Above The Fray

Ross on the Pope addressing church abuse:

...a meeting like yesterday's should have happened much, much sooner, and that it did not speaks to a fundamental problem facing the Catholic Church today -- the extent to which the Vatican aspires to remain above the grubby, frenetic fray of modern life, even as its local representatives adopt the worst habits of modern business executives and politicians. At least part of Rome's unresponsive response to the sex-abuse scandal should be understood in the light of the Vatican's desire not to be perceived as a brand-conscious corporation, with a CEO-Pope overseeing regional managers -- or worse, an essentially political entity, obsessed with keeping the Papal approval ratings sky-high and the media narrative in its favor. But in this particular case, Rome's desire to preserve the Church's essentially mystical role in world affairs -- to avoid being sucked into the spin cycle of media sensationalism, and to maintain the Pope's image as shepherd and teacher, rather than chief executive -- left the Vatican blind to the reality that the men running the American Church weren't holding up their end of the bargain. They didn't need direction or wise counsel or even fraternal correction: They needed to be to be taken to the woodshed by an outraged, scandalized and engaged Papacy, and the discipline needed to happen swiftly and above all publicly. And because it didn't -- because in most cases bishops were allowed to get away with sacrificing the Body of Christ's most innocent members to protect, though of course only temporarily, their finances and prerogatives and reputation -- the Roman Catholic Church ended up looking like an institution prone to all of the evils of a modern government or corporation, but with none of the accountability.