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April 1, 2003
New Haven, CT ----- The present crisis of clergy sexual abuse has brought to the fore an overall weakness with American Catholicism—a diminished understanding of membership both on the part of the leadership and the laity. So said Dr. Francis J. Butler, President of FADICA, March 29, 2003 at a conference held at Yale University entitled: Governance Accountability and the Future of the Church. The assembly was sponsored by the St. Thomas More Catholic Chapel and Center at Yale University and involved over 300 participants. Dr. Butler was invited to address the conference on the topic of Financial Accountability and the Future of the Church. He took the occasion to decry church financial mismanagement and secrecy surrounding matters of money, but noted that the church is not without structures and policies of financial accountability. “Why is it that these measures are failing to prevent financial abuses,” Dr. Butler asked. “Is it because the accountability addressed in church law seems aimed upward and not to those in the pew? Is it because lay people chosen as overseers on financial councils view these positions as honorary? Is it,” he went on, “because dioceses consistently ignore the standards set by the bishops meeting at the national level?” Dr. Butler said that American Catholics were “especially troubled to learn that the most serious scandal in U.S. Church history was made possible because people were operating in the dark …” Studies of Catholics have demonstrated, Dr. Butler told the gathering of scholars, students and invited guests, “that where there is a strong sense of participation and a sense of ownership in the church, one inevitably sees also cultures that are administratively and pastorally transparent.” The FADICA organization has been active in promoting more open financial reporting by Catholic dioceses. Currently the National Review Board of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has requested that Catholic dioceses furnish figures detailing the costs associated with clergy sexual abuse. These figures will be published later this year. Dr. Butler said the current clergy sexual abuse scandal is beginning to show that “church leaders and many of its laity too still cling to attitudes and practices that are outmoded and at odds with the church’s own self understanding as articulated in its constitutional documents.” Promoting a more active concept of church membership more in keeping with baptismal responsibilities, FADICA’s president challenged today’s Catholics to ask themselves: Are we playing a role in either perpetuating poor leadership and management or are we pushing the church along toward institutional integrity? Learn more » |