The Theology of Bad Bishops

Bad leadership, especially the sort that undermines Catholic teaching even when not denying it, “is the hardest question for converts to Catholicism — at least those who are theologically informed,” wrote a scholarly friend in an email conversation in which various people had brought up various silly remarks from bishops. Someone had just mentioned the Italian bishop who reportedly said, according to CatholicCulture, that “when couples in irregular marital situations are excluded from the sacraments, it ‘is an unjustified price to pay, in addition to de facto discrimination’.”

My friend mentioned the appeal to converts of the Church’s doctrinal and juridical authority and the problem they find upon entering the Church that the authorities don’t always exercise that authority well or at all, and sometimes exercise it against the Church. He knew what problems the Catholic Church had when he became a Catholic and felt no buyer’s remorse, “but still, it’s difficult for many of us, especially when we came into the Church under Benedict. Not so much that I or some of my friends disdain Francis, but his friends and advisers give us serious pause.”

For him, that is still the hardest question. I would have thought the opposite would be true: that it’s a hard question for those who are not theologically informed and may have trouble drawing the right — and emotionally reassuring — distinction between the form and the performance. The theologian should know exactly what the Church claims for herself and how far she is from claiming any great perfection in her members. He knows how the Church moves through history though composed of and led by sinful men, as attracted as any other man by power, fame, sloth, every variety of lust, and the benefits of corruption.

Those without that understanding are the ones more likely to notice and despair over the gap between the Church’s vision of holiness and her actual corporate achievements. They believe, and quite rightly, that the gap between them should not be nearly so wide as it is. They believe, and also quite rightly, that bishops and priests should not act like worldly leaders, as for example in not hushing up crimes and “managing” scandals and accumulating from their work worldly privileges and riches.

Without theology, those painful feelings can turn into anger and despair. It’s logical to believe that the wide gap between form and performance means the thing is not everything it claims, even that it’s a sham. It’s not right, but it is logical. Those of us who do know the theology often feel this way ourselves. “How long will this shit last?” a young scholar I know exploded when he heard the news of yet another bishop caught hiding a child-molester from the law.

Theology is, here as elsewhere, not only a guide but a comfort.