Why the Media Attacks on the Pope are Justified

Greetings readers,



An issue which is near and dear to my heart has come forth in the past weeks with the recent run of sex scandal revelations in Europe. The pope himself has been implicated as one who helped keep the abuses a secret from secular authorities by authorizing the movement of pedophile priests while he was in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. There have been two main responses to this crisis, one which is to defend the pope at all costs. The other is to attack the Pope without understanding how Church bureaucracy works. This opinion is neither and seeks to approach the manner from a different angle not looking so much at the actions themselves, but looking at the issue of how the Catholic Church is viewed in society. This is an important distinction to make because this affects the people's response to this crisis and does not look particularly at the victims, or give a victims perspective.


The best way to approach this justification is to examine how people who are defending the pope are doing so. People who seek to defend the pope are blaming the media for being on a witchhunt. The media is seen as a force who is trying to show mistakes which the pope made in his handling of the abuse crisis. The mentality exhibited by this group of people is that the pope cannot make a mistake because he is infallible in his decision making. (Note: there are problems with how infallibility is defined by this group as well, as infallibility has an extremely limited definition in Catholic theology, namely the teaching must be about faith and morals, and the teaching must be given ex cathedra (from the chair) explicitly.) If the pope is infallible in this more extreme category, then any perceived mistake is a threat to stability in the Catholic Church.


However, the definition of the Catholic Church in this way focuses on a specific model of ecclesiology (of the Church as Institution) (see Avery Dulles' book Models of the Church). This model of Church is focused on by the media because people in the Catholic Church focus on the pope more now than at any other time in history. The world of Catholicism is moved by the words of the pope, and everyone knows who the pope is. The words of the pope are move available for people to read than ever. This creates some sense of unity because people have the opportunity to read the pope's thoughts on any given topic, and the pope is able to make his opinion known on a grand scale.


In the current age of the Church, however, this creates a culture where dissent is not tolerated as well because everyone can see the pope's opinion. Vocal dissent from any bishop is not encouraged, and is heavily noticed. This occurs because of the perceived threats which many people in the Catholic Church feel toward the Church as a whole. Also, the increased exposure of the pope is an extremely important factor. When people entreat into a defensive stance, people turn toward the perceived center of the Church, in this case the pope and the magisterial teaching (e.g. the central teaching authority, the Vatican). When this happens any perceived attack against the center of the Church, rightly or wrongly, garners a strong reaction to demonize anyone who would say such things against the Church.

The reason the media attacks in this recent sex abuse crisis against the pope are justified for this reason. Because the Church as a whole, in the mainstream opinion, has centered on the pope and many people are willing to front this image of Church to the whole. Because the pope is placed as the center of the Church when anything goes wrong in the Church, the pope is the first person everyone blames. This is justified because people have built up this image of the pope and church and have accepted it as a part of faith. In essence, this crisis of authority is the fault of every person of faith (particularly, but not limited to the Catholic Church.) (Noting also there are dissenters from this view, but however, the people as a whole must take responsibility, because in some way all people are responsible for this crisis because of an unwillingness to point to Church teaching which shows a different direction.) People are at fault because people do not realize that they are the Church and not just the institutions (see Lumen Gentium chapter 2).

What is a possible solution to this crisis of authority? Avery Dulles in his book Models of the Church presents other models with which the Church can identify. Particularly he mentions the Church as communio, sacrament, herald, servant, and community of persons. (from Models of the Church). Each of these models presents a different solution to this problem because each model offers different focal points of the Church. For example, the Church as herald focuses on the proclaimed word of God as the uniting source of the community, while the Church as servant finds its strength in being willing to serve the needs of the world and "embrace the hopes, joys, and fears of real people (Gadium et Spes 1)." With any model, there are weaknesses as Dulles does well in his book, so a good solution to the crisis of authority in the Church is to have a balanced model of Church which takes into accounts the many models of the Church. However, in order to do this, one must take a reading of Vatican II and understand the discontinuity in discourse between what Vatican II imagines and what is lived in Church discourse today.

There is a warning, if more models of the Church are not embraced by the general public, attacks on the pope will continue because he will continue to be the perceived center, and people will be seen as lock-step with the pope. (In this light, bishops must also have their own authority to act in collegiality, to be able to have discussions about matters of discipline to see what is best for the Church.) (e.g. Richard Gaillardetz in his article Can I Disagree with Catholic Teaching highlights the different levels of teaching in the Catholic faith. There are four levels "definitive dogma, definitive (irreformable) doctrine, non-definitive doctrine," (the fourth is the lowest level and this highlights things which are done out of practicality or opinion though I forget the name of the particular level as I write this post.) Collegiality requires that bishops can discuss how certain disciplines affect their people to the universal Church. In the current model of Church which is heavily advocated, there is little collegiality because there can be no open disagreement. To solve this problem, one must realize that the world does not hate the Church as a whole, but in this case, people hate what has happened in the Church, and how it has not lived up to its image as Sacrament, in teaching which is proposed (e.g. teachings on sexuality.) (Side note: Rene Girard and his theory on sacrifice and scapegoating has to be balanced with this, because I do agree the work of Jesus as one which exposes the scapegoating mechanism in all societies, which is a threat to everyone, but this is the subject for another post.

In conclusion, as one examines the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, one must look at what the people as a community have to do with this crisis. Most people have nothing to do with the actual actions of the crisis, however, everyone has a responsibility to forgive, and also can examine how the Church has grown in centralized power recently. People have the ability to use power for the good of love, but also for the power of use, manipulation, and evil. Power in itself is not bad, but in this case, power was used and is still being used to hurt others. However, it is not just the people involved in the crimes who are to blame. By looking at ecclesiology (e.g. the Study of the Church), one can see how the model of Church which is heavily favored has an effect on how people respond to crisis. By favoring an institutional model of Church, people lean toward the center, the pope, for strength. However, in times of crisis, the pope is also the first one to get the blame when something happens, because people see the pope as the Church. Until the dominant model of ecclesiology changes, or better yet, people utilize an image of Church which balances many different models, then this problem will continue to happen in the Catholic Church.
However, this solution gives hope, because when the institution starts to lack credibility, people begin to explore new models, and examine the depth of what the Catholic Church is. This time of trouble can be one of great hope because it will spark creativity and love has the potential to permeate whatever structure exists (which of course in saying all of this, what is also affirmed from this methodology is the need for some form of leadership, because the Church as Institution is still a model, and thus a necessary one for ecclesiology.) And there can be no scapegoats in this model either, because everyone has a role in healing the wounds which are present, and everyone has the potential to be blamed as well. People have unlimited potential, and this potential is what allows humans to love. In love, will people match the example of the founder of the Catholic Church, Jesus Christ.