The Clerical System of Rewards: Access to Victims

4/16/2024

Often we are encouraged to think of abuse in the Roman Catholic church as a collection of completely independent cases. When victims try to ask about the bigger picture, such as if there were any other cases involving their abuser, they are told that it is irrelevant. Or they are lied to. This is changing as more states initiate investigations of how abuse cases have been handled. (See this article on BishopAccountability.org.) We are all coming to realize there are broad patterns in the way our religious leaders have treated us.

Still. So many Catholics wonder why this is happening. My husband, a military strategist who devours several books a week, pointed out to me a principle that is used widely today from healthcare and industry to military strategy. The principle is best described by a quote from Dr. W Edwards Deming: “Every system is perfectly designed to get the result that it does”.

Let us think about this for a moment in the context of the massive abuse crisis we see in the Roman Catholic church. The institutional church—the system— is perfectly designed to have produced the patterns of abuse we see in the Catholic church around the world. This turns the problem on its head. Instead of asking how such problematic and devastating behavior keeps slipping through the cracks, we should look for institutional features that produce such behavior.

The institutional church—the system— is perfectly designed to have produced the patterns of abuse we see in the Catholic church around the world.

Joseph Shaw, a senior research fellow at St. Benet’s Hall in Oxford, takes this approach in an essay recently published in the The European Conservative. Shaw points out that the cover up of sexual abuse is not a simple matter of our bishops saving the reputation of the church when such abuse accidentally and unexpectedly happens. After all, removing abusive priests from ministry would be the best and easiest way to preserve reputation. He points out that even bishops who have never themselves directly participated in sexual abuse still move offending priests around. In Shaw’s opinion, blackmail cannot be the motivating factor for many of these bishops. There is some other underlying norm within the clerical system that is driving these decisions.

And here is the most sickening part.

Shaw describes a system in which access to vulnerable people for the purpose of abuse is used as a reward system for loyalty and obedience. In other words, abusive priests are moved around not to save the reputation of the church. Instead it is to provide these abusive priest access to new victims. Once parents in one church become suspicious that their priest is a pedophile rapist, that priest will need to move lest he lose access to vulnerable future victims. And this system sends a message to other priests who are watching: you will be rewarded for obedience and loyalty.

Shaws explanation rings true. Are there other possible explanations? Yes. Are there other aspects of the clerical system that lead to the results we are seeing? Almost certainly. I can’t help but think that lust for power underlies this all. Bishops are demonstrating what they can get away with. They are showing off to their subordinates and society alike, demonstrating that they are above questioning even when it comes to the most atrocious behavior.

I can’t help but think that lust for power underlies this all. Bishops are demonstrating what they can get away with.

At this point I would like to add that priests who truly strive for holiness while being in this system must be struggling mightily.

Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Lord have mercy.