John Jay Report Hoists No Smoking Gun -UPDATE

The eagerly-anticipated John Jay Study on Causation and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States was released yesterday (that link takes you to the full pdf), and while the USCCB was wise to invest in a study made by a reputable secular source, the thing has landed mostly with a thud, and that’s too bad, because it is very valuable.

The lack of a “smoking gun” is the cause of the thud. Lots of people with agendas were looking for a causation report shooting bullets inscribed with their agendas — bullets that would validate their beliefs that the dreadful sins committed by a small minority of our priests, and then damnably mishandled by some bishops, were rooted in the discipline of celibacy (a stupid argument, of course, since most victims of child sexual abuse encounter it within their own non-celibate homes, and while most humans experience periods of celibacy within in their lives, it never leads them to exploit children) or that homosexuality was the culprit, which is another weak argument.

Are some homosexuals, like heterosexuals, inclined to abuse minors? Sure.

Are all homosexuals incapable of making and keeping their vows of celibacy? Of course not. A vocation is a vocation and lived faithfully and supernaturally — if we believe in faith and supernaturalism — it (like the liturgy) subsumes the self, even as scripture tells us that the thorns in our flesh are subsumed by God’s grace.

Sexual abuse of children, and here I speak from experience, so oblige me a little — is not about sexuality or sexual urgings. It is about power, and control. It is the provenance of a malformed, immature and cowardly mind that — as this report suggests — pulls its prey from what is available to it, what it has access to, and all you have to do is talk to male and female siblings who have suffered abuse by the same hand, to recognize the truth of it.

The bottom line of the study is that, while a clerical mindset closed ranks around these scandals in much the way a police department will close ranks to protect their own (as, for that matter, will doctors, teachers and others) may have contributed to the coverup of these sins and crimes, there is no definitive “bullet” of causation.

But this is where the Jay study has great value: no matter what hopeful agenda one may have attached to the outcome of this study, it’s results suggest (to me, anyway) that it may be time to abandon all agendas and face the fact, finally, that Catholicism did not cause these crimes and does not foment sexual abuse toward minors, and to admit that this crime is not a problem peculiar to the church and therefore neatly folded and packed away as such.

Up to now, the issue of sexual abuse of minors in institutions has been dramatically focused upon the Catholic church because, let’s face it, it’s shameful and reprehensible for these things to have happened within the church founded by Christ. It was an is an appropriate focus. But in the face of this report, perhaps it ought no longer be the sole focus of our attention. It might, finally, be time to look at sexual abuse in other institutions, as well — even the secular institutions and the public schools — if we are ever going to come to understand the nature and scope and reality of the problem.

As reputable a study as could be mounted has declared that yes, the church failed, gravely, to do the right thing, and this is a great shame and a mortification that will reverberate through the church for generations — perhaps past our lifetimes. But the church, we see now, did not “cause” the abuse.

We are a culture that loves scientific studies and we look to “experts” and authoritative voices to tell us why things happen, and how we are supposed to address them. But I suspect that additional studies by equally reputable agencies, done on other institutions, will land with equally inconclusive thuds because the problem of child sexual abuse involves something deeper than the psyche, itself.

But no secular institution — and no secular press — will be attracted to a study that must entertain notions of evil and goodness.

But let’s do them, anyway; let’s do studies in public schools and other institutions, and in families. What the studies will discover is that this is a vast and ancient evil, one that resides within the darkest chambers of human hearts, and which cannot be defeated with laws or therapies, but only by God’s own healing light and holiness, with which this evil is in constant battle.

No one will want to say it — it’s not attractive to the press or to the secularists, or even to some Christians whose minds are fixated on the human and material.

Evil is broad and deep. It is an ancient hiss, and it has always existed right beside what is All-Good, whether in Eden or on Calvary. The battle must be fought on both the supernatural,and natural planes.

There are a couple of very good summaries and statements on the study that you will want to read for a useful overview, and I will link to more reactions this afternoon, so check back.

For instance, George Weigel at NRO

And Russell Shaw writing at OSV, and noting:

Almost as a throwaway line, the report mentions another factor: “Many priests let go of the practice of spiritual direction after only a few years of ordained ministry.” As the discussion continues, that’s a thought worth exploring.

Good analysis at America