Reform Nation!: A Blueprint

Mark Shea wonders who is going to take up the banner for reform, with respect to the recent scandals in the Church.

A reader suggests the Springfield, Illinois-based group known as Roman Catholic Faithful. Mark has reason for pause with respect to RCF. While very effective in exposing some problems, they have made some critical errors in judgment in the past, which could ultimately impede their credibility. Mark has more to say on this point.

Another suggestion is Catholics for Authentic Reform, a group of well-known and highly respected "conservative" Catholic leaders, most of whom are based on the East Coast. So far, they have managed to assemble their names on a website, and issue statements on the matters in question. Other than that...

Personally, I think Philip Lawler, editor of Catholic World Report, has the right attitude. He demonstrates as much both here and here. Others of similar caliber can be found among the contributors of the new book Shaken by Scandals: Catholics Speak Out About Priests' Sexual Abuse, pubished by Charis (a division of Servant Publications), and edited by Paul Thigpen.

The last thing we need is another collection of Catholic celebrities on a letterhead, throwing fancy-pants black-tie dinners and preaching to the choir.

What we do need, is what VOTF should have been in the first damn place. Such an organization should:

• openly declare loyalty to the Holy Father and the Magisterium (which is not equivalent to approving every dumb-ass move Cardinal Law ever made, okay, people?),

• advocate reform of the individual as prerequisite to (not a replacement for) that of the institution,

• demand full restitution -- spiritual, theraputic, monetary, or otherwise -- for victims of clerical sexual abuse,

• call for any bishop who either committed an act of sexual abuse with a minor, or enabled those who did, to humbly submit his resignation to the Holy See, as a matter of personal honor (whether or not it should be accepted being another matter),

• implement the full consultative role of the laity (as opposed to a governing role, as there is none) in the life of the Church, as called for in Vatican II's Gaudium et spes, and the Code of Canon Law,

• come to terms with the issue of clericalism, and develop a new paradigm in clergy/laity relationships (and if you have to ask what that means, that's part of the problem), and finally...

• under no circumstances, put me in charge! (I nominate Philip Lawler. See above.)