholar of religion, one of the challenges in tackling this issue is the hierarchy of the church itself. It is still difficult to hold high-ranking clerics responsible, either for the misdeeds of their subordinates or for the crimes that they may have committed themselves.</p>
<h2>Church structure</h2>
<p>At the top of the Catholic Church’s <a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p123a9p4.htm">hierarchy</a> is the <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a>. He is said to be the successor of the <a href="https://www.catholic.com/tract/origins-of-peter-as-pope">Apostle Peter</a>, about whom Christ said, “<a href="http://biblehub.com/matthew/16-18.htm">You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church</a>.” For Catholics, the pope is that “rock” that gives the church a firm foundation. The pope is considered to <a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p123a9p4.htm">speak infallibly</a>, “without error,” under specific conditions concerning doctrine and morals. But he is not infallible when it comes to personal judgment such as whom he chooses to get advice from.</p>
<p>Under the pope are <a href="http://www.catholic-pages.com/hierarchy/bishops.asp">bishops</a>, who serve the pope as successors to the original 12 apostles who followed Jesus. </p>
<p>There are also <a href="http://www.dummies.com/religion/christianity/catholicism/the-role-of-cardinals-in-the-catholic-church/">cardinals</a>, who are appointed by the pope, and only they can elect his successor. Cardinals also govern the church between papal elections. Cardinals rank higher than bishops, so not all bishops are cardinals. But now all cardinals are bishops, although in <a href="http://popes-and-papacy.com/wordpress/teodolfo-mertel-the-last-lay-cardinal-1858-to-1899/">the past</a> there have been exceptions. George Pell is both a bishop and a cardinal, as well as the third-ranking official at the Vatican. </p>
<p>The hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church resembles the military with its high level of administrative control. But the “church” in Catholic understanding is not just a bureaucratic body. It also is a sacred institution that is willed by God. </p>
<h2>Priests and obedience</h2>
<p>Male priests have the lowest rank in the formal hierarchy. When they are ordained, they take <a href="http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/vocations/priesthood/priestly-formation/faqs-priesthood-ordination-seminary.cfm">vows</a> of chastity, poverty and obedience to superiors. Usually priests are under the immediate authority of their local bishop, whose administrative area is called a “<a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a>.”</p>
<p>While priests in many countries are <a href="http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/child-and-youth-protection/">mandated both by the church and civil law</a> to report sexual abuse to church commissions and legal authorities, there has been a culture of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/aug/17/religion.childprotection">denial and secrecy</a> that prevented allegations from being fully investigated. A 1962 Vatican document instructed bishops to observe the <a href="http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Observer/documents/2003/08/16/Criminales.pdf">strictest secrecy in sexual abuse cases</a> and to address sexual abuse, or “solicitation,” as an internal church matter, not as an offense that should be reported to local authorities. </p>
<p>Despite establishing a commission to look into the problem and address a <a href="http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/vatican-panel-will-address-backlog-of-clergy-abuse-cases">backlog</a> of cases, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/07/opinion/pope-francis-catholic-church-sexual-abuse.html">Pope Francis</a> has still not established any protocol for handling sex abuse allegations for the Catholic Church as a whole. But the pope has set <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/05/world/europe/05popeabuseupdate1pix.html?_r=0">guidelines</a> for removing bishops who have been “negligent” in addressing cases of abuse. Still, some <a href="https://theconversation.com/popes-child-abuse-tribunal-wont-get-the-catholic-church-out-of-trouble-43128">commentators</a> believe this is not enough. </p>
<h2>Sexual abuse ignored</h2>
<p>The fact is that there has been a long history of protecting highly placed Catholic leaders from charges of sexual abuse.</p>
<p>When reports surfaced <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/europe/27vienna.html">in 1995</a> that Austrian Cardinal <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100324001445/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/cardinal-hans-hermann-groer-592499.html">Hans Hermann Groer</a> had molested monks and schoolboys, the sexual abuse was dismissed by <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/17/world/seminary-sex-scandal-divides-austrian-church.html">Bishop Kurt Krenn</a> as <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=JsR0u8f8MMMC&pg=PA149&lpg=PA149&dq=groer+affair&source=bl&ots=g7qkdn-Akc&sig=KqwWVGrJPvnq1nEK0n-adxfepfQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi47ND_xPXUAhUNET4KHaqkAY0Q6AEIODAD#v=onepage&q=boyish&f=false">“boyish pranks.”</a> There were also claims that victims were paid “<a href="http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2010/03_04/2010_04_04_Pancevski_JohnPaul.htm">hush money</a>” to buy their silence. The allegations of sexual abuse against Cardinal Groer proved to be true. </p>
<p>In another case from the late 1940s, <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/father-marcial-maciel-and-popes-he-stained-62811">Marcial Maciel</a>, the Mexican founder of a religious order, <a href="http://legionariesofchrist.org/">The Legionaries of Christ</a>, was a sexual abuser multiple times over. When allegations against Maciel were initially raised, John Paul II ignored them. Joseph Ratzinger, John Paul II’s confident and later successor, remarked: “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/apr/24/children.childprotection1">one can’t put on trial such a close friend of the pope</a>.” Though Maciel was eventually <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/world/legionaries-of-christ-denounce-founder-marcial-maciel-degollado.html">disciplined</a> by Ratzinger when he took over as Pope Benedict XVI, Maciel avoided prosecution until his death in 2008.</p>
<p>In the United States, Cardinal Bernard Law, who <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/21/us/cardinal-law-fast-facts/index.html">protected abuser priests</a> in the Boston archdiocese during his 1984-2004 tenure, has also escaped prosecution. In fact, Law was effectively <a href="http://www.wbur.org/news/2015/09/22/cardinal-bernard-law">promoted</a> to a prestigious position as head of one of Catholicism’s most famous churches, <a href="http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/sm_maggiore/index_en.html">Santa Maria Maggiore</a> in Rome. </p>
<h2>Challenges to reporting</h2>
<p>In all these cases, the hierarchical structure of the church made it difficult to bring high-ranking figures to justice. When you give superiors nearly absolute <a href="http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cclergy/documents/rc_con_cclergy_doc_23111998_pb_en.html">obedience</a>, the threshold for acting against them is high. By the same token, superiors can often protect offending priests.</p>
<p>A presumption of integrity goes with a high position in the Catholic Church. It is often difficult to believe that a bishop could commit or cover up a terrible crime such as rape or sexual abuse. Also, if the Catholic Church is a divine institution necessary for salvation, then there are those who will protect its reputation at all costs. </p>
<p>There is a tipping point, however. The key moment leading to the resignation of Cardinal Law was a <a href="http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/title/58-priests-send-a-letter-urging-cardinal-to-resign">letter, signed by 58 priests</a>, asking him to resign. </p>
<h2>Pell’s prosecution, a decisive moment</h2>
<p>The compendium of Catholic beliefs, <a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM">“The Catechism of the Catholic Church,”</a> observes that the “<a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P29.HTM">sanctity</a>” of the church is “real” but also “imperfect.” In other words, the church is composed of human beings who have their limitations. From this perspective, the problem is not hierarchy itself, but how people in high positions misuse their power.</p>
<p>While all Catholics are aware of the “humanness” of their church, the charges against Cardinal Pell are still traumatic for many Catholics who expect integrity in their leaders. </p>
<p>Cardinal Pell’s case marked yet another chapter in the Catholic Church’s struggle to address sexual abuse in its ranks. And now with this latest report concerning the choir school once led by the brother of the former Pope, the Catholic church clearly has much work to do in responding to allegations of sexual abuse.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80661/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathew Schmalz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The hierarchy of the Catholic Church requires nearly absolute obedience. This makes it difficult to speak up against superiors. And by the same token, superiors too can protect offending priests.Mathew Schmalz, Associate Professor of Religion, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.